I'm always upset with disciplinary action towards white-hat hacking like this. They COULD have just shut up and use the access to their advantage while at the university. Instead, this was for the newspaper and they were essentially informing the network admins of problems.
However, I think it is also important for white-hat hackers to ask permission before attempting any of this stuff. Get in contact with your network officials, you'd be surprised how much they'll let you do.
I'm a computer science student... I've used all 3 platforms you mentioned. I don't use it for graphics/multimedia stuff really; I mostly use it for programming and such. I like it because it's insanely simple, and after spending years constantly messing with computers, it gets old. OS X is simple and intuitive, by far the easiest unix I've used, yet at the same time, when you want to do stuff "the hard way" and get down to the nitty-gritty junk, you can [Old MacOS enforced the "Mac Way", OS X merely provides it for your conveniance]. There's a very tight integration between the mac environment and the command line, which makes it really easy to script cool stuff from the shell.
I could go on and on, but basically, it's just a really nice user experience for novices and advanced users alike. Most of the criticism I've encountered are people complaining about how macs were 10 years ago, not how they are now. They're MUCH less quirky and I think most of the critics simply havent spent enough time with a next-gen Mac to appreciate it.
I've often referred to them as the BMW of computers. Are they the fastest? No, especially if you're a mechanic and built your own hot-rod. Are they expensive? Yeah, but not too bad at entry-level. The advantage, is every aspect completely solid and designed to make the best possilbe experience for the operator. Test drive a BMW 3-series and its hard to complain. Test drive a PowerBook, I think you'll find similar results.
northern california is another great place for these folks. not just environmentalist, but very confrontational -- and it is, definately, entertaining to unravel their arguments.
as far as my own personal SUV hatred, let me give some background... i live in newport beach (southern california, "The OC" as it were) -- it's a pretty afluent area. every road is paved, and well maintained. long story short, there's no justification for buying an SUV unless you go up to the mountains a lot or work in construction or something. however, there are a LOT of SUV's on our roads, usually its just soccer-moms driving around alone. its like a mini-van alternative, to most of the buyers it seems. the hummers are out in full force too, though they are so big they often have difficulty in a suburban setting (small parking spaces and such)
so why am i so pissed off with SUV's? because they're slow (especially when cornering), they block your view of oncoming traffic conditions, they guzzle gas yet people still complain about how much they pay to fill up, and they're notoriously unsafe -- i always see them jumping medians or smashing into traffic signals when its rainy. BOTTOM LINE: i don't like bad consumerism. SUV's have their place, so i dont support any bans, but i wish people would THINK before they buy something, not just buy it as part of some trend. i don't mind stuff like the honda element or infiniti FX-4, where they're a little smaller and sportier... its just the extra-large GMC, ford, cadilac, chevy.... they're really expensive, and probably don't meet the needs of the person who bought it. why should i care about what someone ELSE buys? two reasons: 1, it has an effect on what will be manufactured/marketed in the future (they'll continue to push it, if it continues to sell well), and 2, SUV prevalance makes my driving experience less enjoyable, and less safe.
wouldn't it be like, way easier and safer to just pay a neighborhood kid a small fee and have them do it for you? i agree mowing the lawn sucks, but it seems to me that making a homebrew robotic appliance with sharp splinning blades is a bad thing.
alternative: plastic grass (they have really realistic stuff these days), or japanese rock-garden instead of lawn.
probably the same reason N64 owners bought the GameCube -- better graphics. plus, i don't care how much you like the xbox, the controllers are WHACK and that's all there is to it. they're like the sega-saturn controllers and apple's round mouse: a concept-design gone bad.
in all honesty, i heard rumours of the xbox2 using dual PPC970's, which means i'm not at all surprised that it's not backwards-compatible. ps2 was only because they used the same architecture.
oh THAT'S what the word was... i spent 10 minutes looking at it, and couldn't figure out what they were trying to convey. thank you for clearing it up for all of us.
it seems they just want to continually squeeze more money out of customers while giving them less. why dont they just abandon this whole digital-media business, and start systematically mugging customers.
i too, am sick of hearing about how slow java is. i think this claim had a lot more validity back in the day ('98 or so) but now it's just echoed amongst the idiots. one thing they've beaten into us in computer science courses, is that optimization is really only needed in a few critical areas, and the rest of the program wont depend that much on performance.
with today's absurdly fast computers, just-in-time compiling and runtime optimizations, semi-native environments (OSX's java, GCJ, JNI, or projects combining multiple languages) -- why must this issue constantly be touted every time java is mentioned?
Apple is perfectly capable of releasing an X86 version of OS X without Sun's assistance, however they certainly won't be doing it any time soon. It is a product to help them sell their HARDWARE, because apple is a HARDWARE company. If you can run OS X on a white-box PC, you have taken away one of the major selling points of macs.
As far as high-end graphics goes, Sun/SGI seems to be the early 90's must-have.... these days those who would have once bought an SGI are now buying macs to run Maya or what have you.
Really, the only thing good sun has going for it is java. And they're on the verge of fscking it up. I think apple has bigger/better plans for their $$$.
techTV just seems so... i don't know, it's hard to say. it seems like it's geared towards people who aren't 100% up to speed on tech stuff (it's no/.) -- but it also has this whole coke-fueled-programming-creation vibe to it. it just has so much stuff that is really corny / out-of-date / etc.
I mean, I would kind of like to see a TV channel like WIRED magazine. Sure, it's not always the best read, and sometimes its just as corny/yuppy, but at least they do a good job and make it interesting.
I agree with you on the headlights point -- the going price for xenon bulbs seems to be about 25 bucks for a set of 4 (reg & brights).
with that said, you've gotta be smoking crack to think hondas only last 7 years. for christs sake, the warranty is that long. my brother drove a honda civic del sol for 200,000+ miles -- only replaced tires and brakes, and it was still in great condition when he got rid of it. meanwhile, i drove an 88 dodge diplomat... couldn't even make it to 80,000 miles before it died. both climate control systems broke, as did the washers, defogger and radio. the engine ran like CRAP, stalled out at almost every light -- this is after i replaced plugs, wires, cap, all the filters and had the timing adjusted several times. the body is so heavy that it couldn't corner faster than 10mph without peeling out. i replaced it with a BMW 3-series with over 120,000 miles on it -- and it runs better than the dodge EVER did.
the sound-card issue is a non-issue for most people. linux has great sound support; it supports most standard chipsets. if you can't get your card to work, and you want to run linux, you don't have to try "9 different distros" -- just go spend $7 on a sound-blaster-compatible card at your local Fry's, and it will work great.
the problem is simple: many manufacturers release drivers for windows only, because windows has the most market share. however, it [arguably] has that market share because of hardware support. so, the linux developers have a choice: they can either play an endless game of catch-up by writing their own drivers for every piece of windows-driver-only hardware that comes out, or they can live with the limited hardware support long enough to push their OS into a larger market share, so the manufacturers have incentive to release linux drivers.
when you look at the situation in that light, it's quite obvious only the second solution will ever break the cycle and lead to progress.
Re:Religion is the opium of the people
on
SimChurch
·
· Score: 1
marx had a good point here, but i think it's unfair to the opiate addicts. at least heroin junkies don't think their purpose for existing is to make as many new heroin junkies as they can in their lifetime.
i'm a big fan of listening to an album from start to finish. listening to a single is like reading a chapter out of a book, or watching a scene from a movie. sure, it may be good, but you really don't get a full idea of what the artist was doing at the time unless you listen to the whole thing. then again, i rarely listen to "pop" music -- i doubt there's a lot of theme/structure to a brittney spears album or what have you.
it would seem more productive to do this in reverse... that is to say, windows running under linux... not simply a compatability layer [wine] or an emulated system [vmware] -- it would be cool to see the NT kernel running as a process under linux (just as linux ran under mach in MkLinux, or OS9 runs under OS X)... it would probably be a lot faster to reboot that way...;-)
-m
rule of thumb for apple purchasers...
on
iPod Mini Design Flaw?
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· Score: 2, Informative
apple makes great stuff, but their first-generation of just about everything they make has problems (and is usually really expensive) -- wait for the second revision and you'll have less headaches.
funny, i don't see high prices as a reason for dwindling sales. i was at a tower records a few weeks ago -- the import CD's were half the price of the domestic equivalents. i remember when it used to be the other way around... perhaps they cant sell the same product, for the same price, forever? industries change, and instead of changing with it -- the RIAA sue their customers.
i usually do the stage3 gentoo install, building the rest from source. it takes a day or two before everything's built and ready. but after that, the system is pretty simple to maintain, and if you update regularly, the updates dont take very long. i guess my point is -- ive had a history of using packages when they're easier, but if building from source is as simple as "emerge kde" or what have you, i'd prefer to wait a little longer to install, and get better performance in the long term.
flame-retardent: i know gentoo wasn't the first to have this type of system. it's simply the one i've got the most familiarity with.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm always upset with disciplinary action towards white-hat hacking like this. They COULD have just shut up and use the access to their advantage while at the university. Instead, this was for the newspaper and they were essentially informing the network admins of problems.
However, I think it is also important for white-hat hackers to ask permission before attempting any of this stuff. Get in contact with your network officials, you'd be surprised how much they'll let you do.
I'm a computer science student... I've used all 3 platforms you mentioned. I don't use it for graphics/multimedia stuff really; I mostly use it for programming and such. I like it because it's insanely simple, and after spending years constantly messing with computers, it gets old. OS X is simple and intuitive, by far the easiest unix I've used, yet at the same time, when you want to do stuff "the hard way" and get down to the nitty-gritty junk, you can [Old MacOS enforced the "Mac Way", OS X merely provides it for your conveniance]. There's a very tight integration between the mac environment and the command line, which makes it really easy to script cool stuff from the shell.
I could go on and on, but basically, it's just a really nice user experience for novices and advanced users alike. Most of the criticism I've encountered are people complaining about how macs were 10 years ago, not how they are now. They're MUCH less quirky and I think most of the critics simply havent spent enough time with a next-gen Mac to appreciate it.
I've often referred to them as the BMW of computers. Are they the fastest? No, especially if you're a mechanic and built your own hot-rod. Are they expensive? Yeah, but not too bad at entry-level. The advantage, is every aspect completely solid and designed to make the best possilbe experience for the operator. Test drive a BMW 3-series and its hard to complain. Test drive a PowerBook, I think you'll find similar results.
northern california is another great place for these folks. not just environmentalist, but very confrontational -- and it is, definately, entertaining to unravel their arguments.
as far as my own personal SUV hatred, let me give some background... i live in newport beach (southern california, "The OC" as it were) -- it's a pretty afluent area. every road is paved, and well maintained. long story short, there's no justification for buying an SUV unless you go up to the mountains a lot or work in construction or something. however, there are a LOT of SUV's on our roads, usually its just soccer-moms driving around alone. its like a mini-van alternative, to most of the buyers it seems. the hummers are out in full force too, though they are so big they often have difficulty in a suburban setting (small parking spaces and such)
so why am i so pissed off with SUV's? because they're slow (especially when cornering), they block your view of oncoming traffic conditions, they guzzle gas yet people still complain about how much they pay to fill up, and they're notoriously unsafe -- i always see them jumping medians or smashing into traffic signals when its rainy. BOTTOM LINE: i don't like bad consumerism. SUV's have their place, so i dont support any bans, but i wish people would THINK before they buy something, not just buy it as part of some trend. i don't mind stuff like the honda element or infiniti FX-4, where they're a little smaller and sportier... its just the extra-large GMC, ford, cadilac, chevy.... they're really expensive, and probably don't meet the needs of the person who bought it. why should i care about what someone ELSE buys? two reasons: 1, it has an effect on what will be manufactured/marketed in the future (they'll continue to push it, if it continues to sell well), and 2, SUV prevalance makes my driving experience less enjoyable, and less safe.
their TV player and recorder program is very nice. the only thing that frustrates me is there's no CLI app to schedule recordings with.
wouldn't it be like, way easier and safer to just pay a neighborhood kid a small fee and have them do it for you? i agree mowing the lawn sucks, but it seems to me that making a homebrew robotic appliance with sharp splinning blades is a bad thing.
alternative: plastic grass (they have really realistic stuff these days), or japanese rock-garden instead of lawn.
probably the same reason N64 owners bought the GameCube -- better graphics. plus, i don't care how much you like the xbox, the controllers are WHACK and that's all there is to it. they're like the sega-saturn controllers and apple's round mouse: a concept-design gone bad.
in all honesty, i heard rumours of the xbox2 using dual PPC970's, which means i'm not at all surprised that it's not backwards-compatible. ps2 was only because they used the same architecture.
oh THAT'S what the word was... i spent 10 minutes looking at it, and couldn't figure out what they were trying to convey. thank you for clearing it up for all of us.
it seems they just want to continually squeeze more money out of customers while giving them less. why dont they just abandon this whole digital-media business, and start systematically mugging customers.
i too, am sick of hearing about how slow java is. i think this claim had a lot more validity back in the day ('98 or so) but now it's just echoed amongst the idiots. one thing they've beaten into us in computer science courses, is that optimization is really only needed in a few critical areas, and the rest of the program wont depend that much on performance.
with today's absurdly fast computers, just-in-time compiling and runtime optimizations, semi-native environments (OSX's java, GCJ, JNI, or projects combining multiple languages) -- why must this issue constantly be touted every time java is mentioned?
Apple is perfectly capable of releasing an X86 version of OS X without Sun's assistance, however they certainly won't be doing it any time soon. It is a product to help them sell their HARDWARE, because apple is a HARDWARE company. If you can run OS X on a white-box PC, you have taken away one of the major selling points of macs.
As far as high-end graphics goes, Sun/SGI seems to be the early 90's must-have.... these days those who would have once bought an SGI are now buying macs to run Maya or what have you.
Really, the only thing good sun has going for it is java. And they're on the verge of fscking it up. I think apple has bigger/better plans for their $$$.
....and why is that a bonus for apple? sun/sgi/cray are all dealing with dwindling marketshare... apple has their own company to worry about.
there's no way your car *averages* 44mpg. maybe when you're cruising on the freeways... but average, including idling and stop+go driving? come on...
techTV just seems so... i don't know, it's hard to say. it seems like it's geared towards people who aren't 100% up to speed on tech stuff (it's no /.) -- but it also has this whole coke-fueled-programming-creation vibe to it. it just has so much stuff that is really corny / out-of-date / etc.
I mean, I would kind of like to see a TV channel like WIRED magazine. Sure, it's not always the best read, and sometimes its just as corny/yuppy, but at least they do a good job and make it interesting.
-m
bad news when a software company's best products are hardware. :-P
I agree with you on the headlights point -- the going price for xenon bulbs seems to be about 25 bucks for a set of 4 (reg & brights).
with that said, you've gotta be smoking crack to think hondas only last 7 years. for christs sake, the warranty is that long. my brother drove a honda civic del sol for 200,000+ miles -- only replaced tires and brakes, and it was still in great condition when he got rid of it. meanwhile, i drove an 88 dodge diplomat... couldn't even make it to 80,000 miles before it died. both climate control systems broke, as did the washers, defogger and radio. the engine ran like CRAP, stalled out at almost every light -- this is after i replaced plugs, wires, cap, all the filters and had the timing adjusted several times. the body is so heavy that it couldn't corner faster than 10mph without peeling out. i replaced it with a BMW 3-series with over 120,000 miles on it -- and it runs better than the dodge EVER did.
the sound-card issue is a non-issue for most people. linux has great sound support; it supports most standard chipsets. if you can't get your card to work, and you want to run linux, you don't have to try "9 different distros" -- just go spend $7 on a sound-blaster-compatible card at your local Fry's, and it will work great.
the problem is simple: many manufacturers release drivers for windows only, because windows has the most market share. however, it [arguably] has that market share because of hardware support. so, the linux developers have a choice: they can either play an endless game of catch-up by writing their own drivers for every piece of windows-driver-only hardware that comes out, or they can live with the limited hardware support long enough to push their OS into a larger market share, so the manufacturers have incentive to release linux drivers.
when you look at the situation in that light, it's quite obvious only the second solution will ever break the cycle and lead to progress.
marx had a good point here, but i think it's unfair to the opiate addicts. at least heroin junkies don't think their purpose for existing is to make as many new heroin junkies as they can in their lifetime.
i'm a big fan of listening to an album from start to finish. listening to a single is like reading a chapter out of a book, or watching a scene from a movie. sure, it may be good, but you really don't get a full idea of what the artist was doing at the time unless you listen to the whole thing. then again, i rarely listen to "pop" music -- i doubt there's a lot of theme/structure to a brittney spears album or what have you.
it would seem more productive to do this in reverse... that is to say, windows running under linux... not simply a compatability layer [wine] or an emulated system [vmware] -- it would be cool to see the NT kernel running as a process under linux (just as linux ran under mach in MkLinux, or OS9 runs under OS X)... it would probably be a lot faster to reboot that way... ;-)
-m
apple makes great stuff, but their first-generation of just about everything they make has problems (and is usually really expensive) -- wait for the second revision and you'll have less headaches.
funny, i don't see high prices as a reason for dwindling sales. i was at a tower records a few weeks ago -- the import CD's were half the price of the domestic equivalents. i remember when it used to be the other way around... perhaps they cant sell the same product, for the same price, forever? industries change, and instead of changing with it -- the RIAA sue their customers.
article contains a typographical error. 'If they lose against IBM" should read "WHEN they lose against IBM" -- sorry for any confusion.
they could always just hash the current name, and call it 949211ec1c5e237fbf41e2f9abde0b31
i usually do the stage3 gentoo install, building the rest from source. it takes a day or two before everything's built and ready. but after that, the system is pretty simple to maintain, and if you update regularly, the updates dont take very long. i guess my point is -- ive had a history of using packages when they're easier, but if building from source is as simple as "emerge kde" or what have you, i'd prefer to wait a little longer to install, and get better performance in the long term.
flame-retardent: i know gentoo wasn't the first to have this type of system. it's simply the one i've got the most familiarity with.
-m
porsche has a tiny market share - but nobody suggests they should make a k-car version to get a bigger slice of the pie!
no, but apparently someone suggested they make an SUV.
-m