My favorite part: Last week, Microsoft raised its revenue forecast for fiscal 2004 by about $1 billion. At the same time the company also said it had no plans to spend any of its $49 billion cash on major acquisitions or increase dividends, despite recent rumors.
Now, If I'm reading this article correctly, they are indirectly affecting their positive cashflow 'problem' by increasing R&D. The article says that Microsoft expects revenue to increase 6-9% (of total revenue) in 2004; They are going to spend 8% more on R&D (8% more than R&D expenses in 2003)... So this looks like one way that Microsoft is going to slow down their positive cashflow. I can't see anything bad coming from Microsoft spending more on R This should be beneficial to end-users as long as MS doesn't spend all this additional research money finding better ways to make it difficult to pirate Windows.
No it doesn't. Does he need to post the question a THIRD time? The core of his question was "how would/did InterTrust find out about it". Talking about what patents do and don't cover doesn't answer that. He's curious, did they get ahold of the source somehow? Did a former employee break an NDA and blab? Is this going to turn out the be something as shady as the SCO situation? I think that's what he was asking.
Hahah, they have a section on their site for donations:
It's difficult for us to turn people away when... Some of the items the Museum can no longer accept include:
IBM PC
Commodore 64
I guess they put this section on their website for a reason, right? Do people really think a C64 is that old? Speaking of Commodores, a nice C64 emulator for Pocket PC's was recently released. (It runs great on an h5555 iPAQ - It's been providing me with hours of entertainment... oh yeah, Archon II: Adept)/nostalgia
There was a useful link in this section on finding local PC recyclers: There's even one in Seattle that recycles, repairs & redistributes old computers to local nonprofit organizations. Very cool! Sites like this need more publicity.
That's exactly the piece of information I was looking for. Thanks mjh. All these "intellectual property" disputes seem to be resolved in a very subjective manner; I guess that's why we pay lawyers so much $$$.
But that's why I included question 2;-)
Lemme repost it for you:
Q2.In the case of #2, everyone is probably saying "It doesn't matter...(insert Tmack's comment here)" but if this was the case, how would/did InterTrust find out about it? Microsoft doesn't leave their source code lying around the internet; Now they do give SDK's, but (at least prior to.NET framework), the SDK is vague on how things like authentication happen. If you want to learn about NTLM, you need to go to a site like Security Focus. [securityfocus.com] The helpfile in any SDK that Microsoft releases will not talk about the underlying technology (or lack thereof...heh)
...and rebuked the company's lawyers for wasting her time by promising proof that never materialized--legal vaporware, in essence.
As far as I can tell, the patents that InterTrust owns cover the technology; They don't go into details on accomplishing what they describe.
Q1. What if Microsoft developed a way to carry out their authentication (using these trusts) either 1. On their own or 2. Without even hearing about InterTrust's patent?
Q2.In the case of #2, everyone is probably saying "It doesn't matter..." but if this was the case, how would/did InterTrust find out about it? Microsoft doesn't leave their source code lying around the internet; Now they do give SDK's, but (at least prior to.NET framework), the SDK is vague on how things like authentication happen. If you want to learn about NTLM, you need to go to a site like Security Focus. The helpfile in any SDK that Microsoft releases will not talk about the underlying technology (or lack thereof...heh)
Of course, I'm not against suing Microsoft, but I'm just curious as to how this whole suit came up... Maybe someone else out there can enlighten me?
www.sec.gov/complaint/cf942sec9570.htm.
The basis for my complaint is that SCO is using false and unsubstantiated claims of IP rights to UNIX and Linux in order to manipulate its stock price and force consumers to purchase SCO licenses.
I hope they don't just ignore the barrage of complaints they start receiving at 12:17PM, PST...
People laugh at This guy for spending a couple billion to bring a 12Mbps connection to (everyone) in Japan for $21 a month; Sure his company is in $3.9 billion debt, but he has something to show for it! His customers have a 12 Mbps internet connection!!!1
Haha - I have a friend who swears by this one black die he has. Whether attacking or defending, he always uses it. It seems pretty random to me, but in his mind, it rolls 5's & 6's 90% of the time.
OT: Cool journal article you wrote on June 27.
The author is not counting the 'army that has to stay behind' as an attacking army - So, to roll three dice you need 4 armies, but only three of them are 'attacking'
Absolutely correct. Grab a calculator if you don't believe him. The author of this article definitely factored this in. He even linked to the RISK FAQ in the article.
I remember watching a video of Halo when it was being developed by Bungie Studios, for MacOS / Windows. It looked awesome! My roommate has an XBox & Halo, but I don't really enjoy it that much. The graphics & gameplay look good, but I need my keyboard & mouse for FPS games.
Congress needs to spend less time listening to record industry lobbyists [...]
...but the lobbyists are the ones taking our senators out for $250 steaks & donating millions of dollars to their respective party. With our current government, we need to convince congress that it is worth their while to listen to us 60 million americans. (FYI, 60M downloads != 60M users)
maybe we could start one of those pyramid schemes where you add your name to the bottom of the list & send $5 to everyone on the list; But we could do this with senator's names on the list instead of our own. Then we just give them a heads up that they'll be getting 10,000,000 $1 bills in the mail over the next 3 weeks & I bet our senators would even go so far as to make a law legalizing w4r3z.
You can preorder the Indiana Jones Trilogy for $44.95 at Bestbuy.com. I didn't link directly to their product page to avoid looking like I'm trying to make some $$$ on referrals. However, you can click through your favorite 'hot deals' website if you preorder & still get it for $44.95 while earning them a few cents in the process; Or just go to their website and search for "Indiana DVD" and it will be the top two links FYI: The Widescreen edition SKU is 5721463 & the Full Screen SKU is 5721454.
And don't forget to check out Spielberg Films for fairly up-to-date news.
From their Temple of Doom page:It looks like the news previously reported regarding extra features on the fourth disc of the INDY set was on the money as the bonus disc will include documentaries on "The Making of the Trilogy", "The Sound and Music of Indiana Jones", "The Special Effects of Indiana Jones" and "The Stunts of Indiana Jones".
DVDFile says the "Making Of" doc will be a "new full-length documentary", so its safe to assume that the documentary will be a substantial, feature-length look at the making of the trilogy.
No word is made about deleted scenes, but amazon.com's spec list did state they would be present. Judging by the accuracy of the other extras they named, things are pointing to their inclusion, but you never know until the discs is in our grubby hands.
Have you ever read some code, Darl, that you were so sure was yours? What if you were unable to prove it? How would you know the difference between your code and GNU's code?
What is yours? How do you define yours? If you're talking about your opinion, how you feel, taste, smell, or see, then all you're talking about are conjectures - mere electrical signals that are likely misinterpreted by your brain.
...do you believe in OSS, Darl?
Is it so hard to believe? The code is different; The open relays in the binaries and daemons are gone. Look at the time & date management; they weren't Y2K compliant a moment ago.
Darl:No! I don't believe it. I don't believe it...
Bowers had offered to work with Baystate in the late '80s, but the company had rejected his offers [...] Baystate also pressured CAD software company Cadkey not to distribute Bowers' product, and later, Baystate purchased Cadkey and shut Bowers out of the market [...]
This sounds familiar; Find your biggest competitor, buy out their potential investors & then 'borrow' their technology. I do feel sorry for Bowers in all this! He mortgaged his house 10 years ago to fund the marketing of his software & he still hasn't received a dime from Baystate.
Meeker noted that Baystate had reproduced a handful of errors in Bowers program
Yup, that's a problem. It's hard to rationalize something like that... then again, judges aren't always tech savvy & they have been convinced that software DVD decoders must digitally copy a DVD in order to play it, thereby making DVD playback on a PC illegal. I'm sure Baystate's lawyers tried to argue that in making a 'similar' GUI to Bower's program, they ran into the same bugs by accident - or by design - or something else just as ludicrous.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for capitalism; But decompiling your competitor's software is not the same as merely using ideas that seem to work well for your competitor.
"We have a common strategy. It's common, bulletproof infrastructure with standardized PCs, standardized networks and (security), standardized servers,"
Isn't that what all IT coordinators desire? I think that this is another way of saying they are looking for a longer useful service life on computer systems (due to the slower economy & lack of necessity); Technology (processor, motherboard IO chipsets, storage, etc) is still changing just as quickly as it was in the 90's when we saw the change from MFM -> IDE -> EIDE drives, 8 bit -> 16 bit -> 32 bit buses, 12MHz ram -> 266MHz ram, etc... however... I believe that if you take a last-generation system - a P4-1.5GHz for example - It is powerful enough to have a much longer useful service life than a 386sx-16MHz did back in the early 90's; i.e., in 2003, $50,000 will purchase many more last-generation PC's than it did in 1992 & they will remain useful equipment for a longer period of time due to the current level of technology.
Then again, I could be living in a dreamworld & P4's could be obsolete to the point of uselessness in 3 years...
If you haven't heard about the controversy with MadOnion/Futuremark/3dmark2003, check out This article. Kyle @ HardOCP suggests that if you give Futuremark more $$$, they will 'optimize' their benchmark to help out your video card's score.
Now, in this review, we see that GeForceFX 5900 clearly dominates the hardware side of things:.13 vs.15 micron process, 450/850 vs. 380/340 (GPU/Core), 27.2 GB/sec vs. 21.8 GB/sec memory bandwidth, etc. Yet when we start looking at real-world scores, the 9800 keeps up pretty well & even beats the faster GeForceFX 5900 in most tests.
The big exception is the 3DMark2003 score - the GeForceFX 5900 wins 3477 to 2837!!! (!!!).
This can be attributed to one of three things; 1.Speed isn't everything (e.g., AMD vs. Intel CPU's). But of course, the slower Radeon 9800 *is* faster even though it's slower in all the real-world tests. 2.The GeForceFX used WHQL drivers... But despite these 'superior' drivers, the Radeon 9800 still reigned in all the real world tests! 3.3DMark2003 added unfair optimizations to their program to make the nvidia card seem better than ATi's
Advice:
The default method of configuring PHP is with the CGI SAPI module (i.e., php.exe); A much better choice (imo) is to configure the CLI SAPI module - all you have to do is build the CLI SAPI.dll (Depending on which webserver you're using - php4apache.dll for Apache, php4isapi.dll for IIS)
(Also, many websites refer to the two config methods as CGI and SAPI; This is not really correct since CGI *is* a server API. What they really mean is CGI SAPI & CLI SAPI)
So, why go through the trouble to compile.dll's to run PHP as an integrated CLI SAPI? Performance! This method was officially documented as a stable feature in the December 2002 build of PHP.
Ok, so you're still asking WHO CARES??? Here's why you care: When you use the '.dll' method (CLI SAPI), much more of the processing work is passed onto the kernel resulting in fewer system calls. A LOT of people complain that PHP is slow & inefficient compared to other webservers, but oftentimes, these people haven't tried the CLI SAPI of PHP! Their point of reference is an ISAPI webserver (IIS) & they are comparing apples to oranges.
To find out what SAPI you're using, just execute php -v
Observation:
PHP adds new functions & deprecates other functions waaaay too often; No wonder people are leery of upgrading!
Visualizing the solution...
on
Pure Math, Pure Joy
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Very cool article! I liked the statement: "Nobody knows when some abstruse bit of math will float off a blackboard at a place like this and become a..." It reminded me of the radiant primes observation
I imagine it will be a method similar to this that helps us discover the first billion digit prime number, not some brute-force method. Speaking of prime numbers & slightly off-topic, on 5/31/2003 there was an eclipse (solar) over Norway from 4:43AM to 6:41AM. 5, 31, 2003, 443 & 641 are all prime...
Before you ask, I'm a RH user & work with Solaris, Irix, HP-UX & Tru64 as a sys admin.
My question is: What did he base his conclusions on? "I was amazed by the number of applications that came with the installation...I think I'm becoming a believer.
IMO, some vital things for him to try on his new Linux system would be:
-Word processing & collaborating with the other editors at the nzherald.
-Transferring files from his Windows machine to his new Mandrake install.
-Using the WWW, even!
The article caught my eye because I didn't start using *nix until 1995 & I was also a Windows user prior to using Irix for the first time. The first thing I needed to do was get some files from a Windows machine; A Win32 FTP client -> Irix FTP server was the easiest solution. For WWW, I only required Lynx & that was adequate for me; ...but I quickly realized that while this Indigo workstation had some strengths, it was definitely not an adequate PC for me! (Chris failed even mention how nzherald.co.nz looks in Galeon or Konqueror...)
...but at least he pointed out that it's a good idea "to have good missionaries enlightening the road."
Slashdot Mirror
HERE IS THE DIRECT LINK : (Doesn't require you to log in!) Thank you, Google News!
My favorite part: Last week, Microsoft raised its revenue forecast for fiscal 2004 by about $1 billion. At the same time the company also said it had no plans to spend any of its $49 billion cash on major acquisitions or increase dividends, despite recent rumors.
Now, If I'm reading this article correctly, they are indirectly affecting their positive cashflow 'problem' by increasing R&D. The article says that Microsoft expects revenue to increase 6-9% (of total revenue) in 2004; They are going to spend 8% more on R&D (8% more than R&D expenses in 2003)... So this looks like one way that Microsoft is going to slow down their positive cashflow. I can't see anything bad coming from Microsoft spending more on R This should be beneficial to end-users as long as MS doesn't spend all this additional research money finding better ways to make it difficult to pirate Windows.
No it doesn't. Does he need to post the question a THIRD time? The core of his question was "how would/did InterTrust find out about it". Talking about what patents do and don't cover doesn't answer that. He's curious, did they get ahold of the source somehow? Did a former employee break an NDA and blab? Is this going to turn out the be something as shady as the SCO situation? I think that's what he was asking.
Yup, that covers it. Thanks, LK
Hahah, they have a section on their site for donations:
... Some of the items the Museum can no longer accept include:
It's difficult for us to turn people away when
I guess they put this section on their website for a reason, right? Do people really think a C64 is that old? Speaking of Commodores, a nice C64 emulator for Pocket PC's was recently released. (It runs great on an h5555 iPAQ - It's been providing me with hours of entertainment... oh yeah, Archon II: Adept) /nostalgia
There was a useful link in this section on finding local PC recyclers: There's even one in Seattle that recycles, repairs & redistributes old computers to local nonprofit organizations. Very cool! Sites like this need more publicity.
That's exactly the piece of information I was looking for. Thanks mjh. All these "intellectual property" disputes seem to be resolved in a very subjective manner; I guess that's why we pay lawyers so much $$$.
Caleb
But that's why I included question 2 ;-)
Lemme repost it for you:
.NET framework), the SDK is vague on how things like authentication happen. If you want to learn about NTLM, you need to go to a site like Security Focus. [securityfocus.com] The helpfile in any SDK that Microsoft releases will not talk about the underlying technology (or lack thereof...heh)
Q2.In the case of #2, everyone is probably saying "It doesn't matter...(insert Tmack's comment here)" but if this was the case, how would/did InterTrust find out about it? Microsoft doesn't leave their source code lying around the internet; Now they do give SDK's, but (at least prior to
That was really the point of my post... Q2.
...and rebuked the company's lawyers for wasting her time by promising proof that never materialized--legal vaporware, in essence.
As far as I can tell, the patents that InterTrust owns cover the technology; They don't go into details on accomplishing what they describe.
Q1. What if Microsoft developed a way to carry out their authentication (using these trusts) either
1. On their own or
2. Without even hearing about InterTrust's patent?
Q2.In the case of #2, everyone is probably saying "It doesn't matter..." but if this was the case, how would/did InterTrust find out about it? Microsoft doesn't leave their source code lying around the internet; Now they do give SDK's, but (at least prior to .NET framework), the SDK is vague on how things like authentication happen. If you want to learn about NTLM, you need to go to a site like Security Focus. The helpfile in any SDK that Microsoft releases will not talk about the underlying technology (or lack thereof...heh)
Of course, I'm not against suing Microsoft, but I'm just curious as to how this whole suit came up... Maybe someone else out there can enlighten me?
www.sec.gov/complaint/cf942sec9570.htm. The basis for my complaint is that SCO is using false and unsubstantiated claims of IP rights to UNIX and Linux in order to manipulate its stock price and force consumers to purchase SCO licenses.
I hope they don't just ignore the barrage of complaints they start receiving at 12:17PM, PST...
People laugh at This guy for spending a couple billion to bring a 12Mbps connection to (everyone) in Japan for $21 a month; Sure his company is in $3.9 billion debt, but he has something to show for it! His customers have a 12 Mbps internet connection!!!1
Haha - I have a friend who swears by this one black die he has. Whether attacking or defending, he always uses it. It seems pretty random to me, but in his mind, it rolls 5's & 6's 90% of the time. OT: Cool journal article you wrote on June 27.
The author is not counting the 'army that has to stay behind' as an attacking army - So, to roll three dice you need 4 armies, but only three of them are 'attacking'
Absolutely correct. Grab a calculator if you don't believe him. The author of this article definitely factored this in. He even linked to the RISK FAQ in the article.
I remember watching a video of Halo when it was being developed by Bungie Studios, for MacOS / Windows. It looked awesome! My roommate has an XBox & Halo, but I don't really enjoy it that much. The graphics & gameplay look good, but I need my keyboard & mouse for FPS games.
:-)
My dream of playing Halo on a PC is back
Congress needs to spend less time listening to record industry lobbyists [...]
...but the lobbyists are the ones taking our senators out for $250 steaks & donating millions of dollars to their respective party. With our current government, we need to convince congress that it is worth their while to listen to us 60 million americans. (FYI, 60M downloads != 60M users)
maybe we could start one of those pyramid schemes where you add your name to the bottom of the list & send $5 to everyone on the list; But we could do this with senator's names on the list instead of our own. Then we just give them a heads up that they'll be getting 10,000,000 $1 bills in the mail over the next 3 weeks & I bet our senators would even go so far as to make a law legalizing w4r3z.
Well, at least one of them did:
Phillip Stone (I)
14 April, 1924 - 15 June, 2003
Captain Blumburtt, Temple of Doom
Source
...At least I think he ended up in the pit - I haven't watched Temple of Doom in a long time.
You can preorder the Indiana Jones Trilogy for $44.95 at Bestbuy.com. I didn't link directly to their product page to avoid looking like I'm trying to make some $$$ on referrals. However, you can click through your favorite 'hot deals' website if you preorder & still get it for $44.95 while earning them a few cents in the process; Or just go to their website and search for "Indiana DVD" and it will be the top two links FYI: The Widescreen edition SKU is 5721463 & the Full Screen SKU is 5721454.
And don't forget to check out Spielberg Films for fairly up-to-date news.
From their Temple of Doom page: It looks like the news previously reported regarding extra features on the fourth disc of the INDY set was on the money as the bonus disc will include documentaries on "The Making of the Trilogy", "The Sound and Music of Indiana Jones", "The Special Effects of Indiana Jones" and "The Stunts of Indiana Jones".
DVDFile says the "Making Of" doc will be a "new full-length documentary", so its safe to assume that the documentary will be a substantial, feature-length look at the making of the trilogy.
No word is made about deleted scenes, but amazon.com's spec list did state they would be present. Judging by the accuracy of the other extras they named, things are pointing to their inclusion, but you never know until the discs is in our grubby hands.
You've been living in a dreamworld, Mr. McBride.
Have you ever read some code, Darl, that you were so sure was yours? What if you were unable to prove it? How would you know the difference between your code and GNU's code?
What is yours? How do you define yours? If you're talking about your opinion, how you feel, taste, smell, or see, then all you're talking about are conjectures - mere electrical signals that are likely misinterpreted by your brain.
...do you believe in OSS, Darl?
Is it so hard to believe? The code is different; The open relays in the binaries and daemons are gone. Look at the time & date management; they weren't Y2K compliant a moment ago.
Darl: No! I don't believe it. I don't believe it...
SCO's investors He's gonna pop...
Bowers had offered to work with Baystate in the late '80s, but the company had rejected his offers [...] Baystate also pressured CAD software company Cadkey not to distribute Bowers' product, and later, Baystate purchased Cadkey and shut Bowers out of the market [...]
This sounds familiar; Find your biggest competitor, buy out their potential investors & then 'borrow' their technology. I do feel sorry for Bowers in all this! He mortgaged his house 10 years ago to fund the marketing of his software & he still hasn't received a dime from Baystate.
Meeker noted that Baystate had reproduced a handful of errors in Bowers program
Yup, that's a problem. It's hard to rationalize something like that... then again, judges aren't always tech savvy & they have been convinced that software DVD decoders must digitally copy a DVD in order to play it, thereby making DVD playback on a PC illegal. I'm sure Baystate's lawyers tried to argue that in making a 'similar' GUI to Bower's program, they ran into the same bugs by accident - or by design - or something else just as ludicrous.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for capitalism; But decompiling your competitor's software is not the same as merely using ideas that seem to work well for your competitor.
"We have a common strategy. It's common, bulletproof infrastructure with standardized PCs, standardized networks and (security), standardized servers,"
Isn't that what all IT coordinators desire? I think that this is another way of saying they are looking for a longer useful service life on computer systems (due to the slower economy & lack of necessity); Technology (processor, motherboard IO chipsets, storage, etc) is still changing just as quickly as it was in the 90's when we saw the change from MFM -> IDE -> EIDE drives, 8 bit -> 16 bit -> 32 bit buses, 12MHz ram -> 266MHz ram, etc ...
however... I believe that if you take a last-generation system - a P4-1.5GHz for example - It is powerful enough to have a much longer useful service life than a 386sx-16MHz did back in the early 90's;
i.e., in 2003, $50,000 will purchase many more last-generation PC's than it did in 1992 & they will remain useful equipment for a longer period of time due to the current level of technology.
Then again, I could be living in a dreamworld & P4's could be obsolete to the point of uselessness in 3 years...
If you haven't heard about the controversy with MadOnion/Futuremark/3dmark2003, check out This article. Kyle @ HardOCP suggests that if you give Futuremark more $$$, they will 'optimize' their benchmark to help out your video card's score.
Now, in this review, we see that GeForceFX 5900 clearly dominates the hardware side of things: .13 vs .15 micron process, 450/850 vs. 380/340 (GPU/Core), 27.2 GB/sec vs. 21.8 GB/sec memory bandwidth, etc. Yet when we start looking at real-world scores, the 9800 keeps up pretty well & even beats the faster GeForceFX 5900 in most tests.
The big exception is the 3DMark2003 score - the GeForceFX 5900 wins 3477 to 2837!!! (!!!).
This can be attributed to one of three things;
1.Speed isn't everything (e.g., AMD vs. Intel CPU's). But of course, the slower Radeon 9800 *is* faster even though it's slower in all the real-world tests.
2.The GeForceFX used WHQL drivers... But despite these 'superior' drivers, the Radeon 9800 still reigned in all the real world tests!
3.3DMark2003 added unfair optimizations to their program to make the nvidia card seem better than ATi's
Advice: .dll (Depending on which webserver you're using - php4apache.dll for Apache, php4isapi.dll for IIS)
.dll's to run PHP as an integrated CLI SAPI? Performance! This method was officially documented as a stable feature in the December 2002 build of PHP.
The default method of configuring PHP is with the CGI SAPI module (i.e., php.exe); A much better choice (imo) is to configure the CLI SAPI module - all you have to do is build the CLI SAPI
(Also, many websites refer to the two config methods as CGI and SAPI; This is not really correct since CGI *is* a server API. What they really mean is CGI SAPI & CLI SAPI)
So, why go through the trouble to compile
Ok, so you're still asking WHO CARES??? Here's why you care: When you use the '.dll' method (CLI SAPI), much more of the processing work is passed onto the kernel resulting in fewer system calls. A LOT of people complain that PHP is slow & inefficient compared to other webservers, but oftentimes, these people haven't tried the CLI SAPI of PHP! Their point of reference is an ISAPI webserver (IIS) & they are comparing apples to oranges.
To find out what SAPI you're using, just execute php -v
Observation:
PHP adds new functions & deprecates other functions waaaay too often; No wonder people are leery of upgrading!
Very cool article! I liked the statement: "Nobody knows when some abstruse bit of math will float off a blackboard at a place like this and become a..." It reminded me of the radiant primes observation
I imagine it will be a method similar to this that helps us discover the first billion digit prime number, not some brute-force method. Speaking of prime numbers & slightly off-topic, on 5/31/2003 there was an eclipse (solar) over Norway from 4:43AM to 6:41AM. 5, 31, 2003, 443 & 641 are all prime...
The first version of Microsoft Windows I used was 2.1; It was much like the program launching program, Norton Commander or Xtree Pro.
If you need some Windows 2.1 tech support, check out Juvio!!
Before you ask, I'm a RH user & work with Solaris, Irix, HP-UX & Tru64 as a sys admin.
My question is: What did he base his conclusions on? "I was amazed by the number of applications that came with the installation...I think I'm becoming a believer.
IMO, some vital things for him to try on his new Linux system would be:
-Word processing & collaborating with the other editors at the nzherald.
-Transferring files from his Windows machine to his new Mandrake install.
-Using the WWW, even!
The article caught my eye because I didn't start using *nix until 1995 & I was also a Windows user prior to using Irix for the first time. The first thing I needed to do was get some files from a Windows machine; A Win32 FTP client -> Irix FTP server was the easiest solution. For WWW, I only required Lynx & that was adequate for me;
...but I quickly realized that while this Indigo workstation had some strengths, it was definitely not an adequate PC for me! (Chris failed even mention how nzherald.co.nz looks in Galeon or Konqueror...)