Unfortunatly, it ensures that no manufacturer will ever risk opening the specs on their cards for native driver development. Look at the state of Linux wireless driver development!
This is the reason Apple never released anything akin to Wine (+ an x86 emulator) for the Mac OS: it would have killed future development of native Mac software.
The ipw2100 driver depends on non-free firmware that cannot be distributed by third parties. Kind of a pain when you are installing a distribution and you need to go to IBM's web site to download the firmware via your... nonfunctional network connection.
The wireless driver situation on Linux sucks at the moment.:(
Dmix is there. But in all honesty it was easier for me to pop round the corner and buy an SB Live. Sure I get crackling sounds while I move the mouse, but at least I can play two sounds at once!
The original article is clearly talking about the market for consumer level hardware. Now, the level of support is adequate for users such as you and I, but this is not so for the Mundanes.
I have never once purchased hardware that came with workable Linux drivers. A README saying "compile this" and some C source code (laced with #ifdef hell to ensure cross-version compatibility) for an obsolete version of the kernel doesn't quite count!
Yes yes, the old WORKSFORME response. The truth is that not everyone owns hardware that works in Linux.
As much as I prefer my Debian machines to a Windows machine (and I too have experienced exactly the same problems with Windows stability that you have), the fact is that the XFree86 portion of driver for my graphics tablet (aiptek) is too buggy to be usable.
Now, try explaining that to a Mundane and watch their eyes glaze over. "Xwhatnow? I just want to use Photoshop!"
Most internet users are fooled by the bogus "Yuor megahertz has been stoled!!" dialog boxes. You can't expect them to notice something as subtle as the font being incorrect for one character in a domain name.:(
You should RTFA. The actual quotation is "Drivers have always been an issue with Linux as PC users have gotten spoiled with Windows driver support". I don't see how a rational person can disagree with this.
Hmm. Germany seems to be the only country that forces violent games to remove their blood splashes, or change them to the colour green. Or so I presume, from the number of German-specific gore patches on sites like Megagames.
Somehow I don't think the US military is penny pinching.;)
More probably they see the whole browser SSL certificate authority for the worthless scam that it really is. I don't believe they would put themselves in a position where a compromise of say, VeriSign (which is not the most trustworthy organisation in the world; hell, it's a corporation therefore it is amoral by definition) makes their web servers, etc, insecure.
Here's the big secret VeriSign doesn't want you to know: examine the SHA1 and MD5 hashes of the certificate presented to you by your browser. Now, as long as the values presented to you match what you know to be the correct values (and you trust the computer you are doing this on!), then the connection is every bit as secure as one to https://www.paypal.com/. More so, in fact, because VeriSign et al aren't involved.
In fact, if you have been given a copy of the certificate from a trusted source, you can install it into your browser's certificate repository and have the browser do the job for you. I wouldn't be surprised if military issue laptops had a bunch of certificates already installed for services like the one you linked to.
Of course the encryption is important; but if you don't authenticate the other end of the connection, you deserve what you get when your bank details or whatever are stolen.
Take the IDN vulnerabilities in Firefox, Opera et al. If anyone clicked the padlock icon while viewing the bogus Paypal site they would have noticed that the certificate was issued to Schmoo Inc., or whatever the company was called. Certainly it wasn't Paypal, Inc., Palo Alto, California, US.
More than that, lets think about, what SSL is supposed to do: Encrypt and secure the traffic between a browser and the server! Point! It is not supposed to give you the impression, that a website is trustworthy or even say anything about its identity...for this you should use your brain and common sence.
Common sense says, make sure the StartCom CA Certificate is not on any of my machines!
The entire point of using certificates is so that you know that there is a certified binding between a public key and an identity. If you don't know who will recieve your encrypted information then there's no point encrypting it in the first place!
The Powerpoint association honestly never occured to me, perhaps because I have never seen a Powerpoint presentation that actually benefitted from all the animations, sounds, clip art and other bullshit with which everyone insists on coating their presentations (heh, a sizable number of people just call them "powerpoints").
Powerpoint is the best tool to use for disguising the fact that you have nothing to say; I believe an NY Times article once said that it was uniquely suited to our modern age of obfuscation, where manipulating facts is more important than presenting them clearly.
Yeah, Powerpoint has a lot to do with connecting electrical devices to their supplies. Visio is one of those dreadful, generic, probably machine-generated name with as much character as Exxon or Verizon. At lease Access is a real word, though what it has to do with databases is anyone's guess.
Your examples only show that everyone is shit at picking names for their software projects.;)
Massachusetts, for example, has a policy intended to mandate the use of open standards and open file formats, although the state recently reached an agreement with Microsoft allowing Office 2003 file formats to be defined as "open" for the purposes of the scheme.
The government should do this more often. By simply rewriting the dictionary so that words now mean the opposite of what they did before, we can solve all the world's problems! War, famine, poverty, disease...
Best of all, since I have patented this method of problem solving, it is now an Open Standard; this means it is free for anyone (who I choose not to sue) to use!
Slashdot Mirror
It's not our fault your managers are morons!
Exactly, the only decent solution is buying a sound card that isn't shit.
Unfortunatly, it ensures that no manufacturer will ever risk opening the specs on their cards for native driver development. Look at the state of Linux wireless driver development!
This is the reason Apple never released anything akin to Wine (+ an x86 emulator) for the Mac OS: it would have killed future development of native Mac software.
The ipw2100 driver depends on non-free firmware that cannot be distributed by third parties. Kind of a pain when you are installing a distribution and you need to go to IBM's web site to download the firmware via your... nonfunctional network connection.
:(
The wireless driver situation on Linux sucks at the moment.
Dmix is there. But in all honesty it was easier for me to pop round the corner and buy an SB Live. Sure I get crackling sounds while I move the mouse, but at least I can play two sounds at once!
Hmm, yet I got flamed by people claiming that Windows' driver management isn't up to scratch... ;)
:(
As for a stabl ABI, or even API with this $%@*& new kernel development model, you can forget it. Not gonna happen.
Browse ftp.mozilla.org for a zip file of Firefox. No need for any crappy installer program. :)
The original article is clearly talking about the market for consumer level hardware. Now, the level of support is adequate for users such as you and I, but this is not so for the Mundanes.
I have never once purchased hardware that came with workable Linux drivers. A README saying "compile this" and some C source code (laced with #ifdef hell to ensure cross-version compatibility) for an obsolete version of the kernel doesn't quite count!
Yes yes, the old WORKSFORME response. The truth is that not everyone owns hardware that works in Linux.
As much as I prefer my Debian machines to a Windows machine (and I too have experienced exactly the same problems with Windows stability that you have), the fact is that the XFree86 portion of driver for my graphics tablet (aiptek) is too buggy to be usable.
Now, try explaining that to a Mundane and watch their eyes glaze over. "Xwhatnow? I just want to use Photoshop!"
Most internet users are fooled by the bogus "Yuor megahertz has been stoled!!" dialog boxes. You can't expect them to notice something as subtle as the font being incorrect for one character in a domain name. :(
You should RTFA. The actual quotation is "Drivers have always been an issue with Linux as PC users have gotten spoiled with Windows driver support". I don't see how a rational person can disagree with this.
Bit Torrent Torrents? ;)
Hmm. Germany seems to be the only country that forces violent games to remove their blood splashes, or change them to the colour green. Or so I presume, from the number of German-specific gore patches on sites like Megagames.
Oh, because that's REALLY secure!
They should be using PGP and/or S/MIME. People too thick to verify the emails could just poll an SSL secured web site.
Somehow I don't think the US military is penny pinching. ;)
More probably they see the whole browser SSL certificate authority for the worthless scam that it really is. I don't believe they would put themselves in a position where a compromise of say, VeriSign (which is not the most trustworthy organisation in the world; hell, it's a corporation therefore it is amoral by definition) makes their web servers, etc, insecure.
Here's the big secret VeriSign doesn't want you to know: examine the SHA1 and MD5 hashes of the certificate presented to you by your browser. Now, as long as the values presented to you match what you know to be the correct values (and you trust the computer you are doing this on!), then the connection is every bit as secure as one to https://www.paypal.com/. More so, in fact, because VeriSign et al aren't involved.
In fact, if you have been given a copy of the certificate from a trusted source, you can install it into your browser's certificate repository and have the browser do the job for you. I wouldn't be surprised if military issue laptops had a bunch of certificates already installed for services like the one you linked to.
While you're at it, you can email me your passwords. Thanks! ;)
Of course the encryption is important; but if you don't authenticate the other end of the connection, you deserve what you get when your bank details or whatever are stolen.
Take the IDN vulnerabilities in Firefox, Opera et al. If anyone clicked the padlock icon while viewing the bogus Paypal site they would have noticed that the certificate was issued to Schmoo Inc., or whatever the company was called. Certainly it wasn't Paypal, Inc., Palo Alto, California, US.
Common sense says, make sure the StartCom CA Certificate is not on any of my machines!
The entire point of using certificates is so that you know that there is a certified binding between a public key and an identity. If you don't know who will recieve your encrypted information then there's no point encrypting it in the first place!
Stuff done in Javascript has a chance of not looking like ass.
Plus, you don't have to coerce your users into downloading and installing a multi-meg JVM.
How do you ensure any developers haven't stolen code from other companies and put it into whatever they are working on?
Or even 'Paediatrician'...
The Powerpoint association honestly never occured to me, perhaps because I have never seen a Powerpoint presentation that actually benefitted from all the animations, sounds, clip art and other bullshit with which everyone insists on coating their presentations (heh, a sizable number of people just call them "powerpoints").
Powerpoint is the best tool to use for disguising the fact that you have nothing to say; I believe an NY Times article once said that it was uniquely suited to our modern age of obfuscation, where manipulating facts is more important than presenting them clearly.
Yeah, Powerpoint has a lot to do with connecting electrical devices to their supplies. Visio is one of those dreadful, generic, probably machine-generated name with as much character as Exxon or Verizon. At lease Access is a real word, though what it has to do with databases is anyone's guess.
;)
Your examples only show that everyone is shit at picking names for their software projects.
Webster1913 has this to say:
3.
"Sometimes used, in a quasi-figurative sense, of violation of copyright; but for this, infringement is the correct and preferable term."
I believe 'piracy' has been used to describe copyright infringement since the late 1700s; however I do agree that the correct term is infringement.
The government should do this more often. By simply rewriting the dictionary so that words now mean the opposite of what they did before, we can solve all the world's problems! War, famine, poverty, disease...
Best of all, since I have patented this method of problem solving, it is now an Open Standard; this means it is free for anyone (who I choose not to sue) to use!