I have tried Ubuntu, not HH or GG, but FF. It was pretty good, I was surprised, but it wasn't there yet. It didn't work with all my hardware, for some reason it didn't like my router too much, it kept dropping the DNS settings. I do give them a go every couple of years to see how things are going, and I must say I was almost convinced last time. Little things were a bit strange, like the equivalent of Windows Update in Ubuntu downloading packages with pretty cryptic names so I didn't know what was being updated or what parts of the system to watch.
I also had innovative up there, Ubuntu still felt like it was trying to catch up and implement all those features that Windows already had.
In my last contract, I worked with a gentleman who was an Oracle DBA using a distro that he had configured incredibly simply and minimally on his desktop. He did tell me the name of the distro, I haven't got it here at the moment. It is worth learning more about an operating system if it can be configured down to the raw necessities of what is required to do work like he had it. Very pure.
I've been a pretty loyal Microsoft user since Win3.1, and I'm a senior I.T. professional. I'm not particularly radical, I use Vista, and its OK.
However, Microsofts recent performance has been pretty disgraceful, enough to force change for me. I point to three incidents - This one with the broadcast flag, the recent shutdown of the Microsoft Music Validation servers, and the release of the emails where it showed that senior management had no idea how to treat customers or partners during the months leading up to the release of Vista.
How hard is it for Microsoft to treat their customers OK? I mean, the broadcast flag incident shows they bend over for the broadcast networks, even though the networks business model doesn't even require this. Why do they do this to their customers? Obviously, the networks are paying Microsoft, but surely they can't be paying as much as customers pay for licenses to use Vista/XP. Why treat your greatest revenue stream like a POS - like they're stupid?
With regard to the Music Server incident, a number of customers have paid for music, these are valuable customers again, and they are having their servers shut down so they can't play their music beyond their next upgrade/reinstall. How low is that. I mean, how much more poorly can you treat your customers. How hard is it for Microsoft to keep a few servers running to validate that music, to say to the customers, look, we'll keep this going as a sign that we give a.... - you're our customers after all. Being an IT professional, I can see perhaps there might be an issue keeping it going through system upgrades, or server upgrades? Well, how hard would it be supply music on the current store? Or perhaps there aren't enough customers to make this cost effective? I don't know, then you don't have to keep many DRM servers running to keep them happy.
As for the emails, I don't know where to begin. They treated HP like.... after they made them bend over to develop new hardware for the Vista Capable logo, and then redefined the conditions so HP wasted their time and money. And then they were surprised when Vendors weren't developing drivers for Vista. To quote the MS executives, the hardware vendors 'didn't trust us'.
It really pains me to use Vista after reading this stuff. This isn't a complaint about Vista or whatever, its an OK operating system, its a lot easier to use than any Linux variant, and I find it stable now. But I can't keep using it beyond my current hardware iteration. I'll keep using it at work, but from a moral point of view, I just can't keep using it personally. You just can't keep treating people like that, and I feel like a gullible fool giving Microsoft more money. I am pleased that there are alternatives at last, be it Apple or a future Linux that will be more innovative and user friendly by the time my current hardware dies.
A standard part of Windows. I don't know about other OS'es.
On Windows 2000 (prob same on XP etc) Start / Programs / Accessories / Accessibility / On Screen Keyboard.
Click in your Password field. Enter your password using the mouse on the on screen keyboard. Good enough.
This story is factually incorrect...
Anyone who did get Vista SP1 on Auto Updates must have hacked their registry to get the RC rollout (fools!) Why apply RC's to prod machines..
The forum entry in the link specifically says Release Candidate.
FUD!!
How does Slashdot get away with crap journalism like this? They should get their ass sued off!
Strange, everyone in NYC suddenly uses Nokia!
on
Cloverfield Discussion
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Miraculously, Manhattan is devastated, but the mobile phone network survives, just enough to make the whole movie a Nokia product placement.
A great post covering the response to the NZ Daylight Savings change by the various vendors posted on the excellent 'geekzone' website :
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/freitasm/3856
This demonstrates how committed vendors are to smaller markets.
They haven't rolled out a patch for OSX either. There are several folks on Apple in NZ who are just as disappointed.
Meanwhile, Microsoft rolled out a patch on Windows Update - Microsoft users on Automatic Updates rolled over without even knowing anything had changed.
I'm not from the USA, but don't you have something that allows freedom of speech and expression in your constitution or something? Wouldn't this make AT&Ts clause unenforcable?
Steve Jobs is not fighting off independant iPhone Developers, indeed Apple has specifically said that they are not going to deliberately fight them off. What Apple may fight off is the illegal distribution of unlocking tools.
There should be a very broad distinction drawn between folks writing productive applications for the iPhone, and folks trying to ruin this by deliberately trying to circumvent the protection measures in the phone.
Do not group these two separate activities together.
Lastly, the posting of articles like this to the Slashdot front page written by Anonymous Cowards should be banned. Be prepared to stand up personally to your article. Real Journalists do this.
Google are a listed company - their main purpose is to succumb to the power of the mighty dollar - I'm pretty darn sure that the shareholders weren't under the impression that they were donating to a charity!
There is some impression that having better than average PR -ie writing intelligent blog entries / Apples Steve Jobs writing smart open letters means that they are genuine and open and not out to make lots of $$$ - this isn't the case!
Universal are smart and this is all they could do.
on
NBC Universal Drops iTunes
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Lets face it, Universal own the content, and content rules. They haven't been able to distribute the content how they want with Apple, so they are calling Apples bluff. The thing is, if they market another service well enough (and it does come down to marketing) and that service has the content, then they will get exactly what they want - more than one service selling prime content and therefore a competitive market for selling content meaning better margin for them.
Universal are in a losing situation by having their content in only one marketplace.
As much as I love Apple and their ethics, it was overdue. The only way that Universal can lose is if they fail to market the new service they have selling the content.
OP is a bit naive thinking he won't be able to buy Universal content any more!!
The write of the Slashdot interpretation of this article seems to have the wrong end of the stick.
Using software that potentially shares copyrighted data is not illegal - what the judge found illegal was that copyrighted data was actually being shared and made available for download. The difference between potentially sharing data and actually sharing data is being ignored by this snippet.
I tend to agree - if you are sharing copyrighted data you are making that data available for piracy. It seems to me that if you are making data available for download then you are pretty stupid, as it is so easy to detect. Leechers are given pretty bad press by the various networks (for good reason) but the fact is that if you are a leecher you're probably exposing yourself to the least risk possible.
Who posts this bollocks to Slashdot?
Just the same as what radio station will we listen to, what will we both watch on TV, we like different foods, etc. etc. Is this some journalism student trying to come up with an 'angle' on a 'story'?
The first bust was purely financial - investing in businesses that had no business plan - ie no way to make money. The enabling technology had nothing to do with it. Arguably the technology and attitude has changed this time (Arguably because I'd argue against it - it just Gen X + 1 trying the smae thing as Gen X) but the same result will occur - buliding businesses with no business model = going bust.
Myspace is popular, but is just the flavor of the day. Facebook is just another flavour, youtube is just another trend of the moment, ditto Joost etc etc etc. Why these businesses have been purchased/valued at huge $$ is beyond me. Why make the same mistakes over and over?
Assuming of course, that Apple don't close any gaping holes that the folk opening the iPhone have published. Or indeed publish any update to the iPhone at all. I'm sure these apps will exist on iPhones that aren't connected to any phone network or iTunes, but they probably total only about 100 max in the world - hardly meaningful.
I agree. Jobs can do this, simply because he has confidence in the quality of his product. iPods and iTunes are extremely high quality products that are easy to use. He is willing to fight a fair fight if the market becomes levelled due to removal of DRM, because the work that has been done on apple products to make them easy to use means that he would likely win that market battle.
The public had a extraordinarily high expectation of the keynote. If Mr. Jobs hadn't announced the product there would have been disappointment anyway. This probably would have hit the share price as the iPhone was factored in already.
Secondly, he couldn't keep it secret anyway. He has to go to the FCC anyway and their disclosures would have announced the product instead.
WRT to Apple TV, on the surface the dilution of that announcement does not appear to have hurt sales in any way. If he had announced Apple TV only at the keynote, public disappointment may have killed it. It is quite likely that the iPhone announcement has reinforced the Apple brand and this is the reason for high Apple TV sales. The psyche is : I can't get an iPhone now, but I'll buy an Apple TV in the meantime to tide me over.
I'm sure nearly every downloadable product patches security flaws in secret. Fixing a bug just isn't worth making a big song and dance about in a large number of cases. Secondly, the slashdot article assumes that it is known how to exploit a software bug. It is is extremely hard to work out all the possible ways to exploit a software bug. It is a lot easier to just fix the issue.
The only reason this article was written is because someone actually disovered a security bug that had been fixed but not reported in Opera. This is absolutely no reason to slam Opera. Just becasue the writer found out about it is no reason at all. You're only hurting Opera because they fix security issues. The same argument could apply to Internet Explorer (spare me any IE flaming please).
Thirdly, Opera is not the most widely used browser. The fact is that any bug in Opera is not likely to be worth the time to exploit. Any exploit would only have a very remote chance of actually taking place. You have to lure someone to view your specially crafted JPG, and secondly they have to be using Opera to do it. Not very likely.
Slashdot Mirror
I have tried Ubuntu, not HH or GG, but FF. It was pretty good, I was surprised, but it wasn't there yet. It didn't work with all my hardware, for some reason it didn't like my router too much, it kept dropping the DNS settings. I do give them a go every couple of years to see how things are going, and I must say I was almost convinced last time. Little things were a bit strange, like the equivalent of Windows Update in Ubuntu downloading packages with pretty cryptic names so I didn't know what was being updated or what parts of the system to watch.
I also had innovative up there, Ubuntu still felt like it was trying to catch up and implement all those features that Windows already had.
In my last contract, I worked with a gentleman who was an Oracle DBA using a distro that he had configured incredibly simply and minimally on his desktop. He did tell me the name of the distro, I haven't got it here at the moment. It is worth learning more about an operating system if it can be configured down to the raw necessities of what is required to do work like he had it. Very pure.
I've been a pretty loyal Microsoft user since Win3.1, and I'm a senior I.T. professional. I'm not particularly radical, I use Vista, and its OK.
.... - you're our customers after all. Being an IT professional, I can see perhaps there might be an issue keeping it going through system upgrades, or server upgrades? Well, how hard would it be supply music on the current store? Or perhaps there aren't enough customers to make this cost effective? I don't know, then you don't have to keep many DRM servers running to keep them happy.
.... after they made them bend over to develop new hardware for the Vista Capable logo, and then redefined the conditions so HP wasted their time and money. And then they were surprised when Vendors weren't developing drivers for Vista. To quote the MS executives, the hardware vendors 'didn't trust us'.
However, Microsofts recent performance has been pretty disgraceful, enough to force change for me. I point to three incidents - This one with the broadcast flag, the recent shutdown of the Microsoft Music Validation servers, and the release of the emails where it showed that senior management had no idea how to treat customers or partners during the months leading up to the release of Vista.
How hard is it for Microsoft to treat their customers OK? I mean, the broadcast flag incident shows they bend over for the broadcast networks, even though the networks business model doesn't even require this. Why do they do this to their customers? Obviously, the networks are paying Microsoft, but surely they can't be paying as much as customers pay for licenses to use Vista/XP. Why treat your greatest revenue stream like a POS - like they're stupid?
With regard to the Music Server incident, a number of customers have paid for music, these are valuable customers again, and they are having their servers shut down so they can't play their music beyond their next upgrade/reinstall. How low is that. I mean, how much more poorly can you treat your customers. How hard is it for Microsoft to keep a few servers running to validate that music, to say to the customers, look, we'll keep this going as a sign that we give a
As for the emails, I don't know where to begin. They treated HP like
It really pains me to use Vista after reading this stuff. This isn't a complaint about Vista or whatever, its an OK operating system, its a lot easier to use than any Linux variant, and I find it stable now. But I can't keep using it beyond my current hardware iteration. I'll keep using it at work, but from a moral point of view, I just can't keep using it personally. You just can't keep treating people like that, and I feel like a gullible fool giving Microsoft more money. I am pleased that there are alternatives at last, be it Apple or a future Linux that will be more innovative and user friendly by the time my current hardware dies.
A standard part of Windows. I don't know about other OS'es.
On Windows 2000 (prob same on XP etc) Start / Programs / Accessories / Accessibility / On Screen Keyboard.
Click in your Password field. Enter your password using the mouse on the on screen keyboard. Good enough.
Perhaps they have licensed it?
Perhaps it is a rip off, but then either way the Slashdot article should provide evidence of this.
I don't use Linux because I don't like it much. Its not user friendly. And I'm a geek!
This story is factually incorrect...
Anyone who did get Vista SP1 on Auto Updates must have hacked their registry to get the RC rollout (fools!) Why apply RC's to prod machines..
The forum entry in the link specifically says Release Candidate.
FUD!!
How does Slashdot get away with crap journalism like this? They should get their ass sued off!
Miraculously, Manhattan is devastated, but the mobile phone network survives, just enough to make the whole movie a Nokia product placement.
A great post covering the response to the NZ Daylight Savings change by the various vendors posted on the excellent 'geekzone' website :
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/freitasm/3856
This demonstrates how committed vendors are to smaller markets.
They haven't rolled out a patch for OSX either. There are several folks on Apple in NZ who are just as disappointed.
Meanwhile, Microsoft rolled out a patch on Windows Update - Microsoft users on Automatic Updates rolled over without even knowing anything had changed.
I'm not from the USA, but don't you have something that allows freedom of speech and expression in your constitution or something? Wouldn't this make AT&Ts clause unenforcable?
Should kids be brought up knowing that their life on the web is being documented and controlled by people other than their parents?
Is this a serious question? Really?
A serious question is 'How can we stop bullying?'. The above is just crap.
Lots of love,
Ex-bullied.
Google have no information at the moment about what websites people go to, even though they run the biggest search engine on the planet. Get over it.
and in other news, someone has decided that pets.com is a good idea
Steve Jobs is not fighting off independant iPhone Developers, indeed Apple has specifically said that they are not going to deliberately fight them off. What Apple may fight off is the illegal distribution of unlocking tools.
There should be a very broad distinction drawn between folks writing productive applications for the iPhone, and folks trying to ruin this by deliberately trying to circumvent the protection measures in the phone.
Do not group these two separate activities together.
Lastly, the posting of articles like this to the Slashdot front page written by Anonymous Cowards should be banned. Be prepared to stand up personally to your article. Real Journalists do this.
Google are a listed company - their main purpose is to succumb to the power of the mighty dollar - I'm pretty darn sure that the shareholders weren't under the impression that they were donating to a charity!
There is some impression that having better than average PR -ie writing intelligent blog entries / Apples Steve Jobs writing smart open letters means that they are genuine and open and not out to make lots of $$$ - this isn't the case!
Lets face it, Universal own the content, and content rules. They haven't been able to distribute the content how they want with Apple, so they are calling Apples bluff. The thing is, if they market another service well enough (and it does come down to marketing) and that service has the content, then they will get exactly what they want - more than one service selling prime content and therefore a competitive market for selling content meaning better margin for them.
Universal are in a losing situation by having their content in only one marketplace.
As much as I love Apple and their ethics, it was overdue. The only way that Universal can lose is if they fail to market the new service they have selling the content.
OP is a bit naive thinking he won't be able to buy Universal content any more!!
The write of the Slashdot interpretation of this article seems to have the wrong end of the stick.
Using software that potentially shares copyrighted data is not illegal - what the judge found illegal was that copyrighted data was actually being shared and made available for download. The difference between potentially sharing data and actually sharing data is being ignored by this snippet.
I tend to agree - if you are sharing copyrighted data you are making that data available for piracy. It seems to me that if you are making data available for download then you are pretty stupid, as it is so easy to detect. Leechers are given pretty bad press by the various networks (for good reason) but the fact is that if you are a leecher you're probably exposing yourself to the least risk possible.
Who posts this bollocks to Slashdot?
Just the same as what radio station will we listen to, what will we both watch on TV, we like different foods, etc. etc. Is this some journalism student trying to come up with an 'angle' on a 'story'?
The first bust was purely financial - investing in businesses that had no business plan - ie no way to make money. The enabling technology had nothing to do with it. Arguably the technology and attitude has changed this time (Arguably because I'd argue against it - it just Gen X + 1 trying the smae thing as Gen X) but the same result will occur - buliding businesses with no business model = going bust.
Myspace is popular, but is just the flavor of the day. Facebook is just another flavour, youtube is just another trend of the moment, ditto Joost etc etc etc. Why these businesses have been purchased/valued at huge $$ is beyond me. Why make the same mistakes over and over?
Assuming of course, that Apple don't close any gaping holes that the folk opening the iPhone have published. Or indeed publish any update to the iPhone at all. I'm sure these apps will exist on iPhones that aren't connected to any phone network or iTunes, but they probably total only about 100 max in the world - hardly meaningful.
I agree. Jobs can do this, simply because he has confidence in the quality of his product. iPods and iTunes are extremely high quality products that are easy to use. He is willing to fight a fair fight if the market becomes levelled due to removal of DRM, because the work that has been done on apple products to make them easy to use means that he would likely win that market battle.
I second that... well said.
Is it based on guesswork? More FUD?
The public had a extraordinarily high expectation of the keynote. If Mr. Jobs hadn't announced the product there would have been disappointment anyway. This probably would have hit the share price as the iPhone was factored in already.
Secondly, he couldn't keep it secret anyway. He has to go to the FCC anyway and their disclosures would have announced the product instead.
WRT to Apple TV, on the surface the dilution of that announcement does not appear to have hurt sales in any way. If he had announced Apple TV only at the keynote, public disappointment may have killed it. It is quite likely that the iPhone announcement has reinforced the Apple brand and this is the reason for high Apple TV sales. The psyche is : I can't get an iPhone now, but I'll buy an Apple TV in the meantime to tide me over.
I'm sure nearly every downloadable product patches security flaws in secret. Fixing a bug just isn't worth making a big song and dance about in a large number of cases. Secondly, the slashdot article assumes that it is known how to exploit a software bug. It is is extremely hard to work out all the possible ways to exploit a software bug. It is a lot easier to just fix the issue.
The only reason this article was written is because someone actually disovered a security bug that had been fixed but not reported in Opera. This is absolutely no reason to slam Opera. Just becasue the writer found out about it is no reason at all. You're only hurting Opera because they fix security issues. The same argument could apply to Internet Explorer (spare me any IE flaming please).
Thirdly, Opera is not the most widely used browser. The fact is that any bug in Opera is not likely to be worth the time to exploit. Any exploit would only have a very remote chance of actually taking place. You have to lure someone to view your specially crafted JPG, and secondly they have to be using Opera to do it. Not very likely.
In summary, more FUD on Slashdot.