....So, if you don't have bars on your windows, you deserve to get robbed......
No stay out of bad neighborhoods. Dress modestly and park the car in your garage.
Computer translation: Run any OS other than Windows. For the University: Install a good firewall between the Internet and the internal network and educate users about safe computing. Keep confidential data on isolated networks.
......a piece of software that clearly violates University Policy.......
Does that mean that a student who owns a Mac won't be allowed on the University Network since Macs don't need, or at least very few of them have any anti-malware crap? Does that mean Mac users, or even Windows users are forced to run all sorts of garbage software, just so they may use the University's precious network? I'd find myself a more enlightened place to spend precious education dollars. What business is is of anybody to search my PERSONAL computer for whatever software or data it contains? Let them install a decent firewall and spend a few dollars on educating users how to avoid malware by not clicking OK on every dialog box and opening every email.
.....As google is run on clustered 3 way redundancy throughout.......
That's exactly what we had back in the 70s. There were 3 IBM system 370s tied together as one. These were quite reliable in themselves. The problem was the same as today with Google and the web; all the stuff that could and sometimes did go wrong with all the connections between the terminals and the central computers. It's not only the safety of data that matters, but also the access thereto. When a whole business comes to a screeching halt because someone along the way used a backhoe on a cable, that must also be thought about. Backhoes and drunk drivers have no effect on a local storage system and the ability to use the software and the corresponding data. Web apps add miles of potential failure points which are in essence traded for convenience of central IT management, just as it was in the old mainframe days.
....because of Vista's license that prohibits the use of virtual environments like Parallels.......
If its only a non-enforceable license, who cares. If it actually WORKS, that's the main thing. I don't know if VISTA will actually run with Parallels. If it does, and you have a legally obtained copy of VISTA, just install and enjoy.
..... I've installed Windows on Intel Macs right out of the box........
Unless games are the goal, a company call Parallels makes a virtual PC program which allows running Windows as just another application under OSX. It runs Windows and all its apps in a Window (or full screen if desired) and allows easy, instant switching between OSX and Windows, as well as transfer of data in both directions between the two OS. If the host Intel based Mac has enough RAM, most Windows programs don't run noticeably slower than under boot camp or any other computer. It's the best way to use those few "can't get for the Mac" special software that often ties companies to Redmond. Users can be weaned from Windows gradually by letting them learn the Mac slowly. In time, the Windows side will get used less and less. This is especially true if the Windows section gets infected with a few malwares/spywares making it behave in annoying ways, while OSX is unaffected.
.....Google manages the software development, the hardware costs.......
What they don't manage is the connection between you and them that goes down when some jerk with a backhoe digs in the wrong place or a drunk that took out the pole that carries your cable to the Internet. Most people on/. don't remember the old mainframe days when everybody was sitting at a dumb terminal connected the central computer. Are we really going back 30 years to that?
..... Google's uptime is a lot higher than my company's servers.......
There is no doubt that Google takes pretty good care to keep their end working well. There is however a lot of technical stuff between you and Google which ALL has to work also. A backhoe, errant car or power failure somewhere along the line can stop you from working or getting to your data. The Internet is still nowhere near as reliable as the good old fashioned phone. Until that time comes, web apps will not really become something anybody can rely on for important work; e-mail to aunt Millie or games, sure, business record keeping, no.
Go back 30 years and substitute "the mainframe goes down". That's how it was before the "personal computer" was invented. Now we'll come full circle. The same system, one central computer and many users, and with it one central point of failure.
With a personal computer each user has more control over their information, but also more responsibility. There is a lot more "stuff" between my data stored by Google and my keyboard/monitor than the data store on the HD on my computer. A local HD or better still a good RAID storage system is still WAY more reliable than all the technology that needs to work correctly for the Google approach.
When there is a power outage here, we have UPS/Generator backup. However that is useless for the Internet, since the data multiplexer box about a quarter mile from here doesn't have any sort of backup. It just quits. The old POTS and dial up still work, but that will not sustain any serious work on any remote server. As far as the Internet goes, we're just held incommunicado until the power comes back.
Until the Internet becomes at LEAST as reliable as the good old fashioned phone, Internet applications will have no appeal to anyone who values reliability and accessibility to their data.
.....Howabout a series of electronic devices connected in such a manner as to facilitate the sharing of data......
Sounds too complicated. What is data? How about:
The Internet is to computers what telephones are to people.
People talk to each other over the phone network and computers talk to each other over the Internet. Anything your computer "knows" can be sent to my computer and then it too "knows" the same thing.
.......If that happens without deserts forming in the US Midwest and other places where huge amounts of food are currently grown......
Extreme climates are cause by differences in temperatures. A warmer overall air and ocean temperature would tend to reduce the extremes because water has a great moderating effect on climate. The warm humid air would even out the climate more than the cooler dry air of today. In the US midwest, frost might become rare and things could grow there that cannot grow there now.
Moisture and warmth is more important to agriculture than almost anything else. A warmer over all planet would supply more of both to most areas. Even if climate gets 30 degF warmer on average over the next 50 years (not likely) we could certainly adapt in what amounts to about a human life time.
There are many places, even near city load centers where such generators would produce plenty of power. It is indirect extracting of solar energy from wind currents and has nothing to do with perpetual motion. A 25 MPH wind will easily keep a kite in the air. Any excess would make power, just as terrestrial windmills do.
(..... from greenhouse gasses......)
The sun's output is very stable. Exactly, in a "greenhouse" -- that's where plants grow especially fast and lush. Let's make the whole earth a great greenhouse, like it must have been before all the fossil fuels were sequestered under ground. A warmer earth will hold more moisture in the atmosphere. The heat capacity of water will tend to reduce the torrid heat of deserts and warm the arctic, making for a larger area for people to live and grow food. Canada and Siberia are two of the largest land masses, mostly uninhabitable because it is so miserably COLD there. Let's warm them up to say Northern California temperatures and millions of living things, including humans could enjoy their stay there. That would more than make up for a few almost under water already coastal areas possibly getting flooded.
That flooding might not even happen, because much of the now ice locked water would be in the atmosphere, where it would rain down on now dry regions. Since we don't really understand how climate, both regional and global works, it is impossible to say exactly what would happen where. We do KNOW that the earth was very warm and productive in many regions that are now icy and desert. The Sahara was a fruitful place, even during the early Egyptian Civilization. We find evidence of tropical things in what is now arctic. Continental drift is not a full explanation of why this is true.
A warmer over all climate would also reduce total energy needs, since most of our present utility costs come in the winter time to keep warm. Biological processes operate best at the temperature of your blood. If the average temperature of the whole planet were in the 90F rather than around 50F as now, life would literally explode all over the place. Even 75F average global temperature would make this planet much more livable. Global warming is GREAT. Bring it on slowly, say in the next 100 years or so, then we can adapt to it.
.....Fusion is really, really hard, even with the heat and pressure from an atom bomb.........
Why spend billions re-creating something on earth which already exists 93 million miles away -- the sun.
It has been keeping us warm and feeding for millennia. The fossil fuels we now burn are nothing more than stored solar energy. This means that all that carbon we are now releasing must have been on the surface of the earth at one time in order to participate in photosynthesis. For that reason alone, all this global warming BS is just that BS and should be ignored. If living plants and animals flourished in such abundance, to create all these fuels, then why exactly would the return to a warmer, more life filled planet be such a terrible thing? Living things, especially people, are very much able to adapt to changing environments, if the changes are gradual. Would growing oranges in Alaska or Siberia be such a terrible thing?
There is this yet poorly understood, yet ubiquitous process called photosynthesis in nature for capturing the free energy this giant thermonuclear fusion device sends our way. It has ben working for untold amounts of time. We figured out already how to refine common sand to make devices to convert some of this energy for our needs. There is a band of wind called the jet stream circling the earth at high velocities. Utilizing only 1% to 2% of its energy would meet all human needs all by itself. Learn how to fly a windmill kite 7 miles up and get the power down to earth.
It seems to me that developing these partially working, known technologies should bear fruit much sooner than pie in the reactor fusion.
.....The iPod is quite a bit overpriced. If you want to use iTunes, you pretty much need an iPod.........
Ipods on the whole don't cost significantly more that the others. The Zune is an example of that. If you want to play certain (not all) games you need a PC, X-Box, PS2 or 3 etc. You can still play CD's or even vinyl to get your music fix. Apple just makes it easier to get your music fix when and where you want it than the others. I predict the DRM free extra cost/quality songs coming soon will be a big hit simply because there is more value there for those who like music and flexibility of use. iTunes and the iPod will get even more popular because of it.
Of course, every business exists to make money. That includes ISPs. Entertainment over the internet will never really compete with what there exists now, unless it becomes cheaper, better and more convenient. The makers of entertainment are doing everything they possibly can to see to it that this doesn't happen at all or only very slowly. DRM/DMCA are two prominent obstacles.
.....lack of motivation until the big addressing crunch hits......
It's more the lack of motivation because it is not at all apparent how all that expensive investment in IPv6 is going to significantly improve the bottom line of the ones making the investment. Don't fix anything that isn't fundamentally broken, especially if it's going to cost a big pile of money.
In spite of all the noise about video and other entertainment delivered over the Internet, the number one use has always been and still is personal communication. Mostly that has been email and still is. The social networking websites are a newer variation of this theme, adding video and sound communications to what is effectively a world wide BBS. IPv6 and other deep layer changes and the needed investment for these isn't going to bring as much change to these use patterns to warrant the rather high expenses. It has nothing to do with conspiracy or corporate greed.
My Father's files in his file cabinet had tabs which he made from cardboard. Tabs are tabs after all, just as a wheel is a wheel. Whether the tabs are on a screen or the wheel is made of titanium, rather paper and wood respectively still doesn't change the basic idea of either one. Besides that, don't patents run out after 20 years?
Sounds like the SCO lawyers are realizing that they'll soon be out of work are scouting around for a new source of income.
.....there were some apps that just did not work with OSX......
When Apple made the switch from OS9 to OSX, applications that were written according to the rules Apple had laid down for years worked remarkably. Only after they switched to Intel, did the finally drop OS9 support.
Any software vendors that were doing well in the Mac space did not have too much trouble switching to OSX. The switch to Intel also went with relatively little pain to most developers. I recently installed OSX10.4 on an old iMac. The new OS runs faster and better than the old 10.2.8 that came with it. That is usually not the case with Windows upgrades.
If a new computer is needed to run VISTA, as well as new software, it might be a good idea to look at Macs or Linux. Linux still needs much more computer knowhow than most people have. What does VISTA offer that Mac OSX10.4 doesn't?
......Any system that is based on a way of thinking that is so blatantly wrong and illogical.........
Whoever said the laws have to be either right or logical? A legislature defines the law. If the law says all pink is also red, then in a legal sense that is the law as defined by a body of people we have hired to make laws. Courts are supposed to uphold the law. It doesn't matter whether that law is wrong or illogical. If enough people think that is the case, then the legislators will generally listen, because they do not wish to be fired by their boss, the electorate. The electorate gets to do a job review of all legislators at regular intervals and can get rid of those who make bad laws.
However, as in any government job, it isn't easy to fire anybody.
.....Ultimately you are responsible for what happens over your connection....
Complete and utter nonsense. I cannot understand how you or anyone of the so smart people here on/. can always compare physical things, such as guns and drugs and such with non-physical things like information. Radio waves are physical carriers of information, as are sound waves. When someone uses an open WAP they are not interested in the waves, but in the information these carry. Most of these users are not interested in YOUR information, but the information on the PUBLIC Internet.
When someone likes and listens in the street to your loud music coming through the open windows, are you obligated to close all the windows or shut off the music player? After all, they STOPPED to listen.
In the same way, radio waves go wherever they will and anyone can receive the information they carry if they want to. Use a wired network or wireless encryption if you don't want to keep the information that is on the radio waves accessible to others.
If someone does use my WAP for nefarious purposes, it still wouldn't affect my computers and the things stored thereon, especially since they are turned off unless they are in active use. The powers that be could check them out and find nothing.
......I'd been thinking about this and had more or less decided it would be a good idea to by a wireless hard dive......
Somebody might be sniffing and recording your wireless transmissions. A much safer way is to boot from a small external drive and store all the stuff you might get in trouble for on that. If you cannot find a safe place to hide a little hard drive you have a severe problem. If by chance they do confiscate you computer(s) they will not find any evidence against you. The main computer will only contain all your favorite games and innocent web material.
.....Simple solution is to simply use something like TrueCrypt...........
An even simpler solution for a person doing anything that may be subject to a court proceeding is to boot the computer from an external hard drive. Big drives, enough to store all the music/movies etc. are cheap enough these days. The "innocent" everyday work is done with the computer booted from its internal disk. For "questionable" activity, the external drive gets booted and the internal disk unmounted. When done with "nefarious" activity, this external disk is placed into a safe hidden spot. When the "authorities" come to take the computer, there will be nothing incriminating found thereon. If computing activity is important, another computer can be purchased or a friend's system can be used, which will boot the secret external disk. With this simple system no trace of bad evidence will be found by even the most clever computer experts unless they also find that external drive. No gyrations with BIOS, encryption or re-installs are needed.
.....but the individuals behind it should be held accountable.......
I agree that individual people as well as corporations should be held accountable for their actions. However, in the case of the Internet, practically enforcing such accountability is hard. If a court in one country (Canada) awards all requested damages against someone in another (USA) in a civil action and the person in that country just ignores the foreign court, can a local court enforce a foreign court's edicts? In criminal cases there are extradition laws that come into effect. Do these also apply to civilian issues?
.....I mean really, an Internet out of control?.......
Of course the Internet IS out of control. It is out of the control of the governing elite, both governmental and corporate. Someone, I don't remember who, said: "The power of the press belongs to the person who owns one". The Internet gives anyone the power to disperse their ideas, popular or not, like in no time before in human history.
Those who used to control this power to communicate don't like that, even just a little. They know that information and knowledge is power. They USED to have that power all to themselves, but now, due to technology, that exclusivity is slipping away. They are doing and will continue to do everything they possibly can to make it more difficult for any member of what they consider the unwashed masses to be able to make their message known world wide. This is just another attempt at raising the cost of doing so. It is not only the cost, but also the fact that these unwashed "press owners" are able to bring their message into the world ananymously. Free wireless access is one of the few sure fire untraceable ways of disseminating and communicating unpopular stuff.
The rich and powerful find it so much harder, sometimes impossible, to punish these "miscreants" for disseminating things inimical to the interests of the governing class. That's the main reason why such laws are proposed and often passed. Terrorism, porn, crime, protecting children and other excuses are given.
.... I can choose between several coporations to sell my soul to.......
You can also choose to become part owner of many corporations. Choose the right one and you might even get rich. On the other hand you could lose your life savings. Your soul should still be OK though. I happened to buy a tiny sliver of Apple just before Steve came back. I figured I could afford to lose a few hundreds dollars when their shares were below $15. Now I wish I had taken a bigger chance and bought more.
Now, with the Internet you can do some research into most corporations and the their top people. Pick the right one and you may become a beneficiary of this "Corporatism". Communism gives nobody such an opportunity to get a piece of the action.
......Actually, this is a business class printer, not a home printer.......
The idea of leasing expensive things is nothing new. When Xerox made their first copiers, these were available only on a lease-service basis. IBM mainframes were not sold, but leased. Many businesses lease their equipment and buildings. Cost per page isn't the only consideration for many buisnesses. Leasing has tax advantages. Maybe some/. readers don't know this?
So why is this worthy of an article on the main page here? Must be a slow news day.
.....There should be something to indicate one way or another if random users are welcome or not to use any service......
There is. It's called the broadcast SSID and that none of the commonly available security mechanisms are active. Most modern computers just scan and connect to the strongest signal. My Mac asks if I want to connect to the network. If I click OK then I'm in.
Slashdot Mirror
....So, if you don't have bars on your windows, you deserve to get robbed......
No stay out of bad neighborhoods. Dress modestly and park the car in your garage.
Computer translation: Run any OS other than Windows. For the University: Install a good firewall between the Internet and the internal network and educate users about safe computing. Keep confidential data on isolated networks.
......a piece of software that clearly violates University Policy.......
Does that mean that a student who owns a Mac won't be allowed on the University Network since Macs don't need, or at least very few of them have any anti-malware crap? Does that mean Mac users, or even Windows users are forced to run all sorts of garbage software, just so they may use the University's precious network? I'd find myself a more enlightened place to spend precious education dollars. What business is is of anybody to search my PERSONAL computer for whatever software or data it contains? Let them install a decent firewall and spend a few dollars on educating users how to avoid malware by not clicking OK on every dialog box and opening every email.
.....As google is run on clustered 3 way redundancy throughout.......
That's exactly what we had back in the 70s. There were 3 IBM system 370s tied together as one. These were quite reliable in themselves. The problem was the same as today with Google and the web; all the stuff that could and sometimes did go wrong with all the connections between the terminals and the central computers. It's not only the safety of data that matters, but also the access thereto. When a whole business comes to a screeching halt because someone along the way used a backhoe on a cable, that must also be thought about. Backhoes and drunk drivers have no effect on a local storage system and the ability to use the software and the corresponding data. Web apps add miles of potential failure points which are in essence traded for convenience of central IT management, just as it was in the old mainframe days.
....because of Vista's license that prohibits the use of virtual environments like Parallels.......
If its only a non-enforceable license, who cares. If it actually WORKS, that's the main thing. I don't know if VISTA will actually run with Parallels. If it does, and you have a legally obtained copy of VISTA, just install and enjoy.
..... I've installed Windows on Intel Macs right out of the box........
Unless games are the goal, a company call Parallels makes a virtual PC program which allows running Windows as just another application under OSX. It runs Windows and all its apps in a Window (or full screen if desired) and allows easy, instant switching between OSX and Windows, as well as transfer of data in both directions between the two OS. If the host Intel based Mac has enough RAM, most Windows programs don't run noticeably slower than under boot camp or any other computer. It's the best way to use those few "can't get for the Mac" special software that often ties companies to Redmond. Users can be weaned from Windows gradually by letting them learn the Mac slowly. In time, the Windows side will get used less and less. This is especially true if the Windows section gets infected with a few malwares/spywares making it behave in annoying ways, while OSX is unaffected.
.....Google manages the software development, the hardware costs.......
/. don't remember the old mainframe days when everybody was sitting at a dumb terminal connected the central computer. Are we really going back 30 years to that?
What they don't manage is the connection between you and them that goes down when some jerk with a backhoe digs in the wrong place or a drunk that took out the pole that carries your cable to the Internet. Most people on
..... Google's uptime is a lot higher than my company's servers.......
There is no doubt that Google takes pretty good care to keep their end working well. There is however a lot of technical stuff between you and Google which ALL has to work also. A backhoe, errant car or power failure somewhere along the line can stop you from working or getting to your data. The Internet is still nowhere near as reliable as the good old fashioned phone. Until that time comes, web apps will not really become something anybody can rely on for important work; e-mail to aunt Millie or games, sure, business record keeping, no.
.....that Google goes down......
Go back 30 years and substitute "the mainframe goes down". That's how it was before the "personal computer" was invented. Now we'll come full circle. The same system, one central computer and many users, and with it one central point of failure.
With a personal computer each user has more control over their information, but also more responsibility. There is a lot more "stuff" between my data stored by Google and my keyboard/monitor than the data store on the HD on my computer. A local HD or better still a good RAID storage system is still WAY more reliable than all the technology that needs to work correctly for the Google approach.
When there is a power outage here, we have UPS/Generator backup. However that is useless for the Internet, since the data multiplexer box about a quarter mile from here doesn't have any sort of backup. It just quits. The old POTS and dial up still work, but that will not sustain any serious work on any remote server. As far as the Internet goes, we're just held incommunicado until the power comes back.
Until the Internet becomes at LEAST as reliable as the good old fashioned phone, Internet applications will have no appeal to anyone who values reliability and accessibility to their data.
.....Howabout a series of electronic devices connected in such a manner as to facilitate the sharing of data......
Sounds too complicated. What is data? How about:
The Internet is to computers what telephones are to people.
People talk to each other over the phone network and computers talk to each other over the Internet. Anything your computer "knows" can be sent to my computer and then it too "knows" the same thing.
.......If that happens without deserts forming in the US Midwest and other places where huge amounts of food are currently grown......
Extreme climates are cause by differences in temperatures. A warmer overall air and ocean temperature would tend to reduce the extremes because water has a great moderating effect on climate. The warm humid air would even out the climate more than the cooler dry air of today. In the US midwest, frost might become rare and things could grow there that cannot grow there now.
Moisture and warmth is more important to agriculture than almost anything else. A warmer over all planet would supply more of both to most areas. Even if climate gets 30 degF warmer on average over the next 50 years (not likely) we could certainly adapt in what amounts to about a human life time.
......
/. recently here:
/ 14/1416255
And the energy required to keep windmill kite in the air wouldn't be anywhere close to the energy collected.........
The idea about extracting energy from high altitude winds was on
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04
There are many places, even near city load centers where such generators would produce plenty of power. It is indirect extracting of solar energy from wind currents and has nothing to do with perpetual motion. A 25 MPH wind will easily keep a kite in the air. Any excess would make power, just as terrestrial windmills do.
(..... from greenhouse gasses......)
The sun's output is very stable. Exactly, in a "greenhouse" -- that's where plants grow especially fast and lush. Let's make the whole earth a great greenhouse, like it must have been before all the fossil fuels were sequestered under ground. A warmer earth will hold more moisture in the atmosphere. The heat capacity of water will tend to reduce the torrid heat of deserts and warm the arctic, making for a larger area for people to live and grow food. Canada and Siberia are two of the largest land masses, mostly uninhabitable because it is so miserably COLD there. Let's warm them up to say Northern California temperatures and millions of living things, including humans could enjoy their stay there. That would more than make up for a few almost under water already coastal areas possibly getting flooded.
That flooding might not even happen, because much of the now ice locked water would be in the atmosphere, where it would rain down on now dry regions. Since we don't really understand how climate, both regional and global works, it is impossible to say exactly what would happen where. We do KNOW that the earth was very warm and productive in many regions that are now icy and desert. The Sahara was a fruitful place, even during the early Egyptian Civilization. We find evidence of tropical things in what is now arctic. Continental drift is not a full explanation of why this is true.
A warmer over all climate would also reduce total energy needs, since most of our present utility costs come in the winter time to keep warm. Biological processes operate best at the temperature of your blood. If the average temperature of the whole planet were in the 90F rather than around 50F as now, life would literally explode all over the place. Even 75F average global temperature would make this planet much more livable. Global warming is GREAT. Bring it on slowly, say in the next 100 years or so, then we can adapt to it.
.....Fusion is really, really hard, even with the heat and pressure from an atom bomb.........
Why spend billions re-creating something on earth which already exists 93 million miles away -- the sun.
It has been keeping us warm and feeding for millennia. The fossil fuels we now burn are nothing more than stored solar energy. This means that all that carbon we are now releasing must have been on the surface of the earth at one time in order to participate in photosynthesis. For that reason alone, all this global warming BS is just that BS and should be ignored. If living plants and animals flourished in such abundance, to create all these fuels, then why exactly would the return to a warmer, more life filled planet be such a terrible thing? Living things, especially people, are very much able to adapt to changing environments, if the changes are gradual. Would growing oranges in Alaska or Siberia be such a terrible thing?
There is this yet poorly understood, yet ubiquitous process called photosynthesis in nature for capturing the free energy this giant thermonuclear fusion device sends our way. It has ben working for untold amounts of time. We figured out already how to refine common sand to make devices to convert some of this energy for our needs. There is a band of wind called the jet stream circling the earth at high velocities. Utilizing only 1% to 2% of its energy would meet all human needs all by itself. Learn how to fly a windmill kite 7 miles up and get the power down to earth.
It seems to me that developing these partially working, known technologies should bear fruit much sooner than pie in the reactor fusion.
.....The iPod is quite a bit overpriced. If you want to use iTunes, you pretty much need an iPod.........
Ipods on the whole don't cost significantly more that the others. The Zune is an example of that. If you want to play certain (not all) games you need a PC, X-Box, PS2 or 3 etc. You can still play CD's or even vinyl to get your music fix. Apple just makes it easier to get your music fix when and where you want it than the others. I predict the DRM free extra cost/quality songs coming soon will be a big hit simply because there is more value there for those who like music and flexibility of use. iTunes and the iPod will get even more popular because of it.
Of course, every business exists to make money. That includes ISPs. Entertainment over the internet will never really compete with what there exists now, unless it becomes cheaper, better and more convenient. The makers of entertainment are doing everything they possibly can to see to it that this doesn't happen at all or only very slowly. DRM/DMCA are two prominent obstacles.
.....lack of motivation until the big addressing crunch hits......
It's more the lack of motivation because it is not at all apparent how all that expensive investment in IPv6 is going to significantly improve the bottom line of the ones making the investment. Don't fix anything that isn't fundamentally broken, especially if it's going to cost a big pile of money.
In spite of all the noise about video and other entertainment delivered over the Internet, the number one use has always been and still is personal communication. Mostly that has been email and still is. The social networking websites are a newer variation of this theme, adding video and sound communications to what is effectively a world wide BBS. IPv6 and other deep layer changes and the needed investment for these isn't going to bring as much change to these use patterns to warrant the rather high expenses. It has nothing to do with conspiracy or corporate greed.
.....What? Firefox has always had tabs........
My Father's files in his file cabinet had tabs which he made from cardboard. Tabs are tabs after all, just as a wheel is a wheel. Whether the tabs are on a screen or the wheel is made of titanium, rather paper and wood respectively still doesn't change the basic idea of either one. Besides that, don't patents run out after 20 years?
Sounds like the SCO lawyers are realizing that they'll soon be out of work are scouting around for a new source of income.
.....there were some apps that just did not work with OSX......
When Apple made the switch from OS9 to OSX, applications that were written according to the rules Apple had laid down for years worked remarkably. Only after they switched to Intel, did the finally drop OS9 support.
Any software vendors that were doing well in the Mac space did not have too much trouble switching to OSX. The switch to Intel also went with relatively little pain to most developers. I recently installed OSX10.4 on an old iMac. The new OS runs faster and better than the old 10.2.8 that came with it. That is usually not the case with Windows upgrades.
If a new computer is needed to run VISTA, as well as new software, it might be a good idea to look at Macs or Linux. Linux still needs much more computer knowhow than most people have. What does VISTA offer that Mac OSX10.4 doesn't?
......Any system that is based on a way of thinking that is so blatantly wrong and illogical .........
Whoever said the laws have to be either right or logical? A legislature defines the law. If the law says all pink is also red, then in a legal sense that is the law as defined by a body of people we have hired to make laws. Courts are supposed to uphold the law. It doesn't matter whether that law is wrong or illogical. If enough people think that is the case, then the legislators will generally listen, because they do not wish to be fired by their boss, the electorate. The electorate gets to do a job review of all legislators at regular intervals and can get rid of those who make bad laws.
However, as in any government job, it isn't easy to fire anybody.
.....Ultimately you are responsible for what happens over your connection....
/. can always compare physical things, such as guns and drugs and such with non-physical things like information. Radio waves are physical carriers of information, as are sound waves. When someone uses an open WAP they are not interested in the waves, but in the information these carry. Most of these users are not interested in YOUR information, but the information on the PUBLIC Internet.
Complete and utter nonsense. I cannot understand how you or anyone of the so smart people here on
When someone likes and listens in the street to your loud music coming through the open windows, are you obligated to close all the windows or shut off the music player? After all, they STOPPED to listen.
In the same way, radio waves go wherever they will and anyone can receive the information they carry if they want to. Use a wired network or wireless encryption if you don't want to keep the information that is on the radio waves accessible to others.
If someone does use my WAP for nefarious purposes, it still wouldn't affect my computers and the things stored thereon, especially since they are turned off unless they are in active use. The powers that be could check them out and find nothing.
......I'd been thinking about this and had more or less decided it would be a good idea to by a wireless hard dive......
Somebody might be sniffing and recording your wireless transmissions. A much safer way is to boot from a small external drive and store all the stuff you might get in trouble for on that. If you cannot find a safe place to hide a little hard drive you have a severe problem. If by chance they do confiscate you computer(s) they will not find any evidence against you. The main computer will only contain all your favorite games and innocent web material.
.....Simple solution is to simply use something like TrueCrypt...........
An even simpler solution for a person doing anything that may be subject to a court proceeding is to boot the computer from an external hard drive. Big drives, enough to store all the music/movies etc. are cheap enough these days. The "innocent" everyday work is done with the computer booted from its internal disk. For "questionable" activity, the external drive gets booted and the internal disk unmounted. When done with "nefarious" activity, this external disk is placed into a safe hidden spot. When the "authorities" come to take the computer, there will be nothing incriminating found thereon. If computing activity is important, another computer can be purchased or a friend's system can be used, which will boot the secret external disk. With this simple system no trace of bad evidence will be found by even the most clever computer experts unless they also find that external drive. No gyrations with BIOS, encryption or re-installs are needed.
.....but the individuals behind it should be held accountable.......
I agree that individual people as well as corporations should be held accountable for their actions. However, in the case of the Internet, practically enforcing such accountability is hard. If a court in one country (Canada) awards all requested damages against someone in another (USA) in a civil action and the person in that country just ignores the foreign court, can a local court enforce a foreign court's edicts? In criminal cases there are extradition laws that come into effect. Do these also apply to civilian issues?
.....I mean really, an Internet out of control?.......
Of course the Internet IS out of control. It is out of the control of the governing elite, both governmental and corporate. Someone, I don't remember who, said: "The power of the press belongs to the person who owns one". The Internet gives anyone the power to disperse their ideas, popular or not, like in no time before in human history.
Those who used to control this power to communicate don't like that, even just a little. They know that information and knowledge is power. They USED to have that power all to themselves, but now, due to technology, that exclusivity is slipping away. They are doing and will continue to do everything they possibly can to make it more difficult for any member of what they consider the unwashed masses to be able to make their message known world wide. This is just another attempt at raising the cost of doing so. It is not only the cost, but also the fact that these unwashed "press owners" are able to bring their message into the world ananymously. Free wireless access is one of the few sure fire untraceable ways of disseminating and communicating unpopular stuff.
The rich and powerful find it so much harder, sometimes impossible, to punish these "miscreants" for disseminating things inimical to the interests of the governing class. That's the main reason why such laws are proposed and often passed. Terrorism, porn, crime, protecting children and other excuses are given.
.... I can choose between several coporations to sell my soul to.......
You can also choose to become part owner of many corporations. Choose the right one and you might even get rich. On the other hand you could lose your life savings. Your soul should still be OK though. I happened to buy a tiny sliver of Apple just before Steve came back. I figured I could afford to lose a few hundreds dollars when their shares were below $15. Now I wish I had taken a bigger chance and bought more.
Now, with the Internet you can do some research into most corporations and the their top people. Pick the right one and you may become a beneficiary of this "Corporatism". Communism gives nobody such an opportunity to get a piece of the action.
......Actually, this is a business class printer, not a home printer.......
/. readers don't know this?
The idea of leasing expensive things is nothing new. When Xerox made their first copiers, these were available only on a lease-service basis. IBM mainframes were not sold, but leased. Many businesses lease their equipment and buildings. Cost per page isn't the only consideration for many buisnesses. Leasing has tax advantages. Maybe some
So why is this worthy of an article on the main page here? Must be a slow news day.
.....There should be something to indicate one way or another if random users are welcome or not to use any service......
There is. It's called the broadcast SSID and that none of the commonly available security mechanisms are active. Most modern computers just scan and connect to the strongest signal. My Mac asks if I want to connect to the network. If I click OK then I'm in.