I have been using computers since I was 3 and a half years old. Writing code since I was 5. It's still a passion of mine, however I also failed out of college, and began working my a$$ off for companies. I had a nice paycheck, and was the highest tech of techs where I was, and thought on the way there that it was what I always wanted; yet when I got there, I still had the same things missing in my heart.
Then I was laid off for a very long time, and lost some of the nice things I had purchased, and started to realize that everything I had put so much stock into was superficial at best. What I came to realize is that at the end, if I kept on my current track, I would have nothing to show for my life except debt and equity in material posession. I would have affected no one's course of life, done nothing to make the world better save bitching about the problems in it.
I am currently working as a security contractor for a very large IT outsourcing company (you all know it, but I won't discuss it here) - it's a paycheck that is letting me pay back the debt I incurred, which is important to me - I could have very easily filed bankruptcy and walked away, but I made personal commitments and gave my word to repay borrowed money, and I will do that. However there is not a day that goes by where I don't think about the ultimate waste of time and life that this place is. I am watching my days disappear before me while I push firewall rules, that 5 years from now will mean nothing to anyone except the CEO who got his bonus.
My passions are things like helping people, motorcycles, art, and technology - I still love computers and they are an integral part of my life. However I need to find a way to incorporate these things into my life so that I feel fulfilled at the end of the day, so that I can touch other peoples' lives in some way. I feel a great swell of pity for those that spend what little time they have here pining away for some corporation, because they lack the courage to follow their dreams.
Coming to the brink of financial ruin, losing a lot of things, and having the biggest reality check of my life was the best thing that has ever happened to me. My life is better from it, and my eyes are more open than they have ever been. Some of you without jobs are reading this thinking I'm insane, but it's ONLY when you are face to face with losing everything that you realize what you truly have, and what is really important in life. It's one of the greatest life experiences I think we as humans can have.
"There is a difference between knowing the path, and walking the path"...
The whole point of passive monitoring systems is that it's just that - a truly anonymous, non interactive way to see what's going on. This is far from that.
What this is, is a way to query specific devices. Of COURSE they know who you are, and where you're going. And you can be damn sure they're going to use that information to increase their profit margins somehow. Knowing where people go and how they get there is one of the most valuable marketing demographics known to man, and I just cannot believe they won't use this for financial benefit.
Also yeah I know there are strict privacy laws in Finland, however the laws aren't so strict (or adhered to anymore) here in the states. This could definitely be construed as a "homeland (in)security" thing like the rest of the monitoring and wiretap allowances that are being made, but I guess it's unpatriotic of me to say that anymore.
Of course the only real alternative is to go move to some country so backwards on technology that they could not hope to monitor anything about you... Welcome to the new world. (Assuming we don't nuke ourselves into oblivion sometime soon, of course...)
And depending on Apple's ideas for this thing's usage, they could be in for some lawsuits...
I don't have a link, but I think I saw it on here. It's a new sort of thing, like a globe, that dynamically changes color based on information it receives - i.e. you could use it to monitor your stocks, the weather, or whatever. If things are good, it's yellow or more green for better. It turns red if things go bad. By "dynamically changing color" I assume Apple means to have their case respond in reaction to some event or data. Their concept is not new, there is prior art, and they could be sued.
Of course this means nothing since our patent system is a complete and utter joke, and whoever has the most money gets whatever they want. It's not a legal battle anymore but a financial one. If amazon can patent clicking your mouse on pictures, and that BS company in Cali can patent the mere act of serving a shopping cart or multimedia on the web (sue me fockers, I double dare ya), this doesn't seem so far fetched anymore.
Yes, but Checkpoint is hardly open source free code, now is it?
And as a long-time CP user, ANY documentation they provide sucks. Their service sucks. Their software is cool, but if you need help, go elsewhere. Hence the other sources of help that have sprung up (books, phoneboy, etc).
Now, HOW do I get a remote control for this thing? I wonder if it uses WiFi or some sort of IP-based wireless control. HMMMM. No parking space? Dino takes care of it. Long line at the food place? Dino takes care of it. Some spoiled little brat won't shut the f@#$ up about his cotton candy, forcing you to consider a semi-random act of violence? Charge for tickets when Dino takes care of it!
This was a year ago, and maybe things have changed since, but I remember wine being a joke of a technology.
At least the project has lasted this long. If it's only $5 to get their "pay version" I'll buy it, just to help support something I see as worthwhile - the ability to use MS-compatible apps on the OS of my choice (BSD or Linux, or ??) is a HUGE benefit - not to mention a HUGE undertaking!
I remember when Wine was early alpha (i.e. you might not even be able to install it)... it has come a long way since then. Microsoft can't even run their crap right, I wouldn't expect an emulator to be able to do it that fast either; it would not really surprise me to see Wine eventually overtake Windows in terms of stability and ease of install. Wonder if it's GPL'd, so MS would have to release source code with it to use it to improve their own stuff...:D (Hmm, maybe that's why there has been talk of them making Windows open-source - they have to cause they just grep'd someone else's code... bwahahahaha)
Just trying to figure out what you're attempting to argue there. Why is this "just silly"? The fact that BSD runs Linux apps just as good as Linux for the most part (aside from the few system calls, which from the sounds of it are probably fixed)?
What are you attempting to pontificate here? The whole point of the topic was that this extended Wine's functionality/portability even further, then you say it's silly then agree with it? Make up your fscking mind!:D
And it's also just a first update into the CVS tree, mid-release, which already does MOST of what a Load Balancer would do! It may not detect down hosts (yet), but given the usual quality and completeness of OpenBSD code I suspect by 3.3 this will be ready for prime time. I'm not sure what else you think it's missing - load balancers are not highly complex pieces of equipment.
And this isn't just an IPfilter theft like someone else had stated. PF is a complete re-write, with dramatic performance gains and cleaner integration into the system. (By gains, I'm talking about documented increases by orders of magnitude, with large rulebases.) I suspect the LB code is no different, probably all new code. It'e been submitted by Daniel Hartmier as well, who wrote PF, so I'm fairly confident that the code won't suck.
Now I just want to see failover capability in PF. I know the VRRP licensing BS is what is stopping that effort right now, but I hope that can be solved soon (a new protocol needs to be created IMO). The only reason OpenBSD can't be deployed in many areas is the lack of failover, that's such a critical piece of infrastructure these days that it's necessary.
Yes. However the ramifications of that are still scarier to, well, everyone than the current state of affairs. Not to mention the ramifications of *losing* that revolution, are far more frightening than anything I can imagine, actually.
The world, and this country, are on the brink of something big. Either good or bad, it will be interesting to see what happens, and how we all fit into it. I hope for the best (and even pray for it, even though I'm not religious per se), but deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, I truly fear the worst.
Therefore perhaps the poster could explain to me how you could have the technology to "create a computer for each possible combination"? It might work for a 128-bit key, in theory. But a 256-bit key has 1.15e77 possibilities, which outnumbers the number of atoms in the Earth by billions to one. Even solving 128-bit encryption by having a computer per combination would require a minimum of weight of 565 million tonnes.
Mmm, Hitchiker's... The world really *is* a giant computer! (Or will be, once the nanobots consume us all...)
Then somehow make my brain illegal, since I'm sure it would violate about a million copyrights? I mean, I'm capable of recalling all sorts of information that isn't mine. Songs. Books. Porn. Yeah, you just wait, we'll all get sued just for thinking. Then again that alone means about 90% of the world will be safe from lawsuits...
1984 Indeed. This stuff is happening so fast lately that it's hard to even know which battle to fight, let alone fight it. The world will either wake up and heal itself, or become a very, very scary place so fast that we'll all be watched 24/7 with the constitution burning in effigy on CNN before we know what's going on. Be very careful you don't buy into the hype - try to see the bigger picture. Being paranoid? Possibly. But that path is easy to see. Ever wonder why? Ignorance is often mistaken for morals. Intelligence is paranoia. Connect the dots...
Some day I'm going to be seen as some crazy old man, I can see it now.
That would break the LCD. Besides, if I take the whole damn cart, then I can have some friends over for drunken shopping cart races down the minefield (aka construction-hole-ridden-shithole) that used to be the street behind my house. =)
However those displays aren't bad really, I'm thinking some cart-theft is in order as those would make some cool wireless mp3->stereo players or whatever around the house! Or even really cool light switches, shit I can think of a million uses for "free" boxes like those!
I mean what I said, $10 to the first one to make a wireless beowulf shopping cart cluster. bwahahaha
And actually a good idea... will these things just be a 2 line LCD display, or what? I mean they have to have some sort of intelligence to have localized wireless communication, shit if that thing has a decent display it's coming home to be a home entertainment center mp3 interface or something! Hell yeah! 1337!:D I have a truck, maybe I can build a beowulf shopping cart cluster or something. (I will give $10 to the first person to run SETI on a cluster of shopping carts, I'm not bullshitting there!)
It's not bad enough that I can't watch ad-free TV. I can't go to ad-free web sites anymore, at least very often (even this one has ads, but at least they're limited to cool geek topics). I can't even check my damn email without getting 100 SPAM messages a day.
Now I have to be assaulted by this bullshit while I buy my milk and cheese? HOW LONG UNTIL THE X10 POPUPS ON THE CARTS I ask you??? Yeah, you all know it's coming... Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Tell you what, they start giving me my food for free to justify this new "advertiser-driven" model they've chosen, and I'll deal with the ads while I shop. However, as long as I have to pay to eat, they can stow that or I will make damn sure that cart never X10's my ass again!:D
Or better yet, hack the server in the store (which like most store servers will probably have a password of abc123, and since this is wireless, will be accessable via my laptop) and put up better ads and public service announcements, a la Fight Club style. Ohhhh yeah!
Ie make it really user friendly(Gui installer, admin tools etc). I'm surprised there has been no effort to do so. I mean beyond what Apple did I don't even hear any rumors of anyone even trying to do that.
You're right. Because there is no reason to do so. There is nothing wrong with the userfriendliness of FreeBSD; I've been using it since the wee early 2.x days (I even made an attempt at a late 1.x release back in the day but had to abandon that at the time), and "cut my UNIX teeth" on it so to speak. The interface hasn't changed much since then but has been cleaned up, and IMO doesn't need anything new.
What you're saying sounds like a typical Windows or Mac user comment (no bashing, this is a real observation from a system engineer/admin of many years), i.e. if there isn't a pretty picture that says the exact same thing as the writing on the screen, it just doesn't gel up in the cranium. However, this is not Windows or Mac land. Personally I gave up on Linux because all of that GUI-everything cluttered the box up so much that the install became huge, and it took me longer to accomplish the same tasks.
The learning curve is really about the same either way, it's just learning to use the Tab and Enter keys on BSD vs a mouse in Linux (aka Mandrake). Now, Mandrake was my favorite Linux distro, however their compatibility issues (probably linked to the rest of Linux's issues) were enough to make me have to stop using it - I simply cannot rely on a system, either for desktop use or servers, where I wonder about critical system failures in every patch I install. I've also had issues on multiple systems with the "pretty Mandrake install" and had to go back to text mode anyway - and let me tell you this, the Mandrake text mode interface is not anywhere near as polished as BSD's.
FreeBSD or any other BSD do not need any graphical anything to make them "more user friendly". To do so would ultimately be a detriment to the system as a whole IMO. If you want to get GUI's running, install Xfree86 when you install BSD. The config there is still a bit touchy (i.e. 4.2 configs through the install are not quite right) however with a bit of tweaking you can get it running in about 5 minutes. I have, several times. And the GUI is my choice to use, not something that's forced on me by the OS. Want to see an ultra-slim text install? Go get OpenBSD. Aside from the most secure OS you will ever see, the installation is just 10 minutes of answering some questions. Brilliance in simplicity!
Not flaming those who like the GUI's - I'm sure they have their place. I just don't feel that place is here.
I'm shocked at this for two reasons. First, that it happened, and that you had to pay for it - I'd have raised holy hell with any manager I could get on the phone, that's just some fucked up shit.
Second, why didn't you just flag someone else down with a cell phone? Statistically, you must have been passed by someone else with a cell phone in that 18 minute timespan - out here when a wreck happens 911 usually receives 5-6 calls within a 30 second period. And those are just the ones that call! (Anymore, unless I'm right on it when it happens, part of it, or privy to unique info, I won't even call 911 because someone else probably already has. Instead I'm going to get my EMT cert, since I think that would be of more use.)
Oh, yeah sprint sucks. It's ok if you don't use a phone very much, but for business communication or anything close to critical, forget it. I'm on Verizon now - and now, I can't hear shit captain! It used to be awesome, however lately I drop calls all the time, sometimes don't even get the calls, don't find out about voicemails for 3 days or until someone else leaves me one to trigger the alert (THAT is fucking annoying!), and their customer service sucks my satchel. A while back I signed a year contract to get a deal on a new phone, as soon as that's up I'll probably change. Portability or not, I hate 'em! Besides, too many solicitors call my cell number now, I have no idea how that got out but it would not surprise me if Verizon was selling those.
Off topic, but since we're slamming cell companies - what happened with that idea I heard of a while back where cell companies wanted to advertise on peoples' cell phones using SMS or some crap? I guarantee you, if I start getting X10 popup spam on my phone just to make a call I will personally drive to whatever provider I'm using at the time's corporate headquarters and "popup" that shit right up the CEO's ass! The whole point of paying for a service is that I do not have to put up with that. Though it wouldn't surpsise me if cell providers moved to an advertiser-based model (at least in a limited fashion) whereby the service was free but you got little ads before or after your call. Providers are slowly moving to this $35/mo-unlimited-calling model now anyway so it makes sense.
Re:Hasn't anyone heard of the IRS
on
HomeSec In the News
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· Score: 2, Insightful
So just because the IRS takes my taxes and stores whatever information about me that gets submitted in a big ol' database somewhere, I should bend over and take it from a bill like this?
As a security engineer, I find this bill apalling. As a citizen, I find it to be bullshit. "Limited wiretaps without a court order"? Yeah, boy, I sure trust the good old government to not abuse THAT power, yessiree!
And I don't give a big pile of cowshit if this was from some conservative, or a liberal. The fact is, it sucks. And as an owner of an ISP, what sort of regulations will be imposed on me by this new and improved legislation to "improve homeland security"?
It has been well documented that for someone to put lives at risk with a computer is not the big scare the government would have you read about on cnn.com in order to justify their own existence. Is there some risk? Sure. There always will be. There's even more risk of someone blowing up a building, since the information needed to do that is much easier to come by and understand. However most of the people who will sign this crap into law and/or enforce it later have no comprehension of that. Look at Mitnick (eek! I said the M word) - and tell me the government doesn't misunderstand, construe, and warp the details of this sort of thing for corporate interests. Look at current events and tell me the government doesn't warp damn near everything for corporate interests.
Homeland Security is quite quickly becoming an excuse to create a police state where everything you do is monitored and recorded; the only difference between that and former USSR-style regimes is that right now we can talk shit about it. For now. OPEN YOUR EYES PEOPLE!!! STOP EXPECTING THE NEXT GUY TO DEFEND YOUR FREEDOM AND GET OFF YOUR ASS!!!
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I have been using computers since I was 3 and a half years old. Writing code since I was 5. It's still a passion of mine, however I also failed out of college, and began working my a$$ off for companies. I had a nice paycheck, and was the highest tech of techs where I was, and thought on the way there that it was what I always wanted; yet when I got there, I still had the same things missing in my heart.
Then I was laid off for a very long time, and lost some of the nice things I had purchased, and started to realize that everything I had put so much stock into was superficial at best. What I came to realize is that at the end, if I kept on my current track, I would have nothing to show for my life except debt and equity in material posession. I would have affected no one's course of life, done nothing to make the world better save bitching about the problems in it.
I am currently working as a security contractor for a very large IT outsourcing company (you all know it, but I won't discuss it here) - it's a paycheck that is letting me pay back the debt I incurred, which is important to me - I could have very easily filed bankruptcy and walked away, but I made personal commitments and gave my word to repay borrowed money, and I will do that. However there is not a day that goes by where I don't think about the ultimate waste of time and life that this place is. I am watching my days disappear before me while I push firewall rules, that 5 years from now will mean nothing to anyone except the CEO who got his bonus.
My passions are things like helping people, motorcycles, art, and technology - I still love computers and they are an integral part of my life. However I need to find a way to incorporate these things into my life so that I feel fulfilled at the end of the day, so that I can touch other peoples' lives in some way. I feel a great swell of pity for those that spend what little time they have here pining away for some corporation, because they lack the courage to follow their dreams.
Coming to the brink of financial ruin, losing a lot of things, and having the biggest reality check of my life was the best thing that has ever happened to me. My life is better from it, and my eyes are more open than they have ever been. Some of you without jobs are reading this thinking I'm insane, but it's ONLY when you are face to face with losing everything that you realize what you truly have, and what is really important in life. It's one of the greatest life experiences I think we as humans can have.
"There is a difference between knowing the path, and walking the path"...
What this is, is a way to query specific devices. Of COURSE they know who you are, and where you're going. And you can be damn sure they're going to use that information to increase their profit margins somehow. Knowing where people go and how they get there is one of the most valuable marketing demographics known to man, and I just cannot believe they won't use this for financial benefit.
Also yeah I know there are strict privacy laws in Finland, however the laws aren't so strict (or adhered to anymore) here in the states. This could definitely be construed as a "homeland (in)security" thing like the rest of the monitoring and wiretap allowances that are being made, but I guess it's unpatriotic of me to say that anymore.
Of course the only real alternative is to go move to some country so backwards on technology that they could not hope to monitor anything about you... Welcome to the new world. (Assuming we don't nuke ourselves into oblivion sometime soon, of course...)
I don't have a link, but I think I saw it on here. It's a new sort of thing, like a globe, that dynamically changes color based on information it receives - i.e. you could use it to monitor your stocks, the weather, or whatever. If things are good, it's yellow or more green for better. It turns red if things go bad. By "dynamically changing color" I assume Apple means to have their case respond in reaction to some event or data. Their concept is not new, there is prior art, and they could be sued.
Of course this means nothing since our patent system is a complete and utter joke, and whoever has the most money gets whatever they want. It's not a legal battle anymore but a financial one. If amazon can patent clicking your mouse on pictures, and that BS company in Cali can patent the mere act of serving a shopping cart or multimedia on the web (sue me fockers, I double dare ya), this doesn't seem so far fetched anymore.
PHP releases YOU!!
Open Source Software documents YOU!!
And as a long-time CP user, ANY documentation they provide sucks. Their service sucks. Their software is cool, but if you need help, go elsewhere. Hence the other sources of help that have sprung up (books, phoneboy, etc).
Game on! =)
Now, HOW do I get a remote control for this thing? I wonder if it uses WiFi or some sort of IP-based wireless control. HMMMM. No parking space? Dino takes care of it. Long line at the food place? Dino takes care of it. Some spoiled little brat won't shut the f@#$ up about his cotton candy, forcing you to consider a semi-random act of violence? Charge for tickets when Dino takes care of it!
{Dr Evil} Bwaaahahahahahha ahahahahahaha aaahahahahahahahaha hahahahahaha hahaha hahahahahahahaha {/dr evil}
At least the project has lasted this long. If it's only $5 to get their "pay version" I'll buy it, just to help support something I see as worthwhile - the ability to use MS-compatible apps on the OS of my choice (BSD or Linux, or ??) is a HUGE benefit - not to mention a HUGE undertaking!
I remember when Wine was early alpha (i.e. you might not even be able to install it) ... it has come a long way since then. Microsoft can't even run their crap right, I wouldn't expect an emulator to be able to do it that fast either; it would not really surprise me to see Wine eventually overtake Windows in terms of stability and ease of install. Wonder if it's GPL'd, so MS would have to release source code with it to use it to improve their own stuff... :D (Hmm, maybe that's why there has been talk of them making Windows open-source - they have to cause they just grep'd someone else's code... bwahahahaha)
What are you attempting to pontificate here? The whole point of the topic was that this extended Wine's functionality/portability even further, then you say it's silly then agree with it? Make up your fscking mind! :D
I don't usually get to post this early on here. I have nothing of value to add. But I'm here, so :P~~~~!
And this isn't just an IPfilter theft like someone else had stated. PF is a complete re-write, with dramatic performance gains and cleaner integration into the system. (By gains, I'm talking about documented increases by orders of magnitude, with large rulebases.) I suspect the LB code is no different, probably all new code. It'e been submitted by Daniel Hartmier as well, who wrote PF, so I'm fairly confident that the code won't suck.
Now I just want to see failover capability in PF. I know the VRRP licensing BS is what is stopping that effort right now, but I hope that can be solved soon (a new protocol needs to be created IMO). The only reason OpenBSD can't be deployed in many areas is the lack of failover, that's such a critical piece of infrastructure these days that it's necessary.
The world, and this country, are on the brink of something big. Either good or bad, it will be interesting to see what happens, and how we all fit into it. I hope for the best (and even pray for it, even though I'm not religious per se), but deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, I truly fear the worst.
My 1337 5k1ll5 can now extend to common household appliances. Bwahahahahah hahahahahahahaha hahahahaha hahahahaha
Now if I could just put an IP stack on my cat so I can keep him from hiding my car keys, life owuld be great! :)
Mmm, Hitchiker's... The world really *is* a giant computer! (Or will be, once the nanobots consume us all...)
1984 Indeed. This stuff is happening so fast lately that it's hard to even know which battle to fight, let alone fight it. The world will either wake up and heal itself, or become a very, very scary place so fast that we'll all be watched 24/7 with the constitution burning in effigy on CNN before we know what's going on. Be very careful you don't buy into the hype - try to see the bigger picture. Being paranoid? Possibly. But that path is easy to see. Ever wonder why? Ignorance is often mistaken for morals. Intelligence is paranoia. Connect the dots...
Some day I'm going to be seen as some crazy old man, I can see it now.
That would break the LCD. Besides, if I take the whole damn cart, then I can have some friends over for drunken shopping cart races down the minefield (aka construction-hole-ridden-shithole) that used to be the street behind my house. =)
However those displays aren't bad really, I'm thinking some cart-theft is in order as those would make some cool wireless mp3->stereo players or whatever around the house! Or even really cool light switches, shit I can think of a million uses for "free" boxes like those!
I mean what I said, $10 to the first one to make a wireless beowulf shopping cart cluster. bwahahaha
We know what magnets do to hard drives, yes. This is solid state storage however, I don't think it will have quite the same effect...
And actually a good idea... will these things just be a 2 line LCD display, or what? I mean they have to have some sort of intelligence to have localized wireless communication, shit if that thing has a decent display it's coming home to be a home entertainment center mp3 interface or something! Hell yeah! 1337! :D I have a truck, maybe I can build a beowulf shopping cart cluster or something. (I will give $10 to the first person to run SETI on a cluster of shopping carts, I'm not bullshitting there!)
Now I have to be assaulted by this bullshit while I buy my milk and cheese? HOW LONG UNTIL THE X10 POPUPS ON THE CARTS I ask you??? Yeah, you all know it's coming... Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Tell you what, they start giving me my food for free to justify this new "advertiser-driven" model they've chosen, and I'll deal with the ads while I shop. However, as long as I have to pay to eat, they can stow that or I will make damn sure that cart never X10's my ass again! :D
Or better yet, hack the server in the store (which like most store servers will probably have a password of abc123, and since this is wireless, will be accessable via my laptop) and put up better ads and public service announcements, a la Fight Club style. Ohhhh yeah!
You're right. Because there is no reason to do so. There is nothing wrong with the userfriendliness of FreeBSD; I've been using it since the wee early 2.x days (I even made an attempt at a late 1.x release back in the day but had to abandon that at the time), and "cut my UNIX teeth" on it so to speak. The interface hasn't changed much since then but has been cleaned up, and IMO doesn't need anything new.
What you're saying sounds like a typical Windows or Mac user comment (no bashing, this is a real observation from a system engineer/admin of many years), i.e. if there isn't a pretty picture that says the exact same thing as the writing on the screen, it just doesn't gel up in the cranium. However, this is not Windows or Mac land. Personally I gave up on Linux because all of that GUI-everything cluttered the box up so much that the install became huge, and it took me longer to accomplish the same tasks.
The learning curve is really about the same either way, it's just learning to use the Tab and Enter keys on BSD vs a mouse in Linux (aka Mandrake). Now, Mandrake was my favorite Linux distro, however their compatibility issues (probably linked to the rest of Linux's issues) were enough to make me have to stop using it - I simply cannot rely on a system, either for desktop use or servers, where I wonder about critical system failures in every patch I install. I've also had issues on multiple systems with the "pretty Mandrake install" and had to go back to text mode anyway - and let me tell you this, the Mandrake text mode interface is not anywhere near as polished as BSD's.
FreeBSD or any other BSD do not need any graphical anything to make them "more user friendly". To do so would ultimately be a detriment to the system as a whole IMO. If you want to get GUI's running, install Xfree86 when you install BSD. The config there is still a bit touchy (i.e. 4.2 configs through the install are not quite right) however with a bit of tweaking you can get it running in about 5 minutes. I have, several times. And the GUI is my choice to use, not something that's forced on me by the OS. Want to see an ultra-slim text install? Go get OpenBSD. Aside from the most secure OS you will ever see, the installation is just 10 minutes of answering some questions. Brilliance in simplicity!
Not flaming those who like the GUI's - I'm sure they have their place. I just don't feel that place is here.
Second, why didn't you just flag someone else down with a cell phone? Statistically, you must have been passed by someone else with a cell phone in that 18 minute timespan - out here when a wreck happens 911 usually receives 5-6 calls within a 30 second period. And those are just the ones that call! (Anymore, unless I'm right on it when it happens, part of it, or privy to unique info, I won't even call 911 because someone else probably already has. Instead I'm going to get my EMT cert, since I think that would be of more use.)
Oh, yeah sprint sucks. It's ok if you don't use a phone very much, but for business communication or anything close to critical, forget it. I'm on Verizon now - and now, I can't hear shit captain! It used to be awesome, however lately I drop calls all the time, sometimes don't even get the calls, don't find out about voicemails for 3 days or until someone else leaves me one to trigger the alert (THAT is fucking annoying!), and their customer service sucks my satchel. A while back I signed a year contract to get a deal on a new phone, as soon as that's up I'll probably change. Portability or not, I hate 'em! Besides, too many solicitors call my cell number now, I have no idea how that got out but it would not surprise me if Verizon was selling those.
Off topic, but since we're slamming cell companies - what happened with that idea I heard of a while back where cell companies wanted to advertise on peoples' cell phones using SMS or some crap? I guarantee you, if I start getting X10 popup spam on my phone just to make a call I will personally drive to whatever provider I'm using at the time's corporate headquarters and "popup" that shit right up the CEO's ass! The whole point of paying for a service is that I do not have to put up with that. Though it wouldn't surpsise me if cell providers moved to an advertiser-based model (at least in a limited fashion) whereby the service was free but you got little ads before or after your call. Providers are slowly moving to this $35/mo-unlimited-calling model now anyway so it makes sense.
As a security engineer, I find this bill apalling. As a citizen, I find it to be bullshit. "Limited wiretaps without a court order"? Yeah, boy, I sure trust the good old government to not abuse THAT power, yessiree!
And I don't give a big pile of cowshit if this was from some conservative, or a liberal. The fact is, it sucks. And as an owner of an ISP, what sort of regulations will be imposed on me by this new and improved legislation to "improve homeland security"?
It has been well documented that for someone to put lives at risk with a computer is not the big scare the government would have you read about on cnn.com in order to justify their own existence. Is there some risk? Sure. There always will be. There's even more risk of someone blowing up a building, since the information needed to do that is much easier to come by and understand. However most of the people who will sign this crap into law and/or enforce it later have no comprehension of that. Look at Mitnick (eek! I said the M word) - and tell me the government doesn't misunderstand, construe, and warp the details of this sort of thing for corporate interests. Look at current events and tell me the government doesn't warp damn near everything for corporate interests.
Homeland Security is quite quickly becoming an excuse to create a police state where everything you do is monitored and recorded; the only difference between that and former USSR-style regimes is that right now we can talk shit about it. For now. OPEN YOUR EYES PEOPLE!!! STOP EXPECTING THE NEXT GUY TO DEFEND YOUR FREEDOM AND GET OFF YOUR ASS!!!
HAHAHAHA This is funny!!!!