Not only is this YARPA (Yet Another Roland Piquepaille Article) which annoys me like all the others, it fails to add any value to the original New Scientist piece, and introduces erroneous statements like (my emphasis):
Over the last 50 years nine reactors at the 1500-square-kilometre site have produced 67 tonnes of plutonium for the US nuclear weapons programme. In 2002 the US Department of Energy (DOE) embarked on a 30-year, $50 billion clean-up, which includes emptying more than 190 million litres of liquid radioactive waste from 177 underground tanks.
In this Hanford overview, the numbers are slightly smaller than the ones provided by New Scientist, but are still worrisome.
Physical challenges at the Hanford Site include more than 50 million gallons of high-level liquid waste in 177 underground storage tanks,
This entire post is not funny at all, mod it down.
Firstly, do you really think terrorists are stupid? They're not going to make the mistake of putting a heavy bomb in a plane incapable of taking off.
The 9/11 hijackers were anything but dumb (evil, suicidal, crazy, whatever else you feel like saying) having trained as pilots for very complex aircraft, and having planned that entire act. Bet you can't fly a 757?
Secondly, you throw in "Allah Ackbar" just to reinforce the idea that "terrorist == Muslim" (or at least "terrorist is a subset of Muslim". Remember the Oklahoma bombing? Timothy McVeigh ring any bells? The Unabomber? Whoever did the anthrax attacks?
I'm all for having a joke about 9/11 or terrorism but only if you've got something funny to say.
Actually publishes statistics from real users. If the user is willing POPFile sends back accuracy information to a central server and then a nightly cron job analyzes it and publishes information on the web for all to see.
No need to read a study, or even the author's opinion. No wild claims made, just real data.
Here it is:
http://www.usethesource.com/popfile_stats.html Shows that POPFile has an _average accuracy_ over all users, including the training period of 95%. After it's seen 500 emails it has an accuracy of 97%. And the average POPFile user has 5 categories of classification.
John.
Unencrypted
on
War Kayaking
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
For the next hour we paddled a little over 3 miles in a variety of different areas- every few seconds or so we picked up a new Wifi spot, our Pocket PC was set to automatically use open Wifi spots so we were able to check email, instant message, log on to IRC (#joiito on freenode) and do everything you'd expect, but all from a kayak.
Yeah, and since you were using POP3 my "look-at-this -idiot-who-left-his-wifi-open" AP just recorded your username and password which since your ISP uses the same password for shell access has given me a free shell account. Mwah hah hah.
Seriously, folks, don't go around connecting to any old AP just because it's open unless the first thing you do is set up an SSH tunnel to somewhere and use it to redirect your traffic.
In another topic, I'm amazed that no one has set up fake T-Mobile or WayPort APs in cities just to grab CC numbers. It would be *so* easy.
So the core of this Slashdot "article" is some posting on one guy's blog about losing a invitation he sent to his girlfriend. And that's been extrapolated into "Hotmail blocks Gmail".
If you read the blog article the writer blows all credibility when he reveals that someone just told him about the "Sent Folder":
Update: Thanks to everyone telling me to check the Sent folder. I can at least retrieve the invites now.
When are people going to realize that blogs are the equivalent of public urination on the web. People post stream of consciousness bullshit dressed up as "information" or even "facts" and because it's on a blog, well then, it must be true.
Right, and that's based on a single report by a "free market think tank" as interpreted by the WSJ.
I much more informed view of "Europe vs. USA" can be found in the current Economist. There's a multi-page special on the subject that boils down to:
1. USA has higher GDP/capita than EU, but 2. USA and EU have similar GDP/capita growth rates (in fact the same if you eliminate Germany which is having to cope with unification). How about the US tries merging with South America? 3. GDP/work hour is similar in USA and EU 4. US citizens have higher disposable income than EU citizens because US citizens work 40% more hours, i.e. EU citizens have same productivity than US, but work less hours, hence lower GDP/capita. Or to put it another way EU citizens have traded GDP/capita for leisure time, US citizens work much more and hence buy more stuff (TVs, cars,...)
So there's no fundamental difference in GDP/work hour or productivity between the two federations. Europeans just take more time off, which might have a lot to do with the better health and better life expectancy in the EU. US citizens work like crazy and hence can afford houses stuffed with electronics, appliances and multiple cars.
I assume, Anonymous Coward, that you are a US citizen, perhaps you'd like to spend some of your disposable income buying the article here: http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=2765877
OTOH, free and open source software could survive just fine in a would without copyright restrictions or DCMA type laws. Proprietary software could not. So in that sense, copyright is not mandatory for the existence of free software.
How?
Without some basis under which I can state that I control the code I write (the current incarnation of which is copyright) then you could just take it, I'd have no legal recourse, and there'd be no way for me to _force_ my code to be open.
The entire point of copyright is that it grants to the holder of the copyright the right to license the work and it prevents you from taking it without a license. So copyright is the bedrock for F/OSS. I use it to grant you the right to modify my software under certain conditions (namely that it remains "open"). Without copyright you can just walk off with it, start some closed-source company, make modifications and be done with it.
if they scrapped their massive welfare state, their coddling of workers, and protectionism that hurts their citizens overall.
Switching to Open Source would be the least of the economic problems.
So how do you explain that France is a member of the G8, one of the largest economies in the world, a major player in aerospace (ever hear of Airbus or Ariane), major player in the oil industry, pharmaceuticals, an independent nuclear power, has a far better life expectancy than the US, lower obesity, a superb health-care system?
You roll out the old "big government" argument without considering the fact that France is not going the way of the Soviet Union, but is in fact a very healthy economy.
Open-source software -- uncopyrighted software which has no license cost
Wrong! Free and Open Source Software absolutely relies on a strong notion
of copyright because of the need to protect (in this case preserve the
freedom to modify) the software itself. Without copyright you have no
way to actually license the software to someone else, and hence impose your
specific licensing requirements (e.g. GPL).
That's partly why the term "copyleft" is so dangerous and should be stamped
out. It's absolutely vital that people realize that F/OSS is copyrighted
and under the control of an individual, or group or a corporation. The
strength of F/OSS comes from the underlying copyright and the fact that
it enables us to control the code.
Last October I made the switch from Windows to Linux (SuSE 9.0) and haven't looked back. I was a long time Windows user and programmer (going all the way back to 3.0---just remember how great it was when 3.11 came out!), but I'd grown tired of the bulk and cost of Windows. When Microsoft finally stabilized Windows with XP it was too little, too late.
What keeps me going back to Windows is simply that I don't need to. Here I sit with
0. A Unix command-shell that let's me do real work 1. A perfectly nice GUI (I'm using GNOME) 2. A stable web browser and email program (Firefox and Thunderbird) 3. A good personal finance application (gnucash) 4. Instant messaging (GAIM) 5. Outlook compatibility (Evolution) 6. A stable operating system that doesn't hide things from me 7. Speed, such speed, compared to XP. 8. No viruses, worms, and other crap targetting Windows 9. Graphics editing (The GIMP) 10. Multimedia (mplayer, XINE, etc.) 11. Complete office suite (OpenOffice.org) 12. Built in firewall (iptables) 13. A really cool spam filter/email sorter:-)
Why would I go back?
0. Windows costs $$$ to buy and they've got this evil registration scheme 1. It seems like every week some worm or other would be able to take out my machine 2. No freakin' idea what all these services and things are doing 3. A web browser and other components integrated into the system like some sort of cancer.
and bottom line
5. Microsoft's software just isn't cool. It's like some pale imitation of cool software with just the minimum set of features to make the average Joe go "cool" while drooling into his beer.
At what point do Tanenbaum and Torvalds decide the Brown is slandering or libelling them and actually sue for damages. Reading through Ken Brown's response to Tanenbaum I get the feeling that he's getting close to breaking the law against these two people.
This happened on the POPFile Wiki. Eventually I solved it by changing the code of the Wiki itself to have an allowed list of URLs (actually a set of regexps). If someone adds a page which uses a new URL that isn't covered it wont show up when the page is displayed and the user has to email me to get that specific URL added.
It's a bit of an administrative burden, but stopped people messing up our Wiki with irrelevant links to some site in China.
I think they should really move on to use ?. It's the most superior language of the three, after all it's based on the earlier Jeopardy language where all statements are expressed as questions.
For example the familiar Hello, World! application is written in ? as follows:
what is the procedure the OS calls first? {
what is the output of the most common small example program? }
It strikes me that ESR and others who shout loudly about how awful this book is/is going to be are making a big mistake. In the face of unethical and ridiculous statements from AdTI and SCO silence speaks more loudly than loud protestations.
If you must say something then how about "I'm not going to dignify that with a response."
Slashdot Mirror
Let's Ask Google Calculator. Oh. 50m gallons is 190m litres.
John.
This entire post is not funny at all, mod it down.
Firstly, do you really think terrorists are stupid? They're not going to make the mistake of putting a heavy bomb in a plane incapable of taking off.
The 9/11 hijackers were anything but dumb (evil, suicidal, crazy, whatever else you feel like saying) having trained as pilots for very complex aircraft, and having planned that entire act. Bet you can't fly a 757?
Secondly, you throw in "Allah Ackbar" just to reinforce the idea that "terrorist == Muslim" (or at least "terrorist is a subset of Muslim". Remember the Oklahoma bombing? Timothy McVeigh ring any bells? The Unabomber? Whoever did the anthrax attacks?
I'm all for having a joke about 9/11 or terrorism but only if you've got something funny to say.
John.
Actually publishes statistics from real users. If the user is willing POPFile sends back accuracy information to a central server and then a nightly cron job analyzes it and publishes information on the web for all to see.
No need to read a study, or even the author's opinion. No wild claims made, just real data.
Here it is:
http://www.usethesource.com/popfile_stats.html
Shows that POPFile has an _average accuracy_ over all users, including the training period of 95%. After it's seen 500 emails it has an accuracy of 97%. And the average POPFile user has 5 categories of classification.
John.
Seriously, folks, don't go around connecting to any old AP just because it's open unless the first thing you do is set up an SSH tunnel to somewhere and use it to redirect your traffic.
In another topic, I'm amazed that no one has set up fake T-Mobile or WayPort APs in cities just to grab CC numbers. It would be *so* easy.
John.
Hey, that's not funny!
My name's John Graham-Cumming, you insensitive clod!
John.
I live in New York, we get to see public urination every day :-) So spotting blogs wasn't hard!
John.
So the core of this Slashdot "article" is some posting on one guy's blog about losing a invitation he sent to his girlfriend. And that's been extrapolated into "Hotmail blocks Gmail".
If you read the blog article the writer blows all credibility when he reveals that someone just told him about the "Sent Folder":
Update: Thanks to everyone telling me to check the Sent folder. I can at least retrieve the invites now.
When are people going to realize that blogs are the equivalent of public urination on the web. People post stream of consciousness bullshit dressed up as "information" or even "facts" and because it's on a blog, well then, it must be true.
John.
Right, and that's based on a single report by a "free market think tank" as interpreted by the WSJ.
...)
y .cfm?Story_ID=2765877
I much more informed view of "Europe vs. USA" can be found in the current Economist. There's a multi-page special on the subject that boils down to:
1. USA has higher GDP/capita than EU, but
2. USA and EU have similar GDP/capita growth rates (in fact the same if you eliminate Germany which is having to cope with unification). How about the US tries merging with South America?
3. GDP/work hour is similar in USA and EU
4. US citizens have higher disposable income than EU citizens because US citizens work 40% more hours, i.e. EU citizens have same productivity than US, but work less hours, hence lower GDP/capita. Or to put it another way EU citizens have traded GDP/capita for leisure time, US citizens work much more and hence buy more stuff (TVs, cars,
So there's no fundamental difference in GDP/work hour or productivity between the two federations. Europeans just take more time off, which might have a lot to do with the better health and better life expectancy in the EU. US citizens work like crazy and hence can afford houses stuffed with electronics, appliances and multiple cars.
I assume, Anonymous Coward, that you are a US citizen, perhaps you'd like to spend some of your disposable income buying the article here: http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStor
John.
Without some basis under which I can state that I control the code I write (the current incarnation of which is copyright) then you could just take it, I'd have no legal recourse, and there'd be no way for me to _force_ my code to be open.
The entire point of copyright is that it grants to the holder of the copyright the right to license the work and it prevents you from taking it without a license. So copyright is the bedrock for F/OSS. I use it to grant you the right to modify my software under certain conditions (namely that it remains "open"). Without copyright you can just walk off with it, start some closed-source company, make modifications and be done with it.
John.
You roll out the old "big government" argument without considering the fact that France is not going the way of the Soviet Union, but is in fact a very healthy economy.
John.
That's partly why the term "copyleft" is so dangerous and should be stamped out. It's absolutely vital that people realize that F/OSS is copyrighted and under the control of an individual, or group or a corporation. The strength of F/OSS comes from the underlying copyright and the fact that it enables us to control the code.
John.
Dude, it says he made $3m since 1973, that's $96k a year. So he's not hurting, but after taxes etc. he's not exactly sipping Cristal with Beyonce.
John.
Wow, at $699 a go, they managed to license 15 copies!
Go SCO!
John.
Last October I made the switch from Windows to Linux (SuSE 9.0) and
:-)
haven't looked back. I was a long time Windows user and programmer
(going all the way back to 3.0---just remember how great it was when
3.11 came out!), but I'd grown tired of the bulk and cost of Windows.
When Microsoft finally stabilized Windows with XP it was too little,
too late.
What keeps me going back to Windows is simply that I don't need to.
Here I sit with
0. A Unix command-shell that let's me do real work
1. A perfectly nice GUI (I'm using GNOME)
2. A stable web browser and email program (Firefox and Thunderbird)
3. A good personal finance application (gnucash)
4. Instant messaging (GAIM)
5. Outlook compatibility (Evolution)
6. A stable operating system that doesn't hide things from me
7. Speed, such speed, compared to XP.
8. No viruses, worms, and other crap targetting Windows
9. Graphics editing (The GIMP)
10. Multimedia (mplayer, XINE, etc.)
11. Complete office suite (OpenOffice.org)
12. Built in firewall (iptables)
13. A really cool spam filter/email sorter
Why would I go back?
0. Windows costs $$$ to buy and they've got this evil registration scheme
1. It seems like every week some worm or other would be able to take out my machine
2. No freakin' idea what all these services and things are doing
3. A web browser and other components integrated into the system like some sort of cancer.
and bottom line
5. Microsoft's software just isn't cool. It's like some pale imitation of cool software with just the minimum set of features to make the average Joe go "cool" while drooling into his beer.
John.
At what point do Tanenbaum and Torvalds decide the Brown is slandering or libelling them and actually sue for damages. Reading through Ken Brown's response to Tanenbaum I get the feeling that he's getting close to breaking the law against these two people.
John.
This happened on the POPFile Wiki. Eventually I solved it by changing the code of the Wiki itself to have an allowed list of URLs (actually a set of regexps). If someone adds a page which uses a new URL that isn't covered it wont show up when the page is displayed and the user has to email me to get that specific URL added.
It's a bit of an administrative burden, but stopped people messing up our Wiki with irrelevant links to some site in China.
John.
I think they should really move on to use ?. It's the most superior language of the three, after all it's based on the earlier Jeopardy language where all statements are expressed as questions.
For example the familiar Hello, World! application is written in ? as follows:
what is the procedure the OS calls first?
{
what is the output of the most common small example program?
}
John.
Fuck that(*)
John
(*) McAfee Legal: "Fuck that" is a technical term that indicates that significant prior art exists that invalidates a patent.
No, OSI does no have an endowment. The money for the OSAs is through corporate sponsorship which you can read about here.
You can always buy some Open Source Swag if you feel like helping out.
John.
Yeah, but if you'd actually like these projects to be considered for an award you need to nominate them, rather than posting in a /. comment.
It's not hard, all it takes is sending an email!
John.
You can read the full details here but Merit Awards are given out four times a year, and Special and Grand Master awards once per year.
John.
It was built, it's just that you are not authorized to know about it.
It strikes me that ESR and others who shout loudly about how awful this book is/is going to be are making a big mistake. In the face of unethical and ridiculous statements from AdTI and SCO silence speaks more loudly than loud protestations.
If you must say something then how about "I'm not going to dignify that with a response."
John.
Wow, it was just too much to type "motherboard", huh? Or is the submitter Herbert Kornfeld?
The differences are:
1. There's no file stored anywhere containing the passwords so you can't lose them, or have the file in order to get the password.
2. You don't have to do the random creation of passwords in the first place.
3. When it comes time to change passwords, just change the passphrase.
John.