Once it is established the bureaucracy will fight to ensure its own survival. The original reason for the FCC may be gone but they find new reasons to protect their salaries and power.
Consider the FBI. Once alcohol was legalised they needed to find new enemys to continue to sustain their size.
Consider the Principate. After Mark Antony was defeated the Republic could have been restored. History tells us it wasn't.
When plain text isn't enough we need to use Microsoft formats because so many people can read them. We can't use other formats because only a few people can read them.
So, let those of us who don't like this change it. It isn't going to happen overnight, but over time it can happen.
What an individual can do
As one person, you can't do a lot, but you can do a little. As the saying goes Many a mickle maks a muckle
Whenever you need to send a document, send it in OOo 's native format. You'll get a reply back saying 'I can't read this', to which you reply with something like one of:
You need to download OOo from..
Oh. I'll send it in another format first chance I get, or you can save time by downloading...
Sorry, I forgot you can't read those, might be best if you download OOo ready for next time I forget
Obviously you have to pick your moments. Not a good idea to do this to an important client, or with your cv when job hunting, but other than that just do it!
One thing an authority (business or academic) can do
Mandate that documents sent by applicants / suppliers are in OOo format. If questioned about this explain that you use OOo internally and can't risk any mistranslations
For hardware vendors
There's a local chain store that sells their own house brand of (sometimes rebadged) computer accessories.
In recent times I've noticed that they are filling the unused portion of the "driver" CDs with OOo. So far I've received copies of OOo with a TV tuner card & an ADSL modem.
No idea why they have chosen to do this, maybe they just see it as a low cost way of making it look like they can bundle software like the "big boys"
So, if you're sending out a CD and there's space on it, pop in a copy of OOo.
Summary
There's many ways to get people to adopt open software. Evangelism is one, giving it to people is another, even forcing it down people's throats.
Let's get out there and get the world on open software.
First I must solicit your strictest confidence of this transaction. This is by virtue of its nature as being utterly confidential and "Top Secret".
You must be surprised hearing from me in this manner as we have not previously communicated.
Please allow me to introduce myself. I am HOMO SAPIENS SAPIENS, descendant and heir of the late HOMO HEIDELBERGENSIS of AFRICA.
Before he passed away my late ancestor secreted one hundred thousand (ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND) african elephants in the plains of Africa and I seek your assistance to export these animals to Europe where the growing shortage of the similar "Woolly mamoths" would make them highly marketable.
While the seas and deserts seperating Africa from Europe are easily overcome, African Animals are unable to tolerate cold and I will need a number of large fur coats to protect them for the journey.
In return for the suply of these furs and acting as my agent for the sale I would be delighted to offer you a full 50% of the realised market value.
like the ones that were all the rage with children a few years back.
On flat ground you move about two to three times the speed of walking & if it rains you can fold it up and take it in a bus or taxi.
My personal experience is pick one with relatively large wheels and stay very alert at all times, stones and broken paving that you wouldn't even notice on a bicycle will throw you off.
Last time I moved a grandmother from Windows to Linux I imported her mail into Netscape on Windows, rsynced the Netscape mail folder across to the new machine & imported the profile into Netscape on Linux. All the saved and sent mail came along for the ride.
This was a couple of years back using SuSE 9.0, but I can't imagine things have changed that much in the interim.
Yes it was a luxury having the old & new machines both up and networked, but I feel it would have been nearly as easy if upgrading a single computer.
The artificial power sources that led to the first wave (no pun intended) of industralisation were water power... in the form of mills driven by waterwheels trapping river power.
Then we had steam, and burned fossil fuels to make it. Tearing up the ground, polluting the air, the water, and eventually damaging our whole world.
Finally we return to extracting energy from water. No compaints from me on that score.
Normally this is true and the savings are minimal, but every so often there's one of those funny binary files that everyone you know seens to send to everyone on their address lists, when this happens you have the potential to save a reasonable amount of storage. For an individual it isn't going to be much in total but, when you're storing the amount of information Google does, it can add up fairly fast.
Have a think about what's in an email message. Parts of the message will differ between users. The headers are the most obvious candidate here. For anyone thinking that the would all be the same for the same sent mail, consider what I do. I have my own personal domain & host a small web site on a dynamic ip, but for obvious reaasons I don't have my domain's email sent there, it all gets redirected to my gmail account.
Parts of the message can be manipulated by the users. The obvious ones are read and replied flag, folder or gmail labels, but there's probably more. If you've written your own email software which parts that applies to should be well known, otherwise you'll need to read the source.
If you then divide the message into variable and fixed parts it's trivial to hash the fixed part to get a key that can be used to determine if you already have that message in storage and only keep one copy of the fixed information.
You could extend this even further and split the message further giving large attachments their own storage. Once you've done this you can do some interesting things. Improved detection of image based spam is just one that comes to mind.
Perhaps because this system is being developed in the UK where they have a long tradition of developing cheaper computers. Clive Sinclair, Alan Sugar, and many of their emulators hail from there.
The simputer was IIRC developed in India, which is in the third world.
Re:They had this ruled when I was in grade school
on
KDE Moves to BitKeeper
·
· Score: 1
If you think that's bad, it's 11:30 AM Saturday where I am (GMT +12).
The timestamp on the original article reads "Posted by Zonk on Saturday April 02, @10:17AM"
April fools day was yesterday, but I've already had my rant about Google's late April Fools joke, so I'll let it pass.
Site slashdotted already - Cached here
on
**No Title**
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Here's a cache for Linux, *BSD, and other unix users only.
Because hardware has a bad tendancy to hang around long after the vendors lose interest in it?
By making the drivers open source & letting the OS supplier recompile them for new releases they lessen the future load on their support desk from people complaining that their Linux 2.8 binary drivers won't work in Linux 4.2
NetBSD 2.0... the first to include NetBSD/xen, a port of the NetBSD kernel that runs under the Xen version 1.2 monitor. Significant work to run Xen version 2.0 has recently been completed by Manuel Bouyer and the next release of NetBSD will in all likelihood include this code. The Xen project already supplies a version of NetBSD/xen that runs under later versions of the Xen monitor.
So Xen supplies a NetBSD kernel that runs under Xen 2.0. NetBSD now supports Xen 1.2. How is this a great advance? Why didn't they just pick up the Xen supplied pathces and go with the latest version of Xen?
Putting the source code in a repository they neither own nor control makes me feel more comfortable that they are sincere.
Given IBM's recent history, it didn't surprise me to hear that they are a cash contributor to Sourceforge. The "site sponsors" block on the left of the Sourceforge homepage contains at least one link to an IBM site. I clicked the DB2 link to see where it went... www14.software.ibm.com
In my opinion, and it is just opinion I have no facts to support this at all, if Microsoft released a Linux it would become a nearly instant success in the corporate market.
Year -1 (Now)
System Administrator: blah blah blah so you see how Linux would improve our productivity PHB: No way. We're not having something put together by a bunch of hackers
Year 0
System Administrator: blah blah blah so you see how Linux would improve our productivity PHB: Hmmm, OK, as long as we do it quietly. To protect us we'd better be safe & go with Microsoft Linux
Year 1
System Administrator: blah blah blah so you see how Linux would improve our productivity PHB: Good thinking. MS Linux gets great reviews in PHB Weekly. Just make sure you get service pack 6.2.
Year 5 PHB: The CEO wants to know why aren't we running Linux on our servers? System Administrator: It's too unstable, Microsoft keep screwing up the updates.
The few PHBs that ever knew there was a Linux before MS got in the market would quickly forget that unpleasant fact. If they ever heard of them they'd probably think Debian SuSE & Redhat were either cheap clones or outright warez. In either case something to be avoided.
"Yes, you know, rhyming slang, 'Wounded thumb', 'Plutonium'."
"Plutonium? Good God man...
"One careful owner, guv'. Lovely condition, original wrapping, yours for a fraction of the original cost."
"Where did you get that from?"
"Fell off the back of a lorry, guv'nor, dinnit, know what I mean? Wonderful glow... Sellafield Blue! Excellent vintage. Mind you there's only 30kg left."
GPS - tells you where you are, plus or minus some distance a certain percentage of the time. Luckily that isn't used on commercial passenger jets.
Intertial navigation? IIRC, this depends on analog to digital devices. Guess what? All the analog to digital devices I've heard of have a small, but measurable inaccuracy. (I'll accept that the A-D devices I've never heard of are perfect).
Then, all the A-D outputs are fed to a human pilot. To err is human!
There's something bogus about that site, it's security certificate was issued by an unrecognised Certificate Authority (CA)... at least that's what FireFox tells me.
The listed CA seems to be one of those bogus self cerifying "authorities"
I think I'll just pass on reading it until they can afford to pay for a certificate from a reputable CA.
Slashdot Mirror
Once it is established the bureaucracy will fight to ensure its own survival. The original reason for the FCC may be gone but they find new reasons to protect their salaries and power.
Consider the FBI. Once alcohol was legalised they needed to find new enemys to continue to sustain their size.
Consider the Principate. After Mark Antony was defeated the Republic could have been restored. History tells us it wasn't.
An unprecedented write-in vote by internet users sends Kevin Mitnick to the Whitehouse.
When plain text isn't enough we need to use Microsoft formats because so many people can read them. We can't use other formats because only a few people can read them.
So, let those of us who don't like this change it. It isn't going to happen overnight, but over time it can happen.
What an individual can do
As one person, you can't do a lot, but you can do a little. As the saying goes Many a mickle maks a muckle
Whenever you need to send a document, send it in OOo 's native format. You'll get a reply back saying 'I can't read this', to which you reply with something like one of:
Obviously you have to pick your moments. Not a good idea to do this to an important client, or with your cv when job hunting, but other than that just do it!
One thing an authority (business or academic) can do
Mandate that documents sent by applicants / suppliers are in OOo format. If questioned about this explain that you use OOo internally and can't risk any mistranslations
For hardware vendors
There's a local chain store that sells their own house brand of (sometimes rebadged) computer accessories.
In recent times I've noticed that they are filling the unused portion of the "driver" CDs with OOo. So far I've received copies of OOo with a TV tuner card & an ADSL modem.
No idea why they have chosen to do this, maybe they just see it as a low cost way of making it look like they can bundle software like the "big boys"
So, if you're sending out a CD and there's space on it, pop in a copy of OOo.
Summary
There's many ways to get people to adopt open software. Evangelism is one, giving it to people is another, even forcing it down people's throats.
Let's get out there and get the world on open software.
Why do I have a mental picture of someone making a cluster by running multiple copies of Linux under Xen?
Last I checked 2159 was planned to occur after 2008 which is, in turn, after 2005.
To comply with the GPL full source code was shipped with the rovers.
All you need to do is go up to Spirit and retrieve the CD in the left front hubcap.
BTW: while you are doing this, NASA would be grateful if you could bring back a few kilograms of assorted mars rock.
REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP
Dear Mr Neanderthal,
First I must solicit your strictest confidence of this transaction. This is by virtue of its nature as being utterly confidential and "Top Secret".
You must be surprised hearing from me in this manner as we have not previously communicated.
Please allow me to introduce myself. I am HOMO SAPIENS SAPIENS, descendant and heir of the late HOMO HEIDELBERGENSIS of AFRICA.
Before he passed away my late ancestor secreted one hundred thousand (ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND) african elephants in the plains of Africa and I seek your assistance to export these animals to Europe where the growing shortage of the similar "Woolly mamoths" would make them highly marketable.
While the seas and deserts seperating Africa from Europe are easily overcome, African Animals are unable to tolerate cold and I will need a number of large fur coats to protect them for the journey.
In return for the suply of these furs and acting as my agent for the sale I would be delighted to offer you a full 50% of the realised market value.
Yours Faithfully
Homo Sapiens Sapiens,
Lagos,
Africa
mumble mumble preview mumble grumble
like the ones that were all the rage with children a few years back.
On flat ground you move about two to three times the speed of walking & if it rains you can fold it up and take it in a bus or taxi.
My personal experience is pick one with relatively large wheels and stay very alert at all times, stones and broken paving that you wouldn't even notice on a bicycle will throw you off.
Last time I moved a grandmother from Windows to Linux I imported her mail into Netscape on Windows, rsynced the Netscape mail folder across to the new machine & imported the profile into Netscape on Linux. All the saved and sent mail came along for the ride.
This was a couple of years back using SuSE 9.0, but I can't imagine things have changed that much in the interim.
Yes it was a luxury having the old & new machines both up and networked, but I feel it would have been nearly as easy if upgrading a single computer.
We only call them Arabic numerals because they learned them directly from the Indians and passed them on to Europe.
--
Runge Kutta, from the clever people that brought you the Kama Sutra
Then we had steam, and burned fossil fuels to make it. Tearing up the ground, polluting the air, the water, and eventually damaging our whole world.
Finally we return to extracting energy from water. No compaints from me on that score.
Normally this is true and the savings are minimal, but every so often there's one of those funny binary files that everyone you know seens to send to everyone on their address lists, when this happens you have the potential to save a reasonable amount of storage. For an individual it isn't going to be much in total but, when you're storing the amount of information Google does, it can add up fairly fast.
Have a think about what's in an email message. Parts of the message will differ between users. The headers are the most obvious candidate here. For anyone thinking that the would all be the same for the same sent mail, consider what I do. I have my own personal domain & host a small web site on a dynamic ip, but for obvious reaasons I don't have my domain's email sent there, it all gets redirected to my gmail account.
Parts of the message can be manipulated by the users. The obvious ones are read and replied flag, folder or gmail labels, but there's probably more. If you've written your own email software which parts that applies to should be well known, otherwise you'll need to read the source.
If you then divide the message into variable and fixed parts it's trivial to hash the fixed part to get a key that can be used to determine if you already have that message in storage and only keep one copy of the fixed information.
You could extend this even further and split the message further giving large attachments their own storage. Once you've done this you can do some interesting things. Improved detection of image based spam is just one that comes to mind.
Good call.
That would explain the reference to "it's [sic] automated delivery systems" in the question.
Oh the irony, a spammer asking slashdot for help, and getting it before someone spots the obvious.
Perhaps because this system is being developed in the UK where they have a long tradition of developing cheaper computers. Clive Sinclair, Alan Sugar, and many of their emulators hail from there. The simputer was IIRC developed in India, which is in the third world.
The timestamp on the original article reads "Posted by Zonk on Saturday April 02, @10:17AM"
April fools day was yesterday, but I've already had my rant about Google's late April Fools joke, so I'll let it pass.
Here's a cache for Linux, *BSD, and other unix users only.
Because hardware has a bad tendancy to hang around long after the vendors lose interest in it?
By making the drivers open source & letting the OS supplier recompile them for new releases they lessen the future load on their support desk from people complaining that their Linux 2.8 binary drivers won't work in Linux 4.2
So Xen supplies a NetBSD kernel that runs under Xen 2.0. NetBSD now supports Xen 1.2. How is this a great advance? Why didn't they just pick up the Xen supplied pathces and go with the latest version of Xen?
Putting the source code in a repository they neither own nor control makes me feel more comfortable that they are sincere.
Given IBM's recent history, it didn't surprise me to hear that they are a cash contributor to Sourceforge. The "site sponsors" block on the left of the Sourceforge homepage contains at least one link to an IBM site. I clicked the DB2 link to see where it went ... www14.software.ibm.com
In my opinion, and it is just opinion I have no facts to support this at all, if Microsoft released a Linux it would become a nearly instant success in the corporate market.
Year -1 (Now)
System Administrator: blah blah blah so you see how Linux would improve our productivity
PHB: No way. We're not having something put together by a bunch of hackers
Year 0
System Administrator: blah blah blah so you see how Linux would improve our productivity
PHB: Hmmm, OK, as long as we do it quietly. To protect us we'd better be safe & go with Microsoft Linux
Year 1
System Administrator: blah blah blah so you see how Linux would improve our productivity
PHB: Good thinking. MS Linux gets great reviews in PHB Weekly. Just make sure you get service pack 6.2.
Year 5
PHB: The CEO wants to know why aren't we running Linux on our servers?
System Administrator: It's too unstable, Microsoft keep screwing up the updates.
The few PHBs that ever knew there was a Linux before MS got in the market would quickly forget that unpleasant fact. If they ever heard of them they'd probably think Debian SuSE & Redhat were either cheap clones or outright warez. In either case something to be avoided.
"Wounded thum?"
...
... Sellafield Blue! Excellent vintage. Mind you there's only 30kg left."
"Yes, you know, rhyming slang, 'Wounded thumb', 'Plutonium'."
"Plutonium? Good God man
"One careful owner, guv'. Lovely condition, original wrapping, yours for a fraction of the original cost."
"Where did you get that from?"
"Fell off the back of a lorry, guv'nor, dinnit, know what I mean? Wonderful glow
Geeks have the same rights to a spathic presenter as anyone.
... and probably more need.
GPS - tells you where you are, plus or minus some distance a certain percentage of the time. Luckily that isn't used on commercial passenger jets.
Intertial navigation? IIRC, this depends on analog to digital devices. Guess what? All the analog to digital devices I've heard of have a small, but measurable inaccuracy. (I'll accept that the A-D devices I've never heard of are perfect).
Then, all the A-D outputs are fed to a human pilot. To err is human!
The listed CA seems to be one of those bogus self cerifying "authorities"
I think I'll just pass on reading it until they can afford to pay for a certificate from a reputable CA.