I'm glad someone posted this. I think people really get off on how badly something does in the market as a way to attack a company or its creative people. In reality, there really wasn't anything wrong with flops such as the Atari Lynx, NeXT, Amiga, etc, but somehow the meme that unless you're making tons of money you're a loser continues to spread, thus we have Bill Gates as the genius behind Microsoft while we (well most) ignore the dirty business tricks that made his products so profitable.
They may be "ego trips" but Alterman's, Franken's and Moore's writings are rarely echoed on the mainstream media, while Coulter et al are the mainstream media. At the very least these books shouldn't be combined into one category considering half of them are using the printed word to by-pass the limited discussions the corporate media allows. Afterall, it takes money, will, and a possible loss of viewers to say something even remotely controversial on television and like the internet, the printed word frees up the discussion.
The channel is called Left of Center, free listening for 20 minutes.
I really don't like how XM is in bed with clearchannel, after the FCC approved News Corps buyout of DirecTV I'm afraid to invest in more technology that will just become consolidated and monopolized again.
Really now, if XM hits critical mass their ClearChannel masters will just milk it like they do regular FM. Afterall, you've already bought the tech and have a contract, why not toss in more commercials or play that Sheryl Crow song a few more times this hour. Afterall, the label is paying us.
The worst part is that these displays are rarely creative, they're just massively extravagant.
Where is the guy working on a kick-ass animatronic reindeer or someone setting up a fund to buy decent trees or presents for the needy? They don't get the TV time (or slashdot time) these guys get. Any why? Because an almost obsessive-compulsive attempt to string up as many lights as possible is impressive?
Not to be a grinch, but I would love to see someone try something new like LEDs instead of incandescent lights. Wire them up to a sequencer or a computer and display messages, graphics, etc. Now that would be geek-worthy.
How about allowing OEMs to sell dual-booting machines and let the people/market decide? I think we're way past the point of "fixing" windows and are in the area where people should be able to test the "competition" from Dell, Compaq, or whoever without the OEM's fearing losing their contracts with MS.
We should just be able to say "Yes, I want windows 2000 on there and Mandrake 9." And the OEM should make sure it has drivers for both systems.
>Strictly speaking, Linux cannot and probably will never be able to "advertise" in the same sense that Microsoft can.
What is Linux? It sure as heck isn't a corporation or a business. Its GPL'd code, that's it.
If I create a distro and claim it does X, Y, and Z then I am making statements just like MS. I don't see how this is a hinderance, as people don't usually just install "linux" they install distributions written/compiled by third-parties. If those third-parties want to advertise, more power to them.
>Anyway, if this is truly from Microsoft, it is an extremely interesting development.
Of course it is, because next time they get sued for being monopolists and engaging in dirty deals with OEMs they can just yell the magic word "linux" and pretend to claim they have a real competitor.
MS has been trying very hard to legitimize Linux as a legal competitor while keeping it off OEM machines and making the sale of dual-boot machines a non-possibility with their OEM contracts.
Feel free to engage in this survey, but all you're doing is hurting whatever chance linux has of leaving the server and hobbyist rooms.
GUI desktop: GNOME. The fact that it comes with a license to develop and distribute proprietary applications is the sole reason for this decision. A long discussion on the mailing list has made it clear that GNOME and KDE are similar in technical merit and commercial acceptance at this time, leaving only the licensing issue as a basis for this decision. If you like KDE, it's still there in Debian, please go ahead and support it, and form a sub-group with everyone else who wants to. However, I think that it is better for the overall group to make a decision than to support two GUIs.
>Answer me this: why must every Linux distribution be about infinite choice?
Exactly. Heaven forbid they push out a distro that works well with "limited" options. There's no way to please everyone, that's why we compromise. There's also nothing wrong with Gnome, and if they went the KDE route the complaints regarding licensing would be deafening.
I can also smell the MS disnformation campaign, "Sure Linux is free, but if you want to develop software its $1300 smack-a-roos." Or headlines with "Linux's hidden costs? Why not just buy MS?"
Look at all the Win2000 and 98 computers out there. One wonders why MS isn't porting their firewall to 2000, XP installs are a drop in the bucket compared to 2000.
Lastly, I don't believe this SP shuts off activeX by default, which is the biggest problem facing windows users as its a gateway to a semilegal spyware trojans.
There really should be a "shut off ActiveX day." 15th of the month anyone? I'm getting sick of doing it on every computer I come across after someone tells me "I have no idea how gator got on there!"
>Do you really fucking think that Comcast gives a flying rats ass if I go over my invisible limit and they dump me
They better start caring, and fast. Lots of people here in Chicago have dumped them for DSL since they took over AT&T and raised the rates to $60 a month.
Comcast keeps trying to get new customers with its $19.99 for 3 or 4 months, but the reality of the situation is that you'll be paying $60 a month once that's over.
My experience with ex-comcast users here suggests they are hemmoraging users right about now. Once I get my phone line installed I'm gone too. Its cheaper to pay for a phone line AND get DSL than just to get a cable modem in Chicago, especially with SBC/Yahoo teaming up to provide 26.95 a month DSL.
> Except that FireBird is vulnerable to the exploit as well.
I'm using.7 as I saw the full URL..7 is the current version and no I havent tested the old versions. So if you were to follow my instructions and give someone firebird they'd have.7 and would NOT have this problem.
Normally a company with this kind of reputation would be declacring bankrupcy about right now, but its deep connections with the GOP means they'll be around for a while and your state will probably be buying Diebold machines.
Soon we'll be hearing, "No one ever got fired for buying Diebold." When the opposite should be true.
Corruption, cronyism, quid pro quo, etc we've have it all here. The market should be eliminating reckless companies like these, instead we've got the GOP doing their best to keep them afloat. That's wrong, Americans of every political stripe should be demanding their state to divest from Diebold ASAP.
More importantly why aren't banking sites suggesting users use Moz? Some could argue that if they knew this in advance they are liable for being negligent, like leaving the vault door open.
It would only be fair to see a link to Moz and Opera on banking sites and suggesting people use these browsers for maximum privacy and security.
At least I've been having more success pushing alternatives to MS when scary MS articles come out.
I find giving people the link (or installing it myself) to the Firebird installer and showing them how multiple homepages, pop-up blocking, and tabs work usually wows them.
I'd much rather field some tech support questions about Moz than deal with a frantic relative or friend telling me how all the money in their bank account was stolen by "internet theives."
Paypal et al should be pushing for more secure browsers on their site. I don't see how this could be a business conflict with MS. Paypal has a lot to gain by simply suggesting there are more secure browsers out there.
True, its a Hughes, but its Tivo who is trying to stop us by not allowing us access to imagees.
Secondly, the business world is hardly that simple. When Tivo licenses out they have an obligation to work with manufacturers who will build a quality product and if they don't they have an ever stronger obligation to make sure things get fixed.
Lastly, do you think Joe Consumer is goin to care between Tivo and Hughes? Its still the Tivo brand and damage to brand is equivalant to damage to Tivo.
First off, the DirecTivos probably have the worst QC of any DVR on the market and I found myself shipping my first DT off and waiting *are you ready for this* 4 months for a replacement. The fan decided to stop and burned out the card reader.
A few months later the HD broke. So I pulled it out and got the linux-based rescue CD-image from someone at the excellent tivocommunity forums. Luckily that old drive had a little life left in her and I managed to do a DD copy onto a new 80 gig drive.
What Tivo should be doing is producing better products and stop punishing us who are trying to fix the junk they sold us. Making money off of a fauly product is ridiculous and those with the skills to be able to fix these things deserve access to the images.
If Tivo thinks I'm going to waste another 4 months on warranty service or pay for a damn OS image that should be mostly OSS they've got another thing coming.
Tivo, I'm afraid (because I truly love their product) will be non-existant once the Comcast and Dishnetwork DVRs start coming free with the service. You can take at look at them at gizmodo. If Tivo wants to compete they need to kiss more customer ass, not spit on existing customers with lemons.
Wait a sec, when windows users get infected its their own fault, but when linux or apache doesn't have the ability to scan for changes or trojans its the spammers fault?
There are many parties at fault here, including the sysadmin who doesn't run tripwire.
>In the mean time, I may be investigating satelite internet.
What about ISDN? Pricing may not be bad in your area. 128kbps switched is pretty fast.
Or a router with two plain-jane 56k modems in it. If your ISP supports modem multi-plexing (or whatever its called) you can plug right into the ethernet interface, use DHCP, set-up a firewall, set it to always call back if the ISP hangs you up, etc. That's a 100k connection right there.
3COM has a router like this and it was a lifesaver when our Northpoint DSL went down.
>Why not continue working on more effective spam traps and stop legislating morality.
How is stopping SMTP abuse, bandwidth theft, and computer time theft "legislating morality?" Are we going to do away with theft laws too? Afterall Bob did forget to lock his door, thus that gives us the right to steal all his stuff, right Mr. Uber-Libertarian? "Legislating morality" is best used when describing victimless crimes like smoking pot.
As flawed as this bill is, let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Of all the comments on here, no one is advocating a boycott against nvidia products or at least shopping smart. I had a geforce 3 in a RedHat box and it was really just a waste of money and energy. Linux isn't exactly a gamer's platform and I spent almost all of my time in 2D. Now that box has a Matrox card from 1995 or so. Works great.
Support manufacturers who work with the OSS community, give them your money. Sure, Linux is usually just installed on whatever junk Dell or Compaq sold you, but you do have a choice with desktop machines and especially machines you build yourself. Pull that offending card out, replace it with something with decent drivers and write a letter to the manufacturer/coders thanking them for supporting your OS. Eventually this will hopefully escalate to being a big stain on nvidias image.
Until Linux is sold by various OEMs this problem will continue. Ideally OEM competition will help force OSS drivers into existance as they simply would work better freshly compiled and have cross-platform capabilities (porting to solaris, etc).
Its understood that nvidia probably has contracts forbiding them to release an OSS driver. Well, perhaps in the future they can avoid such agreements and provide OSS drivers.
I'm not holding my breath, Linux isn't exactly what comes to mind when talking about 3D apps (with the exception of rendering farms), especially games. Do they even still make OpenGL games?
Even with tons of pressure this issue may never be resolved. Its a compromise the Linux community may have to live with for a long time. Not to mention chastising users who choose the binary path also goes against the free pricinples of "doing whatever I want with my computer."
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I'm glad someone posted this. I think people really get off on how badly something does in the market as a way to attack a company or its creative people. In reality, there really wasn't anything wrong with flops such as the Atari Lynx, NeXT, Amiga, etc, but somehow the meme that unless you're making tons of money you're a loser continues to spread, thus we have Bill Gates as the genius behind Microsoft while we (well most) ignore the dirty business tricks that made his products so profitable.
They may be "ego trips" but Alterman's, Franken's and Moore's writings are rarely echoed on the mainstream media, while Coulter et al are the mainstream media. At the very least these books shouldn't be combined into one category considering half of them are using the printed word to by-pass the limited discussions the corporate media allows. Afterall, it takes money, will, and a possible loss of viewers to say something even remotely controversial on television and like the internet, the printed word frees up the discussion.
http://www.siriusradio.com/servlet/ContentServer?p agename=Sirius/CachedPage&c=Page&cid=1065475754154
The channel is called Left of Center, free listening for 20 minutes.
I really don't like how XM is in bed with clearchannel, after the FCC approved News Corps buyout of DirecTV I'm afraid to invest in more technology that will just become consolidated and monopolized again.
Really now, if XM hits critical mass their ClearChannel masters will just milk it like they do regular FM. Afterall, you've already bought the tech and have a contract, why not toss in more commercials or play that Sheryl Crow song a few more times this hour. Afterall, the label is paying us.
The worst part is that these displays are rarely creative, they're just massively extravagant.
Where is the guy working on a kick-ass animatronic reindeer or someone setting up a fund to buy decent trees or presents for the needy? They don't get the TV time (or slashdot time) these guys get. Any why? Because an almost obsessive-compulsive attempt to string up as many lights as possible is impressive?
Not to be a grinch, but I would love to see someone try something new like LEDs instead of incandescent lights. Wire them up to a sequencer or a computer and display messages, graphics, etc. Now that would be geek-worthy.
How about allowing OEMs to sell dual-booting machines and let the people/market decide? I think we're way past the point of "fixing" windows and are in the area where people should be able to test the "competition" from Dell, Compaq, or whoever without the OEM's fearing losing their contracts with MS.
We should just be able to say "Yes, I want windows 2000 on there and Mandrake 9." And the OEM should make sure it has drivers for both systems.
>Strictly speaking, Linux cannot and probably will never be able to "advertise" in the same sense that Microsoft can.
What is Linux? It sure as heck isn't a corporation or a business. Its GPL'd code, that's it.
If I create a distro and claim it does X, Y, and Z then I am making statements just like MS. I don't see how this is a hinderance, as people don't usually just install "linux" they install distributions written/compiled by third-parties. If those third-parties want to advertise, more power to them.
>Anyway, if this is truly from Microsoft, it is an extremely interesting development.
Of course it is, because next time they get sued for being monopolists and engaging in dirty deals with OEMs they can just yell the magic word "linux" and pretend to claim they have a real competitor.
MS has been trying very hard to legitimize Linux as a legal competitor while keeping it off OEM machines and making the sale of dual-boot machines a non-possibility with their OEM contracts.
Feel free to engage in this survey, but all you're doing is hurting whatever chance linux has of leaving the server and hobbyist rooms.
>Answer me this: why must every Linux distribution be about infinite choice?
Exactly. Heaven forbid they push out a distro that works well with "limited" options. There's no way to please everyone, that's why we compromise. There's also nothing wrong with Gnome, and if they went the KDE route the complaints regarding licensing would be deafening.
I can also smell the MS disnformation campaign, "Sure Linux is free, but if you want to develop software its $1300 smack-a-roos." Or headlines with "Linux's hidden costs? Why not just buy MS?"
Look at all the Win2000 and 98 computers out there. One wonders why MS isn't porting their firewall to 2000, XP installs are a drop in the bucket compared to 2000.
Lastly, I don't believe this SP shuts off activeX by default, which is the biggest problem facing windows users as its a gateway to a semilegal spyware trojans.
There really should be a "shut off ActiveX day." 15th of the month anyone? I'm getting sick of doing it on every computer I come across after someone tells me "I have no idea how gator got on there!"
>Do you really fucking think that Comcast gives a flying rats ass if I go over my invisible limit and they dump me
They better start caring, and fast. Lots of people here in Chicago have dumped them for DSL since they took over AT&T and raised the rates to $60 a month.
Comcast keeps trying to get new customers with its $19.99 for 3 or 4 months, but the reality of the situation is that you'll be paying $60 a month once that's over.
My experience with ex-comcast users here suggests they are hemmoraging users right about now. Once I get my phone line installed I'm gone too. Its cheaper to pay for a phone line AND get DSL than just to get a cable modem in Chicago, especially with SBC/Yahoo teaming up to provide 26.95 a month DSL.
>The woman's age, grandmother status and religious strength aside,
What difference does it make?
Religious people are no more 'decent' than non-religious people.
Women are just as capable of doing wrong as men.
Age does not make one wiser or a better person.
Procreating doesn't make one better than a a childless person.
> Except that FireBird is vulnerable to the exploit as well.
.7 as I saw the full URL. .7 is the current version and no I havent tested the old versions. So if you were to follow my instructions and give someone firebird they'd have .7 and would NOT have this problem.
I'm using
Care to elaborate?
>Supreme Court basically said that the 1st amendment could be thrown out the Window
I also heard that yelling fire in a crowded theater is illegal!
And that bribery isn't a protected form of speech!
Damn those socialist judges and their wacky ways.
Normally a company with this kind of reputation would be declacring bankrupcy about right now, but its deep connections with the GOP means they'll be around for a while and your state will probably be buying Diebold machines.
Soon we'll be hearing, "No one ever got fired for buying Diebold." When the opposite should be true.
Corruption, cronyism, quid pro quo, etc we've have it all here. The market should be eliminating reckless companies like these, instead we've got the GOP doing their best to keep them afloat. That's wrong, Americans of every political stripe should be demanding their state to divest from Diebold ASAP.
More importantly why aren't banking sites suggesting users use Moz? Some could argue that if they knew this in advance they are liable for being negligent, like leaving the vault door open.
It would only be fair to see a link to Moz and Opera on banking sites and suggesting people use these browsers for maximum privacy and security.
At least I've been having more success pushing alternatives to MS when scary MS articles come out.
I find giving people the link (or installing it myself) to the Firebird installer and showing them how multiple homepages, pop-up blocking, and tabs work usually wows them.
I'd much rather field some tech support questions about Moz than deal with a frantic relative or friend telling me how all the money in their bank account was stolen by "internet theives."
Paypal et al should be pushing for more secure browsers on their site. I don't see how this could be a business conflict with MS. Paypal has a lot to gain by simply suggesting there are more secure browsers out there.
Also, a simple google groups search shows you that the Hughes fans are notorious for failing.
See also: My usenet post regarding Hughes fans from 2002.
Facts beat conspiracy theories any day of the week.
True, its a Hughes, but its Tivo who is trying to stop us by not allowing us access to imagees.
Secondly, the business world is hardly that simple. When Tivo licenses out they have an obligation to work with manufacturers who will build a quality product and if they don't they have an ever stronger obligation to make sure things get fixed.
Lastly, do you think Joe Consumer is goin to care between Tivo and Hughes? Its still the Tivo brand and damage to brand is equivalant to damage to Tivo.
>well your reasoning sounds like total BS
Its not reasoning its fact. I have a melted card to prove it. A replacement card didn't work.
Whether or not the card reader broke or something else is beyong me, but it seems like the most likely scenario.
> I suspect that under closer examination one would find that you were attaching an external circuit to your DTIVO.
I have no idea what you're talking about and accusing people of theft without any proof is about as close to moral bankrupt as one can get.
First off, the DirecTivos probably have the worst QC of any DVR on the market and I found myself shipping my first DT off and waiting *are you ready for this* 4 months for a replacement. The fan decided to stop and burned out the card reader.
A few months later the HD broke. So I pulled it out and got the linux-based rescue CD-image from someone at the excellent tivocommunity forums. Luckily that old drive had a little life left in her and I managed to do a DD copy onto a new 80 gig drive.
What Tivo should be doing is producing better products and stop punishing us who are trying to fix the junk they sold us. Making money off of a fauly product is ridiculous and those with the skills to be able to fix these things deserve access to the images.
If Tivo thinks I'm going to waste another 4 months on warranty service or pay for a damn OS image that should be mostly OSS they've got another thing coming.
Tivo, I'm afraid (because I truly love their product) will be non-existant once the Comcast and Dishnetwork DVRs start coming free with the service. You can take at look at them at gizmodo. If Tivo wants to compete they need to kiss more customer ass, not spit on existing customers with lemons.
Wait a sec, when windows users get infected its their own fault, but when linux or apache doesn't have the ability to scan for changes or trojans its the spammers fault?
There are many parties at fault here, including the sysadmin who doesn't run tripwire.
>In the mean time, I may be investigating satelite internet.
What about ISDN? Pricing may not be bad in your area. 128kbps switched is pretty fast.
Or a router with two plain-jane 56k modems in it. If your ISP supports modem multi-plexing (or whatever its called) you can plug right into the ethernet interface, use DHCP, set-up a firewall, set it to always call back if the ISP hangs you up, etc. That's a 100k connection right there.
3COM has a router like this and it was a lifesaver when our Northpoint DSL went down.
>Why not continue working on more effective spam traps and stop legislating morality.
How is stopping SMTP abuse, bandwidth theft, and computer time theft "legislating morality?" Are we going to do away with theft laws too? Afterall Bob did forget to lock his door, thus that gives us the right to steal all his stuff, right Mr. Uber-Libertarian? "Legislating morality" is best used when describing victimless crimes like smoking pot.
As flawed as this bill is, let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Of all the comments on here, no one is advocating a boycott against nvidia products or at least shopping smart. I had a geforce 3 in a RedHat box and it was really just a waste of money and energy. Linux isn't exactly a gamer's platform and I spent almost all of my time in 2D. Now that box has a Matrox card from 1995 or so. Works great.
Support manufacturers who work with the OSS community, give them your money. Sure, Linux is usually just installed on whatever junk Dell or Compaq sold you, but you do have a choice with desktop machines and especially machines you build yourself. Pull that offending card out, replace it with something with decent drivers and write a letter to the manufacturer/coders thanking them for supporting your OS. Eventually this will hopefully escalate to being a big stain on nvidias image.
Until Linux is sold by various OEMs this problem will continue. Ideally OEM competition will help force OSS drivers into existance as they simply would work better freshly compiled and have cross-platform capabilities (porting to solaris, etc).
Its understood that nvidia probably has contracts forbiding them to release an OSS driver. Well, perhaps in the future they can avoid such agreements and provide OSS drivers.
I'm not holding my breath, Linux isn't exactly what comes to mind when talking about 3D apps (with the exception of rendering farms), especially games. Do they even still make OpenGL games?
Even with tons of pressure this issue may never be resolved. Its a compromise the Linux community may have to live with for a long time. Not to mention chastising users who choose the binary path also goes against the free pricinples of "doing whatever I want with my computer."