I like this program called Napster, since using it I bought a ton more CDs, and you can see what other people have in their collections... it's truely the future of music, the artist must love it, it's been boosting the hell out of their sales.
Of course, it's been a while since I used it, so your experience may vary.
Look, I voted for President Gore, not Reichsfurher Bush II. The Majority of us find his usurpation of power offensive.
Even our White Protestant Forefathers knew that Government wasn't to be trusted, which is why they had to fix the constitution with a strict set of limits, checks and balances, and a Bill of Rights.
Anyone who trusts the goverment is a fool.
The ongoing Gulf War II - War is Peace(produced by Halliburton/CIA/Sharon) campaign is going to backfire in new and interesting ways.
Kharma has a way of getting back at people, fear it, learn it, trust it, help it along.
At the rate things are going, you'll need a license in order to view a web page, along with certified copies of the contracts with your information licensing providers. Each URL will have its associated policies, so you will only be able to view the content you've paid to see, and only once.
The public domain isn't shrinking, in theory... in practice what is there is more obsolete by the day, and new works are being locked down tighter than a drum. In a few years, you might need a license to write a web page. (After all, you might be a terrorist writing secret messages, or anti-american propaganda).
The future is bleak, but I suspect the revolution will fix most of this.
As long as everyone uses text files as a source to a compiler, things will only get incrementally better. You loose too many things when you allow the compiler to throw away all context in the process of giving you an executable.
I'm not a bright college kid, just a guy who looks at the big picture. When you get a system that supports annotation, and lets you consider the object code and symbol tables as part of a dynamic system linked with the source code, then you'll really get to play.
SQL, one of the original client-server protocols is alive and well... buzzwords change, but the concept (shipping less data across a network) will always have value.
The concentration of the "news" into the hands of propagandist, and out of the hands of free citizens has happened gradually, and completely. You can't trust what you read or see in the corporate media. The information war is already lost to them.
#1. Where is the hardware that's falling apart? If it's a server... use GHOST and copy the image of the system to a new, better, faster machine, and be done with it.
#2. What's the DOS app, do you have source?
What does the DOS app do?
#3. Why not just roll out replacement terminals as needed, instead of en-mass? You could probably use FreeDOS instead of MS-DOS, and set up a new machine ($200 walmart variety) to do exactly what you need.
Things are starting to pick up with 802.11b, people building community networks, going around the local loop. If we can get 225Mhz of spectrum to play with, the possiblities are almost endless. The idea of being able to ship bits across space at 100Mbps without restrictions is so freaking cool.
Unlicensed (a commons) but technically regulated (so we don't have bozos with 100 Watt access points) open spectrum is just what we need to help get around the layers of control that are slowly enveloping the internet. It wouldn't hurt to try to do an end run around the IP4 address limit at the same time, and try to get IP6 compatible devices.
What the Hollywood types want to do is to take over the creative commons. They got fat and rich taking ideas from others, processing them, and spitting out "Intellectual Property". They don't like paying anyone else for ideas, and have no problem with taking them without attribution (as long as they think they can get away with it), but if we happen to want to do something based on Steamboat Willie, oh... that's Theft!
Forcing me to re-buy The White Album, 4 more times, in 4 new formats, isn't why we have copyrights and patents. It was constructed as a careful use of a necessary evil (state granted monopoly) for a limited time (17 years), in order to make sure the authors had sufficient incentive to put works into the public domain. (Happened at the end of the time period).
Now the slackers in Congress have perverted the original design to provide for Government enforced monopolies on ideas. This can not stand, in the long run.
DRM is evil, there is no practical purpose for it.
Perhaps it's time for a new standard for email, which could be done incrementally... by having the server have only my public key, and encrypting all the emails I recieve before storing them. This would make it impossible for anyone else to read my email, even on the ISP's machine. (Assuming it didn't get duplicated before reaching the server)
Once this step works, then outgoing emails could search for a public keys of recients, and if possible encrypt before sending. This would incrementally move the encryption closer to the sender, as adoption permitted.
I suggest using this along with features for verification of the sender as an anti-spam feature, to enhance adoption of the new protocols. An incremental approach is the only feasable one, IMHO.
I hate Microsoft, and I'm the entire IT staff for our company, but I'm locked into Windows, and Office 97 Professional. We use the heck out of it, we've paid our blood money, so there's no point in switching at this point. We're not going to upgrade, but we bought our software before the advent of subscriptions, so we get to keep it.;-)
If someone can show me how to replace all of our applications, especially our crufty Access97 database, then maybe we can talk. The forms and reports are the key, I know about mySQL and PostgreSQL for the actual database.
Yes, I'm a windows user. The point of my first comment is that we shouldn't wait for Microsoft, we should do it ourselves. The idea of embedding a folder worth of stuff in an email seems quite interesting.
I'd like to be able to add a rule to IE that says "When you open this, DO NOT follow any external links", to kill web bugs, etc.
A real folder with email in it is novel, and valuable. I.E. xcopy \mail\inbox \archive\mail\20021113/s
A folder (fake) view of email is passe, and keeps the data locked in the email program.
I want to be able to run notepad, Word, VI, Emacs, Teco, Pascal, or any other damned thing against a file sitting in my inbox. I want to do it directly, without programming, doing API's, routines that fake it by doing copies to temporary folders, etc.
Once I have that in place, it's trivial to write some program to scan for the word "viagara" and delete the file, move it elsewhere, etc. Right now, to do that, first I have to interface to Microsoft Exchange 5.5 (undocumented), or Outlook 97 (almost as bad), and then do the work... which is just plain stupid. I want to have transparent access to my email, from the old dos command line, or any other application.
If I can get an IFS that can map URLS to folders, a lot of things become easy. (Especially if it supports WebDAV, and is bidirectional)
I know that I could load the libraries, and do it in code, but that costs too much in terms of time, energy, and lost abstraction.
We can build a better way, it's a pain in the ass to get there, bit I'm sure it will be worth it.
I want to try some things, and can't do them if I have to stick within the existing limits of Windows/DOS. I can't stand the kludge and loss of abstraction that you buy into with C/C++. I want to be able to write a program in Delphi, or Pascal, or even Basic, which can use a driver writting in C/Assember/whatever, to create a folder on the fly, and emulate the file system in a creative new manner. Transparent access to existing DOS/Windows applications is a must.
If I can get this, I can extend Win98 past anything Bill Gates is dreaming up.
The goal of the next version (as I understand it) is to allow virtual folders, so that you can search everything with a common set of tools.
Let's build a virtual folder driver for Windows 98 and upward, to allow APPLICATIONS to virtualize the information they manage. It would be nice to have an email manager than presents emails as a list of files, or folders. Sending could be as easy as copying files to a folder, and then specifying an address. (To.txt?)
A virtualized database would present a list of folders in place of a table, with the fields being individual files, some read only (sequence numbers, keys, etc). To update the data, you just write to the file containing the appopriate field. If you wanted to add a field, you just copy a new file into the folder.
There is great power in letting an APPLICATION control the virutalization of the OS, this is why the idea of GNU/HURD is important for the future.
If APPLICATIONS can virtualize, then you get a freedom to innovate that would give Bill nightmares.
Virtualizing the address space for existing millions of users and applications could do more to help freedom to innovate than pretty much anything it's going to take Microsoft years to come up with.
You want 1 Terabyte-1Petabyte of solid state storage, so here are some "back of the envelope" type calculations.
Assuming slow, but commodity CompactFlash cards of 1Gigabyte each (currently $800 retail, your price may vary). You'd need 1000 to 10^6 of these puppies for approximately 800,000 to 800,000,000 $US (Retail). It would be fairly compact, fairly reliable, and fairly slow.
So, with a price of $800,000 today for the low end, in 3 years (more or less) the price for 1 Terabyte of CompactFlash will be $100,000. This drops further to the point where I can afford it, in about 2 more orders of magnitude (7 years?).
Bottom line, it's feasable, would be $1Million to $1Billion to implement 1 of (at retail, buy the fab, prices WILL drop dramatically). I'll be able to afford the same thing 10 years later.
Email is a communications method, it's fairly reliable, and all the users know how to use it to get things to an associate. Just because it might be 30% more efficient to use FTP or some other protocol is not sufficient to force them into learning how to do it. Keep the amount they have to learn down, and let them keep more about their jobs in their brains instead. With the work we do, 100 Megabyte emails aren't uncalled for, even through our 384k SDSL.
I always set up the "size" field, in real numbers (do you really expect a user to know what 10MB is?) so that they eventually learn about email size.
I have no quotas on email, except for the fact that we only have 2,678,837,248 bytes free on our server at this point in time.
--Mike--
Computers - Tools to let people get their jobs done.
Let's see...
Commodore PET - 6502
Cosmac ELF - 1802
Heathkit Trainer - 6800
Radio Shack CoCo II - 6809 (OS-9 Rules!)
Custom built project - 8088 and glue logic
First computer repair - PDP11/34 with bad RAM
Got into it just after they phased out punch cards.
I have many friends who were there before CP/M, Xmodem, etc.
We're running voicemail on system called CallXpress (it has other names as well) on an older Pentium system with OS/2 Warp installed. There is NO network connection on it, nor will I ever allow it.
The reason for having Linux on a machine is to be able to access it via the net and/or play with it. Both of these are VERY BAD ideas when considering a telephony application. Telephone systems shouldn't ever allow remote administration, IMHO.
So, with no net, no place to play, what reasons are left to want to use Linux?
Let's face it, the only reliable way to get the phone service there is good old fashioned copper (or fiber). While I could support the idea of networking via 802.11b for a non-critical service such as networking, you really want honest to goodness cabling involved when you need to call 911, etc.
As a daily communter on the last intra-urban electric railway in the US, I can tell you that ridership has actually hit peaks not seen since 1960. The South Shore Railroad has really done a nice clean up job, thanks to some local involvement of people with foresight.
Riding the South Shore is usually a wash, in terms of time. However, in terms of sanity, its a lifesaver. I can use the time to read, write, talk with friends, or sleep, all safely and conviniently. Its like getting 1.5 free hours per day.
Slashdot Mirror
Of course, it's been a while since I used it, so your experience may vary.
--Mike--
Even our White Protestant Forefathers knew that Government wasn't to be trusted, which is why they had to fix the constitution with a strict set of limits, checks and balances, and a Bill of Rights.
Anyone who trusts the goverment is a fool.
The ongoing Gulf War II - War is Peace(produced by Halliburton/CIA/Sharon) campaign is going to backfire in new and interesting ways.
Kharma has a way of getting back at people, fear it, learn it, trust it, help it along.
Soiled Utility Closet
Biohazard Disposal
Radiography
Carivore Den
Depreciated Hardware
OZ
Office Supply
Electron Containment
or... just Office Storage
--Mike--
A "consumer" is a sheep that does nothing other than buy things. I am not a consumer, and never will be.
I object to this, and all other use of the term.
I also object to "Intellectual Property"
</RANT>
The public domain isn't shrinking, in theory... in practice what is there is more obsolete by the day, and new works are being locked down tighter than a drum. In a few years, you might need a license to write a web page. (After all, you might be a terrorist writing secret messages, or anti-american propaganda).
The future is bleak, but I suspect the revolution will fix most of this.
--Mike--
Cheney first
I'm not a bright college kid, just a guy who looks at the big picture. When you get a system that supports annotation, and lets you consider the object code and symbol tables as part of a dynamic system linked with the source code, then you'll really get to play.
Until then, you'll be mired in C/C++/Perl
--Mike--
--Mike--
The concentration of the "news" into the hands of propagandist, and out of the hands of free citizens has happened gradually, and completely. You can't trust what you read or see in the corporate media. The information war is already lost to them.
Why else would we be fighting a war for SUVs?
--Mike--
#2. What's the DOS app, do you have source? What does the DOS app do?
#3. Why not just roll out replacement terminals as needed, instead of en-mass? You could probably use FreeDOS instead of MS-DOS, and set up a new machine ($200 walmart variety) to do exactly what you need.
Unlicensed (a commons) but technically regulated (so we don't have bozos with 100 Watt access points) open spectrum is just what we need to help get around the layers of control that are slowly enveloping the internet. It wouldn't hurt to try to do an end run around the IP4 address limit at the same time, and try to get IP6 compatible devices.
--Mike--
Forcing me to re-buy The White Album, 4 more times, in 4 new formats, isn't why we have copyrights and patents. It was constructed as a careful use of a necessary evil (state granted monopoly) for a limited time (17 years), in order to make sure the authors had sufficient incentive to put works into the public domain. (Happened at the end of the time period).
Now the slackers in Congress have perverted the original design to provide for Government enforced monopolies on ideas. This can not stand, in the long run.
DRM is evil, there is no practical purpose for it.
--Mike--
Once this step works, then outgoing emails could search for a public keys of recients, and if possible encrypt before sending. This would incrementally move the encryption closer to the sender, as adoption permitted.
I suggest using this along with features for verification of the sender as an anti-spam feature, to enhance adoption of the new protocols. An incremental approach is the only feasable one, IMHO.
--Mike--
If someone can show me how to replace all of our applications, especially our crufty Access97 database, then maybe we can talk. The forms and reports are the key, I know about mySQL and PostgreSQL for the actual database.
--Mike--
--Mike--
I'd like to be able to add a rule to IE that says "When you open this, DO NOT follow any external links", to kill web bugs, etc.
--Mike--
A folder (fake) view of email is passe, and keeps the data locked in the email program.
I want to be able to run notepad, Word, VI, Emacs, Teco, Pascal, or any other damned thing against a file sitting in my inbox. I want to do it directly, without programming, doing API's, routines that fake it by doing copies to temporary folders, etc.
Once I have that in place, it's trivial to write some program to scan for the word "viagara" and delete the file, move it elsewhere, etc. Right now, to do that, first I have to interface to Microsoft Exchange 5.5 (undocumented), or Outlook 97 (almost as bad), and then do the work... which is just plain stupid. I want to have transparent access to my email, from the old dos command line, or any other application.
If I can get an IFS that can map URLS to folders, a lot of things become easy. (Especially if it supports WebDAV, and is bidirectional)
I know that I could load the libraries, and do it in code, but that costs too much in terms of time, energy, and lost abstraction.
We can build a better way, it's a pain in the ass to get there, bit I'm sure it will be worth it.
--Mike--
If I can get this, I can extend Win98 past anything Bill Gates is dreaming up.
--Mike--
Let's build a virtual folder driver for Windows 98 and upward, to allow APPLICATIONS to virtualize the information they manage. It would be nice to have an email manager than presents emails as a list of files, or folders. Sending could be as easy as copying files to a folder, and then specifying an address. (To.txt?)
A virtualized database would present a list of folders in place of a table, with the fields being individual files, some read only (sequence numbers, keys, etc). To update the data, you just write to the file containing the appopriate field. If you wanted to add a field, you just copy a new file into the folder.
There is great power in letting an APPLICATION control the virutalization of the OS, this is why the idea of GNU/HURD is important for the future.
If APPLICATIONS can virtualize, then you get a freedom to innovate that would give Bill nightmares.
Virtualizing the address space for existing millions of users and applications could do more to help freedom to innovate than pretty much anything it's going to take Microsoft years to come up with.
Who's with me?
--Mike--
Assuming slow, but commodity CompactFlash cards of 1Gigabyte each (currently $800 retail, your price may vary). You'd need 1000 to 10^6 of these puppies for approximately 800,000 to 800,000,000 $US (Retail). It would be fairly compact, fairly reliable, and fairly slow.
So, with a price of $800,000 today for the low end, in 3 years (more or less) the price for 1 Terabyte of CompactFlash will be $100,000. This drops further to the point where I can afford it, in about 2 more orders of magnitude (7 years?).
Bottom line, it's feasable, would be $1Million to $1Billion to implement 1 of (at retail, buy the fab, prices WILL drop dramatically). I'll be able to afford the same thing 10 years later.
--Mike--
Antenna gain works both ways, so bandwidth should be good in both directions. The real fun would be having two of these systems talking to each other.
When are we going to get true 802.11b mesh?
--Mike--
I always set up the "size" field, in real numbers (do you really expect a user to know what 10MB is?) so that they eventually learn about email size.
I have no quotas on email, except for the fact that we only have 2,678,837,248 bytes free on our server at this point in time.
--Mike--
Computers - Tools to let people get their jobs done.
Commodore PET - 6502
Cosmac ELF - 1802
Heathkit Trainer - 6800
Radio Shack CoCo II - 6809 (OS-9 Rules!)
Custom built project - 8088 and glue logic
First computer repair - PDP11/34 with bad RAM
Got into it just after they phased out punch cards.
I have many friends who were there before CP/M, Xmodem, etc.
--Mike--
The reason for having Linux on a machine is to be able to access it via the net and/or play with it. Both of these are VERY BAD ideas when considering a telephony application. Telephone systems shouldn't ever allow remote administration, IMHO.
So, with no net, no place to play, what reasons are left to want to use Linux?
--Mike--
--Mike--
Riding the South Shore is usually a wash, in terms of time. However, in terms of sanity, its a lifesaver. I can use the time to read, write, talk with friends, or sleep, all safely and conviniently. Its like getting 1.5 free hours per day.
--Mike--