And then, the Tinfoil-Hat-Net Bill is passed. The system goes on-line August 4th, 2027. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Tinfoil-Hat-Net begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.
Whatchoo talkin' bout fool? No more flash means no more Strong Bad! And I'd rather fight a shark-wielding bear than be forced to give up my fix of Lookin' at a Thing in a Bag.
some companies have had to hire an extra person to make sure they are in compliance with all the MS license oddities
Oh c'mon. You're really reaching on that point. What percentage of companies do you think actually do this? Do you have any examples of such a company? And seriously, even if they had to hire someone for that, I doubt that this would be a full-time position. If a company actually did that, they would deserve to lose that money anwyay.
Also, I might point out that it would cost, say, $5000 to have 10 Windows boxes. Less, probably, because you'd get it pre-installed or at a bulk rate, maybe even down to $2000. A $5000/yr difference in salary between a *nix admin and a Windows admin would make up the difference in a year, and translate into savings for future years. This would be a likely example that would come into play in an analysis of the differences. And there are a lot more small 10-box companies than larger several-hundred-box companies.
I can't believe the crap I'm reading on this one, although I guess I shouldn't really be surprised. It seems that most Slashdot posters are grumpy, bitter and jaded. This bill is a really good thing, and yet the majority of the responses are "Pfff, like that'll happen".
With the likes of you folks, it'll never happen. It seems you'd rather sit around and simply be negative about everything! You're simply part of the problem that you like to grump about.
Get off your ass and write a quick email to your representative. Then go find a puppy or something to play with for god's sake, and quit being so damned negative.
What you're failing to recall however, is that the UN weapons inspection teams were there for almost a decade, and they declared that Iraq had been effectively disarmed.
It is also clear, and has been clear for quite some time, that Iraq does not have the infrastructure to rebuild it's arsenal. This has only been confirmed in recent weeks by the failure of the coalition to find anything except a couple of chemical suits. The movement now is to explain the lack of findings by claiming "mobile labs", but this is a stretch. In fact, what is being verified is what the UN weapons inspectors concluded... Iraq has no weapons.
The only reason the inspectors got kicked out in the first place was US corruption of the process. The CIA infiltrated the weapons inspection teams and used them to gather intelligence on Saddam's security forces. Saddam figured this out before they could assassinate him, which is too bad, because if they had got him it would have meant this whole situation would never have happened. No one cares about Saddam... it's illegal justification of war that is the problem.
According to Scott Ritter, who led the inspection teams for eight years, the Clinton administration ordered at least 4 assassination attempts on Saddam, but his security forces are (were) the best in the world. Hence the CIA utilized the UN inspection teams. Hence being kicked out.
The findings remain however. There weren't any weapons.
If that's too complicated for you, I suggest you once again review your history lessons. It might occur to you that there is a reason that most of the world is pissed at your government.
Along with the "Lumber", Canada also has more "Gold Mines". The real problem is that Bush is worried that Canada will produce Peasants faster than they can produce Peons, and they'll be able to do a grunt rush before the US can get their Ogres out.
duffbeer703, please put your hands up in the air. You are being arrested for the murder of Jimmy Hoffa.
What's that? You didn't murder Jimmy Hoffa? Well, I don't need proof. I think you did. Tell you what, duffbeer703, I'm going to arrest you and execute you anyway. I know you did it, I just need a little more time to find the evidence. Would you prefer death by bunker buster, or M-16?
What's that? You'd rather I had proof before I convicted you?
That's just crazy talk.
p.s. The CIA helped the Iraqis gas the Kurds. Not to mention the U.S. sold them the helicopters. See this report by a professor at Cornell, if your memory of history is a bit foggy.
Unfortunately, the US did not suffer as much as Canada did when this illegal tariff was put in. Many, many people lost their jobs, mills were shut down, and some of the smaller logging towns were left in financial ruin.
Unfortunately, the damage is done. I know a logger who worked for 30 years in the same town, and then was put out of his job when the tariffs came through. The mill will likely never re-open.
MODERATORS... you guys need to pay attention and not just mod up any post that is really long. The trolls have taken to reposting portions of the article, and then putting lines at the end like they did here. Look at the last line of the parent post:
Lust. It is a lovely thing when you get it in the ass.
Now tell me how this is "Informative". Please mod the parent down.
> Open source would create more governemnt jobs, by not only keeping existing support personnel, but also by creating openings for developers that would tailor systems to the ever-evolving government technology base and needs. It makes complete sense to switch to open source.
This is somewhat of a fallacy. The fact of the matter is, whenever the government spends money, jobs are created. So, the government can spend money on open-source technicians, or the government can spend money on proprietary software. In the former case, government jobs are created. In the latter, private-sector jobs are created.
This is something that the general public doesn't necessarily understand, otherwise you wouldn't see so many politicians promising to create jobs and at the same time spend less money. They go hand in hand.
I'm sure glad the second article made the all-important Library of Congress comparison! Otherwise, I would have been totally lost. I mean, 900,000,000 is way too big to understand, but 50 * 18,000,000 makes it much easier.
That whole thing is a load of crap. I play tons of video games and I'm not violent at all. It really makes me mad when people go around spouting all that garbage. In fact, if I ever find you, I'm going to beat you with a crowbar before stuffing you into my wood chipper!
That's pretty cynical, but then again, we are talking about the US here. The difference here is that this is an 'official' hearing... theoretically the results will be taken into account by the government, unlike the mass of unorganized and unofficial protests that have all come before it.
So, I suggest that before you go too deep into the 'ignorant peasants and loss of liberty' stuff that you give it a shot and see what happens. Otherwise you're pegging yourself as a hypocrite. "DMCA bad! DMCA bad! What's that? You're going to listen to us? Uh... no! You're not going to listen, I just know it!" I mean, what do you want them to do, repeal it outright without giving it any thought? This is government people... it takes a bit of momentum to change these things.
Considering the huge amount of "article time" given to YRO and the DMCA over the last while, I would expect that there will be many people taking advantage of this. In fact, there are very many of you out there that would be quite foolish to not take this opportunity... hypocritical even!
This is going to be like that old political standby... if you don't vote, then you can't complain about the results. The difference here is that there actually is a good candidate that you can vote for!
I'm afraid I have to disagree with you about that being "a lot worse". The hot backup tool costs $440 US (400 Euros). This is a piddling sum compared to not having any downtime. If some of the systems I worked with were down for the time it took to restore the data to master/slave scenarios, or take a snapshot, or move tables around or whatever, we could easily lose that much money in a single hour of downtime. Consider this: your main database server needs to be replaced, and has several 2GB+ tables, and you need a snapshot to set up a new master/slave somewhere else. Locking tables is not an option - it would take down the system. An hour of downtime could easily cost $440 US...
Considering the other option is buying Oracle for thousands of dollars, it's not like you're breaking the bank.
I doubt if the crosslinked comments have anything to do with their database system. I find it hard to believe that it would simply mix up comment and story ids, and not screw anything else up. That's likely a product of Slashdot moving their stories around.
MySQL is a phenomenal product, in terms of just how much a small to medium size business can accomplish with it, for so little cost.
Having to use a data-storage solution like Oracle is simply unfeasible for anyone but large companies. I've been using MySQL for 3 years to build web applications, and I've never had a crash or corrupted data. The only problems I ever ran into was when one of my systems had a table get to 2GB on the 2.2 kernel, but that wasn't MySQL's fault;)
With the inclusion of InnoDB, MySQL definitely becomes a threat. The main problems I've run into with MySQL is backing up/restoring without locking up the whole system (table-level locking). InnoDB of course removes this!
I see no reason to use Oracle over MySQL for anything but the largest system. Then again, why even that? Doesn't Slashdot run on InnoDB...?
I've seen numerous comments from people who obviously did not read the article. Lycos is not being paid for showing these ad banners, they are doing it because they want to help.
From the article:
Terra-Lycos spokesman Brian Payea said the company wasn't being paid for the service.
''We're committed to providing important services to our community and we feel it was a very worthwhile effort,'' he said.
RTFA applies here. If you had read it, you would have noticed this bit:
Terra-Lycos spokesman Brian Payea said the company wasn't being paid for the service.
''We're committed to providing important services to our community and we feel it was a very worthwhile effort,'' he said.
Personally I think it's a good thing. Space is the next military battleground
So, to get this straight, you would like to see space turned into a war zone? I don't think you're going to find many opinions to agree with you on that part. Space holds mysteries we cannot even imagine. To see tiny human nations squabble over who "owns" it is something we should strive to avoid. If we put weapons in space, even to support earth-based combat, then we start on a slippery slope.
In its early days the net was as decentralised, as possible with multiple links between many of the nodes forming it. If one node disappeared, traffic could easily flow to other links and route traffic to all parts.
I would not give this article a lot of serious thought. It describes how simulated attacks show vulnerable spots in the internet, and seeks to lay blame for it. However, comparing the current state of the Internet to it's own beginnings is obviously going to show differences (DUH!). I mean, back in the pre-web days (you remember those, folks? ah, sweet gopher. R.I.P.), if you didn't know exactly where or what you were looking for... well... none of this fancy googlin' stuff, that's all I gotta say.
If you consider the growth of the internet from that point, which was basically a loose, random interconnection of.edu's,.gov's and.mil's, there was no need for centralization. However, suddenly, one day everyone wanted to be on the net! And out of that chaos, logical central points developed.
I like to explain the internet to non-techie people as something like the Interstate highways in the United States. And using that metpahor... if you take out a central location... well, it'll be a lot slower and harder to get to where you need to go, but it's not like you've isolated an entire region for all eternity.
My point is, there are centralized locations because it was efficient to do so. Eventually, as more and more high speed wire is laid out across the world, these will slowly become less important. It's just that the growth has been too fast for the present time!
Slashdot Mirror
And then, the Tinfoil-Hat-Net Bill is passed. The system goes on-line August 4th, 2027. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Tinfoil-Hat-Net begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.
Too late! Everyone is now a candle-maker.
Sheesh.
Whatchoo talkin' bout fool? No more flash means no more Strong Bad! And I'd rather fight a shark-wielding bear than be forced to give up my fix of Lookin' at a Thing in a Bag.
They don't want me spending my entire commute talking to my wife.
Guess what? No one wants you to spend your entire commute talking to your wife.
If you keep it up, you might get a visit from these guys.
some companies have had to hire an extra person to make sure they are in compliance with all the MS license oddities
Oh c'mon. You're really reaching on that point. What percentage of companies do you think actually do this? Do you have any examples of such a company? And seriously, even if they had to hire someone for that, I doubt that this would be a full-time position. If a company actually did that, they would deserve to lose that money anwyay.
Also, I might point out that it would cost, say, $5000 to have 10 Windows boxes. Less, probably, because you'd get it pre-installed or at a bulk rate, maybe even down to $2000. A $5000/yr difference in salary between a *nix admin and a Windows admin would make up the difference in a year, and translate into savings for future years. This would be a likely example that would come into play in an analysis of the differences. And there are a lot more small 10-box companies than larger several-hundred-box companies.
I can't believe the crap I'm reading on this one, although I guess I shouldn't really be surprised. It seems that most Slashdot posters are grumpy, bitter and jaded. This bill is a really good thing, and yet the majority of the responses are "Pfff, like that'll happen". With the likes of you folks, it'll never happen. It seems you'd rather sit around and simply be negative about everything! You're simply part of the problem that you like to grump about. Get off your ass and write a quick email to your representative. Then go find a puppy or something to play with for god's sake, and quit being so damned negative.
What you're failing to recall however, is that the UN weapons inspection teams were there for almost a decade, and they declared that Iraq had been effectively disarmed.
It is also clear, and has been clear for quite some time, that Iraq does not have the infrastructure to rebuild it's arsenal. This has only been confirmed in recent weeks by the failure of the coalition to find anything except a couple of chemical suits. The movement now is to explain the lack of findings by claiming "mobile labs", but this is a stretch. In fact, what is being verified is what the UN weapons inspectors concluded... Iraq has no weapons.
The only reason the inspectors got kicked out in the first place was US corruption of the process. The CIA infiltrated the weapons inspection teams and used them to gather intelligence on Saddam's security forces. Saddam figured this out before they could assassinate him, which is too bad, because if they had got him it would have meant this whole situation would never have happened. No one cares about Saddam... it's illegal justification of war that is the problem.
According to Scott Ritter, who led the inspection teams for eight years, the Clinton administration ordered at least 4 assassination attempts on Saddam, but his security forces are (were) the best in the world. Hence the CIA utilized the UN inspection teams. Hence being kicked out.
The findings remain however. There weren't any weapons.
If that's too complicated for you, I suggest you once again review your history lessons. It might occur to you that there is a reason that most of the world is pissed at your government.
Along with the "Lumber", Canada also has more "Gold Mines". The real problem is that Bush is worried that Canada will produce Peasants faster than they can produce Peons, and they'll be able to do a grunt rush before the US can get their Ogres out.
duffbeer703, please put your hands up in the air. You are being arrested for the murder of Jimmy Hoffa.
What's that? You didn't murder Jimmy Hoffa? Well, I don't need proof. I think you did. Tell you what, duffbeer703, I'm going to arrest you and execute you anyway. I know you did it, I just need a little more time to find the evidence. Would you prefer death by bunker buster, or M-16?
What's that? You'd rather I had proof before I convicted you?
That's just crazy talk.
p.s. The CIA helped the Iraqis gas the Kurds. Not to mention the U.S. sold them the helicopters. See this report by a professor at Cornell, if your memory of history is a bit foggy.
Unfortunately, the US did not suffer as much as Canada did when this illegal tariff was put in. Many, many people lost their jobs, mills were shut down, and some of the smaller logging towns were left in financial ruin.
And by illegal, I mean illegal as ruled by the WTO.
Unfortunately, the damage is done. I know a logger who worked for 30 years in the same town, and then was put out of his job when the tariffs came through. The mill will likely never re-open.
MODERATORS... you guys need to pay attention and not just mod up any post that is really long. The trolls have taken to reposting portions of the article, and then putting lines at the end like they did here. Look at the last line of the parent post:
Lust. It is a lovely thing when you get it in the ass.
Now tell me how this is "Informative". Please mod the parent down.
In fact... forget the Internet!
Right... "borrowed". And that "guy I met in the van in the back alley" was just letting me "borrow" that plasma screen TV for $500.
This is something that the general public doesn't necessarily understand, otherwise you wouldn't see so many politicians promising to create jobs and at the same time spend less money. They go hand in hand.
Wait a minute!
No anti-MS sentiment... posted by Taco... not a dupe...
This story is a honeypot! Whatever you do, don't post any comments! It's a trick! It's a tri^&T3ATZ
NO CARRIER
I'm sure glad the second article made the all-important Library of Congress comparison! Otherwise, I would have been totally lost. I mean, 900,000,000 is way too big to understand, but 50 * 18,000,000 makes it much easier.
...desensitizing people to violence...
That whole thing is a load of crap. I play tons of video games and I'm not violent at all. It really makes me mad when people go around spouting all that garbage. In fact, if I ever find you, I'm going to beat you with a crowbar before stuffing you into my wood chipper!
That's pretty cynical, but then again, we are talking about the US here. The difference here is that this is an 'official' hearing... theoretically the results will be taken into account by the government, unlike the mass of unorganized and unofficial protests that have all come before it.
So, I suggest that before you go too deep into the 'ignorant peasants and loss of liberty' stuff that you give it a shot and see what happens. Otherwise you're pegging yourself as a hypocrite. "DMCA bad! DMCA bad! What's that? You're going to listen to us? Uh... no! You're not going to listen, I just know it!" I mean, what do you want them to do, repeal it outright without giving it any thought? This is government people... it takes a bit of momentum to change these things.
Considering the huge amount of "article time" given to YRO and the DMCA over the last while, I would expect that there will be many people taking advantage of this. In fact, there are very many of you out there that would be quite foolish to not take this opportunity... hypocritical even!
This is going to be like that old political standby... if you don't vote, then you can't complain about the results. The difference here is that there actually is a good candidate that you can vote for!
I'm afraid I have to disagree with you about that being "a lot worse". The hot backup tool costs $440 US (400 Euros). This is a piddling sum compared to not having any downtime. If some of the systems I worked with were down for the time it took to restore the data to master/slave scenarios, or take a snapshot, or move tables around or whatever, we could easily lose that much money in a single hour of downtime. Consider this: your main database server needs to be replaced, and has several 2GB+ tables, and you need a snapshot to set up a new master/slave somewhere else. Locking tables is not an option - it would take down the system. An hour of downtime could easily cost $440 US... Considering the other option is buying Oracle for thousands of dollars, it's not like you're breaking the bank.
I doubt if the crosslinked comments have anything to do with their database system. I find it hard to believe that it would simply mix up comment and story ids, and not screw anything else up. That's likely a product of Slashdot moving their stories around.
MySQL is a phenomenal product, in terms of just how much a small to medium size business can accomplish with it, for so little cost.
;)
Having to use a data-storage solution like Oracle is simply unfeasible for anyone but large companies. I've been using MySQL for 3 years to build web applications, and I've never had a crash or corrupted data. The only problems I ever ran into was when one of my systems had a table get to 2GB on the 2.2 kernel, but that wasn't MySQL's fault
With the inclusion of InnoDB, MySQL definitely becomes a threat. The main problems I've run into with MySQL is backing up/restoring without locking up the whole system (table-level locking). InnoDB of course removes this!
I see no reason to use Oracle over MySQL for anything but the largest system. Then again, why even that? Doesn't Slashdot run on InnoDB...?
I've seen numerous comments from people who obviously did not read the article. Lycos is not being paid for showing these ad banners, they are doing it because they want to help.
From the article:
Terra-Lycos spokesman Brian Payea said the company wasn't being paid for the service. ''We're committed to providing important services to our community and we feel it was a very worthwhile effort,'' he said.
Sheesh.
RTFA applies here. If you had read it, you would have noticed this bit:
Terra-Lycos spokesman Brian Payea said the company wasn't being paid for the service. ''We're committed to providing important services to our community and we feel it was a very worthwhile effort,'' he said.
Personally I think it's a good thing. Space is the next military battleground So, to get this straight, you would like to see space turned into a war zone? I don't think you're going to find many opinions to agree with you on that part. Space holds mysteries we cannot even imagine. To see tiny human nations squabble over who "owns" it is something we should strive to avoid. If we put weapons in space, even to support earth-based combat, then we start on a slippery slope.
In its early days the net was as decentralised, as possible with multiple links between many of the nodes forming it. If one node disappeared, traffic could easily flow to other links and route traffic to all parts.
.edu's, .gov's and .mil's, there was no need for centralization. However, suddenly, one day everyone wanted to be on the net! And out of that chaos, logical central points developed.
I would not give this article a lot of serious thought. It describes how simulated attacks show vulnerable spots in the internet, and seeks to lay blame for it. However, comparing the current state of the Internet to it's own beginnings is obviously going to show differences (DUH!). I mean, back in the pre-web days (you remember those, folks? ah, sweet gopher. R.I.P.), if you didn't know exactly where or what you were looking for... well... none of this fancy googlin' stuff, that's all I gotta say.
If you consider the growth of the internet from that point, which was basically a loose, random interconnection of
I like to explain the internet to non-techie people as something like the Interstate highways in the United States. And using that metpahor... if you take out a central location... well, it'll be a lot slower and harder to get to where you need to go, but it's not like you've isolated an entire region for all eternity.
My point is, there are centralized locations because it was efficient to do so. Eventually, as more and more high speed wire is laid out across the world, these will slowly become less important. It's just that the growth has been too fast for the present time!