I understand where you're coming from, although to be honest, my high-end Athlon chip and DDR RAM don't mind KDE at all.
There was a survey at dot.kde.org about users' #1 concerns about the desktop environment. About one out of four said they were concerned with its speed.
That being said, you should definitely read (or at least skim through) this article about C++ applications on the desktop.
Businesses won't be interested in spending money without some sort of return in the future. Why shell out major bucks for a big server and fat pipe unless you expect to get revenue for it?
It's called 24/7/365 advertising at an extremely low cost (when compared to traditional television, radio, and newsprint ads).
I've said before that I wouldn't mind paying for a Slashdot subscription, but I have a few reasonable (in my opinion) requests that would probably have to be fulfilled if I were to pay around $60 a year (assuming ~ $5.00 for monthly access):
- You can keep Katz. I don't hate the guy as much as most people around here. He's not a moron, and he writes interesting articles. BUT, please ask Robert Cringely to write an article or two every month. I'm not sure if this would violate his contract with PBS, but he would be a nice addition to the Slashdot staff (perhaps he could even write an open-source/free software slanted column in addition to his PBS gig).
- No banner ads for subscribers, of course.
- Some "free" item every six or twelve months, perhaps. I'm talking small here, like a travel coffee mug of a relatively aesthetically-pleasing t-shirt with a slash and a dot on it.
- Ability for more customization than non-paying users. I'm thinking of some nifty themes, perhaps (everyone loves the apple./..org gfx, let's get some more good looking stuff). Also, subscribers should be able to moderate more often. I probably earn at least five karma points a day on my two accounts but haven't been able to moderate for MONTHS.
- Perhaps a general forum with a few different categories where subscribers can post questions, etc. I'm imagining an "Off-Topic" room, a "General hardware" room, and a "Software" room right now. Of course, this would all be OSS/FS-related chit chat for the most part (except for silly OT posts).
If you don't have an account at the NY Times' website because you're too lazy or forgot your password, feel free to use the following link to access the article directly:
"Antihydrogen is an atom made entirely of antiparticles: while ordinary hydrogen consists of a positive proton with a negative electron orbiting around it, the antihydrogen atom has a negative "antiproton" in the centre bound to a positive "positron". ... Pioneering experiments at CERN and more recently at Fermilab in the US, had only one aim : to produce and to detect a few antihydrogen atoms. They succeeded in demonstrating that antihydrogen can indeed be produced, but the real goal is more challenging: the precise comparison of the physical properties of matter and antimatter atoms. Three quarters of our universe is hydrogen and much of what we have learned about it has been found by studying ordinary hydrogen. If the behaviour of antihydrogen differed even in the tiniest detail from that of ordinary hydrogen, physicists would have to rethink or abandon many of the established ideas on the symmetry between matter and antimatter. ... Just over a year after the announcement of the production of the first 9 anti-atoms at CERN (PR 01.96) in January 1995, the approval of the Antiproton Decelerator opens up new exciting research possibilities for scientists from all over the world waiting to increase our knowledge of antimatter. The questions are fundamental : Why, if the same quantities of matter and antimatter were produced during the Big Bang, as is supposed, is our Universe made entirely of matter? Does gravity has the same effect on antimatter as it does on matter? The solutions to these questions could lie in the results which will be produced by the Antiproton Decelerator?"
- from http://press.web.cern.ch/Press/Releases97/PR01.97E AntiprotonDec.html
This law firm is the intellectual property and litigation counsel to Apple Computers (NASDAQ: APPL). It has come to our attention that you are the registrant and primary owner/operator of http://slashdot.org, a renowned site for open source and free software fanatics. Your new web site graphics scheme at http://apple.slashdot.org is in violation of Apple's copyright of any and all things computer-related and translucent in appearance.
Please be advised that Apple Computer is the holder of "combined translucency and sex appeal" which the United States Patent and Trademark office has accepted for registration on the Principal Register. Since the late 1970s, my client has created beautiful engineering miracles of this aesthetic design. Apple Computer, courtesy of their marvelous, refined, and sexy produts, have an outward appearance that has become famous worldwide. Consumers looking for lime, flamingo, tangerine, and/or neon-colored computing devices have come to find my company's products, and only their products and parallel websites for advertising and selling said products.
You are hereby warned and notified to CEASE AND DESIST your use of attractive shiny graphics, which you continue to use in bad faith. If you do not immediately remove them, we will take all action necessary to protect our mark. Your failure to comply will result in my client's full and forceful prosecution of all of its rights, and you could incur liability for damages in excess of $11,371,137 and responsibility for our attorneys' fees.
Sincerely, The Law Firm of Geoffrey R. Morris, Washington/Tokyo/London/San Francisco
(adapted from webtechniques.com's Bret A. Fausett)
All this time the trolls were saying that BSD was dying but in reality it was Linux! My...Linux...system...is...slowly...dying...and... becoming...less...responsive...someone...please... hel
Linking to an article that tries to stir controversy and sway readers away from Google is highly sketchy. Google has nothing to hide by this, and even the Slashdot editor who posted this story admitted that it's nothing more than they've already BEEN doing.
They sell ads that show up on the side. We'll always know which results are real and which aren't. The real ones show up in the middle; the results that are paid-for advertisements show up on the right in colored boxes and are clearly marked as advertisements.
Most of the time these "advertisements" are more often useful things than typical gimmicks that you find with image banner ads (i.e. click the monkey - win cash!, if this is flashing you won $100,000, etc etc etc).
It's fine when you dump on Microsoft because they're evil;-)
But don't sling mud at Google. They're just trying to stay profitable so we can continue to use their great service.
Leech Computing, Part 1 Where have you been leeched today?
---
By Phil Frisbie, Jr.
Disclaimer
This article is for personal enlightenment only. It is not a warning of any known current practices or a proposal of future acceptable practices. However, this is a REAL technology, as you shall see for yourself....
Part 1 of this article contains no real technical details. It is written to enlighten the average web user. Actual working examples with source code will be included in part 2.
Background
I am defining Leech Computing as 'a program running on a client computer without user knowledge that can process data and report back the results, but otherwise does not effect the usability of the client computer and makes no changes to the client'. This leech program runs only in memory, and does not access the client's hard drive at all. Real leeches typically attach themselves to animals that spend time in the water. When the leech is hungry, it attaches itself to an animal where it either remains until full or is knocked off. If knocked off, it simply finds another animal to attach to. When the leech is full, it drops off leaving the animal unharmed. The leech needs the animals, so it chooses large animals and only takes a little blood at a time without harming them.
Leech Computing is related to distributed computing. Distributed computing projects such as SETI at Home and distributed.net have hundreds of thousands volunteers that have downloaded and installed client software that runs in the background or as a screen saver. Data files are copied between the hard drive of the client and an Internet server in order to retrieve data to process and send back the results. Work is broken up into small units that can take anywhere from a few minutes to many days to complete before the results are sent back. These hundreds of thousands of clients act as one huge computer, which can accomplish much work at a very low cost, since the clients 'donate' their computing time to the project.
Another technology you may have heard about is Parasitic Computing. Parasitic Computing can use any computer connected to the Internet to process a tiny amount of data. While the idea is intriguing, it is not practical because the computing power needed just to send and receive the data packet is thousands of times more than just processing it yourself. I mention this because Leech Computing and Parasitic Computing share these basic ideas: the user does not know data is being processed, no software is installed, and no system changes are made.
So how can Leech Computing retrieve data, process it, and return the results without the user knowing it? How can it do this without installing any software? How can it be undetectable by firewall software? All it needs to accomplish these seemingly impossible goals is one piece of common software, a web browser.
The web browser is the most used piece of software today. Millions of users are logged in at any given time of the day browsing web sites, checking email, making purchases, etc. Since the first web site was put online about ten years ago, web pages have gone from plain text pages to the current flashy looking sites we have today. The web browser has evolved to provide the capabilities to support these needs.
One of the first web browser enhancements was JavaScript and Java applet support. JavaScript and Java applets are programs that run in your browser. While Java applets can potentially cause security problems and are disabled by some users, JavaScript has no serious security problems and so is seldom disabled. JavaScript is also the most widely used tool to enhance web pages because it is easy to use and very versatile. Most any time you see cascading menus, moving text, or forms that warn you when you enter the wrong type of data, you are running JavaScript programs. In fact, you could say that a fancy JavaScript page is leeching some of your computer resources in order to create all those fancy effects.
But, while web pages currently use JavaScript and other types of programs to process data to display, they generally do not send results back to a server (with the exception of forms the user may fill out and send). From now on when I refer to a leech program, I will be referring to a JavaScript program. Even though other types of programs such as Java applets and ActiveX controls could also be used, they may be disabled by the user, they may need to be approved by the user before they are run, and they do get installed to the users hard drive.
Simple examples
This is going to be theory only; no actual working code will be presented here. Again, part two will include actual working examples with source code.
Getting the data to the user is the simple part; it is simply embedded in the web page. Scrolling messages are a common example. Even though one line at a time might be displayed, all of them are loaded into the page. Or that cascading menu, which has all the submenus loaded ready to display when needed.
So, current web pages are already using JavaScript programs, and we know that data is being sent and processed to display that cascading menu when you run your mouse over it, but how could you possibly get data back to the server without the user knowing it?
One way would be to persuade the user to perform the upload of data. Remember, forms can submit data back to a server. We fill out forms and send them regularly. But forms can also have hidden information that the user does not need to fill out. In fact, a form can have ONLY hidden information; all it needs is a button for the user to click. Of course, you would not label such a button 'Click here to submit hidden data', but what if it were labeled 'Next Page'? How many times have you pressed a button like that without even thinking about it? When the user presses the button, the leech submits the hidden data and redirects to the next page. As long as the user gets to the next page, they will not have any reason to think that the button had any other function.
Another way would be to use a self-refreshing window. You know, like those annoying pop-up or pop-under advertisements. Or maybe something less conspicuous like a framed advertisement on a web page. When done with the current data, the leech can upload the processed data and get new data along with the new advertisement. Would you even notice, or even wonder about that advertisement refreshing? Of course not, because it is so common.
Conclusion
The technology to implement Leech Computing is here, now. Is it being used? I have not found any evidence, but I also do not look at the source code to every web page I download. Maybe I should.
Can it be prevented? That is the best/worst part, depending on your point of view. Since a leech can simply be a JavaScript program, nothing short of disabling JavaScript can stop it. And if you do, you will greatly reduce your web browsing experience, and will even be locked out of many sites that require JavaScript to be enabled.
MICROSOFT AND TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INTRODUCE WINDOWS-POWERED SMARTPHONE 2002 AND OMAP(TM) REFERENCE DESIGN
New 2.5G Reference Design Combines Strengths of Smartphone 2002 Software and TI's OMAP Processors to Enable Rich Voice and Data-Capable Phones in Small, Sleek Form Factor
I also suspect that many other products will begin to appear similar to this new Jornada and SmartPhone. You can probably sign-up to be notified on ti.com (Texas Instruments' website).
Slashdot Mirror
I understand where you're coming from, although to be honest, my high-end Athlon chip and DDR RAM don't mind KDE at all.
There was a survey at dot.kde.org about users' #1 concerns about the desktop environment. About one out of four said they were concerned with its speed.
That being said, you should definitely read (or at least skim through) this article about C++ applications on the desktop.
Eric Krout
Businesses won't be interested in spending money without some sort of return in the future. Why shell out major bucks for a big server and fat pipe unless you expect to get revenue for it? It's called 24/7/365 advertising at an extremely low cost (when compared to traditional television, radio, and newsprint ads).
I've said before that I wouldn't mind paying for a Slashdot subscription, but I have a few reasonable (in my opinion) requests that would probably have to be fulfilled if I were to pay around $60 a year (assuming ~ $5.00 for monthly access):
- You can keep Katz. I don't hate the guy as much as most people around here. He's not a moron, and he writes interesting articles. BUT, please ask Robert Cringely to write an article or two every month. I'm not sure if this would violate his contract with PBS, but he would be a nice addition to the Slashdot staff (perhaps he could even write an open-source/free software slanted column in addition to his PBS gig).
- No banner ads for subscribers, of course.
- Some "free" item every six or twelve months, perhaps. I'm talking small here, like a travel coffee mug of a relatively aesthetically-pleasing t-shirt with a slash and a dot on it.
- Ability for more customization than non-paying users. I'm thinking of some nifty themes, perhaps (everyone loves the apple./..org gfx, let's get some more good looking stuff). Also, subscribers should be able to moderate more often. I probably earn at least five karma points a day on my two accounts but haven't been able to moderate for MONTHS.
- Perhaps a general forum with a few different categories where subscribers can post questions, etc. I'm imagining an "Off-Topic" room, a "General hardware" room, and a "Software" room right now. Of course, this would all be OSS/FS-related chit chat for the most part (except for silly OT posts).
Eric Krout
If you don't have an account at the NY Times' website because you're too lazy or forgot your password, feel free to use the following link to access the article directly:
/ www.nytimes.com/2002/02/21/technology/circuits/21T OYS.html
:: I'm The Man Now, Dawg!
http://archives.nytimes.com/auth/login?URI=http:/
===
EricKrout.com
"Antihydrogen is an atom made entirely of antiparticles: while ordinary hydrogen consists of a positive proton with a negative electron orbiting around it, the antihydrogen atom has a negative "antiproton" in the centre bound to a positive "positron".
E AntiprotonDec.html
...
Pioneering experiments at CERN and more recently at Fermilab in the US, had only one aim : to produce and to detect a few antihydrogen atoms. They succeeded in demonstrating that antihydrogen can indeed be produced, but the real goal is more challenging: the precise comparison of the physical properties of matter and antimatter atoms. Three quarters of our universe is hydrogen and much of what we have learned about it has been found by studying ordinary hydrogen. If the behaviour of antihydrogen differed even in the tiniest detail from that of ordinary hydrogen, physicists would have to rethink or abandon many of the established ideas on the symmetry between matter and antimatter.
...
Just over a year after the announcement of the production of the first 9 anti-atoms at CERN (PR 01.96) in January 1995, the approval of the Antiproton Decelerator opens up new exciting research possibilities for scientists from all over the world waiting to increase our knowledge of antimatter. The questions are fundamental : Why, if the same quantities of matter and antimatter were produced during the Big Bang, as is supposed, is our Universe made entirely of matter? Does gravity has the same effect on antimatter as it does on matter? The solutions to these questions could lie in the results which will be produced by the Antiproton Decelerator?"
- from http://press.web.cern.ch/Press/Releases97/PR01.97
Dear Mr. Robert Malda:
This law firm is the intellectual property and litigation counsel to Apple Computers (NASDAQ: APPL). It has come to our attention that you are the registrant and primary owner/operator of http://slashdot.org, a renowned site for open source and free software fanatics. Your new web site graphics scheme at http://apple.slashdot.org is in violation of Apple's copyright of any and all things computer-related and translucent in appearance.
Please be advised that Apple Computer is the holder of "combined translucency and sex appeal" which the United States Patent and Trademark office has accepted for registration on the Principal Register. Since the late 1970s, my client has created beautiful engineering miracles of this aesthetic design. Apple Computer, courtesy of their marvelous, refined, and sexy produts, have an outward appearance that has become famous worldwide. Consumers looking for lime, flamingo, tangerine, and/or neon-colored computing devices have come to find my company's products, and only their products and parallel websites for advertising and selling said products.
You are hereby warned and notified to CEASE AND DESIST your use of attractive shiny graphics, which you continue to use in bad faith. If you do not immediately remove them, we will take all action necessary to protect our mark. Your failure to comply will result in my client's full and forceful prosecution of all of its rights, and you could incur liability for damages in excess of $11,371,137 and responsibility for our attorneys' fees.
Sincerely,
The Law Firm of Geoffrey R. Morris,
Washington/Tokyo/London/San Francisco
(adapted from webtechniques.com's Bret A. Fausett)
EricKrout.com
Help, I'm Dying! Apple.Slashdot.org? Where's Linux.Slashdot.org?
. becoming...less...responsive...someone...please... hel
All this time the trolls were saying that BSD was dying but in reality it was Linux! My...Linux...system...is...slowly...dying...and..
[NOCARRIER]
;-)
I don't see why you linked to another search engine for the story.
;-)
:: 9 Out Of 10 People Use Me
You could have simply gotten the information from the horse's mouth.
Linking to an article that tries to stir controversy and sway readers away from Google is highly sketchy. Google has nothing to hide by this, and even the Slashdot editor who posted this story admitted that it's nothing more than they've already BEEN doing.
They sell ads that show up on the side. We'll always know which results are real and which aren't. The real ones show up in the middle; the results that are paid-for advertisements show up on the right in colored boxes and are clearly marked as advertisements.
Most of the time these "advertisements" are more often useful things than typical gimmicks that you find with image banner ads (i.e. click the monkey - win cash!, if this is flashing you won $100,000, etc etc etc).
It's fine when you dump on Microsoft because they're evil
But don't sling mud at Google. They're just trying to stay profitable so we can continue to use their great service.
EricKrout.com
Leech Computing, Part 1
Where have you been leeched today?
---
By Phil Frisbie, Jr.
Disclaimer
This article is for personal enlightenment only. It is not a warning of any known current practices or a proposal of future acceptable practices. However, this is a REAL technology, as you shall see for yourself....
Part 1 of this article contains no real technical details. It is written to enlighten the average web user. Actual working examples with source code will be included in part 2.
Background
I am defining Leech Computing as 'a program running on a client computer without user knowledge that can process data and report back the results, but otherwise does not effect the usability of the client computer and makes no changes to the client'. This leech program runs only in memory, and does not access the client's hard drive at all. Real leeches typically attach themselves to animals that spend time in the water. When the leech is hungry, it attaches itself to an animal where it either remains until full or is knocked off. If knocked off, it simply finds another animal to attach to. When the leech is full, it drops off leaving the animal unharmed. The leech needs the animals, so it chooses large animals and only takes a little blood at a time without harming them.
Leech Computing is related to distributed computing. Distributed computing projects such as SETI at Home and distributed.net have hundreds of thousands volunteers that have downloaded and installed client software that runs in the background or as a screen saver. Data files are copied between the hard drive of the client and an Internet server in order to retrieve data to process and send back the results. Work is broken up into small units that can take anywhere from a few minutes to many days to complete before the results are sent back. These hundreds of thousands of clients act as one huge computer, which can accomplish much work at a very low cost, since the clients 'donate' their computing time to the project.
Another technology you may have heard about is Parasitic Computing. Parasitic Computing can use any computer connected to the Internet to process a tiny amount of data. While the idea is intriguing, it is not practical because the computing power needed just to send and receive the data packet is thousands of times more than just processing it yourself. I mention this because Leech Computing and Parasitic Computing share these basic ideas: the user does not know data is being processed, no software is installed, and no system changes are made.
So how can Leech Computing retrieve data, process it, and return the results without the user knowing it? How can it do this without installing any software? How can it be undetectable by firewall software? All it needs to accomplish these seemingly impossible goals is one piece of common software, a web browser.
The web browser is the most used piece of software today. Millions of users are logged in at any given time of the day browsing web sites, checking email, making purchases, etc. Since the first web site was put online about ten years ago, web pages have gone from plain text pages to the current flashy looking sites we have today. The web browser has evolved to provide the capabilities to support these needs.
One of the first web browser enhancements was JavaScript and Java applet support. JavaScript and Java applets are programs that run in your browser. While Java applets can potentially cause security problems and are disabled by some users, JavaScript has no serious security problems and so is seldom disabled. JavaScript is also the most widely used tool to enhance web pages because it is easy to use and very versatile. Most any time you see cascading menus, moving text, or forms that warn you when you enter the wrong type of data, you are running JavaScript programs. In fact, you could say that a fancy JavaScript page is leeching some of your computer resources in order to create all those fancy effects.
But, while web pages currently use JavaScript and other types of programs to process data to display, they generally do not send results back to a server (with the exception of forms the user may fill out and send). From now on when I refer to a leech program, I will be referring to a JavaScript program. Even though other types of programs such as Java applets and ActiveX controls could also be used, they may be disabled by the user, they may need to be approved by the user before they are run, and they do get installed to the users hard drive.
Simple examples
This is going to be theory only; no actual working code will be presented here. Again, part two will include actual working examples with source code.
Getting the data to the user is the simple part; it is simply embedded in the web page. Scrolling messages are a common example. Even though one line at a time might be displayed, all of them are loaded into the page. Or that cascading menu, which has all the submenus loaded ready to display when needed.
So, current web pages are already using JavaScript programs, and we know that data is being sent and processed to display that cascading menu when you run your mouse over it, but how could you possibly get data back to the server without the user knowing it?
One way would be to persuade the user to perform the upload of data. Remember, forms can submit data back to a server. We fill out forms and send them regularly. But forms can also have hidden information that the user does not need to fill out. In fact, a form can have ONLY hidden information; all it needs is a button for the user to click. Of course, you would not label such a button 'Click here to submit hidden data', but what if it were labeled 'Next Page'? How many times have you pressed a button like that without even thinking about it? When the user presses the button, the leech submits the hidden data and redirects to the next page. As long as the user gets to the next page, they will not have any reason to think that the button had any other function.
Another way would be to use a self-refreshing window. You know, like those annoying pop-up or pop-under advertisements. Or maybe something less conspicuous like a framed advertisement on a web page. When done with the current data, the leech can upload the processed data and get new data along with the new advertisement. Would you even notice, or even wonder about that advertisement refreshing? Of course not, because it is so common.
Conclusion
The technology to implement Leech Computing is here, now. Is it being used? I have not found any evidence, but I also do not look at the source code to every web page I download. Maybe I should.
Can it be prevented? That is the best/worst part, depending on your point of view. Since a leech can simply be a JavaScript program, nothing short of disabling JavaScript can stop it. And if you do, you will greatly reduce your web browsing experience, and will even be locked out of many sites that require JavaScript to be enabled.
Part 2 will be posted soon.
Phil Frisbie, Jr.
---
Page last modified: Tuesday February 19 2002
© 1998-2001 Hawk Software
Other OMAP-related products:
e lId=sc02025.
:: A Weblog On Crack (updated daily)
MICROSOFT AND TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INTRODUCE WINDOWS-POWERED SMARTPHONE 2002 AND OMAP(TM) REFERENCE DESIGN
New 2.5G Reference Design Combines Strengths of Smartphone 2002 Software and TI's OMAP Processors to Enable Rich Voice and Data-Capable Phones in Small, Sleek Form Factor
You can read the full article at http://focus.ti.com/docs/pr/pressrelease.jhtml?pr
I also suspect that many other products will begin to appear similar to this new Jornada and SmartPhone. You can probably sign-up to be notified on ti.com (Texas Instruments' website).
EricKrout.com
Now that I think about it, that BT timeline is incorrect (link to old /. story http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/02/17/225620 3 ).
:: I'm The Man Now, Dawg!
The silly folks, they forgot to mention this one:
2007: Entire cities are rebuilt around Dean Kamen's dorky invention, the Segway
EricKrout.com
Yeah, but my Commodore 64 has been able to do all this stuff for years. (Just ask my friends in Afghanistan!) - Junis ;-)