They are looking to make money on their support of the product, which is a well astablished model.
Although still free many will choose not to run the newer version without the source. The reason is simple, security. With the source code being open it can be reviewed. First, the contribututor and then the approver and if needed, by yourself.
Maybe Google will end up becoming the first sentient AI,...
Not AI, try TV and broadcasting on demand. What else could you do with that much storage, CPU and memory?
My guess, and it is only a guess, GoogleTV is geting a lot bigger and going to carry some 500,000 to 1,000,000 full length movies and shows or something. And it will be so kewl for us to watch what we want and not what some clown wants us to watch. I suspect it will change ratings too as your not stuck picking from the least boring shows because there is nothing better on. No more pre-empting Enterprise.
It is just a mater of time and we will get video entertainment on line. Little companies like ICraveTV got legally crushed when they rebroadcast TV on the internet. Cable companies don't like it as you might drop the lucrative TV part of their service. Telco's are still crying because the lost out on being the number one in internet access. These companies are stagnent and have a vested interest in seeing video on demand over the internet fail.
But if a big player with lots of influence, cash and technical know how were to step up it will happen fast.
Maybe that is why google is building those monster sized supercomputers on a truck???? Don't mean to start rumors but what does one need with a machine like this except to broadcast content? http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/20/151424 4&tid=217
Haven't bought a single CD since, except directly from the hands of the musician.
I think we should see more of this where the musicians sell directly to the consumer. There is no need any more for the overhead of BMG in supply chain. The musicians would probably see more of the revenue too and we would see lower prices.
But I still get a chuckle out of this whole thing. Infecting your paying customers with a rootkit -- priceless. Hopefully this will kick the industry into a evolution where real customers mater more than a monopoly.
Are you high, or are you just in the habit of randomly making up nonsensical stuff?
No, not high. Just willing to take pro-M$ flame bait today.
I guess I overestimated the intelligence of the/. readership, especially those from the PC world.
The fact is, if you are writing software to be efficient on a single processor the architecture of the software will be much different than if you know you have 32 processors. And neither is best for the other.
For single processor speed you don't want the overhead of interprocess commutations so you can skip it and sequentially do what you need to do without worry of what the other processes are doing. In fact, this is usually how most programs operate as coding is much more easy to do.
For multiprocessor systems you want to distribute as evenly as possible the work across as many processors and I/O busses as you have. It is worth the effort of code, threads, interprocess communications layer with mutex, locks and individual disk writers. But this model would run slower on a single CPU.
The HT model isn't dual CPU in performance but does allow for 2 threads on the system to be active at once, at the expense of individual thread performance. Do we want single process speed or throughput? Example:
Classic seti 3.x on Fedora Linux.
- with 1 seti running takes 4 hours
- with 2 seti running each takes 5.2 hours
So if I want the fastest seti I want to run 1. If I want the most seti I want to run 2 to keep the processor busy to maximum performance.
And MS SQL, like it or not will have it's ups and downs depending how it was architected.
Where did you get this wallop of information? It is not true, MS SQL Server performs very well in multiprocessor environments (not using Hyperthreading). Checkout the TPC benchmarks if you don't believe me: http://www.tpc.org/
Wow, this post sure attracted a lot of flame bait from M$ 'n FUD crew.
Read the original post, "and likely largely tested in a single processor system".
I don't think Microsoft gave it's developers a $5.8M USD machine in #4 www.tcp.org spot that you can't even buy yet to develop MS SQL. It was more likely a PC, single processor and subsequently and later tested on the bigger iron.
Instead of looking at the www.tcp.org site where vendors post systems you can buy, why not look at what organizations are really buying?
http://www.top500.org/lists/2005/11/
There must be some reason that Microsoft consistantly is excluded completely from the top 10 by *real* world purchases. I didn't check to see how far down the list you have to go to see a Microsoft product. I guess those Dells run Linux nicely.
Go ahead M$ pundits, mod this down too. After all it is the M$ way. You don't like the facts so you FUD it and mod it down.
I don't have a problem with this as long as the users being tracked "opt in" and are being paid in exchange for the intrusion. Why should industry get a free ride out of this?
Sounds like credit cards. It was once opt-in, and some could argue it still is. However, now that the cards are the norm every try to rent a car in another city without a credit card? In essence, having a credit card is now no longer a opt-in from a practical standpoint. Cell phones are getting like this.
There is also what I will call scope creap. Once almost everyone has it, is used to it and hooked on it. Then someone is going to say lets measure velocity and issue speeding tickets. "Dear Sir, We have observed you were traveling at 63Km/h in a 60Km/h zone, your owe the state 42 pounds." Or another good one, "Dear sir: You traveled 327.2 kilometers this month and the tax bill is: $115 pounds plus VAT". And if you don't comply, "Here is your ticket $500 ticket for passing through the zone without the cell on." Something like the Illinois tool booths.
And although I know of no specific cases this could be done now and would not surprize me if it has. If the government wanted to monitor you, they could download a special applet into your cell which makes it look like it is off but quietly records your conversations without you knowing for later transmital on demand.
Food for thought. Stopping the invasion of privacy at some point will become imposible without a revolution.
I'm betting it's the software that's at fault here and not Intel's architecture.
Wish I had some ++ mod points for this statement.
MS SQL was designed and likely largely tested in a single processor system and multiprocessor or HT support is somewhat less than optimal. So MS SQL is likely best tuned to single processor. To use multiple processors, HT or discrete 2+ CPU systems the software needs to be designed correctly to maximize its use. If it is not designed for multiple CPUs, you will be disappointed. Even if MS SQL were on dual CPU systems, it might not be uncomon to only see a 20% performance increase even thought the CPU has doubled.
While HT degrades faster than two CPU systems for reason of contention of more components than just I/O and memory, if properly programmed it will add to throughput.
I will only buy a Sony product if it comes with a written guarantee of NO DRM, no root kit, no surprises and they can say this in less that 50 readable English words. I am not going to read line 1254 a EULA in 1/32nd of inch print on a common product like a PC, wireless card, USB (any), camera, CD, DVD, home video camera, HD-DVD, DVD player, cell phone, TV or anything for find out about rootkit privileges for the vendor.
Yes, most if not all of the above devices and more can infect your computer.
Maybe it is time to have an organization that will certify a product to be DRM rootkit free.
I assume that some grey, suited MBA type didn't put this code in. A geek did.
The grey suited MBA paid for it to be done and the geek did what he was paid to do. And obviously Sony BMG marketing would have to approve as it is a change in their product. Legal would have been involved to license the code. Upper management would either have to put their heads in the sand or approve it.
I don't know what world your from but geeks don't have a rats ass of influence with senior management. If a brain dead CSO looked at this he might have said it may be in violation of section 1030 of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, targeted paying customers and may contain copyright violations.
Conspiracy to subvert users who buy their product is likely. But this story is so ironically cute and humorous it will go down in the business journals like coke classic and the like. Sony will wait 6 months and when sales are down come out with DRM free classic CDs.
My suggestion is get someone who has done this in a structured and successful environment. Otherwise developers will roll you over and your projects will be late, over budget and buggy.
I have seen it so many times where an internal inexperienced person jumps in the saddle without mentorship and guidance in the areas of software development (NT or UNIX) and systems management not native to the environment. And I have seen how long companies suffer with the problems created by this and how much it costs companies in the end. It makes a $1000 per hour consultant look cheap.
A good example is code management. Very few IT shops have it. Why? No one wants to know who checked in the buggy code! But few developers want such tools, especially the microwave generation. But at least when your caffeine isn't good enough and they move on you will know where the source code is.
Sounds simple? Not really, there are hundreds of issues like the one above. And it can't be taught quickly.
So get a consultant for 6 to 12 months that has done this, listen and learn and you will be off to a fast start.
... law but does allow more leeway for the police when investigating suspected crimes...
So does this include going into Sony/BMG offices and confiscate their mail servers and backup tapes to find out who authorized the alteration of the Windows operating system in obvious violation of the copyright that does not give anyone but Microsoft the authority to do so? Or perhaps to enforce the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act section 1030?
Or is just to extend the "To Serve and Collect" mentality?
And do keep in mind that the Sony rootkit could in theory come in from a USB device like it does from a CD. I would go with iPod. Apple is not likely to make the same mistake that Sony did. Or I would hope not.
By now I really think it's gotten to the point that it's more unethical to give money to a company like this than to download their music without paying.
It is ironic but true that your computer is now safer to download pirate copys of entertainment than to buy the authentic thing. WTF was Sony/BMG thinking? Most of us are honest!!
Do keep in mind this tech can also be delivered on DVDs. Although I don't believe it has been done to the masses yet, there is no reason why it couldn't be on a DVD.
And I for one would have never thought to read the EULA verbose legal microprint to see if it would rootkit my PC. Fortunately I never put the BMG ones I have in my PC.
Which makes me think this industry just shot itself in the foot.
While technically true, and usually is you can't tell what is going down the darknet. All you might get is a pair of IP address and quantity of traffic. So far many popular darknet's do not use crypto but many do. It is as simple as IPSec between two or more points. In fact, it is possible today to setup a completely private virtual network of friends over the internet by just configuring the operating environment.
Here is the problem for authorities and I/T security, there are as many legitimate uses to do this. You might get a warant to find out the person was working at home or downloading licensed software or data from a friend to do work.
That is why Sony rootkit'ed peoples PCs, as at the end points in a darknet you can monitor it. It gets embarasing to haul grandma's to court for watching family videos. Or they might be playing a peer-to-peer game. BTW, I think what Sony did was wrong.
If the law is the law then how come Microsoft executives are not in jail for anti-trust, bundling, extortion and predatory pricing?
Here is a hint. The government does not want to prosecute companies unless they are foreign, and that is why 90 days and not indefinite. If it were Microsoft in this lawsuit NTP would still be spinning from how fast this would have got tossed out of court. Why?
Mail and writen communications have been sent over wireless long before NTP patents were even filed. In fact, NTPs sole reason for existence is to quietly file patents, wait until a productive company is successful then pounce on companies who deliver a product or service. Purely a predatory practice that serves no beneficial purpose for consumers or society. In fact I am surprised RIM has not made this case to the US courts that NTP practices are predatory and hurt the consumer by reducing competition and thus should be tossed out on that basis.
And NTP, with zero employees can't claim it is developing it's patent to a product. Americans should be appalled at how this is unfolding as it raises consumer costs, will reduce competition and innovation. Americans employed to support the system may well get laid off as a result.
Business are going to start to ask if they should sell in the US and if so, raise their prices in advance anticipating law suits from scrupulous paracites like NTP.
Your average user does no know regedit any better than vi, users don't give a rats ass about the details underneath as long as it works and isn't too touch to use, does not get infected daily and does not cost too much. Vendors like Dell are full of it as most of us know. They sell Linux in China but not in North Americas as not to piss off Microsoft. The sell Intel but not AMD as not to piss off Intel. Dell is NOT as Linux/UNIX friendly, nor AMD friendly and in fact are two faced about it. But for some reason Linux runs nicely on Dells. Go figure.
I use my Linux quite nicely on AMD. Never been infected, no AV costs and comes with everything I need. Which includes lots of extras at no extra charge, such as PGP encryption in Evolution email.
Linux aaa.bbb.ccc 2.6.9-1.667 #1 Tue Nov 2 14:41:25 EST 2004 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux
And although Linux will not get you a Microsoft virus of the day, it is best not to run as root. As when Linux too gets real popular, it too will be a bigger target. The point being a default install of Linux today is more secure than Windows XP Home where everyone is a "root" or things don't work.
Windows applications use threads where equivilent Unix ones fork.
Unix can do either. Just depends how the programmers want to do it. Both have advantages and disadvantages. You can run threaded Apache 2.x or Apache 1.x process based. Both work but with different traits.
For example, by forking and allowing processes to die your more immune to memory leaks. If the code cores, it does not take then all down. If the code is known to leak memory, fork and subsequent termination cleans things up. Making rapid program development quicker but at the expense of fork() and memory. Another advantage of fork is memory separation. Each process does not share data segments so less errors from bad code. This is a major reason why Unix code tends to be outright fewer problems than Windows code. Other reasons may include prioritization, I can nice down one process over another. You can also set maximum system limits on each process much lower to lead to more stability to abusive user input.
Threads in a "perfect world" are technically more efficient at memory usage and avoid expensive fork operations. Very expensive in Windows, which is why threads are preferred in Windows. And the world is not perfect. Say you want to limit 1 thread to 100MBs of data core, you have to write a crap load of code in a Windows (or UNIX) threaded model to effectively do this. When in a process model you could use a much more stable ulimit like features of the OS. And if you have a memory leak in a threaded model, you have to restart the whole thing, even if it is just one thread causing all the issues.
Which model you choose entirely depends on the needs of the application and the circumstances you anticipate running it.
DC power in the data center unquestionably makes sense. Higher density, less heat and if it is on UPS, a lot off efficiency gains both at the computer part and the power distribution systems. Power distribution from the UPS is generally cheaper not having to transform from battery to A/C current. It would even save on air conditioning costs through lower heat on the computer and UPS electronics/transformers. In the long term, such a data center would be much less expensive to operate.
But the only draw back is equipment availability which would cause you to need both power systems in the floor and rack. More cable is always a pain. So if your major supplier provides for this, it is worthwhile.
I've felt that the perfect marriage would be Apple and Novell. Apple's Desktop products are great, but their server platform sucks. In comes Novell to provide their server platform. It makes perfect sense.
No one has raised it yet, but perhaps Microsoft or IBM is going to buy Novell. Microsoft can see the writing, they know their market share in Asia isn't something they are going to publically announce any time soon. Or maybe IBM wants the OS in house?? Companies often cut even good people just before a takeover - get existing management to do the dirty work.
Too bad, I just started running Suse 10 and think it is a world class OS. Suse 10 could have gone the distance.
He probably could throw it out but I hope the opposite happens. Toss a big fine and bad publicity to Sony for this. DRM went too far with a root kit and two wrongs don't make a right. Sony is going to have to learn this. But the worst may yet come for Sony, I for one will no longer buy Sony products.
And of all things, to remove the root kit you have to run an Active-X control from an untrusted site. Just what we in the security business tell people for good reason not to do.
So I support dragging Sony through the mud on this.
Slashdot Mirror
They are looking to make money on their support of the product, which is a well astablished model.
Although still free many will choose not to run the newer version without the source. The reason is simple, security. With the source code being open it can be reviewed. First, the contribututor and then the approver and if needed, by yourself.
Maybe Google will end up becoming the first sentient AI,...
Not AI, try TV and broadcasting on demand. What else could you do with that much storage, CPU and memory?
My guess, and it is only a guess, GoogleTV is geting a lot bigger and going to carry some 500,000 to 1,000,000 full length movies and shows or something. And it will be so kewl for us to watch what we want and not what some clown wants us to watch. I suspect it will change ratings too as your not stuck picking from the least boring shows because there is nothing better on. No more pre-empting Enterprise.
http://news.com.com/GoogleTV+is+hiring/2100-1026 _3-5876654.html
Or maybe I am being wishful.
It is just a mater of time and we will get video entertainment on line. Little companies like ICraveTV got legally crushed when they rebroadcast TV on the internet. Cable companies don't like it as you might drop the lucrative TV part of their service. Telco's are still crying because the lost out on being the number one in internet access. These companies are stagnent and have a vested interest in seeing video on demand over the internet fail.
But if a big player with lots of influence, cash and technical know how were to step up it will happen fast.
Maybe that is why google is building those monster sized supercomputers on a truck???? Don't mean to start rumors but what does one need with a machine like this except to broadcast content? http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/20/151424 4&tid=217
Haven't bought a single CD since, except directly from the hands of the musician.
I think we should see more of this where the musicians sell directly to the consumer. There is no need any more for the overhead of BMG in supply chain. The musicians would probably see more of the revenue too and we would see lower prices.
But I still get a chuckle out of this whole thing. Infecting your paying customers with a rootkit -- priceless. Hopefully this will kick the industry into a evolution where real customers mater more than a monopoly.
Are you high, or are you just in the habit of randomly making up nonsensical stuff?
No, not high. Just willing to take pro-M$ flame bait today.
I guess I overestimated the intelligence of the /. readership, especially those from the PC world.
The fact is, if you are writing software to be efficient on a single processor the architecture of the software will be much different than if you know you have 32 processors. And neither is best for the other.
For single processor speed you don't want the overhead of interprocess commutations so you can skip it and sequentially do what you need to do without worry of what the other processes are doing. In fact, this is usually how most programs operate as coding is much more easy to do.
For multiprocessor systems you want to distribute as evenly as possible the work across as many processors and I/O busses as you have. It is worth the effort of code, threads, interprocess communications layer with mutex, locks and individual disk writers. But this model would run slower on a single CPU.
The HT model isn't dual CPU in performance but does allow for 2 threads on the system to be active at once, at the expense of individual thread performance. Do we want single process speed or throughput? Example:
Classic seti 3.x on Fedora Linux.
- with 1 seti running takes 4 hours
- with 2 seti running each takes 5.2 hours
So if I want the fastest seti I want to run 1. If I want the most seti I want to run 2 to keep the processor busy to maximum performance.
And MS SQL, like it or not will have it's ups and downs depending how it was architected.
Anyone have any links to any test reports?
Not teribly scientific, but when I ran seti 3.x on my HT w. Linux I got the following results:
1 seti at a time ran in about 4 hours for 6 units per day.
2 instances of seti at a time was about 5.2 hours per unit at 9.2 seti units per day.
So I ran 2 seti instances to get the throughput as I was after the work unit count.
Where did you get this wallop of information? It is not true, MS SQL Server performs very well in multiprocessor environments (not using Hyperthreading). Checkout the TPC benchmarks if you don't believe me: http://www.tpc.org/
Wow, this post sure attracted a lot of flame bait from M$ 'n FUD crew.
Read the original post, "and likely largely tested in a single processor system".
I don't think Microsoft gave it's developers a $5.8M USD machine in #4 www.tcp.org spot that you can't even buy yet to develop MS SQL. It was more likely a PC, single processor and subsequently and later tested on the bigger iron.
Instead of looking at the www.tcp.org site where vendors post systems you can buy, why not look at what organizations are really buying?
http://www.top500.org/lists/2005/11/
There must be some reason that Microsoft consistantly is excluded completely from the top 10 by *real* world purchases. I didn't check to see how far down the list you have to go to see a Microsoft product. I guess those Dells run Linux nicely.
Go ahead M$ pundits, mod this down too. After all it is the M$ way. You don't like the facts so you FUD it and mod it down.
I don't have a problem with this as long as the users being tracked "opt in" and are being paid in exchange for the intrusion. Why should industry get a free ride out of this?
Sounds like credit cards. It was once opt-in, and some could argue it still is. However, now that the cards are the norm every try to rent a car in another city without a credit card? In essence, having a credit card is now no longer a opt-in from a practical standpoint. Cell phones are getting like this.
There is also what I will call scope creap. Once almost everyone has it, is used to it and hooked on it. Then someone is going to say lets measure velocity and issue speeding tickets. "Dear Sir, We have observed you were traveling at 63Km/h in a 60Km/h zone, your owe the state 42 pounds." Or another good one, "Dear sir: You traveled 327.2 kilometers this month and the tax bill is: $115 pounds plus VAT". And if you don't comply, "Here is your ticket $500 ticket for passing through the zone without the cell on." Something like the Illinois tool booths.
And although I know of no specific cases this could be done now and would not surprize me if it has. If the government wanted to monitor you, they could download a special applet into your cell which makes it look like it is off but quietly records your conversations without you knowing for later transmital on demand.
Food for thought. Stopping the invasion of privacy at some point will become imposible without a revolution.
I'm betting it's the software that's at fault here and not Intel's architecture.
Wish I had some ++ mod points for this statement.
MS SQL was designed and likely largely tested in a single processor system and multiprocessor or HT support is somewhat less than optimal. So MS SQL is likely best tuned to single processor. To use multiple processors, HT or discrete 2+ CPU systems the software needs to be designed correctly to maximize its use. If it is not designed for multiple CPUs, you will be disappointed. Even if MS SQL were on dual CPU systems, it might not be uncomon to only see a 20% performance increase even thought the CPU has doubled.
While HT degrades faster than two CPU systems for reason of contention of more components than just I/O and memory, if properly programmed it will add to throughput.
I will only buy a Sony product if it comes with a written guarantee of NO DRM, no root kit, no surprises and they can say this in less that 50 readable English words. I am not going to read line 1254 a EULA in 1/32nd of inch print on a common product like a PC, wireless card, USB (any), camera, CD, DVD, home video camera, HD-DVD, DVD player, cell phone, TV or anything for find out about rootkit privileges for the vendor.
Yes, most if not all of the above devices and more can infect your computer.
Maybe it is time to have an organization that will certify a product to be DRM rootkit free.
I assume that some grey, suited MBA type didn't put this code in. A geek did.
The grey suited MBA paid for it to be done and the geek did what he was paid to do. And obviously Sony BMG marketing would have to approve as it is a change in their product. Legal would have been involved to license the code. Upper management would either have to put their heads in the sand or approve it.
I don't know what world your from but geeks don't have a rats ass of influence with senior management. If a brain dead CSO looked at this he might have said it may be in violation of section 1030 of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, targeted paying customers and may contain copyright violations.
Conspiracy to subvert users who buy their product is likely. But this story is so ironically cute and humorous it will go down in the business journals like coke classic and the like. Sony will wait 6 months and when sales are down come out with DRM free classic CDs.
My suggestion is get someone who has done this in a structured and successful environment. Otherwise developers will roll you over and your projects will be late, over budget and buggy.
I have seen it so many times where an internal inexperienced person jumps in the saddle without mentorship and guidance in the areas of software development (NT or UNIX) and systems management not native to the environment. And I have seen how long companies suffer with the problems created by this and how much it costs companies in the end. It makes a $1000 per hour consultant look cheap.
A good example is code management. Very few IT shops have it. Why? No one wants to know who checked in the buggy code! But few developers want such tools, especially the microwave generation. But at least when your caffeine isn't good enough and they move on you will know where the source code is.
Sounds simple? Not really, there are hundreds of issues like the one above. And it can't be taught quickly.
So get a consultant for 6 to 12 months that has done this, listen and learn and you will be off to a fast start.
If Steve offers OS X to you for free, you take it. Red Hat sucks
Not as bad as Microsoft, mind you I prefer Suse 10. Too bad Novell layed them off like they owned stock in Red Hat.
What does the tech industry have in common with the original Star Trek executives?
They bail too early when they have a good thing going.
So does this include going into Sony/BMG offices and confiscate their mail servers and backup tapes to find out who authorized the alteration of the Windows operating system in obvious violation of the copyright that does not give anyone but Microsoft the authority to do so? Or perhaps to enforce the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act section 1030?
Or is just to extend the "To Serve and Collect" mentality?
Where the hell does this end?
When everyone is in jail.
And do keep in mind that the Sony rootkit could in theory come in from a USB device like it does from a CD. I would go with iPod. Apple is not likely to make the same mistake that Sony did. Or I would hope not.
By now I really think it's gotten to the point that it's more unethical to give money to a company like this than to download their music without paying.
It is ironic but true that your computer is now safer to download pirate copys of entertainment than to buy the authentic thing. WTF was Sony/BMG thinking? Most of us are honest!!
Do keep in mind this tech can also be delivered on DVDs. Although I don't believe it has been done to the masses yet, there is no reason why it couldn't be on a DVD.
And I for one would have never thought to read the EULA verbose legal microprint to see if it would rootkit my PC. Fortunately I never put the BMG ones I have in my PC.
Which makes me think this industry just shot itself in the foot.
these darknets will always be detectable.
While technically true, and usually is you can't tell what is going down the darknet. All you might get is a pair of IP address and quantity of traffic. So far many popular darknet's do not use crypto but many do. It is as simple as IPSec between two or more points. In fact, it is possible today to setup a completely private virtual network of friends over the internet by just configuring the operating environment.
Here is the problem for authorities and I/T security, there are as many legitimate uses to do this. You might get a warant to find out the person was working at home or downloading licensed software or data from a friend to do work.
That is why Sony rootkit'ed peoples PCs, as at the end points in a darknet you can monitor it. It gets embarasing to haul grandma's to court for watching family videos. Or they might be playing a peer-to-peer game. BTW, I think what Sony did was wrong.
We will have to rename google to:
go:ogle
The law is the law is the law!
If the law is the law then how come Microsoft executives are not in jail for anti-trust, bundling, extortion and predatory pricing?
Here is a hint. The government does not want to prosecute companies unless they are foreign, and that is why 90 days and not indefinite. If it were Microsoft in this lawsuit NTP would still be spinning from how fast this would have got tossed out of court. Why?
Mail and writen communications have been sent over wireless long before NTP patents were even filed. In fact, NTPs sole reason for existence is to quietly file patents, wait until a productive company is successful then pounce on companies who deliver a product or service. Purely a predatory practice that serves no beneficial purpose for consumers or society. In fact I am surprised RIM has not made this case to the US courts that NTP practices are predatory and hurt the consumer by reducing competition and thus should be tossed out on that basis.
And NTP, with zero employees can't claim it is developing it's patent to a product. Americans should be appalled at how this is unfolding as it raises consumer costs, will reduce competition and innovation. Americans employed to support the system may well get laid off as a result.
Business are going to start to ask if they should sell in the US and if so, raise their prices in advance anticipating law suits from scrupulous paracites like NTP.
Didn't we discuss this over a month ago???
More than once, many times.
Your average user does no know regedit any better than vi, users don't give a rats ass about the details underneath as long as it works and isn't too touch to use, does not get infected daily and does not cost too much. Vendors like Dell are full of it as most of us know. They sell Linux in China but not in North Americas as not to piss off Microsoft. The sell Intel but not AMD as not to piss off Intel. Dell is NOT as Linux/UNIX friendly, nor AMD friendly and in fact are two faced about it. But for some reason Linux runs nicely on Dells. Go figure.
I use my Linux quite nicely on AMD. Never been infected, no AV costs and comes with everything I need. Which includes lots of extras at no extra charge, such as PGP encryption in Evolution email.
Linux aaa.bbb.ccc 2.6.9-1.667 #1 Tue Nov 2 14:41:25 EST 2004 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux
17:48:25 up 146 days, 11:19, 1 user, load average: 0.22, 0.15, 0.19
And although Linux will not get you a Microsoft virus of the day, it is best not to run as root. As when Linux too gets real popular, it too will be a bigger target. The point being a default install of Linux today is more secure than Windows XP Home where everyone is a "root" or things don't work.
Windows applications use threads where equivilent Unix ones fork.
Unix can do either. Just depends how the programmers want to do it. Both have advantages and disadvantages. You can run threaded Apache 2.x or Apache 1.x process based. Both work but with different traits.
For example, by forking and allowing processes to die your more immune to memory leaks. If the code cores, it does not take then all down. If the code is known to leak memory, fork and subsequent termination cleans things up. Making rapid program development quicker but at the expense of fork() and memory. Another advantage of fork is memory separation. Each process does not share data segments so less errors from bad code. This is a major reason why Unix code tends to be outright fewer problems than Windows code. Other reasons may include prioritization, I can nice down one process over another. You can also set maximum system limits on each process much lower to lead to more stability to abusive user input.
Threads in a "perfect world" are technically more efficient at memory usage and avoid expensive fork operations. Very expensive in Windows, which is why threads are preferred in Windows. And the world is not perfect. Say you want to limit 1 thread to 100MBs of data core, you have to write a crap load of code in a Windows (or UNIX) threaded model to effectively do this. When in a process model you could use a much more stable ulimit like features of the OS. And if you have a memory leak in a threaded model, you have to restart the whole thing, even if it is just one thread causing all the issues.
Which model you choose entirely depends on the needs of the application and the circumstances you anticipate running it.
DC power in the data center unquestionably makes sense. Higher density, less heat and if it is on UPS, a lot off efficiency gains both at the computer part and the power distribution systems. Power distribution from the UPS is generally cheaper not having to transform from battery to A/C current. It would even save on air conditioning costs through lower heat on the computer and UPS electronics/transformers. In the long term, such a data center would be much less expensive to operate.
But the only draw back is equipment availability which would cause you to need both power systems in the floor and rack. More cable is always a pain. So if your major supplier provides for this, it is worthwhile.
I've felt that the perfect marriage would be Apple and Novell. Apple's Desktop products are great, but their server platform sucks. In comes Novell to provide their server platform. It makes perfect sense.
No one has raised it yet, but perhaps Microsoft or IBM is going to buy Novell. Microsoft can see the writing, they know their market share in Asia isn't something they are going to publically announce any time soon. Or maybe IBM wants the OS in house?? Companies often cut even good people just before a takeover - get existing management to do the dirty work.
Too bad, I just started running Suse 10 and think it is a world class OS. Suse 10 could have gone the distance.
can't the judge throw this one right out?
He probably could throw it out but I hope the opposite happens. Toss a big fine and bad publicity to Sony for this. DRM went too far with a root kit and two wrongs don't make a right. Sony is going to have to learn this. But the worst may yet come for Sony, I for one will no longer buy Sony products.
And of all things, to remove the root kit you have to run an Active-X control from an untrusted site. Just what we in the security business tell people for good reason not to do.
So I support dragging Sony through the mud on this.