I use Linux, it's not perfect, but most pieces fit together well. If I run into trouble, I can usually pinpoint it's cause pretty easily. Desktop software has been well integrated into the system, and integrating new stuff isn't black magic. The system tends not to give much surprises, and it's well behaved and logical, in the good old Unix tradition. It's as good as it can get without dumbing down the system so much that you can only do so many things with it.
The problem with well integrated systems like the iPhone, iPad and the like, it's that whenever you start going a little beyond the surface, all seems to be held together by scotch tape. People will usually end up coping with the limitations of third party software and never try to do anything beyond that, because it becomes too complex.
Windows has usually been like that, a sandbox to install third party software. Afterwards Microsoft has done mostly flawed attempts to allow some scripting and other functionality. But it's already bloated, already too late, too complex, to enterprisey.
iPad/iPhone are extremely locked down, although it can be made more open, and when they do, it will be much better than Windows, after all, it's based on Unix and follows it very closely.
Linux gets it right, relatively simple for an end user, but doesn't get in the way of advanced users and developers. It's simple enough for all it's audiences, robust, and logically designed. Most pieces are quite independent among themselves giving high flexibility. It improves and gets polished very quickly.
The computer is the operating system, and as long as it's Linux, it's fun and rewarding to work at it solving real problems in elegant ways, with sophisticated tools. I can't complain, I just have too much fun with Linux and computers, I love them, and I will probably die in front of a display.
As long as we don't have resolution independent software, we're pretty much stuck with 96dpi. I have a 128dpi display, and it's a nightmare to read anything on it. I'm able to use the web thanks to NoSquint, and my Gnome desktop has large-enough fonts already at 96dpi, and has no problems scaling to larger dpi settings.
We need faster processors if we're going to use a good scaling algorithm for web and other legacy contents. We need more resolution-independent toolkits and software. Apple got there first as usual, but the Gnome desktop does a pretty good job also, but it will still not scale icons according to dpi settings, even when most of them are SVG.
I think a mix between vectors and OpenGL desktops will make the trick. Until then, there's no point for manufacturers to continue cramming more pixels per square inch. I think Apple is doing it first, as it's OS already supports it. The rest will follow suit if only to compete.
I used to be a sysadmin for a hosting company, and we had these problems very much all the time. It's part of the job. When you provide a customer with web space, it's up to them to verify that the code they put ther is secure. Fortunately these attacks only affect a particular customer's site, and almost never compromises other sites on the server.
These devices should not be locked in a way that makes it extremely difficult to install custom software or use it in a way not intended by the company that makes it. I mean, it's difficult to jailbreak a device you own to be able to control directly what can go in it. While the iPhone isn't jailbroken, it's Apple who decides how you can use it.
DMCA and intellectual property laws are the new Inquisition.
The country I come from, Venezuela, has a similar Communist-style government, a share a lot of traits with China in this regard. They're willing to ditch moral and ethics when it comes to climbing up the social ladder. They're also quite poor and nationalists, and tend to engage in any behavior that creates an illusion of being smarter or wealthier, as a country or individual.
Most participate in this illusion-building business, unwilling to accept information that can challenge their views of their own bogus little world.
I try hard to understand what's wrong with the commercial. What's the problem with Americans and sex?. Get over religion or you're going to go crazier.
I bought a PS3 because it could run Linux. It was interesting for me to see what Linux could do in that machine. After some time, I became bored by it, I couldn't turn it into a decent Linux media center, many video formats didn't play properly, and I wasn't really playing much with it.
DVDs or Blu-Ray discs from other zones wouldn't work in it, and I think the device was too locked for my open sourcer taste. I felt like when I had an iPhone.
Then I get the news on the firmare update that would disable Linux compatibility, and that was the end for me. I sold that motherfucker through online auctions along with all games. So much for proprietary platforms and me.
I live in Switzerland, and I pay a pretty hefty price to my ISP for the bandwidth I consume. What content I access from my computer through their network and how much data I can transfer to and from my systems is stated in a contract I made with my ISP. I would not condone my ISP forcing Google through government force to pay _again_ for the bandwidth I'm paying them for. Fortunately it seems my ISP isn't on the list, lest I would break contract with them right now for being abusive.
I wish they just try to block Youtube to their customers if Google doesn't pay. I bet they would go bankrupt in a month. It is Youtube and bandwidth-hungry services that fuel the need for large bandwidth. Were Youtube not to exist, and those ISPs would have a hard time selling their high-bandwidth broadband services to customers that wouldn't need them for anything.
ISPs _are_ dumb pipes, they need to get over it or start being competitive doing some other business. These ISPs on the list seem like the kind of corrupt corporations willing to immorally extract money from anyone they can. I hope they all die a horrible death.
Thus a group of geologists was transformed into toads by an evil Italian sorcerer. Now they are trying to warn us all against earthquakes by not having toad sex when they should.
Patents hamper innovation by creating artificial government-issued monopolies on ideas, knowledge and information whose value would be several orders of magnitude higher if allowed to flow freely. It's an aberration of property rights.
Ideas and information (including music, video and software) are abundant by nature, ergo they are not subject to the same scarcity rules that apply for other goods. The only way to make them scarce is through coercion by force. This coercion is exerted by government on all us so we accept their view of intellectual property as such, for the sake of large private consortia that pays them to do it. As long as the industrial governments insist on intellectual property beyond commercial brands, we'll not be truly free.
At the end, we will have more commoditized products, which is quite good for everyone. Stop whining. Google is trying to commoditize the Internet at all it's levels including the user end terminal, which means also the OS. At the end we will be much better off.
...and I'm all for Free Software, and the dismantling of the Copyright and Patent systems, on _libertarian_ grounds.
Intellectual property is an aberration of free market economies. Since the free market is all about making a _scarce_ good be _available_. Not about making an abundant good be scarce.
Intellectual property laws _require_ government force to _coerce_ people and enterprises into not copying or implementing otherwise abundant information. It's as statist as it can be.
I used to live in Venezuela, where most people can only afford these used computers.
If it weren't for used computers, most young people would have a much harder time getting to the digital age. The Internet is still mostly unavailable.
I can't think of any reason the practice could be "controversial". Probably some commie would be saying that you're "sending trash the poor countries". Don't listen to them and keep sending. It's doing much more good than harm.
We (overseas people) have the same right to get those jobs in a global economy. Thinking about protectionism is just stupid.
When you start outsourcing, you'll have problems with some suppliers. The rules of the game change a bit. It's up to Boeing to adapt, keep the good suppliers while leaving the troublesome behind. It's a transition for them, and surely bumpy, as any transition is. If they get it right, at the end they'll be more competitive, and earn money. That's what outsourcing is about: finding providers that are better than you in some areas, and exploiting that so their know-how combined with yours will create something superior.
I think Boeing will manage to weed out the bad suppliers with time.
I have a Logitech laser bluetooth mouse. I can't overstate how good it is. First it's Bluetooth, so I never worry about plugging dongles in my laptop, second, it's laser, so a couple of batteries last for over SIX months, I use it for a couple of hours a day in average. I never turn it off. I don't even have to think that it's there, just reach for it while I'm using the computer. This kind of invisible almost magic technology is what everything should be.
Slashdot Mirror
I use Linux, it's not perfect, but most pieces fit together well. If I run into trouble, I can usually pinpoint it's cause pretty easily. Desktop software has been well integrated into the system, and integrating new stuff isn't black magic. The system tends not to give much surprises, and it's well behaved and logical, in the good old Unix tradition. It's as good as it can get without dumbing down the system so much that you can only do so many things with it.
The problem with well integrated systems like the iPhone, iPad and the like, it's that whenever you start going a little beyond the surface, all seems to be held together by scotch tape. People will usually end up coping with the limitations of third party software and never try to do anything beyond that, because it becomes too complex.
Windows has usually been like that, a sandbox to install third party software. Afterwards Microsoft has done mostly flawed attempts to allow some scripting and other functionality. But it's already bloated, already too late, too complex, to enterprisey.
iPad/iPhone are extremely locked down, although it can be made more open, and when they do, it will be much better than Windows, after all, it's based on Unix and follows it very closely.
Linux gets it right, relatively simple for an end user, but doesn't get in the way of advanced users and developers. It's simple enough for all it's audiences, robust, and logically designed. Most pieces are quite independent among themselves giving high flexibility. It improves and gets polished very quickly.
The computer is the operating system, and as long as it's Linux, it's fun and rewarding to work at it solving real problems in elegant ways, with sophisticated tools. I can't complain, I just have too much fun with Linux and computers, I love them, and I will probably die in front of a display.
As long as we don't have resolution independent software, we're pretty much stuck with 96dpi. I have a 128dpi display, and it's a nightmare to read anything on it. I'm able to use the web thanks to NoSquint, and my Gnome desktop has large-enough fonts already at 96dpi, and has no problems scaling to larger dpi settings. We need faster processors if we're going to use a good scaling algorithm for web and other legacy contents. We need more resolution-independent toolkits and software. Apple got there first as usual, but the Gnome desktop does a pretty good job also, but it will still not scale icons according to dpi settings, even when most of them are SVG. I think a mix between vectors and OpenGL desktops will make the trick. Until then, there's no point for manufacturers to continue cramming more pixels per square inch. I think Apple is doing it first, as it's OS already supports it. The rest will follow suit if only to compete.
Many of them just want to work on Flash and .NET. Sad.
I used to be a sysadmin for a hosting company, and we had these problems very much all the time. It's part of the job. When you provide a customer with web space, it's up to them to verify that the code they put ther is secure. Fortunately these attacks only affect a particular customer's site, and almost never compromises other sites on the server.
Videogames are so obviously art, that I don't know what the point is on even discussing it.
These devices should not be locked in a way that makes it extremely difficult to install custom software or use it in a way not intended by the company that makes it. I mean, it's difficult to jailbreak a device you own to be able to control directly what can go in it. While the iPhone isn't jailbroken, it's Apple who decides how you can use it.
DMCA and intellectual property laws are the new Inquisition.
The country I come from, Venezuela, has a similar Communist-style government, a share a lot of traits with China in this regard. They're willing to ditch moral and ethics when it comes to climbing up the social ladder. They're also quite poor and nationalists, and tend to engage in any behavior that creates an illusion of being smarter or wealthier, as a country or individual.
Most participate in this illusion-building business, unwilling to accept information that can challenge their views of their own bogus little world.
The authorities don't want to be the bad guy.
Seriously?
Is there another country named China I'm not aware about?
I try hard to understand what's wrong with the commercial. What's the problem with Americans and sex?. Get over religion or you're going to go crazier.
I bought a PS3 because it could run Linux. It was interesting for me to see what Linux could do in that machine. After some time, I became bored by it, I couldn't turn it into a decent Linux media center, many video formats didn't play properly, and I wasn't really playing much with it. DVDs or Blu-Ray discs from other zones wouldn't work in it, and I think the device was too locked for my open sourcer taste. I felt like when I had an iPhone. Then I get the news on the firmare update that would disable Linux compatibility, and that was the end for me. I sold that motherfucker through online auctions along with all games. So much for proprietary platforms and me.
I live in Switzerland, and I pay a pretty hefty price to my ISP for the bandwidth I consume. What content I access from my computer through their network and how much data I can transfer to and from my systems is stated in a contract I made with my ISP. I would not condone my ISP forcing Google through government force to pay _again_ for the bandwidth I'm paying them for. Fortunately it seems my ISP isn't on the list, lest I would break contract with them right now for being abusive. I wish they just try to block Youtube to their customers if Google doesn't pay. I bet they would go bankrupt in a month. It is Youtube and bandwidth-hungry services that fuel the need for large bandwidth. Were Youtube not to exist, and those ISPs would have a hard time selling their high-bandwidth broadband services to customers that wouldn't need them for anything. ISPs _are_ dumb pipes, they need to get over it or start being competitive doing some other business. These ISPs on the list seem like the kind of corrupt corporations willing to immorally extract money from anyone they can. I hope they all die a horrible death.
Thus a group of geologists was transformed into toads by an evil Italian sorcerer. Now they are trying to warn us all against earthquakes by not having toad sex when they should.
Patents hamper innovation by creating artificial government-issued monopolies on ideas, knowledge and information whose value would be several orders of magnitude higher if allowed to flow freely. It's an aberration of property rights.
Ideas and information (including music, video and software) are abundant by nature, ergo they are not subject to the same scarcity rules that apply for other goods. The only way to make them scarce is through coercion by force. This coercion is exerted by government on all us so we accept their view of intellectual property as such, for the sake of large private consortia that pays them to do it. As long as the industrial governments insist on intellectual property beyond commercial brands, we'll not be truly free.
At the end, we will have more commoditized products, which is quite good for everyone. Stop whining. Google is trying to commoditize the Internet at all it's levels including the user end terminal, which means also the OS. At the end we will be much better off.
"That said, I got into IT by accident, and I didn't like it that much."
...but you're still reading Slashdot, so I don't buy it.
...and I'm all for Free Software, and the dismantling of the Copyright and Patent systems, on _libertarian_ grounds.
Intellectual property is an aberration of free market economies. Since the free market is all about making a _scarce_ good be _available_. Not about making an abundant good be scarce.
Intellectual property laws _require_ government force to _coerce_ people and enterprises into not copying or implementing otherwise abundant information. It's as statist as it can be.
By the way, I'm an Austrian School libertarian.
Thank you man, you made my day. :-)
I used to live in Venezuela, where most people can only afford these used computers.
If it weren't for used computers, most young people would have a much harder time getting to the digital age. The Internet is still mostly unavailable.
I can't think of any reason the practice could be "controversial". Probably some commie would be saying that you're "sending trash the poor countries". Don't listen to them and keep sending. It's doing much more good than harm.
We (overseas people) have the same right to get those jobs in a global economy. Thinking about protectionism is just stupid.
When you start outsourcing, you'll have problems with some suppliers. The rules of the game change a bit. It's up to Boeing to adapt, keep the good suppliers while leaving the troublesome behind. It's a transition for them, and surely bumpy, as any transition is. If they get it right, at the end they'll be more competitive, and earn money. That's what outsourcing is about: finding providers that are better than you in some areas, and exploiting that so their know-how combined with yours will create something superior.
I think Boeing will manage to weed out the bad suppliers with time.
I have a Logitech laser bluetooth mouse. I can't overstate how good it is. First it's Bluetooth, so I never worry about plugging dongles in my laptop, second, it's laser, so a couple of batteries last for over SIX months, I use it for a couple of hours a day in average. I never turn it off. I don't even have to think that it's there, just reach for it while I'm using the computer. This kind of invisible almost magic technology is what everything should be.
is right.
By the way, I work in a mayor Swiss private bank. There's a lot of Java and Perl code to write. But if you can do C well, you can do whatever.
Oracle PL/SQL is very used also, and it's developers are very well paid.
I'm writing this from my comfortable chair in the Swiss bank I'm currently working.
I love banking secrecy. :-)
Use noexec in /home, /tmp, /var/tmp.
Use SELinux/AppArmor.
Set gconf defaults and mandatory settings.
Delete the user's appropriate .gconf folder in order to reset Gnome parameters should the user altered it's desktop beyond repair.
Use Kerberos/NFSv4/OpenLDAP.
Play AlienArena all day while you get paid.
I don't think that Windows could get even close.
Microsoft?