It's interesting that pursuing new frontiers has not been the riskiest behavior after all. Rather, the greatest risk has been riding the 30-year-old shuttles run by a management team that seemed to have other priorities than flight crew safety.
I think a case could be made that had NASA been moving towards new technologies and new manned-space-flight programs there might actually have been fewer people killed as a result. Instead of becoming the hide-bound, more bureaucratic, risk-averse agency we see today NASA might well have blossomed into a competence-driven, vibrant agency in pursuit of new frontiers. One in which managers could have well imagined problems with frozen O-rngs, for instance. Or listened more closely to arguments in favor of simple flight maneuvers to inspect the shuttle after seeing evidence of impacts from debris blown off the booster rockets.
Perhaps risk-averse behavior might be the highest risk after all.
The *only* reason I got an iPhone was because it had a Unix basis and once jailbroken it would do ssh and allow me to remotely work on servers while anchored on my little 37-year-old Carver cabin cruiser in a quiet cove in the San Juan Islands. If that goes away I go somewhere else. So why not just release the C64 to Cydia and end-run around the Apple requirements? I realize why Apple does it, but every geek I know has a jail-broken iPhone.
At any rate, the C64 app is no longer available at the app store.
Or bought a kayak and made one run down a river... yes I think the "one twit wonder" phenomenon is caused by this; at least in part. Plus, let's face it, most people really don't have that much to say. Interesting or not. Nothing you can do will prod them into actually saying something other than, "cool!".
I got a Twitter account for the sole purpose of following Lance Armstrong's return to cycling and, because Armstrong is a really dedicated tweeter, it was worth it. I found, to my astonishment, that a bunch of people began to follow me. Turns out that paddling friends (kayakers) follow me
Facebook, to me, is far more useful because my kids, their friends, and quite a few of my friends are on it and post frequently about what they're doing. So we can keep up easier than by making telephone calls. I even use it from my iphone (which I bought so I could do network stuff from my sport fishing boat anchored in the San Juans... at least I could once it was jailbroke).
Twitter is clearly a fad... but as a bicycle race fan I find Lance Armstrong's writing to be an interesting inside look into that sport's international scene.
Once you burn off your distinctive fingerprints you leave a finger with either no prints or (more likely) several distinctive scars. Since only a tiny number of people have actually done this you would become even more distinctive than you are now. In addition, they'd start to wonder just exactly why you went to so much trouble to hide your identity. I'm pretty sure that the bureaucratic mind would think up all sorts of possible reasons and investigate every single one of them thoroughly.
I've found that, as an engineer myself (originally) the greatest lack of understanding among computer science majors are the details of the hardware itself. I've had guys with CS degrees try to control 120VAC equipment using the parallel port!! And then not understand at all why this is not a good idea. Control systems are a burgeoning field all by themselves and because they're all computerized now it's a great area.
Even though my two children grew up in the 1990s when things were considerably more innocent, I recognized the potential threats to them from unfettered access to the Internet. As a Linux guy you have some advantages that Windows people either don't have at all or must pay for.
First of all, do not put a computer in a child's room where the door can be closed and your supervision over them is reduced. It's your job as a parent to keep them safe until they are sophisticated enough to know how to do that on their own. A "family" computer in the play room or living room installed so that you can look at the screen easily is the best way to keep them safe.
I use Linux as the border router for my home systems and this gives you a leg up on the predators because you can use sniffers like Nast to actually monitor their keystrokes. I found that all I had to do was demonstrate this once to have a lasting effect. I told my son that I could read every letter he typed. He didn't believe me. I asked him to type something to a friend on Yahoo and, from another room, I read it back to him. I didn't have to keep monitoring him... all that was needed was for him to know that I could.
Another time my wife and I were on vacation in California and our almost-18 son was home. I logged into the router, then logged into the music computer (also Linux) and started playing mp3s in my computer room. I turned up the volume. Then Mom called him on the phone. "How do you turn it down?" was his first question. Again, it demonstrated that there was supervision even when we were not there in person. Plus it was noon... time for him to get his ass out of bed and mow the lawn. LOL
Finally, I used Squid and periodically grepped the access.log for the seven words you can't say on television. When I found a site they should not be going to I denied it in the access lists.
I do not consider any of this to have been undue scrutiny or spying. I really never bothered to monitor keystrokes after that one demonstration. And both of my kids grew up, went to college, avoided all the serious pitfalls of growing up, and are contributing members of society. My son is now my partner in our network engineering firm.
A customer of mine moved to Windows servers and away from the DEC Microvax they'd used for several years. My partner talked me into trading them two mice (logitech mice) for it and we loaded it up in my truck along with cables, workstations, software, manuals, etc. We figured we could load up a version of Unix on it and make it do something fun. Unfortunately it had no FP capability and we couldn't come up with any free unix to run on it. The thing spent a few years in a storage closet until we finally threw it away (covertly).
Apparently trying to play with older high-tech gear is a common failing for geeks. Only one time did it work for me. Another customer migrated away from an IBM i5 and asked me to come get it. I thought they were kidding until they called me and asked me to come get it "now!". Four of us moved it to my pickup truck and we sold it for $4k on eBay. In the paperwork we discovered an invoice for $30k that they had spent upgrading it the year before.
I don't know what you rocket scientists think an iPhone (cell phone, after all) is going to connect to out on the ocean. Once you are about 20 miles offshore there is no cell phone service at all. This is why ships use satellite phone systems, HF radios, morse code, etc.
I use Linux as an operating system in an ISP, in numerous businesses as mail and web servers, as routers, and as database servers. I have enough real-life puzzles to solve every day just involving the mix of Linux and Windows or Linux and the network. Why would I want to go home and solve pretend puzzles?
We educate the people who will eventually cripple this country economically. The next thing you know we'll be giving weapons to people who will eventually attack us.
So according to your theory the generation that deserves credit for the PC is the generation that popularized it? If "almost nobody" had personal computers when you started college in 1989 who do you suppose that computer shop you took your brand new credit card to was selling computers to? Or were they just waiting for you to arrive and thereby popularize the computer age? They must have been awfully grateful that you finally showed up.
By 1984, when you bought your TRS-80 at a yard sale (no doubt dropped off by time-traveling aliens because only one other person in your town had a PC and that was an Apple) we already had PCs using relational databases, spreadsheets, networks (bbs systems and FidoNet), color monitors, word processors and e-mail, and by the time you started college and bought that first PC we had the World Wide Web, DNS, tcp/ip and dial-up Internet accounts. In 1979, a decade before your freshman year, there were over half a million personal computers sold in the USA and in 1984 alone (when you were shopping yard sales at age 15) there were over 6 million personal computers sold. Who do you think bought them... 9-year olds?
That entire industry in 1984 (when a TRS-80 was so valueless that it was sold to a kid using his lawn mowing money) was built around grown-ups who used personal computers in their homes and small businesses for fun and profit. Perhaps not by anyone you knew but that doesn't mean that it didn't exist and wasn't a driving force in the national economy. By 1989 most towns had a computer store and every American city had dozens. Yet you think that "almost nobody" had them.
Taking credit for personal computers because you think you were the first ones to use them makes as much sense as claiming that the Interstate highway system wasn't really useful until you and your generation discovered it and popularized it so you should get the credit because you told all your friends about it. Or taking credit for airplanes and airline travel because more people travel by air today than 50 years ago. After all, airplanes weren't really useful until millions of people started using them.
And it doesn't matter if your parents and grandparents were computer idiots (although, frankly, it clarifies a lot); that doesn't mean everyone of that generation was.
Did you think all this technology sprang fully-formed out of the cosmos as soon as you found it? When you were carrying your brand new PC back to school from the store in 1989 all the pieces for the World Wide Web were already in place waiting for Tim Berners-Lee (born in 1955) to invent it and create the first web server and client the next year (1990). Most of those pieces were created by men and women born in the 1940s and 1950s.
I have a collection of slide rules which includes the model of Pickett 8" slide rule that was carried to the moon back in the day (not the actual slide rule, I hasten to add, just the same model). My 20-something son, who works as a network technician, asked me how they worked and so I demonstrated putting the "1" on the "C" scale over the "2" on the "D" scale and then the cursor over 2, 3, 4, etc. on the "C" scale to demonstrate multiplication.
He looked at it for a few moments and then asked, "Why didn't you just use a calculator?"
... Can be more than (basicly) just a file server. Over the past 3 years I've had to move a dozen customers from perfectly good, high up-time Linux servers to crap Windows 2003 servers because the applications that they relied upon moved to a database running MS SQL runtime on the server. This may, of course, backfire on the developers of those applications once MS decides to charge them a per-user fee that would greatly increase the costs of their products. Meanwhile, this simple maneuver has eliminated the possibility for many small businesses to use Linux file servers and save a crapload of money.
Instead of virtualization I would like to see them concentrate on letting Samba be a primary domain server or making MS SQL interoperate with MYSQL or PostGresSQL.
We have numerous servers on various subnets and have learned a few elemental precautions to having more than one server cracked:
1. Change the ssh port to something other than 22; 2. Use different root passwords on each machine; 3. Use selinux to block connections from IP addresses you do not control and to ports you don't want the machine connected to (like 6667); 4. If possible route all packets through a bridged machine which you can then use to monitor activities... be especially wary of IRC connections; 5. If you have email users set them up as nologin or/bin/false; 6. If you use ftp do not allow anonymous logins or, if you must allow connections, do not allow anonymous uploads; 7. Configure syslog so that it logs to several locations; and, 8. Use access lists on the routers to limit connections both in and out (including the new ssh port);
Crackers often forget to change lsof (list open files) and that utility can often be used (or reinstalled) to determine if a machine has been cracked and where the nasty bits are hidden.
The motion from the waves only serves to "pump" steam from heated sea-water into a condensor where the fresh-water is then pumped to shore via (apparently hollow) legs. But where does the steam come from? According to the article there is a "central section" that heats the sea water. No mention of how "wave power" plays a part in this nor is there any mention of just what, exactly, causes the sea-water to heat up. Presumably to 100C which is what the ballast water has to be "pre-heated" to in order to start the unit up.
It might work and even be more efficient than reverse-osmosis plants depending upon the source of power to keep heating the sea water. But it's certainly not "wave powered"
And then, of course, there is the problem of situation it where there are waves. Oddly enough, finding waves that are large enough to make this unit (20 meters long and 10 meters in diameter) go into motion. So you would have to put it in the open ocean, tethered close enough to land so that the water can be pumped ashore (and power pumped back out to heat the water). Even then you're likely to find that large waves are not as common as one might think.
They don't just read the press releases and then parrot them into a microphone, they discern the real story and then satarize it brilliantly.
A perfect example is when the Foley story broke on Monday that evening they devoted a lot of time to it and had one segment where their "reporter" said that anger in the capitol was building.... against the Democrats. On Tuesday there were Republicans actually saying the same thing on Fox.
Not many television shows are so perceptive that their stories predict the actions of the people in the news. This is one reason why I listen to NPR and watch The Daily Show.
I wonder how many Windows users know how to use Netstat -a -n. It's amazing how much BSD stuff Bill and his friends pulled into their OSes. That will give you a pretty good idea of where your computer is trying to go.
Every now and then I come across a posting on Slashdot that makes me want to stand up and salute. So many here just want everything given to them NOW and they think a government agency is the best bet. It's refreshing to see someone stand up for what this country used to be about.
The Grant County Public Utility District (GCPUD) - a public municipality under Washington State law - decided to do FTTH in 1999 but had secret contracts subsidizing certain favored service providers (they are prohibited from dealing with end-users by the legislation that let 'em into telecom) and stupidly sent internal emails around explaining to each other explaining how they were going to do it (these emails are available to the public under public disclosure laws in WA). Then they finagled things to get the money from their sales of tax-free municipal bonds to do the fiber installation but ignored the fact that the bond money would be used for private business (ISPs) on that fiber. The IRS hasn't ignored it though.
If that weren't enough they actually created a subsidiary "non-profit corporation" that is wholly owned by 17 PUDs in the State and use that to compete with the service providers that survived all the other crap.
The GCPUD now faces numerous claims under RICO and Federal Anti-Trust statutes, plus they will be sued by their bond-holders once the IRS requires them to restate their income from 2000 onwards.
And oh ya... they spent $30million for generators to jump onto the bandwagon of screwing Californians for their power bills but didn't get 'em into service before FERC put a cap on the prices of power. So they have generators that can generate electricity for $150/mw in a market where the price cap is under $50/mw. AND... California is suing them over the power they sold (generated by their two dams on the Columbia River - for which they are trying to renew licenses) at inflated prices before the cap.
They are into FTTH for over $100 million (in a County with about 60,000 people) and only one-third done.
Normally I don't bother replying to flames like yours because it's a waste of time. But your other posts make it appear that you aren't always unreasonable and anyone can have an off day, so:
Shifting the blame for the situation to Slashdot is nonsensical, but hey - "shooting the messenger" is a fun game with an ancient and honorable lineage, and any number can play.
I didn't shoot the messenger nor did I shift any blame. I didn't even accuse Slashdot of being unethical (although I asked the question). I simply wondered why, with all the comments made about what a nasty "experiment" this was, no one noticed that Slashdot had furthered it by its link. That Slashdot *has* furthered it (at least some) is undeniable; several hundred people posted comments indicating that they had followed the links on to the "experiment" itself. People who probably would have never noticed it absent the Slashdot article.
By the same token, how ethical was it for you to go and click the link to find out about the "experiment"?
Nothing in my post stated or implied that I have visited the site of the experiment so you must have made that leap on your own. I was posting on the comments made by Slashdot readers. Anyway, one person clicking on a link is far different than putting the link on a site visited by tens of thousands of people. And, again, I wasn't making a comment about whether or not Slashdot had done anything unethical... just that no one had noticed that it might be reasonably construed as unethical by some people. To extend this argument, if Slashdot posted a link that would lead a reader to child porn wouldn't that be as unethical (or even as illegal) as the post itself? It would not be necessary to have prior knowledge of the porn or to have originally posted the porn. But if they knew that the site being linked to had further links to the porn itself then I think at least some ethical breach would have occured. While this argument can be debated, I'm not sure I'd call it "nonsensical".
I thought your personal remarks ("(sorry if you were disappointed!)") as well as your accusation that I must have followed the links to the site itself were juvenile and uncalled for and amount to a personal attack. If "shooting the messenger" is a popular game then you seem adept at it.
It's interesting to me that I couldn't find anyone complaining about the Slashdot link to this "experiment". If it's unethical, immoral, illegal and just plain nasty to post all those responses then what is it if one of the largest Internet sites clues in a few tens-of-thousand more people to it?
But it's even more interesting that people still think that any ad for no-strings-sex on the Internet (on whatever site) posted by any "female" might be real. LOL
This may come as a shock to Slashdotters who think computers are all used for programming,gaming or porn surfing but there are still a ton of applications that use all-caps data entry. IBM i5 applications are commonly entered in all-caps; police and fire databases use them; even some accounting systems. Many of these are not accessed via terminals any more but by brand new spiffy PCs with CapsLock keys and without that key they wouldn't be buying new computers.
Rather than eliminating the CapsLock key why not substitute some alternative location like over the keypad (does anyone still use the Pause/Break key?). Or alt/shift for CapsLock.
Or forget the entire thing... just get us out of Iraq.
You say your Windows Vista/XP/Win2k3 server has stopped and no longer boots and you need your data. No problem. Boot with Knoppix (or similar), move the data to a handy FTP server, blow off Windows, replace with Linux/Unix with Samba and we're good to go.
Oh... you say that the developer of your most critical application switched to a MSSQL run-time and not to an open source database lke MySQL so you're locked in to MS operating systems?
Too bad for you. And probably too bad for that developer, too. Especially when MS decides that all those cheap run-time databases could be a cash-cow like Office.
You know, I believe you have got something here. Given the level of immaturity of the characters on "Friends", "Seinfield" and many other television programs combined with the behavior of the actors in various beer commercials, we may have lowered the bar for maturity. If the major media formats in our culture show examples of adult behavior that is, essentiallly, childish then who can blame the viewers for adopting those standards?
I'm reminded of an ex-girlfriend who seemed to me to over-react to situations. I was puzzled until I realized that she was acting as if she were a character on a television program; where drama is important. We may have a couple of generations now doing the same thing.
and they can't wait for their apps to make the move to Linux. One customer - and this is an end user - is talking openly about the "end of SCO". Another moved to an application running on an IBM i5 (the modern version of the AS400). If there is any cost involved to an upgrade or a fix, SCO customers often just move on to another platform. There is now an entire mini-industry involved in converting data on SCO servers to some other server.
Besides, even the latest versions of SCO/unix seriously suck. We swapped out a tape drive in one and it took days to get it running and required lots of phone time. Until I started on this project I had forgotten how difficult Linux was in 1993; that's where SCO is now.
Plus no bash shell. No up-arrow command scrolling. Arggh!
Slashdot Mirror
It's interesting that pursuing new frontiers has not been the riskiest behavior after all. Rather, the greatest risk has been riding the 30-year-old shuttles run by a management team that seemed to have other priorities than flight crew safety.
I think a case could be made that had NASA been moving towards new technologies and new manned-space-flight programs there might actually have been fewer people killed as a result. Instead of becoming the hide-bound, more bureaucratic, risk-averse agency we see today NASA might well have blossomed into a competence-driven, vibrant agency in pursuit of new frontiers. One in which managers could have well imagined problems with frozen O-rngs, for instance. Or listened more closely to arguments in favor of simple flight maneuvers to inspect the shuttle after seeing evidence of impacts from debris blown off the booster rockets.
Perhaps risk-averse behavior might be the highest risk after all.
The *only* reason I got an iPhone was because it had a Unix basis and once jailbroken it would do ssh and allow me to remotely work on servers while anchored on my little 37-year-old Carver cabin cruiser in a quiet cove in the San Juan Islands. If that goes away I go somewhere else. So why not just release the C64 to Cydia and end-run around the Apple requirements? I realize why Apple does it, but every geek I know has a jail-broken iPhone.
At any rate, the C64 app is no longer available at the app store.
Or bought a kayak and made one run down a river... yes I think the "one twit wonder" phenomenon is caused by this; at least in part. Plus, let's face it, most people really don't have that much to say. Interesting or not. Nothing you can do will prod them into actually saying something other than, "cool!".
I got a Twitter account for the sole purpose of following Lance Armstrong's return to cycling and, because Armstrong is a really dedicated tweeter, it was worth it. I found, to my astonishment, that a bunch of people began to follow me. Turns out that paddling friends (kayakers) follow me
Facebook, to me, is far more useful because my kids, their friends, and quite a few of my friends are on it and post frequently about what they're doing. So we can keep up easier than by making telephone calls. I even use it from my iphone (which I bought so I could do network stuff from my sport fishing boat anchored in the San Juans... at least I could once it was jailbroke).
Twitter is clearly a fad... but as a bicycle race fan I find Lance Armstrong's writing to be an interesting inside look into that sport's international scene.
Once you burn off your distinctive fingerprints you leave a finger with either no prints or (more likely) several distinctive scars. Since only a tiny number of people have actually done this you would become even more distinctive than you are now. In addition, they'd start to wonder just exactly why you went to so much trouble to hide your identity. I'm pretty sure that the bureaucratic mind would think up all sorts of possible reasons and investigate every single one of them thoroughly.
I've found that, as an engineer myself (originally) the greatest lack of understanding among computer science majors are the details of the hardware itself. I've had guys with CS degrees try to control 120VAC equipment using the parallel port!! And then not understand at all why this is not a good idea. Control systems are a burgeoning field all by themselves and because they're all computerized now it's a great area.
Even though my two children grew up in the 1990s when things were considerably more innocent, I recognized the potential threats to them from unfettered access to the Internet. As a Linux guy you have some advantages that Windows people either don't have at all or must pay for.
First of all, do not put a computer in a child's room where the door can be closed and your supervision over them is reduced. It's your job as a parent to keep them safe until they are sophisticated enough to know how to do that on their own. A "family" computer in the play room or living room installed so that you can look at the screen easily is the best way to keep them safe.
I use Linux as the border router for my home systems and this gives you a leg up on the predators because you can use sniffers like Nast to actually monitor their keystrokes. I found that all I had to do was demonstrate this once to have a lasting effect. I told my son that I could read every letter he typed. He didn't believe me. I asked him to type something to a friend on Yahoo and, from another room, I read it back to him. I didn't have to keep monitoring him... all that was needed was for him to know that I could.
Another time my wife and I were on vacation in California and our almost-18 son was home. I logged into the router, then logged into the music computer (also Linux) and started playing mp3s in my computer room. I turned up the volume. Then Mom called him on the phone. "How do you turn it down?" was his first question. Again, it demonstrated that there was supervision even when we were not there in person. Plus it was noon... time for him to get his ass out of bed and mow the lawn. LOL
Finally, I used Squid and periodically grepped the access.log for the seven words you can't say on television. When I found a site they should not be going to I denied it in the access lists.
I do not consider any of this to have been undue scrutiny or spying. I really never bothered to monitor keystrokes after that one demonstration. And both of my kids grew up, went to college, avoided all the serious pitfalls of growing up, and are contributing members of society. My son is now my partner in our network engineering firm.
A customer of mine moved to Windows servers and away from the DEC Microvax they'd used for several years. My partner talked me into trading them two mice (logitech mice) for it and we loaded it up in my truck along with cables, workstations, software, manuals, etc. We figured we could load up a version of Unix on it and make it do something fun. Unfortunately it had no FP capability and we couldn't come up with any free unix to run on it. The thing spent a few years in a storage closet until we finally threw it away (covertly).
Apparently trying to play with older high-tech gear is a common failing for geeks. Only one time did it work for me. Another customer migrated away from an IBM i5 and asked me to come get it. I thought they were kidding until they called me and asked me to come get it "now!". Four of us moved it to my pickup truck and we sold it for $4k on eBay. In the paperwork we discovered an invoice for $30k that they had spent upgrading it the year before.
I don't know what you rocket scientists think an iPhone (cell phone, after all) is going to connect to out on the ocean. Once you are about 20 miles offshore there is no cell phone service at all. This is why ships use satellite phone systems, HF radios, morse code, etc.
I use Linux as an operating system in an ISP, in numerous businesses as mail and web servers, as routers, and as database servers. I have enough real-life puzzles to solve every day just involving the mix of Linux and Windows or Linux and the network. Why would I want to go home and solve pretend puzzles?
We educate the people who will eventually cripple this country economically. The next thing you know we'll be giving weapons to people who will eventually attack us.
Oh, wait....
As I said, having parents who were not that bright explains a lot.
So according to your theory the generation that deserves credit for the PC is the generation that popularized it? If "almost nobody" had personal computers when you started college in 1989 who do you suppose that computer shop you took your brand new credit card to was selling computers to? Or were they just waiting for you to arrive and thereby popularize the computer age? They must have been awfully grateful that you finally showed up.
By 1984, when you bought your TRS-80 at a yard sale (no doubt dropped off by time-traveling aliens because only one other person in your town had a PC and that was an Apple) we already had PCs using relational databases, spreadsheets, networks (bbs systems and FidoNet), color monitors, word processors and e-mail, and by the time you started college and bought that first PC we had the World Wide Web, DNS, tcp/ip and dial-up Internet accounts. In 1979, a decade before your freshman year, there were over half a million personal computers sold in the USA and in 1984 alone (when you were shopping yard sales at age 15) there were over 6 million personal computers sold. Who do you think bought them... 9-year olds?
That entire industry in 1984 (when a TRS-80 was so valueless that it was sold to a kid using his lawn mowing money) was built around grown-ups who used personal computers in their homes and small businesses for fun and profit. Perhaps not by anyone you knew but that doesn't mean that it didn't exist and wasn't a driving force in the national economy. By 1989 most towns had a computer store and every American city had dozens. Yet you think that "almost nobody" had them.
Taking credit for personal computers because you think you were the first ones to use them makes as much sense as claiming that the Interstate highway system wasn't really useful until you and your generation discovered it and popularized it so you should get the credit because you told all your friends about it. Or taking credit for airplanes and airline travel because more people travel by air today than 50 years ago. After all, airplanes weren't really useful until millions of people started using them.
And it doesn't matter if your parents and grandparents were computer idiots (although, frankly, it clarifies a lot); that doesn't mean everyone of that generation was.
Did you think all this technology sprang fully-formed out of the cosmos as soon as you found it? When you were carrying your brand new PC back to school from the store in 1989 all the pieces for the World Wide Web were already in place waiting for Tim Berners-Lee (born in 1955) to invent it and create the first web server and client the next year (1990). Most of those pieces were created by men and women born in the 1940s and 1950s.
But I guess their work isn't very important.
I suppose you think you invented sex, too.
I have a collection of slide rules which includes the model of Pickett 8" slide rule that was carried to the moon back in the day (not the actual slide rule, I hasten to add, just the same model). My 20-something son, who works as a network technician, asked me how they worked and so I demonstrated putting the "1" on the "C" scale over the "2" on the "D" scale and then the cursor over 2, 3, 4, etc. on the "C" scale to demonstrate multiplication.
He looked at it for a few moments and then asked, "Why didn't you just use a calculator?"
... Can be more than (basicly) just a file server. Over the past 3 years I've had to move a dozen customers from perfectly good, high up-time Linux servers to crap Windows 2003 servers because the applications that they relied upon moved to a database running MS SQL runtime on the server. This may, of course, backfire on the developers of those applications once MS decides to charge them a per-user fee that would greatly increase the costs of their products. Meanwhile, this simple maneuver has eliminated the possibility for many small businesses to use Linux file servers and save a crapload of money.
Instead of virtualization I would like to see them concentrate on letting Samba be a primary domain server or making MS SQL interoperate with MYSQL or PostGresSQL.
We have numerous servers on various subnets and have learned a few elemental precautions to having more than one server cracked:
/bin/false;
1. Change the ssh port to something other than 22;
2. Use different root passwords on each machine;
3. Use selinux to block connections from IP addresses you do not control and to ports you don't want the machine connected to (like 6667);
4. If possible route all packets through a bridged machine which you can then use to monitor activities... be especially wary of IRC connections;
5. If you have email users set them up as nologin or
6. If you use ftp do not allow anonymous logins or, if you must allow connections, do not allow anonymous uploads;
7. Configure syslog so that it logs to several locations; and,
8. Use access lists on the routers to limit connections both in and out (including the new ssh port);
Crackers often forget to change lsof (list open files) and that utility can often be used (or reinstalled) to determine if a machine has been cracked and where the nasty bits are hidden.
The motion from the waves only serves to "pump" steam from heated sea-water into a condensor where the fresh-water is then pumped to shore via (apparently hollow) legs. But where does the steam come from? According to the article there is a "central section" that heats the sea water. No mention of how "wave power" plays a part in this nor is there any mention of just what, exactly, causes the sea-water to heat up. Presumably to 100C which is what the ballast water has to be "pre-heated" to in order to start the unit up.
It might work and even be more efficient than reverse-osmosis plants depending upon the source of power to keep heating the sea water. But it's certainly not "wave powered"
And then, of course, there is the problem of situation it where there are waves. Oddly enough, finding waves that are large enough to make this unit (20 meters long and 10 meters in diameter) go into motion. So you would have to put it in the open ocean, tethered close enough to land so that the water can be pumped ashore (and power pumped back out to heat the water). Even then you're likely to find that large waves are not as common as one might think.
I'd sure hate to run into one in a sailboat.
They don't just read the press releases and then parrot them into a microphone, they discern the real story and then satarize it brilliantly.
A perfect example is when the Foley story broke on Monday that evening they devoted a lot of time to it and had one segment where their "reporter" said that anger in the capitol was building.... against the Democrats. On Tuesday there were Republicans actually saying the same thing on Fox.
Not many television shows are so perceptive that their stories predict the actions of the people in the news. This is one reason why I listen to NPR and watch The Daily Show.
I wonder how many Windows users know how to use Netstat -a -n. It's amazing how much BSD stuff Bill and his friends pulled into their OSes. That will give you a pretty good idea of where your computer is trying to go.
Every now and then I come across a posting on Slashdot that makes me want to stand up and salute. So many here just want everything given to them NOW and they think a government agency is the best bet. It's refreshing to see someone stand up for what this country used to be about.
The Grant County Public Utility District (GCPUD) - a public municipality under Washington State law - decided to do FTTH in 1999 but had secret contracts subsidizing certain favored service providers (they are prohibited from dealing with end-users by the legislation that let 'em into telecom) and stupidly sent internal emails around explaining to each other explaining how they were going to do it (these emails are available to the public under public disclosure laws in WA). Then they finagled things to get the money from their sales of tax-free municipal bonds to do the fiber installation but ignored the fact that the bond money would be used for private business (ISPs) on that fiber. The IRS hasn't ignored it though.
If that weren't enough they actually created a subsidiary "non-profit corporation" that is wholly owned by 17 PUDs in the State and use that to compete with the service providers that survived all the other crap.
The GCPUD now faces numerous claims under RICO and Federal Anti-Trust statutes, plus they will be sued by their bond-holders once the IRS requires them to restate their income from 2000 onwards.
And oh ya... they spent $30million for generators to jump onto the bandwagon of screwing Californians for their power bills but didn't get 'em into service before FERC put a cap on the prices of power. So they have generators that can generate electricity for $150/mw in a market where the price cap is under $50/mw. AND... California is suing them over the power they sold (generated by their two dams on the Columbia River - for which they are trying to renew licenses) at inflated prices before the cap.
They are into FTTH for over $100 million (in a County with about 60,000 people) and only one-third done.
Normally I don't bother replying to flames like yours because it's a waste of time. But your other posts make it appear that you aren't always unreasonable and anyone can have an off day, so:
Shifting the blame for the situation to Slashdot is nonsensical, but hey - "shooting the messenger" is a fun game with an ancient and honorable lineage, and any number can play.
I didn't shoot the messenger nor did I shift any blame. I didn't even accuse Slashdot of being unethical (although I asked the question). I simply wondered why, with all the comments made about what a nasty "experiment" this was, no one noticed that Slashdot had furthered it by its link. That Slashdot *has* furthered it (at least some) is undeniable; several hundred people posted comments indicating that they had followed the links on to the "experiment" itself. People who probably would have never noticed it absent the Slashdot article.
By the same token, how ethical was it for you to go and click the link to find out about the "experiment"?
Nothing in my post stated or implied that I have visited the site of the experiment so you must have made that leap on your own. I was posting on the comments made by Slashdot readers. Anyway, one person clicking on a link is far different than putting the link on a site visited by tens of thousands of people. And, again, I wasn't making a comment about whether or not Slashdot had done anything unethical... just that no one had noticed that it might be reasonably construed as unethical by some people. To extend this argument, if Slashdot posted a link that would lead a reader to child porn wouldn't that be as unethical (or even as illegal) as the post itself? It would not be necessary to have prior knowledge of the porn or to have originally posted the porn. But if they knew that the site being linked to had further links to the porn itself then I think at least some ethical breach would have occured. While this argument can be debated, I'm not sure I'd call it "nonsensical".
I thought your personal remarks ("(sorry if you were disappointed!)") as well as your accusation that I must have followed the links to the site itself were juvenile and uncalled for and amount to a personal attack. If "shooting the messenger" is a popular game then you seem adept at it.
It's interesting to me that I couldn't find anyone complaining about the Slashdot link to this "experiment". If it's unethical, immoral, illegal and just plain nasty to post all those responses then what is it if one of the largest Internet sites clues in a few tens-of-thousand more people to it?
But it's even more interesting that people still think that any ad for no-strings-sex on the Internet (on whatever site) posted by any "female" might be real. LOL
This may come as a shock to Slashdotters who think computers are all used for programming,gaming or porn surfing but there are still a ton of applications that use all-caps data entry. IBM i5 applications are commonly entered in all-caps; police and fire databases use them; even some accounting systems. Many of these are not accessed via terminals any more but by brand new spiffy PCs with CapsLock keys and without that key they wouldn't be buying new computers.
Rather than eliminating the CapsLock key why not substitute some alternative location like over the keypad (does anyone still use the Pause/Break key?). Or alt/shift for CapsLock.
Or forget the entire thing... just get us out of Iraq.
You say your Windows Vista/XP/Win2k3 server has stopped and no longer boots and you need your data. No problem. Boot with Knoppix (or similar), move the data to a handy FTP server, blow off Windows, replace with Linux/Unix with Samba and we're good to go.
Oh... you say that the developer of your most critical application switched to a MSSQL run-time and not to an open source database lke MySQL so you're locked in to MS operating systems?
Too bad for you. And probably too bad for that developer, too. Especially when MS decides that all those cheap run-time databases could be a cash-cow like Office.
You know, I believe you have got something here. Given the level of immaturity of the characters on "Friends", "Seinfield" and many other television programs combined with the behavior of the actors in various beer commercials, we may have lowered the bar for maturity. If the major media formats in our culture show examples of adult behavior that is, essentiallly, childish then who can blame the viewers for adopting those standards?
:)
I'm reminded of an ex-girlfriend who seemed to me to over-react to situations. I was puzzled until I realized that she was acting as if she were a character on a television program; where drama is important. We may have a couple of generations now doing the same thing.
Nice work.
and they can't wait for their apps to make the move to Linux. One customer - and this is an end user - is talking openly about the "end of SCO". Another moved to an application running on an IBM i5 (the modern version of the AS400). If there is any cost involved to an upgrade or a fix, SCO customers often just move on to another platform. There is now an entire mini-industry involved in converting data on SCO servers to some other server.
Besides, even the latest versions of SCO/unix seriously suck. We swapped out a tape drive in one and it took days to get it running and required lots of phone time. Until I started on this project I had forgotten how difficult Linux was in 1993; that's where SCO is now.
Plus no bash shell. No up-arrow command scrolling. Arggh!