OK, but do we really want to give politicians, that most organized cadre of criminals, the idea that they can raise funds by fining companines?
You can't put a company in jail, so how else do you make it behave except to take the one thing (money) that matters to the company? Microsoft has been publicly wrist-slapped in the past with no apparent result. I still prefer the rule of our elected officials to the rule of our unelected corporate overlords.
Do you really think that they pay $600 for a toilet seat? The government is not stupid.
The charges are real enough. Do you realize how expensive it is to get custom toilet seats for the captive aliens being held in Area 51? I know I don't want to be the guy who casts the mold.
At what point did these customers forget they are dealing with a software company?
Probably at the point where Microsoft stopped acting like a software company and began acting like the OS of the Month Club. Remember '98, ME, 2K, and XP? Companies were getting hammered by constant upgrade costs. Let's give Microsoft all the credit it's due; it's a great marketing company, and it sold companies insurance against the constant upgrades. Then it stopped doing upgrades. You gotta admit it's brilliant marketing and a boatload of cash for nothing.
They're just singled out because Microsoft is a favorite whipping boy. Imagine the losses that may be incurred by (more) flawed code being released on schedule.
I have to admit that I can't make sense of that. I think you're saying that depriving subscribers of promised updates makes the eventual update more secure. What proof do you have of that when Microsoft has claimed every (previous) new release is more secure than the last? Why shouldn't MS do minor level upgrades and give the suck^H^H^H^Hcustomers who bought subscription licenses something for their money?
You'd toss a small-time chiseler like Darl into a cell with a real CEO like Martha and expect babies? That's cruel and unusual punishment, even for Darl. Actually, I'd expect a new recipe for pork sausage in Martha's next cookbook. It brings back memories of playing Blood Rayne.
Well, as long as we're celebrating, today is the 20th anniversary of the launch of Landsat 5. If you want to talk about a work horse, it has been returning Earth observation data used by scientists everywhere for two decades as well. It just might outlive its successor.
How about XP 1.1.0? The first digit would stand for a really important revision. The second digit ("1") would indicate that this was a minor functional upgrade from 1.0.0, and the third digit would indicate the number of very minor changes or patches applied . . . Nah, nevermind. Nobody would ever use a system like that.
Mandrake 10.0 RC1 is working fine for me. There were a lot of bug fixes compared to Beta 2. The only problem I had was some missing icons on the KDE desktop. They seem to have finally fixed the on-again, off-again scroll-wheel mouse problem.
I find it sad that so many people hold MS so incompetent as to not be able to write a simple anti-virus program without creating security holes. I think that MS will be more than capable of doing so.
Are you talking about the same company that produced the swiss cheese computing environment that is our current breeding ground for malware? Why on earth should they write an anti-virus program instead of making their software virus-resistant in the first place, and why should anyone trust the resulting product?
I think the real problem is that users aren't as security minded as they should be.
Well sure, that's part of the problem, but thoughtfully designed software should not *helpfully*, automatically execute a file called plague.exe either.
Can somebody show me a CD they think is overpriced? . . . Yes price fixing is bad, but I don't remember ever feeling like I overpaid for a CD or that a CD was too expensive.
Okay. I originally bought Fleetwood Mac's Rumors album on LP. A few years later, I bought it again on tape. A couple of years ago, I bought it yet again on CD for $16.99. Was the thrice-purchased, 30-year-old album on CD overpriced? Yes, by about $16.
Re:And where there's brine...
on
Brine on Mars?
·
· Score: 1
What? What do you mean there's no tuna on Mars? All these millions wasted and NOT A SINGLE TUNA TO SPEAK OF??
Just watch out for the sand sharks. (It was a really old but very good episode of The Outer Limits.)
I've thought of several possibly humorous names, but seriously, how about *Drake Linux*? They already have all that documentation time invested in the name: DiskDrake, HardDrake, MenuDrake, etc. Use a cartoon of a duck for a logo . . . get sued by Disney . . . get sued by Mallard Filmore . . . nevermind.
Based on the notion that Mandrake makes Linux as accessible for the average user as Windows, Mandrakesoft has just come up with a clever new name: Lindows
Please, that's not funny. Mandrake sets up a default normal user during installation, making it pretty secure for n00bs. Lindows gives Linux a black eye with its run-as-root abomination. Lindows is a Linux disaster waiting to happen.
The structure of American capitalism is such that the CEO of an enterprise is legally obligated to maximize shareholder value. If an executive has a performative action available that optimizes shareholder return, he is legally obligated to undertake that performative action.
Whenever I see this claim posted, I ask for a link pointing to that law, and I'm still waiting for someone to provide one. But, in any case, how does Darl leading SCO into a legal thumping at the hands of IBM followed by the inevitable stock crash maximize value for the shareholders?
maybe its that thing, atm 23 seeders, 239 downloading and it was created on 2/12/2004 11:16:13 PM, so looks good so far
What a waste of bandwidth. I don't even want the binary on my computer. Why would I want that massive blob of repeatedly patched DOS 3.0/Win 3.1 source code contaminating my disk? If I need a laugh, I'll just turn on the comedy channel.
I've consistently been unable to find RPMs for packages which are not part of the default distribution. I'm not talking about cutting edge, hot off the press, latest editions. I'm just talking about lower profile projects which have been out for some time and are easily found for other distributions.
I was going to suggest you try the PLF (zarb.plf), where most of the unusual stuff resides, but when I tried for a link, the name wouldn't resolve. There are some links on google that won't resolve either. Strange. I wouldn't think Mandrake absorbed the PLF, because there were legal reasons to keep them separated.
I'm using Mandrake but preparing to switch to Suse. Why? Because I'm not willing to pay $60 a year to join the Mandrake club, and unless you're willing to join the club it's almost impossible to find updated RPMs.
If you're willing to wait for a couple of weeks, you get the updates like everyone else. Club members, who pay for the privilege and support Mandrake with money, get first access. And somehow you see that as a bad thing. I guess for some people, free isn't cheap enough if they don't get immediate gratification as well.
Demonstrating that a computer is just a calculator is not exactly teaching programming either.
Demonstrating that a computer is not magic nor something to be afraid of is a good first step. Teaching a one-line program does show the concept. Perhaps you think a child's first program should be a device driver?
Teaching that kid BASIC as his first language not only hides from him an understanding of what various types of loop translate to on the system and why one is more efficient to the other, it also impairs him to learn any other programming language henceforth since about the only one basic easily translates to is pascal.
The B in BASIC stands for *Beginner's*. All computer languanges have the same general constructs because they are based on abstracting the workings of the processor - even assembler. My opinion is that any person who has the skills to be a good coder can learn any computer language - in any order. The reason I chose BASIC as an example is that it has come preinstalled on many computers for decades.
And then you have a high level program to generate that output, some are grossely inefficient, or are grossely inefficient when applied in various ways.
Thirty years ago, when I used assembler for most everything, high-level compilers may have been grossly inefficient, but things change. Today, it's hard to improve on code from a good C compiler, and the time involved for gaining minimal returns makes the exercise pointless in most cases.
Without understanding html you'd never know that each time you move an image a pixel your frontpage or publisher program leaves legacy crud.
Again, that's not programming. Using Frontpage is just using an end-user application. That's the same as not knowing that every time every time you change fonts in a Microsoft Word document, it leaves cruft from the previous font. If you want to compare using Frontpage to using VB, that's fine, but eventually the person using VB discovers that they have to learn how to write code to do anything really useful.
Whether we like it or not, there are millions of programmers who do not know assembler. The best coders who do know assembler build compilers and interpreters for the rest. While it is nice to reflect on the clever hacks we did decades ago and how we built applications in a few kilobytes of RAM, those days are gone. I'm not saying it's good or bad, it's just the way it is.
I can see your point, but one reason for abstraction is hiding complexity. If someone can handle a 3GL, then there is hope for them. If not, there is no reason to try to teach them assembler. Since my track was EE (and then CS), I learned from the gates up, but that's not the way CS people learn it.
The HTML example doesn't convince me. HTML, IMHO, is a formatting tool not a programming language. Using BASIC, I can show a kid that typing *print 2 + 3* produces a result and that a computer is just a glorified calculator without making him/her learn assembler.
Actually, the visas people need to work in the US require them to not undercut US jobs (ie they can't work for less than an American doing the same job, and they can't have a visa if there are already Americans who can do the job - it's for specialists).
I hope you got a discount when you bought into that. The *Americans first* provision was never enforced, it only applied to less than five percent of the companies that use H-1Bs, and that provision expired several months ago.
Further, the company that hires an H-1B is allowed to determine what the *average* wage is. The government does not check the figure for accuracy. Government and independent studies have shown that H-1Bs are paid twenty to thirty percent less than resident workers on average.
Specialists? The H-1B rules don't even require a degree - experience in the field is enough, and the visa also covers fashion models. Look it up. L-1 holders are only required to have company-specific information. One company is bringing in L-1s because only their (foreign) workers are trained in using their in-house timesheet program.
If you're not just jerking my chain and are interested in the subject, here is a start.
It seems to be the same excuse hacks have been using to foist substandard programming on us for years now. . .. Maybe I've been around Windows too long...
Last time I checked an architect doesn't 'architect', she 'designs', therefore the past tense is 'designed' not that godawful non-word 'architected' that has sprung up here on/. several times recently.
I hear you. My peeve is people who verb nouns. It's a losing battle.
Slashdot Mirror
OK, but do we really want to give politicians, that most organized cadre of criminals, the idea that they can raise funds by fining companines?
You can't put a company in jail, so how else do you make it behave except to take the one thing (money) that matters to the company? Microsoft has been publicly wrist-slapped in the past with no apparent result. I still prefer the rule of our elected officials to the rule of our unelected corporate overlords.
Do you really think that they pay $600 for a toilet seat? The government is not stupid.
The charges are real enough. Do you realize how expensive it is to get custom toilet seats for the captive aliens being held in Area 51? I know I don't want to be the guy who casts the mold.
At what point did these customers forget they are dealing with a software company?
Probably at the point where Microsoft stopped acting like a software company and began acting like the OS of the Month Club. Remember '98, ME, 2K, and XP? Companies were getting hammered by constant upgrade costs. Let's give Microsoft all the credit it's due; it's a great marketing company, and it sold companies insurance against the constant upgrades. Then it stopped doing upgrades. You gotta admit it's brilliant marketing and a boatload of cash for nothing.
They're just singled out because Microsoft is a favorite whipping boy. Imagine the losses that may be incurred by (more) flawed code being released on schedule.
I have to admit that I can't make sense of that. I think you're saying that depriving subscribers of promised updates makes the eventual update more secure. What proof do you have of that when Microsoft has claimed every (previous) new release is more secure than the last? Why shouldn't MS do minor level upgrades and give the suck^H^H^H^Hcustomers who bought subscription licenses something for their money?
Good god, ugly AND evil babies out of that one!
You'd toss a small-time chiseler like Darl into a cell with a real CEO like Martha and expect babies? That's cruel and unusual punishment, even for Darl. Actually, I'd expect a new recipe for pork sausage in Martha's next cookbook. It brings back memories of playing Blood Rayne.
Darl McBride, chief executive of SCO Group Inc., says he sometimes carries a gun because his enemies are out to kill him.
Sounds like Darl attended the Zevon School of Business: Send lawyers, guns, and money . . .
Well, as long as we're celebrating, today is the 20th anniversary of the launch of Landsat 5. If you want to talk about a work horse, it has been returning Earth observation data used by scientists everywhere for two decades as well. It just might outlive its successor.
Landsat 5
I would have thought they'd call it: X2.
How about XP 1.1.0? The first digit would stand for a really important revision. The second digit ("1") would indicate that this was a minor functional upgrade from 1.0.0, and the third digit would indicate the number of very minor changes or patches applied . . . Nah, nevermind. Nobody would ever use a system like that.
Mandrake 10.0 RC1 is working fine for me. There were a lot of bug fixes compared to Beta 2. The only problem I had was some missing icons on the KDE desktop. They seem to have finally fixed the on-again, off-again scroll-wheel mouse problem.
I find it sad that so many people hold MS so incompetent as to not be able to write a simple anti-virus program without creating security holes. I think that MS will be more than capable of doing so.
Are you talking about the same company that produced the swiss cheese computing environment that is our current breeding ground for malware? Why on earth should they write an anti-virus program instead of making their software virus-resistant in the first place, and why should anyone trust the resulting product?
I think the real problem is that users aren't as security minded as they should be.
Well sure, that's part of the problem, but thoughtfully designed software should not *helpfully*, automatically execute a file called plague.exe either.
Can somebody show me a CD they think is overpriced? . . . Yes price fixing is bad, but I don't remember ever feeling like I overpaid for a CD or that a CD was too expensive.
Okay. I originally bought Fleetwood Mac's Rumors album on LP. A few years later, I bought it again on tape. A couple of years ago, I bought it yet again on CD for $16.99. Was the thrice-purchased, 30-year-old album on CD overpriced? Yes, by about $16.
What? What do you mean there's no tuna on Mars? All these millions wasted and NOT A SINGLE TUNA TO SPEAK OF??
Just watch out for the sand sharks. (It was a really old but very good episode of The Outer Limits.)
I know: Mandows... that should be safe...
I've thought of several possibly humorous names, but seriously, how about *Drake Linux*? They already have all that documentation time invested in the name: DiskDrake, HardDrake, MenuDrake, etc. Use a cartoon of a duck for a logo . . . get sued by Disney . . . get sued by Mallard Filmore . . . nevermind.
Based on the notion that Mandrake makes Linux as accessible for the average user as Windows, Mandrakesoft has just come up with a clever new name: Lindows
Please, that's not funny. Mandrake sets up a default normal user during installation, making it pretty secure for n00bs. Lindows gives Linux a black eye with its run-as-root abomination. Lindows is a Linux disaster waiting to happen.
The structure of American capitalism is such that the CEO of an enterprise is legally obligated to maximize shareholder value. If an executive has a performative action available that optimizes shareholder return, he is legally obligated to undertake that performative action.
Whenever I see this claim posted, I ask for a link pointing to that law, and I'm still waiting for someone to provide one. But, in any case, how does Darl leading SCO into a legal thumping at the hands of IBM followed by the inevitable stock crash maximize value for the shareholders?
maybe its that thing, atm 23 seeders, 239 downloading and it was created on 2/12/2004 11:16:13 PM, so looks good so far
What a waste of bandwidth. I don't even want the binary on my computer. Why would I want that massive blob of repeatedly patched DOS 3.0/Win 3.1 source code contaminating my disk? If I need a laugh, I'll just turn on the comedy channel.
That doesn't help much with the MS "friendly" sites like HotMail and Yahoo! Mail.
I don't have any problems with Hotmail using Mozilla running on Linux (and it gives me a warm fuzzy whenever I do). :)
I've consistently been unable to find RPMs for packages which are not part of the default distribution. I'm not talking about cutting edge, hot off the press, latest editions. I'm just talking about lower profile projects which have been out for some time and are easily found for other distributions.
I was going to suggest you try the PLF (zarb.plf), where most of the unusual stuff resides, but when I tried for a link, the name wouldn't resolve. There are some links on google that won't resolve either. Strange. I wouldn't think Mandrake absorbed the PLF, because there were legal reasons to keep them separated.
I understand that modern virii don't have to load TSR's, understand assembly language, or modify boot records (not that they don't) . . .
These days they call that TurboTax.
I'm using Mandrake but preparing to switch to Suse. Why? Because I'm not willing to pay $60 a year to join the Mandrake club, and unless you're willing to join the club it's almost impossible to find updated RPMs.
If you're willing to wait for a couple of weeks, you get the updates like everyone else. Club members, who pay for the privilege and support Mandrake with money, get first access. And somehow you see that as a bad thing. I guess for some people, free isn't cheap enough if they don't get immediate gratification as well.
Demonstrating that a computer is just a calculator is not exactly teaching programming either.
Demonstrating that a computer is not magic nor something to be afraid of is a good first step. Teaching a one-line program does show the concept. Perhaps you think a child's first program should be a device driver?
Teaching that kid BASIC as his first language not only hides from him an understanding of what various types of loop translate to on the system and why one is more efficient to the other, it also impairs him to learn any other programming language henceforth since about the only one basic easily translates to is pascal.
The B in BASIC stands for *Beginner's*. All computer languanges have the same general constructs because they are based on abstracting the workings of the processor - even assembler. My opinion is that any person who has the skills to be a good coder can learn any computer language - in any order. The reason I chose BASIC as an example is that it has come preinstalled on many computers for decades.
And then you have a high level program to generate that output, some are grossely inefficient, or are grossely inefficient when applied in various ways.
Thirty years ago, when I used assembler for most everything, high-level compilers may have been grossly inefficient, but things change. Today, it's hard to improve on code from a good C compiler, and the time involved for gaining minimal returns makes the exercise pointless in most cases.
Without understanding html you'd never know that each time you move an image a pixel your frontpage or publisher program leaves legacy crud.
Again, that's not programming. Using Frontpage is just using an end-user application. That's the same as not knowing that every time every time you change fonts in a Microsoft Word document, it leaves cruft from the previous font. If you want to compare using Frontpage to using VB, that's fine, but eventually the person using VB discovers that they have to learn how to write code to do anything really useful.
Whether we like it or not, there are millions of programmers who do not know assembler. The best coders who do know assembler build compilers and interpreters for the rest. While it is nice to reflect on the clever hacks we did decades ago and how we built applications in a few kilobytes of RAM, those days are gone. I'm not saying it's good or bad, it's just the way it is.
I can see your point, but one reason for abstraction is hiding complexity. If someone can handle a 3GL, then there is hope for them. If not, there is no reason to try to teach them assembler. Since my track was EE (and then CS), I learned from the gates up, but that's not the way CS people learn it.
The HTML example doesn't convince me. HTML, IMHO, is a formatting tool not a programming language. Using BASIC, I can show a kid that typing *print 2 + 3* produces a result and that a computer is just a glorified calculator without making him/her learn assembler.
Actually, the visas people need to work in the US require them to not undercut US jobs (ie they can't work for less than an American doing the same job, and they can't have a visa if there are already Americans who can do the job - it's for specialists).
I hope you got a discount when you bought into that. The *Americans first* provision was never enforced, it only applied to less than five percent of the companies that use H-1Bs, and that provision expired several months ago.
Further, the company that hires an H-1B is allowed to determine what the *average* wage is. The government does not check the figure for accuracy. Government and independent studies have shown that H-1Bs are paid twenty to thirty percent less than resident workers on average.
Specialists? The H-1B rules don't even require a degree - experience in the field is enough, and the visa also covers fashion models. Look it up. L-1 holders are only required to have company-specific information. One company is bringing in L-1s because only their (foreign) workers are trained in using their in-house timesheet program.
If you're not just jerking my chain and are interested in the subject, here is a start.
Umm, thanks, but I think Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbes fame did it better. :)
It seems to be the same excuse hacks have been using to foist substandard programming on us for years now. .
. .
Maybe I've been around Windows too long...
Testify, brother! :)
Last time I checked an architect doesn't 'architect', she 'designs', therefore the past tense is 'designed' not that godawful non-word 'architected' that has sprung up here on /. several times recently.
I hear you. My peeve is people who verb nouns. It's a losing battle.