The way I've understood it, and the way I believe most have understood it for decades was that dinosaurs were originally reptilic but as time went on and the species diverged through evolution, a good chunk became somewhat primitively feathered. Here are 2 depicitions that I pulled off of wikipedia( 1 and 2), but I mean this isn't news, the article is just talking about more recent dinosaurs rather then the oldest (we have fossils of the crocodilia from the late triassic period that nearly match today's crocodiles, implying that at least some were reptilic) and we already know that in the Jurassic period birds and dinoaurs with feather-like features started appearing around the same time that small mammals became abundant. This aritcle isn't news, its stating what is already known, or at the very most, taking what is known and claiming that it possibly applies to a few more dinosaurs. Regards, Steve
That wasn't the Developers, Developers, Developers video, that was the monkeydance. The Dev,Dev,Dev video is from the same event but its Ballmer screaming "Developers" over and over again and like 40 times, it was like a word went in his head, and no more thoughts could enter so he just kept reapting the word. Regards, Steve
I know alot of folks have criticized your site, but I mean really, it looks like a teenager's blog or something. If you want to see increased business, redesign a more professional site, and don't have that animation at the top with the blinking "ftp" http" "sql" etc... its almost as bad as the blink tag. Make your sight simple and elegant, not complex, not black, and don't have ads. Your selling a service, your revenue isn't based off of ads. If your services suck so bad that you need ads to support it then it says something about your service and I would think that alot of people would be hesitant to use it. Regards, Steve
The GP is a troll. Every single line in his post is false. Linux (like most unix variants) can do user lookups in anything from MySql or LDAP to a flat file. They are not O(n) and haven't been for years. The GP is completely ignorant and must be an MS Fan Boy who got his hands on some not so factual information from one of those "I hate Linux".com sites. Honestly, not a single thing in his post is right, some things are ridiculous like the "ls -l" claim. It needs to be modded down and forgotten about. Regards, Steve
Don't forget that Red Hat did all the work on getting OO.o to run natively. All of the many java components they got compiling with GCJ, another project coded by Red Hat.I believe they also helped getting OO.o to use native interfaces, but your point is still valid, most work is done by paid programmers. The truth is that office suites aren't that interesting to work on, paying people is the best way sometimes. Regards. Steve
This is only about companies that use Linux in their official name. Not for using the software and not for advertising etc... Create a company called "The Real FreeBSD" and I assure that the FreeBSD organization or some representative for them will quickly sue you. What is happening with Linux is that with its popularity, publications and companies are starting up things like "The True Linux" and either spreading FUD about Linux or claiming that they are the only real version of Linux, or some other ridiculous claim. Linus enforcing the copyright on the *name* is the best thing he can do for the community. The last thing we need to see in the news is that "Linux Corporation formally announced that Linux sucks and they hope babies die" If Linus doesn't enforce the copyright then there is nothing stopping Microsoft or anyone else from doing exactly that. This applies in any country. Regards, Steve
Maybe you should tweak your spam settings. If you're getting more then one spam or so a month then you're getting too many. I've used Thunderbird's spam filters, Gmail, and spam assassin indirectly through Evolution, . GMail by far has the highest accuracy, I've had my account for about 1 year and 3 months, I have a little over 3,000 emails (not including spam) and the accuracy is 100%. I kid you not, every single email has been correctly identified, which is one of the main perks I think most people use it other than the 2.5 gigs of space. Thunderbird correctly identifies 99.7% of my email, this account has 4,600 emails. When I first trained Thunderbird it was around 90-95% but over time it quickly increased in accuracy to the point where I rarely see spam. I havent used Evolution that extensively (I preferred Thunderbird), but SpamAssassin from the limited training I did seemed pretty good. You either get very unique spam or your parameters are messed up. You should not have to spend 10 minutes a day on spam, that is nonsense. Regards, Steve
Try Fedora. Most hardware detection systems derive from Fedora's, including the reknowned knoppix. Its pretty easy to configure and designed for everythign from desktops to enterprise. Fedora engineers write a large portion of the code you'll find in any distro, and they make sure that it works well together in their distro. Best of luck. Regards, Steve
Err... I myself find OS X very awkward to use. The only reason I have ever bought Apple was for the hardware and then I plop linux on it. In fact, I know many, many people who don't like the whole general design of OS X. Everything from the dock bar to the hierarchy of things. Its only easy if you are familiar with it, as with all things there is a learning curve. The learning curve for linux is significantly smaller. One personal example is that my girlfriend is currently borrowing my laptop (running Fedora) and was fully comfortable with it up in under a half hour. Once her laptop comes in the mail, she'll probably be running Windows again, but its good to know that during her first week or two back at school she'll still have a laptop to use that is fully functional and won't give her any shit. She's loving it so far. Regards, Steve
Wow, excellent post. I wish/. editors would comment more often, especially if they are all that insightful. Honestly it sometime feels like you guys try not to be a part of the community, maybe it is so you can't influence the story or comments in any way. I think a large chunk of Slashdot would not only appreciate to hear from the editors more often, but would also benfit from it. One more thing, a lot of posters flame you guys to no end, silence on your part (albeit it is taking the higher ground) does nothing to help it. I was so impressed with your post that I made you a friend, and I can only hope that you, CmdrTaco, etc... will start posting regularly. The last time CmdrTaco posted a comment I think was when he proposed to his wife years ago (or actually it may have been when he asked about satellite internet). Regards, Steve
This is exactly what they *are* doing. Read this. If you run a jabber server and want to S2S with them, email federation@google.com. If people just read before posting blogs on livejournal and then slashdot, they wouldn't look so fullish. As I said in another post, Google is taking this slowly because by just opening their Jabber server to other Jabber servers would put them in a world of hurt with "Spim", itd akin to an open proxy for spam. People need to read, and let Google take their time. They didn't lock us into using just their client, because jabber supports many clients, what makes you think they'll lock us into using just their network when jabber supports many more. People jump to radical conclusions. Google Talk was slightly disappointing in that it didn't even have file tranfers, but as far as openness goes, Google is doing everything right. Now after Google gets this service settled in after a few weeks, and they start S2Sing with others, people are going to say things like "Google never would have done that if we didn't make a huge fuss and get it on/. , Google has become evil, Wah Wah Wah, we need to force them to do anything good now so whenever they do something we think is bad, make sure to blog about it." This article is just about as ridiculous as the one the other day about a parrallel Googlenet. Regards, Steve
Yes google did realize this. If Jabber wants to bein S2S with GTalk, they should e-mail federation@google.com. You could start your own jabber server and go S2S with Google. They fully support it and they know its strengths, they haven't implemented it yet because a) They have their own issues with just releasing a new service, b) they are treading carefully and looking for solutions to "spim", i.e. They are Google, they can't just open up their IM service to every "Joe" in town, it'd be akin to an open proxy for spam. They are doing this right, let them be. The last thing we need are bayesian filters for IM. Regards, Steve
You're kidding right? A kernel release like this doesn't even make kernel.org break a sweat. Read this. The only time they ever even start to see some strain on their bandwidth is with a new release of Fedora, because they are a mirror for it (both of their gigabit links become saturated). For kernel releases though, they say that their bandwidth stays pretty normal at around 150Mbps to 200Mbps. Regrds, Steve
GCJ can compile Eclipse and the java stuff in OpenOffice.org. It handles AWT, Swing and JOGL (the openGL bindings). It has support for a lot of the classpath. I'd say a good chunk of java programs will compile with it, the only thing stopping it is java's extensive classpath. Regards, Steve
Unless you're a developer, there are few reasons why you would need to ever execute a file that you've downloaded or created as regular user. If you're going to install something, its almost always done as root. How often do you get emails related to work that legitimately have an executable attatched? I mount my user's home directories as non-executable. They are there to store data related to work, if there is a program they need to run to get their job done then they can notify the administrator. It is an extremely rare occurance, much rarer then most people realize. Mounting the home directories as non-executable, in addition to the many additional security features provided through SE-Linux, has proven to be an excellent solution in every scenario I've used it in. I'm curious if you can mount drives in Windows as non-executable, or if it provides permissions as fine grained as SE-Linux. I'm genuinely curious as I have not a clue. Regards, Steve
Okay well its good that you're that far along, I wish you luck the rest of the way. In reality, there isn't too much different physically from a classified machine and declassified machine. Its more about what you do with them and where they are and what networks they are on. That was mainly why my post listed things you can't do with it. I saw in another post of yours that you were asking about USB harddrives. Keep any usb storage medium away from the computer, the second they make contact you might as well start smashing the usb drive with a hammer. They are not recommended and too easy to walk away with and forget what is on them. A vendor will probably place tamper proof stickers here and there and place a lock over the power button or something, which is all good, but not necessary. I still recommend a vendor though simply to cover your own ass, plus the lock, etc... do provide an extra layer of physical security. Ideally though the computer would be in a secure location, i.e. an "open" room (restricted access rooms certified as secure, often having big steel doors and an active guard or something to that affect, at least at military conferences, and you can leave classified information lying around without fear), or a restricted area in your company so the lock might not necessarily be needed. My advice is, unless the computer will need to burn data on to discs (might be a big possibility though because of the CAD stuff), just have a dvd drive and not a burner. No floppy, no tape, no wireless card, no way (other then USB) for data to leave the computer other then over the secure network. Most of that isn't required but it makes it easier for the user to not slip up and forget. I've had more then one thumbdrive destroyed and a harddrive ripped out of my laptop from slipping up, oops:) So that would be an added benefit to those using it. If you are comfortable building your own box and dealing with the bitching if the harddrive crashes and you lose classified info, or some other bad scenario, go for it and build one, save a few bucks. I would recommend going with a vendor though, if your company can't afford it then they need to renegotiate the DoD contrat because its not enough money:) Cover your ass and go with a vendor. Any more questions feel free to reply or email me, I'm not an FSO but I'm pretty familiar with the requirements. One more thing, when purchasing the computer, make sure your not paying out the ass for a computer certified as "top secret" because the requirements are significantly more strict, regular "secret" classification is what I described above. Regards, Steve
Coming from someone with federal security clearance and who has had this issue themself, let the vendor do it. Its just easier and you know it will comply. You seem to not have dealt with this stuff before or you were improperly briefed when you got your clearance, so be warned that once the box is classified, anything that touches it must become classified or destroyed. Make backups of CDs before you use them in the machine because according to policy, if they are to leave the classified area, they must be destroyed. These regulations do vary with different levels of clearance, but the above requirements are most common. Regardless, slashdot is not the place to ask this question, there are government departments set up to handle this, and more importantly, your company's security officer should know exactly what is needed as it is his job. If your company doesn't have a security officer (or head of security, whatever they call him at your place), notify someone quickly because you are most likely violating a federal policy. Do not *ever* plug the computer in on a public network, you can't use the machine then (well you'll need a new harddrive). Once again, this all depends on the level of clearance this computer needs, but the above is the most common criteria I've come across. Regards, Steve
The air surrounding the laser becomes so hot that the laser doesn't even need to be touching the missile and it will still melt through it. The second the missile starts getting heated up, it deforms, the mirror becomes less effective. The mirror is eventually destroyed and the missile follows quickly after. The whole process can happen in well under a second with high enough powered lasers like they are speaking about. Regards, Steve
Actually, filters do a much better job then humans. One human can't deal with the job, its too overwhelming in many cases, therefore one human isn't capable of filtering effectively, even if they were capable, most would rather pay someone else to do it for them. The next solution, say AOL highered 1,000 people to filter spam, each one of them would disagree with what is spam and what isn't. Some people might want to get car deals, and sports information, or porn and viagra, others won't. The spam filter is often personalized, where as someone sifting through thousands of different people's emails can't be. So let's review, you don't have the time, others don't have the knowledge, the only solution is a filter that learns your habits and works in milliseconds. The only thing better then a filter would be you, no other human being, therefore saying humans are better is not accurate. You couldn't just sit a random human infront of a random person's inbox and say filter this. Regards, Steve
Slashdot Mirror
The way I've understood it, and the way I believe most have understood it for decades was that dinosaurs were originally reptilic but as time went on and the species diverged through evolution, a good chunk became somewhat primitively feathered. Here are 2 depicitions that I pulled off of wikipedia( 1 and 2), but I mean this isn't news, the article is just talking about more recent dinosaurs rather then the oldest (we have fossils of the crocodilia from the late triassic period that nearly match today's crocodiles, implying that at least some were reptilic) and we already know that in the Jurassic period birds and dinoaurs with feather-like features started appearing around the same time that small mammals became abundant. This aritcle isn't news, its stating what is already known, or at the very most, taking what is known and claiming that it possibly applies to a few more dinosaurs.
Regards,
Steve
That wasn't the Developers, Developers, Developers video, that was the monkeydance. The Dev,Dev,Dev video is from the same event but its Ballmer screaming "Developers" over and over again and like 40 times, it was like a word went in his head, and no more thoughts could enter so he just kept reapting the word.
Regards,
Steve
Well this doesn't surprise me, The Art of War is condsidered standard reading for any executive.
Regards,
Steve
I know alot of folks have criticized your site, but I mean really, it looks like a teenager's blog or something. If you want to see increased business, redesign a more professional site, and don't have that animation at the top with the blinking "ftp" http" "sql" etc... its almost as bad as the blink tag. Make your sight simple and elegant, not complex, not black, and don't have ads. Your selling a service, your revenue isn't based off of ads. If your services suck so bad that you need ads to support it then it says something about your service and I would think that alot of people would be hesitant to use it.
Regards,
Steve
Until he provides sources you have no reason to believe him.
Regards,
Steve
The GP is a troll. Every single line in his post is false. Linux (like most unix variants) can do user lookups in anything from MySql or LDAP to a flat file. They are not O(n) and haven't been for years. The GP is completely ignorant and must be an MS Fan Boy who got his hands on some not so factual information from one of those "I hate Linux".com sites. Honestly, not a single thing in his post is right, some things are ridiculous like the "ls -l" claim. It needs to be modded down and forgotten about.
Regards,
Steve
Don't forget that Red Hat did all the work on getting OO.o to run natively. All of the many java components they got compiling with GCJ, another project coded by Red Hat.I believe they also helped getting OO.o to use native interfaces, but your point is still valid, most work is done by paid programmers. The truth is that office suites aren't that interesting to work on, paying people is the best way sometimes.
Regards.
Steve
You should give 7-zip's own file format set on "Ultra" for the compression ratio, by far the best in the industry.
Regards,
Steve
Yes its available and you can run it yourself as many others have! Here: Building and Running Project Looking Glass with NetBeans.
Regards,
Steve
This is only about companies that use Linux in their official name. Not for using the software and not for advertising etc... Create a company called "The Real FreeBSD" and I assure that the FreeBSD organization or some representative for them will quickly sue you. What is happening with Linux is that with its popularity, publications and companies are starting up things like "The True Linux" and either spreading FUD about Linux or claiming that they are the only real version of Linux, or some other ridiculous claim. Linus enforcing the copyright on the *name* is the best thing he can do for the community. The last thing we need to see in the news is that "Linux Corporation formally announced that Linux sucks and they hope babies die" If Linus doesn't enforce the copyright then there is nothing stopping Microsoft or anyone else from doing exactly that. This applies in any country.
Regards,
Steve
Maybe you should tweak your spam settings. If you're getting more then one spam or so a month then you're getting too many. I've used Thunderbird's spam filters, Gmail, and spam assassin indirectly through Evolution, . GMail by far has the highest accuracy, I've had my account for about 1 year and 3 months, I have a little over 3,000 emails (not including spam) and the accuracy is 100%. I kid you not, every single email has been correctly identified, which is one of the main perks I think most people use it other than the 2.5 gigs of space. Thunderbird correctly identifies 99.7% of my email, this account has 4,600 emails. When I first trained Thunderbird it was around 90-95% but over time it quickly increased in accuracy to the point where I rarely see spam. I havent used Evolution that extensively (I preferred Thunderbird), but SpamAssassin from the limited training I did seemed pretty good. You either get very unique spam or your parameters are messed up. You should not have to spend 10 minutes a day on spam, that is nonsense.
Regards,
Steve
Wow good response. +5 insightful. Heh I'm not big on religion, but you applied that well.
Regards,
Steve
I would be pissed as hell if I had paid for Opera yesterday or even within the last few months.
Regards,
Steve
Try Fedora. Most hardware detection systems derive from Fedora's, including the reknowned knoppix. Its pretty easy to configure and designed for everythign from desktops to enterprise. Fedora engineers write a large portion of the code you'll find in any distro, and they make sure that it works well together in their distro. Best of luck.
Regards,
Steve
Err... I myself find OS X very awkward to use. The only reason I have ever bought Apple was for the hardware and then I plop linux on it. In fact, I know many, many people who don't like the whole general design of OS X. Everything from the dock bar to the hierarchy of things. Its only easy if you are familiar with it, as with all things there is a learning curve. The learning curve for linux is significantly smaller. One personal example is that my girlfriend is currently borrowing my laptop (running Fedora) and was fully comfortable with it up in under a half hour. Once her laptop comes in the mail, she'll probably be running Windows again, but its good to know that during her first week or two back at school she'll still have a laptop to use that is fully functional and won't give her any shit. She's loving it so far.
Regards,
Steve
Wow, excellent post. I wish /. editors would comment more often, especially if they are all that insightful. Honestly it sometime feels like you guys try not to be a part of the community, maybe it is so you can't influence the story or comments in any way. I think a large chunk of Slashdot would not only appreciate to hear from the editors more often, but would also benfit from it. One more thing, a lot of posters flame you guys to no end, silence on your part (albeit it is taking the higher ground) does nothing to help it. I was so impressed with your post that I made you a friend, and I can only hope that you, CmdrTaco, etc... will start posting regularly. The last time CmdrTaco posted a comment I think was when he proposed to his wife years ago (or actually it may have been when he asked about satellite internet).
Regards,
Steve
This is exactly what they *are* doing. Read this. If you run a jabber server and want to S2S with them, email federation@google.com. If people just read before posting blogs on livejournal and then slashdot, they wouldn't look so fullish. As I said in another post, Google is taking this slowly because by just opening their Jabber server to other Jabber servers would put them in a world of hurt with "Spim", itd akin to an open proxy for spam. People need to read, and let Google take their time. They didn't lock us into using just their client, because jabber supports many clients, what makes you think they'll lock us into using just their network when jabber supports many more. People jump to radical conclusions. Google Talk was slightly disappointing in that it didn't even have file tranfers, but as far as openness goes, Google is doing everything right. Now after Google gets this service settled in after a few weeks, and they start S2Sing with others, people are going to say things like "Google never would have done that if we didn't make a huge fuss and get it on /. , Google has become evil, Wah Wah Wah, we need to force them to do anything good now so whenever they do something we think is bad, make sure to blog about it." This article is just about as ridiculous as the one the other day about a parrallel Googlenet.
Regards,
Steve
Yes google did realize this. If Jabber wants to bein S2S with GTalk, they should e-mail federation@google.com. You could start your own jabber server and go S2S with Google. They fully support it and they know its strengths, they haven't implemented it yet because a) They have their own issues with just releasing a new service, b) they are treading carefully and looking for solutions to "spim", i.e. They are Google, they can't just open up their IM service to every "Joe" in town, it'd be akin to an open proxy for spam. They are doing this right, let them be. The last thing we need are bayesian filters for IM.
Regards,
Steve
You're kidding right? A kernel release like this doesn't even make kernel.org break a sweat. Read this. The only time they ever even start to see some strain on their bandwidth is with a new release of Fedora, because they are a mirror for it (both of their gigabit links become saturated). For kernel releases though, they say that their bandwidth stays pretty normal at around 150Mbps to 200Mbps.
Regrds,
Steve
GCJ can compile Eclipse and the java stuff in OpenOffice.org. It handles AWT, Swing and JOGL (the openGL bindings). It has support for a lot of the classpath. I'd say a good chunk of java programs will compile with it, the only thing stopping it is java's extensive classpath.
Regards,
Steve
Unless you're a developer, there are few reasons why you would need to ever execute a file that you've downloaded or created as regular user. If you're going to install something, its almost always done as root. How often do you get emails related to work that legitimately have an executable attatched? I mount my user's home directories as non-executable. They are there to store data related to work, if there is a program they need to run to get their job done then they can notify the administrator. It is an extremely rare occurance, much rarer then most people realize. Mounting the home directories as non-executable, in addition to the many additional security features provided through SE-Linux, has proven to be an excellent solution in every scenario I've used it in. I'm curious if you can mount drives in Windows as non-executable, or if it provides permissions as fine grained as SE-Linux. I'm genuinely curious as I have not a clue.
Regards,
Steve
Okay well its good that you're that far along, I wish you luck the rest of the way. In reality, there isn't too much different physically from a classified machine and declassified machine. Its more about what you do with them and where they are and what networks they are on. That was mainly why my post listed things you can't do with it. I saw in another post of yours that you were asking about USB harddrives. Keep any usb storage medium away from the computer, the second they make contact you might as well start smashing the usb drive with a hammer. They are not recommended and too easy to walk away with and forget what is on them. A vendor will probably place tamper proof stickers here and there and place a lock over the power button or something, which is all good, but not necessary. I still recommend a vendor though simply to cover your own ass, plus the lock, etc... do provide an extra layer of physical security. Ideally though the computer would be in a secure location, i.e. an "open" room (restricted access rooms certified as secure, often having big steel doors and an active guard or something to that affect, at least at military conferences, and you can leave classified information lying around without fear), or a restricted area in your company so the lock might not necessarily be needed. My advice is, unless the computer will need to burn data on to discs (might be a big possibility though because of the CAD stuff), just have a dvd drive and not a burner. No floppy, no tape, no wireless card, no way (other then USB) for data to leave the computer other then over the secure network. Most of that isn't required but it makes it easier for the user to not slip up and forget. I've had more then one thumbdrive destroyed and a harddrive ripped out of my laptop from slipping up, oops :) So that would be an added benefit to those using it. If you are comfortable building your own box and dealing with the bitching if the harddrive crashes and you lose classified info, or some other bad scenario, go for it and build one, save a few bucks. I would recommend going with a vendor though, if your company can't afford it then they need to renegotiate the DoD contrat because its not enough money:) Cover your ass and go with a vendor. Any more questions feel free to reply or email me, I'm not an FSO but I'm pretty familiar with the requirements. One more thing, when purchasing the computer, make sure your not paying out the ass for a computer certified as "top secret" because the requirements are significantly more strict, regular "secret" classification is what I described above.
Regards,
Steve
Coming from someone with federal security clearance and who has had this issue themself, let the vendor do it. Its just easier and you know it will comply. You seem to not have dealt with this stuff before or you were improperly briefed when you got your clearance, so be warned that once the box is classified, anything that touches it must become classified or destroyed. Make backups of CDs before you use them in the machine because according to policy, if they are to leave the classified area, they must be destroyed. These regulations do vary with different levels of clearance, but the above requirements are most common. Regardless, slashdot is not the place to ask this question, there are government departments set up to handle this, and more importantly, your company's security officer should know exactly what is needed as it is his job. If your company doesn't have a security officer (or head of security, whatever they call him at your place), notify someone quickly because you are most likely violating a federal policy. Do not *ever* plug the computer in on a public network, you can't use the machine then (well you'll need a new harddrive). Once again, this all depends on the level of clearance this computer needs, but the above is the most common criteria I've come across.
Regards,
Steve
The air surrounding the laser becomes so hot that the laser doesn't even need to be touching the missile and it will still melt through it. The second the missile starts getting heated up, it deforms, the mirror becomes less effective. The mirror is eventually destroyed and the missile follows quickly after. The whole process can happen in well under a second with high enough powered lasers like they are speaking about.
Regards,
Steve
Actually, filters do a much better job then humans. One human can't deal with the job, its too overwhelming in many cases, therefore one human isn't capable of filtering effectively, even if they were capable, most would rather pay someone else to do it for them. The next solution, say AOL highered 1,000 people to filter spam, each one of them would disagree with what is spam and what isn't. Some people might want to get car deals, and sports information, or porn and viagra, others won't. The spam filter is often personalized, where as someone sifting through thousands of different people's emails can't be. So let's review, you don't have the time, others don't have the knowledge, the only solution is a filter that learns your habits and works in milliseconds. The only thing better then a filter would be you, no other human being, therefore saying humans are better is not accurate. You couldn't just sit a random human infront of a random person's inbox and say filter this.
Regards,
Steve