One small step for advertising... One giant leap back for the linux community...
Ugh... I suppose it was just a matter of time before someone figured out how to get crap ads onto a linux user's machine without having the Windows RPC vulnerability to exploit. 8P
Well, one possible benefit is to build support for the hardware once it goes obsolete for its current purpose.
Sure, right now running a different OS on a PS2 might have limited application (running emulators for older game systems seems to me like it would be a popular use)... but what about when you have a bunch of PS2's piled in the corner because everyone has a [insert name of latest console version]?
At least then you might be able to extend the useful life of that equipment and use it for other things. This has been a tradition for linux/BSD with older hardware. Heck, my Pentium 75MHz firewall was running until it died last year giving me about 6 years of life beyond when it was still useful to me as a desktop... talk about getting my money's worth out of that computer!;)
Still, porting to a single platform *might* (as in a distant *maybe*) allow some benchmarking comparisons between different base OSes.
NetBSD has a PS2 port... could be interesting to see which port ("linux" vs "bsd") offers better utilization of the base hardware.
But, it was more of a general comment about the move by Apple to go to a BSD-based OS (compared to OS 9, for instance) that would have made it a viable platform for these advanced uses.
In retrospect, that point/question wasn't framed as well as I had hoped.
I checked the article, and all they said was they planned on doing it "more cheaply than buying a supercomputer from a manufacturer."
Does this mean they're planning on running some variant of BSD? I would imaging that, for licensing sake, they wouldn't put a stock Mac OS on there (OSX)... would cost "too much" and would provide "more" than they need.
Bravo for the effort... but, methinks they could do this more cheaply (although, not 64-bit) with stock PC hardware.
Ugh... why not just put your networks behind a reasonable firewall and block those incoming ports?
Hate to rail on it, but even if I don't patch my Win2K box at home (used for gaming), I don't need to worry about it because my OpenBSD firewall protects me from this crap.
This company spends money preventing other would-be "we make filtering software, too!" companies from either making more stuff like this (patent infringement), nor from profiting from it (too expensive to defend in court).
I say... let 'em all patent the stuffing out of cruft we don't really want; it'll bring the whole system to a screeching halt.;)
It might be interesting to see how different families of Linux/Unix compare... maybe generate a veritable "family tree" of relationships.
Of course, that also depends more on how differences are actually calculated. Still, could make an interesting project to relate OSes based on how much shared code they still retain and show it in a graphical tree format, ala "family tree." 8)
If you drop an ebook in an online store, does it produce a sound through the PC speaker?
(BONUS) What if noone was around to hear it (because it was an automated web-spider searching for pr0n, but happened to cross the ebook section of the BN site when it was dropped)?
Just to clarify... I made a point to mention stuff going across their *network*... I was trying to limit the statements to computer-based usage.
I wouldn't find it reasonable for them to "go through my wallet" (as one poster suggested) or "go through my postal mail."
But, I would expect that when I'm using their resources (ie, computer network, even the phone), they have a right to monitor (even if they don't choose to use it) my use... not to see if what I'm doing is appropriate in a moral sense, but to see if what I'm doing is appropriate to keeping the business healthy/alive.
Let's take the case of the extreme abuse of resources. You have someone who's not going to any illicit sites, isn't using company e-mail, but spends all day writing/responding to friends from a HotMail account.
First, he's not doing what he's paid to do.
Second, he's using company bandwidth to do it.
Those things cost the company money (in salary and connection fees). I think it is perfectly reasonable for the company to check how the resources it makes available are being used to ensure they're not wasting money.
It is in *this* respect *alone* I think companies have a right to monitor their employees (of course, outside of special security-related tracking... who's in which building and when... are they sending company secrets in e-mail to competitors).
Of course, there are bosses out there who are only interested in snooping on you for some sort of personal "fix"; if that's what your boss is most interested in, then your company has bigger problems than "web traffic monitoring." At that point, one should be looking for a new job because that ship is going to run aground with noone at the helm!
In the work place, I expect to have all my correspondence, activity, anything that crosses their network to, at least, be open to scrutiny.
Honestly, my time at work is for working. I know that's not a popular view with some, but it really comes down to asking yourself what you use your time for.
If you're comfortable with your boss knowing what sites you're looking at and he's comfortable with you looking at them, then there's no problem.
But to *expect* privacy I think is assuming you have a different relationship with your boss/company than you do: they're paying you to be there and do a job, and whatever means they take to ensure they're getting their money's worth is reasonable.
With all that said... I did post this from work.;)
The telephone companies had ISDN a *long* time ago and tried to rip-n-gouge money out of their subscribers; hence, the modem was invented as a way to circumvent that ludicrous system.
Of course, the phone companies tried to get modems banned. Or, at the very least, get legislation to charge separate access fees for those users because they knew nobody would pay such high prices for ISDN when they could make local calls ($.05, untimed in my area) and get reasonable (although slower) speed.
Now they're in the same boat. With the advent of technology that allows similar operation as the phone, but over the internet, they're scrambling to find ways to bring it under *their* control. I'm assuming that at this point, you don't need to be told why.
I'd expect this to go the same way I expect the Hydrogen Fuel Cell car to go in America with "Big Oil" resisting it... slow the adoption of the technology until a very large interest in it can be secured by the large corporations affected.
And *we*, the people, allow it to happen... write your congress person and tell them "hell no!"
I'd be more concerned with the kids getting a hold of the program itself (or one like it). 8/
It could make a whole major point of writing the papers moot (ie, learning how to construct a well stated paper, not just appease a machine litmus test).
Talk about shooting for mediocrity and hitting the target. 8/
Now instead of being alone and frustrated about what the heck to do next in the game, I can be in a community of people... frustrated about what the heck to do next in the game.;)
From DirectTV: "We've noticed that you've been watching quite a lot of Skin-a-Max and have school-aged children. We know you're as interested as we are in preventing the exploitation of children, so please pay us the customary 'Certified Responsible Parent' registration fee of $1000, or we'll report this incident to the appropriate child welfare agencies for further investigation."
Why not escalate this to the next level and have one country flood the other with cheap copies of cheap copies of pirated software to destroy that piece of the economy?
"Now copy of pirate copy of Wnidows [sic] NT 4.0... only $.10!"
NASA: "In order to ensure the safety of the crew in flight, we're shipping all the dangerous gases, such as highly explosive oxygen, up separately."
(hours after launch)
NASA: "Um... we have good news and bad news. The good news is the crew made it into space without a hitch. The bad news is all the cargo that was supposed to go with them was lost due to a malfunction. Errrmmm... how long can you guys hold your breath up there?"
You know, if servers had to authenticate in order to transmit mail (ie, identify themselves), then perhaps we could stem the flow of spam.
Of course, with a protocol as ingrained into the 'net as SMTP is, methinks it will take getting unacceptably high levels of spam traffic to push that sort of change along.
Hmmm... maybe along the same time people switch to IPv6? (yeah... right).
Slashdot Mirror
One small step for advertising...
One giant leap back for the linux community...
Ugh... I suppose it was just a matter of time before someone figured out how to get crap ads onto a linux user's machine without having the Windows RPC vulnerability to exploit. 8P
Well, one possible benefit is to build support for the hardware once it goes obsolete for its current purpose.
;)
Sure, right now running a different OS on a PS2 might have limited application (running emulators for older game systems seems to me like it would be a popular use)... but what about when you have a bunch of PS2's piled in the corner because everyone has a [insert name of latest console version]?
At least then you might be able to extend the useful life of that equipment and use it for other things. This has been a tradition for linux/BSD with older hardware. Heck, my Pentium 75MHz firewall was running until it died last year giving me about 6 years of life beyond when it was still useful to me as a desktop... talk about getting my money's worth out of that computer!
Still, porting to a single platform *might* (as in a distant *maybe*) allow some benchmarking comparisons between different base OSes.
NetBSD has a PS2 port... could be interesting to see which port ("linux" vs "bsd") offers better utilization of the base hardware.
Point. 8)
But, it was more of a general comment about the move by Apple to go to a BSD-based OS (compared to OS 9, for instance) that would have made it a viable platform for these advanced uses.
In retrospect, that point/question wasn't framed as well as I had hoped.
Always fall back on the Bart Simpson way:
;)
I didn't do it.
And even if I did do it, you couldn't prove it.
And even if you could prove it, I wouldn't admit it.
If you never confess, they'll never "know for sure" that you were guilty.
I checked the article, and all they said was they planned on doing it "more cheaply than buying a supercomputer from a manufacturer."
Does this mean they're planning on running some variant of BSD? I would imaging that, for licensing sake, they wouldn't put a stock Mac OS on there (OSX)... would cost "too much" and would provide "more" than they need.
Bravo for the effort... but, methinks they could do this more cheaply (although, not 64-bit) with stock PC hardware.
Ugh... why not just put your networks behind a reasonable firewall and block those incoming ports?
Hate to rail on it, but even if I don't patch my Win2K box at home (used for gaming), I don't need to worry about it because my OpenBSD firewall protects me from this crap.
Or isn't this solution obvious enough?
Best thing that can come out of this is:
;)
This company spends money preventing other would-be "we make filtering software, too!" companies from either making more stuff like this (patent infringement), nor from profiting from it (too expensive to defend in court).
I say... let 'em all patent the stuffing out of cruft we don't really want; it'll bring the whole system to a screeching halt.
It might be interesting to see how different families of Linux/Unix compare... maybe generate a veritable "family tree" of relationships.
Of course, that also depends more on how differences are actually calculated. Still, could make an interesting project to relate OSes based on how much shared code they still retain and show it in a graphical tree format, ala "family tree." 8)
If you drop an ebook in an online store, does it produce a sound through the PC speaker?
(BONUS) What if noone was around to hear it (because it was an automated web-spider searching for pr0n, but happened to cross the ebook section of the BN site when it was dropped)?
Just to clarify... I made a point to mention stuff going across their *network*... I was trying to limit the statements to computer-based usage.
I wouldn't find it reasonable for them to "go through my wallet" (as one poster suggested) or "go through my postal mail."
But, I would expect that when I'm using their resources (ie, computer network, even the phone), they have a right to monitor (even if they don't choose to use it) my use... not to see if what I'm doing is appropriate in a moral sense, but to see if what I'm doing is appropriate to keeping the business healthy/alive.
Let's take the case of the extreme abuse of resources. You have someone who's not going to any illicit sites, isn't using company e-mail, but spends all day writing/responding to friends from a HotMail account.
First, he's not doing what he's paid to do.
Second, he's using company bandwidth to do it.
Those things cost the company money (in salary and connection fees). I think it is perfectly reasonable for the company to check how the resources it makes available are being used to ensure they're not wasting money.
It is in *this* respect *alone* I think companies have a right to monitor their employees (of course, outside of special security-related tracking... who's in which building and when... are they sending company secrets in e-mail to competitors).
Of course, there are bosses out there who are only interested in snooping on you for some sort of personal "fix"; if that's what your boss is most interested in, then your company has bigger problems than "web traffic monitoring." At that point, one should be looking for a new job because that ship is going to run aground with noone at the helm!
In the work place, I expect to have all my correspondence, activity, anything that crosses their network to, at least, be open to scrutiny.
;)
Honestly, my time at work is for working. I know that's not a popular view with some, but it really comes down to asking yourself what you use your time for.
If you're comfortable with your boss knowing what sites you're looking at and he's comfortable with you looking at them, then there's no problem.
But to *expect* privacy I think is assuming you have a different relationship with your boss/company than you do: they're paying you to be there and do a job, and whatever means they take to ensure they're getting their money's worth is reasonable.
With all that said... I did post this from work.
The telephone companies had ISDN a *long* time ago and tried to rip-n-gouge money out of their subscribers; hence, the modem was invented as a way to circumvent that ludicrous system.
Of course, the phone companies tried to get modems banned. Or, at the very least, get legislation to charge separate access fees for those users because they knew nobody would pay such high prices for ISDN when they could make local calls ($.05, untimed in my area) and get reasonable (although slower) speed.
Now they're in the same boat. With the advent of technology that allows similar operation as the phone, but over the internet, they're scrambling to find ways to bring it under *their* control. I'm assuming that at this point, you don't need to be told why.
I'd expect this to go the same way I expect the Hydrogen Fuel Cell car to go in America with "Big Oil" resisting it... slow the adoption of the technology until a very large interest in it can be secured by the large corporations affected.
And *we*, the people, allow it to happen... write your congress person and tell them "hell no!"
I'd be more concerned with the kids getting a hold of the program itself (or one like it). 8/
It could make a whole major point of writing the papers moot (ie, learning how to construct a well stated paper, not just appease a machine litmus test).
Talk about shooting for mediocrity and hitting the target. 8/
One word: JUnit
We need a network of webcams so geeks can watch other geeks watch geeks! Where do I sign up?!? ;)
Now instead of being alone and frustrated about what the heck to do next in the game, I can be in a community of people... frustrated about what the heck to do next in the game. ;)
Or even better yet...
From DirectTV: "We've noticed that you've been watching quite a lot of Skin-a-Max and have school-aged children. We know you're as interested as we are in preventing the exploitation of children, so please pay us the customary 'Certified Responsible Parent' registration fee of $1000, or we'll report this incident to the appropriate child welfare agencies for further investigation."
Why not escalate this to the next level and have one country flood the other with cheap copies of cheap copies of pirated software to destroy that piece of the economy?
"Now copy of pirate copy of Wnidows [sic] NT 4.0... only $.10!"
NASA: "In order to ensure the safety of the crew in flight, we're shipping all the dangerous gases, such as highly explosive oxygen, up separately."
(hours after launch)
NASA: "Um... we have good news and bad news. The good news is the crew made it into space without a hitch. The bad news is all the cargo that was supposed to go with them was lost due to a malfunction. Errrmmm... how long can you guys hold your breath up there?"
You know, if servers had to authenticate in order to transmit mail (ie, identify themselves), then perhaps we could stem the flow of spam.
Of course, with a protocol as ingrained into the 'net as SMTP is, methinks it will take getting unacceptably high levels of spam traffic to push that sort of change along.
Hmmm... maybe along the same time people switch to IPv6? (yeah... right).
What good's a fighting game across a network if you can't actually kill the person you're playing? ;)
;)
Now *that* would be some real "Running Man"-level entertainment!
In a stunning change over past elections, apparently 300X the population of America participated in the last Presidential election!
;)
Fox News is heralding the new technology as "a success."
Yeah... how can we link this stuff to sex, curing baldness, or creation of larger/harder erections?
;)
"Old Whitey" would cough up some major dough for that!
I love these articles. Leaves me wondering in which exotic location this technology will fail next... 8)
Oooo... I think you've stumbled upon a great idea for a SIMS expansion pack!
Just click on the Blue-Blood you want to mate with and count the toes of the procreated children!