When I first read the post, I thought "No, it must have been a neo-con from Yale that was quoted."
Yet another misconception reinforced by (deliberately?) skewed data. Lies, damn lies, and statistics. The real problem is an educational system that historically has pigeon-holed students based upon sex, race, or creed into career paths that are dictated by institutional bias.
The actual problem can be traced back to IntelSat's adoption of a MS Java-based ground control system (from Lockheed M&DS). The WinXP platforms have been upgraded to SP2 without their IT security officer's approval. During the brief time that the computers were exposed to MS Update on the internet, they were compromised.
A consortium of the Russian mob and the North Koreans (AKA SPECTRE) are now trying to blackmail IntelSat/Lockheed, one comm satellite at a time. Right now they are only shutting them down, but there is the prospect that they will start de-orbiting them.
(... takes off tin foil hat to put on a
contruction hardhat...)
Face it. Google is flush with cash, they have always run lean & mean, and there are a lot of dead and/or dying telcos that own "dark" fiber. Buying unused fiber from the likes of Global Crossing, PSINet, and WorldCom would put them in the forefront of possible ISPs. And considering the brave new world of VoIP, Google might just want to be your next phone company, too.
I don't want to give the appearance of being a troll here, but WTF? The only downside to using X11 is that the development team isn't in a toe-to-toe slugfest with whatever the platform dependent GUI-of-the-day is.
OOo long ago (3+ years) decided that they would fork OO between platforms instead of using a common source tree with #IFDEFs to handle platform dependencies. The argument promulgated was that separate source trees would make use of platform dependent GUI standards better. My argument (at the time) was that a common source tree would be easier to maintain, and so what if the application did not look like other apps on the same platform -- a common look-and-feel across platforms would establish some measure of "branding". Well, okay -- so why now drop the differentiation between platforms that OOo thought was so necessary (and break the common source tree maintenence relief)? And especially only for the Max OSX platform?
What I see is 3+ years of wasting time on platform differentiation (to compete head-to-head with MS Office), instead of making the entire suite slicker and more feature-rich. As it turns out, anyone trying to stay current with constantly evolving GUI standards from either Microsoft or Apple is "chasing their tails". IMHO, "look-and-feel" can easily be trumped by top quality rock solid code, and a feature-rich environment.
Abandoning the platform-dependent GUI on one platform (OSX), while dancing toe-to-toe with Microsoft's GUI on the another is the worst of both worlds. Chasing ghosts does not get the job done. A feature-rich office apps replacement that can go anywhere with a simple "./configure" and "make" has intrinsic value, even if it is reliant upon X11.
Welcome to the brave new world of American corporate profitability -- where only the corporate officers are guaranteed jobs (and fat bonuses), and only for so long as their stock share price rises.
One is reminded (from the world of nature) of certain species that are not only carnivores, but are cannibals. The MBA(s) running American businesses have learned that lesson well, and getting fat from "eating their young".
(1) Microsoft dominates market with OS & IE
that has more holes than swiss cheese (2) FBI deploys "Carnivore" to monitor email (3) FBI blows 1/2 billion dollars on virtual
data access (4) Poindexter (of TIA fame) moves to new
project & TIA gets "scrapped" (MATRIX?) (5) Google releases Desktop Search tools (6) Microsoft enters "anti-spyware" business (7) ??? (8) profit (???)
Sorry, but beyond Bush administration cutting Microsoft loose from the DoJ anti-monopoly lawsuit, the rewards for Microsoft have been enormous. Consider that the reorganization of large segments of the government under the aspices of the Dept. of Homeland Security also included the adoption by said organization of the least secure OS/Apps available - Microsoft's.
(Doesn't this qualify DHS as an oxymoron?) Either the "Peter Principle" has been fully vetted and promoted from theory to law, or there is a larger (as yet unseen) conspiracy theory to be explored.
(Personally, I am switching from a tin-foil hat to a fully grounded 3 mil copper hat as soon as I can address the issue of unobtrusively dragging a small brass chain behind me.)
Why even wait for some stupid drawn out trial? All any good Texan needs is a length of rope and a sturdy cottonwood tree... It's not called "Texas Justice" for nothing.
If I didn't know any better, I might presume that you either shoot||have shot in competition, like IPSC (International Practical Shooting Competition). I have to say that I miss the sport...
I found that such competition was a good way to hone my firearms proficiency -- handgun, rifle, and shotgun.
BTW: I personally favor the 45ACP.
Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics ...
on
Newsy Numbers
·
· Score: 1
The scientific method has been supplanted by the statistical method. I really don't know exactly when this happened, but I know it did because I can see the results all around me.
A) accounting
This used to be all about hard, crunchy
numbers -- numbers that you could chip
a tooth on. Now it's like gummy bears --
sweet & gooey & sticks to your teeth &
filled with artificial flavor that leaves
a sickly after-taste.
B) government
The government used to rely upon staid,
solid numbers -- numbers that could put
a non-beauracrat to sleep. Now everything
from "inflation" & "unemployment" to
"crime" & "immigration" all go through a
"feel good" politically correct filter.
Don't like some numbers that might hurt
politically? That's okay, just file a
memo that the definition of that statistic
has been modified, and crank out a "better"
number.
C) marketing
Good grief! You didn't really expect any
self-respecting Madison Avenue type to
ever issue numbers without a couple of
coats of "spin shellac" on it, did you?
One of the problems with modern society is that the definition of "truth" has been changed. There is always some alternate reality where the PC numbers that have been spewed out must be real. It effects everything from new drugs the pharmacutical companies tout, the quarterly reports that corporations and their accountants quote, to the ststs the government releases to raise or lower the status of a public issue.
Why should I put bars on my windows and install a steel door, in order to protect myself? It sounds remarkably like a prison cell to keep the bad guys out. (Sort of like the inmates running the asylum, IMO.)
No thank you. I sleep with a loaded 45ACP pistol under my pillow -- "cocked and locked". And a loaded 12 guage shotgun under the bed. (And yes, I also visit the shooting range often enough to remain quite proficient.)
IMHO, both NJ and MD are completely on the wrong track regarding firearms safety -- any biometric "lock" will fail. And Murphy's Law states that if a thing will fail, it will fail at the worst possible time. Far better to educate your children to respect firearms, and to become proficient in their use, than to treat them as taboo and locked away where they cannot be used for self-defense by family.
As you might have perceived, yes, I am one of those "violent gun-toting" Americans, and I make no apologies for my freedom to protect myself from violent criminal perpetrators.
And I am widely read enough to know that in many parts of the world, only criminals and the police (sometimes the very same thing) are allowed to have firearms.
That comets are really extra-terrestrial spacecraft flying in "stealth" mode. And they are really going to be pissed about NASA's deliberate collision. NASA can expect an envoy from the intergalactic transportation safety board (ITSB), demanding just compensation for damage to the space craft, as well as delaying/impeding/traumatizing the intergalactic travelers.
The difference between working for a Japanese company and a USA company -- when working for the Japanese company, you can expect SOME compensation eventually for your inventions even if you have to sue your employer to get it. This would/could NEVER happen with a USA company with the current USA system of justice. In the USA it would be an "atta boy" and maybe a little something extra in the pay envelope, and at worst, worthless stock options.
In the distant past, RedHat used to sell a client version of their software -- even through retail channels (eg. computer stores). Then they decided that sellig and supporting a RedHat client OS package was no longer profitable enough. All of this after ripsawing their client customers with RedHat8, RedHat9, RedHat10 with only 1 year of support. And with kernel and library changes that would break software from one release to the next.
I got off the RedHat Client treadmill at that point -- switched (back) to Slackware, and have not looked back. So if you tell me that RedHat has relented and now offers a client package again (besides the Fedora Core community releases), I say "Why should I bother?". I am running Slackware 9.1 with the 2.6.10 kernel on an SMP platform running Postgres/Samba/ OpenLDAP on XFS on RAID-10, so I don't think I am missing too much of RedHat these days.
With my gaining control over the kernel, I find that I have far greater flexibility in my system configuration. The dirty little secret about unices (and especially GNU/linux) is that there is very little difference between a Client OS and a Server OS -- mostly price. I now get my kernels directly from the source, instead of relying on a quasi-proprietary kernel that has been back-patched to beat the band.
There may be a place for an Enterprise Server package with a seven year support commitment, but not my place (and not my money).
One problem I see with the Mac-mini is the amount of video ram -- 32 MB. From some of the early info regarding OSX 10.4 (code named "Tiger"), the minimum spec for video memory is 64 MB.
Besides main memory upgrades, and scrounging a keyboard and mouse, a video board upgrade may be on the list of "Things to Do".
I have to agree. I have used RedHat off and on since version 4.xx, and the changes made to the system from version to version has been maddening. (Of course, being grounded in a number of unices, I eventually find my footing again).
RedHat's narrowing of support for a client version OS has driven me back to my real linux roots -- Slackware. Slackware has been updated often, but at its core it has been consistent. I look back with fondness at what SGI managed to do with IRIX 6.5.xx without completely revamping the OS between releases.
Okay, I do accept the argument that GNU/linux is a moving target, but most of the documentation should already be on-board, in the form of updated manpages and infopages. A book that is version specific should cover changes and/or tweeks, and not core data. I cannot begin to count the number of manpages that haven't been updated in five or more years. IMHO, not only should the source code be self-documenting, but so should the OS. If the manpages don't have the answer, then apropos should point the way. I refuse to buy more dead trees just to learn a few nuances in the next revision level of an OS -- an OS that requires a 1200 page book to cover each new release has changed too much.
In France, the presumption is that the accused is guilty, rather than innocent until proven guilty like in the USA.
Oh wait. Between the DMCA and the US Patriot Act and the **AA(s), the USA is just like the French now. And we have accomidations in Gitmo just as bad as what the French have at Devil's Island. Perhaps we should change the name of those "Freedom Fries" to something more closely resembling reality.
When the "white hat" hackers have all been made criminals, only then can our computer systems be safe from the "black hat" crackers, right? If security through obscurity actually worked for commercial software, there wouldn't be any Microsoft Windows/IE exploits.
The Harvard security researcher's only "crime" was his rush to publish -- privately contacting the software publisher about their program's vulnerabilities and giving them 30 days to respond would have been a better course of action. Especially considering that he also published exploit code in his announcement.
While this is slightly OT, your comparison to automobiles (and GM) are right on target, for a different reason.
Electric and solar powered vehicles will never make it into the mainstream USA auto market because the corporate control over the energy source(s) would be weakened. That is the reason why hydrogen powered vehicles are being touted -- and foolishly at that. The hydrogen fuel cell is a lock-in to the current and evolving energy distribution system, but will be extracting most of that hydrogen gas from hydrocarbon-based energy (oil/gas/coal) instead of water (H2O). The single most common molecule on planet Earth abandoned for a non-renewable energy source that provides the mega-corporations with a lock- in with their current customers.
Part of the problem is, the regional telcos will not spend the money to upgrade the infrastructure they inherited from Ma Bell. DSL service is "available" in my neighborhood, but is nearly useless. The Central Office (CO) is greater than 18,000 feet away, with most of the POTS cabling being 30+ year old buried copper wire. The local telco (VERIZON) would like to charge $30 per month for their consumer
DSL service that is (as tested) only 20% faster than dial-up. Their Business Wireless DSL is also available, at nearly 3 Mbps, but at a completely unreasonable price. I pretty much figure that hell will freeze over before VERIZON impliments (underground) FTTP for 30 to 40 year old middle class neighborhoods when new housing developments with $1 Million (plus) houses that the developer can guarantee 90 - 95% customer saturation are springing up all over.
One only needs to take a look at the criminal penalties for a victimless crime like simple drug possession, compared to, say, a white collar criminal CEO or CFO who steals millions from their shareholders and employees.
The war on drugs has always focused primarily on the user and street-level dealer, rather than the grower or importer. Illegal drugs are a (minimum) $10 Billion dollar a year enterprise, and enough money gets spread around to the law officers, prosecutors, judges, and politicians to keep the focus on the little guy. It is also why the USA lost the war on drugs a long, long time ago -- money is the mother's milk of politics, and the drug barons own a lot of judges and politicians.
Considering the devolution of democracy that is occurring in the USA (especially under "Dubya"), it is no surprise that what is essentially a civil offense (like theft of IP) should become now a criminal matter. It is particularly disheartening to find that Homeland Security would focus more on IP theft than on ID theft, or on software patents than on border and seaport security. Welcome to 1984, where doublespeak and the absolute power of the state reign supreme.
There is actually also another side to this story. I was working as a subcontractor to a large defense contractor (who shall remain
unnamed). In the five years that I worked on that contract, my employer (who the defense
contractor paid for my services) changed four
times. One of the larger of my "new" employers offered me stock options after being
there for 3 months -- the catch was that I had to exercise those options within 60 days. The
strike price was, as I remember, about $25 per
share. I declined to exercise those options. Very good thing that I did, too, because within 6 weeks of the stock option offer, the company declared bankrupty and the stock price went to $00.25 per share.
Sometimes it isn't only the outside investors that get screwed over by corporate management. I'm thinking of all those employees of Enron and of WorldCom that got rousing pep talks from their CEOs just before their stock tanked.
Conformal coating is used in MIL spec circuit boards as an environmental barrier, but might also be useful to suppress the "tin whiskers" problem. It does introduce problems with heat dissipation, however, which could cause even earlier system failure. The only computer users who wouldn't/couldn't use conformal coating are OCes (OverClockers), but they routinely trade up their computers long before any "tin whiskers" might cause problems anyway.
Oh yeah, right. My 80 year old mother used to use WebTV (MS), but every time something happened to the system, the "vendor lock-in" caused big problems. For example, her ink jet printer died: only certain manufacturers and models are supported, and such printers are no longer available. MS WebTV's solution: buy a brand new WebTV and printer.
She was tired of the MS tax, but was interested in a new Dell/HP computer. From a security standpoint (XP/SP2/IE6 problems), I argued against her decision. She is now learning about the joys and frustrations of computers, albeit safely, with a new Apple Mac.
The price differential, system wise, pretty much disappears when the constant series of security updates, system patches, virus signature updates, and scanning for viri and spyware are taken into account. (There was just no way that I could get her onto a used Wintel box running OpenBSD. I live 1000 miles away, and there would be no one locally to support her, training, etc.)
I truly admire your sense of optimism about the future, but I fear that your "faith" is misplaced. The people who are profiting right now in the midst of offshore outsourcing are (1) the primary shareholders of the company (rise in share price), (2) the upper caste of corporate officers (bonuses and stock options), and those offshore laborers who have gotten those new jobs. Those who have been RIFed due to outsourcing are increasingly being shunted into lower skill/lower pay positions, if that.
The dark side that I fear does not reward those now unemployed humans with a "communist utopia", but with abject poverty and no job that provides more than bare subsistance. Think of the lesson of the skewed distribution of wealth in France just prior to the the revolution against King Louis XIV (no bread, but let them eat cake). Or of the lesson of the plight of the Irish tenant farmers with their absent English over- lords at the time of the great potato famine.
When the steam powered looms put so many textile workers out on the streets, there weren't jobs for them to go to either -- they rioted and became known as Luddites, and were either thrown into prison or emigrated to the New World. Modern man doesn't have a new world to escape to, unless you believe "Dubya's" fairy tale about populating Mars (which isn't likely to include non-NASA/ESA PhDs for the forseeable future).
Just my $00.02.
BTW: Sweet potatoes and beans would be a better
choice than regular potatoes for a diet,
IMHO.
Slashdot Mirror
What a hoot!
When I first read the post, I thought "No,
it must have been a neo-con from Yale that
was quoted."
Yet another misconception reinforced by
(deliberately?) skewed data. Lies, damn
lies, and statistics. The real problem
is an educational system that historically
has pigeon-holed students based upon sex,
race, or creed into career paths that are
dictated by institutional bias.
The actual problem can be traced back to
...)
IntelSat's adoption of a MS Java-based
ground control system (from Lockheed M&DS).
The WinXP platforms have been upgraded to
SP2 without their IT security officer's
approval. During the brief time that the
computers were exposed to MS Update on the
internet, they were compromised.
A consortium of the Russian mob and the
North Koreans (AKA SPECTRE) are now trying
to blackmail IntelSat/Lockheed, one comm
satellite at a time. Right now they are
only shutting them down, but there is the
prospect that they will start de-orbiting
them.
(... takes off tin foil hat to put on a
contruction hardhat
Face it.
Google is flush with cash, they have always
run lean & mean, and there are a lot of
dead and/or dying telcos that own "dark"
fiber. Buying unused fiber from the likes
of Global Crossing, PSINet, and WorldCom
would put them in the forefront of possible
ISPs. And considering the brave new world
of VoIP, Google might just want to be your
next phone company, too.
I welcome our new ISP/telco overlords!
I don't want to give the appearance of being
a troll here, but WTF? The only downside to
using X11 is that the development team isn't
in a toe-to-toe slugfest with whatever the
platform dependent GUI-of-the-day is.
OOo long ago (3+ years) decided that they would
fork OO between platforms instead of using a
common source tree with #IFDEFs to handle
platform dependencies. The argument promulgated
was that separate source trees would make use of
platform dependent GUI standards better. My
argument (at the time) was that a common source
tree would be easier to maintain, and so what if
the application did not look like other apps on
the same platform -- a common look-and-feel
across platforms would establish some measure
of "branding". Well, okay -- so why now drop
the differentiation between platforms that OOo
thought was so necessary (and break the common
source tree maintenence relief)? And especially
only for the Max OSX platform?
What I see is 3+ years of wasting time on
platform differentiation (to compete head-to-head
with MS Office), instead of making the entire
suite slicker and more feature-rich. As it
turns out, anyone trying to stay current with
constantly evolving GUI standards from either
Microsoft or Apple is "chasing their tails".
IMHO, "look-and-feel" can easily be trumped by
top quality rock solid code, and a feature-rich
environment.
Abandoning the platform-dependent GUI on one
platform (OSX), while dancing toe-to-toe with
Microsoft's GUI on the another is the worst of
both worlds. Chasing ghosts does not get the
job done. A feature-rich office apps replacement
that can go anywhere with a simple "./configure"
and "make" has intrinsic value, even if it is
reliant upon X11.
Just my rapidly depreciating $00.02 worth.
Welcome to the brave new world of American
corporate profitability -- where only the
corporate officers are guaranteed jobs (and
fat bonuses), and only for so long as their
stock share price rises.
One is reminded (from the world of nature) of
certain species that are not only carnivores,
but are cannibals. The MBA(s) running American
businesses have learned that lesson well, and
getting fat from "eating their young".
You forgot to include a few steps.
(1) Microsoft dominates market with OS & IE
that has more holes than swiss cheese
(2) FBI deploys "Carnivore" to monitor email
(3) FBI blows 1/2 billion dollars on virtual
data access
(4) Poindexter (of TIA fame) moves to new
project & TIA gets "scrapped" (MATRIX?)
(5) Google releases Desktop Search tools
(6) Microsoft enters "anti-spyware" business
(7) ???
(8) profit (???)
Sorry, but beyond Bush administration cutting
Microsoft loose from the DoJ anti-monopoly
lawsuit, the rewards for Microsoft have been
enormous. Consider that the reorganization
of large segments of the government under the
aspices of the Dept. of Homeland Security also
included the adoption by said organization of
the least secure OS/Apps available - Microsoft's.
(Doesn't this qualify DHS as an oxymoron?)
Either the "Peter Principle" has been fully
vetted and promoted from theory to law, or there
is a larger (as yet unseen) conspiracy theory
to be explored.
(Personally, I am switching from a tin-foil hat
to a fully grounded 3 mil copper hat as soon as
I can address the issue of unobtrusively dragging
a small brass chain behind me.)
Besides underclocking, Apple could always
turn the G5 processor upside down, and
use the entire bottom of the case as the
heatsink.
Of course, Apple would also have to post
prominent warnings that their new G5
notebook IS NOT INTENDED for the lap!
Hells bells!
...
Why even wait for some stupid drawn out trial?
All any good Texan needs is a length of rope
and a sturdy cottonwood tree
It's not called "Texas Justice" for nothing.
Interesting talent.
...
If I didn't know any better, I might
presume that you either shoot||have shot
in competition, like IPSC (International
Practical Shooting Competition). I have
to say that I miss the sport
I found that such competition was a good
way to hone my firearms proficiency --
handgun, rifle, and shotgun.
BTW: I personally favor the 45ACP.
The scientific method has been supplanted by
the statistical method. I really don't know
exactly when this happened, but I know it did
because I can see the results all around me.
A) accounting
This used to be all about hard, crunchy
numbers -- numbers that you could chip
a tooth on. Now it's like gummy bears --
sweet & gooey & sticks to your teeth &
filled with artificial flavor that leaves
a sickly after-taste.
B) government
The government used to rely upon staid,
solid numbers -- numbers that could put
a non-beauracrat to sleep. Now everything
from "inflation" & "unemployment" to
"crime" & "immigration" all go through a
"feel good" politically correct filter.
Don't like some numbers that might hurt
politically? That's okay, just file a
memo that the definition of that statistic
has been modified, and crank out a "better"
number.
C) marketing
Good grief! You didn't really expect any
self-respecting Madison Avenue type to
ever issue numbers without a couple of
coats of "spin shellac" on it, did you?
One of the problems with modern society is that
the definition of "truth" has been changed.
There is always some alternate reality where
the PC numbers that have been spewed out must
be real. It effects everything from new drugs
the pharmacutical companies tout, the quarterly
reports that corporations and their accountants
quote, to the ststs the government releases to
raise or lower the status of a public issue.
In a not-so-delicate word: KAKA!
Why should I put bars on my windows and install
a steel door, in order to protect myself? It
sounds remarkably like a prison cell to keep
the bad guys out. (Sort of like the inmates
running the asylum, IMO.)
No thank you. I sleep with a loaded 45ACP
pistol under my pillow -- "cocked and locked".
And a loaded 12 guage shotgun under the bed.
(And yes, I also visit the shooting range
often enough to remain quite proficient.)
IMHO, both NJ and MD are completely on the
wrong track regarding firearms safety -- any
biometric "lock" will fail. And Murphy's Law
states that if a thing will fail, it will fail
at the worst possible time. Far better to
educate your children to respect firearms, and
to become proficient in their use, than to
treat them as taboo and locked away where they
cannot be used for self-defense by family.
As you might have perceived, yes, I am one of
those "violent gun-toting" Americans, and I
make no apologies for my freedom to protect
myself from violent criminal perpetrators.
And I am widely read enough to know that in
many parts of the world, only criminals and
the police (sometimes the very same thing)
are allowed to have firearms.
That comets are really extra-terrestrial
spacecraft flying in "stealth" mode.
And they are really going to be pissed
about NASA's deliberate collision. NASA
can expect an envoy from the intergalactic
transportation safety board (ITSB), demanding
just compensation for damage to the space
craft, as well as delaying/impeding/traumatizing
the intergalactic travelers.
The difference between working for a Japanese
company and a USA company -- when working for
the Japanese company, you can expect SOME
compensation eventually for your inventions
even if you have to sue your employer to get
it. This would/could NEVER happen with a USA
company with the current USA system of justice.
In the USA it would be an "atta boy" and maybe
a little something extra in the pay envelope,
and at worst, worthless stock options.
ATTENTION!
This new Microsoft tool is broken. I tried
it, and it WILL NOT REMOVE IE6!
I don't know if Microsoft is aware of this
problem yet, so I am going to fire off an
email to them ASAP.
In the distant past, RedHat used to sell a
client version of their software -- even
through retail channels (eg. computer stores).
Then they decided that sellig and supporting
a RedHat client OS package was no longer
profitable enough. All of this after ripsawing
their client customers with RedHat8, RedHat9,
RedHat10 with only 1 year of support. And
with kernel and library changes that would
break software from one release to the next.
I got off the RedHat Client treadmill at that
point -- switched (back) to Slackware, and have
not looked back. So if you tell me that RedHat
has relented and now offers a client package
again (besides the Fedora Core community
releases), I say "Why should I bother?".
I am running Slackware 9.1 with the 2.6.10
kernel on an SMP platform running Postgres/Samba/
OpenLDAP on XFS on RAID-10, so I don't think I
am missing too much of RedHat these days.
With my gaining control over the kernel, I
find that I have far greater flexibility in
my system configuration. The dirty little
secret about unices (and especially GNU/linux)
is that there is very little difference between
a Client OS and a Server OS -- mostly price.
I now get my kernels directly from the source,
instead of relying on a quasi-proprietary
kernel that has been back-patched to beat the
band.
There may be a place for an Enterprise Server
package with a seven year support commitment,
but not my place (and not my money).
One problem I see with the Mac-mini is the
...
amount of video ram -- 32 MB. From some of
the early info regarding OSX 10.4 (code named
"Tiger"), the minimum spec for video memory
is 64 MB.
Besides main memory upgrades, and scrounging
a keyboard and mouse, a video board upgrade
may be on the list of "Things to Do".
Other than that, damn I want one
I have to agree. I have used RedHat off and on
since version 4.xx, and the changes made to the
system from version to version has been maddening.
(Of course, being grounded in a number of unices,
I eventually find my footing again).
RedHat's narrowing of support for a client version
OS has driven me back to my real linux roots --
Slackware. Slackware has been updated often,
but at its core it has been consistent. I look
back with fondness at what SGI managed to do
with IRIX 6.5.xx without completely revamping
the OS between releases.
Okay, I do accept the argument that GNU/linux is
a moving target, but most of the documentation
should already be on-board, in the form of
updated manpages and infopages. A book that is
version specific should cover changes and/or
tweeks, and not core data. I cannot begin to
count the number of manpages that haven't been
updated in five or more years. IMHO, not only
should the source code be self-documenting, but
so should the OS. If the manpages don't have
the answer, then apropos should point the way.
I refuse to buy more dead trees just to learn
a few nuances in the next revision level of an
OS -- an OS that requires a 1200 page book to
cover each new release has changed too much.
Just my $00.02 worth.
In France, the presumption is that the accused
is guilty, rather than innocent until proven
guilty like in the USA.
Oh wait. Between the DMCA and the US Patriot
Act and the **AA(s), the USA is just like the
French now. And we have accomidations in Gitmo
just as bad as what the French have at Devil's
Island. Perhaps we should change the name of
those "Freedom Fries" to something more closely
resembling reality.
When the "white hat" hackers have all been made
criminals, only then can our computer systems
be safe from the "black hat" crackers, right?
If security through obscurity actually worked
for commercial software, there wouldn't be any
Microsoft Windows/IE exploits.
The Harvard security researcher's only "crime"
was his rush to publish -- privately contacting
the software publisher about their program's
vulnerabilities and giving them 30 days to
respond would have been a better course of
action. Especially considering that he also
published exploit code in his announcement.
While this is slightly OT, your comparison
to automobiles (and GM) are right on target,
for a different reason.
Electric and solar powered vehicles will never
make it into the mainstream USA auto market
because the corporate control over the energy
source(s) would be weakened. That is the reason
why hydrogen powered vehicles are being touted --
and foolishly at that. The hydrogen fuel cell
is a lock-in to the current and evolving energy
distribution system, but will be extracting
most of that hydrogen gas from hydrocarbon-based
energy (oil/gas/coal) instead of water (H2O).
The single most common molecule on planet Earth
abandoned for a non-renewable energy source
that provides the mega-corporations with a lock-
in with their current customers.
Part of the problem is, the regional telcos
will not spend the money to upgrade the
infrastructure they inherited from Ma Bell.
DSL service is "available" in my neighborhood,
but is nearly useless. The Central Office (CO)
is greater than 18,000 feet away, with most of
the POTS cabling being 30+ year old buried
copper wire. The local telco (VERIZON) would
like to charge $30 per month for their consumer
DSL service that is (as tested) only 20%
faster than dial-up. Their Business Wireless
DSL is also available, at nearly 3 Mbps, but at
a completely unreasonable price. I pretty much
figure that hell will freeze over before VERIZON
impliments (underground) FTTP for 30 to 40 year
old middle class neighborhoods when new housing
developments with $1 Million (plus) houses that
the developer can guarantee 90 - 95% customer
saturation are springing up all over.
Never truer words spoken.
One only needs to take a look at the criminal
penalties for a victimless crime like simple
drug possession, compared to, say, a white
collar criminal CEO or CFO who steals millions
from their shareholders and employees.
The war on drugs has always focused primarily
on the user and street-level dealer, rather
than the grower or importer. Illegal drugs
are a (minimum) $10 Billion dollar a year
enterprise, and enough money gets spread around
to the law officers, prosecutors, judges, and
politicians to keep the focus on the little guy.
It is also why the USA lost the war on drugs
a long, long time ago -- money is the mother's
milk of politics, and the drug barons own a
lot of judges and politicians.
Considering the devolution of democracy that is
occurring in the USA (especially under "Dubya"),
it is no surprise that what is essentially a
civil offense (like theft of IP) should become
now a criminal matter. It is particularly
disheartening to find that Homeland Security
would focus more on IP theft than on ID theft,
or on software patents than on border and seaport
security. Welcome to 1984, where doublespeak
and the absolute power of the state reign supreme.
There is actually also another side to this
story. I was working as a subcontractor to a
large defense contractor (who shall remain
unnamed). In the five years that I worked
on that contract, my employer (who the defense
contractor paid for my services) changed four
times. One of the larger of my "new"
employers offered me stock options after being
there for 3 months -- the catch was that I had
to exercise those options within 60 days. The
strike price was, as I remember, about $25 per
share. I declined to exercise those options.
Very good thing that I did, too, because within
6 weeks of the stock option offer, the company
declared bankrupty and the stock price went to
$00.25 per share.
Sometimes it isn't only the outside investors
that get screwed over by corporate management.
I'm thinking of all those employees of Enron
and of WorldCom that got rousing pep talks from
their CEOs just before their stock tanked.
The solution is: conformal coating.
Conformal coating is used in MIL spec circuit
boards as an environmental barrier, but might
also be useful to suppress the "tin whiskers"
problem. It does introduce problems with
heat dissipation, however, which could cause
even earlier system failure. The only computer
users who wouldn't/couldn't use conformal coating
are OCes (OverClockers), but they routinely
trade up their computers long before any "tin
whiskers" might cause problems anyway.
Oh yeah, right.
My 80 year old mother used to use WebTV (MS),
but every time something happened to the system,
the "vendor lock-in" caused big problems. For
example, her ink jet printer died: only certain
manufacturers and models are supported, and such
printers are no longer available. MS WebTV's
solution: buy a brand new WebTV and printer.
She was tired of the MS tax, but was interested
in a new Dell/HP computer. From a security
standpoint (XP/SP2/IE6 problems), I argued
against her decision. She is now learning
about the joys and frustrations of computers,
albeit safely, with a new Apple Mac.
The price differential, system wise, pretty much
disappears when the constant series of security
updates, system patches, virus signature updates,
and scanning for viri and spyware are taken into
account. (There was just no way that I could
get her onto a used Wintel box running OpenBSD.
I live 1000 miles away, and there would be no
one locally to support her, training, etc.)
I truly admire your sense of optimism about
the future, but I fear that your "faith" is
misplaced. The people who are profiting
right now in the midst of offshore outsourcing
are (1) the primary shareholders of the company
(rise in share price), (2) the upper caste of
corporate officers (bonuses and stock options),
and those offshore laborers who have gotten
those new jobs. Those who have been RIFed due
to outsourcing are increasingly being shunted
into lower skill/lower pay positions, if that.
The dark side that I fear does not reward those
now unemployed humans with a "communist utopia",
but with abject poverty and no job that provides
more than bare subsistance. Think of the lesson
of the skewed distribution of wealth in France
just prior to the the revolution against King
Louis XIV (no bread, but let them eat cake).
Or of the lesson of the plight of the Irish
tenant farmers with their absent English over-
lords at the time of the great potato famine.
When the steam powered looms put so many textile
workers out on the streets, there weren't jobs
for them to go to either -- they rioted and
became known as Luddites, and were either thrown
into prison or emigrated to the New World.
Modern man doesn't have a new world to escape
to, unless you believe "Dubya's" fairy tale
about populating Mars (which isn't likely to
include non-NASA/ESA PhDs for the forseeable
future).
Just my $00.02.
BTW: Sweet potatoes and beans would be a better
choice than regular potatoes for a diet,
IMHO.