I think this is a wise move, since the companies and governments will probably take a more pro-active stance for security. If security was already an issue in the past at a given company/government, they will probably do even more work to secure it even better. And those who didn't care about security, really need to start looking for some security administrators. Remember: money makes the world go 'round.
Just wondering, but is it legal to post this sort of information? I would believe that this is classified to some sort of level, since the NSA doesn't want wannabee-feds to prepare for the (psychological-) tests. Makes sense he/she uses an pseudonym indeed, but is it really that way?
Funny, you are able to quote me right, but you completely miss the point. Okay, to quote myself again:
Yes, I think this is a Good Thing (tm).
Pay good attention to the I think, yes it says: I, me, not you, not any other Slashdot reader. This is my personal opinion about this, and if you disagree with me, and want to change my mind: by my guest! But use arguments please, so I can think about it. Your reply hasn't helped me any further, and certainly didn't change my mind.
"Here's my question (which is not fully answered in their FAQ): if they (music company executives) are currently using the algorithm to screen submissions for their "hitability", can we (people who listen to music) use the same algorithm to reject recycled tunes and encourage originality?"
And here's my question: can we use this algorithm to create the hit, instead of determining wether or not it's gonna be a hit?
Yes, I think this is a Good Thing (tm). I experienced that working in a shared room, improves creativity. It happens quite a lot to me that I'm stuck at a problem, and after discussing it with a colleage we find a solution together. Now, I think that if you're working in a cubicle, you'll have less contact with your colleages due to the wall borders, and therefor will lack some sort of shared creativity. Of course, there's the risk of workers losing productivity, but I think we have to face it: we're there to work, not for fun talks.
Dear Mr. Szulik, where do you see Linux on the desktop for end-users going now, since RedHat decided to focus (almost) entirely on Enterprise-level? I thought we were doing quite fine, don't you think this is a step back in becoming the number one desktop OS for end-users?
I'm sorry, I was confused by the Dutch word. We use the word 'astrologie' to talk about astronomy, and since my first language is Dutch, I'm sure you understand my mistake.:)
You said it yourself: the general public. But ask anyone interested in astrology in, let's say, 5 years, and they'll probably remember. I do believe solar flares are pretty interesting, but I have to admit, I'm interested in it. And with me, there are many, many others.
Here is Yet Another Example (YAE) of playing games on a PDA: I'm the proud owner of the Sharp Zaurus SL-5500, and I've finished ID's Doom and Lucas Art's Monkey Island I (using ScummVM ported for the Zaurus) on my PDA. Just take a look at the Zaurus Software Index to see which games are available. So yes, I think PDAs are growing more and more into gaming platforms, keep an eye on them. Ow, and besides gaming, you can do a lot other things with PDAs, which you can't with GBAs and others.
No, I don't agree with you here. If I understand this well, you mean that the spammers are DOSing Internet e-mail by sending mass messages? If that is what you mean, you're wrong. Why? Simple, spammers want to reach as much people as possible, and therefor the services they use must be reachable. If the services deny service, they can't relay their e-mail, and therefor, the spammers can't reach their targets. If they don't reach their targets, they won't make their revenue.
If I understood your comment wrong (or it was a funny remark, moderated wrong), please correct me.
When I was still using the Windows platform, I used a program called PGPphone to communicate with friends via my computer. A very big plus of PGPPhone is that it uses Pretty Good Privacy to secure the communication, giving the government or any other third party an hard time decyphering. The bad side of this is of course the extra overhead of the data transmit. But still the quality was good enough to have normal conversations, I believe even at slower (dial-up) connections worked pretty well. You can always give it a try.
I don't know if there are any non-Windows versions for this, still need to take a look at that.
Ever heard about the Sharp Zaurus? The Zaurus series have Linux pre-installed. I own a SL-5500, and I'm really glad with it. I can do everything on it what I can do on PocketPC (including Word and Excell) + much and much more. Take a look at the Zaurus Software Index to see it for yourself.
No, your comment is bullshit. You think freedom-of-speech allows you to say whatever you want, but that's untrue, fortunately. If I write a document about how to kill the president, then that's not within the freedom-of-speech. Your freedom ends, when you danger another one's. Or else, it would be *very* hard to silence neo-nazi's and such, just because what they do is spreading their word (of freedom). So, be happy we've got limits for freedom-of-speech.
But those error reports often come from application crashes that don't take down the system. And most of the one's I've seen are from non-MS applications. It's kind of like how Konqueror or some other KDE app will crash and pop the segmentation fault box.
I don't by any means think Windows is reliable, I'm just saying that application errors are a strange way to guage OS stability.
Yes, but the difference is that when Konqueror crashes, it doesn't take the complete system with his. If on the Windows platform iexplorer.exe crashes, it's most likely your system will hang, leaving you no choice but to reboot. In Linux the worst case is that KDE crashes if Konqueror crashes (although I never experienced this), which leaves the system operating. I experienced just a few Konqueror crashes, and it never got worse than losing my open Konqueror windows.
So yes, I do think application errors are a way to guage OS stability.
I think phone spamming will never get to the height of e-mail spamming. The reason is simple: sending out bulk e-mail costs almost nothing, sending out bulk phone messages is way more expensive. Of course there are ways around this (think cracking), but I think that will stop a lot of spammers.
What will my unix *zip programs be compatible with?
Probably both.
After using Linux for server applications for several years, I decided to try Linux for the desktop, and it never disappointed me. One of the Good Things (tm) is definately the big amount of software available for the platform, but that's not all: so many applications for Linux have support for so many different formats. A good example is OpenOffice.org, just look at the amount of supported (and completely different) formats!
So, the moral: you should probably not worry about this, because the sooner or later, some one wants do the same thing as you want, and will write a program for it.
Seriously, this idea is very nice, and I really hope it has a future, but as I see it, it's yet another instant messenger. The problem with this is that most people decide to use one, maybe two, IMs. Okay, so now we have ICQ, AIM, MSN, Jabber, and many many more. Of course, this is just day-dreaming: but wouldn't it be great if there was just one (OSS) IM platform, like Jabber? Jabber is great, unfortunately, it's not in the Top3 IM systems. Ideas like this should had been implemented into Jabber, then it could have a future, now it's just another IM people can choice from. Okay, now I'm gonna check where all the fuzz is about...
I think one of the things that 'ruined' the gaming industry like this, is the fact that in the days of wayback there wasn't such thing like a First Person Shooter. I remember playing all Keen episodes, Cosmo, Dune, Monkey Island (great games!), Duke Nukem 1 and 2, etc. Then suddenly there was Wolfenstein.. I remember me and my friends copying it to 1.44MB disks and passing them around like madness, only playing it when our parents weren't at home.. Ah.. memories.. anyway, I think that the invention of the 3D shooters, changed the world's look at game. After so many years looking at the playing character from the side (platform gaming), you could suddenly see the game through the eyes of the playing character, like you were there! In my opinion, most 3D shooters look the same, it's basicly the same concept over and over again, with slightly engine and quality enhances here and there.. Before there was something like the Doom and Quake era, the game developers just *had* to be creative, if they wanted to sell anything. Nowadays, shooters are a winning formula, and why change a running system?
You're an adult.
Thank you, but I have to admit that I'm only 17, and I was 16 when I bought my Z.
I think the only reason WHY they wouldn't want to use this device is if they also were heavy into video conferencing as well. Ever watch a teenager use a computer?
Yep, I do. Quite a lot actually. Unless you mean really *use* a computer, not using Microsoft Office for school work. At my school there are about 100 system (mostly Celeron 600mhz), for 450 students, and they are all in use almost every hour.
Sure, you could buy a PDA.. ever teenage kid has $400-$500 to spend on a PDA. This device is under $100, and thats the initial price.
The Zaurus SL-5500 sells for just a little more than $200 now, nowadays teenagers like me receive nice wages, so I think the 100 bucks extra isn't such a problem. Of course, due to the right marketing (read: targetting at teenagers), these devices will be selling much better than PDAs in the age 12-18.
For the PDA, you also need to buy the AIM software (AOL stopped giving away the PalmOS version at some point in the past few months, I believe).
Nope, not true. Ever heard of Jabber? Jabber is an OpenSource IM system, which has support for gateways to most populair IM networks (ICQ, MSN, AOL, and other). There are two or three jabber clients for the Zaurus, and I know of the existence of one for the PocketPC (there are probably more).
Quite frankly, I think the kids are going to want this for Christmas.
I hope mom and dad will look at the nice(-prized) PDAs too.
I'm not so sure, When I'm programming I usually like a reasonably comfortable computer chair and a big desk; When I do my web browsing, im'ing and mp3 listening I use a computer that I set up next to my bed so that I can lay down while i'm doing it. Before I set this up I found myself going to watch tv on my comfortable couch instead.
Yes, of course it's a Good Thing computers and related devices get more comfortable, but don't forget this is a IM only device. Why are people using IM? To communicate about things. Example: when I work on a project, I communicate with my fellow developers through IRC or Jabber, in the meantime, I want to be able to do stuff with the things discussed, e.g.: test shared ideas, or add things to the project's ToDo list. Of course, this says nothing about people who use IM *only* to talk with friends (not-work related), they probably don't need the rest of a computer. But besides talking about personal things, people also IM a lot about things which require other (computer) actions. Another example is a friend who IMs you an URL, wouldn't it be handy if you could just click&go? Instead of that, you'll have to walk to your system first, launch your browser and type the URL.
Again: if the device doesn't support remote IM'ing, I won't be interested.
I spent $300.00 on my Zaurus, including Linksys 802.11b card. It's now possible to get the SL-5500 for around $200.00 since Sharp is about to intoduce the SL-5600 (or already did, not sure). So, for twice the money you'll get a full PDA (running Linux!) which allows you to do almost anything. For half the money, you'll get a device which *only* allows you to Instant Message with it. Besides this, it's possible to set up a Bluetooth connection between your Zaurus and your mobile phone, allowing you to use dial-up/GPRS/UMTS. Sure, Bluetooth cards cost money, but they give you great possibilities.
So, if the devices would be around $50.00, it could be a great buy, now I would rather double the money spent, and go for a PDA. Of course, this differs from person to person, everyone has to make the choice for theirselves.
I'm not sure if this will be a good-selling device. First of all, the limitation because of a base station, really hurts it's image. It would be very cool if I could Jabber in the train, but I don't think I will Jabber on my couch, when my PC is ten meters away.
The second Bag Thing is the huge competion between PDAs and IM devices. Why would I pay for a (probably expensive too) IM device, when I can get a PDA with 802.11b? A PDA gives me much more features, including Instant Messaging. I currently have the Zaurus SL-5500, and I'm really happy to have it, I can do just anything with it, including Instant Messaging.
I think this device has a chance, but only if the prices are (much) lower than the PDA prices, or if it's going to support GPRS/UMTS/etc.
Slashdot Mirror
I think this is a wise move, since the companies and governments will probably take a more pro-active stance for security. If security was already an issue in the past at a given company/government, they will probably do even more work to secure it even better. And those who didn't care about security, really need to start looking for some security administrators. Remember: money makes the world go 'round.
Just wondering, but is it legal to post this sort of information? I would believe that this is classified to some sort of level, since the NSA doesn't want wannabee-feds to prepare for the (psychological-) tests. Makes sense he/she uses an pseudonym indeed, but is it really that way?
Funny, you are able to quote me right, but you completely miss the point. Okay, to quote myself again:
Yes, I think this is a Good Thing (tm).
Pay good attention to the I think, yes it says: I, me, not you, not any other Slashdot reader. This is my personal opinion about this, and if you disagree with me, and want to change my mind: by my guest! But use arguments please, so I can think about it. Your reply hasn't helped me any further, and certainly didn't change my mind.
"Here's my question (which is not fully answered in their FAQ): if they (music company executives) are currently using the algorithm to screen submissions for their "hitability", can we (people who listen to music) use the same algorithm to reject recycled tunes and encourage originality?"
And here's my question: can we use this algorithm to create the hit, instead of determining wether or not it's gonna be a hit?
Yes, I think this is a Good Thing (tm). I experienced that working in a shared room, improves creativity. It happens quite a lot to me that I'm stuck at a problem, and after discussing it with a colleage we find a solution together. Now, I think that if you're working in a cubicle, you'll have less contact with your colleages due to the wall borders, and therefor will lack some sort of shared creativity.
Of course, there's the risk of workers losing productivity, but I think we have to face it: we're there to work, not for fun talks.
Dear Mr. Szulik, where do you see Linux on the desktop for end-users going now, since RedHat decided to focus (almost) entirely on Enterprise-level? I thought we were doing quite fine, don't you think this is a step back in becoming the number one desktop OS for end-users?
I'm sorry, I was confused by the Dutch word. We use the word 'astrologie' to talk about astronomy, and since my first language is Dutch, I'm sure you understand my mistake. :)
You said it yourself: the general public. But ask anyone interested in astrology in, let's say, 5 years, and they'll probably remember. I do believe solar flares are pretty interesting, but I have to admit, I'm interested in it. And with me, there are many, many others.
Here is Yet Another Example (YAE) of playing games on a PDA: I'm the proud owner of the Sharp Zaurus SL-5500, and I've finished ID's Doom and Lucas Art's Monkey Island I (using ScummVM ported for the Zaurus) on my PDA. Just take a look at the Zaurus Software Index to see which games are available. So yes, I think PDAs are growing more and more into gaming platforms, keep an eye on them. Ow, and besides gaming, you can do a lot other things with PDAs, which you can't with GBAs and others.
No, I don't agree with you here. If I understand this well, you mean that the spammers are DOSing Internet e-mail by sending mass messages? If that is what you mean, you're wrong. Why? Simple, spammers want to reach as much people as possible, and therefor the services they use must be reachable. If the services deny service, they can't relay their e-mail, and therefor, the spammers can't reach their targets. If they don't reach their targets, they won't make their revenue.
If I understood your comment wrong (or it was a funny remark, moderated wrong), please correct me.
Geez, with this many features one starts to wonder if it's still possible to call with this thing ;-)
Seriously though, this brings back the same question as posed on last Monday, in this article: Death of the PDA?
When I was still using the Windows platform, I used a program called PGPphone to communicate with friends via my computer. A very big plus of PGPPhone is that it uses Pretty Good Privacy to secure the communication, giving the government or any other third party an hard time decyphering. The bad side of this is of course the extra overhead of the data transmit. But still the quality was good enough to have normal conversations, I believe even at slower (dial-up) connections worked pretty well. You can always give it a try.
I don't know if there are any non-Windows versions for this, still need to take a look at that.
Ever heard about the Sharp Zaurus? The Zaurus series have Linux pre-installed. I own a SL-5500, and I'm really glad with it. I can do everything on it what I can do on PocketPC (including Word and Excell) + much and much more. Take a look at the Zaurus Software Index to see it for yourself.
- rastakid
This is the problem with censorship.
No, your comment is bullshit. You think freedom-of-speech allows you to say whatever you want, but that's untrue, fortunately. If I write a document about how to kill the president, then that's not within the freedom-of-speech. Your freedom ends, when you danger another one's. Or else, it would be *very* hard to silence neo-nazi's and such, just because what they do is spreading their word (of freedom). So, be happy we've got limits for freedom-of-speech.
But those error reports often come from application crashes that don't take down the system. And most of the one's I've seen are from non-MS applications. It's kind of like how Konqueror or some other KDE app will crash and pop the segmentation fault box.
I don't by any means think Windows is reliable, I'm just saying that application errors are a strange way to guage OS stability.
Yes, but the difference is that when Konqueror crashes, it doesn't take the complete system with his. If on the Windows platform iexplorer.exe crashes, it's most likely your system will hang, leaving you no choice but to reboot. In Linux the worst case is that KDE crashes if Konqueror crashes (although I never experienced this), which leaves the system operating. I experienced just a few Konqueror crashes, and it never got worse than losing my open Konqueror windows.
So yes, I do think application errors are a way to guage OS stability.
I think phone spamming will never get to the height of e-mail spamming. The reason is simple: sending out bulk e-mail costs almost nothing, sending out bulk phone messages is way more expensive. Of course there are ways around this (think cracking), but I think that will stop a lot of spammers.
What will my unix *zip programs be compatible with?
Probably both.
After using Linux for server applications for several years, I decided to try Linux for the desktop, and it never disappointed me. One of the Good Things (tm) is definately the big amount of software available for the platform, but that's not all: so many applications for Linux have support for so many different formats. A good example is OpenOffice.org, just look at the amount of supported (and completely different) formats!
So, the moral: you should probably not worry about this, because the sooner or later, some one wants do the same thing as you want, and will write a program for it.
Yet Another Instant Messenger
Seriously, this idea is very nice, and I really hope it has a future, but as I see it, it's yet another instant messenger. The problem with this is that most people decide to use one, maybe two, IMs. Okay, so now we have ICQ, AIM, MSN, Jabber, and many many more. Of course, this is just day-dreaming: but wouldn't it be great if there was just one (OSS) IM platform, like Jabber? Jabber is great, unfortunately, it's not in the Top3 IM systems. Ideas like this should had been implemented into Jabber, then it could have a future, now it's just another IM people can choice from. Okay, now I'm gonna check where all the fuzz is about...
I think one of the things that 'ruined' the gaming industry like this, is the fact that in the days of wayback there wasn't such thing like a First Person Shooter. I remember playing all Keen episodes, Cosmo, Dune, Monkey Island (great games!), Duke Nukem 1 and 2, etc. Then suddenly there was Wolfenstein.. I remember me and my friends copying it to 1.44MB disks and passing them around like madness, only playing it when our parents weren't at home.. Ah.. memories.. anyway, I think that the invention of the 3D shooters, changed the world's look at game. After so many years looking at the playing character from the side (platform gaming), you could suddenly see the game through the eyes of the playing character, like you were there! In my opinion, most 3D shooters look the same, it's basicly the same concept over and over again, with slightly engine and quality enhances here and there.. Before there was something like the Doom and Quake era, the game developers just *had* to be creative, if they wanted to sell anything. Nowadays, shooters are a winning formula, and why change a running system?
You're an adult.
Thank you, but I have to admit that I'm only 17, and I was 16 when I bought my Z.
I think the only reason WHY they wouldn't want to use this device is if they also were heavy into video conferencing as well. Ever watch a teenager use a computer?
Yep, I do. Quite a lot actually. Unless you mean really *use* a computer, not using Microsoft Office for school work. At my school there are about 100 system (mostly Celeron 600mhz), for 450 students, and they are all in use almost every hour.
Sure, you could buy a PDA.. ever teenage kid has $400-$500 to spend on a PDA. This device is under $100, and thats the initial price.
The Zaurus SL-5500 sells for just a little more than $200 now, nowadays teenagers like me receive nice wages, so I think the 100 bucks extra isn't such a problem. Of course, due to the right marketing (read: targetting at teenagers), these devices will be selling much better than PDAs in the age 12-18.
For the PDA, you also need to buy the AIM software (AOL stopped giving away the PalmOS version at some point in the past few months, I believe).
Nope, not true. Ever heard of Jabber? Jabber is an OpenSource IM system, which has support for gateways to most populair IM networks (ICQ, MSN, AOL, and other). There are two or three jabber clients for the Zaurus, and I know of the existence of one for the PocketPC (there are probably more).
Quite frankly, I think the kids are going to want this for Christmas.
I hope mom and dad will look at the nice(-prized) PDAs too.
I'm not so sure, When I'm programming I usually like a reasonably comfortable computer chair and a big desk; When I do my web browsing, im'ing and mp3 listening I use a computer that I set up next to my bed so that I can lay down while i'm doing it. Before I set this up I found myself going to watch tv on my comfortable couch instead.
Yes, of course it's a Good Thing computers and related devices get more comfortable, but don't forget this is a IM only device. Why are people using IM? To communicate about things. Example: when I work on a project, I communicate with my fellow developers through IRC or Jabber, in the meantime, I want to be able to do stuff with the things discussed, e.g.: test shared ideas, or add things to the project's ToDo list. Of course, this says nothing about people who use IM *only* to talk with friends (not-work related), they probably don't need the rest of a computer. But besides talking about personal things, people also IM a lot about things which require other (computer) actions. Another example is a friend who IMs you an URL, wouldn't it be handy if you could just click&go? Instead of that, you'll have to walk to your system first, launch your browser and type the URL.
Again: if the device doesn't support remote IM'ing, I won't be interested.
I spent $300.00 on my Zaurus, including Linksys 802.11b card. It's now possible to get the SL-5500 for around $200.00 since Sharp is about to intoduce the SL-5600 (or already did, not sure). So, for twice the money you'll get a full PDA (running Linux!) which allows you to do almost anything. For half the money, you'll get a device which *only* allows you to Instant Message with it. Besides this, it's possible to set up a Bluetooth connection between your Zaurus and your mobile phone, allowing you to use dial-up/GPRS/UMTS. Sure, Bluetooth cards cost money, but they give you great possibilities.
So, if the devices would be around $50.00, it could be a great buy, now I would rather double the money spent, and go for a PDA. Of course, this differs from person to person, everyone has to make the choice for theirselves.
I'm not sure if this will be a good-selling device.
First of all, the limitation because of a base station, really hurts it's image. It would be very cool if I could Jabber in the train, but I don't think I will Jabber on my couch, when my PC is ten meters away.
The second Bag Thing is the huge competion between PDAs and IM devices. Why would I pay for a (probably expensive too) IM device, when I can get a PDA with 802.11b? A PDA gives me much more features, including Instant Messaging. I currently have the Zaurus SL-5500, and I'm really happy to have it, I can do just anything with it, including Instant Messaging.
I think this device has a chance, but only if the prices are (much) lower than the PDA prices, or if it's going to support GPRS/UMTS/etc.
Another two cents (makes it four):
Why aren't there any numbers in the list? I would like to know how many votes a given scanner was given.
Lies, damn lies and statistics.
"But a number of new tools appeared this year, like Windows-only GFI LANguard, SuperScan, and Cain & Abel."
Cain & Abel has been around for ages, so maybe a new one on the list, not really a new tool.
Just my two cents.