Look, I LIKE open source, but you can't deny it's taken away from some programming jobs.
No, you can't deny that, but you also can't deny that open source has also added programming jobs.
How many PHP coders are out there that wouldn't exist without PHP and Apache? How many people have HP, IBM or Redhat directly hired to work on open source apps, like Eclipse? How many additional programmers have established software companies like Microsoft and Adobe had to hire to ensure that their products are better than the open source alternatives? How many commercial products, like VMware, have popped up directly as a result of Open Source applications?
Also, unlike casettes, a perfect digital copy of a CDR can be made. If a CDR gets scratched, just burn another one.
That's mostly due to cassette tapes being analog rather than digital. If you had music recorded on a DAT you could copy it as easily as a CD. Problem was Sony wouldn't license DAT for use with prerecorded movie, thus we are stuck with the CD.
still have most of my VHS and audio cassettes from the mid eighties that work fine.
Even though I've had my share of CDs get scratched (even had one break one day when I dropped it on the carpet) it was generally due to my own negligence. My experience with audio tapes was not any better. I remember tapes getting stuck in tape players all the time, or sitting in the sun and screwing up the sound.
I agree with you that there should be a better way to protect user optical media, especially when children may be involved in handling the media, but I still think they are way ahead of analog tapes.
Comcast, for one. They also care if you VPN to your work network.
How do you define care? As in it's listed in their TOS? They shut you down for it? You work for them and hunt people down that run websites or connect to their machine locally?
Almost a year ago I contacted our local Comcast business sales rep to see about a data line to our office. I wanted to see if I could sign up for an account where I could host a server. They did not offer an account that allowed server hosting in our area at that time, but she basically told me if we signed up for a business account and didn't have too much traffic it would be fine. She kind of skated around the issue - probably so she didn't get in trouble about it later.
Not long after that I had a Comcast connection installed at home. The installer there basically told me the same thing. Said if there was a serious problem with bandwidth usage they would contact me before they shut anything down.
This may have to do with the infrastructure they have in my local area, so your results may vary. I've been SSHing into my home connection from work since the end of last summer and they haven't said a word. I also use BT quite a bit, no complaints about that either. I imagine they have more of a problem with windows machines and viruses/spyware than they do with a few people running web servers or ftp servers.
The fundamental difference between the TV and the computer is that the TV doesn't have any short term storage.
From a technical standpoint this is true, but from a functional standpoint most people don't understand this difference. If I want to see web content I go to that site, just like watching a TV show. If I want to see that content again, I go back to that site. I don't (normally) go to some saved copy on my computer.
Many people, especially anyone that doesn't want to be caught surfing for porn, know about the browser cache. OTOH, I don't think most people understand it. They think a web browser works just like your TV. You pick a channel and watch the pictures - end of story.
Better yet, just create a spider that requests random pages all day, every day. Do this at a reasonable rate so it looks like regular surfing and can't be construed as some type of attack.
This would accomplish two goals, increasing the amount of storage the ISPs would have to have and put so much noise in the logs that it would be hard to find anything that could be used as evidence.
As an additional bonus, it might be possible for users to store the data the spider finds and sell it to a search engine.
I just don't touch websites that look bad and I use Firefox. Is it really all that hard to teach people?!
It must be. I do the same thing, my home box is a dual boot, 2k and Slackware. I run in 2k for gaming and whatever all the time. Never have any problems.
Two things:
I think you're overlooking the (practically) limitless resources issue.
Microsoft has no problem setting up servers to scan for copyright violations, or wasting your processor power doing so.
Actually Microsoft's resources are very limited - when you compare them to every man, woman and child in the world that has a computer. If they come out with a P2P network, you can bet your ass somebody will figure out a way to exploit it for downloading copyrighted material without getting caught. The world is a big place. Microsoft has a lot of resources, but even they look small when you compare them to the number of individuals they would have to actually scan.
Likewise, they have the lobbying power to drive legislation requiring that behavior
Something I know our handy politicians in Washington have forgotten and it seems like the population in general doesn't have a handle on. New laws don't magically change behavior. Just because they pass legislation about something doesn't mean it just goes away. If a law is unenforcable it just becomes another piece of silly paper to keep track of.
Only reason I bring this up is it seems like the prevelant attitude right now is things will automatically get better if we pass a law about it. There is a law in the Colorado legislature (either just passed, or is up for vote) about restrictions on teen driving. One of the restrictions is that for some initial time period a new driver cannot carry a passenger. I recently saw a newscast concerning two 16 year old boys that crashed their car while out drinking and racing on some back country roads. The commentator stated that if the new law had been in effect these boys might still be alive. Now if these boys were ignoring the law by drinking and speeding what makes anyone think that they would have worried about some law stating they couldn't ride together.
Or is it the new "trackerless" BT that has opened this door?
That's a good point. I bet it has made this way easier, although for the record I have a friend that uses BT under Windows and has complained about viruses and spyware for months.
Another option is to get a userfriendly linux distro
Well, that's a given, but many people don't see it that way. I run Slackware, both at home and work, and haven't had one virus, spyware attack, trojan whatever in years.
I was just thinking of those that wanted to keep their Windows machine.
It's not fair to buy raw material from them and then sell them the processed goods for several times more.
How is this not fair? This is the way the world has worked forever. Do you think GM or Ford or Toyota should sell you a car for the price of the raw materials? Do you think Dell should sell you a computer for the price of the plastic and the solder? Craftsmen and later manufacturers have ALWAYS been compensated for changing raw materials into something usable.
Healthcare is the ultimate luxury. Yes, I would agree that emergency care and things like childbirth are somewhat expensive and it would be helpful if there was a way to keep the costs down. The thing is, those are not the people that are weighing down the healthcare system. Most of our healthcare dollars go to the elderly. Why? Because as you get older your body deteriorates.
Are you trying to tell me that extending your life artificially although you've been sitting on your ass every night drinking Ol' Milwuakee, smoking your camels, eating your Canoli and watching TV isn't a luxury? If a person abuses their body for 40 years and has health problems why should I pay for the healthcare to keep them alive?
Maybe X&Y isn't out on the torrent sites yet.... nope, there it is. My favorite torrent search engine has at least 5 very active trackers. Strange, why would ANYONE purchase it, especially those evil 13-26 year olds???
From the mp3 player standpoint, Apple is going to have a hard time finding someone that's NOT a competitor. Apple is going to dilute their brand image by going to Intel hardware, but if they do go to Intel based machines, why not use Dell as a distributer. Just because they are competitors doesn't mean they can't still be partners. Plus, Apple could easily keep some significant branding (logos, OS, advertising) with Dell.
Not only that, but many ISPs will look the other way if you even want to run a commercial site off your DSL or Cable connection. As long as you don't get slashdotted you will be fine.
Not sure if this is the case everywhere, but it where I live this even works for city tax. My parents live outside city limits, if they purchase an item and have it delivered to their house they don't have to pay city tax, but if they go to the store and pick it up they do.
I don't know how much Borders makes off of each of their businesses, but I'm wondering if there's ever a point where they say "screw it" and closes their brick and morter stores in that state. Sure would fix the nexus problem for them.
Actually, that won't fix it either. Cali has these insane laws about nexus and sales tax. The company I work for had a problem with this several years ago. We are NOT based in California, have no employees in California, no buildings in California, nothing, but we attended a TRADE SHOW held in California. Because we attended this trade show, the California department of revenue, or whatever they call it, sent us this nice letter saying we had nexus in California and had to send them taxes. Not only that, but once we had nexus, we couldn't get rid of it. We were forced to continue collecting sales tax for CA customers.
Umm... Comcast doesn't, at least not on my subnet.
I actually had some discussions with the installers and local sales people for Comcast. Their attitude was a don't ask/don't tell policy for running services over their cable modem connections. As long as you aren't soaking up an extreme amount of bandwidth they don't really care if you are running a web server, ftp server, whatever.
Slashdot Mirror
Glad I'm not the only one that was thinking that.
Look, I LIKE open source, but you can't deny it's taken away from some programming jobs.
No, you can't deny that, but you also can't deny that open source has also added programming jobs.
How many PHP coders are out there that wouldn't exist without PHP and Apache? How many people have HP, IBM or Redhat directly hired to work on open source apps, like Eclipse? How many additional programmers have established software companies like Microsoft and Adobe had to hire to ensure that their products are better than the open source alternatives? How many commercial products, like VMware, have popped up directly as a result of Open Source applications?
Also, unlike casettes, a perfect digital copy of a CDR can be made. If a CDR gets scratched, just burn another one.
That's mostly due to cassette tapes being analog rather than digital. If you had music recorded on a DAT you could copy it as easily as a CD. Problem was Sony wouldn't license DAT for use with prerecorded movie, thus we are stuck with the CD.
still have most of my VHS and audio cassettes from the mid eighties that work fine.
Even though I've had my share of CDs get scratched (even had one break one day when I dropped it on the carpet) it was generally due to my own negligence. My experience with audio tapes was not any better. I remember tapes getting stuck in tape players all the time, or sitting in the sun and screwing up the sound.
I agree with you that there should be a better way to protect user optical media, especially when children may be involved in handling the media, but I still think they are way ahead of analog tapes.
Comcast, for one. They also care if you VPN to your work network.
How do you define care? As in it's listed in their TOS? They shut you down for it? You work for them and hunt people down that run websites or connect to their machine locally?
Almost a year ago I contacted our local Comcast business sales rep to see about a data line to our office. I wanted to see if I could sign up for an account where I could host a server. They did not offer an account that allowed server hosting in our area at that time, but she basically told me if we signed up for a business account and didn't have too much traffic it would be fine. She kind of skated around the issue - probably so she didn't get in trouble about it later.
Not long after that I had a Comcast connection installed at home. The installer there basically told me the same thing. Said if there was a serious problem with bandwidth usage they would contact me before they shut anything down.
This may have to do with the infrastructure they have in my local area, so your results may vary. I've been SSHing into my home connection from work since the end of last summer and they haven't said a word. I also use BT quite a bit, no complaints about that either. I imagine they have more of a problem with windows machines and viruses/spyware than they do with a few people running web servers or ftp servers.
The fundamental difference between the TV and the computer is that the TV doesn't have any short term storage.
From a technical standpoint this is true, but from a functional standpoint most people don't understand this difference. If I want to see web content I go to that site, just like watching a TV show. If I want to see that content again, I go back to that site. I don't (normally) go to some saved copy on my computer.
Many people, especially anyone that doesn't want to be caught surfing for porn, know about the browser cache. OTOH, I don't think most people understand it. They think a web browser works just like your TV. You pick a channel and watch the pictures - end of story.
Better yet, just create a spider that requests random pages all day, every day. Do this at a reasonable rate so it looks like regular surfing and can't be construed as some type of attack.
This would accomplish two goals, increasing the amount of storage the ISPs would have to have and put so much noise in the logs that it would be hard to find anything that could be used as evidence.
As an additional bonus, it might be possible for users to store the data the spider finds and sell it to a search engine.
I just don't touch websites that look bad and I use Firefox. Is it really all that hard to teach people?!
It must be. I do the same thing, my home box is a dual boot, 2k and Slackware. I run in 2k for gaming and whatever all the time. Never have any problems.
Two things:
I think you're overlooking the (practically) limitless resources issue. Microsoft has no problem setting up servers to scan for copyright violations, or wasting your processor power doing so.
Actually Microsoft's resources are very limited - when you compare them to every man, woman and child in the world that has a computer. If they come out with a P2P network, you can bet your ass somebody will figure out a way to exploit it for downloading copyrighted material without getting caught. The world is a big place. Microsoft has a lot of resources, but even they look small when you compare them to the number of individuals they would have to actually scan.
Likewise, they have the lobbying power to drive legislation requiring that behavior
Something I know our handy politicians in Washington have forgotten and it seems like the population in general doesn't have a handle on. New laws don't magically change behavior. Just because they pass legislation about something doesn't mean it just goes away. If a law is unenforcable it just becomes another piece of silly paper to keep track of.
Only reason I bring this up is it seems like the prevelant attitude right now is things will automatically get better if we pass a law about it. There is a law in the Colorado legislature (either just passed, or is up for vote) about restrictions on teen driving. One of the restrictions is that for some initial time period a new driver cannot carry a passenger. I recently saw a newscast concerning two 16 year old boys that crashed their car while out drinking and racing on some back country roads. The commentator stated that if the new law had been in effect these boys might still be alive. Now if these boys were ignoring the law by drinking and speeding what makes anyone think that they would have worried about some law stating they couldn't ride together.
Or is it the new "trackerless" BT that has opened this door?
That's a good point. I bet it has made this way easier, although for the record I have a friend that uses BT under Windows and has complained about viruses and spyware for months.
Another option is to get a userfriendly linux distro
Well, that's a given, but many people don't see it that way. I run Slackware, both at home and work, and haven't had one virus, spyware attack, trojan whatever in years.
I was just thinking of those that wanted to keep their Windows machine.
Plus, how cool is it going to be to download Windows Server 2006 (or whatever it is) off a P2P network they created.
It's not fair to buy raw material from them and then sell them the processed goods for several times more.
How is this not fair? This is the way the world has worked forever. Do you think GM or Ford or Toyota should sell you a car for the price of the raw materials? Do you think Dell should sell you a computer for the price of the plastic and the solder? Craftsmen and later manufacturers have ALWAYS been compensated for changing raw materials into something usable.
Healthcare is the ultimate luxury. Yes, I would agree that emergency care and things like childbirth are somewhat expensive and it would be helpful if there was a way to keep the costs down. The thing is, those are not the people that are weighing down the healthcare system. Most of our healthcare dollars go to the elderly. Why? Because as you get older your body deteriorates.
Are you trying to tell me that extending your life artificially although you've been sitting on your ass every night drinking Ol' Milwuakee, smoking your camels, eating your Canoli and watching TV isn't a luxury? If a person abuses their body for 40 years and has health problems why should I pay for the healthcare to keep them alive?
Please tell my this guy is not related to Bobby Boucher
Not just that, but 13-26 year olds who have *proven* that they'd rather steal stuff than buy it...
Of course, how does that explain Coldplay selling 740,000 copies of their new album in the first week. Who is buying these, all the damn 40 year olds? Wonder if my grandma's picked up her copy yet?
Maybe X&Y isn't out on the torrent sites yet.... nope, there it is. My favorite torrent search engine has at least 5 very active trackers. Strange, why would ANYONE purchase it, especially those evil 13-26 year olds???
DOS can delete them if you feel like paying for the NTFS dos drivers which support both read and write. (read is free).
m l#win32 that gives steps for doing this.
Another option is to us a knoppix disk and boot to Linux. There is an article at http://www.planetfez.net/engl223/archive/page2.ht
From the mp3 player standpoint, Apple is going to have a hard time finding someone that's NOT a competitor. Apple is going to dilute their brand image by going to Intel hardware, but if they do go to Intel based machines, why not use Dell as a distributer. Just because they are competitors doesn't mean they can't still be partners. Plus, Apple could easily keep some significant branding (logos, OS, advertising) with Dell.
Not only that, but many ISPs will look the other way if you even want to run a commercial site off your DSL or Cable connection. As long as you don't get slashdotted you will be fine.
I could ssh into my home machine and look at the DNS settings from work.
Not sure if this is the case everywhere, but it where I live this even works for city tax. My parents live outside city limits, if they purchase an item and have it delivered to their house they don't have to pay city tax, but if they go to the store and pick it up they do.
I don't know how much Borders makes off of each of their businesses, but I'm wondering if there's ever a point where they say "screw it" and closes their brick and morter stores in that state. Sure would fix the nexus problem for them.
Actually, that won't fix it either. Cali has these insane laws about nexus and sales tax. The company I work for had a problem with this several years ago. We are NOT based in California, have no employees in California, no buildings in California, nothing, but we attended a TRADE SHOW held in California. Because we attended this trade show, the California department of revenue, or whatever they call it, sent us this nice letter saying we had nexus in California and had to send them taxes. Not only that, but once we had nexus, we couldn't get rid of it. We were forced to continue collecting sales tax for CA customers.
What kind of isp cares if you run a server?
Kinda what I was thinking...
Umm... Comcast doesn't, at least not on my subnet.
I actually had some discussions with the installers and local sales people for Comcast. Their attitude was a don't ask/don't tell policy for running services over their cable modem connections. As long as you aren't soaking up an extreme amount of bandwidth they don't really care if you are running a web server, ftp server, whatever.
Besides, I could run ssh over any port I want.
Unfortunatly, I'm at work, so I have no clue what the IP address is.
You mean you can't ssh into your home box from the office.
Loser.