I just read a Business Week article that talked about this - it probably true, but don't blame the corporations - As usual it's the shortsighted politicians.
1. City and state governments are short on cash and need more money to pay for welfare programs. 2. The can't raise taxes because most people don't want these increases. 3. They can auction off public properties like roads and airports to private companies to get cash now. 4. We'll pay ever increasing tolls and surcharges. 5. The money these governments receive will be wasted in a couple of years anyway and they'll be demanding more tax dollars anyway.
Your comment prompted me to read the CIA report, and I have no idea where you got the impression that "it will be the EU that will become the next superpower, economically, and militarily."
Some higlights from the summary:
The economies of other developing countries, such as Brazil, could surpass all but the largest European countries by 2020.
Europe's strength could be in providing a model of global and regional governance to the rising powers. But aging populations and shrinking work forces in most countries will have an important impact on the continent. Either European countries adapt their work forces, reform their social welfare, education, and tax systems, and accommodate growing immigrant populations
(chiefly from Muslim countries), or they face a period of protracted economic stasis.
The full report goes into detail and specifically talks about Europe's 1.4% birth-rate, Germany's (and to a lesser extent French and Italian) restrictive labor environment, and aversion to structural reform. It also goes into military spending, and talks about Europe's lack of it. It predicts China will have the second largest military budget after the US.
The sun app server has always blown. I can't beleive they actually used to charge 80K for it.
I haven't used it since they renamed it to Sun ONE. Did they re-write it then or is still the same repackaged piece of shit that it was when it was called iPlanet or Netscape Application Server?
That product was good for its time back when it was called the Kiva server, when it supported both Java and C++, before J2EE came on the scene. But that was a long time ago.
AMEX does the same thing. In an effort to increase convenience they've short-circuited the protection SSL is supposed to provide.
It's easy to circumvent these pages with a man in the middle, since you control the login-form:
Low-Tech - Easier to spot
1. Modify the login form's action to point to your own non-ssl capturing script. Tell the user the service is down, you now own his account.
Medium Tech - Harder to detect, but some users may look for the SSL lock.
1. Your capture script attempts to log-in to the real site with the supplied info.
2. Proxy the traffic, rewrite URLs.
Higher Tech - Only paranoid people will detect it
1. Get yourself an SSL cert for a domain name close enough to your target, and use it on you capturing proxy. Now even the browser lock will show up.
The Banks are stupid, they should at least provide a link to a secure login form. Right now, an ugly workaround is to use an invalid username/password to get to a secured login form.
As the other reply said, working on a GPL project has the same effect. You have to contribute your code to anyone who wants it, only stipulating that if they use it, they must do the same. You do not have control over what license to release under, as you are contributing to an established GPL project, that already contains GPL'd work. The developer of original work always has ultimate freedom, because he can choose how to distribute his work. The issue is what freedom the users of his work have.
The GPL may be more practical in spreading free software, but because it places more restrictions on the users who want to use the source code, it is less free. More restrictions = Less Freedom.
As for the argument that working on BSD software is equivalent to working for Apple for free, how does that differ from the GNU/Linux contributors who have their labor packaged up and sold by RedHat, and SuSE? IBM makes a good buck off of GPL'd Linux too, amongst many other companies.
To me, open source software is about creating software for use, its not about a revolution. The measure of success is how much use that software gets and its quality, not how much commercial software it displaces. (Which it will do anyway if it's useful).
Personally, I beleive that over time, open source software will surpass proprietary alternatives because of its merits. Especially in certain broad general areas (like the OS) or specialized niches. If you're not getting paid to work on it, you're doing it because you love to do it. People who do this in their spare time are more likely to produce higher quality software than someone to who it's just a job, but because they are working on it in their spare time, it will take much longer to mature.
Proprietary software will always get to market quicker, be of fairly high quality from the start, and people will keep paying for it. But over time, open source alternatives will usually catch up and surpass it.
Free open source software makes sense, it's strictly utilitarian. The revolution doesn't, since it's about politics and the disruption of the software economy, and stems from some of the same core principles as the other infamous revolutions of the last century.
Conversely, *nixes are too complicated to be useful without Sys Admin skills. I've seen users who are otherwise competent at a loss working on a unix of some sort. Things are improving, but nix is still nowhere near as easy to administer, even on a simple level.
Personally, I use Linux quite a bit, but it took me a lot of effort to learn how to administer it at the same level that I know Windows. Windows is just more intuitive then any *nix (excluding OSX).
You must not read it, because almost every issue has several articles on new IE security holes, and all kinds of other unfavorable MS news. (Example: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1745091,00.as p) There's plenty of editorializing on OSS solutions, and decent reviews on new Linux distros. They do carry lots of MS advertising, but hey, since I won't pay for it, I'm glad somebody does.
Yeah, Debian relies on the APT system, which uses different repositories to grab packages. APT itself is command-line based, but I don't usually use it that way. On top of it are several console based menu driven apps, and it integrates very nicely with KPackage and the Synaptic package manager. I'm on a cable connection so installing off the internet is not a problem, but APT also supports CD repositories. Aside from doing new installs, I don't have much experience with CDs, so admittedly it might be a little more difficult.
As far as ease of use, I agree that debian might be little more difficult. Of all the distros I've tried, in order of increasing install complexity I'd rank: SuSe, RedHat, Debian and then Gentoo.
But even then Debian is pretty easy, probably the hardest part is X configuration, which usually autodetects correctly, though not every time. It doesn't have the flashy X-based installers like SuSe and RedHat, (it uses console menus) but it's functional and usually explains what the right choices are.
I don't want to be a Debian shill, but for a free distro with more flexibility then I found in SuSe and RedHat, it works well for me. It's easy to try too: You can do a Knoppix HD install, and you get a fully functional Debian system. (Not recomended for long term use, since it's harder to maintain than a pure Debian install).
This one is easy. Use Debian. Debian's package management is excellent. An easy way to get most popular software. And when the software you want is not available as a Debian package, you can use RPMs, provided installers or build it yourself.
I've been seriously using Linux for about 3 years now, I went from RedHat to SuSe to Gentoo to Debian.
Debian has the best software management features of all of the platforms I've played with, at least when compared to free versions of RedHat and SuSe.
For software packages included in the repositories, I'd say it's easier to manage than Windows.
Plenty of older cars didn't have the neutral safety switch. At least several times I tried to start my car with the transmission in gear and got a nice lurch.
To correct myself, as another post mentions, some algae can produce hydrogen without sunlight, using heat and sulfur as inputs instead, but I suspect that sunlinght algae works faster.
Refineries might consume a lot of energy, but they still use only a fraction of the amount of energy contained in the fuel they're refining.
The electricity used at the refinery probably came form coal, natural gas, or possibly nuclear fuel, but it doesn't change the fact the entire oil process make more energy available than it consumes. I suspect that is not the case with ethanol process, at least not in its current state.
What about looking for more efficient ways to make Hydrogen? I wonder if an acre of solar cells powering a water electrolysis process wouldn't produce more hydrogen than an acre of corn.
Although planting that corn field is undoubtedly cheaper, and it looks better when you're driving by....
Slashdot Mirror
I just read a Business Week article that talked about this - it probably true, but don't blame the corporations - As usual it's the shortsighted politicians.
1. City and state governments are short on cash and need more money to pay for welfare programs.
2. The can't raise taxes because most people don't want these increases.
3. They can auction off public properties like roads and airports to private companies to get cash now.
4. We'll pay ever increasing tolls and surcharges.
5. The money these governments receive will be wasted in a couple of years anyway and they'll be demanding more tax dollars anyway.
I'm pretty sure the Windows integrated firewall includes support for IPv6.
Your comment prompted me to read the CIA report, and I have no idea where you got the impression that "it will be the EU that will become the next superpower, economically, and militarily."
Some higlights from the summary:
The full report goes into detail and specifically talks about Europe's 1.4% birth-rate, Germany's (and to a lesser extent French and Italian) restrictive labor environment, and aversion to structural reform. It also goes into military spending, and talks about Europe's lack of it. It predicts China will have the second largest military budget after the US.
I've seen these types of phones in Europe. Essentially an office phone, with a window mounted cellular antenna.
I haven't seen one in the US, but perhaps this a is a good alternative: http://www.phonelabs.com/
You can hook up a nice office phone(s), and still take the number with you when you need to leave.
It's really annoying, but at least there are free alternatives for non-windows systems. I guess they aren't selling enough of the full acrobat.
It won't, because for far too many, it's not about the best tool for the job, but about giving the MAN the finger.
Power to the people! Long live the revolution!
As many others have said, that's not everything but it's a start.
What about WindowsKey+E or M? Since microsoft buried the explorer, it's a convenient way to avoid having to put a link in the quick launch bar.
Hell, the windows key is even useful in Linux.
Besides their Thinkpads are designed for Windows. Do they even officialy support an alternative OS? They have no excuse.
The sun app server has always blown. I can't beleive they actually used to charge 80K for it.
I haven't used it since they renamed it to Sun ONE. Did they re-write it then or is still the same repackaged piece of shit that it was when it was called iPlanet or Netscape Application Server?
That product was good for its time back when it was called the Kiva server, when it supported both Java and C++, before J2EE came on the scene. But that was a long time ago.
It's easy to circumvent these pages with a man in the middle, since you control the login-form:
Low-Tech - Easier to spot
1. Modify the login form's action to point to your own non-ssl capturing script. Tell the user the service is down, you now own his account.
Medium Tech - Harder to detect, but some users may look for the SSL lock.
1. Your capture script attempts to log-in to the real site with the supplied info.
2. Proxy the traffic, rewrite URLs.
Higher Tech - Only paranoid people will detect it
1. Get yourself an SSL cert for a domain name close enough to your target, and use it on you capturing proxy. Now even the browser lock will show up.
The Banks are stupid, they should at least provide a link to a secure login form. Right now, an ugly workaround is to use an invalid username/password to get to a secured login form.
As the other reply said, working on a GPL project has the same effect. You have to contribute your code to anyone who wants it, only stipulating that if they use it, they must do the same. You do not have control over what license to release under, as you are contributing to an established GPL project, that already contains GPL'd work. The developer of original work always has ultimate freedom, because he can choose how to distribute his work. The issue is what freedom the users of his work have.
The GPL may be more practical in spreading free software, but because it places more restrictions on the users who want to use the source code, it is less free. More restrictions = Less Freedom.
As for the argument that working on BSD software is equivalent to working for Apple for free, how does that differ from the GNU/Linux contributors who have their labor packaged up and sold by RedHat, and SuSE? IBM makes a good buck off of GPL'd Linux too, amongst many other companies.
To me, open source software is about creating software for use, its not about a revolution. The measure of success is how much use that software gets and its quality, not how much commercial software it displaces. (Which it will do anyway if it's useful).
Personally, I beleive that over time, open source software will surpass proprietary alternatives because of its merits. Especially in certain broad general areas (like the OS) or specialized niches. If you're not getting paid to work on it, you're doing it because you love to do it. People who do this in their spare time are more likely to produce higher quality software than someone to who it's just a job, but because they are working on it in their spare time, it will take much longer to mature.
Proprietary software will always get to market quicker, be of fairly high quality from the start, and people will keep paying for it. But over time, open source alternatives will usually catch up and surpass it.
Free open source software makes sense, it's strictly utilitarian. The revolution doesn't, since it's about politics and the disruption of the software economy, and stems from some of the same core principles as the other infamous revolutions of the last century.
Conversely, *nixes are too complicated to be useful without Sys Admin skills. I've seen users who are otherwise competent at a loss working on a unix of some sort. Things are improving, but nix is still nowhere near as easy to administer, even on a simple level. Personally, I use Linux quite a bit, but it took me a lot of effort to learn how to administer it at the same level that I know Windows. Windows is just more intuitive then any *nix (excluding OSX).
You must not read it,s p) There's plenty of editorializing on OSS solutions, and decent reviews on new Linux distros. They do carry lots of MS advertising, but hey, since I won't pay for it, I'm glad somebody does.
because almost every issue has several articles on new IE security holes, and all kinds of other unfavorable MS news. (Example: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1745091,00.a
Yeah, Debian relies on the APT system, which uses different repositories to grab packages. APT itself is command-line based, but I don't usually use it that way. On top of it are several console based menu driven apps, and it integrates very nicely with KPackage and the Synaptic package manager. I'm on a cable connection so installing off the internet is not a problem, but APT also supports CD repositories. Aside from doing new installs, I don't have much experience with CDs, so admittedly it might be a little more difficult.
As far as ease of use, I agree that debian might be little more difficult. Of all the distros I've tried, in order of increasing install complexity I'd rank: SuSe, RedHat, Debian and then Gentoo.
But even then Debian is pretty easy, probably the hardest part is X configuration, which usually autodetects correctly, though not every time. It doesn't have the flashy X-based installers like SuSe and RedHat, (it uses console menus) but it's functional and usually explains what the right choices are.
I don't want to be a Debian shill, but for a free distro with more flexibility then I found in SuSe and RedHat, it works well for me. It's easy to try too: You can do a Knoppix HD install, and you get a fully functional Debian system. (Not recomended for long term use, since it's harder to maintain than a pure Debian install).
Let me know if you have more questions.
This one is easy. Use Debian. Debian's package management is excellent. An easy way to get most popular software. And when the software you want is not available as a Debian package, you can use RPMs, provided installers or build it yourself. I've been seriously using Linux for about 3 years now, I went from RedHat to SuSe to Gentoo to Debian. Debian has the best software management features of all of the platforms I've played with, at least when compared to free versions of RedHat and SuSe. For software packages included in the repositories, I'd say it's easier to manage than Windows.
Your argument is persuasive, but even if the the car didn't have a neutral safetry switch, it sounds like a bullshit story.
Plenty of older cars didn't have the neutral safety switch. At least several times I tried to start my car with the transmission in gear and got a nice lurch.
You forgot:
3.5) 2-5 people will demonstrate their elite stature by appearing to stay above the fray with comments such as this.
Slashdot in FireFox
Slashdot in IE
This glitch is not enough to get me to use IE though....
To correct myself, as another post mentions, some algae can produce hydrogen without sunlight, using heat and sulfur as inputs instead, but I suspect that sunlinght algae works faster.
Just how do you break the Hydrogen-Oxygen bonds in water without energy input? I'd love to know.
No to quibble, but from what I've read, the algae still requires sunlight.
And just how profitable has the Eurotunnel been?
I agree that electricity is a better interface, but sometimes you need a better energy/weight ratio than it allows.
The electricity used at the refinery probably came form coal, natural gas, or possibly nuclear fuel, but it doesn't change the fact the entire oil process make more energy available than it consumes. I suspect that is not the case with ethanol process, at least not in its current state.
Although planting that corn field is undoubtedly cheaper, and it looks better when you're driving by....