But all background processes eat up memory, which is what the parent (grandparent?) was complaining about have no control over. Being upfront about needing to be a background process is a step in the right direction to let the users feel they have a choice in the matter and some sort of control over THEIR machines.
I personally do ALL OS installations while behind a firewall (Windows 2000, XP, Linux, etc). It's just not smart to do it any other way, no matter which OS you are using. I've personally got a little Linux firewall/NAT box that I keep very up-to-date (with no external services) and it works wonders. Before that, I used a Linksys router.
Why anyone who has broadband doesn't get a router/firewall box is beyond me. Oh wait, now I remember why: the f**king broadband companies tell everyone they CAN'T use a router, since it would allow for more than the agreed apon single computer to be connected to their systems >:-(
I've had dealings with several people from Comcast about this, and they have always been very nice about saying they won't support their broadband being connected to a router as a company policy, but that they personally see no harm in it and gladly help. I think it's time that companies like Comcast sell a broadband router as part of their service. It reduces the spread of worms, which in turn reduces the amount of needless traffic through their systems, making it faster for everyone.
Huh, I run a Linux Firewall/NAT box and FTP works just fine with no extra modules being loaded for FTP connections. Strange, Linux is able to do something (with no intervention on the user's part) while MS can't even get simple programs to work their firewall. Sounds like they might want to look into Open Source solutions for the network stack/firewall:-P
...who wonders why their firewall/network stack architecture would require an inbound port to be open for an application to work (unless it's a server program)? I know that under *nix systems there is the Loopback device (lo) for "sudo" network traffic that is only ment to be from the localhost to the localhost. Does MS Windows not have this? If they have this, why would they block traffic on it by default?
And if some programs need the ports open to the internet to work, isn't just a indication that the firewall is not tracking connection states, thus not recognizing a inbound packet as a response from communications initialized from the localhost?
Someone please explain to me how the Windows network stack/firewall could seem so broken???
But once they are caught, I would hate to be in their shoes. Ever seen a hord of angry nerds charging towards you demanding blood or the source, whichever they can get first?;-P
But as the artical mentioned, a lot of large corporations (think IBM) will make software to meet THEIR needs, which the then release under the GPL. Now the software belongs to everyone, and people at other companies don't have to write everything from scratch. All the article talks about is that small developement companies that relay on licensing their software may not survive the transition.
And that, lady and gentlemen, is why tablet PC's will NEVER take off! I know that that price is inflated (or is it?!?!), but tablet PC's are just too damn expensive. Why buy a tablet that is kludgy to use, limited in power/graphics, and costs more than a ultra powerful desktop computer? Until tablets are $500 or so, they will only be a niche market.
The support for Linux is what is going to keep me buy Nvidia cards for the foreseeable future. Ati driver support is BAAAAAAAAAAD under Linux (I have a laptop with an Ati card running Linux). Nvidia gives soooooo much information! Their readme file that comes with the driver explains every option that you can put in the XFree86 or xorg config file and talks about setting up TV out and Dual Head displays. The Ati site does nothing more than say "yes, we can do TV out and dual heads" and then never explains how!!! Nvidia has done a great job embracing Linux, and I'm going to reward them with my $$:)
The kind of people/companies that do this kind of rebranding are also the kind of people who wouldn't include source code or they would hide Very Bad Things (tm) in the program. If someone wanted to take Audacity and make their own version of it and sell it but also provide the source code (and hence all their improvements which would probably find their way back into the original Audacity) then more power to them. It's the ones that lie about the source of the program and don't follow the GPL that I think he's complaining about.
I ment 95% efficent from the point the electricity is connected to the motor to the power generated by the spinning of the shaft. True, most electricity produced today is by very inefficent means, but that will change soon with all the new techs coming out.
Um, a good induction motor will approach 95% efficient, while I believe the last time I looked Cornot Cycle engines are only around 30% (at best). That's what he ment by inefficient, and I agree with him. Carnot engines where fine and dandy back in the early 1900's, but after 100 years you would think we could have found something MUCH better.
I think you are forgetting: morality has NOTHING to do with laws in the US, especially copyright laws LOL. Even though I agree with you that it is illegal, I don't see it as amoral.
What do you mean by "rightful distributer"? Do you mean the company that paid some companies over in Europe to let them "copy" their coverage of the games and inject their own logos/adds/voice overs/etc and pass it off as their own? See, the only people who have much right to decide how the Olympic games are distributed are the ones actually there, shooting the footage. If they want to broadcast it over the Internet in THEIR country, that's their choice. If the companies here in the US who bought the feed don't want to broadcast it over the Internet, that is their choice (seeing as how it cost them money). But don't for a second tell me that just because I live in the US I can't take advantage of the original companies' decision to broadcast over the Internet. I'm not stealing any money from anyone. The original content providers are giving it away in a form that I might want to use, while the providers of the derivative of the content are not. I'm just not giving a TV set (and thus some ads) my attention.
There is a big difference between downloading music/games/movies/etc off the net (which would usually require $$$ to legally acquire) and viewing the Olympic games live via the Internet (which you get for free by watching broadcast TV). You don't pay anything to NBC to watch these shows when THEY want you to watch them, so trying to watch them over the Internet isn't stealing something you should be paying for. That's why I think people see no problem giving them (TV companies) a collective birdie and using their technical knowledge to watch what they want when they want.
You bring up an iteresting perspective, that of money and how being in college you "lose" money through not working. Well, life, in my opinion and I'm sure in a lot of others', is not about "stuff" or earning money to buy the "stuff". It's about being a human being, not an employee. The people I know who are the happiest in their lives are the ones who aren't the most obsessed with making money or buy the next great toy. They prefer to live life, where their jobs are just there to make them some money so they can live decently and not worry about starving. Some of the most depressed people I know have zero money worries and have very successful careers, but they are so focuses on just one area of their lives (their jobs) that they can't find any happiness in their lives.
So what if I take Bio 101 and never use it for the rest of my life? I was exposed to something different and something I found interesting. I've had friends who started in the same technical major as me, but change when they took classes that weren't within the major and found that they LOVED them more than computers. They went on to be much happier than if they had stayed within their first major. For myself, I grew more and more assured that the major I had choosen was the right one due to my exposure to many different areas of study. While most were interesting, none were as interesting as computers (to me). So, even for those who never change majors, they can feel more assured about their choice in careers and the path their life takes.
And don't forget the benifit of meeting people that are really different than you. Let's face it, most people in CS and other really technical degrees are kind of similiar. It's fun to meet an English major and learn who they view the world compared to your own. Or maybe even meet that special someone who complements your personality well because he/she isn't exactly the same as you. It would be kind of hard to do that if you school is all CS people.
Last time I looked into the statistics, the FBI (or was it the CIA?) released some basic statistics about their phone tapping activities (such as how many, reasons for taps (such as drugs), etc) and they listed the number of times they encountered encrypted taps (it wasn't a very high percentage). What shocked me was the line that said the encryption never prevented them from listening to the conversations. So all this talk about encrypted VoIP is probably just a waste of time. Why do you think the NSA finally stopped pressuring the government to classify strong encrypting as a weapon (and thus limited by export laws) around 2000? Do you think it was because they had a change of heart, or that they figured a way to crack pretty much any encryption (PGP included) and no longer worry about losing control? I'm thinking the latter is more likely. So, when VoIP becomes common don't expect PGP et al to protect you from a snooping government. It will probably keep your neighbor from listening, but that's about it.
But that's when the EMPLOYEES would come out and say "ya, the lawsuit hurt, but the real reason I lost my job is because the owner/managers used the company like their person piggy bank and ran it into the ground." Employees have voices too.
Unfortunately, pride and "doing the right thing" don't put food on the table or clothes on the kids' backs. Employees need employers MUCH more than employers need employees. And the fact that everyone does this kind of contract means you will have to leave the field of technology completely to stand up for your rights. I doubt we can get enough people to give up their jobs at nice tech companies to go flip burgers and pump gas just to make a point to all the employers of the world.
Then let the people who have those problems pay for the hardware to solve those problems. For the people who are doing parallised work, clusters make perfect sense. I think the big guys (Cray) are just unhappy to see that most of their business is going away because their hardware isn't needed as much since people are figuring out how to use clusters to get the jobs done.
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But all background processes eat up memory, which is what the parent (grandparent?) was complaining about have no control over. Being upfront about needing to be a background process is a step in the right direction to let the users feel they have a choice in the matter and some sort of control over THEIR machines.
I personally do ALL OS installations while behind a firewall (Windows 2000, XP, Linux, etc). It's just not smart to do it any other way, no matter which OS you are using. I've personally got a little Linux firewall/NAT box that I keep very up-to-date (with no external services) and it works wonders. Before that, I used a Linksys router.
Why anyone who has broadband doesn't get a router/firewall box is beyond me. Oh wait, now I remember why: the f**king broadband companies tell everyone they CAN'T use a router, since it would allow for more than the agreed apon single computer to be connected to their systems >:-(
I've had dealings with several people from Comcast about this, and they have always been very nice about saying they won't support their broadband being connected to a router as a company policy, but that they personally see no harm in it and gladly help. I think it's time that companies like Comcast sell a broadband router as part of their service. It reduces the spread of worms, which in turn reduces the amount of needless traffic through their systems, making it faster for everyone.
Huh, I run a Linux Firewall/NAT box and FTP works just fine with no extra modules being loaded for FTP connections. Strange, Linux is able to do something (with no intervention on the user's part) while MS can't even get simple programs to work their firewall. Sounds like they might want to look into Open Source solutions for the network stack/firewall :-P
...who wonders why their firewall/network stack architecture would require an inbound port to be open for an application to work (unless it's a server program)? I know that under *nix systems there is the Loopback device (lo) for "sudo" network traffic that is only ment to be from the localhost to the localhost. Does MS Windows not have this? If they have this, why would they block traffic on it by default?
And if some programs need the ports open to the internet to work, isn't just a indication that the firewall is not tracking connection states, thus not recognizing a inbound packet as a response from communications initialized from the localhost?
Someone please explain to me how the Windows network stack/firewall could seem so broken???
But once they are caught, I would hate to be in their shoes. Ever seen a hord of angry nerds charging towards you demanding blood or the source, whichever they can get first? ;-P
But as the artical mentioned, a lot of large corporations (think IBM) will make software to meet THEIR needs, which the then release under the GPL. Now the software belongs to everyone, and people at other companies don't have to write everything from scratch. All the article talks about is that small developement companies that relay on licensing their software may not survive the transition.
You know, I would actually play that mod! I hope you really do make that mod (or someone else does) :)
And that, lady and gentlemen, is why tablet PC's will NEVER take off! I know that that price is inflated (or is it?!?!), but tablet PC's are just too damn expensive. Why buy a tablet that is kludgy to use, limited in power/graphics, and costs more than a ultra powerful desktop computer? Until tablets are $500 or so, they will only be a niche market.
The support for Linux is what is going to keep me buy Nvidia cards for the foreseeable future. Ati driver support is BAAAAAAAAAAD under Linux (I have a laptop with an Ati card running Linux). Nvidia gives soooooo much information! Their readme file that comes with the driver explains every option that you can put in the XFree86 or xorg config file and talks about setting up TV out and Dual Head displays. The Ati site does nothing more than say "yes, we can do TV out and dual heads" and then never explains how!!! Nvidia has done a great job embracing Linux, and I'm going to reward them with my $$ :)
The kind of people/companies that do this kind of rebranding are also the kind of people who wouldn't include source code or they would hide Very Bad Things (tm) in the program. If someone wanted to take Audacity and make their own version of it and sell it but also provide the source code (and hence all their improvements which would probably find their way back into the original Audacity) then more power to them. It's the ones that lie about the source of the program and don't follow the GPL that I think he's complaining about.
You know, I might actually watch that :)
I ment 95% efficent from the point the electricity is connected to the motor to the power generated by the spinning of the shaft. True, most electricity produced today is by very inefficent means, but that will change soon with all the new techs coming out.
Um, a good induction motor will approach 95% efficient, while I believe the last time I looked Cornot Cycle engines are only around 30% (at best). That's what he ment by inefficient, and I agree with him. Carnot engines where fine and dandy back in the early 1900's, but after 100 years you would think we could have found something MUCH better.
I think you are forgetting: morality has NOTHING to do with laws in the US, especially copyright laws LOL. Even though I agree with you that it is illegal, I don't see it as amoral.
But trying to control "regional" distribution on the Internet is like trying to nail jello to a wall.
What do you mean by "rightful distributer"? Do you mean the company that paid some companies over in Europe to let them "copy" their coverage of the games and inject their own logos/adds/voice overs/etc and pass it off as their own? See, the only people who have much right to decide how the Olympic games are distributed are the ones actually there, shooting the footage. If they want to broadcast it over the Internet in THEIR country, that's their choice. If the companies here in the US who bought the feed don't want to broadcast it over the Internet, that is their choice (seeing as how it cost them money). But don't for a second tell me that just because I live in the US I can't take advantage of the original companies' decision to broadcast over the Internet. I'm not stealing any money from anyone. The original content providers are giving it away in a form that I might want to use, while the providers of the derivative of the content are not. I'm just not giving a TV set (and thus some ads) my attention.
There is a big difference between downloading music/games/movies/etc off the net (which would usually require $$$ to legally acquire) and viewing the Olympic games live via the Internet (which you get for free by watching broadcast TV). You don't pay anything to NBC to watch these shows when THEY want you to watch them, so trying to watch them over the Internet isn't stealing something you should be paying for. That's why I think people see no problem giving them (TV companies) a collective birdie and using their technical knowledge to watch what they want when they want.
Really, how hard is it to just close all ports and to not let any of their products (Office, IE, etc) run ANY executable code without asking the user?
Rewriting the entire OS? That might explain why there is such a big gap between XP and when Longhorn is coming out LOL.
You bring up an iteresting perspective, that of money and how being in college you "lose" money through not working. Well, life, in my opinion and I'm sure in a lot of others', is not about "stuff" or earning money to buy the "stuff". It's about being a human being, not an employee. The people I know who are the happiest in their lives are the ones who aren't the most obsessed with making money or buy the next great toy. They prefer to live life, where their jobs are just there to make them some money so they can live decently and not worry about starving. Some of the most depressed people I know have zero money worries and have very successful careers, but they are so focuses on just one area of their lives (their jobs) that they can't find any happiness in their lives.
So what if I take Bio 101 and never use it for the rest of my life? I was exposed to something different and something I found interesting. I've had friends who started in the same technical major as me, but change when they took classes that weren't within the major and found that they LOVED them more than computers. They went on to be much happier than if they had stayed within their first major. For myself, I grew more and more assured that the major I had choosen was the right one due to my exposure to many different areas of study. While most were interesting, none were as interesting as computers (to me). So, even for those who never change majors, they can feel more assured about their choice in careers and the path their life takes.
And don't forget the benifit of meeting people that are really different than you. Let's face it, most people in CS and other really technical degrees are kind of similiar. It's fun to meet an English major and learn who they view the world compared to your own. Or maybe even meet that special someone who complements your personality well because he/she isn't exactly the same as you. It would be kind of hard to do that if you school is all CS people.
Last time I looked into the statistics, the FBI (or was it the CIA?) released some basic statistics about their phone tapping activities (such as how many, reasons for taps (such as drugs), etc) and they listed the number of times they encountered encrypted taps (it wasn't a very high percentage). What shocked me was the line that said the encryption never prevented them from listening to the conversations. So all this talk about encrypted VoIP is probably just a waste of time. Why do you think the NSA finally stopped pressuring the government to classify strong encrypting as a weapon (and thus limited by export laws) around 2000? Do you think it was because they had a change of heart, or that they figured a way to crack pretty much any encryption (PGP included) and no longer worry about losing control? I'm thinking the latter is more likely. So, when VoIP becomes common don't expect PGP et al to protect you from a snooping government. It will probably keep your neighbor from listening, but that's about it.
But that's when the EMPLOYEES would come out and say "ya, the lawsuit hurt, but the real reason I lost my job is because the owner/managers used the company like their person piggy bank and ran it into the ground." Employees have voices too.
Unfortunately, pride and "doing the right thing" don't put food on the table or clothes on the kids' backs. Employees need employers MUCH more than employers need employees. And the fact that everyone does this kind of contract means you will have to leave the field of technology completely to stand up for your rights. I doubt we can get enough people to give up their jobs at nice tech companies to go flip burgers and pump gas just to make a point to all the employers of the world.
Then let the people who have those problems pay for the hardware to solve those problems. For the people who are doing parallised work, clusters make perfect sense. I think the big guys (Cray) are just unhappy to see that most of their business is going away because their hardware isn't needed as much since people are figuring out how to use clusters to get the jobs done.
Guess Linux gets the prize for most "far out" device LOL