I think I understand, and perhaps even agree with, their basic point. Schools should not have to pay the same license fees that big business does.
I'd still aruge however that this policy is wrong. First, it truly isn't fair to force a company to sell or licesne a product for far less than they think it's worth.
The second reason why this is bad is it removes the desire to create (or look for) alternatives. If the whole Malaysian school system gets to use MS products for free, what incentive is there for the students to learn, and use, other products (like maybe Open Office) after they graduate?
And that's my basic point, I guess. This policy may sound good for Malaysia in the short run, but in the long run it just perpetuates the dominance of a few softare companies. (You'd think instead the government would at least sponsor some home grown software, and maybe create some jobs and a local insustry rather than send their money overseas.)
If it requires an inflight reboot, there's no doubt what OS it's running.
BeOS support: Hello... Pilot: "Uhh.. I'm spiraling towards the earth, both my engines are out, and my display says 'Kernel oops' in white text on a black background." BeOS Support: (Operator cuts in) "We're sorry. The number you are calling has been disconnected due to the company going tits up." Pilot: @#$*! BeOS! I'm switching to Micrsoft if I survive! Operator: *click*
Now go back to the top and start all the OS's again. That's how we do the OS shuffle, kids. ^_^
There is a small flaw to your argument. If we are truly going to support Open Source, then we'd have to purchase all of the applications you list above as well as the OS.
Open Office, the Gimp, CAD (I don't use this), etc., all require maintainers who I'm sure need our support also. I use Open Office and the Gimp on my Widows box, and I'm somewhat shame-faced to say that I did just download them for free.
Adding those apps in would raise the base cost of the Linux system, although still not to the cost of a comparable Widows system.
Just for random mumblings, I'm trying to think out-loud here about what could make money for an Open Source vendor like Red Hat or Mandrake. At home, I have 3 systems: one Linux NAT-Firewall and two desk top systems. If a vendor were to offer a home support contract that automatically updated three to five machines for $30, $40, or even $50 a year, I think that would be great. Newbies could have their hand holding, and the vendor gets an assured revenue stream. Major upgrades should be available too (new kernel version, etc.) under the same contract.
It'd work for me. In fact, I'd consider even $50 per year -- about the same as one game -- to be a good bargin. Would this work for anyone else? (Remember, it's a home support contract, not for a more complex business installation.)
Ugh. Sounds like a security hole big enough to drive a double rig full of viruses (viri?) through. At least Java puts some conrols on the abilities of a running Java program.
A method and apparatus for filtering data packets from a network device, such as a LAN switch, onto a network coupled thereto based on the content of the data packets.
This to me seems to be the crux of the matter. They are patenting all type of filter (normal routing, re-routing, droping, etc.) based on the contents of the data packet, in some form. While I can't be certain, I think any decent packet sniffer would have this capability. (I can't remmber if any I've used are actually older than 1995, when the patent was filed.)
Anyone got more specific info? I bet we can find several examples of test equipment previous to this patent to derive data based filtering from.
How about IP stacks? Anyone know of an IP stack that could sniff the data section of a packet before 1995? Now there's gotta be a few examples of that!
If you read the article first, you would know that they are in fact planning on using "bio-diesel". It's vegitable and animal fat that has been chemical altered w/ alcohol or methanol into a suitable fuel.
Much less pollutants, less CO2, less toxic burning, less toxic if there's a spill (Wesson! Run!), and no sulfur. The article says it was specifically chosen because it meets the strict CA air standards. And the stationary engines will allow the state and the railroad to do extensive testing on the effiecency of the fuel that they couldn't do on mobile trains.
At least this CA government plan seems to be well thought out.
Well, while I was taking my college courses, one of the professors of engineering talked about his experiences as a surveyor in a mine.
Basically, the minning company had illegally dug under property they had no right to. They started on the surface where they had a legal right, but then once underground they pretty much went where ever they wanted.
The professor (a young kid just out of college at the time) couldn't figure out why he made so many "mistakes" with the surveying equipment that had to be "corrected" by his supervisor. He got in trouble for his "errors" too. When he plotted the full data himself, he figured out what they were up to. So he shut-up about the survey data, and found another job as soon as he could.
The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?
Just because it's a small company wining against a huge one, doesn't make it right. I don't like trademark name games any more than the next guy, and that's really what the issue is here.
"Lindows" is a word that I think the average consumer could reasonably confuse with Microsoft's product. That's the important point. The name is disingenuous, just like "crunchy frog" or something.
Lindows ought to rebrand their product, and sell on it's own merits, technical excellance and price.
I've been a loyal Gamespot reader for many years. One thing that bugs me about the current subscription service is that much of their bandwidth costs seems to be for all the fancy-schmancy graphics they have on their site. All those fancy-schmacy graphics were added so that they could attract advertising dollars in the first place. They wanted a web site that looked "professional". It's a vicious cycle that drives up their costs.
Now they got streaming downloads and video reviews. Huh? Guys you're gamer geeks. You sound awful giving a video presentation, plus the sound editing is always way too low. And they have WAY too many screen shots posted. This can't be good for bandwidth costs, and plus it isn't anything I really want.
What I really want is just the info. Text pages of game reviews. The rest of what is on most web sites is unecessary.
Well, that may be true, but the article at Van's Hardware says AMD's architecture is actually better:
Our sources also allege that top Microsoft decision makers view x86-64 as the clearly superior solution over IA64, an underperforming VLIW architecture widely judged as Byzantine.
It goes on to point out that AMD has filed more patents in the last 3 years than Intel, and that AMD is widely seen as the true inovator between the two companies.
I can't say what's correct myself, but I think you may be jumping to conclusions.
Well, I just looked up "daemon" in my unabridged dictionary (handy thing, that). It means a god or minor diety in classical mythology. It's kinda related to the Roman idea of a genius (from Greek, daimon a diety or a fate). Whereas a "demon" is an evil spirit. Daemon can mean demon, but that wasn't the primary definition.
I was taught that the origin of the term "daemon" in computer usage is biblical. Some translations of the Bible say that when God turned Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden, He set a daemon (a minor diety, i.e. an angel) to guard the gate. It waited at the gate, and slew any who tried to enter.
Daemons are programs that wait, then when their trigger occurs, they act. The action could be for anything from delivering email to notifiy an accountant that a transaction over a certain amount has occured. (That was actually the context for this discussion about daemons: a hypothetical database that had daemons or triggers that would execute when certain criteria were met.)
These programs never do much good. A manufacture can establish a recycling center, but in most cases you still have to get the PC to them somehow. It's still easier just to toss the junker in the trash and ignore the problem.
Is there a problem? Oh yea. The Sacramento News and Review has an article showing how in spite of current laws, CRT's and other components still end up in landfills all the time. There is sometimes 4 pounds of lead in one CRT, all of which could easily leech into your drinking water.
Then there's the proposal itself.
Under the proposal, a fee -- perhaps $25 or $30 -- would be added to computer systems at the time of purchase. The collected money would finance a recycling program for computers and television sets.
Hello? They're going to tax computers to pay for hauling away TV's? That's baloney.
What really needs to be done is local goverments should have a small tax they impose on everyone. That tax should go for proper disposal of toxic waste -- all toxic waste. Checking back with that SNR link above, private contractors are currently ignoreing the law and knowing dumping illegal CRTs in landfills. This sort of thing doesn't get done right unless the government removes incentives to cut corners -- i.e., it does it itself.
All of society benefits from not having toxic chemicals in their landfills and drinking water, so a general tax is fair. Regardless, please get involved. Support whatever you want but do it, the cost of clean up once this stuff is already in a landfill is huge. Find groups in your local area and support them. (Bay Area link ).
This is standard practice in the console industry, though: sell the console as a loss-leader
This is incorrect. In fact, only two consolse have ever been sold at a loss. Sega's Dreamcast (they lost their shirts), and Microsoft's Xbox. Sony's PS2 is very cheap to make and actually turns a small profit.
Selling below cost is a busines stratagy that should have died with the dot-com'ers.
Q.Why should a donor include the operating system with their PC donation?
A.It is a legal requirement that pre-installed operating systems remain with a machine for the life of the machine. If a company or individual donates a machine to your school, it must be donated with the operating system that was installed on the PC.
*sigh* More Microsoft FUD. I don't remember that requirement being stated when I bought any PCs, I wouldn't have bought them if it was, and I doubt I'm bound by it now.
Let's face it, 50% of the pre-installed software doesn't last 5 minutes after I get it home (AOL, etc.) And after about 2 years, I've usually removed it all anyway and upgraded. I don't keep original install disks after that, they just clutter up the place. How could MS infringe on my right to use the computer in the very reasonable manner, when they themselves sell every kind of software updrade immaginable?
Sure, I can't go buy a copy of Windows XP, install it, then "donate" the computer but keep my purchase to install again. But that's not what MS is saying here. This article is just another bad PR story waiting to trip MS up. What are those guys thinking? Not much, is my guess.
If you want to donate a PC, my recomendation would be to erase the HD(s), then remove all the drives from the system. Then donate the parts to a school. Tell them it's parts, and you don't know where they came from. If the teachers can't put it back together, then I bet the students can.
There are many other good ideas here. I'd like to add my 2 cp for xargs, find, and grep.
These shell commands are good by themselves but great when used together.
find/etc | xargs grep "eth0"
will find every config file under/etc (and all subdirs under/etc) that file that references the string "eth0". This can be a life saver when you found a reference to some constant or variable but you have NO idea where it is set. The command combo I gave above is probably the only reason I managed to get my firewall configured, the first time it did it.
Do this from a GUI with three or four shell windows open, so you can grep in one window and keep a file or two open (runing vi, or whatever) in the others. Then do the same thing with NO GUI (yes, Linux runs great like this, esp. on old crapy machines, e.g. my firewall again). Show them how to use ALT-Fn to get multiple screens with out the GUI.
Show them also
find.
to look in the current directory, and
find <b>dir</b> -type f
will locate only regular files (ignoring links), which is nice for reducing spam.
Also show them
xargs -i command {} more args...
for when xargs can't append the commands, or needs to run them singlly.
Also, point out http://www.tldp.org/. The Linux Documentation Project isn't the be-all or end-all, but some of their how-to's are invaluable if you have nowhere else to turn.
What we need is an industry standard protocol that is accepted by major instituions, yet flexible enough to be used by smaller businesses and mom-and-pop websites. Then the larger institutions provide a service for their customers, creating transactions on the web.
I imagine this would work something like how PayPal works with eBay. PayPal provides a service to their customers. To make a purchase on eBay, I can use PayPal's service as a trusted. PayPal takes care of all the little details so it's customers (in this case, both myself and eBay) don't have to worry about getting gyped.
This is nice, but I'd like to use my credit union or credit card company directly instead of having to go thru PayPal. This is possible now, but I've run into a few folks who actually perfer to use PayPal rather than a Visa number, so I imagine there are a few kinks to be worked out.
The credit union (or whatever institution manages your account for you) can then decide how to provide security and convenience. Do I allocate money in a special fund first, or is my checking account accessed directly? Do I preapprove transactions, or do I login and check them off manually before they can clear? How are PINS and passwords secured? These are all questions that the protocol must address, and allow the institution to configure.
This is pretty similar to MS's new strategy. They are selling their Hailstorm package to other institutions so that those other institutions can provide the service. I like this a lot more as it gives me real choices about who I do business with.
If there needs to be a central repository, it should be minimal. Like a trusted authority in the PGP protocol, it could just define who are the trusted institutions for the protocol, and a basic verification (public key?) for that institution. This trusted authority should be managed by an industry consortium of some sort (and not directly cost me any money).
If other sorts of information are needed (medical records, consumer info, etc.), then that specific industry should work out their own protocol and how to manage it.
Any online repository should be authorized by the consumer first. I should be able to enable or disable my online account with my credit union. Ditto with my medical records or consumer info. This should never be automatic with any service, and legally should probably require an explicict, written and signed document just for that purpose. That'll help keep the number of unwanted accounts down. (I can just see a lot of online consumer accounts being created automatically for your "convenience" as soon as you sign up for some minor service. Not good.)
That's it. Something that's industry standard and managed by an institution I trust. I propose we call it "mtp (money transfer protocol)". *grin*
IE also has a section for "restricted sites" on the same preference window. After reading the replies here, I did a quick search of my hard drive for "gator" and found a cookie. The cookie went into the trash, and I added "gator.com" to my list of restricted sites. No more downloads or even cookies from them!
Slashdot Mirror
I'd still aruge however that this policy is wrong. First, it truly isn't fair to force a company to sell or licesne a product for far less than they think it's worth.
The second reason why this is bad is it removes the desire to create (or look for) alternatives. If the whole Malaysian school system gets to use MS products for free, what incentive is there for the students to learn, and use, other products (like maybe Open Office) after they graduate?
And that's my basic point, I guess. This policy may sound good for Malaysia in the short run, but in the long run it just perpetuates the dominance of a few softare companies. (You'd think instead the government would at least sponsor some home grown software, and maybe create some jobs and a local insustry rather than send their money overseas.)
If it requires an inflight reboot, there's no doubt what OS it's running.
BeOS support: Hello...
Pilot: "Uhh.. I'm spiraling towards the earth, both my engines are out, and my display says 'Kernel oops' in white text on a black background."
BeOS Support: (Operator cuts in) "We're sorry. The number you are calling has been disconnected due to the company going tits up."
Pilot: @#$*! BeOS! I'm switching to Micrsoft if I survive!
Operator: *click*
Now go back to the top and start all the OS's again. That's how we do the OS shuffle, kids. ^_^
Open Office, the Gimp, CAD (I don't use this), etc., all require maintainers who I'm sure need our support also. I use Open Office and the Gimp on my Widows box, and I'm somewhat shame-faced to say that I did just download them for free.
Adding those apps in would raise the base cost of the Linux system, although still not to the cost of a comparable Widows system.
Just for random mumblings, I'm trying to think out-loud here about what could make money for an Open Source vendor like Red Hat or Mandrake. At home, I have 3 systems: one Linux NAT-Firewall and two desk top systems. If a vendor were to offer a home support contract that automatically updated three to five machines for $30, $40, or even $50 a year, I think that would be great. Newbies could have their hand holding, and the vendor gets an assured revenue stream. Major upgrades should be available too (new kernel version, etc.) under the same contract.
It'd work for me. In fact, I'd consider even $50 per year -- about the same as one game -- to be a good bargin. Would this work for anyone else? (Remember, it's a home support contract, not for a more complex business installation.)
Ugh. Sounds like a security hole big enough to drive a double rig full of viruses (viri?) through. At least Java puts some conrols on the abilities of a running Java program.
This to me seems to be the crux of the matter. They are patenting all type of filter (normal routing, re-routing, droping, etc.) based on the contents of the data packet, in some form. While I can't be certain, I think any decent packet sniffer would have this capability. (I can't remmber if any I've used are actually older than 1995, when the patent was filed.)
Anyone got more specific info? I bet we can find several examples of test equipment previous to this patent to derive data based filtering from.
How about IP stacks? Anyone know of an IP stack that could sniff the data section of a packet before 1995? Now there's gotta be a few examples of that!
Much less pollutants, less CO2, less toxic burning, less toxic if there's a spill (Wesson! Run!), and no sulfur. The article says it was specifically chosen because it meets the strict CA air standards. And the stationary engines will allow the state and the railroad to do extensive testing on the effiecency of the fuel that they couldn't do on mobile trains.
At least this CA government plan seems to be well thought out.
Basically, the minning company had illegally dug under property they had no right to. They started on the surface where they had a legal right, but then once underground they pretty much went where ever they wanted.
The professor (a young kid just out of college at the time) couldn't figure out why he made so many "mistakes" with the surveying equipment that had to be "corrected" by his supervisor. He got in trouble for his "errors" too. When he plotted the full data himself, he figured out what they were up to. So he shut-up about the survey data, and found another job as soon as he could.
The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?
"Lindows" is a word that I think the average consumer could reasonably confuse with Microsoft's product. That's the important point. The name is disingenuous, just like "crunchy frog" or something.
Lindows ought to rebrand their product, and sell on it's own merits, technical excellance and price.
Now they got streaming downloads and video reviews. Huh? Guys you're gamer geeks. You sound awful giving a video presentation, plus the sound editing is always way too low. And they have WAY too many screen shots posted. This can't be good for bandwidth costs, and plus it isn't anything I really want.
What I really want is just the info. Text pages of game reviews. The rest of what is on most web sites is unecessary.
I can't say what's correct myself, but I think you may be jumping to conclusions.
I was taught that the origin of the term "daemon" in computer usage is biblical. Some translations of the Bible say that when God turned Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden, He set a daemon (a minor diety, i.e. an angel) to guard the gate. It waited at the gate, and slew any who tried to enter.
Daemons are programs that wait, then when their trigger occurs, they act. The action could be for anything from delivering email to notifiy an accountant that a transaction over a certain amount has occured. (That was actually the context for this discussion about daemons: a hypothetical database that had daemons or triggers that would execute when certain criteria were met.)
Is there a problem? Oh yea. The Sacramento News and Review has an article showing how in spite of current laws, CRT's and other components still end up in landfills all the time. There is sometimes 4 pounds of lead in one CRT, all of which could easily leech into your drinking water.
Then there's the proposal itself.
Hello? They're going to tax computers to pay for hauling away TV's? That's baloney.What really needs to be done is local goverments should have a small tax they impose on everyone. That tax should go for proper disposal of toxic waste -- all toxic waste. Checking back with that SNR link above, private contractors are currently ignoreing the law and knowing dumping illegal CRTs in landfills. This sort of thing doesn't get done right unless the government removes incentives to cut corners -- i.e., it does it itself.
All of society benefits from not having toxic chemicals in their landfills and drinking water, so a general tax is fair. Regardless, please get involved. Support whatever you want but do it, the cost of clean up once this stuff is already in a landfill is huge. Find groups in your local area and support them. (Bay Area link ).
Peace, out.
This is incorrect. In fact, only two consolse have ever been sold at a loss. Sega's Dreamcast (they lost their shirts), and Microsoft's Xbox. Sony's PS2 is very cheap to make and actually turns a small profit.
Selling below cost is a busines stratagy that should have died with the dot-com'ers.
Thou has forsaken the Word of Gord. Repent ye!
A. It is a legal requirement that pre-installed operating systems remain with a machine for the life of the machine. If a company or individual donates a machine to your school, it must be donated with the operating system that was installed on the PC.
*sigh* More Microsoft FUD. I don't remember that requirement being stated when I bought any PCs, I wouldn't have bought them if it was, and I doubt I'm bound by it now.
Let's face it, 50% of the pre-installed software doesn't last 5 minutes after I get it home (AOL, etc.) And after about 2 years, I've usually removed it all anyway and upgraded. I don't keep original install disks after that, they just clutter up the place. How could MS infringe on my right to use the computer in the very reasonable manner, when they themselves sell every kind of software updrade immaginable?
Sure, I can't go buy a copy of Windows XP, install it, then "donate" the computer but keep my purchase to install again. But that's not what MS is saying here. This article is just another bad PR story waiting to trip MS up. What are those guys thinking? Not much, is my guess.
If you want to donate a PC, my recomendation would be to erase the HD(s), then remove all the drives from the system. Then donate the parts to a school. Tell them it's parts, and you don't know where they came from. If the teachers can't put it back together, then I bet the students can.
These shell commands are good by themselves but great when used together.
will find every config file underDo this from a GUI with three or four shell windows open, so you can grep in one window and keep a file or two open (runing vi, or whatever) in the others. Then do the same thing with NO GUI (yes, Linux runs great like this, esp. on old crapy machines, e.g. my firewall again). Show them how to use ALT-Fn to get multiple screens with out the GUI.
Show them also
to look in the current directory, andwill locate only regular files (ignoring links), which is nice for reducing spam.Also show them
for when xargs can't append the commands, or needs to run them singlly.Also, point out http://www.tldp.org/. The Linux Documentation Project isn't the be-all or end-all, but some of their how-to's are invaluable if you have nowhere else to turn.
Good luck!
I imagine this would work something like how PayPal works with eBay. PayPal provides a service to their customers. To make a purchase on eBay, I can use PayPal's service as a trusted. PayPal takes care of all the little details so it's customers (in this case, both myself and eBay) don't have to worry about getting gyped.
This is nice, but I'd like to use my credit union or credit card company directly instead of having to go thru PayPal. This is possible now, but I've run into a few folks who actually perfer to use PayPal rather than a Visa number, so I imagine there are a few kinks to be worked out.
The credit union (or whatever institution manages your account for you) can then decide how to provide security and convenience. Do I allocate money in a special fund first, or is my checking account accessed directly? Do I preapprove transactions, or do I login and check them off manually before they can clear? How are PINS and passwords secured? These are all questions that the protocol must address, and allow the institution to configure.
This is pretty similar to MS's new strategy. They are selling their Hailstorm package to other institutions so that those other institutions can provide the service. I like this a lot more as it gives me real choices about who I do business with.
If there needs to be a central repository, it should be minimal. Like a trusted authority in the PGP protocol, it could just define who are the trusted institutions for the protocol, and a basic verification (public key?) for that institution. This trusted authority should be managed by an industry consortium of some sort (and not directly cost me any money).
If other sorts of information are needed (medical records, consumer info, etc.), then that specific industry should work out their own protocol and how to manage it.
Any online repository should be authorized by the consumer first. I should be able to enable or disable my online account with my credit union. Ditto with my medical records or consumer info. This should never be automatic with any service, and legally should probably require an explicict, written and signed document just for that purpose. That'll help keep the number of unwanted accounts down. (I can just see a lot of online consumer accounts being created automatically for your "convenience" as soon as you sign up for some minor service. Not good.)
That's it. Something that's industry standard and managed by an institution I trust. I propose we call it "mtp (money transfer protocol)". *grin*