Government agencies from Germany to France to Peru have adopted or are considering Linux-based software as a cheaper alternative to Microsoft products.
Whats the one in Peru? Did I miss an OSS development?
By most general
measures what you can buy for the same amount of money doubles every eighteen
months (?Moore 's Law?). With a conservative estimate of a four year lifetime for a
computer ? in other words, consumers replace computers every four years on average ?
the total computing power on the Internet therefore increases by a factor of 2.7 per
annum (or doubles every 10 months). If a constant fraction of computers are under
threat of misuse, then the force available to misusers will thus double every 10 months.
These are a set of reasonable assumptions, and the report also notes that the fastest growing sector of computer users are uneducated with regards to what computers are capable of doing and how they do it. So either educate people or ban them from using a computer. Computer licenses? After all,you do have to demonstrate knowledge of basic car functionality to use one, and computers are at least as dangerous when misused nowadays.
Its kind of a shame that we aren't still in the days when this was all a game and nothing serious was in the way...
The entire strategy of MS (and for that matter closed source software as a whole) makes vulnerabilities more likely, more severe and harder to patch. While Open source DOES have issues, it is easier to fix (or even simply rewrite) things, right down to replacing large portions of the kernel if need be.
The major difference between something that might go wrong and something that cannot possibly go wrong is that when something that cannot possibly go wrong eventually goes wrong it usually turns out to be almost impossible to get at or repair
-Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy
Or, more acurately, unless you were acting illegally.
If the device aids in actually implementing a law, isn't that fine? Or do you like the idea of being hit by a speeding motorist and not being allowed to prove he was speeding?
I don't know why the parent was modded funny, it is perfectly accurate. This news will be just a little more incentive to move to non-MS software.
After all, MS has its fingers in a lot of pies, and there are going to be some people who will not want MS to have any information on them for perfectly legal reasons.
Maybe I should stop trying to be funny and just be blatant. Bill Gates probably has a lot of goodwill towards Darl et al at the moment, as they are spreading FUD about Linux for him.
We performed a valuation of our intangible assets as of October 31, 2002 in accordance with SFAS No. 142, "Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets" and determined that the intangible assets reported in the accompanying consolidated balance sheets are not impaired. Write-downs of intangible assets may be necessary if the future fair value of these assets is less than carrying value.
So..... SCO goodwill anyone? C'mon, who's hiding all the SCO goodwill? Bill, what's that you are hiding behind your back there? Why do you have lots of goodwill towards SCO, Bill?
That brings up an entirely different debate; the fact that Windows, as the most heavily advertised OS in existence is bound to get the vast majority of the new users to computers, who are precisely the type to make the mistakes which lead to insecure computing environments. Not all of the blame should rest on MS itself. A lot has to do with their userbase.
Mind you, some degree of intelligent design to set a machine up to minimise the chances of the casual or inexperienced user could be implemented, but they would likely be as irritating as the tens of thousands of other MS pop ups in Windows (esp XP)
Here's a modest proposal: Microsoft should use some of its $49 billion hoard to mail an update CD to anybody who wants one. At $3 a pop (a liberal estimate), it could ship a disc to every human being on Earth -- and still have $30 billion in the bank.
In theory it should take the same amount of energy to accelerate a helium nucleus (which is what I think they are described as being in the game) to 1/10th C as it takes to accelerate something 1,000 times heavier to 1/10,000 C, and the impact would have the same resultant force.
Mind you, that assumes perfect conductivity and no loss of kinetic energy to friction, but you get the idea.
I'm wondering how the existing laws of various countries hold up against this weapon. Don't a lot of laws specify the weapon by the method the projectile is accelerated (i.e. in existing cases a chemical reaction)?
Does this weapon circumvent any laws against firearms?
I do have it, mainly for those cases when HTML pages are presented in a form that Opera won't render up properly. Interestingly, the only pages this applies to on a frequent basis is the microsoft help site.
I use Opera as the Primary because... well, because it functions smoothly, i love its features and the integration, and mouse gestures speed browsing up to an incredible degree.
I can understand the whole 'not wanting to pay for a browser' arguement, but I did, and I'm happy. It is reasonably priced, and I pay for computer games, so...
Personally speaking, and I'm sure a lot of those who post here do the same, I have a free webmail account that I use to catch the spam associated with all the registration sites, from Ezboard to the NYT.
Re:Who's cracking whose nuts??
on
Contiki on Ethernut
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I'm getting some dropped pages, but i've seen 503's within 5 minutes of a slashdotting, so the fact that this little thing is hanging in there is quite impressive
Now I need to program a game for one of these in the style of one of those old 'ball bearing maze' puzzles you used to get in christmas crackers when I was a kid.
Damn you/.
I wonder how accurate and sensitive the tile function is?
Slashdot Mirror
Its kind of a shame that we aren't still in the days when this was all a game and nothing serious was in the way...
The entire strategy of MS (and for that matter closed source software as a whole) makes vulnerabilities more likely, more severe and harder to patch. While Open source DOES have issues, it is easier to fix (or even simply rewrite) things, right down to replacing large portions of the kernel if need be.
The major difference between something that might go wrong and something that cannot possibly go wrong is that when something that cannot possibly go wrong eventually goes wrong it usually turns out to be almost impossible to get at or repair
-Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy
SkArcher
Or, more acurately, unless you were acting illegally.
If the device aids in actually implementing a law, isn't that fine? Or do you like the idea of being hit by a speeding motorist and not being allowed to prove he was speeding?
I don't know why the parent was modded funny, it is perfectly accurate. This news will be just a little more incentive to move to non-MS software.
After all, MS has its fingers in a lot of pies, and there are going to be some people who will not want MS to have any information on them for perfectly legal reasons.
Now, how best to convince the punters of it...
Just claim its a terrorist threat, seems to work for every other thing anyone wants funding for in the US at the moment
Maybe I should stop trying to be funny and just be blatant. Bill Gates probably has a lot of goodwill towards Darl et al at the moment, as they are spreading FUD about Linux for him.
So..... SCO goodwill anyone? C'mon, who's hiding all the SCO goodwill? Bill, what's that you are hiding behind your back there? Why do you have lots of goodwill towards SCO, Bill?
That brings up an entirely different debate; the fact that Windows, as the most heavily advertised OS in existence is bound to get the vast majority of the new users to computers, who are precisely the type to make the mistakes which lead to insecure computing environments. Not all of the blame should rest on MS itself. A lot has to do with their userbase.
Mind you, some degree of intelligent design to set a machine up to minimise the chances of the casual or inexperienced user could be implemented, but they would likely be as irritating as the tens of thousands of other MS pop ups in Windows (esp XP)
Now, who is up for raiding the MS bank?
It is good to see a direct verifiable example of Open Source development with a higher standard of Quality Assurance than the corporate developers.
A psychological standard of quality on the part of the devs leads to a physical and coding standard of quality a cut above the rest.
I get most of mine from IRC
mIRC and the IRC protocols are too widespread and too basic for them to monitor all of it accurately
I bow before your superior knowledge of Role-Playing game history. I wasn't born until 1978.
In theory it should take the same amount of energy to accelerate a helium nucleus (which is what I think they are described as being in the game) to 1/10th C as it takes to accelerate something 1,000 times heavier to 1/10,000 C, and the impact would have the same resultant force.
Mind you, that assumes perfect conductivity and no loss of kinetic energy to friction, but you get the idea.
I'm wondering how the existing laws of various countries hold up against this weapon. Don't a lot of laws specify the weapon by the method the projectile is accelerated (i.e. in existing cases a chemical reaction)?
Does this weapon circumvent any laws against firearms?
Gauss Rifles are from battletech.
Interestingly, I don't think the mass of the slug makes all that much difference to the eventual damage - force = mass * acceleration
So using lighter weights would be advantageous, up until the point where the projectile becomes too light to keep a decent trajectory in a cross wind.
And of course, there is the Particle Projection Cannon, with a charged particle instead of a magnetic slug...
I do have it, mainly for those cases when HTML pages are presented in a form that Opera won't render up properly. Interestingly, the only pages this applies to on a frequent basis is the microsoft help site.
I use Opera as the Primary because... well, because it functions smoothly, i love its features and the integration, and mouse gestures speed browsing up to an incredible degree.
I can understand the whole 'not wanting to pay for a browser' arguement, but I did, and I'm happy. It is reasonably priced, and I pay for computer games, so...
Because, to many, it is not important that your product was a sucess. It is enough that it was less of a failure than M$.
And I suspect that arguement will actually work, in an edited way, on bankers.
Only one letter different....
So.... we get to Karma whore by linking to the google search page with the NYT article on it...?
Personally speaking, and I'm sure a lot of those who post here do the same, I have a free webmail account that I use to catch the spam associated with all the registration sites, from Ezboard to the NYT.
here and here are probably good places to look.
I'm getting some dropped pages, but i've seen 503's within 5 minutes of a slashdotting, so the fact that this little thing is hanging in there is quite impressive
Now I need to program a game for one of these in the style of one of those old 'ball bearing maze' puzzles you used to get in christmas crackers when I was a kid.
/.
Damn you
I wonder how accurate and sensitive the tile function is?
So Gentoo is now GenTree?
:P
Sorry, somebody had to say it
Shame the game sucks.
What we need is Linux releases at the same time as the Windows releases, or even in advance. But it will be a cold day in hell before that happens.