Though, when Slashdot readers kill a server, it's because thousands of people are trying to legitimately access information that is put online for this purpose. If thousands of people kill TinyURL because they're swapping large files, it is frankly an illegitimate use of the service. Maybe not illegal, but certainly inappropriate to the vast detriment of the service and its other customers. Your public library is free, too, but if a bunch of people began standing in the doorway to swap goods and kept other patrons out, the police would probably show up to eject them.
Pretty soon you'll see someone trying to use this as their backup system for 30gb of pr0n. Will large files kill TinyURL? What kind of latency is this going to introduce? If nothing else, this might constitute a DoS attack on TinyURL.com (which would be illegal.
Let's face it: you can add all the security you want, but a determined thief/hacker/criminal will always find a way in. Always. Protect yourselves as much as you can, yes. Just don't expect anything to be 100% secure forever.
Looking at the VOIPSA Wiki, there is a section entitled "Social Threats." Naively I assumed this section would cover things like social engineering, telemarketing, etc. Instead it has such gems as "Modern interactive communication systems can include more than two people in a session and people can move fluidly from role-to-role, including: initiating contact; joining communication in progress; accepting contact; terminating communication in progress; refusing contact." This needs to be explained?
Eradicating poverty is one of the central commands of God in the Christian Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments. The earliest church (e.g. Peter, Paul, James, etc.) had community sharing programs, and welfare projects for widows and orphans, that put most of America's churches to shame. Science has not made us rich. Business has made us rich. Money drives science.
As for history, most sociologists today (secular and otherwise) believe that the Protestant Reformation was directly responsible for the Industrial Revolution.
The "morality" espoused by the religious right, on the other hand, seems limited in scope to that which is necessary to suppress the rights of women and maintain a patriarchal society... With God on your side, what atrocities are you not free to commit?
*sigh*
When are people going to realize that Christianity in modern America is precisely the kind of Pharisee-like system that Jesus preached against? Christians are called to be known by their love and sacrifice... and yet are more famous for suppression of rights and ignorance of wrongs.
There are any number of Christians who we can all agree "got it right" -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Dr. Charles Malek, Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, and the like. They are, unfortunately, in the vast minority.
Just a few days ago, there was another article on Slashdot about how Ballmer wants to "storm Linux." If they can convince *nix people that Windows has a powerful CLI, this will do much to suck them in... it is the "eye candy" for true geeks.
The article author starts to say this himself: My biggest frustration with MSH is the low quality of the actual shell interface. On my Linux system, I am extremely dependent on line editing keyboard shortcuts that simplify manipulation and alteration of command line input. MSH has very few line editing shortcuts, and extremely limited support for tab completion.
And I remember when CP/M was all the rage... *sigh*
The point that people like you were talking to seem to miss is that assuming the existence of a god to explain current lack of scientific understanding of scientific questions has always been a losing proposition.
Quite true. It is absolutely pointless for Christians to try to convince others of their faith by trying to prove it logically and scientifically. So far, religion hasn't helped us discover vaccines, send people into space, create new plastic polymers, or any of the other things which we should expect from scientists.*
Conversely, scientists have a habit of thinking science can figure everything out. Science can determine scientific things, sending people to the moon, deconstructing viruses to develop vaccines, etc. But, so far, science still isn't helping us be nicer people, eradicating poverty around the world, stopping violence, or any of the other things which we should expect from people of faith.*
* These are not 100% true statements, of course. Many scientists have been driven in their quests by their faith, while many charitable people are athiests. By and large, though, famous scientists tend to be athiests, while famous humanitarians tend to be religious.
I work with PHP and Java (and JSP and XML and enough other acroynms to choke a hippo). Andressen's comments seem so clearly aimed at server-side Java. PHP doesn't do client side, though there are projects underway like GTK and WinBinder. But still... Java was supposed to kill C, and it didn't. PHP won't kill Java either.
From the article: "Our belief is that the winner in this space will be those that have the largest ecosystem," Whitman said. "What I mean by that is: the largest number of registered users, the largest number of voice minutes, the largest number of developers who develop the platform, the best product... that users are willing and want to pay for."
Aside from the marketing fru-fru use of of the word "ecosystem," she makes perfect sense. Except that she can't assume that just because someone sells something on eBay, they will use Skype. As for the largest number of developers, it's not like these other guys are small potatoes.
As for advertising... maybe it's just something in the background of your free phone calls, like a softly playing radio station. Maybe it just has onscreen ads every time you use the software (e.g. the Eudora model). Maybe they mean they'll sell your Skype number to telemarketers!
The real question is, how can eBay blend its online auctions and PayPal with VoIP features? Voice chat with a seller? Real live auctioneers during the final mad minutes of an auction? Auctioning off vanity Skype numbers, or access to Skype-based porn?
From the article:...in many of these cluster and grid scenarios -- scenarios that often involve home grown setups with versions of Linux that aren't supported by any of the various Linux distributors -- the people running them are again not incurring any licensing costs on the operating system.
Yeah... it seems like there is a basic concept here, that the kind of people who need clusters are also the kind of people who can generally take care of them, themselves. Or is Ballmer trying to suggest that MS can make clustering so easy and slick that any old researcher with a few processors could set it up?
As for the "better UNIX than Linux" quote... uh... what??? Microsoft Unix? Isn't it obvious that Solaris and AIX users migrate to Linux 75% of the time because they're familiar with the basic OS underpinnings? It's a knowledge reuse issue. Does Ballmer really expect MS to create an OS that is similar enough to capitalize on this reuse?
...a software company releases unstable development-stage software that looks different than the previous version, and may continue to change as the code progresses! News at eleven.
You'd think if GM and other American auto makers can install On Star to help people find directions and lost vehicles, then our space agencies could use it too. Sheesh!
You really think they're not planning on selling this, or a derivative of it? Neuros is an LLC -- a for-profit company. They will make money from contributed suggestions.
At least my contributions to OSS still allow me to get free copies of the improved software. Hardware is not open source. Hardware plans may be, and perhaps Neuros will release the specs for free so hardware geeks can assemble their own. But Neuros is still going to SELL A DEVICE.
This is just a bunch of marketing fru-fru. The last 10,000-year clock I bought only lasted 6,738 years (give or take a month). Even if you take into account my time travel, I still should have gotten a good 8,500 years out of it, at least.
The real question is support. Will the manufacturer still be around in 3,000 years when you need to replace the little rubber feet? Are vendors and repair centers going to stock replacement parts? How much does an extended warranty cost?
My gosh...
if we only knew the origins of the Solar System...
if we could walk on the surface of Mars...
if we had the answers to "many of the questions we want to ask about the origin of the Solar System and the evolution of life within it" (from the article)...
So if I give some good feedback, and the company takes it, what do I get in return? A demo model? A discount? Credits in the fine print? At least with OSS, my free contributions go to a free product. There are some intellectual property issues here, methinks (or else Neuros isn't taking this seriously).
Won't the DS get all greasy and slippery when you try to each french fries while playing? I like the "Official photo of a DS gamer enjoying online play at McDonald's" -- all he has is a drink, and he appears to be holding the DS as if he's watching a movie.
Does this mean kiddies are going to get free games in their Happy Meals? Just what we need: more crappy DS games.
And, from the article: "Beginning with free access at participating McDonald's, we have removed one of the major barriers that have kept people from going online to play games." Yeah, that's what I was waiting for: intense gaming at a crummy fast food joint. Thank God for McDonald's!
Not to be outdone by the Air Force, Steve Jobs just announced that the forthcoming PowerBook G5 will feature a bulletproof transparent aluminum case. This follows Apple's longstanding tradition of using expensive metals for G4 laptop cases: first titanium, now airplane aluminum, soon transparent aluminum. Apple designer Jonathan Ives expressed some disappointment that they had not yet been able to create a commercially viable uranium shell, but was optimistic that the transparent aluminum would still be sexy.
There are a number of actually useful reasons for this kind of driver, security being one of them. E.g. you could split out your LAN from your Internet connection and allow users to log into different access points simultaneously to get the work done that they need: stuff on the Internet versus stuff on the local network.
OTOH, if you can set up one of your virtual WiFi cards to be an ad hoc access point routing to another virtual WiFi instance that is connected to an internal network, then other people could hop on and use your computer as a WiFi router.
The real question is, can you virtualize Slashdot opinions?
Let's face it, Time Warner's strengths are in content (magazines, movies, books) while Microsoft's strengths are in technology (to put it politely). The one thing Google does not have is exclusive content. Imagine if MSN and AOL began delivering exclusive Time Warner branded content -- could be enough to attract a lot of people.
Slashdot Mirror
You're probably right. "Illegal" is too much.
Though, when Slashdot readers kill a server, it's because thousands of people are trying to legitimately access information that is put online for this purpose. If thousands of people kill TinyURL because they're swapping large files, it is frankly an illegitimate use of the service. Maybe not illegal, but certainly inappropriate to the vast detriment of the service and its other customers. Your public library is free, too, but if a bunch of people began standing in the doorway to swap goods and kept other patrons out, the police would probably show up to eject them.
Pretty soon you'll see someone trying to use this as their backup system for 30gb of pr0n. Will large files kill TinyURL? What kind of latency is this going to introduce? If nothing else, this might constitute a DoS attack on TinyURL.com (which would be illegal.
It's still interesting work.
I'm waiting for Disney to release a kiddie flick about a boy who pirates movies but eventually gets in trouble and learns the error of his ways.
Let's face it: you can add all the security you want, but a determined thief/hacker/criminal will always find a way in. Always. Protect yourselves as much as you can, yes. Just don't expect anything to be 100% secure forever.
Looking at the VOIPSA Wiki, there is a section entitled "Social Threats." Naively I assumed this section would cover things like social engineering, telemarketing, etc. Instead it has such gems as "Modern interactive communication systems can include more than two people in a session and people can move fluidly from role-to-role, including: initiating contact; joining communication in progress; accepting contact; terminating communication in progress; refusing contact." This needs to be explained?
Eradicating poverty is one of the central commands of God in the Christian Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments. The earliest church (e.g. Peter, Paul, James, etc.) had community sharing programs, and welfare projects for widows and orphans, that put most of America's churches to shame. Science has not made us rich. Business has made us rich. Money drives science.
As for history, most sociologists today (secular and otherwise) believe that the Protestant Reformation was directly responsible for the Industrial Revolution.
The "morality" espoused by the religious right, on the other hand, seems limited in scope to that which is necessary to suppress the rights of women and maintain a patriarchal society... With God on your side, what atrocities are you not free to commit?
*sigh*
When are people going to realize that Christianity in modern America is precisely the kind of Pharisee-like system that Jesus preached against? Christians are called to be known by their love and sacrifice... and yet are more famous for suppression of rights and ignorance of wrongs.
There are any number of Christians who we can all agree "got it right" -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Dr. Charles Malek, Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, and the like. They are, unfortunately, in the vast minority.
And the people whose lives science was designed to control won't care much about real right and wrong in the world.
Just a few days ago, there was another article on Slashdot about how Ballmer wants to "storm Linux." If they can convince *nix people that Windows has a powerful CLI, this will do much to suck them in... it is the "eye candy" for true geeks.
The article author starts to say this himself: My biggest frustration with MSH is the low quality of the actual shell interface. On my Linux system, I am extremely dependent on line editing keyboard shortcuts that simplify manipulation and alteration of command line input. MSH has very few line editing shortcuts, and extremely limited support for tab completion.
And I remember when CP/M was all the rage... *sigh*
The point that people like you were talking to seem to miss is that assuming the existence of a god to explain current lack of scientific understanding of scientific questions has always been a losing proposition.
Quite true. It is absolutely pointless for Christians to try to convince others of their faith by trying to prove it logically and scientifically. So far, religion hasn't helped us discover vaccines, send people into space, create new plastic polymers, or any of the other things which we should expect from scientists.*
Conversely, scientists have a habit of thinking science can figure everything out. Science can determine scientific things, sending people to the moon, deconstructing viruses to develop vaccines, etc. But, so far, science still isn't helping us be nicer people, eradicating poverty around the world, stopping violence, or any of the other things which we should expect from people of faith.*
* These are not 100% true statements, of course. Many scientists have been driven in their quests by their faith, while many charitable people are athiests. By and large, though, famous scientists tend to be athiests, while famous humanitarians tend to be religious.
I work with PHP and Java (and JSP and XML and enough other acroynms to choke a hippo). Andressen's comments seem so clearly aimed at server-side Java. PHP doesn't do client side, though there are projects underway like GTK and WinBinder. But still... Java was supposed to kill C, and it didn't. PHP won't kill Java either.
From the article: "Our belief is that the winner in this space will be those that have the largest ecosystem," Whitman said. "What I mean by that is: the largest number of registered users, the largest number of voice minutes, the largest number of developers who develop the platform, the best product ... that users are willing and want to pay for."
Aside from the marketing fru-fru use of of the word "ecosystem," she makes perfect sense. Except that she can't assume that just because someone sells something on eBay, they will use Skype. As for the largest number of developers, it's not like these other guys are small potatoes.
As for advertising... maybe it's just something in the background of your free phone calls, like a softly playing radio station. Maybe it just has onscreen ads every time you use the software (e.g. the Eudora model). Maybe they mean they'll sell your Skype number to telemarketers!
The real question is, how can eBay blend its online auctions and PayPal with VoIP features? Voice chat with a seller? Real live auctioneers during the final mad minutes of an auction? Auctioning off vanity Skype numbers, or access to Skype-based porn?
Maybe you should stop by this place before eBay makes their phone calls free.
From the article: ...in many of these cluster and grid scenarios -- scenarios that often involve home grown setups with versions of Linux that aren't supported by any of the various Linux distributors -- the people running them are again not incurring any licensing costs on the operating system.
Yeah... it seems like there is a basic concept here, that the kind of people who need clusters are also the kind of people who can generally take care of them, themselves. Or is Ballmer trying to suggest that MS can make clustering so easy and slick that any old researcher with a few processors could set it up?
As for the "better UNIX than Linux" quote... uh... what??? Microsoft Unix? Isn't it obvious that Solaris and AIX users migrate to Linux 75% of the time because they're familiar with the basic OS underpinnings? It's a knowledge reuse issue. Does Ballmer really expect MS to create an OS that is similar enough to capitalize on this reuse?
...a software company releases unstable development-stage software that looks different than the previous version, and may continue to change as the code progresses! News at eleven.
I get timeout errors.
Just as you would with Windows Vista! See, it really is a demonstration copy!
You'd think if GM and other American auto makers can install On Star to help people find directions and lost vehicles, then our space agencies could use it too. Sheesh!
You really think they're not planning on selling this, or a derivative of it? Neuros is an LLC -- a for-profit company. They will make money from contributed suggestions.
At least my contributions to OSS still allow me to get free copies of the improved software. Hardware is not open source. Hardware plans may be, and perhaps Neuros will release the specs for free so hardware geeks can assemble their own. But Neuros is still going to SELL A DEVICE.
...a foreign programmer is moving to America to work on technology projects for a rich dot-com investor. This has never happened before, has it?
This is just a bunch of marketing fru-fru. The last 10,000-year clock I bought only lasted 6,738 years (give or take a month). Even if you take into account my time travel, I still should have gotten a good 8,500 years out of it, at least.
The real question is support. Will the manufacturer still be around in 3,000 years when you need to replace the little rubber feet? Are vendors and repair centers going to stock replacement parts? How much does an extended warranty cost?
My gosh...
if we only knew the origins of the Solar System...
if we could walk on the surface of Mars...
if we had the answers to "many of the questions we want to ask about the origin of the Solar System and the evolution of life within it" (from the article)...
THEN maybe we would be able to eradicate poverty, achieve universal primary education, promote human equality, improve maternal health and child mortality rates, eradicate malaria and much much more!!! Yeah! Someone said $100 billion? Sounds good to me!
So if I give some good feedback, and the company takes it, what do I get in return? A demo model? A discount? Credits in the fine print? At least with OSS, my free contributions go to a free product. There are some intellectual property issues here, methinks (or else Neuros isn't taking this seriously).
Won't the DS get all greasy and slippery when you try to each french fries while playing? I like the "Official photo of a DS gamer enjoying online play at McDonald's" -- all he has is a drink, and he appears to be holding the DS as if he's watching a movie.
Does this mean kiddies are going to get free games in their Happy Meals? Just what we need: more crappy DS games.
And, from the article: "Beginning with free access at participating McDonald's, we have removed one of the major barriers that have kept people from going online to play games." Yeah, that's what I was waiting for: intense gaming at a crummy fast food joint. Thank God for McDonald's!
Not to be outdone by the Air Force, Steve Jobs just announced that the forthcoming PowerBook G5 will feature a bulletproof transparent aluminum case. This follows Apple's longstanding tradition of using expensive metals for G4 laptop cases: first titanium, now airplane aluminum, soon transparent aluminum. Apple designer Jonathan Ives expressed some disappointment that they had not yet been able to create a commercially viable uranium shell, but was optimistic that the transparent aluminum would still be sexy.
There are a number of actually useful reasons for this kind of driver, security being one of them. E.g. you could split out your LAN from your Internet connection and allow users to log into different access points simultaneously to get the work done that they need: stuff on the Internet versus stuff on the local network.
OTOH, if you can set up one of your virtual WiFi cards to be an ad hoc access point routing to another virtual WiFi instance that is connected to an internal network, then other people could hop on and use your computer as a WiFi router.
The real question is, can you virtualize Slashdot opinions?
Let's face it, Time Warner's strengths are in content (magazines, movies, books) while Microsoft's strengths are in technology (to put it politely). The one thing Google does not have is exclusive content. Imagine if MSN and AOL began delivering exclusive Time Warner branded content -- could be enough to attract a lot of people.
Just a thought.