The future will belong to whatever company understands digital content better, and that's certainly not Microsoft with their overzealous approach to DRM (needing a DRM compliant monitor? That's going too far). Google has a far better understanding of digital content, but whether they truly understand it will be borne out by the result of the Google Print debacle.
IBM fell to Microsoft because it failed to adapt to the underlying market forces, not because it didn't understand Microsoft. Microsoft will fall for the same reason. It's too big and too entrenched in its current business model to recover in time (just like IBM in the 80's). Google is far more nimble and is looking further ahead than next quarter's growth (which, by the way, is freaking Microsoft out because they've failed to grow quarter after quarter for the first time in their history). Even the newest tactic by Microsoft, splitting into three internally managed components, isn't going to save them. IBM did the same thing.
History doesn't repeat itself, but management techniques, personalities, and market forces cause historical situations to re-occur, and the same choices are made time after time by people in similar contexts.
Most Canadians are happy to pay taxes in return for having solid public services, public works, universal healthcare, universal social security... you know, a social safety net like the rest of the world (*other* than the U.S) has. "Free" WiFi is a nice benefit to tourism and students (i.e., people who don't pay municipal taxes), and to the businesses in the downtown core where the service is strongest.
I live in Fredericton too, and I don't use the e-Zone much but it's handy to have available. And I pay my taxes (happily).
Re:We could re-do Myst...better, even!
on
Cyan Worlds Closes
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· Score: 2, Interesting
The graphics and sound would be technically pretty easy (although Robyn Miller's soundtrack would be hard to replicate!) and certainly the gameplay straightforward -- I used to have my students write a Myst-like game in Flash as a project in my course on multimedia. But what my students could never replicate, and what I doubt "a small five-person Sourceforge team" could do would be to get the backstory, the atmosphere, the vibrant characters and tricky yet not impossible puzzles to gel "just right" to create that sense of being part of a bigger, deeper, more involved world.
Anyone can write a novel, but only a talented few can write a brilliant novel!
My Powerbook stand is a Dell Optiplex GX100 (433MHz Celeron). It's not even plugged in, but it's the exact right height to bring the display up to eye-level and keep it in-line with my second monitor.
Read the Firefox code and prove it to yourself, or find someone you trust and get them to do it for you. Too bad you can't read the IE code to get the same level of assurance. And do you trust Bill?:-)
Utter nonsense. The exploit is in the Windows version of Firefox. It doesn't affect other operating systems. The marketshare of a software package doesn't make exploits in it more likely. The quality of the OS-layer code that allows a software package exploit to damage something outside the confines of the software package is the true story here, and that has nothing to do with marketshare and everything to do with bad programming in either Windows or the Windows port of Firefox.
And besides, Apache is way more complex than IIS, has a much higher marketshare, and not nearly the number of exploits. It all comes down to code quality, and Open Source produces better code, period.
Get uControl (google for it) -- it can remap the capslock to any other key without it being sticky, even on an external keyboard. I have a keyboard without Windows keys so I needed to remap my caps lock to Command, but it can do CTRL too.
It can also remap the redundant and IMHO useless "enter" key on the Powerbook keyboard.
I totally agree with this. Communication skills are more highly prized the further you advance in your career. Of course, if you want to be a low-level code monkey forever, it's worth less. But if you want to further your education, you probably want to further your career too.
Using a Mac mini as a server is like using a Ferrari to haul freight.
His ambitions would've been better served by using that AOpen case and Maxtor hard drives with a cheapo x86 mobo/cpu and Linux. It would've been just as quiet (probably more so since he'd only have on PSU -- he could even splurge a bit and buy a quality quiet PSU to replace the stock one).
Then he could've kept his quiet, stylish mini on his desk where it belongs!
That's not the point. The point is that IIS is developed by Microsoft, and thus shares a development culture and paradigm with other Microsoft software, such as Windows and Office. Apache, on the other hand, was developed using FOSS design principles similar to those that drive most GNU projects and the Linux kernel itself.
Whether it's an OS or an application makes no fundimental difference -- the principles that go into the design are what matter here.
No, that doesn't wash. If it was just ubiquity that caused MS to get hit more often than *NIX's (including OS X's BSD heritage), it wouldn't be the case that roughly 70% of the world's web servers are Apache, yet 90% of web server exploits are against Microsoft's IIS.
The flaw in Windows isn't it's commonality, it's deep in the architecture.
If this guy had half a brain, he wouldn't be blaming Microsoft for this, he'd be blaming himself and his wife.
Ah, the classic retort of Microsoft: "Its not our fault our software is insecure, it's your fault for not knowing what you're doing."
The user shouldn't *have* to worry about the security of their browser, or any other piece of software. The operating system should encourage and enforce secure behavior by default. I don't worry about opening any particular web site on Firefox, or reading any particular e-mail with Evolution. I shouldn't have to.
WRONG. The corporations are the government. They are so big, so powerful, that they've PURCHASED your government officials. "Your elected politicians" believe whatever the megacorporations whant them to believe, and do whatever they want them to do.
Free-market capitalism isn't the cure -- it's the problem.
The real cure would be to take back your government.
Give the man a break. From a purely academic design standpoint, Linux *is* obsolete... and hey, AST is definitely an academic. But that doesn't mean he has to be ignorant to its commercial success. Proving once again that just 'cos something isn't beautiful, if it gets the job done, people will use it.:-)
Yes, it *is* actually hard. First-past-the-post electoral procedures almost always create a two-party system that's almost impossible for other parties to break into: Duverger's law.
The science part of political science is actually pretty fascinating.
You should give Fedora Core a whirl. It's composed entirely of F/OSS software (nothing else makes it in to the Core distro, although non-F/OSS stuff can be added from 3rd party repositories), and is a technology preview of what will eventually make it into RHEL. We use Fedora on our desktops so we can get to know what will be coming down the pike for our servers which all run RHEL.
Here's hoping *none* would. Fedora Core gives you the option of using up2date or yum right out of the box, and some people use apt. All three do GPG signature checking by default.
I hope anyone stupid enough to fall for this obvious scam would also be too dumb to know how to compile and install the software anyway.
This was a pretty lame attempt. If someone *really* wanted to cause havock, they'd hack one of the central repositories and insert poison packages into a trusted source. Of course, that's orders of magnitude more difficult. I mean, that hasn't even happened to Windows Update yet!:-)
You don't have to. If you use a package installer like up2date, yum, or apt, they will complain loudly if a package isn't appropriately signed. This all happens without the user knowning anything about it. And unlike Windows, there's no inviting "Trust this software? Yes/No" dialog -- turning off trust is a little more complicated than that, and requires administrator access.
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The future will belong to whatever company understands digital content better, and that's certainly not Microsoft with their overzealous approach to DRM (needing a DRM compliant monitor? That's going too far). Google has a far better understanding of digital content, but whether they truly understand it will be borne out by the result of the Google Print debacle.
IBM fell to Microsoft because it failed to adapt to the underlying market forces, not because it didn't understand Microsoft. Microsoft will fall for the same reason. It's too big and too entrenched in its current business model to recover in time (just like IBM in the 80's). Google is far more nimble and is looking further ahead than next quarter's growth (which, by the way, is freaking Microsoft out because they've failed to grow quarter after quarter for the first time in their history). Even the newest tactic by Microsoft, splitting into three internally managed components, isn't going to save them. IBM did the same thing.
History doesn't repeat itself, but management techniques, personalities, and market forces cause historical situations to re-occur, and the same choices are made time after time by people in similar contexts.
Um hello, this is Canada we're talking about... everyone pays lots of tax :-)
Most Canadians are happy to pay taxes in return for having solid public services, public works, universal healthcare, universal social security... you know, a social safety net like the rest of the world (*other* than the U.S) has. "Free" WiFi is a nice benefit to tourism and students (i.e., people who don't pay municipal taxes), and to the businesses in the downtown core where the service is strongest.
I live in Fredericton too, and I don't use the e-Zone much but it's handy to have available. And I pay my taxes (happily).
The graphics and sound would be technically pretty easy (although Robyn Miller's soundtrack would be hard to replicate!) and certainly the gameplay straightforward -- I used to have my students write a Myst-like game in Flash as a project in my course on multimedia. But what my students could never replicate, and what I doubt "a small five-person Sourceforge team" could do would be to get the backstory, the atmosphere, the vibrant characters and tricky yet not impossible puzzles to gel "just right" to create that sense of being part of a bigger, deeper, more involved world.
Anyone can write a novel, but only a talented few can write a brilliant novel!
That feature was present in every version of AmigaOS from 1.3 onward (might have been in 1.2, but my first Amiga was an A500, which came with 1.3).
You can do something similar with the numeric keypad in GNOME if you turn on that particular accessability feature.
My Powerbook stand is a Dell Optiplex GX100 (433MHz Celeron). It's not even plugged in, but it's the exact right height to bring the display up to eye-level and keep it in-line with my second monitor.
Evolution on my Linux boxen, iCal on my Mac. Kept in sync via a webDAV published .ics file. Works perfectly, never had a problem with it.
Read the Firefox code and prove it to yourself, or find someone you trust and get them to do it for you. Too bad you can't read the IE code to get the same level of assurance. And do you trust Bill? :-)
Utter nonsense. The exploit is in the Windows version of Firefox. It doesn't affect other operating systems. The marketshare of a software package doesn't make exploits in it more likely. The quality of the OS-layer code that allows a software package exploit to damage something outside the confines of the software package is the true story here, and that has nothing to do with marketshare and everything to do with bad programming in either Windows or the Windows port of Firefox.
And besides, Apache is way more complex than IIS, has a much higher marketshare, and not nearly the number of exploits. It all comes down to code quality, and Open Source produces better code, period.
Please, continue to eat at you current pace!
:)
Shrinking IT labour pool == higher salaries for those of us who survive you.
EAT ON!
Get uControl (google for it) -- it can remap the capslock to any other key without it being sticky, even on an external keyboard. I have a keyboard without Windows keys so I needed to remap my caps lock to Command, but it can do CTRL too. It can also remap the redundant and IMHO useless "enter" key on the Powerbook keyboard.
Panther ships on a DVD with new Powerbooks.
I totally agree with this. Communication skills are more highly prized the further you advance in your career. Of course, if you want to be a low-level code monkey forever, it's worth less. But if you want to further your education, you probably want to further your career too.
You don't buy Apple for horsepower any more than you buy a Ferrari for gas mileage. It's about style, not performance.
Using a Mac mini as a server is like using a Ferrari to haul freight.
His ambitions would've been better served by using that AOpen case and Maxtor hard drives with a cheapo x86 mobo/cpu and Linux. It would've been just as quiet (probably more so since he'd only have on PSU -- he could even splurge a bit and buy a quality quiet PSU to replace the stock one).
Then he could've kept his quiet, stylish mini on his desk where it belongs!
That's not the point. The point is that IIS is developed by Microsoft, and thus shares a development culture and paradigm with other Microsoft software, such as Windows and Office. Apache, on the other hand, was developed using FOSS design principles similar to those that drive most GNU projects and the Linux kernel itself.
Whether it's an OS or an application makes no fundimental difference -- the principles that go into the design are what matter here.
No, that doesn't wash. If it was just ubiquity that caused MS to get hit more often than *NIX's (including OS X's BSD heritage), it wouldn't be the case that roughly 70% of the world's web servers are Apache, yet 90% of web server exploits are against Microsoft's IIS.
The flaw in Windows isn't it's commonality, it's deep in the architecture.
If this guy had half a brain, he wouldn't be blaming Microsoft for this, he'd be blaming himself and his wife.
Ah, the classic retort of Microsoft: "Its not our fault our software is insecure, it's your fault for not knowing what you're doing."
The user shouldn't *have* to worry about the security of their browser, or any other piece of software. The operating system should encourage and enforce secure behavior by default. I don't worry about opening any particular web site on Firefox, or reading any particular e-mail with Evolution. I shouldn't have to.
WRONG. The corporations are the government. They are so big, so powerful, that they've PURCHASED your government officials. "Your elected politicians" believe whatever the megacorporations whant them to believe, and do whatever they want them to do.
Free-market capitalism isn't the cure -- it's the problem.
The real cure would be to take back your government.
This report is bunk. The results don't count the Treo -- PalmOne's best seller and the leading "smartphone" out there.
Give the man a break. From a purely academic design standpoint, Linux *is* obsolete... and hey, AST is definitely an academic. But that doesn't mean he has to be ignorant to its commercial success. Proving once again that just 'cos something isn't beautiful, if it gets the job done, people will use it. :-)
Yes, it *is* actually hard. First-past-the-post electoral procedures almost always create a two-party system that's almost impossible for other parties to break into: Duverger's law. The science part of political science is actually pretty fascinating.
You should give Fedora Core a whirl. It's composed entirely of F/OSS software (nothing else makes it in to the Core distro, although non-F/OSS stuff can be added from 3rd party repositories), and is a technology preview of what will eventually make it into RHEL. We use Fedora on our desktops so we can get to know what will be coming down the pike for our servers which all run RHEL.
Here's hoping *none* would. Fedora Core gives you the option of using up2date or yum right out of the box, and some people use apt. All three do GPG signature checking by default.
:-)
I hope anyone stupid enough to fall for this obvious scam would also be too dumb to know how to compile and install the software anyway.
This was a pretty lame attempt. If someone *really* wanted to cause havock, they'd hack one of the central repositories and insert poison packages into a trusted source. Of course, that's orders of magnitude more difficult. I mean, that hasn't even happened to Windows Update yet!
You don't have to. If you use a package installer like up2date, yum, or apt, they will complain loudly if a package isn't appropriately signed. This all happens without the user knowning anything about it. And unlike Windows, there's no inviting "Trust this software? Yes/No" dialog -- turning off trust is a little more complicated than that, and requires administrator access.