Last I looked the Dell contracts specificly say they DON'T cover spill damage since that would be a user induced error. I had a Dell laptop that had it's screen slowly tint more and more purple over a period of 3 days. When I called up Dell I did get a guy who didn't speak english very well, but being an engineer I'm used to this situation. After explaining the problem he schedualed a pickup of my laptop by Airborn express (or whatever it is called). They picked it up the next day (Thursday) and I had it back in my hands early Monday morning. It still works (bought it in 1998)!!!! They were quick, it didn't cost me a thing, and they were very polite to me during the call and never accused me of doing anything to my laptop to cause the problem. So, you had said you had never met a happy Dell support customer. You just did:-P
That's true, if we didn't have the NSA project to point to as a real world example that it is possible, and has already been done, for a government agency to fully audit the tool chain in FOSS and feel secure in it's functionality and in the programs it compiles. Each of the persons in the audit team can have complete background checks, thus rendering the point about the closed source company relying on "trusted" employees moot. I know that what you posted isn't your view and you are only playing devils advocate. I'm just responding to the argument, and not saying that you support it.
But you are assuming that the government/DoD contractor has the same level of control over the source code that they do when working the closed source world. You want a good level of control? Grab the source code for the ENTIRE tool chain (something you can't do in the closed source world), audit the entire source code for all tools and programs (something you can't do the closed source world) just like the NSA did, then control the contributions to the project through a group of experts, both on software and on the specific project they are supporting. When you use a closed source model, you can't audit the tool chain to the same level you can with open source. Under open source you can check the libraries, the header files, the lexer, the compiler, the parser, the linker, etc, etc, etc. Under closed source the most you can hope to do is audit the code that is actually produced by the contrator and nothing more.
Time: the time it takes to download and apply all the patches/new packages (which is done for you one you tell the system to update).
Reboots: One (since you will DEFINATLY have a new kernal if the distro is two years old).:-D
Well, let's be fair about the whole "nothing to download" part. Anyone who installs a new Linux system and doesn't run the patching program (yum, apt, etc) is just a fool. Even on the lastest and greatest distros there will always be patches that came out after the distro was packaged up and put on install CDs (or DVD) and will need to be patches for a) performance reasons, b) drivers, c) and security. I recently installed Linux on my new laptop and it had to download close to 100MB of stuff, mainly because there was a new kernel and I always grab the kernel source for any new kernels. But all those patches never required a reboot (but I did anyway because of the newer/better kernel).
My point? Both Windows and Linux need to be patches right out of the box, but Windows makes it harder on you (needing to reboot multiple times because the first X number of patches can only be installed by themselves) while Linux makes it pretty easy these days (if you use a distro with a good package/update manager such as Debian, Gentoo, and RH/FC).
Maybe because the use of cable/phone requires the FCC et al. to act as referees between all the companies who want to provide those services so they get along and don't step on each other's toes, hence makes a tax on those services reasonable to pay for the government expenses. With Wifi, there is not government intervention since it is in a license free spectrum and doesn't interfere with another services, thus costing nobody anything to have a large amount of people using Wifi. Taxing something that doesn't require the government to activitly expend money/time/resources on is uncalled for and just plain greedy.
At my University (Oregon State University) it seems like the opposite is happening. There is a growing number of non-Windows machines around campus. We have Mac labs (dual G5 systems with sexy screens), Unix lab, a brand new Linux lab, and several Windows labs. While Windows is definatly the majority as far as computers students have access to, there are still a lot of options, usually within the same lab.
LOL, my system at home is almost just like your's, even down to the computer name (aragon)!!!! Big differences are I'm running a 2.80 GHz P4 and run FC2.
Seeing as how this law NEVER went into effect, you aren't lossing anything with it being passed back down to a lower court to be challenged.
As for your aunt's niece: blame your aunt for leaving her obviously innocent and young niece to play on the internet unsupervised. I doubt she would let her wonder around downtown NYC alone because of the things she would be exposed to, the same goes for the internet. This is reality, not matter how much you try to legistlate is otherwise. Wake up, take responsibility for the children in your care, and stop trying to "make the world a safer place for kids" by making the world a place where anything adult is concidered evil and wrong. Now, because of how your aunt and yourself have reacted to her seeing those pictures, the niece will probably grow up hearing how it's evil and wrong to be sexual and will grow up with a warped sense of sex. I predict she will start having sex at 14, get pregnant by 16, and be a drop out soon after, all because you and your family have given her a warped, sinful, irresponsible view of what being a sexual person (which we all are) means.
LOL, FC1 has pine! It just doesn't install it by default. During package selection, just click on the check box next to pine (it's in the email or internet grouping). And if you have to install this across thousands of machines, well that is what kickstart is there to help you with. Get one good install with all the packages you want, generate a kickstart file, and goto town on all your other servers. All the complaints I seem to hear about RH/FC are simples fixes that people never take the time to learn how to fix. That is what news groups, mailing lists, websites, forums, etc... are all for! Use them!
There's a big difference!
With RedHat, you just no longer will be able to pay RedHat to keep your computer updated, but the updates are still out there. Just more work for you. And there has already been a few companies that are willing to take over the patching service for the exact same price as RedHat, so you have many options still available to you.
With Microsoft, once they stop supporting it, your SOL. No one can legally provide you with a patch as they would need the source code to the OS, and MS isn't going to release that any time soon.
By law, Universities can not release grades to anyone but the person they belong to, not even the parents of the student unless the student give's his/her permission first. Want to keep your parents from seeing the grades? Don't send them to them.
Uh oh! They are just trying to get all of these important people together in one place, than launch a SCUD missle from Redmond, WA and take out MS's biggest competitor! Don't fall for it!
Change in manufacturing practices around the world. Now, instead of builting things to last forever and a day (including a nuclear explosion), things are being built to look damn nice, but fail after a "reasonable" amount of time so that people will buy more stuff. There's no reason why this mentaility wouldn't effect the NASA contractors.
But state schools are provided funding by the Federal government, and as such they are showing their support for the state schools and what they teach in them. If this was a 100% private or state funded school (not even a penny of federal funding) then they can do whatever they want with respect to religion. But once federal money is given, they must follow the same rules as the federal government.
But most (if not ALL) modern university programs in technology require a lot of group projects, where individuals do get scored on performance in group settings. You can't get high grades if you can't perform well in groups. I know that at my university you can't even graduate unless you perform well on a group based senior design project. So, those 4.0 students MUST work well in groups, else they would be closer to 3.0 or 2.5.
We need a 10, RightOnTheMoney score for this post. I've watched over the past 5 years as requirements for just getting in the door have been increased faster than a NY stock exchange trader's blood pressure. Education is very important, but so is other traits. The more I hear about how companies "filter" people out, them more I want to form my own company. They don't "filter" a person because they aren't qualified. I've been told that if you don't have a 3.0 in college, you shouldn't show it off. But if you have a high GPA, like 3.7, 3.8, etc, then you had better show that are "well rounded" as well or else they won't want you! What BS is that?!?!?! I can be too good?!?! Do they think that only 1% of all graduates are good enough for their companies and the other 99% should be cutting hair or picking up trash?!?!?! Bah, I'm getting tired of this crap.
The point there is that is can't infect the whole system and spew more copies of itself (in general). To open low level ports to make itself look like a valid daemon service to outside observers, you have to have root permission, which a virus in user land won't have. Thus the virus doesn't spread very far if at all. And even if the virus does destory the user's home directory, in a corporate environment you just restore it from backups and scold the (l)user for running that program they knew nothing about.
If you allow users to select what goes in and out of their computers onto the internet, I guarenty you that within 24 hours of rolling out the system, 95% will have flipped the "allow everything" switch because they got anoyed with being asked every time they fired up a new application.
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Last I looked the Dell contracts specificly say they DON'T cover spill damage since that would be a user induced error. I had a Dell laptop that had it's screen slowly tint more and more purple over a period of 3 days. When I called up Dell I did get a guy who didn't speak english very well, but being an engineer I'm used to this situation. After explaining the problem he schedualed a pickup of my laptop by Airborn express (or whatever it is called). They picked it up the next day (Thursday) and I had it back in my hands early Monday morning. It still works (bought it in 1998)!!!! They were quick, it didn't cost me a thing, and they were very polite to me during the call and never accused me of doing anything to my laptop to cause the problem. So, you had said you had never met a happy Dell support customer. You just did :-P
That's true, if we didn't have the NSA project to point to as a real world example that it is possible, and has already been done, for a government agency to fully audit the tool chain in FOSS and feel secure in it's functionality and in the programs it compiles. Each of the persons in the audit team can have complete background checks, thus rendering the point about the closed source company relying on "trusted" employees moot. I know that what you posted isn't your view and you are only playing devils advocate. I'm just responding to the argument, and not saying that you support it.
But you are assuming that the government/DoD contractor has the same level of control over the source code that they do when working the closed source world. You want a good level of control? Grab the source code for the ENTIRE tool chain (something you can't do in the closed source world), audit the entire source code for all tools and programs (something you can't do the closed source world) just like the NSA did, then control the contributions to the project through a group of experts, both on software and on the specific project they are supporting. When you use a closed source model, you can't audit the tool chain to the same level you can with open source. Under open source you can check the libraries, the header files, the lexer, the compiler, the parser, the linker, etc, etc, etc. Under closed source the most you can hope to do is audit the code that is actually produced by the contrator and nothing more.
Time: the time it takes to download and apply all the patches/new packages (which is done for you one you tell the system to update). Reboots: One (since you will DEFINATLY have a new kernal if the distro is two years old). :-D
Well, let's be fair about the whole "nothing to download" part. Anyone who installs a new Linux system and doesn't run the patching program (yum, apt, etc) is just a fool. Even on the lastest and greatest distros there will always be patches that came out after the distro was packaged up and put on install CDs (or DVD) and will need to be patches for a) performance reasons, b) drivers, c) and security. I recently installed Linux on my new laptop and it had to download close to 100MB of stuff, mainly because there was a new kernel and I always grab the kernel source for any new kernels. But all those patches never required a reboot (but I did anyway because of the newer/better kernel). My point? Both Windows and Linux need to be patches right out of the box, but Windows makes it harder on you (needing to reboot multiple times because the first X number of patches can only be installed by themselves) while Linux makes it pretty easy these days (if you use a distro with a good package/update manager such as Debian, Gentoo, and RH/FC).
Maybe because the use of cable/phone requires the FCC et al. to act as referees between all the companies who want to provide those services so they get along and don't step on each other's toes, hence makes a tax on those services reasonable to pay for the government expenses. With Wifi, there is not government intervention since it is in a license free spectrum and doesn't interfere with another services, thus costing nobody anything to have a large amount of people using Wifi. Taxing something that doesn't require the government to activitly expend money/time/resources on is uncalled for and just plain greedy.
At my University (Oregon State University) it seems like the opposite is happening. There is a growing number of non-Windows machines around campus. We have Mac labs (dual G5 systems with sexy screens), Unix lab, a brand new Linux lab, and several Windows labs. While Windows is definatly the majority as far as computers students have access to, there are still a lot of options, usually within the same lab.
LOL, my system at home is almost just like your's, even down to the computer name (aragon)!!!! Big differences are I'm running a 2.80 GHz P4 and run FC2.
I thought Al Gore created the internet/web?! :-P
Seeing as how this law NEVER went into effect, you aren't lossing anything with it being passed back down to a lower court to be challenged.
As for your aunt's niece: blame your aunt for leaving her obviously innocent and young niece to play on the internet unsupervised. I doubt she would let her wonder around downtown NYC alone because of the things she would be exposed to, the same goes for the internet. This is reality, not matter how much you try to legistlate is otherwise. Wake up, take responsibility for the children in your care, and stop trying to "make the world a safer place for kids" by making the world a place where anything adult is concidered evil and wrong. Now, because of how your aunt and yourself have reacted to her seeing those pictures, the niece will probably grow up hearing how it's evil and wrong to be sexual and will grow up with a warped sense of sex. I predict she will start having sex at 14, get pregnant by 16, and be a drop out soon after, all because you and your family have given her a warped, sinful, irresponsible view of what being a sexual person (which we all are) means.
LOL, FC1 has pine! It just doesn't install it by default. During package selection, just click on the check box next to pine (it's in the email or internet grouping). And if you have to install this across thousands of machines, well that is what kickstart is there to help you with. Get one good install with all the packages you want, generate a kickstart file, and goto town on all your other servers. All the complaints I seem to hear about RH/FC are simples fixes that people never take the time to learn how to fix. That is what news groups, mailing lists, websites, forums, etc... are all for! Use them!
Someone mod this guy +1,000,000 Hit-It-On-The-Head
There's a big difference! With RedHat, you just no longer will be able to pay RedHat to keep your computer updated, but the updates are still out there. Just more work for you. And there has already been a few companies that are willing to take over the patching service for the exact same price as RedHat, so you have many options still available to you. With Microsoft, once they stop supporting it, your SOL. No one can legally provide you with a patch as they would need the source code to the OS, and MS isn't going to release that any time soon.
Wow, who would you root for in that matchup?
..from earth to the planet that Darl McBride is living in. It'll be a loooooooong time before any one is able to get a distance greater than that ;)
By law, Universities can not release grades to anyone but the person they belong to, not even the parents of the student unless the student give's his/her permission first. Want to keep your parents from seeing the grades? Don't send them to them.
Uh oh! They are just trying to get all of these important people together in one place, than launch a SCUD missle from Redmond, WA and take out MS's biggest competitor! Don't fall for it!
"what is in it for Microsoft to support the competition?"
Well, the first thing that comes to mind is compliance with the anti-trust slap to the wrist, I mean the anti-trust settlement.
Change in manufacturing practices around the world. Now, instead of builting things to last forever and a day (including a nuclear explosion), things are being built to look damn nice, but fail after a "reasonable" amount of time so that people will buy more stuff. There's no reason why this mentaility wouldn't effect the NASA contractors.
But state schools are provided funding by the Federal government, and as such they are showing their support for the state schools and what they teach in them. If this was a 100% private or state funded school (not even a penny of federal funding) then they can do whatever they want with respect to religion. But once federal money is given, they must follow the same rules as the federal government.
Srory, nto evn al teh comptrs on the owrld clolectde inot a oBewulf cluster culd do taht.
But most (if not ALL) modern university programs in technology require a lot of group projects, where individuals do get scored on performance in group settings. You can't get high grades if you can't perform well in groups. I know that at my university you can't even graduate unless you perform well on a group based senior design project. So, those 4.0 students MUST work well in groups, else they would be closer to 3.0 or 2.5.
We need a 10, RightOnTheMoney score for this post. I've watched over the past 5 years as requirements for just getting in the door have been increased faster than a NY stock exchange trader's blood pressure. Education is very important, but so is other traits. The more I hear about how companies "filter" people out, them more I want to form my own company. They don't "filter" a person because they aren't qualified. I've been told that if you don't have a 3.0 in college, you shouldn't show it off. But if you have a high GPA, like 3.7, 3.8, etc, then you had better show that are "well rounded" as well or else they won't want you! What BS is that?!?!?! I can be too good?!?! Do they think that only 1% of all graduates are good enough for their companies and the other 99% should be cutting hair or picking up trash?!?!?! Bah, I'm getting tired of this crap.
But you did remember to backup, right?
The point there is that is can't infect the whole system and spew more copies of itself (in general). To open low level ports to make itself look like a valid daemon service to outside observers, you have to have root permission, which a virus in user land won't have. Thus the virus doesn't spread very far if at all. And even if the virus does destory the user's home directory, in a corporate environment you just restore it from backups and scold the (l)user for running that program they knew nothing about.
If you allow users to select what goes in and out of their computers onto the internet, I guarenty you that within 24 hours of rolling out the system, 95% will have flipped the "allow everything" switch because they got anoyed with being asked every time they fired up a new application.