"Idiocracy" is a personality/intelligence test. People have one of these reactions: 1. Think the movie was hilarious. Did not get the message. The first group does not understand the movie is about them, the truly stupid people. 2. Think the movie was hilarious because they got the message. The second group is wannabe evil overlords. 3. Did not understand the movie and found only occasional humor. The third group is normal. They need a higher class of humor but did not understand the message. Please explain the message to these people. 4. Understood the movie. Found some humor, but mostly sad. This group includes all of my friends.
My parents had two children. The welfare family across the street had eight children. Almost no adults I respect have more than two children. Having two children only retains most of your genes for one generation. If you respect yourself and your spouse, you must have at least three children.
How would you propose to keep the meaning of my post without using the word "addiction"? I reread your post looking for positive contributions and failed. My post used the concept correctly, and no other word fit my meaning. You might try learning from sources other than South Park -- a cartoon with the poor language.
A habit is a regularly repeated pattern. An addiction is a habit with psychological or physiological causes and negative effects. A disease is a system of the body functioning incorrectly.
Only recently were young people taught that addictions should be considered diseases. Attempting to equate the two definitions caused your confusion. Addictions may be caused by diseases, learned behavior, bad parenting, predispositions, or stupidity.
American English does not have words to distinguish between heroin, caffeine, and game-playing addictions. Cravings are the physical portion of the desire. A dependency is the psychological portion of the desire. Obsessions are purely psychological and have no physical portion. None of these words reflect all the characteristics of an addiction.
I have stopped practicing several physical addictions. The last was cigarettes. A fingernail-biting habit was gained during the withdrawal process. This habit should disappear soon, and its only negative effect is annoying a girlfriend.
I still have a "one more turn" addiction to computer games. The addiction has a physical component so cannot be classified as just an obsession. No matter how important my alertness is necessary for tomorrow, I am incapable of exiting a game to leave time for sleep.
Your post does not mention your experience with computer games or addictions. Please delay your response until you have played a computer game for a minimum of 24 sequential hours AND stopped one major physical addiction of more than one year -- cigarettes, crack, or heroin would be good choices. Then offer alternatives rather than attempt to eliminate a concept from the language using techniques from "1984" or "Pravda".
The posted article's author used "ostensibly" meaning "apparently" when a better choice is "hopefully". This is a Microsoft product -- no feature works as a sane person would expect. Another article explains: "A helpful notification will appear to warn the gamer when the session is nearing the end, and once the set time is over, the console will automatically turn-off."
I could not discover the duration between warning and shutdown. Is the duration configurable? Configured by game? Configurable until next save? Or save opportunity for games with limited opportunities for saving?
Does the timer distinguish school nights? A five-hour session desirable on Saturday morning (so parents can sleep) is not feasible on a school night.
The need for this feature was obvious soon after consoles became popular (early 1980s?). Realization was delayed because console manufacturers have little desire to reduce addiction to their products. Poor implementation and poor usability will reduce the long-term impact (losing the next generation of addicts) of providing such a good-for-marketing ("We care about children") feature.
This feature cannot relieve parents from monitoring children. This timer only affects gaming time. Timers for the games, television, and computers are not integrated so no total "screen" time limits can be electronically enforced.
A ten-year-old girl I know will switch between television and computer games. Limiting the computer game time increases her television time, and vice versa. If both options are removed, she will play or read in her room. None of her preferred activities include exercise.
This feature may be more useful for adults with "one more turn" addictions than a parental control.
I started reading Slashdot early in 1998. I finally joined because I wanted to improve the layout: filter the homepage and show threads properly. I used my first name for a UID in the 79000s. I deliberately used my company email address so the registration would not haunt my permanent email accounts. Nobody cared about UIDs. I was not posting so I did not care about karma.
I left that company in 2000. Returned to Slashdot the next year having forgotten my password. Waited a couple of months trying to remember before registering my current account. Slashdot posters had changed from mostly professionals to mostly college students, but moderation kept it readable.
Would others correct/complete the timeline of UIDs? 1998-01 1 1998-03 23,000 2001 600,000 2002 800,000 2005 980,000 2007 1,100,000
My anecdotes share my experience. Mike the CPA is also a DOD auditor and will find it very humorous that someone considered him being in an example as "name-dropping." The information explained that I consider my example people to be intelligent. While my friend is at a Fortune 500 company, I spent last year running the website of a Fortune 200 company. My reputation supports my words.
We are discussing consumer operating systems. Experience with "Windows-based networks" does not apply. Windows 98 SE was a great consumer operating system with good compatibility with consumer hardware and consumer software (and I am known for advocating that despite my experience with enterprise computers.) I trust computer novices to use Windows 98 SE without support calls. Only one virus touched a Windows 98 SE PC I support -- the owner had accidentally disabled ZoneAlarm. That compares favorably with scores of malware incidents with XP machines. (Yes, I am relating my experience again. You may dismiss it as anecdotal.)
Windows 2000 had limited hardware compatibility, limited software compatibility, and better security. I remember not being able to disable the login screen, but my experience with Windows 2000 at home was limited because Windows 98 SE was handling my Windows needs. OTOH, I have much experience with Windows 2000 in the enterprise where the security features are beneficial rather than annoying.
Thanks for supporting my position about Windows 2003. While you mention the differences seem minimal, you state Windows 2003 is your preference for a home workstation. Windows 98 still has 1% of the market. Windows 2003 is included in the 0.1% "unknown" category. You and I use Windows 2003. Tell people you think it is better than XP and Vista.
=== OFF-TOPIC: Who are you? I like your writing. The "bullshit" and "fictional" attacks on my post are not typical. Nothing I read implies you have enterprise experience; you usually write about music issues. Your name implies you are (or like) a hip-hop artist. You are a fellow guitarist. (I would be interested in your opinion of my music, but recording is still scheduled for "next year" -- no progress in 20 years.)
Do not believe the numbering. My recommendation (and the pricing mentioned earlier) is for Windows 2003 Server R2 Standard edition released in 2005. The OS should have been called Windows 2005 Server since upgrades from Windows 2003 Server R1 were not free.
Windows XP and 2003 both forked from Windows 2000. Microsoft's current development system uses desktop forks as experiments for the next server version.
Windows 3.1 -> Windows 95 -> Windows 98 -> Windows ME Windows NT 3.1 -> Windows NT 3.5 -> Windows NT 4.0 -> Windows 2000
Windows 2000 -> Windows XP Windows 2000 -> Windows 2003 Server
Windows 2003 Server -> Windows Vista Windows 2003 Server -> Windows 2008 Server
Microsoft handles server releases different than desktop releases. Desktop release dates are decided by marketing. Servers are released "when done." No bad servers have been released since NT 3.5 was quickly replaced by NT 3.5.1.
This post is responding to an AC post likely to be modded to oblivion. I had learned to ignore them, but felt more information might be useful. Hopefully, this post is informative enough to avoid that fate.
My "average businesspeople" do not run Windows XP with administrator rights. I know three people successfully attacked by malware in the last two months. Two do not know the Administrator password because their companies' IT policies are strict. All three are in responsible positions and avoid obvious spam. One reports directly to the Directors of a Fortune 500 company. Another is a CPA finishing a law degree; he was attacked while researching a legal case.
In spite of your poor communication skills, you claim the sense to practice safe computing, but give no basis for judging me. I (painfully) remember Windows 2.0. I do not install protection software on my PCs, yet my computers have never been successfully attacked by malware. I scan MSWord files. My sense is valuable, not common, as proven by my career.
I know many people happy with XP. Ignorance is bliss. XP was designed poorly. Microsoft has written a better operating system, and so my previous post recommends Windows 2003.
Why is everyone comparing XP and Vista as if they were Microsoft's only operating systems?
Windows 98 SE is the second-best version so far. Requires patching for current hard drives (>60GB) and processors (>2.1Ghz). Requires Mozilla and ZoneAlarm for security. Unavailable for purchase and unsupported since July 2006, but included here as the previous benchmark.
Windows 2000 did not have driver support for gamers.
Windows XP is a security hole disguised as an OS. Six years of constant patching and constant vigilance by techies installing much "protection from malware" software cannot prevent the average businessperson from being infected at least annually.
Windows Vista is still in development. The OS is incredibly buggy and should only be used by masochists.
Windows 2003 is the current best version. The OS has all the benefits available in any version of Windows. The negative is the poor pricing model: $999 for first 5 licenses, $199 for each additional 5 licenses. Buying one license is expensive, but twenty are only $79.80 each, less expensive than the least expensive version of Vista ($89.95 for Windows Vista Basic Upgrade.)
If you need Microsoft Windows, team with a large number of people to buy Windows 2003 licenses in bulk.
Copyright law before the collapse of the Soviet Union: - All copyrights created in the Soviet Union are owned by the government. - All other copyrights are owned by the government in the Soviet Union. - These laws do not apply to Tetris.
Copyright law since the collapse: - All copyrights are owned by whomever can find them in the files of the bureaucracy formerly known as the government of the Soviet Union. - This law does not apply to Tetris.
=== Beyond the humor, does anybody know anything about Russian copyright laws? Do they have any? If so, how do they handle copyrighted material from other countries? If they have escaped the Berne Convention by dissolving their government, can they stay free? Can we (the U.S.) use the same method to escape? Even if Russia signs/has signed the Berne Convention, can they apply for the "Developing Country" exemption clauses?
[Please wait for research...]
Unfortunately, Russia surrendered to the Berne Convention in March, 1995. The U.S surrendered in 1988 (effective in 1989). Brunei is the latest victim; they are not afflicted with the terms of the Berne Convention until August.
OT: Any country may denounce the Berne Convention 5 years after it is in force, with the expiration of force taking effect 1 year after the official denounciation. Can I send the notification on behalf of the U.S.?
I could not find a list of countries taking advantage of the "Developing Country" clauses, but the clauses seem to have expired on Jan 1, 2006.
Applying this to the discussion, Russian copyright law must include the awful terms of the Berne Convention, so Allofmp3 must respect the copyrights of creators in the United Kingdom (founding member, 1887). From the article, Allofmp3 states it complies by paying royalties to 2 Russian organizations. The issue is those organization do not have the right to license works from other countries, and are not paying any royalties outside Russia.
Sometimes I'm not sure what IBM is thinking. I don't "get" this campaign. IBM is spending $300M on a campaign to convince customers to switch from MS' propietary to their propietary message product?
Umm. What do you expect? They have a product. They're advertising it. This is shocking?
Yes. IBM has been extremely reluctant to market Domino. The last effort was in 1999 when Lotus Notes 6 was released. Lotus Notes 6.5 and 7 have since been released with almost no marketing.
Lotus Notes is an Application Server, but it has no entries in the "Application Server" category, even though "Distributed Application & Web Server" is the definition of Domino. Notes is still the best software for distributing and maintaining code and content amongst thousands of servers and often disconnected clients.
Lotus Notes is great for "Business Integration", either with the standard DECS (Domino Enterprise Connectivity Service) or the optional LEI (Lotus Enterprise Integrator). None of this software is listed under "Business Integration". The Notes client integrates with MSOffice and DDE and most any software used in business.
Lotus Notes practically invented "Content Management" (information maintained by people outside the computer priesthood). The category mentions a Lotus product, but not Notes.
Databases are the basic units in Notes, but Lotus Notes is not mentioned under "Databases". IBM is scared because Notes databases can be created by normal people, and easy computing reduces the need for their consulting services.
Domino has central identity management, was the first public software product using public/private keys, and includes an LDAP server. There is no mention of Domino under "Identity Management".
IBM does not understand Lotus Notes. When it does remember Notes, it tries to chop it up to add to Websphere. Now they are marketing it for email. At least they are marketing it.
1. What content do I have or expect to have? (web pages? documents? discussion forums? image galleries?)
Modern CMS are all web-based. Even Lotus Notes provides much of its functionality through a browser. (Lotus Notes is probably the oldest CMS still being developed, but it is proprietary and commercial. I mention it as the baseline that all younger CMSes are trying to reproduce.) Any decent CMS software should handle discussion forums (now called blogs), and file repositories (for image galleries, but also PDFs and other files.)
2. Where does this content come from? (departments? users? myself? Internet sources? databases? third-party apps?)
Most content is input by users. During setup, there is usually a batch migration. A good platform should be able to pull data from other programs. Lotus Notes has LEI to transfer data between most programs. Apache Lenya can pull XML from any URL.
3. How should the system manage this content? (workflows? editors? fine-grained access control?)
I think security should be a top priority for all software (but do not tell MS.) Lotus Notes has the ultimate system; total security at every level. Apache Lenya can set security on each content file; if you need different security on different parts of a document, cut the document into pieces and let Lenya put them together again.
4. How should this content be displayed? (xhtml/css? pdf? print/paper? cell phones? xml? rss?)
All CMS platforms should be able to output any format. Convert to XML (or in Lenya's case, store everything as XML), then apply a stylesheet.
5. How much separation of content and design do you require?
The usual. Do not let the end users touch the design. Developers should not need to touch the content. Only the smallest sites created for job security of the developers would mix content and design.
6. How extensible should the CMS be? (in-house development? modular? out-sourced development? completely opensource?)
This depends on who you are. As a consultant, sometimes I lock the code, sometimes the customer gets everything.
Lotus Notes is extremely extensible. I can give applications to the customer. We can hide the code; it depends on the contract.
Apache Lenya is completely open source. Everything is readable, and everything is extensible. The only method to hide the code is to host the software ourselves.
7. What are the administrative requirements? (*nix? mysql/postgresql? apache? php? python?)
Lotus Notes and Apache Lenya run on *nix and MSWindows. Both have easy installers for MSWindows. Both are pretty easy to install on *nux. Both can easily be proxied by Apache httpd. Lotus Notes includes a proprietary document-based database. Apache Lenya 1.2 uses XML on the file system. Apache Lenya 1.4 will use Jackrabbit, Apache's Java Content Repository (JCR) for XML.
CMS tend to low quantity, usually less than 10,000 documents. If you need more, the content usually needs to be segregated better. Lotus Notes 5 performs well to 50,000 records; newer releases can handle more. Apache Lenya 1.2 uses the file system, so should handle very large quantities. Apache Lenya 1.4 will use Jackrabbit; I know the developers are performance testing with over 10,000 children of one document, so it should scale very well.
8. What is the anticipated load and can the CMS manage that? (quite different from a 5,000 hits/day site vs 20,000,000 hits/day)
I have websites on both Lotus Notes and Apache Lenya that receive 5000 hits/day. For 20,000,000 hits/day, you will use caching servers in front of the CMS. The CMS is for managing the content; nobody edits 20,000,000 documents in one day.
9. What is the estimated lifetime of the website? What changes to the site are forseeable and should be considered?
Always plan for forever. All software has a tendency to be used long after any initial expectations. If the software
Keeping everything simple for the end user should be every developers' top priority.
The most critical feature for our choice of a CMS was the interface for the content editors. My customer is a small company. The content editor was basically a secretary with few technical skills. I could program anything, but the editing interface had to be simple to use. (The second critical feature was the price. Part of the reason we won the contract was the budget did not include any commercial software.)
We chose Apache Lenya. It comes with two editors: Kupu and BitFlux, and there are several others that integrate easily. We chose to standardize on Kupu because the interface looks like MSWord. (It also has a "View Source" button so I can fix whatever the editor breaks.) There were a few support calls in the first month, but a one page cheat sheet solved that. A new editor took over, and the only support call was for a copy of the cheat sheet.
Apache Lenya is Java-based, but most website and application development is done in XML and XSL.
Processing of requests is handled by Cocoon's XMAPs, which is XML that decides which "pipeline" matches the requests, aggregates XML files, does XSL transformations, and "serializes" it as a HTML response. It is relatively easy to see the current results so you know exactly what XML you are processing.
Presentation is handled by XSL. Lenya provides several standard navigation elements such as menus (tree and tabbed) and breadcrumbs. Use XSL to place them in the HTML. You could use XSL for formatting, but most Lenya sites use CSS.
Form processing is usually handled by JavaScript (although simple stuff can be done with just the XMAPs and XSL.) The JavaScript typically uses the Java classes: all the declarations are "var", and the class names are prefixed with "Packages.".
Occasionally you use XSP as an XML Generator. XSP uses Java within XML. I use an XSP of 8 lines to add today's date to the XML.
You can program in Java. You have access to all the code in Cocoon and Lenya, and most applications can use the code provided by those projects, but you can write Java for that one thing you just must have.
Most of the posts suggest learning either language will teach similar concepts. While that may be true, the important part of the parent post was: As far as post-college job opportunities, corporations use both (but each corporation tends to focus on one or the other). Perhaps you should do a little local research to see which language/class library is in more demand where you live. I have plenty of consulting friends in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area that focus on each and who are all gainfully under contract (although C# experts are in slightly more demand and can get higher bill rates, unless you're a J2EE expert).
In the Philadelphia area, a good Java programmer bills higher than any MS technologist, but the demand for.Net programmers is much higher than Java programmers.
Very few employers (maybe none) realize programming skills transfer between languages. The job requirement says "3 years of C#", and nobody with 10 years of Java but no C# will be considered.
Learn C# if you want to be hired directly from college. You will have a job until MS changes its languages. A MS language is good for about 6 years, and C# is still new.
Learn Java if you want to learn a stable language with higher potential earnings but less opportunities. You can make twice what the MS techies make, but you will have to look longer and harder to have any job.
== My opinion is pick the language that fits your personality.
MS is "easy". It allows many programming concepts that violate what the theorists say is good, making it easy to write really poor software. Even if you write good code, the other team members usually believe "It worked, so it must be good", regardless of the actual quality. My objection is you rarely know if a bug is your code, or just a MS flaw. One reason employers insist you know THIS language is because much of programming MS is knowing the workarounds for flaws in the platform.
Java requires more thought about design. The software must follow good practices. You can read deeper into the code to understand what is causing a bug. Most bugs are your fault because you did not understand how the platform was designed. The planned usage expects good design, and learning what was expected raises your awareness of side-effects, improving your ability and the software. This annoys many programmers because they must deal with every possible Exception. It produces better software, but it may not fit your personality. (That said, a recent Java project had a lead developer who managed to create spahetti code using Java/WebSphere/J2EE. It was the worst mess I have seen in any programming language. Picking Java does not guarantee better programmers, but it does improve the odds.)
We launched a website for a global company on Monday. For years, we have had basic one-page websites running under Apache, but this was our first large website using Apache httpd, and the first time we needed more than virtual hosts pointing at a directories of static files.
We upgraded to Apache2.1 (beta) to get Cookie Domain rewriting.
mod_rewrite is fun, but it only helps with requests. We need to rewrite the A tags so the links are better. This is basic functionality I wrote into "my first web server" in the late 90s (and it handled rewriting URLS almost everywhere. It even tried to rewrite JavaScript functions.)
We have not figured out how to install mod_proxy_html. The module has been available for 4 years, but there are no instructions on the web for how to install it. If the current module does not fit Apache's license, it should be easy to rewrite.
We also tried mod_publisher, but that is only available as an.so, and would require updating glibc. (Our OS is rather old, and we cannot upgrade it.)
I expected Apache httpd, the most popular web server in the world, to have that functionality since 1993. Cookie and Header rewriting are finally being added. Link rewriting is still not included. Was I expecting too much?
Thanks for confirming someone else had the same issue. (I was not the person contacted.)
I do not think Microsoft goes out of its way to cause incompatiblities with older versions of third-party software. I am not even surprised that an OS security patch caused problems for a security add-on product. It was the severity of the result (a non-booting PC) that caused me to post about it.
Win98 (aka Wintendo) was good for games and the home user before broadband...it has no place in the Corporate environment. Agreed, but I feel the same about WinXP.
Features like NTFS and kerberos (neither of which are natively supported on Win9x) do help security. If you are stuck with MSWindows on laptops, NTFS is required for hard drive security in case of theft. I was talking about desktops, but you have a good point.
(I try to forget laptops exist unless a project includes them. I must have a full-size keyboard and a large monitor to be productive. HP's zd series are the only laptops I like, and there weren't drivers for any *nix for them when I last checked.)
the W2K & XP kernels are NOT based on WinX and are more secure. MS said WinXP is more secure than Win9x, but it seems like WinXP was their gift to malmare writers. I read metrics that WinXP had tied Win9x for number of computers around 2003, but even as Win9x lost its crown and XP SP2 was old news, WinXP was responsible for most of the virus news.
There are no Windows98 patches in this week's batch. My WindowsUpdate history lists 10 patches for Win98SE since this PC was installed in 2003. None of them were a "cumulative" patch like SP2, although "Second Edition" might be comparable, so start there. How many patches have there been for WindowsXP SP2? (I do not know and am interested. Would someone using WinXP SP2 check their WindowsUpdate history and report back?)
I should have been more specific. By "old version of ZoneAlarm", I meant the latest download on Nov 20, 2004: version 5.5.062. The current version downloaded on July 10 is 5.5.094.
I do not know if ZoneLabs fixed something to beat MS, or whether the uninstall/reinstall fixed whatever WindowsUpdate ruined. It won't matter to anyone who's computer is broken by WindowsUpdate.
Win98SE is the best OS produced by MS. Add ZoneAlarm, Mozilla, OpenOffice, and some smarts in the user, and you have a rather secure computer. I do not like MS's later versions. WinME was an abortion. Win2K could not run older programs or use older drivers. WinXP cannot be made secure; MS has been patching at least monthly since it released, and every month they find several new flaws. Win98SE does not like more than 512MB RAM; WinXP does not like less than 2GB RAM. I have no metrics, but after replacing WinXP with Win98SE on may computers, every user has said their computer runs between 4 and 10 times faster. The only programs that I am aware run on WinXP, but not Win98, are SpiderSolitaire and a database server; I am almost certain they would work if they did not check the OS during launch.
IMO, people who care, but must have a MS OS, use Win98SE. Older is not necessarily worse. How many servers were still running RH6 when the main trunk was renamed Fedora. I worked on a RH7.2 production server last week; some of the software is not certified on later versions, and the company will not take a chance upgrading.
=== Answering the other responses: ZoneAlarm beats Norton in every security groups tests. Search for some reviews from your favorite secuirty website.
Most of the people still running windows 98 are not computer literate enough to be using a firewall Most of the people still running Win98 are doing so deliberately. The ignorant are running the WinXP that came with their new computer, along with spyware and other malware they picked up from close contact with the zillion other computers on the Internet.
Shouldn't that read, "ZoneAlarm on Win98 freezes PC?" ZoneAlarm worked great for years. It was WindowsUpdate that broke my PC. If a mechanic installs a new starter and the engine won't start, you don't blame the spark plugs, even if installing new plugs makes it work.
The last set of patches from WindowsUpdate: - Security Update for Windows 98 (KB891711) - Security Update for Windows 98 (KB888113) - Security Update for Windows 98 (KB896358) - Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 (KB883939) freeze MS Windows 98SE when older versions of ZoneAlarm start. Uninstalling the old version and installing the lastest ZoneAlarm works.
The problem is most people have ZoneAlarm set to start at boot, and do not know how to bypass ZoneAlarm to get the computer booted so they can fix it.
My guess is since Microsoft is selling its own personal firewall, they will take every opportunity to hurt ZoneAlarm. Or they just wanted to generate PC sales from all those people whose computers are now "broken". Hey, they should have paid for newer versions of Windows many times since Windows98SE was released.
Microsoft doesn't "understand" Open Source MS is the company that killed open source.
Before MS, the hardware vendors ruled. Software sold hardware, and was shared freely. People mailed tapes, and source code was published in magazines. The big debate was whether anyone would pay for something that could be copied so easily.
MS proved they would. And yes, that required more marketing than programming. Nobody ever admired MS's software if they had knowledge of any alternatives. But MS's marketing department is incredible, because it had to be.
"Free Software" was a backlash against a world where code was hidden, trying to regain the sharing of the ancient days of computers. "Open Source" is a modern reinterpretation designed to make FSS acceptable to business.
Yes, MS understands "Open Source". It is their worst nightmare, their original enemy reincarnated and ready to fight.
Innovation MS uses the word to mean "stealing and marketing to defeat competitors". It does not mean "inventive". It does not mean "original". It means waiting for someone to show something can be sold, and then doing just enough to claim that something for marketing purposes. And yes, MS is the best in the world at "innovation".
Ballmer: Did IBM out innovate us? I don't think so. IBM does not innovate. IBM invents. Even IBM's attempts to take control of Java are done by inventing new libraries of functionality that become the standards. IBM did not "extend" Java so it only works on their machines. IBM did not "replace" Java with J++ or C#. They created add-ons acceptable to everybody.
OK Cancel dialog boxes are bad. They are only used because some OS and platform vendors made them easy, and most programmers are too lazy or unaware of interface design to do it correctly. Any decent desktop platform should make the call: dialogbox(introduction, button1text, [button2text, [button3text, [...]]])
The platform decides the height and width of the dialogbox and the buttons based on the contents. Button placement is decided by the button texts: if several button texts are short, they are placed in a horizontal row. Return value is the number of the button pushed.
This makes the platform simpler with only one dialogbox function for any number of buttons. It encourages developers to make the buttons meaningful. And consumers read the buttons rather than "click OK" because every dialogbox is different.
Bad: Are you certain you want to give away $1 million? [OK] [Cancel]
Good: [Give away $1 million] [Let me try something else]
Microsoft paid a dividend because: 1. The stock had flatlined and was starting to crash. Paying a dividend helped keep it stable while MS initiated a buyback program. 2. Bill realized MS will fold in his lifetime, probably within a decade. Of the $10 billion distributed, $1 billion went to him. That should provide a nice retirement.
About the fine: MS would rather pay it than hurt their business by doing what the EU want. It could become a standardized and legal bribe for the EU to leave MS alone. How much will an extra $1.8 billion/year affect the EU budget? How much is it worth for MS to continue business as usual?
In a world where nearly everyone uses Windows, the idea of a machine - including a government-owned machine - being totally open to intruders is hardly novel. It is only too believable.
Sorry to disagree, but I think it was the reverse.
It was 1977, and a still impressionable Bill the Nerd saw the original Star Wars and had an epiphany: "So all computer technology must have vulnerabilities!"
That one event explains ActiveX being designed after the vulnerable nature of the Internet was already explicitly obvious, and MSWindows being a security nightmare after various Unixes demonstrated how file access control should work.
I was careful to include samples where the copyright owner could be verified.
#1. The copyright owner of a popular song will be registered with the USPTO and ASCAP.
#2. Wait until the book is published, and check the copyright page.
#3. Depends on the software. If it is released, then check the copyrights. If it not released, then steal with impunity. It takes a really good computer scientist to identify that two programs use the same code without the source code of both.
#4. Assume anything that is not attributed to someone else is original work.
It would not be economical for AOL to review everything passing through their networks. Better would be to check for famous subscribers. But they've promised to fix this clause on Tuesday.
What does AOL being a giant multi-billion dollar company have to do with this?
Case 1: Mr. Aspiring Songwriter writes a song, and asks some friends for their opinions. He sends the lyrics and an MP3 to friends using his AOL email and/or AIM. The song becomes big a year later. AOL searches their records, and finds he used the AOL network to transfer the work. According to this license, AOL may now: - publish the song on the internet, - include the song on CD, - use the song in a movie, - use the song in advertisements, and - have their current boyband record it without ever giving any compensation to the Mr. A.S.
Case 2: Mr. Writer works on his book or movie script. He sends each chapter to his agent from his AOL email. AOL can use his work without compensation.
Case 3: Mr. Small Business writes software. His team uses AIM to discuss the code being developed. AOL may use any of the code transferred on their network for any purpose without compensation.
Case 4: Mrs. Sporting Goods owns a small store. It does not have an e-commerce website; her AOL email address is enough for the few online orders. One of her customers becomes famous. AOL may publish information about the athlete's purchases and any concerns discussed in her emails. (They may have difficulty justifying the use of the athlete's emails, unless the athlete also used AOL software.)
If this license was used by a small private business, the materials collected could soon become the most valuable resource of the business. AOL is already part of a major media conglomerate, and the threat of using all meterials transferred on their network without compensation is real. AOL's music and movie divisions should be drooling over the ability to find free resources.
Slashdot Mirror
"Idiocracy" is a personality/intelligence test. People have one of these reactions:
1. Think the movie was hilarious. Did not get the message. The first group does not understand the movie is about them, the truly stupid people.
2. Think the movie was hilarious because they got the message. The second group is wannabe evil overlords.
3. Did not understand the movie and found only occasional humor. The third group is normal. They need a higher class of humor but did not understand the message. Please explain the message to these people.
4. Understood the movie. Found some humor, but mostly sad. This group includes all of my friends.
My parents had two children. The welfare family across the street had eight children. Almost no adults I respect have more than two children. Having two children only retains most of your genes for one generation. If you respect yourself and your spouse, you must have at least three children.
How would you propose to keep the meaning of my post without using the word "addiction"? I reread your post looking for positive contributions and failed. My post used the concept correctly, and no other word fit my meaning. You might try learning from sources other than South Park -- a cartoon with the poor language.
A habit is a regularly repeated pattern.
An addiction is a habit with psychological or physiological causes and negative effects.
A disease is a system of the body functioning incorrectly.
Only recently were young people taught that addictions should be considered diseases. Attempting to equate the two definitions caused your confusion. Addictions may be caused by diseases, learned behavior, bad parenting, predispositions, or stupidity.
American English does not have words to distinguish between heroin, caffeine, and game-playing addictions. Cravings are the physical portion of the desire. A dependency is the psychological portion of the desire. Obsessions are purely psychological and have no physical portion. None of these words reflect all the characteristics of an addiction.
I have stopped practicing several physical addictions. The last was cigarettes. A fingernail-biting habit was gained during the withdrawal process. This habit should disappear soon, and its only negative effect is annoying a girlfriend.
I still have a "one more turn" addiction to computer games. The addiction has a physical component so cannot be classified as just an obsession. No matter how important my alertness is necessary for tomorrow, I am incapable of exiting a game to leave time for sleep.
Your post does not mention your experience with computer games or addictions. Please delay your response until you have played a computer game for a minimum of 24 sequential hours AND stopped one major physical addiction of more than one year -- cigarettes, crack, or heroin would be good choices. Then offer alternatives rather than attempt to eliminate a concept from the language using techniques from "1984" or "Pravda".
The posted article's author used "ostensibly" meaning "apparently" when a better choice is "hopefully". This is a Microsoft product -- no feature works as a sane person would expect. Another article explains:
"A helpful notification will appear to warn the gamer when the session is nearing the end, and once the set time is over, the console will automatically turn-off."
I could not discover the duration between warning and shutdown. Is the duration configurable? Configured by game? Configurable until next save? Or save opportunity for games with limited opportunities for saving?
Does the timer distinguish school nights? A five-hour session desirable on Saturday morning (so parents can sleep) is not feasible on a school night.
The need for this feature was obvious soon after consoles became popular (early 1980s?). Realization was delayed because console manufacturers have little desire to reduce addiction to their products. Poor implementation and poor usability will reduce the long-term impact (losing the next generation of addicts) of providing such a good-for-marketing ("We care about children") feature.
This feature cannot relieve parents from monitoring children. This timer only affects gaming time. Timers for the games, television, and computers are not integrated so no total "screen" time limits can be electronically enforced.
A ten-year-old girl I know will switch between television and computer games. Limiting the computer game time increases her television time, and vice versa. If both options are removed, she will play or read in her room. None of her preferred activities include exercise.
This feature may be more useful for adults with "one more turn" addictions than a parental control.
I started reading Slashdot early in 1998. I finally joined because I wanted to improve the layout: filter the homepage and show threads properly. I used my first name for a UID in the 79000s. I deliberately used my company email address so the registration would not haunt my permanent email accounts. Nobody cared about UIDs. I was not posting so I did not care about karma.
I left that company in 2000. Returned to Slashdot the next year having forgotten my password. Waited a couple of months trying to remember before registering my current account. Slashdot posters had changed from mostly professionals to mostly college students, but moderation kept it readable.
Would others correct/complete the timeline of UIDs?
1998-01 1
1998-03 23,000
2001 600,000
2002 800,000
2005 980,000
2007 1,100,000
My anecdotes share my experience. Mike the CPA is also a DOD auditor and will find it very humorous that someone considered him being in an example as "name-dropping." The information explained that I consider my example people to be intelligent. While my friend is at a Fortune 500 company, I spent last year running the website of a Fortune 200 company. My reputation supports my words.
We are discussing consumer operating systems. Experience with "Windows-based networks" does not apply. Windows 98 SE was a great consumer operating system with good compatibility with consumer hardware and consumer software (and I am known for advocating that despite my experience with enterprise computers.) I trust computer novices to use Windows 98 SE without support calls. Only one virus touched a Windows 98 SE PC I support -- the owner had accidentally disabled ZoneAlarm. That compares favorably with scores of malware incidents with XP machines. (Yes, I am relating my experience again. You may dismiss it as anecdotal.)
Windows 2000 had limited hardware compatibility, limited software compatibility, and better security. I remember not being able to disable the login screen, but my experience with Windows 2000 at home was limited because Windows 98 SE was handling my Windows needs. OTOH, I have much experience with Windows 2000 in the enterprise where the security features are beneficial rather than annoying.
Thanks for supporting my position about Windows 2003. While you mention the differences seem minimal, you state Windows 2003 is your preference for a home workstation. Windows 98 still has 1% of the market. Windows 2003 is included in the 0.1% "unknown" category. You and I use Windows 2003. Tell people you think it is better than XP and Vista.
===
OFF-TOPIC: Who are you? I like your writing. The "bullshit" and "fictional" attacks on my post are not typical. Nothing I read implies you have enterprise experience; you usually write about music issues. Your name implies you are (or like) a hip-hop artist. You are a fellow guitarist. (I would be interested in your opinion of my music, but recording is still scheduled for "next year" -- no progress in 20 years.)
Do not believe the numbering. My recommendation (and the pricing mentioned earlier) is for Windows 2003 Server R2 Standard edition released in 2005. The OS should have been called Windows 2005 Server since upgrades from Windows 2003 Server R1 were not free.
Windows XP and 2003 both forked from Windows 2000. Microsoft's current development system uses desktop forks as experiments for the next server version.
Windows 3.1 -> Windows 95 -> Windows 98 -> Windows ME
Windows NT 3.1 -> Windows NT 3.5 -> Windows NT 4.0 -> Windows 2000
Windows 2000 -> Windows XP
Windows 2000 -> Windows 2003 Server
Windows 2003 Server -> Windows Vista
Windows 2003 Server -> Windows 2008 Server
Microsoft handles server releases different than desktop releases. Desktop release dates are decided by marketing. Servers are released "when done." No bad servers have been released since NT 3.5 was quickly replaced by NT 3.5.1.
This post is responding to an AC post likely to be modded to oblivion. I had learned to ignore them, but felt more information might be useful. Hopefully, this post is informative enough to avoid that fate.
My "average businesspeople" do not run Windows XP with administrator rights. I know three people successfully attacked by malware in the last two months. Two do not know the Administrator password because their companies' IT policies are strict. All three are in responsible positions and avoid obvious spam. One reports directly to the Directors of a Fortune 500 company. Another is a CPA finishing a law degree; he was attacked while researching a legal case.
In spite of your poor communication skills, you claim the sense to practice safe computing, but give no basis for judging me. I (painfully) remember Windows 2.0. I do not install protection software on my PCs, yet my computers have never been successfully attacked by malware. I scan MSWord files. My sense is valuable, not common, as proven by my career.
I know many people happy with XP. Ignorance is bliss. XP was designed poorly. Microsoft has written a better operating system, and so my previous post recommends Windows 2003.
Before this thread, my last post was over 14 months ago. Thank you for the very warm welcome back. I think your name is rather appropriate, but you will need to choose another to join this community.
Why is everyone comparing XP and Vista as if they were Microsoft's only operating systems?
Windows 98 SE is the second-best version so far. Requires patching for current hard drives (>60GB) and processors (>2.1Ghz). Requires Mozilla and ZoneAlarm for security. Unavailable for purchase and unsupported since July 2006, but included here as the previous benchmark.
Windows 2000 did not have driver support for gamers.
Windows XP is a security hole disguised as an OS. Six years of constant patching and constant vigilance by techies installing much "protection from malware" software cannot prevent the average businessperson from being infected at least annually.
Windows Vista is still in development. The OS is incredibly buggy and should only be used by masochists.
Windows 2003 is the current best version. The OS has all the benefits available in any version of Windows. The negative is the poor pricing model: $999 for first 5 licenses, $199 for each additional 5 licenses. Buying one license is expensive, but twenty are only $79.80 each, less expensive than the least expensive version of Vista ($89.95 for Windows Vista Basic Upgrade.)
If you need Microsoft Windows, team with a large number of people to buy Windows 2003 licenses in bulk.
Copyright law before the collapse of the Soviet Union:
- All copyrights created in the Soviet Union are owned by the government.
- All other copyrights are owned by the government in the Soviet Union.
- These laws do not apply to Tetris.
Copyright law since the collapse:
- All copyrights are owned by whomever can find them in the files of the bureaucracy formerly known as the government of the Soviet Union.
- This law does not apply to Tetris.
===
Beyond the humor, does anybody know anything about Russian copyright laws? Do they have any? If so, how do they handle copyrighted material from other countries? If they have escaped the Berne Convention by dissolving their government, can they stay free? Can we (the U.S.) use the same method to escape? Even if Russia signs/has signed the Berne Convention, can they apply for the "Developing Country" exemption clauses?
[Please wait for research...]
Unfortunately, Russia surrendered to the Berne Convention in March, 1995. The U.S surrendered in 1988 (effective in 1989). Brunei is the latest victim; they are not afflicted with the terms of the Berne Convention until August.
OT: Any country may denounce the Berne Convention 5 years after it is in force, with the expiration of force taking effect 1 year after the official denounciation. Can I send the notification on behalf of the U.S.?
I could not find a list of countries taking advantage of the "Developing Country" clauses, but the clauses seem to have expired on Jan 1, 2006.
Applying this to the discussion, Russian copyright law must include the awful terms of the Berne Convention, so Allofmp3 must respect the copyrights of creators in the United Kingdom (founding member, 1887). From the article, Allofmp3 states it complies by paying royalties to 2 Russian organizations. The issue is those organization do not have the right to license works from other countries, and are not paying any royalties outside Russia.
Sometimes I'm not sure what IBM is thinking. I don't "get" this campaign. IBM is spending $300M on a campaign to convince customers to switch from MS' propietary to their propietary message product?
Umm. What do you expect? They have a product. They're advertising it. This is shocking?
Yes. IBM has been extremely reluctant to market Domino. The last effort was in 1999 when Lotus Notes 6 was released. Lotus Notes 6.5 and 7 have since been released with almost no marketing.
Look at "IBM software by products by category":
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/sw-bycategory/
Lotus Notes is an Application Server, but it has no entries in the "Application Server" category, even though "Distributed Application & Web Server" is the definition of Domino. Notes is still the best software for distributing and maintaining code and content amongst thousands of servers and often disconnected clients.
Lotus Notes is great for "Business Integration", either with the standard DECS (Domino Enterprise Connectivity Service) or the optional LEI (Lotus Enterprise Integrator). None of this software is listed under "Business Integration". The Notes client integrates with MSOffice and DDE and most any software used in business.
Lotus Notes practically invented "Content Management" (information maintained by people outside the computer priesthood). The category mentions a Lotus product, but not Notes.
Databases are the basic units in Notes, but Lotus Notes is not mentioned under "Databases". IBM is scared because Notes databases can be created by normal people, and easy computing reduces the need for their consulting services.
Domino has central identity management, was the first public software product using public/private keys, and includes an LDAP server. There is no mention of Domino under "Identity Management".
IBM does not understand Lotus Notes. When it does remember Notes, it tries to chop it up to add to Websphere. Now they are marketing it for email. At least they are marketing it.
1. What content do I have or expect to have? (web pages? documents? discussion forums? image galleries?)
Modern CMS are all web-based. Even Lotus Notes provides much of its functionality through a browser. (Lotus Notes is probably the oldest CMS still being developed, but it is proprietary and commercial. I mention it as the baseline that all younger CMSes are trying to reproduce.) Any decent CMS software should handle discussion forums (now called blogs), and file repositories (for image galleries, but also PDFs and other files.)
2. Where does this content come from? (departments? users? myself? Internet sources? databases? third-party apps?)
Most content is input by users. During setup, there is usually a batch migration. A good platform should be able to pull data from other programs. Lotus Notes has LEI to transfer data between most programs. Apache Lenya can pull XML from any URL.
3. How should the system manage this content? (workflows? editors? fine-grained access control?)
I think security should be a top priority for all software (but do not tell MS.) Lotus Notes has the ultimate system; total security at every level. Apache Lenya can set security on each content file; if you need different security on different parts of a document, cut the document into pieces and let Lenya put them together again.
4. How should this content be displayed? (xhtml/css? pdf? print/paper? cell phones? xml? rss?)
All CMS platforms should be able to output any format. Convert to XML (or in Lenya's case, store everything as XML), then apply a stylesheet.
5. How much separation of content and design do you require?
The usual. Do not let the end users touch the design. Developers should not need to touch the content. Only the smallest sites created for job security of the developers would mix content and design.
6. How extensible should the CMS be? (in-house development? modular? out-sourced development? completely opensource?)
This depends on who you are. As a consultant, sometimes I lock the code, sometimes the customer gets everything.
Lotus Notes is extremely extensible. I can give applications to the customer. We can hide the code; it depends on the contract.
Apache Lenya is completely open source. Everything is readable, and everything is extensible. The only method to hide the code is to host the software ourselves.
7. What are the administrative requirements? (*nix? mysql/postgresql? apache? php? python?)
Lotus Notes and Apache Lenya run on *nix and MSWindows. Both have easy installers for MSWindows. Both are pretty easy to install on *nux. Both can easily be proxied by Apache httpd. Lotus Notes includes a proprietary document-based database. Apache Lenya 1.2 uses XML on the file system. Apache Lenya 1.4 will use Jackrabbit, Apache's Java Content Repository (JCR) for XML.
CMS tend to low quantity, usually less than 10,000 documents. If you need more, the content usually needs to be segregated better. Lotus Notes 5 performs well to 50,000 records; newer releases can handle more. Apache Lenya 1.2 uses the file system, so should handle very large quantities. Apache Lenya 1.4 will use Jackrabbit; I know the developers are performance testing with over 10,000 children of one document, so it should scale very well.
8. What is the anticipated load and can the CMS manage that? (quite different from a 5,000 hits/day site vs 20,000,000 hits/day)
I have websites on both Lotus Notes and Apache Lenya that receive 5000 hits/day. For 20,000,000 hits/day, you will use caching servers in front of the CMS. The CMS is for managing the content; nobody edits 20,000,000 documents in one day.
9. What is the estimated lifetime of the website? What changes to the site are forseeable and should be considered?
Always plan for forever. All software has a tendency to be used long after any initial expectations. If the software
Keeping everything simple for the end user should be every developers' top priority.
The most critical feature for our choice of a CMS was the interface for the content editors. My customer is a small company. The content editor was basically a secretary with few technical skills. I could program anything, but the editing interface had to be simple to use. (The second critical feature was the price. Part of the reason we won the contract was the budget did not include any commercial software.)
We chose Apache Lenya. It comes with two editors: Kupu and BitFlux, and there are several others that integrate easily. We chose to standardize on Kupu because the interface looks like MSWord. (It also has a "View Source" button so I can fix whatever the editor breaks.) There were a few support calls in the first month, but a one page cheat sheet solved that. A new editor took over, and the only support call was for a copy of the cheat sheet.
Apache Lenya is Java-based, but most website and application development is done in XML and XSL.
Processing of requests is handled by Cocoon's XMAPs, which is XML that decides which "pipeline" matches the requests, aggregates XML files, does XSL transformations, and "serializes" it as a HTML response. It is relatively easy to see the current results so you know exactly what XML you are processing.
Presentation is handled by XSL. Lenya provides several standard navigation elements such as menus (tree and tabbed) and breadcrumbs. Use XSL to place them in the HTML. You could use XSL for formatting, but most Lenya sites use CSS.
Form processing is usually handled by JavaScript (although simple stuff can be done with just the XMAPs and XSL.) The JavaScript typically uses the Java classes: all the declarations are "var", and the class names are prefixed with "Packages.".
Occasionally you use XSP as an XML Generator. XSP uses Java within XML. I use an XSP of 8 lines to add today's date to the XML.
You can program in Java. You have access to all the code in Cocoon and Lenya, and most applications can use the code provided by those projects, but you can write Java for that one thing you just must have.
Most of the posts suggest learning either language will teach similar concepts. While that may be true, the important part of the parent post was:
.Net programmers is much higher than Java programmers.
As far as post-college job opportunities, corporations use both (but each corporation tends to focus on one or the other). Perhaps you should do a little local research to see which language/class library is in more demand where you live. I have plenty of consulting friends in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area that focus on each and who are all gainfully under contract (although C# experts are in slightly more demand and can get higher bill rates, unless you're a J2EE expert).
In the Philadelphia area, a good Java programmer bills higher than any MS technologist, but the demand for
Very few employers (maybe none) realize programming skills transfer between languages. The job requirement says "3 years of C#", and nobody with 10 years of Java but no C# will be considered.
Learn C# if you want to be hired directly from college. You will have a job until MS changes its languages. A MS language is good for about 6 years, and C# is still new.
Learn Java if you want to learn a stable language with higher potential earnings but less opportunities. You can make twice what the MS techies make, but you will have to look longer and harder to have any job.
==
My opinion is pick the language that fits your personality.
MS is "easy". It allows many programming concepts that violate what the theorists say is good, making it easy to write really poor software. Even if you write good code, the other team members usually believe "It worked, so it must be good", regardless of the actual quality. My objection is you rarely know if a bug is your code, or just a MS flaw. One reason employers insist you know THIS language is because much of programming MS is knowing the workarounds for flaws in the platform.
Java requires more thought about design. The software must follow good practices. You can read deeper into the code to understand what is causing a bug. Most bugs are your fault because you did not understand how the platform was designed. The planned usage expects good design, and learning what was expected raises your awareness of side-effects, improving your ability and the software. This annoys many programmers because they must deal with every possible Exception. It produces better software, but it may not fit your personality. (That said, a recent Java project had a lead developer who managed to create spahetti code using Java/WebSphere/J2EE. It was the worst mess I have seen in any programming language. Picking Java does not guarantee better programmers, but it does improve the odds.)
We launched a website for a global company on Monday. For years, we have had basic one-page websites running under Apache, but this was our first large website using Apache httpd, and the first time we needed more than virtual hosts pointing at a directories of static files.
.so, and would require updating glibc. (Our OS is rather old, and we cannot upgrade it.)
We upgraded to Apache2.1 (beta) to get Cookie Domain rewriting.
mod_rewrite is fun, but it only helps with requests. We need to rewrite the A tags so the links are better. This is basic functionality I wrote into "my first web server" in the late 90s (and it handled rewriting URLS almost everywhere. It even tried to rewrite JavaScript functions.)
We have not figured out how to install mod_proxy_html. The module has been available for 4 years, but there are no instructions on the web for how to install it. If the current module does not fit Apache's license, it should be easy to rewrite.
We also tried mod_publisher, but that is only available as an
I expected Apache httpd, the most popular web server in the world, to have that functionality since 1993. Cookie and Header rewriting are finally being added. Link rewriting is still not included. Was I expecting too much?
Thanks for confirming someone else had the same issue. (I was not the person contacted.)
I do not think Microsoft goes out of its way to cause incompatiblities with older versions of third-party software. I am not even surprised that an OS security patch caused problems for a security add-on product. It was the severity of the result (a non-booting PC) that caused me to post about it.
Win98 (aka Wintendo) was good for games and the home user before broadband...it has no place in the Corporate environment.
Agreed, but I feel the same about WinXP.
Features like NTFS and kerberos (neither of which are natively supported on Win9x) do help security.
If you are stuck with MSWindows on laptops, NTFS is required for hard drive security in case of theft. I was talking about desktops, but you have a good point.
(I try to forget laptops exist unless a project includes them. I must have a full-size keyboard and a large monitor to be productive. HP's zd series are the only laptops I like, and there weren't drivers for any *nix for them when I last checked.)
the W2K & XP kernels are NOT based on WinX and are more secure.
MS said WinXP is more secure than Win9x, but it seems like WinXP was their gift to malmare writers. I read metrics that WinXP had tied Win9x for number of computers around 2003, but even as Win9x lost its crown and XP SP2 was old news, WinXP was responsible for most of the virus news.
There are no Windows98 patches in this week's batch. My WindowsUpdate history lists 10 patches for Win98SE since this PC was installed in 2003. None of them were a "cumulative" patch like SP2, although "Second Edition" might be comparable, so start there. How many patches have there been for WindowsXP SP2? (I do not know and am interested. Would someone using WinXP SP2 check their WindowsUpdate history and report back?)
I should have been more specific. By "old version of ZoneAlarm", I meant the latest download on Nov 20, 2004: version 5.5.062. The current version downloaded on July 10 is 5.5.094.
I do not know if ZoneLabs fixed something to beat MS, or whether the uninstall/reinstall fixed whatever WindowsUpdate ruined. It won't matter to anyone who's computer is broken by WindowsUpdate.
Win98SE is the best OS produced by MS. Add ZoneAlarm, Mozilla, OpenOffice, and some smarts in the user, and you have a rather secure computer. I do not like MS's later versions. WinME was an abortion. Win2K could not run older programs or use older drivers. WinXP cannot be made secure; MS has been patching at least monthly since it released, and every month they find several new flaws. Win98SE does not like more than 512MB RAM; WinXP does not like less than 2GB RAM. I have no metrics, but after replacing WinXP with Win98SE on may computers, every user has said their computer runs between 4 and 10 times faster. The only programs that I am aware run on WinXP, but not Win98, are SpiderSolitaire and a database server; I am almost certain they would work if they did not check the OS during launch.
IMO, people who care, but must have a MS OS, use Win98SE. Older is not necessarily worse. How many servers were still running RH6 when the main trunk was renamed Fedora. I worked on a RH7.2 production server last week; some of the software is not certified on later versions, and the company will not take a chance upgrading.
=== Answering the other responses:
ZoneAlarm beats Norton in every security groups tests. Search for some reviews from your favorite secuirty website.
Most of the people still running windows 98 are not computer literate enough to be using a firewall
Most of the people still running Win98 are doing so deliberately. The ignorant are running the WinXP that came with their new computer, along with spyware and other malware they picked up from close contact with the zillion other computers on the Internet.
Shouldn't that read, "ZoneAlarm on Win98 freezes PC?"
ZoneAlarm worked great for years. It was WindowsUpdate that broke my PC. If a mechanic installs a new starter and the engine won't start, you don't blame the spark plugs, even if installing new plugs makes it work.
The last set of patches from WindowsUpdate:
- Security Update for Windows 98 (KB891711)
- Security Update for Windows 98 (KB888113)
- Security Update for Windows 98 (KB896358)
- Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 (KB883939)
freeze MS Windows 98SE when older versions of ZoneAlarm start. Uninstalling the old version and installing the lastest ZoneAlarm works.
The problem is most people have ZoneAlarm set to start at boot, and do not know how to bypass ZoneAlarm to get the computer booted so they can fix it.
My guess is since Microsoft is selling its own personal firewall, they will take every opportunity to hurt ZoneAlarm. Or they just wanted to generate PC sales from all those people whose computers are now "broken". Hey, they should have paid for newer versions of Windows many times since Windows98SE was released.
I can't wait to install today's patches!
Microsoft doesn't "understand" Open Source
MS is the company that killed open source.
Before MS, the hardware vendors ruled. Software sold hardware, and was shared freely. People mailed tapes, and source code was published in magazines. The big debate was whether anyone would pay for something that could be copied so easily.
MS proved they would. And yes, that required more marketing than programming. Nobody ever admired MS's software if they had knowledge of any alternatives. But MS's marketing department is incredible, because it had to be.
"Free Software" was a backlash against a world where code was hidden, trying to regain the sharing of the ancient days of computers. "Open Source" is a modern reinterpretation designed to make FSS acceptable to business.
Yes, MS understands "Open Source". It is their worst nightmare, their original enemy reincarnated and ready to fight.
Innovation
MS uses the word to mean "stealing and marketing to defeat competitors". It does not mean "inventive". It does not mean "original". It means waiting for someone to show something can be sold, and then doing just enough to claim that something for marketing purposes. And yes, MS is the best in the world at "innovation".
Ballmer: Did IBM out innovate us? I don't think so.
IBM does not innovate. IBM invents. Even IBM's attempts to take control of Java are done by inventing new libraries of functionality that become the standards. IBM did not "extend" Java so it only works on their machines. IBM did not "replace" Java with J++ or C#. They created add-ons acceptable to everybody.
OK Cancel dialog boxes are bad. They are only used because some OS and platform vendors made them easy, and most programmers are too lazy or unaware of interface design to do it correctly. Any decent desktop platform should make the call:
dialogbox(introduction, button1text, [button2text, [button3text, [...]]])
The platform decides the height and width of the dialogbox and the buttons based on the contents. Button placement is decided by the button texts: if several button texts are short, they are placed in a horizontal row. Return value is the number of the button pushed.
This makes the platform simpler with only one dialogbox function for any number of buttons. It encourages developers to make the buttons meaningful. And consumers read the buttons rather than "click OK" because every dialogbox is different.
Bad:
Are you certain you want to give away $1 million?
[OK] [Cancel]
Good:
[Give away $1 million]
[Let me try something else]
Microsoft paid a dividend because:
1. The stock had flatlined and was starting to crash. Paying a dividend helped keep it stable while MS initiated a buyback program.
2. Bill realized MS will fold in his lifetime, probably within a decade. Of the $10 billion distributed, $1 billion went to him. That should provide a nice retirement.
About the fine: MS would rather pay it than hurt their business by doing what the EU want. It could become a standardized and legal bribe for the EU to leave MS alone. How much will an extra $1.8 billion/year affect the EU budget? How much is it worth for MS to continue business as usual?
In a world where nearly everyone uses Windows, the idea of a machine - including a government-owned machine - being totally open to intruders is hardly novel. It is only too believable.
Sorry to disagree, but I think it was the reverse.
It was 1977, and a still impressionable Bill the Nerd saw the original Star Wars and had an epiphany: "So all computer technology must have vulnerabilities!"
That one event explains ActiveX being designed after the vulnerable nature of the Internet was already explicitly obvious, and MSWindows being a security nightmare after various Unixes demonstrated how file access control should work.
I was careful to include samples where the copyright owner could be verified.
#1. The copyright owner of a popular song will be registered with the USPTO and ASCAP.
#2. Wait until the book is published, and check the copyright page.
#3. Depends on the software. If it is released, then check the copyrights. If it not released, then steal with impunity. It takes a really good computer scientist to identify that two programs use the same code without the source code of both.
#4. Assume anything that is not attributed to someone else is original work.
It would not be economical for AOL to review everything passing through their networks. Better would be to check for famous subscribers. But they've promised to fix this clause on Tuesday.
--
Bye. Going to the hospital now.
What does AOL being a giant multi-billion dollar company have to do with this?
Case 1:
Mr. Aspiring Songwriter writes a song, and asks some friends for their opinions. He sends the lyrics and an MP3 to friends using his AOL email and/or AIM. The song becomes big a year later. AOL searches their records, and finds he used the AOL network to transfer the work. According to this license, AOL may now:
- publish the song on the internet,
- include the song on CD,
- use the song in a movie,
- use the song in advertisements, and
- have their current boyband record it
without ever giving any compensation to the Mr. A.S.
Case 2:
Mr. Writer works on his book or movie script. He sends each chapter to his agent from his AOL email. AOL can use his work without compensation.
Case 3:
Mr. Small Business writes software. His team uses AIM to discuss the code being developed. AOL may use any of the code transferred on their network for any purpose without compensation.
Case 4:
Mrs. Sporting Goods owns a small store. It does not have an e-commerce website; her AOL email address is enough for the few online orders. One of her customers becomes famous. AOL may publish information about the athlete's purchases and any concerns discussed in her emails. (They may have difficulty justifying the use of the athlete's emails, unless the athlete also used AOL software.)
If this license was used by a small private business, the materials collected could soon become the most valuable resource of the business. AOL is already part of a major media conglomerate, and the threat of using all meterials transferred on their network without compensation is real. AOL's music and movie divisions should be drooling over the ability to find free resources.