A few window managers for different tastes and skills.
I think this is exactly the point of the article. Unless you have time to try out all the different window managers (or whatever), how do you know which one to choose. For the masses, it may be better to have someone make a few intelligent choices up front.
But to scan somebody without their knowledge is not a good thing, regardless of intent.
...
I found my bank's web based account stuff (that was never announced to me) by simply trying to connect to www.foo.com on their domain. Wow..that actually worked. No port scan required.
But your unsolicited trial of www.foo.com is the same thing as a port scan. You went looking to see what might be out there. If it's legitimate to look for a web server, then why isn't it legitimate to look for a telnet server, or an ftp server, or whatever else might be there?
This business of denying people the opportunity to "look around" scares me. It's the security mentality gone wacko.
I'd hate to be on the receiving end of a healthcare system with such antiquated stuff
What scares me is when computers actually perform the tests. That doesn't seem to be the case with the Czech hospital, but it was the case with some nerve conduction studies that I had done about seven yeas ago. The doctor put electrodes on my wrist and arm, and the entire test was run and controlled using a regular old PC. Of course, there was some hardware between the PC and my arm in order to generate electrical pulses along my nerves and record the results. I don't recall whether the PC was running Windows or not (I hope not), but I wasn't too comforted by the fact that some computer was deciding how much of a shock to give me. Presumably though, programmers of medical devices are much more rigorous than programmers of business applications.
I think they just want public readings to be considered against the terms of the agreement
Even that's scary though. Currently I can buy a copy of a book and give a public reading, say to a group of kids at preschool. With licenses like this, I can forsee the day when we will have to pay extra to do that.
In generaly, I think there's a trend by businesses go get people away from the "buy once, use forever" way of thinking. Corps would prefer that we "rent" and "license" everything. The day is soon coming when our Internet-enabled toaster will charge our credit cards for each slice of toast we make. This isn't a trend that I like.
Re:Christmas isn't about presents, nor Christ
on
Gifts For Geeks
·
· Score: 1
Christmas was originally a pagen holiday. So it isn't really about Christ either.
I agree with you that this is good for small towns, or that it can be. Think of it. There are plenty of small towns out there that are full of inexpensive housing for those that can manage to live there. Silicon Valley, on the other hand, is overflowing with people who can't even afford studio apartments. If the net allows us to redistribute people more evenly among the available housing stock, then that's great.
As for segregating the rich and the poor, that's been happening for years. Our zoning laws have more to do with that than anything else. Rich people live in rich neighborhoods where zoning laws demand that you build large, lavish houses. People who can only afford to build a modest house are automatically segregated to lower income neighborhoods. Racial discrimination in housing went out a long time ago, but economic discrimination is alive and kicking.
FWIW, the Internet enables me to live and work in a town of less than 3,000 people. My coworkers are all over the U.S. Yet I can live and work in a part of Michigan that I've always dreamed of living in. I can even afford a house here--something I couldn't do where I lived previously. God Bless the Internet!
I echo this. I had the same problem a few years back sending things to Ukraine. Most packages that I mailed simply vanished into thin air. None of the package services like UPS or FedEx were of any use. I ultimately ended up using a couple different private delivery services run by people of Ukrainian descent. They turned out to be rock-solid reliable, of reasonable cost, and quite fast. I was sending collectible coins, and they always got through using those services, but never with the postal mail.
It was interesting though. We take sending a package for granted in the U.S., but in much of the world it's a major logistical problem.
Buffer overflows are NOT just gets and scanf. Those are impossible to secure
It's been a long while since I've written C, but I remember being frustrated by library functions such as this that were "almost useful" but for some major flaw. Why do they even exist if they can't be secured?
Good point, but what if MacNN wasn't the one signing the NDA? Someone obviously broke their agreement. It seems like Adobe's remedy would have to be limited to going after whoever broke their legal agreement (the NDA).
I use both Windows and Linux. My next machine was going to be a laptop with Win 2000 preinstalled. That was before MS started holding back the CDs for the O/S. That action has really given me pause. I muck about with my configuration a lot (read "reinstall a lot"). Do I really want to be in the position of purchasing a second Win 2000 license just to be able to reinstall my o/s? No. Currently the only feasible alternative out there appears to be Linux, so I might end up buying a laptop and configuring it w/Linux. MS seems to be doing a good job at driving customers away.
From my point of view, companies giving PCs to employees comes accross as paternalistic. The company is buying for you what it feels is important. It would be better for the company to say: "Here's $1000, go spend it on what you feel is important for yourself."
I already have computers. It might be nice if my employer gave me another, but in terms of the benefits that would accrue to me, it wouldn't be the best use of their resources.
Give me dollars, and let me prioritize as I see fit.
1) "in over their heads": These people didn't get anything out of it because it was too much. What little they might have gotten surely wasn't worth the cost.
Oh, I don't know. One of the best courses I ever took was a 5-day Rdb Internals course that my boss sent me to by accident because he saw "Rdb Int" on the course listing, and thought it was an "Intro" course. I was in WAY over my head--the first morning had us all looking at hex dumps of database pages, but I learn fast and that course turned out to be one of the most useful courses I've ever taken.
>Working for MS but disagreeing with their >policy? That's bein hypocritic, or spineless, or >both, not "nice".
I've worked for several organizations, and I've never had a job yet where I agreed with "everything" that my organization did. Life isn't that simple, and it isn't that simple for people to just walk away from a good career either.
>I really don't know what the legally >sanctioned "fair use" percentage is
As far as I know, there is no specific "percentage" that is specified in law. You are allowed to quote excerpts from a work for purposes of criticism and commentary. Quoting the entire work under such a pretense almost certainly would not be allowed. The courts are going to look at what's reasonable. Unfortunately, there is no way to get a ruling in advance as to what is reasonable.
>If you are really interested in photography, why would you want to buy a digital camera? What
Convenience. The "instant gratification" factor. I can get photos for my web site faster with a digital camera. My kids and their friends like it when I occasionally photograph them and then print up the results for them to take home. I agree though, that there are plenty of advantages to a good 35mm setup. My old SLR is much more flexible in terms of available lenses and control over exposure than my digital camera is, and I don't doubt that the 35mm will take higher quality pictures too.
A few years back I worked on a system being developed for use specifically by blind and sight-impaired people. We also installed some off-the-shelf software. To say that I learned a lot would be an understatement. I spent quite a bit of time running software with my monitor turned off, trying to navigate using screenreader software and a voice-synthesizer. It's not easy. It's not easy even when you are using an app that you are familiar with. When faced with unfamiliar "screens" and applications, I would almost tear my hair out in frustration. I recall one application that required you to lookup records by clicking on a green field title. Doing that without being able to "see" was certainly a challenge.
I've been told that the transition from command-line systems (DOS) to Windows was very difficult for blind people. I can understand why. I've also been told (but I havn't experienced) that Win 98 was an improvement over Win 95 because Microsoft put effort into accessibility technology. If someone wants to do the same thing with Linux, more power to them.
The amazing thing I have found is that shops that hire contractors are much more likley to have 40-45 hour work weeks, since they have to pay for all of that overtime.
Let me echo this by relating a true story. I used to work for a major consulting firm. Two years ago I was busy with one project when I was told that I would also be responsible for creating databases, installing software, and setting up a development/test environment for a new project that we had just sold. I was given a deadline of less than 2 weeks to get all this done.
My first thought was that I would be working many late nights to handle all this additional work. I was not at all happy with that prospect. I could stand my ground and refuse to work the crazy hours, but that would be perceived as a negative thing to do. Suddenly, I was struck by an idea. I was responsible for getting the job done, but perhaps not for doing it myself. After all, I held the title of "manager", right? So I contacted an outside consulting firm and found someone who could do the required work in a day or two. Cost was estimated to be around $4k. Then I contacted the Senior Manager in charge of the project and said: "Good news! I can meet your deadline. I found a contractor to do the work, I can oversee it, and it will cost you $4k." Now here's the funny part. Suddenly the deadline was not so important. Suddenly I was told that we didn't need the new environment for 2-3 months (as opposed to 2-3 weeks). Heh. Heh.
The amazing thing I have found is that shops that hire contractors are much more likley to have 40-45 hour work weeks, since they have to pay for all of that overtime.
Let me echo this by relating a true story. I used to work for a major consulting firm. Two years ago I was busy with one project when I was told that I would also be responsible for creating databases, installing software, and setting up a development/test environment for a new project that we had just sold. I was given a deadline of less than 2 weeks to get all this done.
My first thought was that I would be working many late nights to handle all this additional work. I was not at all happy with that prospect. I could stand my ground and refuse to work the crazy hours, but that would be perceived as a negative thing to do. Suddenly, I was struck by an idea. I was responsible for getting the job done, but perhaps not for doing it myself. After all, I held the title of "manager", right? So I contacted an outside consulting firm and found someone who could do the required work in a day or two. Cost was estimated to be around $4k. Then I contacted the Senior Manager in charge of the project and said: "Good news! I can meet your deadline. I found a contractor to do the work, I can oversee it, and it will cost you $4k." Now here's the funny part. Suddenly the deadline was not so important. Suddenly I was told that we didn't need the new environment for 2-3 months (as opposed to 2-3 weeks). Heh. Heh.
Linux is UNIX on Intel CPU's. No UNIX user has any problems with this.
You mean no UNIX system administrator. I don't use Linux to replace Windows. I use Linux because I have a specific need to run some sort of UNIX system at home. Linux is good, and it's affordable. It's also been a bit frustrating because I've been forced to deal with a lot of sys admin type tasks that I would prefer to leave to a professional sys admin. I've learned a lot, I'll grant you that, but I can see where many people would just as soon not have to learn all the ins and outs of UNIX system administration. Most of these people should probably stick w/Windows, at least for the moment. For my part, I'm grateful to all the vendors such as Caldera and Corel that have put such an effort into making Linux a painless install. I just want to use Linux, not learn it.
I once worked on a MUMPS system with a contractor who almost got sacked for a similar reason. When you make an open call in MUMPS, and the open fails MUMPS default behaviour is to continuously retry. Well this poor guy ran a program that attempted to open a remote printer in another state. Because of a network mixup, his access had been revoked. The open failed, and generated an intrusion alert. Then the code entered a tight loop of: open, fail, intrusion alert, open, fail...
Next thing, the security guy, who only was familiar with IBM machines (the MUMPS system was VAX and DECnet) was on the phone to my boss demanding that the contractor be fired. Fortunately the contractor had good notes. The scare thing was, no one that was familiar enough with VAX, VMS, DECNet and MUMPS to really understand the problem was ever called in. The guy was defenseless. My boss had no clue. The security guy didn't either. I got wind of it while they were grilling the guy in my bosses office, and using my access to a system account on a remote Vax was able to whip up a program to demo MUMPS behavior in about 15 minutes.
Bottom line, the guy almost got fired for a simple coding mistake.
Good article. What worries me is this. The article recommends transfering your registration to some other registrar, but isn't that error prone as well? Didn't I read recently about someone losing a domain in a botched attempt to transfer it? Is there no safe harbor?
"You have to order over the phone. The web site doesn't support choosing Linux."
If you go in through the "Small Business" area, you can order it via the web. At least, I can configure it and get a price. I havn't hit the "purchase" button yet.
"2. They won't do a dual boot setup. "
That is a bummer, but at least the fact that they support Linux gives me confidence that I could install a dual-boot system without too much grief.
"Sell it to someone who would otherwise have purchased it new, or donate to a charity "
Well, yes, I agree. I really didn't throw anything away. In this case, I setup a dual-boot system. I didn't "need" Win98, but having it will be a nice bonus. It supports USB, and consequently works better (faster) with my digital camera than my NT system. So most of the time I boot Linux, but I have Win98 as an option when I need it.
>now if we could only get VA to drop >their prices to compete w/Dell:)
This is true. I just bought a Dell Dimension and installed Linux on it. It was cheaper for me to buy a Dell and throw away the Win 98 and MS Works software that came with it than it was to buy a preconfigured Linux box from either VA Research or Penguin.
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A few window managers for different tastes and skills. I think this is exactly the point of the article. Unless you have time to try out all the different window managers (or whatever), how do you know which one to choose. For the masses, it may be better to have someone make a few intelligent choices up front.
Christmas was originally a pagen holiday. So it isn't really about Christ either.
As for segregating the rich and the poor, that's been happening for years. Our zoning laws have more to do with that than anything else. Rich people live in rich neighborhoods where zoning laws demand that you build large, lavish houses. People who can only afford to build a modest house are automatically segregated to lower income neighborhoods. Racial discrimination in housing went out a long time ago, but economic discrimination is alive and kicking.
FWIW, the Internet enables me to live and work in a town of less than 3,000 people. My coworkers are all over the U.S. Yet I can live and work in a part of Michigan that I've always dreamed of living in. I can even afford a house here--something I couldn't do where I lived previously. God Bless the Internet!
I echo this. I had the same problem a few years back sending things to Ukraine. Most packages that I mailed simply vanished into thin air. None of the package services like UPS or FedEx were of any use. I ultimately ended up using a couple different private delivery services run by people of Ukrainian descent. They turned out to be rock-solid reliable, of reasonable cost, and quite fast. I was sending collectible coins, and they always got through using those services, but never with the postal mail.
It was interesting though. We take sending a package for granted in the U.S., but in much of the world it's a major logistical problem.
Jonathan
Good point, but what if MacNN wasn't the one signing the NDA? Someone obviously broke their agreement. It seems like Adobe's remedy would have to be limited to going after whoever broke their legal agreement (the NDA).
Jonathan
I use both Windows and Linux. My next machine was going to be a laptop with Win 2000 preinstalled. That was before MS started holding back the CDs for the O/S. That action has really given me pause. I muck about with my configuration a lot (read "reinstall a lot"). Do I really want to be in the position of purchasing a second Win 2000 license just to be able to reinstall my o/s? No. Currently the only feasible alternative out there appears to be Linux, so I might end up buying a laptop and configuring it w/Linux. MS seems to be doing a good job at driving customers away.
From my point of view, companies giving PCs to employees comes accross as paternalistic. The company is buying for you what it feels is important. It would be better for the company to say: "Here's $1000, go spend it on what you feel is important for yourself."
I already have computers. It might be nice if my employer gave me another, but in terms of the benefits that would accrue to me, it wouldn't be the best use of their resources.
Give me dollars, and let me prioritize as I see fit.
Oh, I don't know. One of the best courses I ever took was a 5-day Rdb Internals course that my boss sent me to by accident because he saw "Rdb Int" on the course listing, and thought it was an "Intro" course. I was in WAY over my head--the first morning had us all looking at hex dumps of database pages, but I learn fast and that course turned out to be one of the most useful courses I've ever taken.
Jonathan
>Working for MS but disagreeing with their
>policy? That's bein hypocritic, or spineless, or
>both, not "nice".
I've worked for several organizations, and I've never had a job yet where I agreed with "everything" that my organization did. Life isn't that simple, and it isn't that simple for people to just walk away from a good career either.
Jonathan
>I really don't know what the legally
>sanctioned "fair use" percentage is
As far as I know, there is no specific "percentage" that is specified in law. You are allowed to quote excerpts from a work for purposes of criticism and commentary. Quoting the entire work under such a pretense almost certainly would not be allowed. The courts are going to look at what's reasonable. Unfortunately, there is no way to get a ruling in advance as to what is reasonable.
>If you are really interested in photography, why would you want to buy a digital camera? What
Convenience. The "instant gratification" factor. I can get photos for my web site faster with a digital camera. My kids and their friends like it when I occasionally photograph them and then print up the results for them to take home. I agree though, that there are plenty of advantages to a good 35mm setup. My old SLR is much more flexible in terms of available lenses and control over exposure than my digital camera is, and I don't doubt that the 35mm will take higher quality pictures too.
Jonathan
A few years back I worked on a system being developed for use specifically by blind and sight-impaired people. We also installed some off-the-shelf software. To say that I learned a lot would be an understatement. I spent quite a bit of time running software with my monitor turned off, trying to navigate using screenreader software and a voice-synthesizer. It's not easy. It's not easy even when you are using an app that you are familiar with. When faced with unfamiliar "screens" and applications, I would almost tear my hair out in frustration. I recall one application that required you to lookup records by clicking on a green field title. Doing that without being able to "see" was certainly a challenge.
I've been told that the transition from command-line systems (DOS) to Windows was very difficult for blind people. I can understand why. I've also been told (but I havn't experienced) that Win 98 was an improvement over Win 95 because Microsoft put effort into accessibility technology. If someone wants to do the same thing with Linux, more power to them.
The amazing thing I have found is that shops that hire contractors are much more likley to have 40-45 hour work weeks, since they have to pay for all of that overtime.
Let me echo this by relating a true story. I used to work for a major consulting firm. Two years ago I was busy with one project when I was told that I would also be responsible for creating databases, installing software, and setting up a development/test environment for a new project that we had just sold. I was given a deadline of less than 2 weeks to get all this done.
My first thought was that I would be working many late nights to handle all this additional work. I was not at all happy with that prospect. I could stand my ground and refuse to work the crazy hours, but that would be perceived as a negative thing to do. Suddenly, I was struck by an idea. I was responsible for getting the job done, but perhaps not for doing it myself. After all, I held the title of "manager", right? So I contacted an outside consulting firm and found someone who could do the required work in a day or two. Cost was estimated to be around $4k. Then I contacted the Senior Manager in charge of the project and said: "Good news! I can meet your deadline. I found a contractor to do the work, I can oversee it, and it will cost you $4k." Now here's the funny part. Suddenly the deadline was not so important. Suddenly I was told that we didn't need the new environment for 2-3 months (as opposed to 2-3 weeks). Heh. Heh.
The amazing thing I have found is that shops that hire contractors are much more likley to have 40-45 hour work weeks, since they have to pay for all of that overtime.
Let me echo this by relating a true story. I used to work for a major consulting firm. Two years ago I was busy with one project when I was told that I would also be responsible for creating databases, installing software, and setting up a development/test environment for a new project that we had just sold. I was given a deadline of less than 2 weeks to get all this done.
My first thought was that I would be working many late nights to handle all this additional work. I was not at all happy with that prospect. I could stand my ground and refuse to work the crazy hours, but that would be perceived as a negative thing to do. Suddenly, I was struck by an idea. I was responsible for getting the job done, but perhaps not for doing it myself. After all, I held the title of "manager", right? So I contacted an outside consulting firm and found someone who could do the required work in a day or two. Cost was estimated to be around $4k. Then I contacted the Senior Manager in charge of the project and said: "Good news! I can meet your deadline. I found a contractor to do the work, I can oversee it, and it will cost you $4k." Now here's the funny part. Suddenly the deadline was not so important. Suddenly I was told that we didn't need the new environment for 2-3 months (as opposed to 2-3 weeks). Heh. Heh.
Linux is UNIX on Intel CPU's.
No UNIX user has any problems with this.
You mean no UNIX system administrator. I don't use Linux to replace Windows. I use Linux because I have a specific need to run some sort of UNIX system at home. Linux is good, and it's affordable. It's also been a bit frustrating because I've been forced to deal with a lot of sys admin type tasks that I would prefer to leave to a professional sys admin. I've learned a lot, I'll grant you that, but I can see where many people would just as soon not have to learn all the ins and outs of UNIX system administration. Most of these people should probably stick w/Windows, at least for the moment. For my part, I'm grateful to all the vendors such as Caldera and Corel that have put such an effort into making Linux a painless install. I just want to use Linux, not learn it.
I once worked on a MUMPS system with a contractor who almost got sacked for a similar reason. When you make an open call in MUMPS, and the open fails MUMPS default behaviour is to continuously retry. Well this poor guy ran a program that attempted to open a remote printer in another state. Because of a network mixup, his access had been revoked. The open failed, and generated an intrusion alert. Then the code entered a tight loop of: open, fail, intrusion alert, open, fail...
Next thing, the security guy, who only was familiar with IBM machines (the MUMPS system was VAX and DECnet) was on the phone to my boss demanding that the contractor be fired. Fortunately the contractor had good notes. The scare thing was, no one that was familiar enough with VAX, VMS, DECNet and MUMPS to really understand the problem was ever called in. The guy was defenseless. My boss had no clue. The security guy didn't either. I got wind of it while they were grilling the guy in my bosses office, and using my access to a system account on a remote Vax was able to whip up a program to demo MUMPS behavior in about 15 minutes.
Bottom line, the guy almost got fired for a simple coding mistake.
>The cyber-squatter acquires the domain name simply to make a buck
That's pretty much the reason most people go to work each morning--to make a buck.
Good article. What worries me is this. The article recommends transfering your registration to some other registrar, but isn't that error prone as well? Didn't I read recently about someone losing a domain in a botched attempt to transfer it? Is there no safe harbor?
"You have to order over the phone. The web
site doesn't support choosing Linux."
If you go in through the "Small Business" area, you can order it via the web. At least, I can configure it and get a price. I havn't hit the "purchase" button yet.
"2. They won't do a dual boot setup. "
That is a bummer, but at least the fact that they support Linux gives me confidence that I could install a dual-boot system without too much grief.
Jonathan
"Sell it to someone who would otherwise have purchased it new, or donate to a charity "
Well, yes, I agree. I really didn't throw anything away. In this case, I setup a dual-boot system. I didn't "need" Win98, but having it will be a nice bonus. It supports USB, and consequently works better (faster) with my digital camera than my NT system. So most of the time I boot Linux, but I have Win98 as an option when I need it.
Jonathan
>now if we could only get VA to drop :)
>their prices to compete w/Dell
This is true. I just bought a Dell Dimension and installed Linux on it. It was cheaper for me to buy a Dell and throw away the Win 98 and MS Works software that came with it than it was to buy a preconfigured Linux box from either VA Research or Penguin.
Jonathan