Atomic Energy of Canada Limited's Therac-25 killed 3 people and maimed 3 others. Until AECL were forced by their customers to deal with their piss-poor attitude towards patient safety, they were all too happy to blame it on "operator error" (save for the first accident, for which a "faulty microswitch" got the blame with ZERO objective analysis).
Isn't one of the selling points supposed to be lower maintenance costs? But really, doesn't that get wiped out, or at least compromised, by the higher employment cost of sending crews into contaminated sites that are still waiting for clean-up? And if the site clean-up is in progress, wouldn't that drive up the maintenance crews' costs up even higher?
Even the Mac vs. Windows commercials, they start out "Hi, I'm a Mac," "And I'm a PC." Microsoft has very skillfully indoctrinated the PC-buying public in the USA to believe that Microsoft operating systems are the only thing that will run on an x86-based, non-Macintosh desktop computer.
"Choice" is anathema to Microsoft. Gates, Ballmer, Mundie, et alia want Windows on every PC in the world, and they are willing to use every means, legal or otherwise, to convince people (especially clueless executives) that there is no other system for a PC. In this, they were very successful for a long time. And, face it, a lot of people tolerate Windows in order to have computers on their desks, but how many actually like it?
Even if Microsoft were to admit openly that PC's can run other OS's, the sheer inertia Windows has today is going to take a while to overcome.
If there's one thing I've learned in my life, it's that no one can predict one's reaction to mortality, whether one's own or someone else's. Some can pick up and go on, others can't, and there's no way to tell who is wired which way, until the reality hits.
Hopefully, you can come to understand this before you need others to understand this of you.
You have a precious memory, and your experience serves as an example.
My mother had lung cancer four years ago. It woke me up to exactly what you said in your post. I left Silicon Valley, and moved back to my rural roots.
Three weeks after I got back, Mom nearly died of anaphylaxis brought on by an allergic reaction to her chemo. As I watched the oncology staff race to save her, I knew that I had made the right choice.
Today, Mom is doing well, and I relish being with my family, even when we annoy one another.
In the UK the courts can declare somebody a vexatious litigant which requires them to apply to the court for leave to make an application to the court. Is there something similar in the US?
Yes, but it's usually for career criminals who are already in prison. They file lots of lawsuits over every little complaint, trying to get revenge on the court system that put them away. Before the days of easy teleconferencing, it could also get them some time in the courtroom (and out of the prison).
Jack Thompson was already a vexatious litigator before he got his disbarment smackdown. The courts just haven't declared him so yet.
They can ban the Marlboros, tax the Cokes, and zone the Whoppers, says Slate's William Saletan on the subject of today's morality cops. But it's time to put the brakes on the paternalistic overreaching of the food police... when they come after his editor's beloved Fresca
In other words, the rights of all don't matter, just the rights of the people in his little sphere of influence. About on par with Pauline Kael wondering how Richard Nixon could have won in 1972, because she didn't know anybody who voted for him.
Wrong. Children learn to work on the platform that's mostly used in Businesses today, giving them the necessary skills to obtain a job.
As others in this thread have pointed out, rote learning is part of what the FSF details as a Windows 7 "sin." Simply saying "click this button, type this sequence" teaches nothing about computers. That kind of instruction belongs in a Business class, not a Computers class.
The instruction in a Computers class should be along the lines of "what drew this button? what happens inside the hardware/software stack when I click on it?". The layers of knowledge and understanding go deep, just like the turtles, but Microsoft would rather keep the unwashed masses ignorant.
Sir (or ma'am, as the case may be), this comment is the most incredible summation of my view on the Internet that I have ever read. For that, you are now my friend on Slashdot.
Although it doesn't reduce my cynicism w.r.t. humanity in general...
Step 1: Presume everyone breaks "the rules". Corollary: The more "rules" there are, the more people there will be who break them.
Step 2: Impose measures to prevent such "rule-breaking," through which permission is granted by some Higher Authority to do... whatever. Examples: Digital Restrictions Management, Treacherous Computing, Windows Genuine Advantage, PlaysForSure.
Step 3: Squelch the nay-sayers and their ilk, long enough for everyone else to accept it. The nay-sayers will eventually give in to the inertia. Make object lessons of those who don't. Example: the MafiAA.
George Orwell tried to warn us, but now even he has been silenced. By cowardly Amazon, no less.
The technology NASA uses for human-based space exploration is never the latest-and-greatest. The risk to the on-board human crew can be reduced by knowing the most likely failure modes of all the technology involved. Remember, it took some years before the effects of cosmic rays on dynamic RAM were proven. That's why NASA stuck with magnetic core memory for so long.
The autonomous vehicles, like the Spirit and Opportunity probes on Mars, can use newer technology, and can even give us demonstrations of how the newer tech behaves when exposed to the harsh conditions of outer space. But when human lives are involved, the older, well-understood technology gives the best odds of a successful mission.
Rather than constantly blaming the victim we need to get tough on the criminals. If someone is mugged you dont tell them that they should not have walked down the street. You go after the guys that mugged them.
I take it you leave your keys in your car, and you never lock your doors at night?
Give me a break.
When your boss won't let you implement real network security, and then your up-to-date Windows Vista Premium server gets cracked with a 0-day exploit, throw it back in his face. Or else, find a factory job somewhere and get some sleep at night. Let the boss take the heat and clean up the mess himself.
One of the lessons of the semi-weekly SANS NewsBites is that security and privilege must be designed into the original specs, not added as an afterthought. Put the mechanisms in place, and mandate their use. If a privilege-check call is accidentally omitted during coding, it should be trivial to add it as a bugfix.
Microsoft did not follow this design philosophy, and now the world pays the price in monthly subscriptions to Symantec and McAfee to cover Microsoft's kiester. And they don't, they only give their subscribers a false sense of security. Who remembers the Sony rootkit? Symantec turned a blind eye until they got caught. Yet we're supposed to pay money to these people?
This is the same industry that had the balls to say the movie "E.T." didn't make a dime.
The Writers' Guild of America strike puts the lie to that. The media producers are making boatloads of money, and the WGA wants their fair share as creators of a lot of the content.
Funny how OSS is always about 'choice' until someone has the gall to choose something other than it.
Without OSS, the only choice for PC's would be Hobson's: Microsoft, or nothing. Let me illustrate from Linus himself, commenting on the latest brouhaha over the Linux scheduler:
> As far as im concerned, i may be forced to unofficially maintain SD for
> my own systems(allthough lots in the gaming community is bound to be
> interrested, as it does make games lots better)
You know what? You can do whatever you want to. That's kind of the point
of open source. Keep people honest by having alternatives.
But the the thing is, if you want to do a good job of doing that, here's a
big hint: instead of keeping to your isolated world, instead of just
talking about your own machine and ignoring other peoples machines and
issues and instead of just denying that problems may exist, and instead of
attacking people who report problems, how about working with them?
(Emphasis added.)
The difference, though, is that Microsoft doesn't always work with people who report problems; sometimes they simply ignore them forever. Apple has been guilty of the same thing. That's what makes OSS different: the demand for accountability will always be met, either with compliance or by a forked project that will comply.
Slashdot Mirror
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited's Therac-25 killed 3 people and maimed 3 others. Until AECL were forced by their customers to deal with their piss-poor attitude towards patient safety, they were all too happy to blame it on "operator error" (save for the first accident, for which a "faulty microswitch" got the blame with ZERO objective analysis).
Isn't one of the selling points supposed to be lower maintenance costs? But really, doesn't that get wiped out, or at least compromised, by the higher employment cost of sending crews into contaminated sites that are still waiting for clean-up? And if the site clean-up is in progress, wouldn't that drive up the maintenance crews' costs up even higher?
Even the Mac vs. Windows commercials, they start out "Hi, I'm a Mac," "And I'm a PC." Microsoft has very skillfully indoctrinated the PC-buying public in the USA to believe that Microsoft operating systems are the only thing that will run on an x86-based, non-Macintosh desktop computer.
"Choice" is anathema to Microsoft. Gates, Ballmer, Mundie, et alia want Windows on every PC in the world, and they are willing to use every means, legal or otherwise, to convince people (especially clueless executives) that there is no other system for a PC. In this, they were very successful for a long time. And, face it, a lot of people tolerate Windows in order to have computers on their desks, but how many actually like it?
Even if Microsoft were to admit openly that PC's can run other OS's, the sheer inertia Windows has today is going to take a while to overcome.
If there's one thing I've learned in my life, it's that no one can predict one's reaction to mortality, whether one's own or someone else's. Some can pick up and go on, others can't, and there's no way to tell who is wired which way, until the reality hits.
Hopefully, you can come to understand this before you need others to understand this of you.
And yet, it worked. Both of them were great actors, and "Two" was the perfect vehicle to prove it.
You have a precious memory, and your experience serves as an example.
My mother had lung cancer four years ago. It woke me up to exactly what you said in your post. I left Silicon Valley, and moved back to my rural roots.
Three weeks after I got back, Mom nearly died of anaphylaxis brought on by an allergic reaction to her chemo. As I watched the oncology staff race to save her, I knew that I had made the right choice.
Today, Mom is doing well, and I relish being with my family, even when we annoy one another.
I believe the first one you cite was called "One for the Angels," and the second was "Night of the Meek."
Another good one was "Two," with Charles Bronson and Elizabeth Montgomery.
In the UK the courts can declare somebody a vexatious litigant which requires them to apply to the court for leave to make an application to the court. Is there something similar in the US?
Yes, but it's usually for career criminals who are already in prison. They file lots of lawsuits over every little complaint, trying to get revenge on the court system that put them away. Before the days of easy teleconferencing, it could also get them some time in the courtroom (and out of the prison).
Jack Thompson was already a vexatious litigator before he got his disbarment smackdown. The courts just haven't declared him so yet.
They can ban the Marlboros, tax the Cokes, and zone the Whoppers, says Slate's William Saletan on the subject of today's morality cops. But it's time to put the brakes on the paternalistic overreaching of the food police... when they come after his editor's beloved Fresca
In other words, the rights of all don't matter, just the rights of the people in his little sphere of influence. About on par with Pauline Kael wondering how Richard Nixon could have won in 1972, because she didn't know anybody who voted for him.
The /etc/hosts file will be cached. Besides, the time lost parsing /etc/hosts is far less than the time lost to loading a bunch of irrelevant ads.
And the most restrictive rules about where I'm allowed to use those tools. What's so great about that?
Wrong. Children learn to work on the platform that's mostly used in Businesses today, giving them the necessary skills to obtain a job.
As others in this thread have pointed out, rote learning is part of what the FSF details as a Windows 7 "sin." Simply saying "click this button, type this sequence" teaches nothing about computers. That kind of instruction belongs in a Business class, not a Computers class.
The instruction in a Computers class should be along the lines of "what drew this button? what happens inside the hardware/software stack when I click on it?". The layers of knowledge and understanding go deep, just like the turtles, but Microsoft would rather keep the unwashed masses ignorant.
By repeating their string of P-terms, they can spit in the face of their would-be readers.
Critical analysis, which would normally fall under "fair use"? P on that!
Sir (or ma'am, as the case may be), this comment is the most incredible summation of my view on the Internet that I have ever read. For that, you are now my friend on Slashdot.
Although it doesn't reduce my cynicism w.r.t. humanity in general...
Step 1: Presume everyone breaks "the rules". Corollary: The more "rules" there are, the more people there will be who break them.
Step 2: Impose measures to prevent such "rule-breaking," through which permission is granted by some Higher Authority to do... whatever. Examples: Digital Restrictions Management, Treacherous Computing, Windows Genuine Advantage, PlaysForSure.
Step 3: Squelch the nay-sayers and their ilk, long enough for everyone else to accept it. The nay-sayers will eventually give in to the inertia. Make object lessons of those who don't. Example: the MafiAA.
George Orwell tried to warn us, but now even he has been silenced. By cowardly Amazon, no less.
The technology NASA uses for human-based space exploration is never the latest-and-greatest. The risk to the on-board human crew can be reduced by knowing the most likely failure modes of all the technology involved. Remember, it took some years before the effects of cosmic rays on dynamic RAM were proven. That's why NASA stuck with magnetic core memory for so long.
The autonomous vehicles, like the Spirit and Opportunity probes on Mars, can use newer technology, and can even give us demonstrations of how the newer tech behaves when exposed to the harsh conditions of outer space. But when human lives are involved, the older, well-understood technology gives the best odds of a successful mission.
Rather than constantly blaming the victim we need to get tough on the criminals. If someone is mugged you dont tell them that they should not have walked down the street. You go after the guys that mugged them.
I take it you leave your keys in your car, and you never lock your doors at night?
Give me a break.
When your boss won't let you implement real network security, and then your up-to-date Windows Vista Premium server gets cracked with a 0-day exploit, throw it back in his face. Or else, find a factory job somewhere and get some sleep at night. Let the boss take the heat and clean up the mess himself.
One of the lessons of the semi-weekly SANS NewsBites is that security and privilege must be designed into the original specs, not added as an afterthought. Put the mechanisms in place, and mandate their use. If a privilege-check call is accidentally omitted during coding, it should be trivial to add it as a bugfix.
Microsoft did not follow this design philosophy, and now the world pays the price in monthly subscriptions to Symantec and McAfee to cover Microsoft's kiester. And they don't, they only give their subscribers a false sense of security. Who remembers the Sony rootkit? Symantec turned a blind eye until they got caught. Yet we're supposed to pay money to these people?
No wonder Microsoft is so afraid of Linux.
Here is how Google kowtowed to their Communist masters. Peace and love to the Chinese, the truth about the massacre to everyone else.
"Don't be evil"? Fuck you, Google.
The very clear-headed Carla Schroeder has a write-up at Linux Today. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols also noticed the figures were bogus.
Why not? Most geeks will use it for their own pleasure.
And you thought "crossing the beams" was just in the movies.
This is the same industry that had the balls to say the movie "E.T." didn't make a dime.
The Writers' Guild of America strike puts the lie to that. The media producers are making boatloads of money, and the WGA wants their fair share as creators of a lot of the content.
Funny how OSS is always about 'choice' until someone has the gall to choose something other than it.
Without OSS, the only choice for PC's would be Hobson's: Microsoft, or nothing. Let me illustrate from Linus himself, commenting on the latest brouhaha over the Linux scheduler:
(Emphasis added.)
The difference, though, is that Microsoft doesn't always work with people who report problems; sometimes they simply ignore them forever. Apple has been guilty of the same thing. That's what makes OSS different: the demand for accountability will always be met, either with compliance or by a forked project that will comply.
$ cd
/home.
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=8G bs=1048576 count=8192
I dare you to tell me that command failed on your system, with space remaining on your partition containing