Re:"It's not Microsoft"
on
LinuxWorld
·
· Score: 1
Actually, there are two issues here.
Obviously, the first is creating new and different ways to use computers. True innovation is difficult, and I have to admit I don't have any great, profound answers to how the Linux and Open Source community can solve this.
The second, more subtle issue is image. I have seen a consistent undercurrent from MS, stating that they are the true source of innovation, and that Linux is nothing more than a copycat. It's always more difficult to be a leader, they claim, and the speed at which Open Source developers are able to implement features is due to the fact that they are simply re-implementing what the Leaders (read, Microsoft) have already done.
The trick is, we have to show people that this is not the case.
In other words, it's the perception we have to fight, as much as it is the obvious tendency to set our eyes no higher than what we already know. I do think that programs such as GNOME are comming up with new and interesting ways to do things, but the more we focus on Microsoft as the Great Enemy, the more we are letting ourselves be forced to play by their rules.
Just read a SF short story where the question was asked, "Define 'old' without using the word 'young'." Brings to mind the question:
Define "Linux" without using the phrase, "It's not Microsoft".
Why do I get nervous when MSNBC puts up a news article on how GNOME is positioning itself to replace Windows? Is MS working to reinforce the notion that Linux, and all the Open Source applications that come with it, are simply playing catch-up to Redmond's Thought Leadership and Innovation?
People, Linux has got to stand on it's own. I think it's great to talk about taking over market share, and breaking the back of the oppressive monopoly that we've all been struggling under, but if we can't do anything more than mimmic the new features that Microsoft is coming out with, ours will be a short dynasty. We have to fight the temptation to think of ourselves as a "better Windows". People have to buy into Linux because it does what they need to do, quickly and reliably, with a user interface that makes sense to normal human beings.
Break out of the mold and do something truly creative.
Is it just me, or is anyone else sick and tired or the constant bitching and whining about moderation here on/.? To Kaufmann: I thought your statements were valid enough (if somewhat offtopic), but you completely blew your credibility with your childish whining about moderators.
Look, the moderation here isn't perfect, and there are sure to be childish twits who moderate down legitimate articles, just as there are childish twits who submit them. Quit yer bitching and DEAL WITH IT!
> maybe the coporations that are gathering that data from us ought to be paying for it -- ie. paying us.
Well... actually they are paying us... sort of. How do you think all these "free" services exist??? Someone has to pay for the servers and T1 lines and maintenance. You don't think corporations are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts? They surely aren't paying for it from banner adds, since income from banners is plummeting. Secondary income streams are often used to offset the cost of the product or service to make it more attractive to customers.
> The ruling they have made now could only be the beginning of a policy where customer databases are seen as any other form of capital, wich in case of bankrupcy can be sold off.
Ummm... I hate to break this to you, but customer databases have always been considered assets of companies, and bought and sold to the highest bidder. The big difference these days is the size of the databases, and the ease with which they can now be cross referenced and merged with other databases to create complex customer profiles.
I think the concerns about privacy are at least partly valid, but I don't think we should be surprised that companies are trying to collect and use this information in order to more effectively market their otherwise perfectly legitimate products.
The examples you give are not "Open Media" as Katz so lovingly gushes over, but simple electronic versions of the "Old Fart" closed media.
One point, however, about these forums is that they are opened to some extent by allowing reader feedback, but I would still hardly call then truly "Open" forums, since the "expert" opinion is still closely controlled by the "Old White Male" owners of the publication.
> What the hell did Katz have to say in this article that's different from anything he's written...
I'd leave it at that.
Honestly, I got to the end of the article and asked myself, "so, what's his point?" Like you, I try to cut Katz some slack (He has come up with a few interesting insights), but this article was relatively content-free.
What I got was:
Online culture is spreading
Online culture is dominated by young (teen - 30) people
"Old farts" are clueless about young people.
Young people are clueless about "Old farts".
Online media ("information") is disconnected from conventional information sources.
Young people are disconnected from conventional society and information sources.
Young people are connected with each other across the Internet.
The Internet blurs conventional distinctions between peope of different race, gender and "sexual orientation".
Actually, I think the last point is what Katz is getting at, however this is where I disagree with him. It is true that the Internet blurs the old differences we used to form our cultures around, such as race and gender, but that's not to say that the Internet creates the Utopian classless society! Rather, we see new "classes" springing up, such as economic position and access to/knowledge of technology. There are the Phreaks, the d00d2, the geeks, the hacker eletes, the crackers, the Microsofties. Most important of all, there are those connected, and those on the outside who are not.
The Internet may be changing everything, but it has not ushered in the Age of Aquarious.
The SF Book Club I'm in once offered the video of the "Director's Cut" of the film. For some unknown reason, I didn't buy it at that time, and I've been kicking myself ever since.
Question: does anyone know where I can get my hands on a copy of the video?
I've bought a couple of SMC NIC cards and had good luck with them. At $14 for a 10/100 PCI card (with a 6 foot cable included), it's the best deal I've found.
The box had a "LINUX DRIVERS INCLUDED" sticker and Tux logo on it. What surprised me when I opened it was that the Linux "driver" disk was actually a complete Turbo Linux distribution! Now, the problem with this is, I don't know how I'd find the driver modules to load on, let's say, a RH 6.2 install, but I still think it was pretty cool...
(BTW, it was recognized by my RH install, and worked fine, even without the Turbo Linux disk.)
Just as TV has its place as an effective medium for the exchange of ideas, computers have their place in the classroom. However, they are not a panacea. By itself, TV teaches kids to passively absorb whatever is put before them. Computers teach kids to point-n-click. You still need real live teachers to act as role models, and to provide individualized feedback.
I do a lot of volunteer work resurrecting old computers for use in small schools, especially in the elementary grades, but I don't see computers, by themselves, solving all the problems in our schools. You can't stuff a kid in a room full of books and think he will just start learning all by himself. You can't sit a kid down in front of a computer screen and think that she will somehow magically learn to communicate.
You have to be careful what grade levels you're talking about too. Putting computers in Kindergarten rooms is a whole different story from using them in High School.
-- Your Servant,
Re:something is wrong in that screenshot !
on
Taking On A Spammer
·
· Score: 2
>..she's on AOL you.... It's OBVIOUS that she's online.
Duh.... unless the "screenshot" is faked, a point you were obviously too dull to catch on to...
Reading the PS file, all I find is a bunch of bullet points with no content behind them.
If you claim that's not innovation, but copying, I reply that Java is to C++ as Windows is to the Macintosh: an indudtrial response to an interesting but technically flawed piece of systems software.
That's it? That's the best he can do for an argument that "Windows is the source of all True Innovation"?
Personally, I've never before seen a "thesus" so completly devoid of content. I've seen better articulated flame bait here on/.
It's all well and good to have your data safe and sound on some island fortress, but what happens if their link to the rest of the world goes down? The have to use Satelites or microwave towers or fiber cables or something to link to the rest of the world. All of those links are owned by someone outside. What happens when they are forced to shut down? Your data may still be safe, but you aren't going to be able to get at it...
> If China were to be under embargo by the U.S., they might be hard pressed to procure copies of Windows.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but getting copies of Windows CD's has hever been much of a problem in the PRC. Is there any truth in the rumor that close to 90% of the windows installations in China are illegal copies?
But to the point of your post, I agree that any country on such tenuous terms with the US is going to be adverse to making themselves ecconomically dependent on US controlled products!
(If course, that's never stopped us from making ourselves dependent on products like Oil from the Middle East...:-/ )
Non-geeks can use the Internet too! Perhaps this guy's mom wants to keep in touch with people. Perhaps she's using email to write letters to people, not keep up with the latest new Internet IPO. Perhaps the point of going on vacation is to spend time relaxing and catching up with friends who she hasn't had time to talk to in a while.
Just because you think one way, don't assume everyone else in the world has to see the world through your eyes.
Among the "technology elete", there has always been this feeling that, if we could just spread our technology far enough, and give it to enough people, we could solve all the World's Problems. This led to things like donations of huge tractors to tiny Third World farms. Nobody thought about where they would get gas to power the huge monstrosities, or the fact that the technology was completely inappropriate for the situation.
I still think it's generally a good thing for US companies to donate computer equipment and Internet connections to their employees, but to try and tout it as the solution to the world wide problem of the ever growing gulf between the "Haves" and the "Have-nots" shows a complete lack of understanding of the deep complexity of the problem and its root causes.
``Second, and equally important, is the fact that our pay site is an adult site. It is for adults only and we mean it. We take the responsibility of limiting access to our site and our content to adults very seriously. Once material is stolen from our site and posted to a global newsgroup we have no control whatsoever over who sees it. We certainly cannot tolerate or abet such a situation.
Jeeez... I'll bet all those Penthouse execs are really heartbroken that their "adult only" material just might fall into the hands of the innocent children now that it's out on USENET. We all know that's the real reason they are pursuing these pirates...
> If all@blah.com contained HUNDREDS of addresses, and HUNDREDS of people were clicking on a message at around the same time, this could lead to a quite exponential flow of email traffic.
You got it... =8-0
> I would imagine if it ever went this high, the email server(s) would just not handle the load.. Or, was it shut down to merely stop people from losing data
Both. The mail system was getting pretty bogged down, and then the sysadmins shut the entire system down in order to be able to clean things up.
The funny part was that they must have put up thousands of hadcopy signs all over the place that morning, warning people NOT to open up email attachments (they even put them up in individual stalls in the bathrooms!), but the worm still spread like wildfire.
Some time later, I sent an email to one of the VP's whos office regularly sent out coprorate "communications" in the form of MS Word email attachments, suggesting that perhaps he should set the example of using other, more secure forms of communication. I took a lot of heat for that suggestion, but I still think my point was valid. The company literally loses hundreds of thousands of dollars every time one of these viruses hit, and it's all because the leaders foster a culture of dependence on Microsoft "integration" and careless trust of complex tools.
Chances are, you don't work at a Big US Corporation that has chosen to "standardize" on the entire MS product line. I was working at one such corporation (who shall remain nameless, but whos initial is a big "X") and all corporate email is supposed to go through Outlook. Since I wanted to use Netscape, I put an filter in place to forward my email to my Unix account. (Actually, I was running Netscape under NT, but it was using the Unix based POP server.)
When Melissa hit, the big "X" got slammed... HARD! One reason is because, the first address in everyone's address book was "all@corpname.com, so there were literaly hundreds of thousands of emails being sent. Compeletely shut down the mail system for the better part of the day.
When I checked my outlook queues later, I found a couple hundred copies of Melissa in the deleted folder. But, the funny part was, with the filters the Unix sysadmins put in place, not a single copy made it through to my Unix address!
This is the Honor System virus. Please forward this message to everyone you know, then delete a random selection of critically important files from your system.
> Shouldn't we be focusing on teaching our kids how to use actual computers?
So, what is an ACTUAL computer? I'm not really sure myself anymore, but I'll wager it's not what we once thought it was!
Think about it... At one time, in order to own, or more important, to operate an automobile, you had to know all about engines and spark plug gaps and dwell, and compression ratios and idle RPMs and points. Now, we jump in and crank over the key. Does that mean cars are any less useful than they once were? Some people, like small farmers, may still need to know how to rebuild an entire engine out in the field, using nothing more than bailing wire and a hammer, but for most of us, fixing an internal combustion engine is a long lost art.
Computers no longer exist as an end to themselves. They are (and some might argue, always were) a means to an end. In this day, that end is further and further removed from what the computer itself looks like. What is more important? Understanding the ins and outs of HTML, or being able to find information for a research paper on the Web, or participating in a discussion of global economics with another student in China, Brazil and Indonesia?
> Conflicts in which religion is not the causal factor are few. Conflicts in which religion does not play a key motivating role for rallying people and troups, and inciting them to commit acts they would otherwise abhor, are almost nonexistent.
It could also be argued that, following a set of "religious beliefs" is such a fundamental human characteristic that nothing is free of its influence.
It seems that people here are confusing two independent characteristics:
the tendency of people to believe in supernatural forces (i.e., "religion"), and
the tendency of societies to behave violently, especially when they somehow feel somehow threatened by another group of people.
A fundamental difference in this study is that they are talking about behavior of individuals, not societies. I'm not going to say that I agree with the study, but comparing the Spanish Inquisition with a couple of teens going in and shooting up an elementary school makes no sense.
Yes, some of us are "stuck" using more than one system. Until Linux comes up with the tools (read: UML modeling tools and better MSWord compatability), I'll be hopping back and forth between NT and Linux.
(On the other hand, I finally got Linux working on an old laptop, so I'm getting closer to what I need for a useful environment...)
You're missing the whole point of the article. What the author is trying to point out is, the reason we don't see Linux viruses is not because Linux is "immune", but because (a) current users are mostly techie types who understand basic security, and more important, (b) the pool of targets is smaller.
Think about it... I'm some bored script kiddie who wants my 15 minutes of fame. Am I going to try to write a virus to infect hundreds of systems, or hundreds of thousands?
The point the author was trying to make is that the landscape is changing. As we are celebrating all the new people who are starting to use Linux, and all the easy-to-install distributions, the "average user" is changing. You no longer need a degree in CS to simply use a Liux system. Just as there are plenty of unsophisticated Windows users, there will be unsophisticated Linux users. Add to this the hordes of home users signing up every day for always-on fat pipe Internet connections. There are ways to worm your way into a Linux system, especially if the "administrator" is clueless about security. (Read: buffer over-run bugs, SMTP vulnerabilities, etc...)
I'm not about to plunk down $50 for a questionable Linux "security" product, but I do try to keep an eye on what's happening to my system. More important, distributions like RedHat and ilk need to carefully consider what their default configurations look like, knowing that setting up maximum security as the base configuration is a wise thing to do. If users need more flexibility, then let them learn about what the tradeoffs are, so they can open up only the doors they need. Support organizations need to make security a top priority, making sure that everyone -- even the clueless newby -- can keep their systems up to date with the latest security patches.
Security -- no matter what your OS is -- doesn't come for free.
> It's always good to re-hash ethical arguments in science...
It's a lot like medical research. We come up with new and interesting technologies, but just because something can be done doesn't mean it should be done...
I think sometimes the nay-sayers are written off as hopeless Ludites and crackpots, but they can make us think.... if we just take the time to listen.
Slashdot Mirror
Obviously, the first is creating new and different ways to use computers. True innovation is difficult, and I have to admit I don't have any great, profound answers to how the Linux and Open Source community can solve this.
The second, more subtle issue is image. I have seen a consistent undercurrent from MS, stating that they are the true source of innovation, and that Linux is nothing more than a copycat. It's always more difficult to be a leader, they claim, and the speed at which Open Source developers are able to implement features is due to the fact that they are simply re-implementing what the Leaders (read, Microsoft) have already done.
The trick is, we have to show people that this is not the case.
In other words, it's the perception we have to fight, as much as it is the obvious tendency to set our eyes no higher than what we already know. I do think that programs such as GNOME are comming up with new and interesting ways to do things, but the more we focus on Microsoft as the Great Enemy, the more we are letting ourselves be forced to play by their rules.
--
People, Linux has got to stand on it's own. I think it's great to talk about taking over market share, and breaking the back of the oppressive monopoly that we've all been struggling under, but if we can't do anything more than mimmic the new features that Microsoft is coming out with, ours will be a short dynasty. We have to fight the temptation to think of ourselves as a "better Windows". People have to buy into Linux because it does what they need to do, quickly and reliably, with a user interface that makes sense to normal human beings.
Break out of the mold and do something truly creative.
--
Look, the moderation here isn't perfect, and there are sure to be childish twits who moderate down legitimate articles, just as there are childish twits who submit them. Quit yer bitching and DEAL WITH IT!
--
Well... actually they are paying us... sort of. How do you think all these "free" services exist??? Someone has to pay for the servers and T1 lines and maintenance. You don't think corporations are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts? They surely aren't paying for it from banner adds, since income from banners is plummeting. Secondary income streams are often used to offset the cost of the product or service to make it more attractive to customers.
--
Ummm... I hate to break this to you, but customer databases have always been considered assets of companies, and bought and sold to the highest bidder. The big difference these days is the size of the databases, and the ease with which they can now be cross referenced and merged with other databases to create complex customer profiles.
I think the concerns about privacy are at least partly valid, but I don't think we should be surprised that companies are trying to collect and use this information in order to more effectively market their otherwise perfectly legitimate products.
--
One point, however, about these forums is that they are opened to some extent by allowing reader feedback, but I would still hardly call then truly "Open" forums, since the "expert" opinion is still closely controlled by the "Old White Male" owners of the publication.
-- Your Servant,
I'd leave it at that.
Honestly, I got to the end of the article and asked myself, "so, what's his point?" Like you, I try to cut Katz some slack (He has come up with a few interesting insights), but this article was relatively content-free.
What I got was:
Actually, I think the last point is what Katz is getting at, however this is where I disagree with him. It is true that the Internet blurs the old differences we used to form our cultures around, such as race and gender, but that's not to say that the Internet creates the Utopian classless society! Rather, we see new "classes" springing up, such as economic position and access to/knowledge of technology. There are the Phreaks, the d00d2, the geeks, the hacker eletes, the crackers, the Microsofties. Most important of all, there are those connected, and those on the outside who are not.
The Internet may be changing everything, but it has not ushered in the Age of Aquarious.
-- Your Servant,
Question: does anyone know where I can get my hands on a copy of the video?
-- Your Servant,
The box had a "LINUX DRIVERS INCLUDED" sticker and Tux logo on it. What surprised me when I opened it was that the Linux "driver" disk was actually a complete Turbo Linux distribution! Now, the problem with this is, I don't know how I'd find the driver modules to load on, let's say, a RH 6.2 install, but I still think it was pretty cool...
(BTW, it was recognized by my RH install, and worked fine, even without the Turbo Linux disk.)
-- Your Servant,
I do a lot of volunteer work resurrecting old computers for use in small schools, especially in the elementary grades, but I don't see computers, by themselves, solving all the problems in our schools. You can't stuff a kid in a room full of books and think he will just start learning all by himself. You can't sit a kid down in front of a computer screen and think that she will somehow magically learn to communicate.
You have to be careful what grade levels you're talking about too. Putting computers in Kindergarten rooms is a whole different story from using them in High School.
-- Your Servant,
Duh.... unless the "screenshot" is faked, a point you were obviously too dull to catch on to...
-- Your Servant,
Personally, I've never before seen a "thesus" so completly devoid of content. I've seen better articulated flame bait here on /.
-- Your Servant,
It's all well and good to have your data safe and sound on some island fortress, but what happens if their link to the rest of the world goes down? The have to use Satelites or microwave towers or fiber cables or something to link to the rest of the world. All of those links are owned by someone outside. What happens when they are forced to shut down? Your data may still be safe, but you aren't going to be able to get at it...
-- Your Servant,
Correct me if I'm wrong, but getting copies of Windows CD's has hever been much of a problem in the PRC. Is there any truth in the rumor that close to 90% of the windows installations in China are illegal copies?
But to the point of your post, I agree that any country on such tenuous terms with the US is going to be adverse to making themselves ecconomically dependent on US controlled products!
(If course, that's never stopped us from making ourselves dependent on products like Oil from the Middle East... :-/ )
-- Your Servant,
Non-geeks can use the Internet too! Perhaps this guy's mom wants to keep in touch with people. Perhaps she's using email to write letters to people, not keep up with the latest new Internet IPO. Perhaps the point of going on vacation is to spend time relaxing and catching up with friends who she hasn't had time to talk to in a while.
Just because you think one way, don't assume everyone else in the world has to see the world through your eyes.
Sheeeeesh......
-- Your Servant,
I still think it's generally a good thing for US companies to donate computer equipment and Internet connections to their employees, but to try and tout it as the solution to the world wide problem of the ever growing gulf between the "Haves" and the "Have-nots" shows a complete lack of understanding of the deep complexity of the problem and its root causes.
-- Your Servant,
-- Your Servant,
You got it... =8-0
> I would imagine if it ever went this high, the email server(s) would just not handle the load.. Or, was it shut down to merely stop people from losing data
Both. The mail system was getting pretty bogged down, and then the sysadmins shut the entire system down in order to be able to clean things up.
The funny part was that they must have put up thousands of hadcopy signs all over the place that morning, warning people NOT to open up email attachments (they even put them up in individual stalls in the bathrooms!), but the worm still spread like wildfire.
Some time later, I sent an email to one of the VP's whos office regularly sent out coprorate "communications" in the form of MS Word email attachments, suggesting that perhaps he should set the example of using other, more secure forms of communication. I took a lot of heat for that suggestion, but I still think my point was valid. The company literally loses hundreds of thousands of dollars every time one of these viruses hit, and it's all because the leaders foster a culture of dependence on Microsoft "integration" and careless trust of complex tools.
(**sigh**)
-- Your Servant,
When Melissa hit, the big "X" got slammed... HARD! One reason is because, the first address in everyone's address book was "all@corpname.com, so there were literaly hundreds of thousands of emails being sent. Compeletely shut down the mail system for the better part of the day.
When I checked my outlook queues later, I found a couple hundred copies of Melissa in the deleted folder. But, the funny part was, with the filters the Unix sysadmins put in place, not a single copy made it through to my Unix address!
Live and learn.... hopefully.
-- Your Servant,
;-)
-- Your Servant,
So, what is an ACTUAL computer? I'm not really sure myself anymore, but I'll wager it's not what we once thought it was!
Think about it... At one time, in order to own, or more important, to operate an automobile, you had to know all about engines and spark plug gaps and dwell, and compression ratios and idle RPMs and points. Now, we jump in and crank over the key. Does that mean cars are any less useful than they once were? Some people, like small farmers, may still need to know how to rebuild an entire engine out in the field, using nothing more than bailing wire and a hammer, but for most of us, fixing an internal combustion engine is a long lost art.
Computers no longer exist as an end to themselves. They are (and some might argue, always were) a means to an end. In this day, that end is further and further removed from what the computer itself looks like. What is more important? Understanding the ins and outs of HTML, or being able to find information for a research paper on the Web, or participating in a discussion of global economics with another student in China, Brazil and Indonesia?
The only constant in life is change...
-- Your Servant,
It could also be argued that, following a set of "religious beliefs" is such a fundamental human characteristic that nothing is free of its influence.
It seems that people here are confusing two independent characteristics:
A fundamental difference in this study is that they are talking about behavior of individuals, not societies. I'm not going to say that I agree with the study, but comparing the Spanish Inquisition with a couple of teens going in and shooting up an elementary school makes no sense.
(On the other hand, I finally got Linux working on an old laptop, so I'm getting closer to what I need for a useful environment...)
Think about it... I'm some bored script kiddie who wants my 15 minutes of fame. Am I going to try to write a virus to infect hundreds of systems, or hundreds of thousands?
The point the author was trying to make is that the landscape is changing. As we are celebrating all the new people who are starting to use Linux, and all the easy-to-install distributions, the "average user" is changing. You no longer need a degree in CS to simply use a Liux system. Just as there are plenty of unsophisticated Windows users, there will be unsophisticated Linux users. Add to this the hordes of home users signing up every day for always-on fat pipe Internet connections. There are ways to worm your way into a Linux system, especially if the "administrator" is clueless about security. (Read: buffer over-run bugs, SMTP vulnerabilities, etc...)
I'm not about to plunk down $50 for a questionable Linux "security" product, but I do try to keep an eye on what's happening to my system. More important, distributions like RedHat and ilk need to carefully consider what their default configurations look like, knowing that setting up maximum security as the base configuration is a wise thing to do. If users need more flexibility, then let them learn about what the tradeoffs are, so they can open up only the doors they need. Support organizations need to make security a top priority, making sure that everyone -- even the clueless newby -- can keep their systems up to date with the latest security patches.
Security -- no matter what your OS is -- doesn't come for free.
It's a lot like medical research. We come up with new and interesting technologies, but just because something can be done doesn't mean it should be done...
I think sometimes the nay-sayers are written off as hopeless Ludites and crackpots, but they can make us think.... if we just take the time to listen.