Cash wise, perhaps. At least we aren't morally bankrupt. At least we, the Linux community, can look ourselves in the mirror and not be ashamed that we have fucked over anyone at any time for a few bucks. We don't destroy someone's business because we hate competetion, no matter how insignificant. We don't extort money from cash strapped schools to improve our balance sheet a few more pennies. We don't lie to our "customers" about our quality and security.
I have a one question for you, Ballmer. What's it like to have so much money and yet do so little for the good of mankind?
I have subject filters in sendmail that bounces any message with two or more of fwd: or fw:. I allow the single forward through because they are almost always legitimate.
I installed the filters because of my two sisters and my mother. They simply refused to believe me when I told them to "stop sending me that shit!".
Another filter I'm considering but haven't gotten around to writing is one that counts the number of recipients and bounces if it is over a threshold. You know those emails. Sent to 200 people you don't know and BCC was not used (followed up by several dozen reply-all's from more clueless idiots).
As much as I hate Microsoft and dislike Outlook, I must admit that the meeting planner in Outlook is a "must have" application in business.
The one serious flaw in the planner is the human factor. All too often people wouldn't keep their calendar up to date or wouldn't bother to reply to a meeting notice.
Our Linux customers are a dream. They know how to take care of their system, and understand that config screwups, system maintenance, etc. are their issue.
And yet some broadband companies go out of their way to prevent Linux users from signing up. From IE only webpages to proprietary pppoe programs. From a business standpoint, this is about as dumb as you can get. Completely cut off the most profitable customer base.
I once made the mistake of whispering the word "Linux" when on the phone with my provider when there was a problem. I wasn't asking them to fix anything, I just wanted to know if there was an outage and how long it would last, but because I said the "L" word, I had to argue with the excessively blonde support person (blonde is not a hair colour, it's an attitude). "We don't support Linux", she said. "I know that, do you have an outage report in my area?" It went back and forth several times. I finally yelled at her, "I DIDN'T ASK YOU TO SUPPORT LINUX! PRETEND I NEVER SAID THAT! I'M RUNNING WINDOWS 98, OK! IS THERE AN OUTAGE!" "Oh, why yes, there is an outage. It should be fixed within the hour."
Joe Sixpak just wants to get his email and do a little browsing. Unless he's downloading large number of graphics, dialup is just fine for his needs.
The slashdot crowd is not the same. We do more than just email and browse. We often want to run various types of server, but the AUP almost always forbids that. I don't give a rat's ass about the various bits of "content enhancements" my ISP has to offer. I never go their "customer targeted home pages". I just want a pipe with decent broadband in both directions. I'll handle everything else. I'm a little better off than most broadband customers. The AUP does not mention any ban of servers. I can't really abuse this because my upload speed is (unforunately) capped at 128k. It's enough for my modest requirements, I suppose.
I'd love to have a bit more, but enhanced dsl with 384k upload is priced at $175/month. That's simply not in my budget. It's listed under their (PacBell/SBC) business packages.
SuSE. The distribution that prides itself on a half-baked, closed-source installer and too many installation CDs
That half-baked installer is the best, easiest to use installer of all the Linux distros. I always recommend SuSE to Linux newbies because of their outstanding installer.
Too many CD's? There's a funny argument. They're giving you too much! Stop this evil! What bullshit. Three CD's for the personal version, that includes source code. Seven CD's for the professional version (or a single DVD), again the source code is included. You don't have to spend hours downloading everything if you want to do some kernel bashing.
Parents, do you ever bother to look at your child's homework? Do you take the slightest interest in what they are studying? You are supposed to be as much a part of the learning process as the teacher, if not more so!
Yes, I am a parent. Yes, I do look at her homework. Yes, I have forced her to redo a paper I thought was poorly done. I know what she is capable of doing and it is very obvious when she is being lazy.
It pays off. She has been an honor student for the past three years (/me smuggly pats own back as if he was solely responsible).
When UO first came out, I saw my roommate spending hours fishing, making fishcakes, and selling them. Day after day. What kind of fantasy game is that? Why, I asked? "So I can make some money so I can get some decent equipment so I can do stuff," was his response. It sounded like a rip off then, and still sounds like a rip off now. You pay a monthly fee to spend all your time building your character up enough to actually play the damn thing, and some punk kid with an uber character pks your ass and steals your gear the first time you go out.
I'll stick to my private diablo 2 xpac realm running under bnetd, thank you.
Windows might have a pretty UI, but I have yet to see a better way of installing programs than typing "apt-get install mozilla". No EULAs, no library problems, no ugly installer that grabs your screen, and usually no questions. Just wait until it finishes the download and it's done. Looks like you'd agree with me.
I'm a big fan of apt-get and think it should be implemented in the United Linux standard. One change needs to be made, however, to the application. It should realize when it is being executed for the first time for each user and automatically fire up the configuration tool and step the user through the configuration process. Not all programs need to be configured. Many will not needed to be configured, of course, but just as many do.
Now I understand why there's all that nonsense involving default admin passwords for databases connected to the 'Net. (Sorry, it was too easy to pass up.)
Actually, you nailed it. I had a bit of a disagreement at one company. They wanted me to hardcode the ms sql password into the installer and they expected their customers to set the admin password to this. This was for a program that would have access to large amounts of personal financial information. I refused to do something so stupid and implemented a dialog box that asked for the admin password, properly hidden by *'s, of course. It then validated the password (by trying to connect with it) before continuing with the installation.
It's not just dropping files onto a computer. If it were just that, there wouldn't be a need for specialty programs (and programmers) to do it. Besides putting the correct files on a system, which can be different depending upon the operating system and other variables, you may need to configure the program to run. This could be very simple or as complex as initializing and loading up an sql database.
One of the worse installers I have ever seen was for the Informix database. If you followed the instructions to the letter, you were GURANTEED to fail. And no, I did not write that installer. In my opinion, they never fixed this problem because a large amount of revenue was generated from the support services that helped install and configure the package.
For the consumer world, the user should never have to manually configure anything to run the program This should also be true in the business world, especially if hundreds of workstations need that software since manual steps guarantee headaches for the IT department.
sometimes you wind up with system libraries getting overwritten with older versions
Only if the person writing the installer is stupid. Unfortunately, with the economy in the dumper, installation specialists such as myself are considered a luxury. They usually toss the InstallShield or Wise package to the junior programmer and tell him to "find some time to throw together the installer". This is typically done the week before they ship to the packaging company.
BTW, if anyone needs an installer written correctly, contact me. I'm available. InstallShield and InstallAnywhere are my specialty.
As convenient as it sounds, regulation of e-mail provides yet another disturbing precendent for government control of private communication. Our founding fathers viewed governments as a last resort for problems that cannot be solved locally.
Spammers have used the law to stop block lists by suing them. They have been successful in a few cases, mostly by simply outspending someone. Sure, we would prefer to keep big government out of the internet, but the spammers have forced our hand.
You can admit that the fundamental rights that all American have are the same fundamendal rights ALL the people of the world can expect.
I've always believed this very thing. The Bill of Rights is a wonderful thing that should not apply exclusively to our corner of the world. However, there are far too many evil bastards in the world with too much power. They see the general population is something to be tolerated so long as they do what they are told.
Usually, the only way to get rid of these thugs is to kill them, which involves going through their army. War is a bad thing. Sometimes not making war is worse.
Yes, the jury has the right (and in my opinion, the duty) to disregard a bad law.
"...the jury has the power to bring in a verdict in the teeth of both law and facts," Oliver Wendel Holmes, 1920 Homing v DC, 244 US 135.
"...The jury possesses "the undisputed power to acquit, even if its verdict is con- trary to the law as given by the judge and contrary to the evidence." 1969 U.S. v Moylan, 417 F2d 1002
"...The jury has an "unreviewable and reversible power... to acquit in disregard of the instruction on the law given by the trial judge." 1972 U.S. v Dougherty, 473 F2d 1113
I myself am the only and utmost important being on this planet...
That was the entire point of his long posting. That is how people act. Communism fails precisely because it doesn't recognize this as the primary human driving force.
Communism, if executed by a non-corrupt team of coordinators, would work great in times of crisis.
No, Communism will always fail because it treats people as a simple cog in the wheel of society. People have needs and desires that only they can identify, not some faceless beauracracy that, at best, looks to its five year plan to decide who gets what and how much.
Believe it or not. The root religion for humans is greed.
This is the main reason why Communism and Socialism won't work. They are based on the false assumption that people will work hard for the good of society. BZZT! Wrong. People will work hard to better their own situation. Under Capitalism, you work your butt off and you get a raise and a promotion. Under Communism, you work your butt off and get a nice medal - or the boss decides you're part of a conspiracy or you're making him look bad and has your life ruined.
Under Communism, there is no reason to work hard. There is no incentive to work more than the absolute minimum to keep from being noticed. Being noticed is not necessarily considered a good thing.
Socialism isn't quite as bad as Communism, but it still fails to recognize the basic human driving force is greed.
On the other hand, Capitalism is not entirely a bed of roses. Unless watched, corporate greed can get out of control to the detriment of society. Enron being a perfect example of this in action.
Projects going past deadline and requiring overtime happen, but that is an exception, not the rule. If projects are constantly missing deadlines, then whomever is setting the timetable is incompetent and should be fired.
In California, there are only two exceptions to overtime pay. 1. You require a license to be able to legally have your job, e.g. doctor. 2. You are a manager of at least two people. There are no other exceptions. Thus, if he wants you to work 15 hours a day, he must pay overtime. Laws in other states vary.
BTW, saying John is manager of Joe and Bill, and Joe is manager of John and Bill, and Bill is manager of John and Joe (you get the idea) would not be a legal loophole to get out of the overtime pay requirement.
I wrote my own journaling program (blogger system). It's based on html forms and MySql, and is written entirely in perl. I never really intended for it to be much more than an exercise to learn a little MySql. It's basically done with one major exception, security. I need a decent way to handle remote passwords. Currently, I use a combination of AuthUserFile/deny/allow in.htaccess to limit who can make changes. I need to implement a better system, but can't decide the best way to go about doing this.
Slashdot Mirror
You didn't right the damn Linux kernel, so you have no f*ing right to demand it be named after your pet project.
Who the hell made you the "spokesman" for the open source movement? You're a f*ing embarassment to us.
Cash wise, perhaps. At least we aren't morally bankrupt. At least we, the Linux community, can look ourselves in the mirror and not be ashamed that we have fucked over anyone at any time for a few bucks. We don't destroy someone's business because we hate competetion, no matter how insignificant. We don't extort money from cash strapped schools to improve our balance sheet a few more pennies. We don't lie to our "customers" about our quality and security.
I have a one question for you, Ballmer. What's it like to have so much money and yet do so little for the good of mankind?
I have subject filters in sendmail that bounces any message with two or more of fwd: or fw:. I allow the single forward through because they are almost always legitimate.
I installed the filters because of my two sisters and my mother. They simply refused to believe me when I told them to "stop sending me that shit!".
Another filter I'm considering but haven't gotten around to writing is one that counts the number of recipients and bounces if it is over a threshold. You know those emails. Sent to 200 people you don't know and BCC was not used (followed up by several dozen reply-all's from more clueless idiots).
As much as I hate Microsoft and dislike Outlook, I must admit that the meeting planner in Outlook is a "must have" application in business.
The one serious flaw in the planner is the human factor. All too often people wouldn't keep their calendar up to date or wouldn't bother to reply to a meeting notice.
And yet some broadband companies go out of their way to prevent Linux users from signing up. From IE only webpages to proprietary pppoe programs. From a business standpoint, this is about as dumb as you can get. Completely cut off the most profitable customer base.
I once made the mistake of whispering the word "Linux" when on the phone with my provider when there was a problem. I wasn't asking them to fix anything, I just wanted to know if there was an outage and how long it would last, but because I said the "L" word, I had to argue with the excessively blonde support person (blonde is not a hair colour, it's an attitude). "We don't support Linux", she said. "I know that, do you have an outage report in my area?" It went back and forth several times. I finally yelled at her, "I DIDN'T ASK YOU TO SUPPORT LINUX! PRETEND I NEVER SAID THAT! I'M RUNNING WINDOWS 98, OK! IS THERE AN OUTAGE!" "Oh, why yes, there is an outage. It should be fixed within the hour."
GAHHH!!
Joe Sixpak just wants to get his email and do a little browsing. Unless he's downloading large number of graphics, dialup is just fine for his needs.
The slashdot crowd is not the same. We do more than just email and browse. We often want to run various types of server, but the AUP almost always forbids that. I don't give a rat's ass about the various bits of "content enhancements" my ISP has to offer. I never go their "customer targeted home pages". I just want a pipe with decent broadband in both directions. I'll handle everything else. I'm a little better off than most broadband customers. The AUP does not mention any ban of servers. I can't really abuse this because my upload speed is (unforunately) capped at 128k. It's enough for my modest requirements, I suppose.
I'd love to have a bit more, but enhanced dsl with 384k upload is priced at $175/month. That's simply not in my budget. It's listed under their (PacBell/SBC) business packages.
Parents, do you ever bother to look at your child's homework? Do you take the slightest interest in what they are studying? You are supposed to be as much a part of the learning process as the teacher, if not more so!
Yes, I am a parent. Yes, I do look at her homework. Yes, I have forced her to redo a paper I thought was poorly done. I know what she is capable of doing and it is very obvious when she is being lazy.
It pays off. She has been an honor student for the past three years (/me smuggly pats own back as if he was solely responsible).
When UO first came out, I saw my roommate spending hours fishing, making fishcakes, and selling them. Day after day. What kind of fantasy game is that? Why, I asked? "So I can make some money so I can get some decent equipment so I can do stuff," was his response. It sounded like a rip off then, and still sounds like a rip off now. You pay a monthly fee to spend all your time building your character up enough to actually play the damn thing, and some punk kid with an uber character pks your ass and steals your gear the first time you go out.
I'll stick to my private diablo 2 xpac realm running under bnetd, thank you.
No doubt in celebration of the birthday, I got a number of nimda hits this morning.
//xx.xx.xx.xx/C$ /mnt/dork /mnt/dork/boot.ini
/mnt/dork
mount -t smbfs password=
vi
Change the boot delay to some huge number and the boot message to "Run a virus scanner, asshole".
umount
It's not just dropping files onto a computer. If it were just that, there wouldn't be a need for specialty programs (and programmers) to do it. Besides putting the correct files on a system, which can be different depending upon the operating system and other variables, you may need to configure the program to run. This could be very simple or as complex as initializing and loading up an sql database.
One of the worse installers I have ever seen was for the Informix database. If you followed the instructions to the letter, you were GURANTEED to fail. And no, I did not write that installer. In my opinion, they never fixed this problem because a large amount of revenue was generated from the support services that helped install and configure the package.
For the consumer world, the user should never have to manually configure anything to run the program This should also be true in the business world, especially if hundreds of workstations need that software since manual steps guarantee headaches for the IT department.
BTW, if anyone needs an installer written correctly, contact me. I'm available. InstallShield and InstallAnywhere are my specialty.
You did a great job that day. While slashdot was a bit slow in loading, it at least loaded. The major news sites such as CNN were completely useless.
I've always believed this very thing. The Bill of Rights is a wonderful thing that should not apply exclusively to our corner of the world. However, there are far too many evil bastards in the world with too much power. They see the general population is something to be tolerated so long as they do what they are told.
Usually, the only way to get rid of these thugs is to kill them, which involves going through their army. War is a bad thing. Sometimes not making war is worse.
"...the jury has the power to bring in a verdict in the teeth of both law and facts," Oliver Wendel Holmes, 1920 Homing v DC, 244 US 135.
"...The jury possesses "the undisputed power to acquit, even if its verdict is con- trary to the law as given by the judge and contrary to the evidence." 1969 U.S. v Moylan, 417 F2d 1002
"...The jury has an "unreviewable and reversible power... to acquit in disregard of the instruction on the law given by the trial judge." 1972 U.S. v Dougherty, 473 F2d 1113
Under Communism, there is no reason to work hard. There is no incentive to work more than the absolute minimum to keep from being noticed. Being noticed is not necessarily considered a good thing.
Socialism isn't quite as bad as Communism, but it still fails to recognize the basic human driving force is greed.
On the other hand, Capitalism is not entirely a bed of roses. Unless watched, corporate greed can get out of control to the detriment of society. Enron being a perfect example of this in action.
Projects going past deadline and requiring overtime happen, but that is an exception, not the rule. If projects are constantly missing deadlines, then whomever is setting the timetable is incompetent and should be fired.
In California, there are only two exceptions to overtime pay. 1. You require a license to be able to legally have your job, e.g. doctor. 2. You are a manager of at least two people. There are no other exceptions. Thus, if he wants you to work 15 hours a day, he must pay overtime. Laws in other states vary.
BTW, saying John is manager of Joe and Bill, and Joe is manager of John and Bill, and Bill is manager of John and Joe (you get the idea) would not be a legal loophole to get out of the overtime pay requirement.
I wrote my own journaling program (blogger system). It's based on html forms and MySql, and is written entirely in perl. I never really intended for it to be much more than an exercise to learn a little MySql. It's basically done with one major exception, security. I need a decent way to handle remote passwords. Currently, I use a combination of AuthUserFile/deny/allow in .htaccess to limit who can make changes. I need to implement a better system, but can't decide the best way to go about doing this.
My favorite was the one about Australia going on a bender, whining about not getting any respect, and waking up in the mid-Atlantic with a hangover.
My second favorite was the one about "all that foreign shit on the internet."
Thaks for the laughs.
You damn quitter.