Jon makes many good points in his news articles, and on the whole I find them incredibly intelligent and well-written. But this time, I find fault in what he says - not factually, but conceptually.
Let me explain.
Jon makes it seem like Microsoft is dead. Far from it. Microsoft hasn't died yet. You haven't even seen what Jackson will do to them. For all you know, Microsoft might be slapped with minor fines and let to do their work. This is reminiscent of the trust-busting efforts of the beginning of this century, but discussing that would necessitate an entirely different post:).
Plus, the verdict won't occur for a long time yet. At least a few months. Until then, Microsoft - for all we know - could do some drastic business/marketing move - like *snicker* releasing Windows 2000.
And how does this "move onto the Net?" It was never on the Net in the first place! This is a SOFTWARE ISSUE, not a connectivity issue. If this were AOL involved in piracy problems, I could see this clearer. IE is software that's related to the internet. But it's software, not something that has to become an internet-based issue.
I love reading comments on/. because they're incredibly insightful (no ref. intended) and they let you get an interesting perspective on the issue that you'd never seen before. But with articles like this, I really disagree with some of the views.
Mr. Katz attempts to accelerate the future, to make it seem like we're entering the future faster than we should be. The future is progressing along as it always would have. Don't try to rush it - with patience comes triumph.
I see any maintainer of a website as a service provider. Not an ISP (necessarily), but someone who enjoys letting the entire world in on something that they couldn't possibly get anywhere else - something that could be (and usually is) informative and enlightening. As the chief guy of what is unquestionably one of the most controversial websites out there in the hacking/cracking community, how do you feel about all of your opponents who attempt to tear you down? Do you ever feel like cutting off the "service" after witnessing all the criticism?
I'm one of the people who maintains www.ticalc.org, a website dedicated to Texas Instruments calculators and their bevy of programs - and I use Windows 98. I've thought MANY, MANY times of using Linux. Fact of the matter is, Linux is just better in my opinion, but what keeps me coming back to 98 is the constant support that you see for programs under it. Eight members currently work at ticalc.org. Of those, three have Linux and only one doesn't have Windows (the others dual boot). All of us (except the one hardcore Linux user) all use IE as our primary browser. Why? Simple - out of all the browsers out there, IE provides the most amount of support for, well, everything! I know it sucks, but we [being the staff] have to deal with it, as there's just no comparable alternative out there. The problem I see here is not just a browser issue, but rather an issue with compatibility in general. Keep in mind the fact that even though Macintoshes are superior hardware-wise to PC's, it currently seems like they'll never gain a permenant grasp over the market as far as software support goes. Too many programs are unique to Windows for this to happen. This is the same for Linux. Over the past many years, we haven't yet seen Macs with the same degree of compatibility as PC's. It doesn't look like Linux will get that way anytime soon. Until then, I'll wait. We'll all wait. And when it happens, Microsoft will be *dead*. "It's the software, stupid."
Did you find any problems as you folks made the switch-over to Linux? Any bugs, or anything that made the system unexpectedly crash? Basically, was the turnover smooth?
It looks like that, since MS was compromised, that flipz has done a job on some other pages of note - many being military boxen, most on NT:) Here is attrition's "record" on flipz - it includes all the sites he(she?) has compromised and it also has what all of the pages look like. Neat stuff, imo;)
Think about it. Hollywood people are paid for movies that will sell. Profit is their main concern, so why the heck would they fill a movie with ten minutes of footage of some pasty-faced, acne-encrusted computer nerd h4x0r1n6 the Pentagon in a really, really, really boring manner? It doesn't make sense money-wise, so they don't do it.
Watching someone with an iBook or something equally outlandish h4x0r1n6 the Pentagon in eight seconds with lots of flashy graphics and huge text on the screen looks better to the viewer, so they use that. They're in the business of pleasing their audience, not a bunch of nerds on Slashdot, sadly.
"The Net" made money. The company who produced "The Net"'s marketing tactics obviously worked on the masses. We are not the masses.
To begin, I also work on ticalc.org:) Basically, since none of the software is supported by TI itself, people have made a rather loose collection of apps and such for various calculators. One links w/the 85 and 86 only; another for just the 92. Still others link with only a parallel cable you can build for extremely cheap. For more info on these cables, consult this page. What calculator are you trying to link here? Some aren't supported as well as others (if at all).
The framers of the Constitution intended for us to have a representative democracy because the vast majority of us are bumbling morons who can't make informed decisions for ourselves. That's why we hire bumbling morons to do it for us:)
When it comes to holding referendums, however, the Internet would be a nice place to have them in the future when computing becomes increasingly mainstream as prices of decent machines drop.
You make some very good points, but you have to keep in mind something: What politician in existence is pro-computer nerd? Let's face it. We're a minority. Al Gore is not going to win the election if he installs Linux on his laptop and brandishes his open source epiphanies at the next press conference. Granted, he might get a few votes from the nerd community, but on the whole that won't translate to electoral votes.
Once people with an interest in open source and such become the vast majority, you will continue to witness an endless stream of politicians that can't help but repeat the words "Columbine incident" ad nauseam with severe conviction in his/her voice as to the evils of computing and how they will lead to the downfall of Western Civilization.
The US has silently turned into a mobocracy. It's too late to change anything overnight. Over a long time, the Internet will become an integral part of our lives, and the politicians of the future won't be able to ignore the ideas of the people who help make the vast majority of it work.
This also raises the issue on whether or not antibodies can be created to fight bacterial and/or viral infection. This could prove quite a boon to the pharmecutical(sp?) industry.
Slashdot Mirror
Jon makes many good points in his news articles, and on the whole I find them incredibly intelligent and well-written. But this time, I find fault in what he says - not factually, but conceptually.
Let me explain.
Jon makes it seem like Microsoft is dead. Far from it. Microsoft hasn't died yet. You haven't even seen what Jackson will do to them. For all you know, Microsoft might be slapped with minor fines and let to do their work. This is reminiscent of the trust-busting efforts of the beginning of this century, but discussing that would necessitate an entirely different post :).
Plus, the verdict won't occur for a long time yet. At least a few months. Until then, Microsoft - for all we know - could do some drastic business/marketing move - like *snicker* releasing Windows 2000.
And how does this "move onto the Net?" It was never on the Net in the first place! This is a SOFTWARE ISSUE, not a connectivity issue. If this were AOL involved in piracy problems, I could see this clearer. IE is software that's related to the internet. But it's software, not something that has to become an internet-based issue.
I love reading comments on /. because they're incredibly insightful (no ref. intended) and they let you get an interesting perspective on the issue that you'd never seen before. But with articles like this, I really disagree with some of the views.
Mr. Katz attempts to accelerate the future, to make it seem like we're entering the future faster than we should be. The future is progressing along as it always would have. Don't try to rush it - with patience comes triumph.
I see any maintainer of a website as a service provider. Not an ISP (necessarily), but someone who enjoys letting the entire world in on something that they couldn't possibly get anywhere else - something that could be (and usually is) informative and enlightening. As the chief guy of what is unquestionably one of the most controversial websites out there in the hacking/cracking community, how do you feel about all of your opponents who attempt to tear you down? Do you ever feel like cutting off the "service" after witnessing all the criticism?
I'm one of the people who maintains www.ticalc.org, a website dedicated to Texas Instruments calculators and their bevy of programs - and I use Windows 98. I've thought MANY, MANY times of using Linux. Fact of the matter is, Linux is just better in my opinion, but what keeps me coming back to 98 is the constant support that you see for programs under it. Eight members currently work at ticalc.org. Of those, three have Linux and only one doesn't have Windows (the others dual boot). All of us (except the one hardcore Linux user) all use IE as our primary browser. Why? Simple - out of all the browsers out there, IE provides the most amount of support for, well, everything! I know it sucks, but we [being the staff] have to deal with it, as there's just no comparable alternative out there. The problem I see here is not just a browser issue, but rather an issue with compatibility in general. Keep in mind the fact that even though Macintoshes are superior hardware-wise to PC's, it currently seems like they'll never gain a permenant grasp over the market as far as software support goes. Too many programs are unique to Windows for this to happen. This is the same for Linux. Over the past many years, we haven't yet seen Macs with the same degree of compatibility as PC's. It doesn't look like Linux will get that way anytime soon. Until then, I'll wait. We'll all wait. And when it happens, Microsoft will be *dead*. "It's the software, stupid."
Did you find any problems as you folks made the switch-over to Linux? Any bugs, or anything that made the system unexpectedly crash? Basically, was the turnover smooth?
It looks like that, since MS was compromised, that flipz has done a job on some other pages of note - many being military boxen, most on NT :) Here is attrition's "record" on flipz - it includes all the sites he(she?) has compromised and it also has what all of the pages look like. Neat stuff, imo ;)
Think about it. Hollywood people are paid for movies that will sell. Profit is their main concern, so why the heck would they fill a movie with ten minutes of footage of some pasty-faced, acne-encrusted computer nerd h4x0r1n6 the Pentagon in a really, really, really boring manner? It doesn't make sense money-wise, so they don't do it.
Watching someone with an iBook or something equally outlandish h4x0r1n6 the Pentagon in eight seconds with lots of flashy graphics and huge text on the screen looks better to the viewer, so they use that. They're in the business of pleasing their audience, not a bunch of nerds on Slashdot, sadly.
"The Net" made money. The company who produced "The Net"'s marketing tactics obviously worked on the masses. We are not the masses.
To begin, I also work on ticalc.org :) Basically, since none of the software is supported by TI itself, people have made a rather loose collection of apps and such for various calculators. One links w/the 85 and 86 only; another for just the 92. Still others link with only a parallel cable you can build for extremely cheap. For more info on these cables, consult this page. What calculator are you trying to link here? Some aren't supported as well as others (if at all).
The framers of the Constitution intended for us to have a representative democracy because the vast majority of us are bumbling morons who can't make informed decisions for ourselves. That's why we hire bumbling morons to do it for us :)
When it comes to holding referendums, however, the Internet would be a nice place to have them in the future when computing becomes increasingly mainstream as prices of decent machines drop.
You make some very good points, but you have to keep in mind something: What politician in existence is pro-computer nerd? Let's face it. We're a minority. Al Gore is not going to win the election if he installs Linux on his laptop and brandishes his open source epiphanies at the next press conference. Granted, he might get a few votes from the nerd community, but on the whole that won't translate to electoral votes.
Once people with an interest in open source and such become the vast majority, you will continue to witness an endless stream of politicians that can't help but repeat the words "Columbine incident" ad nauseam with severe conviction in his/her voice as to the evils of computing and how they will lead to the downfall of Western Civilization.
The US has silently turned into a mobocracy. It's too late to change anything overnight. Over a long time, the Internet will become an integral part of our lives, and the politicians of the future won't be able to ignore the ideas of the people who help make the vast majority of it work.
This also raises the issue on whether or not antibodies can be created to fight bacterial and/or viral infection. This could prove quite a boon to the pharmecutical(sp?) industry.