The anonymous coward below misses the point. I know how to get around the registration. I just don't want to bothered to have to do so. Slashdot could save us all that effort by 1) having the editors change reg-links with non-reg links or better: 2) simply rejecting reg-linked stories and indicating to people that is the policy. Future submissions would automatically fix this, and some sites who want Slashdot traffic to their ads might even think twice about having us all remember yet another stupid username/password combination.
I also don't see how my comment above should be moderated "Troll". I'm genuinely sick of this on Slashdot and would like to see it changed. So, I said so.
I have seen several dissing these new story+commentary summaries, but I have to say I like them a lot.
I don't always get to read every last story on Slashdot (like some of the complainers, I suspect) and I even less often get to read a decent chunk of the comments. Having EDITORS filter through all that and pick out the gems saves me a lot of time and (hopefully) features the best of Slashdot.
One personal note on the topic of malware.
Personally, I've only ever been bitten by a hack on my Debian GNU/Linux server. Never had an OS X virus (on either my Powerbook G4, wife's iBook G3, or my new MacBook. Also never had a Windows virus, but I stopped using Windows completely in early 2000. (It's now back on my MacBook and scares me to death.)
Admittedly, the server hack was my fault. I think it was an ssh dictionary attack that I wasn't watching for with fail2ban or another monitoring/blocking service and I probably didn't have good passwords on that machine at that time, but nonetheless it illustrates that everyone's experience with malware is different. I happen to only have had trouble on arguably the most secure OS of the bunch--and then it was the result of poor user management of the system (due to inexperience). I think that's probably the sum of it in most cases: you can't account for what an inexperienced user may expose themselves to on ANY OS.
First, the Rosetta method, despite being the best ab initio protein structure prediction algorithm, is still a long way from being able to produce structures that are of practical use to anyone.
Umm, that sounds like a reason to support the project. If it's a good algorithm then anything that might refine or improve it so that we do eventually produce structures of practical use sounds great. Maybe there are algorithms giving better results now, but 1) most (if not all) of those are not available to me via BOINC--so I can't help those interested in pursuing those algorithms (at least not with spare processor cycles) and 2) that an algorithm produces better results today is no indication that the Rosetta algorithm might not produce better results in the future--in part because of the application of LOTS of processor cycles to refine and improve the algorithm.
Also, for a non-specialist, like most of those considering contributing spare processor cycles, there is always a limit to how much investigation one can do into the worthiness of one's chosen projects. BOINC allows one to mitigate this problem by allowing one to share cycles across several projects, so that the person without the time or ability to evaluate the worthiness of a project's claims can simply throw a little seed all around and see where it grows.
But further, you particularly attack Baker's scientific claims (without sufficient evidence or even a signature to back them up--I think several of your claims about the project are just simply false), but the best a non-specialist can do when evaluating a scientist's work is to rely on the reactions of the scientific community, particularly that scientist's peers. This can be best measured by whether the scientist is affiliated with a reputable institution, such as a major University (Baker is at U Washington), the amount of peer-reviewed funding such a person gets, and the amount of peer-reviewed publication that person produces. Baker seems to be doing well in peer-reviewed scientific publications as displayed here: Publications and Baker's lab gets grants from the NIH, NSF, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Those journals and foundations have qualified scientists looking at the work and if they're willing to publish the results and give the lab money, then the average BOINC user who is not a specialist in the field, is justified in throwing them a few cycles. (It certainly would be more rational than deciding not to support the project based on the vague claims of someone who only identifies themself as "a scientist" on Slashdot.)
Finally you attack the entire enterprise of linking folded proteins to cures for diseases. Sure this may be unworkable at present, but, again, isn't that the point of supporting the research!? I know the likelihood of using protein research to cure diseases if no one does protein research: ZERO! So if we contribute to some research that even marginally improves those odds, that's better than what I was doing with those spare cycles before: nothing.
Individuals contributing their spare processor cycles via BOINC are currently producing over 380 TeraFLOPS putting them clearly in first place (if such distributed systems were counted).
SETI@Home is now operated exclusively through BOINC and it alone is doing over 167 TeraFLOPS right now, putting the SETI@Home network in second place, only behind BlueGene/L (if such distributed systems were counted).
You can contribute your spare processor cycles too by downloading the BOINC client and attaching to a cool project such as Rosetta@Home which folds proteins as part of an effort to cure human diseases. Join the biggest "supercomputer" today!
For those who are worried about giving their browsing history and passwords to Google (or anyone for that matter), you can still reap the benefits of synchronized bookmarks with another Firefox extension: Foxmarks.
Foxmarks is basically the same thing, but just for bookmarks (and not on Google's servers). It's great for keeping bookmarks across multiple machines, and also really useful for those who dual (or triple) boot a single machine. My triple-boot MacBook keeps all its bookmarks in sync with Foxmarks!
Eligibility for Shares at IPO Price
on
Vonage going IPO
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· Score: 1
From this recent SEC filing by Vonage it looks like to be eligible to get shares at the IPO price it needs to be true that (among other things--this is not legal or financial advice, etc):
The customer opened an account directly with Vonage America on or prior to December 15, 2005. The customer must have opened an account with Vonage America and not through a third-party wholesaler.
The customer maintained the Vonage account in good standing through February 1, 2006.
So, running out and signing up for a Vonage account doesn't look like a way to get in on the IPO. That seems like a dumb idea. How many people would sign a 1-yr or 2-yr contract just to have a shot at getting shares at the IPO price. Seems like bad business to me (but possibly necessitated by all the SEC rules...)
The free software community is really blowing it if they don't recognize this as an opportunity. MS has had to be dragged kicking and screaming into making Office more accessible for disabled users. With an open format like ODF, any free software developer who sets his/her mind to it can start thinking of applications that could work with ODF documents in ways that would thrill the disabled community.
Why do that?
Because in the U.S. the disabled community has a loud and aggressive lobby. They have laws, like the ADA, that guarantee them non-discrimination. You want this group on your side. Because if they're on your side, then they just might turn on the other guys. And that could be ugly.
So imagine that there's plugins that make the OpenOffice.org suite the best darn thing that the disabled community has ever seen. Now imagine a sea of disabled activists outside of the Massachusetts Legislature demanding that ODF and OpenOffice.org be made available throughout the state, etc., etc.
No member of a legislature wants to explain why s/he is supporting software from the trillion dollar company instead of the software that the disabled community says makes their lives easier.
If the free software community thinks about how doing this is in their own self-interest, then they'll build that software.
Anyway, I thought "This is hot" blew all the others away. High production value. Gets some of the firefox message across to a mass audience without getting buried in all the product details. Most of the others will just leave people confused.
The obvious missing item on this list is Microsoft coming out with a handful of licenses that even the Free Software Foundation recognizes as "free software" licenses. Sure, they haven't released any important software under these licenses yet, but coming out with the licenses is an amazingly interesting step for Redmond.
Everyone on Slashdot, regardless of whether you like this band, should buy their album to signal to musicians and record labels that we agree with this editorial. (You can find the album on Amazon, but where possible, support your local independent music stores!)
Even if you don't like the band, it's the holiday season, so buy it for someone who might like it and if you do like the band, buy two copies, one for yourself and one for a friend.
If this album suddenly sold 50,000 copies this week, it would send quite a message.
Pam Samuelson, Steven Weber, and Mitch Kapor are team-teaching a course on Open Source this semester in UC Berkeley's School of Information Management Systems (SIMS). The schedule of readings is available online.
In your situation, dealing with Continuing Education students, many of whom you expect to have programming experience, I would pick and choose from the readings on this syllabus and add your own components geared to your audience. Something participatory would be a good idea. If you do get all programmers, have them form teams and pick projects to contribute to and write up their experiences. If you get some non-programmers allow them to form a team working on contributions to open source-like projects such as Wikipedia or something.
Fuel Economy, Initial Price, Battery Replacement, the Environment, it's all irrelevant to this Californian. I expect to start a job with a 45 mile commute on freeways I know to have bad traffic, but which also have diamond "carpool" lanes that generally move quickly even during rush hours. Unfortunately, my unpredictable hours and lack of a co-worker nearby make carpooling unlikely. However, hybrid owners in California are now permitted to use the diamond lanes even when the driver is the car's sole occupant. Being able to use that lane will save me soooo much time, the hybrid would be a good deal if it cost me twice what they now charge.
The story says "...ChoicePoint being breached for 145,000 profiles..." and the use of the word "breached" in particular makes it sound like hackers broke into their system when in fact ChoicePoint is in the business of selling personal information and just happened in this instance to have such inadequate vetting mechanisms that they sold the information on 145k people to clever identity theives. Read more about this story at the Berkeley IP blog (bIPlog).
Re:I have seen a pattern in the information...
on
Decrypting Kryptos
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· Score: 1
Actually the program you've discovered is run every other day. On the other days they use:
Program GoSlash; CDate = Today - 1; ..For I = 1 to NumArticles(BoingBoing(CDate)); ....If SubjectScore((BoingBoingArticle[I,CDate]) >= MildlyTechnical then ....begin ......NewArticle = Rehash(BoingBoingArticle[I,CDate]); ......SubmitT oSlash (NewArticle); ....end; ..next I; end.
Apparently not even the person posting this story RTFA. Baker and the other plaintiffs entered a settlement agreement with Microsoft, Symantec, et al. Sure, this means that we'll all start seeing a little better behavior from these companies, but it's not nearly as good as a precedential court ruling that would bind future companies operating in California (i.e., all of them).
This is nice, but does little to truly level the playing field for the regular guy. For that, we'd need to be owners of the copies of the software we buy not merely licensees. I'd even take a ruling that said that onerous EULA terms were unenforceable, or better: any EULA term not specifically negotiated by the parties is unenforceable. Now that would be a court victory to celebrate. (And, in cases where the term is imbalanced, is the norm in much of Europe. See the European Directive on Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts, particularly Article 3, Sec. 1.)
How come when the U.S. has to "harmonize" its IP laws with Europe and elsewhere we only harmonize to the most regular-guy-restricting standards and never harmonize to the regular-guy-protection standards? (ehhrmm...Rhetorical question...)
The site has no privacy policy and requires your address before you can register. Not quite ready for primetime.
I will say that someone offering a.deb download and.ogg and.flac audio files with no DRM is absolutely amazingly right on! Now just tack up a legal page where you explain that you'll never ever, unless required by subpoena, turn over my personal information, and we can do business.
I hate to gripe more, but I'd like to know how the player/preview app is licensed before installing it. Apparently it's not under an OSI-approved license or they haven't got a Debian developer packaging it because you can't apt-get install mindawn from the main Debian repository.
It seems like I'm the only person who read this and thought, "Hey! I should do that too!"
Honestly though, stop giving the guy such a hard time. I talk to lots of people who tell me they've been vaguely wanting to try GNU/Linux but didn't know how/we're scared to try/etc. I first tried GNU/Linux by using a SuSE Live CD, and now I run Debian on all my computers.
So long as the CD Label provides a few simple but essential instructions, it could be really appreciated by some recipients.
The labels should say something like: This is a version of GNU/Linux. Put this CD in your computer's CD-Rom drive and restart the computer. You will get a demonstration of GNU/Linux that will NOT alter your hard drive or damage your current Windows operating system. Did I mention it has games? Enjoy! For more information, check out: http://www.mepis.org (assuming you put Mepis on the CDs.)
Get a grip. If you disagree with what I say, then reply and explain your position. This entire thread is a ridiculous Apple-love-fest. Everything I said above I would reiterate, although I should have also added that iPods are over-priced!
Give me open hardware running open software and I'll pay iPod prices. Until then I'm not going to applaud each of Apple's tiny inconsequential improvements.
Slashdot Mirror
6,487,200 The full Complaint (pdf)
Is the reason for the dual hard drives that you're using a RAID 1 mirror?
Also, when I forget my password Slashdot emails it to me. Which server acts as that mail server?
I feel like there are other small details that got left out... Tell us MORE! Very interesting.
The anonymous coward below misses the point. I know how to get around the registration. I just don't want to bothered to have to do so. Slashdot could save us all that effort by 1) having the editors change reg-links with non-reg links or better: 2) simply rejecting reg-linked stories and indicating to people that is the policy. Future submissions would automatically fix this, and some sites who want Slashdot traffic to their ads might even think twice about having us all remember yet another stupid username/password combination.
I also don't see how my comment above should be moderated "Troll". I'm genuinely sick of this on Slashdot and would like to see it changed. So, I said so.
Links to stories with required registration should be BANNED on Slashdot.
Can't we make that a policy?
I have seen several dissing these new story+commentary summaries, but I have to say I like them a lot.
I don't always get to read every last story on Slashdot (like some of the complainers, I suspect) and I even less often get to read a decent chunk of the comments. Having EDITORS filter through all that and pick out the gems saves me a lot of time and (hopefully) features the best of Slashdot.
One personal note on the topic of malware.
Personally, I've only ever been bitten by a hack on my Debian GNU/Linux server. Never had an OS X virus (on either my Powerbook G4, wife's iBook G3, or my new MacBook. Also never had a Windows virus, but I stopped using Windows completely in early 2000. (It's now back on my MacBook and scares me to death.)
Admittedly, the server hack was my fault. I think it was an ssh dictionary attack that I wasn't watching for with fail2ban or another monitoring/blocking service and I probably didn't have good passwords on that machine at that time, but nonetheless it illustrates that everyone's experience with malware is different. I happen to only have had trouble on arguably the most secure OS of the bunch--and then it was the result of poor user management of the system (due to inexperience). I think that's probably the sum of it in most cases: you can't account for what an inexperienced user may expose themselves to on ANY OS.
First, the Rosetta method, despite being the best ab initio protein structure prediction algorithm, is still a long way from being able to produce structures that are of practical use to anyone.
Umm, that sounds like a reason to support the project. If it's a good algorithm then anything that might refine or improve it so that we do eventually produce structures of practical use sounds great. Maybe there are algorithms giving better results now, but 1) most (if not all) of those are not available to me via BOINC--so I can't help those interested in pursuing those algorithms (at least not with spare processor cycles) and 2) that an algorithm produces better results today is no indication that the Rosetta algorithm might not produce better results in the future--in part because of the application of LOTS of processor cycles to refine and improve the algorithm.
Also, for a non-specialist, like most of those considering contributing spare processor cycles, there is always a limit to how much investigation one can do into the worthiness of one's chosen projects. BOINC allows one to mitigate this problem by allowing one to share cycles across several projects, so that the person without the time or ability to evaluate the worthiness of a project's claims can simply throw a little seed all around and see where it grows.
But further, you particularly attack Baker's scientific claims (without sufficient evidence or even a signature to back them up--I think several of your claims about the project are just simply false), but the best a non-specialist can do when evaluating a scientist's work is to rely on the reactions of the scientific community, particularly that scientist's peers. This can be best measured by whether the scientist is affiliated with a reputable institution, such as a major University (Baker is at U Washington), the amount of peer-reviewed funding such a person gets, and the amount of peer-reviewed publication that person produces. Baker seems to be doing well in peer-reviewed scientific publications as displayed here: Publications and Baker's lab gets grants from the NIH, NSF, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Those journals and foundations have qualified scientists looking at the work and if they're willing to publish the results and give the lab money, then the average BOINC user who is not a specialist in the field, is justified in throwing them a few cycles. (It certainly would be more rational than deciding not to support the project based on the vague claims of someone who only identifies themself as "a scientist" on Slashdot.)
Finally you attack the entire enterprise of linking folded proteins to cures for diseases. Sure this may be unworkable at present, but, again, isn't that the point of supporting the research!? I know the likelihood of using protein research to cure diseases if no one does protein research: ZERO! So if we contribute to some research that even marginally improves those odds, that's better than what I was doing with those spare cycles before: nothing.
Individuals contributing their spare processor cycles via BOINC are currently producing over 380 TeraFLOPS putting them clearly in first place (if such distributed systems were counted).
SETI@Home is now operated exclusively through BOINC and it alone is doing over 167 TeraFLOPS right now, putting the SETI@Home network in second place, only behind BlueGene/L (if such distributed systems were counted).
You can contribute your spare processor cycles too by downloading the BOINC client and attaching to a cool project such as Rosetta@Home which folds proteins as part of an effort to cure human diseases. Join the biggest "supercomputer" today!
For those who are worried about giving their browsing history and passwords to Google (or anyone for that matter), you can still reap the benefits of synchronized bookmarks with another Firefox extension: Foxmarks.
Foxmarks is basically the same thing, but just for bookmarks (and not on Google's servers). It's great for keeping bookmarks across multiple machines, and also really useful for those who dual (or triple) boot a single machine. My triple-boot MacBook keeps all its bookmarks in sync with Foxmarks!
From this recent SEC filing by Vonage it looks like to be eligible to get shares at the IPO price it needs to be true that (among other things--this is not legal or financial advice, etc):
The customer opened an account directly with Vonage America on or prior to December 15, 2005. The customer must have opened an account with Vonage America and not through a third-party wholesaler.
The customer maintained the Vonage account in good standing through February 1, 2006.
So, running out and signing up for a Vonage account doesn't look like a way to get in on the IPO. That seems like a dumb idea. How many people would sign a 1-yr or 2-yr contract just to have a shot at getting shares at the IPO price. Seems like bad business to me (but possibly necessitated by all the SEC rules...)
The free software community is really blowing it if they don't recognize this as an opportunity. MS has had to be dragged kicking and screaming into making Office more accessible for disabled users. With an open format like ODF, any free software developer who sets his/her mind to it can start thinking of applications that could work with ODF documents in ways that would thrill the disabled community.
Why do that?
Because in the U.S. the disabled community has a loud and aggressive lobby. They have laws, like the ADA, that guarantee them non-discrimination. You want this group on your side. Because if they're on your side, then they just might turn on the other guys. And that could be ugly.
So imagine that there's plugins that make the OpenOffice.org suite the best darn thing that the disabled community has ever seen. Now imagine a sea of disabled activists outside of the Massachusetts Legislature demanding that ODF and OpenOffice.org be made available throughout the state, etc., etc.
No member of a legislature wants to explain why s/he is supporting software from the trillion dollar company instead of the software that the disabled community says makes their lives easier.
If the free software community thinks about how doing this is in their own self-interest, then they'll build that software.
Saw them all through the Google Cache. (I can't function without the Add Mirrors Greasemonkey Script which IMHO is way better than the Slashdotter Extension.)
Anyway, I thought "This is hot" blew all the others away. High production value. Gets some of the firefox message across to a mass audience without getting buried in all the product details. Most of the others will just leave people confused.
Ummm... Hello?!?!
The obvious missing item on this list is Microsoft coming out with a handful of licenses that even the Free Software Foundation recognizes as "free software" licenses. Sure, they haven't released any important software under these licenses yet, but coming out with the licenses is an amazingly interesting step for Redmond.
Everyone on Slashdot, regardless of whether you like this band, should buy their album to signal to musicians and record labels that we agree with this editorial. (You can find the album on Amazon, but where possible, support your local independent music stores!)
Even if you don't like the band, it's the holiday season, so buy it for someone who might like it and if you do like the band, buy two copies, one for yourself and one for a friend.
If this album suddenly sold 50,000 copies this week, it would send quite a message.
Pam Samuelson, Steven Weber, and Mitch Kapor are team-teaching a course on Open Source this semester in UC Berkeley's School of Information Management Systems (SIMS). The schedule of readings is available online. In your situation, dealing with Continuing Education students, many of whom you expect to have programming experience, I would pick and choose from the readings on this syllabus and add your own components geared to your audience. Something participatory would be a good idea. If you do get all programmers, have them form teams and pick projects to contribute to and write up their experiences. If you get some non-programmers allow them to form a team working on contributions to open source-like projects such as Wikipedia or something.
Fuel Economy, Initial Price, Battery Replacement, the Environment, it's all irrelevant to this Californian. I expect to start a job with a 45 mile commute on freeways I know to have bad traffic, but which also have diamond "carpool" lanes that generally move quickly even during rush hours. Unfortunately, my unpredictable hours and lack of a co-worker nearby make carpooling unlikely. However, hybrid owners in California are now permitted to use the diamond lanes even when the driver is the car's sole occupant. Being able to use that lane will save me soooo much time, the hybrid would be a good deal if it cost me twice what they now charge.
The story says "...ChoicePoint being breached for 145,000 profiles..." and the use of the word "breached" in particular makes it sound like hackers broke into their system when in fact ChoicePoint is in the business of selling personal information and just happened in this instance to have such inadequate vetting mechanisms that they sold the information on 145k people to clever identity theives. Read more about this story at the Berkeley IP blog (bIPlog).
There's no October 31 on his calendar, so Halloween would have to be October 30. LAME
He also wiped out my wedding anniversary, which is on a 31st. Do you think this would mean I wouldn't have to buy gifts?
Apparently not even the person posting this story RTFA. Baker and the other plaintiffs entered a settlement agreement with Microsoft, Symantec, et al. Sure, this means that we'll all start seeing a little better behavior from these companies, but it's not nearly as good as a precedential court ruling that would bind future companies operating in California (i.e., all of them).
This is nice, but does little to truly level the playing field for the regular guy. For that, we'd need to be owners of the copies of the software we buy not merely licensees. I'd even take a ruling that said that onerous EULA terms were unenforceable, or better: any EULA term not specifically negotiated by the parties is unenforceable. Now that would be a court victory to celebrate. (And, in cases where the term is imbalanced, is the norm in much of Europe. See the European Directive on Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts, particularly Article 3, Sec. 1.)
How come when the U.S. has to "harmonize" its IP laws with Europe and elsewhere we only harmonize to the most regular-guy-restricting standards and never harmonize to the regular-guy-protection standards? (ehhrmm...Rhetorical question...)
The site has no privacy policy and requires your address before you can register. Not quite ready for primetime.
.deb download and .ogg and .flac audio files with no DRM is absolutely amazingly right on! Now just tack up a legal page where you explain that you'll never ever, unless required by subpoena, turn over my personal information, and we can do business.
I will say that someone offering a
I hate to gripe more, but I'd like to know how the player/preview app is licensed before installing it. Apparently it's not under an OSI-approved license or they haven't got a Debian developer packaging it because you can't apt-get install mindawn from the main Debian repository.
Wow,
It seems like I'm the only person who read this and thought, "Hey! I should do that too!"
Honestly though, stop giving the guy such a hard time. I talk to lots of people who tell me they've been vaguely wanting to try GNU/Linux but didn't know how/we're scared to try/etc. I first tried GNU/Linux by using a SuSE Live CD, and now I run Debian on all my computers.
So long as the CD Label provides a few simple but essential instructions, it could be really appreciated by some recipients.
The labels should say something like: This is a version of GNU/Linux. Put this CD in your computer's CD-Rom drive and restart the computer. You will get a demonstration of GNU/Linux that will NOT alter your hard drive or damage your current Windows operating system. Did I mention it has games? Enjoy! For more information, check out: http://www.mepis.org (assuming you put Mepis on the CDs.)
If you are already running Fedora Core 2, then you can use yum to upgrade to Core 3. (yum is like apt.)
.isos.
Read these good instructions on how to do this yum upgrade.
I plan on following them later this morning and so I won't be part of the bottleneck downloading the
All of Sun's executives saw the headline, "Where Is Sun Going With Linux?" and dropped everything to quickly find out themselves.
Then they realize this is just an interview with another Sun executive, and they go, "Ahhh. Crap. I thought I was going to actually learn something!"
Honestly, when someone figures out where Sun is going with Linux, Open Source, Java, Microsoft, etc. please tell Sun!
And another thing!
I'm not the only one irritated by Apple's fight against their own customers by breaking the iPod download software with a so-called software "update".
Step out of the iPod stupor long enough to recognize that we should demand more of the companies we support with our purchases.
To those who modded my post above "troll":
Get a grip. If you disagree with what I say, then reply and explain your position. This entire thread is a ridiculous Apple-love-fest. Everything I said above I would reiterate, although I should have also added that iPods are over-priced!
Give me open hardware running open software and I'll pay iPod prices. Until then I'm not going to applaud each of Apple's tiny inconsequential improvements.