We have no reason to believe this claim -- doubly
so given that Microsoft has lied repeatedly in the past.
I'd be willing to bet that even Microsoft would not be willing to go so far as to create intentional "backdoors" in their encryption to facilitate government (Law Enforcement) access. First off I don't think the government (at least those in the UK and the US) have the power to legally force them into doing it, and secondly if they did it voluntarily one would think the public outcry would be deafening and severly damaging to Microsoft (and it seems that "keeping it quiet" would be nearly impossible).
I generally don't trust the government as far as I can throw them, and I don't trust Microsoft much farther than that, but I think the suggestion that they are colluding in something as nefarious as this is a bit in the Tin Foil Hat realm.
Besides how would they "prove" they aren't doing it? release the source? as if.....:)
Yeah no kiddin' the French are a great race, they'd definitely be the first people I'd call if I ever need to surrender to an enemy army or wanna get screwed over by an ally.;)
And in other news AOL announced a new subscription service for it's members, for an additional $5.95 a month members can enable the AOL goodmail filter service on their mailboxes which will block out all emails from senders that have signed up for AOLs "certified sender" list.:)
Actually if I'm not mistaken, the Mafia often referred to tribute (protection) paid by lower level members to upper level members as "being taxed", I suspect that this actually the model of "taxation" that AOL is following rather than the more popular "governmental" sense of the word....
Well if by that you mean that I like Firefox and/or Open Source and/or certain Firefox Extensions, well yeah I do, so consider your suspicions confirmed & have a nice day.
I was hoping for something with real pizzaz. Something where the very idea and description was enough to make me go, "wow"
Well one of the nice things about open source is that one idea tends to spawn other ideas, in other words IMHO it tends to be evolutionary rather revolutionary, perhaps this years winners will act as the catalyst(s) that lead to one or more extensions that give you that "wow" feelin'. Remember FireFox is still (relatively speaking) a young "platform" and there have already been quite a few "wow, that's pretty handy (and cool) extensions" released.
I for one am looking forward to seeing what that vibrant dev community comes up with next and I have to admit it's kind of fun, browsing thru and testing out what's already out there in different combinations, "FF Extension Mashing", perhaps the making of a new fad?:)
Congrats to the Winners, I have to say Reveal is a nice little extension and definitely deserves the "honors", FasterFox and IE Tab are also Nice extensions which IMHO are worthy of some "extra credit".
Ad Block is a sweet extension as well, very effective in getting rid of those annoying "oh so slow to load" flash ads that some cheesy web designers (ad execs?) seem to be in love with.
I wonder which Pork Barrel Project drove this latest reduction in NASA's budget? perhaps Alaska needed another bridge to nowhere ?
Who needs space exploration when you have have TONS and TONS of PORK, that oh sweet budget bustin' other white meat that our elected big spenders in Washington would just starve without.
The difference is that your run of the mill Gen X'er is completely failing at it, where the corporations are succeeding.
One suspects that the Gen X'ers aren't succeeding simply because they suffer from the affliction of Hyper-consumerism whereas most corporations do not, one suspects that Corporations are in reality the next step in the evolution of Gen X'ers.:)
Hey Maybe that mail filter should have been for INBOUND javascript in the message body instead of OUTBOUND javascript in the message body. Another injustice perpetrated upon the unsuspecting user base by those merciless hacks at "the brotherhood of the fat fingered sysadmins".:)
Seems to me it's definitely time for a new round of "fierce" competition in the ISP space, since the.COM bubble burst it seems that we're getting more and more consolidation in the residential space. I liked the idea of community (city) built/owned networks, however it appears that the big players have moved to kill off that idea as well (and have had some success).
Perhaps WiMax will open things up a bit or neighborhoods getting fiber to the curb, and I think it's sorely needed since it's no surprise at all the Cox is making moves (or perhaps will make moves) to inhibit other VoIP services on their network, after all they want to sell their customers on EVERY possible service they can and milk every dime out of them (hey they are in business to make a profit after all).
As far as Cox Internet goes, they've been getting more and more restrictive as time goes by, I remember getting a Cox broadband subscription pretty early on their deployment (late 90's) and you could run any service you wanted on a residential subscription, not to mention the bi-directional speed was only limited by the number of subscribers on your segment.... well those days are LONG gone:(
I wonder how long it's going to take them to implement a "pay for QoS" levels on top of their current tiering packages...sigh.
At my job we are currently using Ruby for prototyping and small projects, if the project grows we move it to Java.
What tools are you using (for Ruby and Java) and how would you rate their effectiveness/quality? do you find it easier to port your smaller ruby projects over to java when it's needed?
Well, it was not an *objection* just a question, one based on my own real world experience (Being an IT guy) relative how many times I get asked per week by Joe user.. "how do I format my Word doc to look like XYZ", or "how do I make an Excel Pivot table do XYZ" or "how do I do XYZ in powerpoint", which I generally have to respond along the lines of "Sorry, I don't really use these applications that much, but let me show you how to search the help system". I do know that individuals and companies spend quite a bit of $$$ for training on MS Office Applications and I assume they are getting some value for their money - but what the heck do I know, after all most of the work that I do is on text files in vi....
Now I suspect you could teach these skills quite effectively with Open Office, but then again I'm not an educator that has to teach people the nuissances of using the more esoteric features of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc.., and one would think that educators would at least consider the effectiveness of a cirriculm built around a set of tools that the students are likely to face out in the *real world*, like "Do skills taught with Open Office port better to MS Office, or do skills taught using MS Office port better to Open Office, or is there really no difference?".
While I'm a big fan of Linux, I'd have to question that it's the *best* solution to the scenario you're describing some considerations
* While you can build a Linux infrastructure which is *nearly* self maintaining, do you have the budget to pay for the expertise to do this? You say you don't have full time sysadmins so one wonders how much you might spend supporting these machines versus Windows machines (at acedemic pricing levels no less) over the long haul if all you did was place *default install* workstations out there for your students.
* Let's face it Windows applications are the *mainstream* apps in Business, do your goals include exposing your young students to these apps (i.e. do you plan to teach them how to use office apps ?).
Perhaps you might consider a mixed infrastructure with Windows boxes and some Linux (or maybe even a Mac or two) to make your teaching environment a bit more diverse? Given that academic pricing for Windows & MS Apps is so low and given that support for them is so easy to find and generally speaking *cheap* it may be worth considering the longer term Total Cost of Ownership, rather than just the upfront CapEx for licensing.
You also may want to talk to the various vendors upfront about what you're trying to do, I know for a fact that Microsoft often offers various incentives (i.e. Freebie support, licenses, even hardware subsidies, etc..) in situations like yours and I suspect some of the Linux vendors might even consider doing the same (as would perhaps Apple)... best of luck.
Haven't really had an opportunity to look much at either Ruby or RoR, this tutorial looks interesting, anyone out that works with RoR got any opinions on the availability/quality of tools and how it lives on other OS platforms...say Linux or FreeBSD?
How does it stack up against Java for ease of development and/or performance/flexibility?
In other news Congress is considering a Bush Administration proposal to impose a 100% levy on sales of Monitors and Televisions... The Administration explained this proposal by saying "Concievably any display device has the potential to spread the scourge of pornography, therfore the only expediant thing to do is impose a levy which can be redirected to American Christian Churches in order to subsidize the cost of saving the souls of those victimized by pornography".
Congress is slated to vote on the measure before ending it's current session.
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We have no reason to believe this claim -- doubly so given that Microsoft has lied repeatedly in the past.
..... :)
I'd be willing to bet that even Microsoft would not be willing to go so far as to create intentional "backdoors" in their encryption to facilitate government (Law Enforcement) access. First off I don't think the government (at least those in the UK and the US) have the power to legally force them into doing it, and secondly if they did it voluntarily one would think the public outcry would be deafening and severly damaging to Microsoft (and it seems that "keeping it quiet" would be nearly impossible).
I generally don't trust the government as far as I can throw them, and I don't trust Microsoft much farther than that, but I think the suggestion that they are colluding in something as nefarious as this is a bit in the Tin Foil Hat realm.
Besides how would they "prove" they aren't doing it? release the source? as if
Yeah no kiddin' the French are a great race, they'd definitely be the first people I'd call if I ever need to surrender to an enemy army or wanna get screwed over by an ally. ;)
Perhaps we should offer someone in India the job of American President for 1/10 of the salary he makes
:D
You mean to tell me we're actually paying this idiot a salary ?
And in other news AOL announced a new subscription service for it's members, for an additional $5.95 a month members can enable the AOL goodmail filter service on their mailboxes which will block out all emails from senders that have signed up for AOLs "certified sender" list. :)
Taxes are levied by governments.
Actually if I'm not mistaken, the Mafia often referred to tribute (protection) paid by lower level members to upper level members as "being taxed", I suspect that this actually the model of "taxation" that AOL is following rather than the more popular "governmental" sense of the word....
Rook*CA is a fanboi.
Well if by that you mean that I like Firefox and/or Open Source and/or certain Firefox Extensions, well yeah I do, so consider your suspicions confirmed & have a nice day.
I was hoping for something with real pizzaz. Something where the very idea and description was enough to make me go, "wow"
:)
Well one of the nice things about open source is that one idea tends to spawn other ideas, in other words IMHO it tends to be evolutionary rather revolutionary, perhaps this years winners will act as the catalyst(s) that lead to one or more extensions that give you that "wow" feelin'. Remember FireFox is still (relatively speaking) a young "platform" and there have already been quite a few "wow, that's pretty handy (and cool) extensions" released.
I for one am looking forward to seeing what that vibrant dev community comes up with next and I have to admit it's kind of fun, browsing thru and testing out what's already out there in different combinations, "FF Extension Mashing", perhaps the making of a new fad?
Congrats to the Winners, I have to say Reveal is a nice little extension and definitely deserves the "honors", FasterFox and IE Tab are also Nice extensions which IMHO are worthy of some "extra credit".
..:)
Ad Block is a sweet extension as well, very effective in getting rid of those annoying "oh so slow to load" flash ads that some cheesy web designers (ad execs?) seem to be in love with.
Rock on FireFox
I wonder which Pork Barrel Project drove this latest reduction in NASA's budget? perhaps Alaska needed another bridge to nowhere ?
Who needs space exploration when you have have TONS and TONS of PORK, that oh sweet budget bustin' other white meat that our elected big spenders in Washington would just starve without.
"they show that the commission, the trustee, and Microsoft's adversaries were secretly collaborating throughout the fall of 2005 "
:)
Sux when your opponents use your own tactics against you, huh Bill?
though I'd point out these days hyperconsumerism means trying to juggle the costs of housing, health care, and food.
:)
LOL, yeah no kidding... welcome to Bush World, where hyperconsumerism means not starving to death
The difference is that your run of the mill Gen X'er is completely failing at it, where the corporations are succeeding.
:)
One suspects that the Gen X'ers aren't succeeding simply because they suffer from the affliction of Hyper-consumerism whereas most corporations do not, one suspects that Corporations are in reality the next step in the evolution of Gen X'ers.
Hey Maybe that mail filter should have been for INBOUND javascript in the message body instead of OUTBOUND javascript in the message body. Another injustice perpetrated upon the unsuspecting user base by those merciless hacks at "the brotherhood of the fat fingered sysadmins". :)
Yeah I'm having a bad grammar/spelling day, so sue me. :)
a construct whose sole purpose is to make money
Pretty much the same are you're run of the mill Gen X'er, huh?
But most importantly don't buy Comcast VoIP at all
Here, here... well said, screw Cox and their dreams of owning every form of communication under the Sun.
Seems to me it's definitely time for a new round of "fierce" competition in the ISP space, since the .COM bubble burst it seems that we're getting more and more consolidation in the residential space. I liked the idea of community (city) built/owned networks, however it appears that the big players have moved to kill off that idea as well (and have had some success).
:(
Perhaps WiMax will open things up a bit or neighborhoods getting fiber to the curb, and I think it's sorely needed since it's no surprise at all the Cox is making moves (or perhaps will make moves) to inhibit other VoIP services on their network, after all they want to sell their customers on EVERY possible service they can and milk every dime out of them (hey they are in business to make a profit after all).
As far as Cox Internet goes, they've been getting more and more restrictive as time goes by, I remember getting a Cox broadband subscription pretty early on their deployment (late 90's) and you could run any service you wanted on a residential subscription, not to mention the bi-directional speed was only limited by the number of subscribers on your segment.... well those days are LONG gone
I wonder how long it's going to take them to implement a "pay for QoS" levels on top of their current tiering packages...sigh.
At my job we are currently using Ruby for prototyping and small projects, if the project grows we move it to Java.
:)
What tools are you using (for Ruby and Java) and how would you rate their effectiveness/quality? do you find it easier to port your smaller ruby projects over to java when it's needed?
Thanks in advance
Well, it was not an *objection* just a question, one based on my own real world experience (Being an IT guy) relative how many times I get asked per week by Joe user.. "how do I format my Word doc to look like XYZ", or "how do I make an Excel Pivot table do XYZ" or "how do I do XYZ in powerpoint", which I generally have to respond along the lines of "Sorry, I don't really use these applications that much, but let me show you how to search the help system". I do know that individuals and companies spend quite a bit of $$$ for training on MS Office Applications and I assume they are getting some value for their money - but what the heck do I know, after all most of the work that I do is on text files in vi....
Now I suspect you could teach these skills quite effectively with Open Office, but then again I'm not an educator that has to teach people the nuissances of using the more esoteric features of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc.., and one would think that educators would at least consider the effectiveness of a cirriculm built around a set of tools that the students are likely to face out in the *real world*, like "Do skills taught with Open Office port better to MS Office, or do skills taught using MS Office port better to Open Office, or is there really no difference?".
While I'm a big fan of Linux, I'd have to question that it's the *best* solution to the scenario you're describing some considerations
* While you can build a Linux infrastructure which is *nearly* self maintaining, do you have the budget to pay for the expertise to do this? You say you don't have full time sysadmins so one wonders how much you might spend supporting these machines versus Windows machines (at acedemic pricing levels no less) over the long haul if all you did was place *default install* workstations out there for your students.
* Let's face it Windows applications are the *mainstream* apps in Business, do your goals include exposing your young students to these apps (i.e. do you plan to teach them how to use office apps ?).
Perhaps you might consider a mixed infrastructure with Windows boxes and some Linux (or maybe even a Mac or two) to make your teaching environment a bit more diverse? Given that academic pricing for Windows & MS Apps is so low and given that support for them is so easy to find and generally speaking *cheap* it may be worth considering the longer term Total Cost of Ownership, rather than just the upfront CapEx for licensing.
You also may want to talk to the various vendors upfront about what you're trying to do, I know for a fact that Microsoft often offers various incentives (i.e. Freebie support, licenses, even hardware subsidies, etc..) in situations like yours and I suspect some of the Linux vendors might even consider doing the same (as would perhaps Apple)... best of luck.
Cool thanks for the reply & the link, definitely a plus if the Eclipse plug in works well with this framework (Eclipse is a great IDE IMHO).
Haven't really had an opportunity to look much at either Ruby or RoR, this tutorial looks interesting, anyone out that works with RoR got any opinions on the availability/quality of tools and how it lives on other OS platforms...say Linux or FreeBSD?
How does it stack up against Java for ease of development and/or performance/flexibility?
i cant get wi-fi either. hp notebook.
... :)
Say hello to NDIS Wrapper
http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/
In other news Congress is considering a Bush Administration proposal to impose a 100% levy on sales of Monitors and Televisions... The Administration explained this proposal by saying "Concievably any display device has the potential to spread the scourge of pornography, therfore the only expediant thing to do is impose a levy which can be redirected to American Christian Churches in order to subsidize the cost of saving the souls of those victimized by pornography".
Congress is slated to vote on the measure before ending it's current session.
Just In case you want to transfer that new killer virus to your gaming console.....