"Office software - OpenOffice.org appears to lack the ability to track changes - essential for multiple people working on a project. Compare document is not enough. You need to be able to identify changes, and add comment bubbles for the development and review process. Additionally OOo needs to have a basic project management tool, drawing tool, and even a note taking tool a la MS Project, Visio and OneNote. That would cover most business needs."
The more and more complex your documentation, notes, and filesystem becomes, the more you realise that you need a Wiki to organise it all. If you want to have lots of people collaborating on a document, tracking changes, writing comments, and re-using text between documents, then word processors by themselves simply aren't capable enough, but that's something an internal Wiki excels in.
As to drawing tools, I can't believe we're talking about the same products. Where I work, OpenOffice has one of the best drawing tools I've ever used, whereas Microsoft Office doesn't have anything. We've got engineers trying to do technical drawing in MS-Word, and you wouldn't believe how ugly the results are. Visio would be nice, but it's not part of MS-Office, it's 150-400 GBP extra. Can someone who's used both tell me why Visio is worth so much more money? And anyone who says 'because it's part of MS-Office' doesn't know enough about Visio's history.
As to note-taking, what is it that you're so sure OpenOffice *must have* before you'll look at it? You have some sort of company where people open up Microsoft note-taking software when they receive a phone call rather than using a text-editor or word-processor or a postit note like everyone else? Do you take your computers into meetings and try to take notes on that?
Project management? Even the most hardcore Microsoft-users in our office are baulking at the idea of paying 400-500 GBP per-person, per-computer for a project planning tool. Not that they'd ever consider using anything other than Microsoft Project, of course.
"All that's missing now, is a stylesheet that'll close all remaining security holes..."
You can make an ethernet adapter for that, which plugs in between your Windows machine and the network or cable modem. Simply take a standard CAT5 lead, cut it in half, and tape the ends shut. Then plug one half into the Windows computer, and the other half into the network.
"Although no self-respecting/.er wants to admit, there is a steeper learning curve to using Linux than Windows"
Well, if I want to be self-respecting, then I can't really admit it I suppose.
Think a bit about how long that knowledge lasts, though.
I'll pick an example, although it applies to lots of things. Example: change your IP address in Windows98.
Okay? Finished the learning curve? Now try changing your IP address in WindowsNT. Notice how it's different enough that you need to start from scratch, rather than being able to use your acquired knowledge.
Now try it again in Windows 2000. Okay then, it's mostly similar. Nothing new to learn.
Try it again in WindowsXP? Okay, they've reorgansised your start menu. No problem... They've reorganised your control panel. Right... What have they called the network settings this year? Into the network settings, and it's similar to Win2K. Just that everything you had to do to get there is completely different to the last 3 versions of Windows.
Now learn a command in Linux. Try it on an O/S from 6 years ago, and it's fairly likely to work. Try it on the latest build, and it'll certainly still work. Try it on a different operating system. The knowledge you learnt in Linux applies to BSD? Windows commands work in Linux too? Right. What happens when you type "ls" in Windows? What happens when you type "dir" in Mandrake?
Knowledge in Linux stays learnt. With Windows, you have the same learning-curve for every version. Where have they put the website cache this year?
I'm not sure that linux is simple, not least from the perspective that I don't completely understand it myself. Maybe the GPL'd applications (which I assume you include in 'linux') are simple in appearance, but they seem to be doing an awful lot behind the scenes.
"Few can use it"? What's that all about. Have you tried running an application in Linux? It's identical to running that same application in Windows. Sure, the title bar might look different, and you've got more desktops and such like, but they're the same applications, right?
I'd be pretty surprised if a group of people who hadn't used computers before couldn't figure out Gnome before they figured out Windows. After all, the Gnome team seem to have spent more effort making it easy to use. Perhaps you mean Linux is more difficult for Windows-users to use, in the same way that the english language seems obvious and easy-to-use by english speakers.
"the key difference between Windows and Linux is ease of hardware and software installation."
As someone who just installed a soundcard in Windows2000, and watched the machine bluescreen then refuse to boot (even in safe-mode), I can only agree. Some things are just easier if you have a better O/S to work on.
Did I mention the 2 days it took one of our contractors to work out why Windows was helpfully disabling a fileserver he was trying to setup without ever thinking to mention that it had disabled network connections because the administrator password was blank? (internal network for a cluster..)
Or getting Windows2000 to login as somebody by default? (yes, this option is made invisible (not just greyed out) if you're part of a workgroup). That took an someone a couple of hours to fix that they could have been doing useful work.
Control panel -- Relevant option -- Advanced options -- sixth tab of the four visible tabs -- Settings -- scroll down a lot -- tick the option you want -- would you like to reboot for this setting to take effect?.
At least we're not in linux with all those darned text files
// This is setting x. it does such-and-such. // You should enable it under these conditions:... // If you enable it, you should be aware of these things:... x = value
Of course, some things are more difficult in Linux also, but you can understand how hardware interfaces might be difficult when the manufacturers refuse to provide any information on how the products work. Most people here would say "fuck 'em" and ignore a hardware manufacturer if they refused to cooperate with driver-writers, but all credit to the people who actually reverse-engineer things so that they work anyway.
"Since several people have to be able to view all this info, I couldn't figure out a way to realistically keep it all secure.... would your book still apply?"
It's more difficult -- if someone has the ability to view the entire database, then they have the ability to leak or sell the database, that's pretty fundamental, and it's the same problem as DRM.
The book does have a few chapters on people adding data with the public keys of whoever's allowed to read each piece of data, but probably nothing you couldn't work out yourself. It's also got a fair bit on making a database so that you can't look up a particular record unless you already know some information about it, but that's more for people needing a 'view' of database statistics than for someone with the need to view every record.
If the client is on the phone when you need to access their record, then it's much simpler -- you just encrypt records using their name and password as a code, so when they phone and tell you their name and password, you use it to decrypt their record. That means that 'stealing' one password will only get you one record and not the whole database.
Some companies (AOL) have tried to use hardware tokens to help when lots of people need access to parts of a database which needs to be kept confidential. I don't know much about that, but assume that it fails if someone takes the database machine itself (which these other methods are designed to withstand theft of the entire database and it's root password)
I'm not a banker, but if you're even thinking about these questions then you're probably ahead of some famous internet banks as regards database security.
"What happens when someone gets smart and creates one that looks for other Symbiot boxes and basicly has them fighting each other?"
Well at a guess, Symbiot will have sold at least two installations.
(whether their customers' net connections will survive is another question...)
As an ISP, what would you rather have:
(a) someone who double-clicks on the attachments
(b) something which tries to DoS whoever it thinks is attacking it
"But if you have asystem where more than one person has to look at all the data, than it can't really be encrypted without saving the password somewhere on the server, since all the people accessing the data won't have the password/unencryption method."
The book you want is called "translucent databases"
Think again about your assumption that one person may want to look at a whole load of data on different people, and consider what fields this actually applies to.
Credit-card numbers? No, they get sent during the transaction, and if you even need to keep them in the database, they can be encrypted with the user's password, so that next time they logon, they can use that stored CC number again.
Management stats? No, you can just update the "total x" for each transaction, without having to store x individually per-person.
There's plenty more in the book, but start thinking about which direction each piece of data is going in, and whether that's correct. Does the person's ID need to go into a table of statistics? If not, hash their name and password, so that it produces a unique identifier that can't be related to the customer without knowing their password.
Does some data need to go from the customer to the company at all, or could it just be encrypted with their password? Would it be better to just throw some information away? Start thinking about who needs to know what..
"I don't want to know how to operate my car. I just want to get from point A to point B quickly."
Could I suggest a taxi?
Or a bike, if A and B are within about 10 miles.
Specifically, if you don't know enough about how to operate your car to avoid causing harm to others, could I suggest you sell it, and take one of the preceding two suggestions.
"I think the person doing the alias to man -k is the system administrator... |... Ah, the "local customization" myth. This may have worked back in the day"
I think the person doing the alias to man -k is the distro maintainer
"look, I typed la and it did an ls for me! And it works when I type dir too!" [mandrake newbie]
Given that the number of possible messages could be numbered in the tens (common messages), or hundreds (lots of routine stuff), then why not just have a codeword for each one, and translate it into each language?
"It would also be an excellent way to send a lot of their current customers fleeing. People aren't familiar with BSD like they are with Linux (particularly RedHat)."
"In most locations yes, it is illegal to wear headphones while riding a bicycle"
Best get those nice people at the car-modding shop to sort out a courier bag with 50W speakers in then, for riding around with. I wonder how many NiMH batteries you need to power a decent speaker system* for a 20-minute ride?
* decent being that it annoys people within about 30 meters or so...
Slashdot Mirror
"Why don't they, like, have a special draft for lawyers?"
Operation lawyer-shield, you will be leading the attack. Expect heavy casualties.
"Office software - OpenOffice.org appears to lack the ability to track changes - essential for multiple people working on a project. Compare document is not enough. You need to be able to identify changes, and add comment bubbles for the development and review process. Additionally OOo needs to have a basic project management tool, drawing tool, and even a note taking tool a la MS Project, Visio and OneNote. That would cover most business needs."
The more and more complex your documentation, notes, and filesystem becomes, the more you realise that you need a Wiki to organise it all. If you want to have lots of people collaborating on a document, tracking changes, writing comments, and re-using text between documents, then word processors by themselves simply aren't capable enough, but that's something an internal Wiki excels in.
As to drawing tools, I can't believe we're talking about the same products. Where I work, OpenOffice has one of the best drawing tools I've ever used, whereas Microsoft Office doesn't have anything. We've got engineers trying to do technical drawing in MS-Word, and you wouldn't believe how ugly the results are. Visio would be nice, but it's not part of MS-Office, it's 150-400 GBP extra. Can someone who's used both tell me why Visio is worth so much more money? And anyone who says 'because it's part of MS-Office' doesn't know enough about Visio's history.
As to note-taking, what is it that you're so sure OpenOffice *must have* before you'll look at it? You have some sort of company where people open up Microsoft note-taking software when they receive a phone call rather than using a text-editor or word-processor or a postit note like everyone else? Do you take your computers into meetings and try to take notes on that?
Project management? Even the most hardcore Microsoft-users in our office are baulking at the idea of paying 400-500 GBP per-person, per-computer for a project planning tool. Not that they'd ever consider using anything other than Microsoft Project, of course.
"All that's missing now, is a stylesheet that'll close all remaining security holes..."
You can make an ethernet adapter for that, which plugs in between your Windows machine and the network or cable modem. Simply take a standard CAT5 lead, cut it in half, and tape the ends shut. Then plug one half into the Windows computer, and the other half into the network.
"Although no self-respecting /.er wants to admit, there is a steeper learning curve to using Linux than Windows"
Well, if I want to be self-respecting, then I can't really admit it I suppose.
Think a bit about how long that knowledge lasts, though.
I'll pick an example, although it applies to lots of things. Example: change your IP address in Windows98.
Okay? Finished the learning curve? Now try changing your IP address in WindowsNT. Notice how it's different enough that you need to start from scratch, rather than being able to use your acquired knowledge.
Now try it again in Windows 2000. Okay then, it's mostly similar. Nothing new to learn.
Try it again in WindowsXP? Okay, they've reorgansised your start menu. No problem... They've reorganised your control panel. Right... What have they called the network settings this year? Into the network settings, and it's similar to Win2K. Just that everything you had to do to get there is completely different to the last 3 versions of Windows.
Now learn a command in Linux. Try it on an O/S from 6 years ago, and it's fairly likely to work. Try it on the latest build, and it'll certainly still work. Try it on a different operating system. The knowledge you learnt in Linux applies to BSD? Windows commands work in Linux too? Right. What happens when you type "ls" in Windows? What happens when you type "dir" in Mandrake?
Knowledge in Linux stays learnt. With Windows, you have the same learning-curve for every version. Where have they put the website cache this year?
"Linux is simple, but few can use it."
Uhh, okay...
Care to say a little more?
I'm not sure that linux is simple, not least from the perspective that I don't completely understand it myself. Maybe the GPL'd applications (which I assume you include in 'linux') are simple in appearance, but they seem to be doing an awful lot behind the scenes.
"Few can use it"? What's that all about. Have you tried running an application in Linux? It's identical to running that same application in Windows. Sure, the title bar might look different, and you've got more desktops and such like, but they're the same applications, right?
I'd be pretty surprised if a group of people who hadn't used computers before couldn't figure out Gnome before they figured out Windows. After all, the Gnome team seem to have spent more effort making it easy to use. Perhaps you mean Linux is more difficult for Windows-users to use, in the same way that the english language seems obvious and easy-to-use by english speakers.
"the key difference between Windows and Linux is ease of hardware and software installation."
// This is setting x. it does such-and-such.
As someone who just installed a soundcard in Windows2000, and watched the machine bluescreen then refuse to boot (even in safe-mode), I can only agree. Some things are just easier if you have a better O/S to work on.
Did I mention the 2 days it took one of our contractors to work out why Windows was helpfully disabling a fileserver he was trying to setup without ever thinking to mention that it had disabled network connections because the administrator password was blank? (internal network for a cluster..)
Or getting Windows2000 to login as somebody by default? (yes, this option is made invisible (not just greyed out) if you're part of a workgroup). That took an someone a couple of hours to fix that they could have been doing useful work.
Control panel -- Relevant option -- Advanced options -- sixth tab of the four visible tabs -- Settings -- scroll down a lot -- tick the option you want -- would you like to reboot for this setting to take effect?.
At least we're not in linux with all those darned text files
// You should enable it under these conditions:...
// If you enable it, you should be aware of these things:...
x = value
Of course, some things are more difficult in Linux also, but you can understand how hardware interfaces might be difficult when the manufacturers refuse to provide any information on how the products work. Most people here would say "fuck 'em" and ignore a hardware manufacturer if they refused to cooperate with driver-writers, but all credit to the people who actually reverse-engineer things so that they work anyway.
"No no no, that's Clippy. Although I can see where you could get confused..."
It looks like you're trying to evaluate a non-microsoft product. Would you like to:
(a) Get a free copy of the microsoft product (which you have to pay for, but not yet)
(b) Have a marketing drone give you a lecture on how the acquisition cost of microsoft product can be made to appear cheaper
(c) Convert all your documents to proprietry ones so you'll never be able to change software
(d) Have us invade your country so that we can specify the software you use.
"Since several people have to be able to view all this info, I couldn't figure out a way to realistically keep it all secure.... would your book still apply?"
It's more difficult -- if someone has the ability to view the entire database, then they have the ability to leak or sell the database, that's pretty fundamental, and it's the same problem as DRM.
The book does have a few chapters on people adding data with the public keys of whoever's allowed to read each piece of data, but probably nothing you couldn't work out yourself. It's also got a fair bit on making a database so that you can't look up a particular record unless you already know some information about it, but that's more for people needing a 'view' of database statistics than for someone with the need to view every record.
If the client is on the phone when you need to access their record, then it's much simpler -- you just encrypt records using their name and password as a code, so when they phone and tell you their name and password, you use it to decrypt their record. That means that 'stealing' one password will only get you one record and not the whole database.
Some companies (AOL) have tried to use hardware tokens to help when lots of people need access to parts of a database which needs to be kept confidential. I don't know much about that, but assume that it fails if someone takes the database machine itself (which these other methods are designed to withstand theft of the entire database and it's root password)
I'm not a banker, but if you're even thinking about these questions then you're probably ahead of some famous internet banks as regards database security.
"What happens when someone gets smart and creates one that looks for other Symbiot boxes and basicly has them fighting each other?"
Well at a guess, Symbiot will have sold at least two installations.
(whether their customers' net connections will survive is another question...)
As an ISP, what would you rather have:
(a) someone who double-clicks on the attachments
(b) something which tries to DoS whoever it thinks is attacking it
"[closed-source drivers] are better than no driver at all..."
Not really.
(Since communism is better than no government at all, perhaps we should force people to use it?)
predicted responses to the announcement:
# "People will take their illegal business offshore, so we may as well not bother having laws"
# "I filter everything, don't know what you're all complaining about"
# "Only 6 spammers?"
# "I use a challenge-response system, and haven't got an email since.."
Or the usual best
# "But all spammers must be Korean because the proxies they use are in Korea"
"What's more, we're firing all our software engineers, sales and marketing professionals, secretaries, etc"
They really don't want to try that in France...
"But if you have asystem where more than one person has to look at all the data, than it can't really be encrypted without saving the password somewhere on the server, since all the people accessing the data won't have the password/unencryption method."
The book you want is called "translucent databases"
Think again about your assumption that one person may want to look at a whole load of data on different people, and consider what fields this actually applies to.
Credit-card numbers? No, they get sent during the transaction, and if you even need to keep them in the database, they can be encrypted with the user's password, so that next time they logon, they can use that stored CC number again.
Management stats? No, you can just update the "total x" for each transaction, without having to store x individually per-person.
There's plenty more in the book, but start thinking about which direction each piece of data is going in, and whether that's correct. Does the person's ID need to go into a table of statistics? If not, hash their name and password, so that it produces a unique identifier that can't be related to the customer without knowing their password.
Does some data need to go from the customer to the company at all, or could it just be encrypted with their password? Would it be better to just throw some information away? Start thinking about who needs to know what..
"I don't want to know how to operate my car. I just want to get from point A to point B quickly."
Could I suggest a taxi?
Or a bike, if A and B are within about 10 miles.
Specifically, if you don't know enough about how to operate your car to avoid causing harm to others, could I suggest you sell it, and take one of the preceding two suggestions.
I find it amazing how many computer "experts" are dead in the water when the keyboard doesn't work or the CLI doesn't come up as expected.
Too bad only the "old-timers" seem to appreciate the power of toggling the register states with switches.
Just thinking of an animated Eric Raymond popping up with helpful hints is well, somehow disturbing...
"I have to go to work every day, so most of my video game playing is restricted to 9am-5pm."
You work for a flight-simulator company too? You might be able to do flexitime if you want to come in at 10:30...
"Or use a "sender pays but only if the recipient wants to charge" scheme."
And find some other way of distributing mailing lists, implement it, and migrate all the mailing lists to it.
"I think the person doing the alias to man -k is the system administrator... | ... Ah, the "local customization" myth. This may have worked back in the day"
I think the person doing the alias to man -k is the distro maintainer
"look, I typed la and it did an ls for me! And it works when I type dir too!" [mandrake newbie]
Given that the number of possible messages could be numbered in the tens (common messages), or hundreds (lots of routine stuff), then why not just have a codeword for each one, and translate it into each language?
"Perhaps this is an excuse to start drinking the stuff like water."
For those odd people who drink more water than coffee...
"It would also be an excellent way to send a lot of their current customers fleeing. People aren't familiar with BSD like they are with Linux (particularly RedHat)."
Last I heard, most of EV1 is running Windows.
"In most locations yes, it is illegal to wear headphones while riding a bicycle"
Best get those nice people at the car-modding shop to sort out a courier bag with 50W speakers in then, for riding around with. I wonder how many NiMH batteries you need to power a decent speaker system* for a 20-minute ride?
* decent being that it annoys people within about 30 meters or so...
"There's nothing more maddening than listening to someone hum while you're trying to code."
Howabout 3 peoples' mobile telephones humming a tune? In time with the 4 office telephones ringing in sync...
Here's the other one:
d Statistics.html
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/topics/Probabilityan