I think that interchange goes something like this:
Spammer: Here's a loaded gun. Shoot me. You: Nah, who needs a bleedin' gun? Look, I've got a portable tactical nuclear warhead right here which will blow up all the spammers! I'll use that instead!
BOOOOOMMMMM
I dunno if I subscribe to the idea that to save something, you have to destroy it...
(note in the example that tactical nuclear warhead=slashdot)
Exactly. This is why we need to at least educate the user to some degree, so they aren't totally ignorant about their system. Finding a happy balance between Windows and Linux is going to be difficult, but I think it can be done.
There's no reason why we can't make GUI's as Mandrake has done in the Mandrake Control Center, which allows you to visually control the firewall/local security settings/local services, all in one handy graphical interface which is easy to use. I think a possibility is better descriptors of system process, not stuff like httpd for apache, and not xinetd for whatever it does (i'm still not sure), etc. etc. The only problem is, this can cause confusion, especially amongst experienced users; but I think there could be an option to enable or disable the newbie mode. (Gosh, That sounds like a really good idea...) I'm sure others could figure out stuff that would make it better too.
If we can make it easy for the user to configure the linux box, without having to have indepth knowledge of hacking config files and the CLI, then Linux will be highly accessible to most people, while still making them learn just enough about their computer so they aren't totally vulnerable.
I think one of the reasons people like Windows is that they just don't have time to learn about how to properly secure and configure the operating system. Windows says "Ok, you're the customer, you're always right..." and doesn't complain. Vendors of Linux distributions should realize that, and make it so that users can spend the minimum amount of time required to adequately secure their box, while still allowing the option for power users to configure the linux distro as they wish.
Like I said, I think it would be awesome if there was the ability to toggle newbie mode on and off. It would require a lot of work (a hell of a lot) but the result would be what Linux needs to be accessible to the masses.
Come on man, that is the most worthless example I've ever seen. What distro are you using? Obscuro-worthless 2.0?
Try using kde 3.2 that comes with mandrake 10. That has korganizer, kmail, and several other kde apps integrated into a common interface, which is REALLY REALLY nice IMO. One of the things I've wanted for kmail for a while, and the reason I was using Evolution before.
It works straight out of the box, just enter in your servers in your profile and you're ready to go. Try it out, you might like it...
Phew. That's a relief. I thought it was something more, I mean, they're spending so much time developing it, and lauding it as one of the primary benefits to using Windows Longhorn. Why is it something that really has no benefit to most people?
Oh wait, this is Microsoft we're talking about here.</snark>
And what do you think of that statement in the document that they were going to have the new version of Office require Microsoft Longhorn?
I will never use an office suite after Office 2000.
Wonderful. So when WinFS does get on the network, will linux be able to recognize it? What will become of Samba?
This seems like a not so sneaky move by Microsoft to shut out interoperability between linux and windows platforms. I am VERY glad therefore, that this is still 5 years off at the earliest.
Maybe we can start calling Blackcomb the Death Star.
OK I'm being a little extreme here, but if my company upgrades to Windows Blackcomb and I can't interoperate over a PPTP connection, I'll have to dump linux for my work... Which would really suck, now that I've got everything working so I CAN use linux for my job.
I really want to see where this is going. I don't know anything about the WinFS network formats, and if they will include the ability of backwards compatibility with other OS types on the network.
Listening to the train_entering_garage_240x180.mov, I think it sounds kind of cool. It reminds me of a spaceship sound from some scifi movie. I think maybe the one at high speed might be worse, but I can't really tell because the sound quality is so low for the ones where the train is going fast.
Anyway, here's the easiest solution I can think of to this problem of the high pitched noise: Don't live near the tracks if it bothers you!
Also, they could construct a dome around the tracks... Though that would cost a lot of money.
For a real solution, perhaps they could also try that method the guy at BYU used to reduce noise from cpu fans.
I vote that they attach large speakers all over the maglev trains, and play the tie fighter sound while they are going really fast. That'll teach 'em to complain about the noise!!
Clearplay scans movies for dodgy content, and then programs that data into its system.
Subscribers can then watch standard copies of the 500-or-so films on its list, with the assurance that they will automatically skip over mute anything that children or the squeamish may not like.
Until now, Clearplay has only run through a PC.
It does not use a heuristic. Clearplay has already screened the movie previously for offensive content and preprogrammed actions (i.e. skipping or bleeping).
Personally I don't like the idea of people trusting other people's judgment on what their kids should or shouldn't see in a movie. Seems a little Big Brother'ish.
I'm sure many parents will love this though. Now they can just sit their kids in front of the tube and not worry their little heads over whether their kids are seeing inappropriate material.
It's partly the fault of societal pressures (i.e. monetary), but really, what's the point of having kids if you just ignore them after they reach age 4 (sometimes even earlier?).
That's what it is! So, I should put my cd burner on a cable along with one of the drives? Man, I wish the ide cables were longer. There's so much space between my primary hd and the cd drives.
May need to reorganize the internals of my case. This has gotten seriously offtopic... but anyway. Thanks for the advice. I had always thought it was bad to have the cd burners on the same ata cable. I think that was the case a long time ago. Anyway, I'll experiment with stuff to see what works.
Hmm, I use reiserfs, could that have something to do with it?
I'm using a seagate 80gb and a WD 80gb SE, with 8mb buffer. In linux, hdparm -t/dev/hda and hdparm -t/dev/hdb both get upwards of 40 mb/s... But, transfers between the drives are consistently about 10 megs/s
It might be as you say, thanks for the tip. Might also be my motherboard... It's a rather low quality shuttle that replaced a busted ASUS board.
How long would that take to burn? Lesse... If we have standard 4x, that would mean 50gb in 20 minutes... which would mean, hmm..
50*1024=51200Mb
51200/(20*60)= ~43megs/second.
Wow. My hard drive can't even transfer over 10 megs per second to a second hard drive in my computer. I can see why this technology is still quite a far way off.... I would have to seriously upgrade my whole system if this came along even in a couple of years!
Why are they asking the U.S. to regulate cyber-security? Shouldn't they be asking a United Nations body? The internet is not, I repeat NOT limited to the United States, as much as we like to believe. So what if the U.S. starts regulating cyber-security? Does that mean that Britain, France, Germany, Japan, China (bwahaha), Africa, et. al. have to all abide by the same rules?
If they don't, what's the friggin' point?
Come on Microsoft, this is a really cheap-ass way of trying to get rid of Open Source competition... Go back into your cave!
The service would become ridiculously slow, and Gmail would move over to a paid subscription basis... Just like iDrive. Anyone else remember idrive?
I had an account there. It made transferring files from home to school so much easier. I was pretty sad when they got rid of the free accounts. It's been a few years since I went to their site, and it appears they became iBackups or something now.
Mondo Rescue, one of the best backup softwares for linux I've ever used.
Well, it's for linux, so if you have windows...guess this isn't a solution for ya. Also the GUI isn't much to speak of, but it gets the important stuff done. (And works very nicely as a cron job =)
It's better than saying: Hey! Come on over and download whatever you want, it's free! Don't bother to reward us for our hard work!
SOMEbody needs to support them if they're going to be really successful. And that's me ($120 Silver Club Member).
Also, in addition to paying for the club, you get the powerpack for download, and commercial/contrib packages on the mandrakeclub rpm section. (If you're a silver member).
Actually, what really drove me to go from $60 to $120 was the fact that I could download the Mandrake Move! CD with USB Key functionality... Man that thing rocks!
So I figure I'm getting enough out of it to justify the price of $120 for a year... Others may not feel the same way. Others may subscribe to online games... I choose to support Mandrake. Everyone has to make that individual choice, but Mandrake can help people realize that it's important to support Mandrake.
Don't you think they have a right to ask people to support them? Isn't that the whole spirit of the OSS community?
13 web browsers? 3 desktops? What Linux Distribution are you using?
Come on man, have you tried some modern distros oriented towards the new user? (I.e. Mandrake 9.2/10, SuSE)? They give you a default desktop. In mandrake's case, that is KDE. They give you one browser (Konqueror). One email client (kmail). The alternative apps are buried in menus, but those apps are NOT immediately viewable to the user.
Most modern distros do a very good job of eliminating excessive choice for the new user. Mandrake is the easiest, and you should be using it if you are a linux newb.
No, because those big time pirates are in other countries.
This bill will enable companies to destroy families by throwing the 16 year old kid in jail for sharing expensive applications.
What harm are file sharers doing to society? Why does their action warrant time in court and/or prison?
I fail to see how this will even help corporations who see piracy as a problem. Often the reason people download expensive software is because they can't afford the price. Sure, that's no excuse, BUT will those companies see increased revenue as result of these actions?
So, what does throwing these kids in jail accomplish?
It just makes our government look like it is under the thumb of the corporate world.
Actually, I think this is good, in a way. Perhaps it will start to move more people towards Open Source applications, where downloading software is not illegal. I honestly think the reason Windows is so popular is because of the initial ability of users to easily pirate the operating system.
I pray for a day in which people will not be put in jail for downloading programs. Perhaps 2005 really is the year of linux?
It's a matter of choosing the right tools and planning ahead. SDL comes to mind here. It is possible to start out with crossplatform compatibility in mind. It may not be as easy as just creating for Windows, but AFAIK it's not terribly difficult if you plan for it.
And please, for the love of god, don't use directx. OpenGL all the way baby!
Slashdot Mirror
I think that interchange goes something like this:
Spammer: Here's a loaded gun. Shoot me.
You: Nah, who needs a bleedin' gun? Look, I've got a portable tactical nuclear warhead right here which will blow up all the spammers! I'll use that instead!
BOOOOOMMMMM
I dunno if I subscribe to the idea that to save something, you have to destroy it...
(note in the example that tactical nuclear warhead=slashdot)
Ha! I'd like to see those damn trolls troll from the clink!
Oh, crap, they have net access there don't they? Doh!
Another brilliant plan to destroy all trolls obliterated...
There's no reason why we can't make GUI's as Mandrake has done in the Mandrake Control Center, which allows you to visually control the firewall/local security settings/local services, all in one handy graphical interface which is easy to use. I think a possibility is better descriptors of system process, not stuff like httpd for apache, and not xinetd for whatever it does (i'm still not sure), etc. etc. The only problem is, this can cause confusion, especially amongst experienced users; but I think there could be an option to enable or disable the newbie mode. (Gosh, That sounds like a really good idea...) I'm sure others could figure out stuff that would make it better too.
If we can make it easy for the user to configure the linux box, without having to have indepth knowledge of hacking config files and the CLI, then Linux will be highly accessible to most people, while still making them learn just enough about their computer so they aren't totally vulnerable.
I think one of the reasons people like Windows is that they just don't have time to learn about how to properly secure and configure the operating system. Windows says "Ok, you're the customer, you're always right..." and doesn't complain. Vendors of Linux distributions should realize that, and make it so that users can spend the minimum amount of time required to adequately secure their box, while still allowing the option for power users to configure the linux distro as they wish.
Like I said, I think it would be awesome if there was the ability to toggle newbie mode on and off. It would require a lot of work (a hell of a lot) but the result would be what Linux needs to be accessible to the masses.
Try using kde 3.2 that comes with mandrake 10. That has korganizer, kmail, and several other kde apps integrated into a common interface, which is REALLY REALLY nice IMO. One of the things I've wanted for kmail for a while, and the reason I was using Evolution before.
It works straight out of the box, just enter in your servers in your profile and you're ready to go. Try it out, you might like it...
Oh wait, this is Microsoft we're talking about here.</snark>
And what do you think of that statement in the document that they were going to have the new version of Office require Microsoft Longhorn?
I will never use an office suite after Office 2000.
Eh, you're right... I was getting into the spirit of slashdot I suppose. You know, it kind of rubs off on you...
This seems like a not so sneaky move by Microsoft to shut out interoperability between linux and windows platforms. I am VERY glad therefore, that this is still 5 years off at the earliest.
Maybe we can start calling Blackcomb the Death Star.
OK I'm being a little extreme here, but if my company upgrades to Windows Blackcomb and I can't interoperate over a PPTP connection, I'll have to dump linux for my work... Which would really suck, now that I've got everything working so I CAN use linux for my job.
I really want to see where this is going. I don't know anything about the WinFS network formats, and if they will include the ability of backwards compatibility with other OS types on the network.
Anyway, here's the easiest solution I can think of to this problem of the high pitched noise: Don't live near the tracks if it bothers you!
Also, they could construct a dome around the tracks... Though that would cost a lot of money.
For a real solution, perhaps they could also try that method the guy at BYU used to reduce noise from cpu fans.
I vote that they attach large speakers all over the maglev trains, and play the tie fighter sound while they are going really fast. That'll teach 'em to complain about the noise!!
ClearPlay has interrupted this broadcast to apologize for the previous broadcaster. The broadcaster of the previous broadcast has been sacked.
Clearplay scans movies for dodgy content, and then programs that data into its system.
Subscribers can then watch standard copies of the 500-or-so films on its list, with the assurance that they will automatically skip over mute anything that children or the squeamish may not like.
Until now, Clearplay has only run through a PC.
It does not use a heuristic. Clearplay has already screened the movie previously for offensive content and preprogrammed actions (i.e. skipping or bleeping).
Personally I don't like the idea of people trusting other people's judgment on what their kids should or shouldn't see in a movie. Seems a little Big Brother'ish.
I'm sure many parents will love this though. Now they can just sit their kids in front of the tube and not worry their little heads over whether their kids are seeing inappropriate material.
It's partly the fault of societal pressures (i.e. monetary), but really, what's the point of having kids if you just ignore them after they reach age 4 (sometimes even earlier?).
Nuff said.
May need to reorganize the internals of my case. This has gotten seriously offtopic... but anyway. Thanks for the advice. I had always thought it was bad to have the cd burners on the same ata cable. I think that was the case a long time ago. Anyway, I'll experiment with stuff to see what works.
I'm using a seagate 80gb and a WD 80gb SE, with 8mb buffer. In linux, hdparm -t /dev/hda and hdparm -t /dev/hdb both get upwards of 40 mb/s... But, transfers between the drives are consistently about 10 megs/s
It might be as you say, thanks for the tip. Might also be my motherboard... It's a rather low quality shuttle that replaced a busted ASUS board.
How long would that take to burn? Lesse... If we have standard 4x, that would mean 50gb in 20 minutes... which would mean, hmm..
50*1024=51200Mb
51200/(20*60)= ~43megs/second.
Wow. My hard drive can't even transfer over 10 megs per second to a second hard drive in my computer. I can see why this technology is still quite a far way off.... I would have to seriously upgrade my whole system if this came along even in a couple of years!
Updated Thursday, April 1, 2004, at 2:26 PM PT
Is this a possible April Fools article? Will we ever escape April Fools day?
This is one of the most ridiculous stories I've ever heard. Though it is slightly humorous, I don't see this happening for quite a while.
I think we'll have automated book shelvers (ala Ghost in the Shell TV) at libraries long before we trust the robots to parking our cars for us.
The whole catalog of EMI...
Recorded into my computer out of my audio player...
For 10 dollars...
I'm just saying Microsoft is really dumb to think people won't do this.
Sure, I can see rented videos...But rented music? Who the heck rents music?
Little digital audio player with Microsoft 'Janus' technology.... Meet my digital-in connector =D
(or if they don't have digital out (which sucks and I wouldn't buy it anyway) then analog-in works fine too...)
Hundreds of thousands of songs! For 10$! Can't beat the price. W00t!
These guys are REALLY really dumb.
If they don't, what's the friggin' point?
Come on Microsoft, this is a really cheap-ass way of trying to get rid of Open Source competition... Go back into your cave!
I had an account there. It made transferring files from home to school so much easier. I was pretty sad when they got rid of the free accounts. It's been a few years since I went to their site, and it appears they became iBackups or something now.
Well, it's for linux, so if you have windows...guess this isn't a solution for ya. Also the GUI isn't much to speak of, but it gets the important stuff done. (And works very nicely as a cron job =)
SOMEbody needs to support them if they're going to be really successful. And that's me ($120 Silver Club Member).
Also, in addition to paying for the club, you get the powerpack for download, and commercial/contrib packages on the mandrakeclub rpm section. (If you're a silver member).
Actually, what really drove me to go from $60 to $120 was the fact that I could download the Mandrake Move! CD with USB Key functionality... Man that thing rocks!
So I figure I'm getting enough out of it to justify the price of $120 for a year... Others may not feel the same way. Others may subscribe to online games... I choose to support Mandrake. Everyone has to make that individual choice, but Mandrake can help people realize that it's important to support Mandrake.
Don't you think they have a right to ask people to support them? Isn't that the whole spirit of the OSS community?
Thousands of programs? 95% of which are useless?
13 web browsers? 3 desktops? What Linux Distribution are you using?
Come on man, have you tried some modern distros oriented towards the new user? (I.e. Mandrake 9.2/10, SuSE)? They give you a default desktop. In mandrake's case, that is KDE. They give you one browser (Konqueror). One email client (kmail). The alternative apps are buried in menus, but those apps are NOT immediately viewable to the user.
Most modern distros do a very good job of eliminating excessive choice for the new user. Mandrake is the easiest, and you should be using it if you are a linux newb.
Does it go after the big time pirates?
No, because those big time pirates are in other countries.
This bill will enable companies to destroy families by throwing the 16 year old kid in jail for sharing expensive applications.
What harm are file sharers doing to society? Why does their action warrant time in court and/or prison?
I fail to see how this will even help corporations who see piracy as a problem. Often the reason people download expensive software is because they can't afford the price. Sure, that's no excuse, BUT will those companies see increased revenue as result of these actions?
So, what does throwing these kids in jail accomplish?
It just makes our government look like it is under the thumb of the corporate world.
Actually, I think this is good, in a way. Perhaps it will start to move more people towards Open Source applications, where downloading software is not illegal. I honestly think the reason Windows is so popular is because of the initial ability of users to easily pirate the operating system.
I pray for a day in which people will not be put in jail for downloading programs. Perhaps 2005 really is the year of linux?
And please, for the love of god, don't use directx. OpenGL all the way baby!