I disagree.. Most home connections have limited uploads, so it probably only takes 1 person's phone to start uploading their photos to the cloud for network performance to get a bit sketchy.
Downloads generally everyone has an excessive amount
If you look at Watchguard and other advanced router vendors such these days, they send unknown samples of files to a fake windows computer in the cloud, run them and analyse them.
Whilst it won't detect everything, if everyone ran such sandbox based AV systems things would work much better.
The big issue with OSX, is that Apple DECEIVED people into believing OSX couldn't get viruses, so everyone let their guard down.
Don't be surprised if there is a lot more OSX malware out there than people know about
The other day when I was onsite, our rich clients son decided to show all of his mates how high his drone flies. I have a private pilot license and I know their house is on a common flight route. We also constantly see stories of people using these in national parks and such here in Australia where its illegal, and people simply don't care. Whilst drones have their uses, unfortunately, they also attract the type of crowd who needs to overcompensate.
People shouldn't even be allowed to buy them without a license. It's pretty clear people aren't following the rules and its really sad people are risking others lives simply to post some photos on Instagram. Not everyone is breaking the rules, but a huge number seem to (both unknowingly, and knowingly)
At the very least, they should be required to have ADS-B so they are visible to aircraft.
When Firefox was forked from Mozilla, it was revolutionary.
It was promised to be non-bloated, incredibly fast, and have both theming and extensions which loaded easily (the alternative either had none, or required rebooting for every theme change, etc). That was what people like me were eager to donate to.
Then over time, it felt like management changed. I was genuinely interested in Firefox Mobile, but that seemed like there was simply insufficient developers for that project.
And instead of fixing issues, CEO pays increased drastically, but the major issues continued. When your computer has intermittent connectivity, Firefox SERIOUSLY struggles. Every other browser works perfectly.
I noticed this started happening when they applied the patch a few years back to stop people continously reloading sites which weren't loading (DDOS'ing them further). No idea if that patch was the cause (I never properly checked), but I only noticed it after that.
Also, a CEO with common sense wouldn't come begging for money when they could throw a bit of their pay in to help out the company too (who knows what their bonuses are like). It's just left a bad taste in many people's mouth
The CEO at Mozilla now seems to get paid over $800K per year.
I lost all respect when the CEO sent out an email absolutely begging for money to help the company survive, whilst they themselves could hire 10 full time employees with that money and still live comfortably. Management at Mozilla is begging for money whilst they are literally living like kings (and I donated a fair bit to Mozilla in the past).
Management seems to have reached max corruption, and if management gave a damn about the software, they would at least halve their salaries and hire more developers or start some community bounties with the money, instead of prioritising themselves. Even 300K is more than enough to live VERY comfortably. $800K is just greedy. Because, if management gave a The company is slowly returning to Netscape days and management seems more focused on their own gains.
I also wonder how many people with the current board of directors were those who started with the company.
Our biggest issue is that everyone wires up all the units, and when they cause network loops because they don't have STP enabled, they call us for help.
And, their soundbar's are generations behind the competition at the moment (hell, everyone from Sony to Yamaha has Atmos ones these days).
I'm going to be so happy when MusicCast takes over. And it comes free built into their receivers, so less fudging around.
What they don't mention, is that WiFi on iPhone is horribly broken, and it seems that every Wifi vendor has to workaround the issues (everyone from Ruckus to Unifi has to specifically target the iPhones). The only thing more broken is the Fitbit Aria.. In fact, on OSX, we discovered when a computer was in sleep mode, it kept hanging onto its DHCP address until the lease expired, even if the entire network was reset whilst it was turned off.. So junk like that saves battery life, but its bad behavior.
Also, changing the DTIM on a wifi AP can have a significant impact on battery life too.
It wouldn't surprise me if iPhone consumed more battery life, simply because there is less competition and a smaller market, so there is far less incentive for hardware developers to optimise their drivers for that platform (not even sure if Apple or hardware developers code the drivers though).
The only reason people think of Apple's software and hardware as stable and the worlds best, is because of clever marketing, and sheep.
If Oracle genuinely cared about Java, they would release it, and the patents to the community.
You'd literally be insane to touch it at the moment. Oracle will step on too many toes eventually, and the more toes they step on, the bigger the risk of using Java long term is. They have a long history of being d**ks, but the most recent I remember, is when they forked Redhat to make their own distro, which was basically exactly the same, but a few minor kernel tweaks, and that users paid Oracle instead of Redhat.
There is NO good reason for any open source developer to support them.
If the law also allows DMCA abusers to be shut down too, I have less of a problem with this law (by which I mean, companies which send out DMCA notices incorrectly). And by shut down, I mean, being unable to send out notices in the future, and disconnected from the internet entirely (including their company website)
It wouldn't surprise me if all members of the MPAA have incorrectly sent out DMCA notices before, for media they had no rights too (a news station for instance shut down a video of a Mars landing uploaded by NASA).
So, if laws were put in place to allow companies to be shut down, if they abuse the DMCA, or make a mistake, I wouldn't have a problem with this, because it would ensure that notices were only sent in cases that they were warranted.
But the way it stands, it just opens the system up to more bullying and abuse.
Exactly this. They are also barely upgradable, you need to pay 5x more for a laptop with decent specs, and many have weird linux compatibility issues in Linux, whereas most desktop's just work (on my Asus for instance, the I need to send a kernel parameter so it doesn't think my wifi is turned off).
And, they will wear out faster, be less maintainable, etc. Lets revisit this story when laptops are modular.
Where in Australia, apparently Netflix will be introduced in March. However, knowing Australia, we'll probably be paying $30 per month (which is a ripoff), and will have barely any US shows. In all likelihood, it will be filled to the brink of shonky Australian Reality TV programs.
In that case, I'll just stop watching TV shows and just get back to doing more programming.
That's nice. I hear that the best form of debate is where you just to call everything you don't agree with bullshit. Fortunately for you, you may even get a few upvotes.
However, judging by the fact that you seem to receive very few upvotes at all for any of the comments you post (but quite a few downvotes), I'm going to suggest that you change strategy, and maybe accept that you can be wrong. Because, applied to software, you sound like the kind of guy who will claim that a problem doesn't exist (because you can't replicate it), until your coworkers find it and fix it for you.
Those two stories are totally legit. Believe it or not, I actually forgot about them until recently because they are from 5-10 years ago. Every male including myself knows that every female pretty much strolls online and gets harassed. And, stuff like that needs to change. I don't believe from a business point of view women will ever get full pay parity (because if they have kids they will be away from work, etc), but, things are worse than that. The Christmas tree thing had good intentions, but the plan is kind of flawed
In one place I worked, the CEO said they don't hire women because all they do is "sit around and look pretty, and hang out on facebook". At another, the director was worried about sexual harassment issues.
The problem isn't the workers, its the people doing the hiring, and the CEO's. I agree that women don't seem to be as interested in IT, but, with all due respect, there are serious problems in our industry, and you sir, are actually the one saying bullshit (but you might not realise it).
And yes, this is written by a guy. And no, I don't support everything women claims, but, the above is just my experience (its the side of the story which people like yourself may not hear about).
Things are a bit different in those occupations though. I'm a male, and there are many women who are avoiding computing simply because of the way they are being treated (I didn't want to believe it either). But, in occupations such as nursing, where there are less men, they aren't finding that men aren't being hired simply because of a persons gender. In fact, they are actively being encouraged to join and hired.
But women on the other hand are often being treated badly, the moment they contribute to any computing discussion (many female blogs are absolutely buried in comments from 10 year old guys saying how they will mistreat them). So targeting high schools is only a good thing.
But, I don't believe discriminating against men to get women into the field is the right way either, which is the case here. I was the only guy in my high school who knew C++, and I wouldn't have been happy if Google wouldn't let me join in with a major project, despite being a super nerd in my spare time instead of going to parties. Its the wrong approach.
We do need more women in the tech field, but my feeling is that having exclusively female projects like this can actually widen the gap.
What it basically says is that girls and boys can't work together, and it doesn't teach guys to work as coworkers with women. Furthermore, boys who wanted to join in, later in life may feel jealous that women always get what they want, and may avoid hiring women.
A better approach would have been to have 2 trees, 1 for the females, 1 for the males.Nobody would feel left out then.
What's wrong with Drupal? It's modular, very flexible, free, secure, and has been demonstrated to be good enough by other major organisations (ie, the Whitehouse, and Australia is essentially America's lapdog these days).
It's not easy to set up, but, that doesn't make it a poor choice, and what other alternative can you suggest which is proven to be secure, is flexible, modular and has a huge community base?
I hate our government for so many things, but, it's very easy to implement a powerful search engine in Drupal, and there are so many modules available that its a good choice for projects designed to last well into the future.
Also, one of my mates found a serious backdoor in a CMS system used often in Europe (and it was open source). So, since the Whitehorse has likely done some auditing of the Drupal code, it makes sense for the AU government to build on top of their work/testing.
Out of curiosity, have you found issues with the Wireless, multiple networks (ie, guest networks) and the Billion 7800NXL's? The only reason I ask, is because Billion is denying an issue with both of these things, but, we seem to be able to easily replicate issues..
I work for a company which installs and deploys home / business networks for home automation purposes, and EVERY Linksys device we have tested, has inevitably ended up in the bin, not because they were faulty, but because they turned out to be rubbish.
Linksys has a long history of producing unstable devices, and their original WRT54GL Linux router's only redeeming feature was that it was open source. The interface was terrible, and so was the firmware. In fact, we aren't only talking routers, because we noticed that some of Linksys's cheap gigabit switches had issues with stuttering when playing media (no other switches were affected by this issue, including 10/100 cisco ones). It's particularly pathetic given that Blu-ray requires only 54mbps to stream.
Even assuming that patches are supplied which fixes the issues with this router, unless Linksys seriously has seriously improved their development team, and their hardware, you would be far better off with a cheap TP-Link which acts solely as a router/ADSL modem, a switch which manages the network traffic (NOT A LINKSYS ONE), and Unifi's for your Wifi (those are a dream to roll out in bulk, and the new Unifi software if it comes will even support Seamless wireless WITHOUT an expensive hardware controller).
Further evidence, we didn't even want to risk selling our used Linksys equipment on eBay and damage our seller rating (it was worth the write-off)..
And its big things which makes Windows 8 sucky, such as the lack of easy ad-hoc connections. Nobody has been using this for wireless anyway, but, some wireless devices require adhoc for initial configuration (such as the Global Cache Wireless products). There is no real legitimate reason to remove this.
Whats even more concerning is that during testing, Microsoft didn't realise that people would require google to find the power-off button. Whilst this is finally being fixed, usability problems such as this should have been identified during testing (whenever I'm onsite and I see someone with a new Windows 8 laptop, I tell them where the power button is, and 99% of the time, they always wondered, but never knew for sure).
I work for a company who installs automation here in Australia (Mox BI VIC). Firstly, the good thing is that you have the opportunity to decide how you want to wire things now if the house isn't built.
1) Start by Wiring back the TPS for lights, downlights, and power points to a single rack. This means that you wont need to crack open the wall to change to a new tech in the future, even if you plan to use a retrofitable system. I cry a little when I see a new house being built, and a retrofitable technology tacked on. Structuring the wiring will make all the difference in the future.
2) Wireless technologies such as Z-Wave are great, however, keep in mind that technologies running on 2.4GHZ need to accept interference. If the idiot neighbors run a baby monitor on those frequencies, and you get dropouts, you cannot sue them, or force them to change. For that reason, only use wireless technologies for retrofits if possible (for multicolored lights, they may need to realistically be wireless though). Do not design a system that will rely on it (except for iPad/iPhone AV control).
3), Run more CAT5/CAT6 than you think you need. And keep in mind, CAT6A theoretically can run up to 10gbit/s up to 37m. There is higher quality unofficial standards such as CAT7A available, however, only install them if you have the money (because, they aren't official, and may not add any real benefit, but are nice to have).
4) Have a 15A socket in the garage. UPS's work better with it, and, in an automated home, it might be nice to have control of some features.. Also, try to get a high-amperage TPS run to the garage (for electric cars potentially in the future).
5) Single story house is TONS less painful for future changes than double. If you are doing double, be doubly sure that the wiring downstairs is right. You might not get a second chance without tearing serious holes in plaster (which we have had to do in a few systems to add/change extra functionality the client later wanted).
6) Run at least 3 Ethernets to every TV. You might want a matrix switch later, and you may also want to control your TV's. If you run a single CAT5 to each TV, you might regret it..
7) You might want electric blinds... Keep that in mind.. You may also want gate lock and front/back door to be openable via intercom.
8) The last problem is wall switches. Unfortunately, many common protocols at this time use a Bus wired system (we use CANBUS, which is utilised in cars also). If you run 6-core security wire in a chain to each point, and RJ45 back to the central rack, you should be covered (albeit, in an expensive way).
9) Pick a standard with an open protocol. To be honest, many protocols can be reverse engineered (it just takes time). If you have the protocol though, even if you pick a standard that dies, it may be possible to develop a software bridge that bridges between 2 protocols, and slowly phase parts of the system out.
Obviously, I am biased, but I recommend MOX Canbus (as I know MOX is committed to the system for the long haul), but, ultimately, the system you choose will also depend on your country anyway (because, it needs to be electrically approved in that country anyway).
Interestingly, Daniel Stone touches on Network Transparency in his presentation on: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIctzAQOe44
Basically though: * Network transparency is pretty sketchy these days anyway because of DRI2/SHM * Network communication on X11 actually has a lot of bottlenecks which causes it to perform very poorly. * VNC will perform significantly better in Wayland than X11 (due to a different design). I agree that VNC on X11 is a disaster, however, there are fast VNC like protocols on other platforms that do perform well..
Also nobody is saying dump X11 entirely (distros can still use X11), however, there are so many silly bottlenecks in Wayland (Chrome wasted 0.5 secs on startup for him doing redundant stuff such as filling the window with grey). Daniel's argument is VERY persuasive, and the argument promoting X11 seems to be based on what people THINK is the case, not what is ACTUALLY the case.
The real question, is, does any of the recent controversies surrounding Canonical affect users in a practical sense (or mainly from a political/development/long term sense)?
Last version of OpenSUSE I tried was great, but, I kept having small problems (mainly related to installing Nvidia drivers which actually broke the system, steam support and other Yum issues).Technically, the nvidia issue isn't their fault, but on the other hand, it would be expected that Nvidia users need proprietary drivers.
OpenSUSE definitely deserves a lot more users, and I think long term, it could easily overtake the others. Hopefully this is a step closer in that direction.
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I disagree.. Most home connections have limited uploads, so it probably only takes 1 person's phone to start uploading their photos to the cloud for network performance to get a bit sketchy.
Downloads generally everyone has an excessive amount
That's incorrect..
If you look at Watchguard and other advanced router vendors such these days, they send unknown samples of files to a fake windows computer in the cloud, run them and analyse them.
Whilst it won't detect everything, if everyone ran such sandbox based AV systems things would work much better.
The big issue with OSX, is that Apple DECEIVED people into believing OSX couldn't get viruses, so everyone let their guard down.
Don't be surprised if there is a lot more OSX malware out there than people know about
The other day when I was onsite, our rich clients son decided to show all of his mates how high his drone flies. I have a private pilot license and I know their house is on a common flight route. We also constantly see stories of people using these in national parks and such here in Australia where its illegal, and people simply don't care. Whilst drones have their uses, unfortunately, they also attract the type of crowd who needs to overcompensate.
People shouldn't even be allowed to buy them without a license. It's pretty clear people aren't following the rules and its really sad people are risking others lives simply to post some photos on Instagram. Not everyone is breaking the rules, but a huge number seem to (both unknowingly, and knowingly)
At the very least, they should be required to have ADS-B so they are visible to aircraft.
When Firefox was forked from Mozilla, it was revolutionary.
It was promised to be non-bloated, incredibly fast, and have both theming and extensions which loaded easily (the alternative either had none, or required rebooting for every theme change, etc). That was what people like me were eager to donate to.
Then over time, it felt like management changed. I was genuinely interested in Firefox Mobile, but that seemed like there was simply insufficient developers for that project.
And instead of fixing issues, CEO pays increased drastically, but the major issues continued. When your computer has intermittent connectivity, Firefox SERIOUSLY struggles. Every other browser works perfectly.
I noticed this started happening when they applied the patch a few years back to stop people continously reloading sites which weren't loading (DDOS'ing them further). No idea if that patch was the cause (I never properly checked), but I only noticed it after that.
Also, a CEO with common sense wouldn't come begging for money when they could throw a bit of their pay in to help out the company too (who knows what their bonuses are like). It's just left a bad taste in many people's mouth
The CEO at Mozilla now seems to get paid over $800K per year.
I lost all respect when the CEO sent out an email absolutely begging for money to help the company survive, whilst they themselves could hire 10 full time employees with that money and still live comfortably. Management at Mozilla is begging for money whilst they are literally living like kings (and I donated a fair bit to Mozilla in the past).
Management seems to have reached max corruption, and if management gave a damn about the software, they would at least halve their salaries and hire more developers or start some community bounties with the money, instead of prioritising themselves. Even 300K is more than enough to live VERY comfortably. $800K is just greedy. Because, if management gave a The company is slowly returning to Netscape days and management seems more focused on their own gains.
I also wonder how many people with the current board of directors were those who started with the company.
That's your issue?
Our biggest issue is that everyone wires up all the units, and when they cause network loops because they don't have STP enabled, they call us for help.
And, their soundbar's are generations behind the competition at the moment (hell, everyone from Sony to Yamaha has Atmos ones these days).
I'm going to be so happy when MusicCast takes over. And it comes free built into their receivers, so less fudging around.
What they don't mention, is that WiFi on iPhone is horribly broken, and it seems that every Wifi vendor has to workaround the issues (everyone from Ruckus to Unifi has to specifically target the iPhones). The only thing more broken is the Fitbit Aria.. In fact, on OSX, we discovered when a computer was in sleep mode, it kept hanging onto its DHCP address until the lease expired, even if the entire network was reset whilst it was turned off.. So junk like that saves battery life, but its bad behavior.
Also, changing the DTIM on a wifi AP can have a significant impact on battery life too.
It wouldn't surprise me if iPhone consumed more battery life, simply because there is less competition and a smaller market, so there is far less incentive for hardware developers to optimise their drivers for that platform (not even sure if Apple or hardware developers code the drivers though).
The only reason people think of Apple's software and hardware as stable and the worlds best, is because of clever marketing, and sheep.
If Oracle genuinely cared about Java, they would release it, and the patents to the community.
You'd literally be insane to touch it at the moment. Oracle will step on too many toes eventually, and the more toes they step on, the bigger the risk of using Java long term is. They have a long history of being d**ks, but the most recent I remember, is when they forked Redhat to make their own distro, which was basically exactly the same, but a few minor kernel tweaks, and that users paid Oracle instead of Redhat.
There is NO good reason for any open source developer to support them.
If the law also allows DMCA abusers to be shut down too, I have less of a problem with this law (by which I mean, companies which send out DMCA notices incorrectly). And by shut down, I mean, being unable to send out notices in the future, and disconnected from the internet entirely (including their company website)
It wouldn't surprise me if all members of the MPAA have incorrectly sent out DMCA notices before, for media they had no rights too (a news station for instance shut down a video of a Mars landing uploaded by NASA).
So, if laws were put in place to allow companies to be shut down, if they abuse the DMCA, or make a mistake, I wouldn't have a problem with this, because it would ensure that notices were only sent in cases that they were warranted.
But the way it stands, it just opens the system up to more bullying and abuse.
Does this mean we can finally delete our projects off Sourceforge, or will they simply F' us more and add more malware?
Wouldn't GPS RAIM be able to work around this issue anyway (leaving only consumer GPS devices with problems?)
Exactly this. They are also barely upgradable, you need to pay 5x more for a laptop with decent specs, and many have weird linux compatibility issues in Linux, whereas most desktop's just work (on my Asus for instance, the I need to send a kernel parameter so it doesn't think my wifi is turned off).
And, they will wear out faster, be less maintainable, etc. Lets revisit this story when laptops are modular.
Where in Australia, apparently Netflix will be introduced in March. However, knowing Australia, we'll probably be paying $30 per month (which is a ripoff), and will have barely any US shows. In all likelihood, it will be filled to the brink of shonky Australian Reality TV programs.
In that case, I'll just stop watching TV shows and just get back to doing more programming.
That's nice. I hear that the best form of debate is where you just to call everything you don't agree with bullshit. Fortunately for you, you may even get a few upvotes.
However, judging by the fact that you seem to receive very few upvotes at all for any of the comments you post (but quite a few downvotes), I'm going to suggest that you change strategy, and maybe accept that you can be wrong. Because, applied to software, you sound like the kind of guy who will claim that a problem doesn't exist (because you can't replicate it), until your coworkers find it and fix it for you.
Those two stories are totally legit. Believe it or not, I actually forgot about them until recently because they are from 5-10 years ago. Every male including myself knows that every female pretty much strolls online and gets harassed. And, stuff like that needs to change. I don't believe from a business point of view women will ever get full pay parity (because if they have kids they will be away from work, etc), but, things are worse than that. The Christmas tree thing had good intentions, but the plan is kind of flawed
In one place I worked, the CEO said they don't hire women because all they do is "sit around and look pretty, and hang out on facebook". At another, the director was worried about sexual harassment issues.
The problem isn't the workers, its the people doing the hiring, and the CEO's. I agree that women don't seem to be as interested in IT, but, with all due respect, there are serious problems in our industry, and you sir, are actually the one saying bullshit (but you might not realise it).
And yes, this is written by a guy. And no, I don't support everything women claims, but, the above is just my experience (its the side of the story which people like yourself may not hear about).
Things are a bit different in those occupations though. I'm a male, and there are many women who are avoiding computing simply because of the way they are being treated (I didn't want to believe it either). But, in occupations such as nursing, where there are less men, they aren't finding that men aren't being hired simply because of a persons gender. In fact, they are actively being encouraged to join and hired.
But women on the other hand are often being treated badly, the moment they contribute to any computing discussion (many female blogs are absolutely buried in comments from 10 year old guys saying how they will mistreat them). So targeting high schools is only a good thing.
But, I don't believe discriminating against men to get women into the field is the right way either, which is the case here. I was the only guy in my high school who knew C++, and I wouldn't have been happy if Google wouldn't let me join in with a major project, despite being a super nerd in my spare time instead of going to parties. Its the wrong approach.
We do need more women in the tech field, but my feeling is that having exclusively female projects like this can actually widen the gap.
What it basically says is that girls and boys can't work together, and it doesn't teach guys to work as coworkers with women. Furthermore, boys who wanted to join in, later in life may feel jealous that women always get what they want, and may avoid hiring women.
A better approach would have been to have 2 trees, 1 for the females, 1 for the males.Nobody would feel left out then.
What's wrong with Drupal? It's modular, very flexible, free, secure, and has been demonstrated to be good enough by other major organisations (ie, the Whitehouse, and Australia is essentially America's lapdog these days).
It's not easy to set up, but, that doesn't make it a poor choice, and what other alternative can you suggest which is proven to be secure, is flexible, modular and has a huge community base?
I hate our government for so many things, but, it's very easy to implement a powerful search engine in Drupal, and there are so many modules available that its a good choice for projects designed to last well into the future.
Also, one of my mates found a serious backdoor in a CMS system used often in Europe (and it was open source). So, since the Whitehorse has likely done some auditing of the Drupal code, it makes sense for the AU government to build on top of their work/testing.
Out of curiosity, have you found issues with the Wireless, multiple networks (ie, guest networks) and the Billion 7800NXL's? The only reason I ask, is because Billion is denying an issue with both of these things, but, we seem to be able to easily replicate issues..
I work for a company which installs and deploys home / business networks for home automation purposes, and EVERY Linksys device we have tested, has inevitably ended up in the bin, not because they were faulty, but because they turned out to be rubbish.
Linksys has a long history of producing unstable devices, and their original WRT54GL Linux router's only redeeming feature was that it was open source. The interface was terrible, and so was the firmware. In fact, we aren't only talking routers, because we noticed that some of Linksys's cheap gigabit switches had issues with stuttering when playing media (no other switches were affected by this issue, including 10/100 cisco ones). It's particularly pathetic given that Blu-ray requires only 54mbps to stream.
Even assuming that patches are supplied which fixes the issues with this router, unless Linksys seriously has seriously improved their development team, and their hardware, you would be far better off with a cheap TP-Link which acts solely as a router/ADSL modem, a switch which manages the network traffic (NOT A LINKSYS ONE), and Unifi's for your Wifi (those are a dream to roll out in bulk, and the new Unifi software if it comes will even support Seamless wireless WITHOUT an expensive hardware controller).
Further evidence, we didn't even want to risk selling our used Linksys equipment on eBay and damage our seller rating (it was worth the write-off)..
Agreed.
And its big things which makes Windows 8 sucky, such as the lack of easy ad-hoc connections. Nobody has been using this for wireless anyway, but, some wireless devices require adhoc for initial configuration (such as the Global Cache Wireless products). There is no real legitimate reason to remove this.
Whats even more concerning is that during testing, Microsoft didn't realise that people would require google to find the power-off button. Whilst this is finally being fixed, usability problems such as this should have been identified during testing (whenever I'm onsite and I see someone with a new Windows 8 laptop, I tell them where the power button is, and 99% of the time, they always wondered, but never knew for sure).
I work for a company who installs automation here in Australia (Mox BI VIC). Firstly, the good thing is that you have the opportunity to decide how you want to wire things now if the house isn't built.
1) Start by Wiring back the TPS for lights, downlights, and power points to a single rack. This means that you wont need to crack open the wall to change to a new tech in the future, even if you plan to use a retrofitable system. I cry a little when I see a new house being built, and a retrofitable technology tacked on. Structuring the wiring will make all the difference in the future.
2) Wireless technologies such as Z-Wave are great, however, keep in mind that technologies running on 2.4GHZ need to accept interference. If the idiot neighbors run a baby monitor on those frequencies, and you get dropouts, you cannot sue them, or force them to change. For that reason, only use wireless technologies for retrofits if possible (for multicolored lights, they may need to realistically be wireless though). Do not design a system that will rely on it (except for iPad/iPhone AV control).
3), Run more CAT5/CAT6 than you think you need. And keep in mind, CAT6A theoretically can run up to 10gbit/s up to 37m. There is higher quality unofficial standards such as CAT7A available, however, only install them if you have the money (because, they aren't official, and may not add any real benefit, but are nice to have).
4) Have a 15A socket in the garage. UPS's work better with it, and, in an automated home, it might be nice to have control of some features.. Also, try to get a high-amperage TPS run to the garage (for electric cars potentially in the future).
5) Single story house is TONS less painful for future changes than double. If you are doing double, be doubly sure that the wiring downstairs is right. You might not get a second chance without tearing serious holes in plaster (which we have had to do in a few systems to add/change extra functionality the client later wanted).
6) Run at least 3 Ethernets to every TV. You might want a matrix switch later, and you may also want to control your TV's. If you run a single CAT5 to each TV, you might regret it..
7) You might want electric blinds... Keep that in mind.. You may also want gate lock and front/back door to be openable via intercom.
8) The last problem is wall switches. Unfortunately, many common protocols at this time use a Bus wired system (we use CANBUS, which is utilised in cars also). If you run 6-core security wire in a chain to each point, and RJ45 back to the central rack, you should be covered (albeit, in an expensive way).
9) Pick a standard with an open protocol. To be honest, many protocols can be reverse engineered (it just takes time). If you have the protocol though, even if you pick a standard that dies, it may be possible to develop a software bridge that bridges between 2 protocols, and slowly phase parts of the system out.
Obviously, I am biased, but I recommend MOX Canbus (as I know MOX is committed to the system for the long haul), but, ultimately, the system you choose will also depend on your country anyway (because, it needs to be electrically approved in that country anyway).
Sorry, I meant silly bottlenecks in X11...
Interestingly, Daniel Stone touches on Network Transparency in his presentation on: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIctzAQOe44
Basically though:
* Network transparency is pretty sketchy these days anyway because of DRI2/SHM
* Network communication on X11 actually has a lot of bottlenecks which causes it to perform very poorly.
* VNC will perform significantly better in Wayland than X11 (due to a different design). I agree that VNC on X11 is a disaster, however, there are fast VNC like protocols on other platforms that do perform well..
Also nobody is saying dump X11 entirely (distros can still use X11), however, there are so many silly bottlenecks in Wayland (Chrome wasted 0.5 secs on startup for him doing redundant stuff such as filling the window with grey). Daniel's argument is VERY persuasive, and the argument promoting X11 seems to be based on what people THINK is the case, not what is ACTUALLY the case.
The real question, is, does any of the recent controversies surrounding Canonical affect users in a practical sense (or mainly from a political/development/long term sense)?
Last version of OpenSUSE I tried was great, but, I kept having small problems (mainly related to installing Nvidia drivers which actually broke the system, steam support and other Yum issues).Technically, the nvidia issue isn't their fault, but on the other hand, it would be expected that Nvidia users need proprietary drivers.
OpenSUSE definitely deserves a lot more users, and I think long term, it could easily overtake the others. Hopefully this is a step closer in that direction.