However, "hams" are by far one of the kindest, most intelligent, and thoughtful groups that I know.
I would just like to add the comment that I only recently got a Ham license, but have been going to Ham swapmeets (for my electronics hobby as well as computer stuff) for years and years. My impression of a swapmeet has always been that it's a place where every person present is that guy who who would stop to help you fix a flat tire. Really nice people, and smart, too.
But as you said, this isn't about Ham radio. The Hams are the early warning system on this one. It will hose up so much, and for such a lame kludged purpose.
The problem with your arguement is that Powerline broadband doesn't make good use of the spectrum it shits on. It just fucks it up for any useful purposes.
Let's be real here. Powerline broadband is a cheap hack, not technically sophisticated at all. It's a get-rich-quick kludge for a few interests who control the power lines. It's basically the equivalent of issuing bullhorns to teenagers in school so they can talk to each other in the hallway between classes. The proper thing to do is pull shielded cable or fibre.
Shit, that one is easy. I'll just show you a bunch of squatters who've moved into a vacant building and are shitting in the hallways. There's no contract, the owner of the building has property rights, the squatters get booted out so the owner can renovate and bring in renters.
I used to have a kinda-sorta Windows 3.1 on a floppy. I had it running on an AST Bravo 286 (6 MHz!) machine with one meg of RAM. I made it connect to a Samba server on a Linux box running Kernel 1.2.13. Basically, the floppy diskette had MS-DOS and the pared down part of Microsofts Lan Manager client with TCP/IP on it. The 'C' drive was a Samba share.
I had fooled around getting the DOS/Lanman client pared down to a floppy as a personal challange, then decided 'hey, what if I install Windows 3.1 from floppies on this hyar 'C:' drive we've got here?' It worked fine. Windows 3.1 wasn't even aware it was a network drive. The boot floppy disk could be plugged into any machine that had that particular Ethernet card type in it (a 3Com 3C503) and it'd bring up that same 'roaming profile.'
The strange things with networks a guy would do back in the day when 386sx motherboards were expensive and one could only afford a handful of them to put on the home Network, but 286 boxes were plentiful and cheap....
The boring suits have decided to commercialize on 'the hackers' and therefore have adopted sort of a 'cool' sheen. The hackers at Sun are getting ever closer to retirement, plus they don't take software that runs on unreliable cheap PeeCee hardware** very seriously. Plus, Linux threatens a hell of a lot of cool technology in Sun's Solaris flagship, Linux is still sort of an enhanced MS_DOS compared to Solaris.
(** This is a point worth considering. I, personally have been getting more and more involved with classic Sun Sparc hardware. There's just no comparison in, say, the incredible at-all-levels-refined engineering in the SparcStation 5 and the kind of 'stamp out crap, but do it expensively to impress the suits' engineering that went into even the most expensive servers from Compaq.)
Are we sure they aren't talking about an IBM PS/2 system?
The PS/2 Model 80 was a reasonably powerful system in it's time.
The whole irony in this discussion is that some of us, probably those who don't buy retail console game toys, have had a problem with confusing PS2 as standing for the old IBM PS/2 hardware line. Now even IBM themselves are adding to the confusion.
Just Wal-Mart's website. Contrary to all the ballyhoo and hurrah people spread here on Slashdot, the cheap Lindows boxes are sold on WalMart's website, but not in their stores. It's not the 'mainstream linux thrust' that people hype it up to be.
I got a piece of email from Earthlink last week. It talked about them putting in new servers, etc. Then they tagged on the following:
Additionally, we are changing our Usenet access policies to better serve all of our users. Members will be permitted to download a maximum of 1500MB (1.5GB) over a rolling 30-day period. Should your account exceed this quota, you will not be cut off from accessing our Usenet service. However, your download speed will be limited to 64Kbps until the account again falls below the quota. Dial-up subscribers will probably not be affected by this change.
Maybe this topic should go in a new discussion, but it's definitely a form of broadband 'capping'.
When did 'Linux' (okay... Slashdot/hAndover, and their need for banner hit revenue) ever ignore SCO on this? The 'geek community' (okay... Slashdot, and their need for people to pore over this 'controversy' regularly to keep eyeballs on their website...) has been on this issue incessantly, to the detriment of many other more interesting topics we could explore.
He was talking about the Slashdot community not any kind of, er, workforce. That's probably close to the 8% number you proposed: slackers who read and post on Slashdot all day.
Or, this could be Novell buying into a big piece of the 'Open Source' goodies so that after the Linux carcass is broken up into chunks they own a valuable piece.
Yes, but Novell does have experience buying, then passing along, dying technologies. They bought the UNIX codebase, which they then passed along. They bought WordPerfect too.
The problem is, Ximian isn't a dying technology. This doesn't fit the pattern for Novell...
The cool thing is, you're completely within your legal rights to use the cordless phone, too. There's no special privledge for WiFi operators. It's public spectra.
So you're advocating a sort of (community) security through obscurity, eh?
The implicatons I can think of are a 95% drop in NNTP traffic without doing any damage at all to the discussion traffic.
I subscribe to an international binary-free NewsServer (CIS.DFN.DE) and I like it that way. The 'binary attachment' folks are really implementing an entirely different service, and I see no reason why they should piggyback on what Usenet was originally about.
Slashdot Mirror
However, "hams" are by far one of the kindest, most intelligent, and thoughtful groups that I know.
I would just like to add the comment that I only recently got a Ham license, but have been going to Ham swapmeets (for my electronics hobby as well as computer stuff) for years and years. My impression of a swapmeet has always been that it's a place where every person present is that guy who who would stop to help you fix a flat tire. Really nice people, and smart, too.
But as you said, this isn't about Ham radio. The Hams are the early warning system on this one. It will hose up so much, and for such a lame kludged purpose.
The problem with your arguement is that Powerline broadband doesn't make good use of the spectrum it shits on. It just fucks it up for any useful purposes.
Let's be real here. Powerline broadband is a cheap hack, not technically sophisticated at all. It's a get-rich-quick kludge for a few interests who control the power lines. It's basically the equivalent of issuing bullhorns to teenagers in school so they can talk to each other in the hallway between classes. The proper thing to do is pull shielded cable or fibre.
Shit, that one is easy. I'll just show you a bunch of squatters who've moved into a vacant building and are shitting in the hallways. There's no contract, the owner of the building has property rights, the squatters get booted out so the owner can renovate and bring in renters.
I used to have a kinda-sorta Windows 3.1 on a floppy. I had it running on an AST Bravo 286 (6 MHz!) machine with one meg of RAM. I made it connect to a Samba server on a Linux box running Kernel 1.2.13. Basically, the floppy diskette had MS-DOS and the pared down part of Microsofts Lan Manager client with TCP/IP on it. The 'C' drive was a Samba share.
I had fooled around getting the DOS/Lanman client pared down to a floppy as a personal challange, then decided 'hey, what if I install Windows 3.1 from floppies on this hyar 'C:' drive we've got here?' It worked fine. Windows 3.1 wasn't even aware it was a network drive. The boot floppy disk could be plugged into any machine that had that particular Ethernet card type in it (a 3Com 3C503) and it'd bring up that same 'roaming profile.'
The strange things with networks a guy would do back in the day when 386sx motherboards were expensive and one could only afford a handful of them to put on the home Network, but 286 boxes were plentiful and cheap....
Tektronix made a line of Logic Analyzers that ran Embedded Windows 95.
Yes, Tektronics, the high end test equipment manufacturer. A Logic Analyzer.
my network is a MS-free zone
Yes. You said that earlier.
How 'cool.'
There isn't a 'Wintel domination' in the high end server space to take on.
Microsoft is trying to scale up to the kind of installation that an AS/400 mini/mainframe operates in, but they're really reaching to attain that.
Really, the whole computing industry isn't dominated by Microsoft. Certain segments are, to be certain. Definitely not the one that AS/400 is part of.
It's not that complex:
The boring suits have decided to commercialize on 'the hackers' and therefore have adopted sort of a 'cool' sheen. The hackers at Sun are getting ever closer to retirement, plus they don't take software that runs on unreliable cheap PeeCee hardware** very seriously. Plus, Linux threatens a hell of a lot of cool technology in Sun's Solaris flagship, Linux is still sort of an enhanced MS_DOS compared to Solaris.
(** This is a point worth considering. I, personally have been getting more and more involved with classic Sun Sparc hardware. There's just no comparison in, say, the incredible at-all-levels-refined engineering in the SparcStation 5 and the kind of 'stamp out crap, but do it expensively to impress the suits' engineering that went into even the most expensive servers from Compaq.)
Are we sure they aren't talking about an IBM PS/2 system?
The PS/2 Model 80 was a reasonably powerful system in it's time.
The whole irony in this discussion is that some of us, probably those who don't buy retail console game toys, have had a problem with confusing PS2 as standing for the old IBM PS/2 hardware line. Now even IBM themselves are adding to the confusion.
Just Wal-Mart's website. Contrary to all the ballyhoo and hurrah people spread here on Slashdot, the cheap Lindows boxes are sold on WalMart's website, but not in their stores. It's not the 'mainstream linux thrust' that people hype it up to be.
Maybe this topic should go in a new discussion, but it's definitely a form of broadband 'capping'.
What Red Hat has done is say 'we are Open Source' and put on a mask that makes it look like they are.
How is this about Linux distributions competing?
When did 'Linux' (okay... Slashdot/hAndover, and their need for banner hit revenue) ever ignore SCO on this? The 'geek community' (okay... Slashdot, and their need for people to pore over this 'controversy' regularly to keep eyeballs on their website...) has been on this issue incessantly, to the detriment of many other more interesting topics we could explore.
So now, not only are we providing free testing and code to IBM, but we're going to pay their legal bills too?
Somehow, I can't imagine these big companies needing our ten and twenty dollar contributions.
He was talking about the Slashdot community not any kind of, er, workforce. That's probably close to the 8% number you proposed: slackers who read and post on Slashdot all day.
This means that they can sell the CDs for $4 and still make a profit. Why can't RIAA sell CDs at $10, get more sales, and make a profit?
The counterfeiters have no costs at all except a duplicating machine.
Needless to say there are a few expenses involved in producing the actual content.
And I'm not an 'armchair expert' on the costs associated with music production. If you are, I suppose you can ramble on....
Taping the box under a table to interfere with the network communications of a bunch of coffeehouse dilletantes? Naaaw...
Or, this could be Novell buying into a big piece of the 'Open Source' goodies so that after the Linux carcass is broken up into chunks they own a valuable piece.
Yes, but Novell does have experience buying, then passing along, dying technologies. They bought the UNIX codebase, which they then passed along. They bought WordPerfect too.
The problem is, Ximian isn't a dying technology. This doesn't fit the pattern for Novell...
I can remember the old days, back in 1994-6 or so, when the wait for the newest InfoMagic CD set was what paced what version of Linux I could run.
The cool thing is, you're completely within your legal rights to use the cordless phone, too. There's no special privledge for WiFi operators. It's public spectra.
You clearly don't understand the merits of a cool hack.
Rocks are crude. Having a little box with a button on it that makes the suits all groan at once in a coffeeshop... that's a cool hack.
You didn't describe at all the economic model these lawyers work under. They give $10,000 and 1000 hours and if it works out they get $60,000,000.
At least be honest if you're going to throw out numbers.
Porn, Warez and stolen music are 'bastions of freedom'??
I would think that free speech is a bastion of freedom, and it tends to get buried in piles and piles of binary attachments.
I have friends who have downloaded gigs of USENET 'content' but whom have probably never, ever, read a Usenet text post, let alone post one.
Part of 'free communications' is the act of communication. And contrary to the boilerplate from broadcasters, communications is a two-way exchange.
So you're advocating a sort of (community) security through obscurity, eh?
The implicatons I can think of are a 95% drop in NNTP traffic without doing any damage at all to the discussion traffic.
I subscribe to an international binary-free NewsServer (CIS.DFN.DE) and I like it that way. The 'binary attachment' folks are really implementing an entirely different service, and I see no reason why they should piggyback on what Usenet was originally about.