Personally, I think anyone being governed has skin in the game - whether they want to sacrifice for others or not seems irrelevant. Unless you think that sacrifice is necessary to obtain what much of western philosophy thinks is a basic human right.
It seems similar to some of the right of passage requirements to become an adult in various societies and explored in some sci-fi. It certainly exists now and in the past, but I don't know if there is great support for such a thing in the USA...
Really? I have ended up with many bluetooth devices in the last couple years. It started with my car's hands free system, and then I found I can use it to also play audio through my car without using a line in cable (less wear on the phone headphone jack).
I'm looking for some bluetooth headphones for the same reason when I'm not in my car.
Then I got an upgraded jack for my radar detector that hooks up to my phone for "social" detection or some such.
Then my new GPS hooks up to my phone for more up to date google search for POIs.
Then my smartwatch hooks up via bluetooth.
and I got a cheap OBD-II connector that hooks up to my phone instead of a $150 + code reader.
I'm sure most people don't have this variety of devices, but I would guess many many more have *at least one*.
Actually, there is a difference. People who argue we should obey the law are receiving their incentive from government (the promise of handouts and free stuff)
Or, you know, believe in the rule of law, and feel that the ACA passed the House, Senate, the President signed it and was upheld in the Supreme Court.
The minority of people who are fighting back are doing so because of (whether rightly or wrongly) their own internal convictions (on freedom, on how government should run, on how their money should be spent, whatever floats their individual morals). Their motivation is internal. Unless they are hypocrites (and I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt that they are not) they would still hold such convictions and be against government even if they themselves might be better off from the government hand outs.
The people who support it might do so because of their internal convictions that we should help those less fortunate then us. Or that we should provide a minimum level of health care for all citizens. Or are so disgusted with private insurance that they feel it needed more regulation (require insurance even with pre-existing conditions), or even hope that it leads to Single Payer.
You can be on either side of this based on personal convictions. I'm not sure why you think people who support the law have to be doing so for personal gain, nor why that would be specific to this law.
Hmmm, I see two things. One, if compelling a combination is not a 5th amendment violation, then compelling a password probably isn't either. I'm a big fan of not inventing new laws because someone added "on a computer" to an existing situation. I think it's hard to claim an encryption password is very different from a safe combination.
Both of your replies were kind of my point. They were aware of Guy Fawkes. Did they condone violence against "innocents"? I think they might have, they did just fight an armed rebellion against their government, and explicitly had the second amendment there to allow similar rebellions in the future.
My point is that I'm saddened that we will fight so hard to keep open the violent guns part of the constitution, but keep rolling over on the trampling of other amendments in the name of security.
To paraphrase the matrix badly, what use is a gun when you can't organize for your cause?
One man alone can't rebel against any tyranny. And if you can't communicate, plan, organize, or the like, you can't overthrow the government. You'll be crushed like in Waco. If King George had the NSA etc - the signers of the declaration of independence would never have gotten started, they would have been disappeared well before they could start a war.
This is a dangerous world. Some people will be killed. It is sad, but destroying our way of life is a stupid response.
You know crappy banks. Most of the big banks require you keep $1 in them to keep the account open.
Bitcoin is interesting but at $124 a coin, pretty expensive to get into (IDK, can you buy $5 worth of bitcoin? or just what you need to pay for something?)...
I think that's a dubious claim to make. All that has happened is that such firearms have become lighter, more reliable, and have a much faster firing rate. In other words, they've become better at the job they do. That's not hard to predict. And I'm fairly certain that the technology hasn't advanced to the point where original backers would have changed their minds.
Yes, but I wonder if they were also thinking about the much higher population density and different sort of working situations. It was easy for Star Trek or Vernor Vinge to predict the Internet, but I don't recall them predicting anything like Facebook. And that's only over 40 years...
Did the founding fathers really deal with or consider single perpetrator mass shootings? The closest thing I could think of would be bombings, and I don't know that the Second Amendment had anything in there about explosives.
That said, I don't know if they really had the same sort of value of human life either, or concern about dealing with things man to man (i.e. less police or state action and more individuals taking their own justice).
Would they and do we want to prevent mass shootings? Are we concerned with the murder rate, gang violence etc? Our actions suggest we're OK with it as it is, so I doubt anything will change.
Of course, if we were that OK with the level of death, we shouldn't be anywhere near as freaked out about terrorism as we seem to be.
This is where some distributed data store like freenet might actually be useful... Although there you have the issue of popularity - it probably only would help if it was a public dump so enough people would request the data to really distribute it...
The problem is, nothing is really that secure against NSA level scanning of the net. I think you need to have something that automatically makes extra copies every so often in other locations...
I don't think people hated Vista the UI or Vista the concept in the way they might hate Windows 8 the UI or "Tablet everywhere" the concept.
It's just that the implementation *sucked* in some obvious and user annoying ways - see the massively slow file copies vs XP on the same hardware at launch, and the UAC pop up on everything.
Windows 7 smoothed out a lot of that, or hardware advancements did. Win 7 "fixed" the file copy speed enough for users to not notice it being slower on newer hardware. UAC was toned down a bit, and everyone already had docs to *turn it off* if they really hated it. Windows 7 could have been Vista SE properly, and likely would have been fine except for the marketing issue with the Vista name. Same as Win 98SE being the one you wanted.
On XP, again, it was SP2 that really made it shine. No one remembers XP RTM and the slow horror it was vs 98SE on hardware of the time, nor how bad it was at security or how *f&#ked* up wireless control was. Of course, most anyone I know ran XP in "classic" because they didn't like the "Fisher Price" themes.
So yes, Microsoft has a trend of needing 2-3 releases to "get it right", and I think that's why so many people are still skipping Windows 8. There are enough apps to make the UI tolerable with classic shell etc. But it is still release 1 of the totally new UI paradigm (and one that I still don't think plays to their strength on the desktop/laptop market). There are some other show stoppers in there too, but maybe Windows 9 will clean it all up. Or maybe we'll all be using Android / ChromeOS by then, IDK.
Wow, I guess it depends, but Dell PowerEdge servers are the bane of our existence. Inability to get clear answers from the website or phone support on CPU upgrades (to go from single to dual), weird reproducible hangs seemingly due to BIOS, painful BIOS upgrade procedure.
We are extremely happy to have replaced them with IBM System X servers. All around much better experience, and we don't have to pay extra for good support - all included in the purchase price. The "savings" of Dell are often in getting rid of good service, any support, and using very low quality components.
I have ever spoken at Dell, was unpleasant and wanted to transfer me to someone else as soon as possible.
Hmmm, it depends on the company, and what you're trying to do. Call Ally, or Lenovo Think branded support, or Frontier line support, or Sears service... I've often been the one rushing off the phone (not that they're wasting my time, just that they aren't rushing me off either).
Maybe you're unlucky to deal with bad companies? I'm not saying that many or even most companies are crap on the phone, but I am pointing out that there are ones that aren't, and we should try to deal with companies that are decent...
I don't know about that - their Think branded workstations are very nice. All Think branded support is still tightly tied to IBM, and there are rumors about more integration with servers in one way or another. Besides, I'm not sure there's a compelling reason to treat Lenovo Think workstations and IBM servers as different - again, the support portal for Think workstations is the IBM portal I use for the IBM servers. The Lenovo bios feels just like the IBM desktop bioses of 2005, just updated for UEFI...
I suppose the only pain is on the business side (which is important) but Lenovo is widely offered by resellers like CDW etc. Anyway, we do Lenovo desktops and laptops and IBM System x servers with no issues. I'll bet if you're doing a big enough IBM server purchase, IBM would resell you some Lenovo desktops on one PO.
Quote [ I don't think Ubuntu is the problem, my girlfriend and I just bought 2 inspiron mini laptops with XP on them and hers blue screens every 15 minutes or so. I haven't even turned mine on. With hers being so screwed up I don't even care if I ever turn mine on. ] [ Oh, and maybe the reviewer didn't notice people in the Dell forum complaining that the machine drops it's wireless connection under XP too.... ]
I'm not sure what your point is then. Dell makes crap netbooks? Well, hell, I wouldn't buy Dell at all because all their computers seem to be shitty. You buy crap, you get crap? Is that supposed to be news?
Anyway, if you buy hardware that works, Linux and updates to Linux work - at least WFM. I can't say any more than that.
My point is it's well known that in the Windows world, you're expected to buy software add ons to increase functionality. In the Linux world you're not. Don't confuse how the ecosystem works between OSs. Hell, don't use a paid OS and then complain that utilities aren't free!
Except what about the Bradly Manning debacle? Are you really that sure that at certain low levels (I understand that "Top Secret" is actually a somewhat low classification and treated differently from the "Code Word" classified data I think you're talking about - though I have no real knowledge and am just speculating based on Slashdot posts and spy novels, so take many grains of salt here) it's not more wide open?
I'm wondering how high up his intel really goes. I'm also curious as to whether the security measures are that effective against an internal person with some level of (computer) administrative access and some level of physical access.
I always say that if you have valid internal permissions (at an OS level) to set permissions, you can read anything on the box. I wonder if he had access to the encryption permissions system as an admin? That would (I think) allow a similar way to gain access to anything under that system.
Then there's physical access - many times all bets are off - and at the NSA? I'll bet they have methods that aren't widely known for taking advantage of that.
You might say - but it's audited. Well sure, but day to day, if what you're doing is not what you're supposed to be doing, but looks very much like what you *are* supposed to be doing, you might get away with it for a while.
Example: If you're supposed to be vetting a system for obtaining intel from "acquired" computing devices - you might be able to "test" this system against internally secured laptops or whatever for a while without anyone really noticing.
I have tried to connect with "regular people" on this for years. I've been either dismissed as overly paranoid or way too distrustful of the government or way too caring about if someone else knows {insert supposedly trivial information here}.
Even if someone *does* "get" what I'm talking about, they much prefer texting to meeting in person. Even at the digital security level, they want it invisible to them when it's done - but then it's a waste of effort because if "someone else" does the "security" for you, you have to assume it's not actually secure at all and backdoored for the govt *and worse* for profit to anyone who will pay for details.
I'm guilty of this also - at the level we're talking about I don't have the resources or desire to review code and review open source compiler code, to analyze hardware for built in back doors and firmware for back doors and then to compile a vetted OS, and then all my apps etc. Who *besides* the NSA or foreign governments could do that?
I'm basically resigned that we're screwed from a technical perspective, and don't hold out much hope from a political perspective - if that even could have any real effects with the secret programs like PRISM.
You keep moving the goalposts. What OS do you know that works like that?
It's certainly not Windows. If you think the average user can get a Windows install to last 5 years without hiring "expert" help to deal with on of a myriad of issues, and without *ever* googling how to do something, you have a very select group of users.
Maybe you're thinking of MacOS, which I could believe, but then I realize most mac's except the mini cost over $1k, so it's not that.
I think you're imagining an OS, which explains much of your responses.
Well, to feed the troll: SL happens to be RHEL / CENTOS - so I imagine, as it is, free - anyone who wants to download SL or CENTOS could use it. It's got very little to do with scientific stuff any more than Windows (which we also use, but generally have so many problems with - though that may be more Labview) other than the name. I wouldn't go off saying who uses an OS made for looking outside through (snarking on the name or manufacturer) - it has little to do with CERN, and actually, CERN has a different OS SLC, not the one I'm talking about which is built at Fermilab. But whatever.
And I said that the Thinkcenters are up and down the line, and mentioned Ideacenters - way to miss what I was saying. The Ideacenter Q150 retailed @ $350. If your getting them cheaper or more consumer focused, you're getting a deal I've never seen. The Thinkstation I'm thinking of is all of $600 with a Core i3 when it came out. Again, very consumer pricerange - even offered with a Windows License, so you could use Win 7 Pro - just because retail workers know jack about what is offered from reputable manufacturers doesn't invalidate the actually knowledgeable IT workers positions.
Now for a great car analogy in the slashdot meme - just because you may think you can only get a Chrysler 200 in a low end car doesn't mean you couldn't have picked up a Nissian Sentra for the same money with far less chance of issues down the road.
So yea, forgive me if I suggest you not spend money on crap hardware at rip-off Worst Try. Forgive me if I suggest you consult professionals rather than salesmen if you want to get quality equipment. And forgive me if I like to use what works well instead of whats popular.
I find it's more about mainstream appeal. If there's something that a large percentage of computer users might use, such as a web browser or a file editor, there will be several very good proprietary and OSS solutions to choose from, all kept up to date, and at least a couple very good at what they do.
The more niche you get, the more you tend to find one or may two half baked solutions, whether it's proprietary or OSS.
Or, you know, buy some software (the proprietary method) that makes that work for you. Acronis B&R11 or O&O DriveImage6 will let you boot their device, do an in-place machine independent driver "fix" (you just need the "F6" driver accessible to the boot CD) and boot the device with HAL and mass storage (and sometimes network) drivers all fixed for you. Install other drivers (often video) and you're golden. All for $80 or so.
We have Lenovo Thinkstation and Thinkcentre desktops all up and down the line, and some Ideastation USFFs that all run Scientific Linux 6 out of the box. We've done updates through SL6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3 and 6.4 and all work. SL6 is supported for 10 years. The hardware will be recycled before SL6 is unusable, though we'll likely look at SL7 when released for new features.
I suppose if you buy random e-machines and want to use a random assortment of distros you might have issues, but heck, if you wanted to use every version of "supported" Windows, from XP x32 to 8.1 on a random e-machine, it might not work well either (I haven't seen hardware with drivers recently for XP, Vista, 7 and 8... many drop Vista for instance)...
I love Amazon, and I've used e-book readers since 2000. They're great if I know exactly what book I want to read, or if I know I want to read the next book from Author X. Amazon is even sometimes useful in their recommendations of what people read or looked at that were similar to the book I'm currently looking at.
What all the web based tools fall down for me is browsing. I can't look at a shelf of Thrillers, Mysteries, or Fantasy. I won't find new types of books via Amazon's recommendations, just an ever narrowing slice of books more and more similar to the ones I've already bought.
Maybe I'm old fashioned somehow, but I don't necessarily enjoy the bubble effect the web has. When I want a new book I find interesting, I can browse a bookstore and likely come out with one in 15 minutes. With Amazon, I've spent weeks trying to find a "good book" to read that isn't a sequel, or extremely similar to one I've just read.
I also find that while I'll pick up a book that may be enjoyable from a shelf based on cover art, blurb on the back etc, Amazon almost has too much information - do I really want a book that only got 3 stars? Do I read the reviews, which often take any reason to read the book away? Is it all scammed by companies? Too much work, and I rarely get a book.
Slashdot Mirror
Personally, I think anyone being governed has skin in the game - whether they want to sacrifice for others or not seems irrelevant. Unless you think that sacrifice is necessary to obtain what much of western philosophy thinks is a basic human right.
It seems similar to some of the right of passage requirements to become an adult in various societies and explored in some sci-fi. It certainly exists now and in the past, but I don't know if there is great support for such a thing in the USA...
Really? I have ended up with many bluetooth devices in the last couple years. It started with my car's hands free system, and then I found I can use it to also play audio through my car without using a line in cable (less wear on the phone headphone jack).
I'm looking for some bluetooth headphones for the same reason when I'm not in my car.
Then I got an upgraded jack for my radar detector that hooks up to my phone for "social" detection or some such.
Then my new GPS hooks up to my phone for more up to date google search for POIs.
Then my smartwatch hooks up via bluetooth.
and I got a cheap OBD-II connector that hooks up to my phone instead of a $150 + code reader.
I'm sure most people don't have this variety of devices, but I would guess many many more have *at least one*.
Actually, there is a difference. People who argue we should obey the law are receiving their incentive from government (the promise of handouts and free stuff)
Or, you know, believe in the rule of law, and feel that the ACA passed the House, Senate, the President signed it and was upheld in the Supreme Court.
The minority of people who are fighting back are doing so because of (whether rightly or wrongly) their own internal convictions (on freedom, on how government should run, on how their money should be spent, whatever floats their individual morals). Their motivation is internal. Unless they are hypocrites (and I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt that they are not) they would still hold such convictions and be against government even if they themselves might be better off from the government hand outs.
The people who support it might do so because of their internal convictions that we should help those less fortunate then us. Or that we should provide a minimum level of health care for all citizens. Or are so disgusted with private insurance that they feel it needed more regulation (require insurance even with pre-existing conditions), or even hope that it leads to Single Payer.
You can be on either side of this based on personal convictions. I'm not sure why you think people who support the law have to be doing so for personal gain, nor why that would be specific to this law.
Hmmm, I see two things. One, if compelling a combination is not a 5th amendment violation, then compelling a password probably isn't either. I'm a big fan of not inventing new laws because someone added "on a computer" to an existing situation. I think it's hard to claim an encryption password is very different from a safe combination.
I thought most people on Windows used MSSQL - at least that seems the case in packaged software...
I've apparently been lucky to avoid banks with higher minimum balances or ones with fees for the account.
Both of your replies were kind of my point. They were aware of Guy Fawkes. Did they condone violence against "innocents"? I think they might have, they did just fight an armed rebellion against their government, and explicitly had the second amendment there to allow similar rebellions in the future.
My point is that I'm saddened that we will fight so hard to keep open the violent guns part of the constitution, but keep rolling over on the trampling of other amendments in the name of security.
To paraphrase the matrix badly, what use is a gun when you can't organize for your cause?
One man alone can't rebel against any tyranny. And if you can't communicate, plan, organize, or the like, you can't overthrow the government. You'll be crushed like in Waco. If King George had the NSA etc - the signers of the declaration of independence would never have gotten started, they would have been disappeared well before they could start a war.
This is a dangerous world. Some people will be killed. It is sad, but destroying our way of life is a stupid response.
You know crappy banks. Most of the big banks require you keep $1 in them to keep the account open.
Bitcoin is interesting but at $124 a coin, pretty expensive to get into (IDK, can you buy $5 worth of bitcoin? or just what you need to pay for something?)...
I think that's a dubious claim to make. All that has happened is that such firearms have become lighter, more reliable, and have a much faster firing rate. In other words, they've become better at the job they do. That's not hard to predict. And I'm fairly certain that the technology hasn't advanced to the point where original backers would have changed their minds.
Yes, but I wonder if they were also thinking about the much higher population density and different sort of working situations. It was easy for Star Trek or Vernor Vinge to predict the Internet, but I don't recall them predicting anything like Facebook. And that's only over 40 years...
Did the founding fathers really deal with or consider single perpetrator mass shootings? The closest thing I could think of would be bombings, and I don't know that the Second Amendment had anything in there about explosives.
That said, I don't know if they really had the same sort of value of human life either, or concern about dealing with things man to man (i.e. less police or state action and more individuals taking their own justice).
Would they and do we want to prevent mass shootings? Are we concerned with the murder rate, gang violence etc? Our actions suggest we're OK with it as it is, so I doubt anything will change.
Of course, if we were that OK with the level of death, we shouldn't be anywhere near as freaked out about terrorism as we seem to be.
This is where some distributed data store like freenet might actually be useful... Although there you have the issue of popularity - it probably only would help if it was a public dump so enough people would request the data to really distribute it...
The problem is, nothing is really that secure against NSA level scanning of the net. I think you need to have something that automatically makes extra copies every so often in other locations...
I don't think people hated Vista the UI or Vista the concept in the way they might hate Windows 8 the UI or "Tablet everywhere" the concept.
It's just that the implementation *sucked* in some obvious and user annoying ways - see the massively slow file copies vs XP on the same hardware at launch, and the UAC pop up on everything.
Windows 7 smoothed out a lot of that, or hardware advancements did. Win 7 "fixed" the file copy speed enough for users to not notice it being slower on newer hardware. UAC was toned down a bit, and everyone already had docs to *turn it off* if they really hated it. Windows 7 could have been Vista SE properly, and likely would have been fine except for the marketing issue with the Vista name. Same as Win 98SE being the one you wanted.
On XP, again, it was SP2 that really made it shine. No one remembers XP RTM and the slow horror it was vs 98SE on hardware of the time, nor how bad it was at security or how *f&#ked* up wireless control was. Of course, most anyone I know ran XP in "classic" because they didn't like the "Fisher Price" themes.
So yes, Microsoft has a trend of needing 2-3 releases to "get it right", and I think that's why so many people are still skipping Windows 8. There are enough apps to make the UI tolerable with classic shell etc. But it is still release 1 of the totally new UI paradigm (and one that I still don't think plays to their strength on the desktop/laptop market). There are some other show stoppers in there too, but maybe Windows 9 will clean it all up. Or maybe we'll all be using Android / ChromeOS by then, IDK.
I'm sorry, do they mean you can't use GPS in California, or just that you have to stop to put in a new destination?
Wow, I guess it depends, but Dell PowerEdge servers are the bane of our existence. Inability to get clear answers from the website or phone support on CPU upgrades (to go from single to dual), weird reproducible hangs seemingly due to BIOS, painful BIOS upgrade procedure.
We are extremely happy to have replaced them with IBM System X servers. All around much better experience, and we don't have to pay extra for good support - all included in the purchase price. The "savings" of Dell are often in getting rid of good service, any support, and using very low quality components.
I have ever spoken at Dell, was unpleasant and wanted to transfer me to someone else as soon as possible.
Hmmm, it depends on the company, and what you're trying to do. Call Ally, or Lenovo Think branded support, or Frontier line support, or Sears service ... I've often been the one rushing off the phone (not that they're wasting my time, just that they aren't rushing me off either).
Maybe you're unlucky to deal with bad companies? I'm not saying that many or even most companies are crap on the phone, but I am pointing out that there are ones that aren't, and we should try to deal with companies that are decent...
Lenovo could compete on laptops, but that's it
I don't know about that - their Think branded workstations are very nice. All Think branded support is still tightly tied to IBM, and there are rumors about more integration with servers in one way or another. Besides, I'm not sure there's a compelling reason to treat Lenovo Think workstations and IBM servers as different - again, the support portal for Think workstations is the IBM portal I use for the IBM servers. The Lenovo bios feels just like the IBM desktop bioses of 2005, just updated for UEFI...
I suppose the only pain is on the business side (which is important) but Lenovo is widely offered by resellers like CDW etc. Anyway, we do Lenovo desktops and laptops and IBM System x servers with no issues. I'll bet if you're doing a big enough IBM server purchase, IBM would resell you some Lenovo desktops on one PO.
Did you even read the comments on your link?
Quote
[
I don't think Ubuntu is the problem, my girlfriend and I just bought 2 inspiron mini laptops with XP on them and hers blue screens every 15 minutes or so. I haven't even turned mine on. With hers being so screwed up I don't even care if I ever turn mine on.
]
[
Oh, and maybe the reviewer didn't notice people in the Dell forum complaining that the machine drops it's wireless connection under XP too....
]
I'm not sure what your point is then. Dell makes crap netbooks? Well, hell, I wouldn't buy Dell at all because all their computers seem to be shitty. You buy crap, you get crap? Is that supposed to be news?
Anyway, if you buy hardware that works, Linux and updates to Linux work - at least WFM. I can't say any more than that.
My point is it's well known that in the Windows world, you're expected to buy software add ons to increase functionality. In the Linux world you're not. Don't confuse how the ecosystem works between OSs. Hell, don't use a paid OS and then complain that utilities aren't free!
Except what about the Bradly Manning debacle? Are you really that sure that at certain low levels (I understand that "Top Secret" is actually a somewhat low classification and treated differently from the "Code Word" classified data I think you're talking about - though I have no real knowledge and am just speculating based on Slashdot posts and spy novels, so take many grains of salt here) it's not more wide open?
I'm wondering how high up his intel really goes. I'm also curious as to whether the security measures are that effective against an internal person with some level of (computer) administrative access and some level of physical access.
I always say that if you have valid internal permissions (at an OS level) to set permissions, you can read anything on the box. I wonder if he had access to the encryption permissions system as an admin? That would (I think) allow a similar way to gain access to anything under that system.
Then there's physical access - many times all bets are off - and at the NSA? I'll bet they have methods that aren't widely known for taking advantage of that.
You might say - but it's audited. Well sure, but day to day, if what you're doing is not what you're supposed to be doing, but looks very much like what you *are* supposed to be doing, you might get away with it for a while.
Example: If you're supposed to be vetting a system for obtaining intel from "acquired" computing devices - you might be able to "test" this system against internally secured laptops or whatever for a while without anyone really noticing.
I have tried to connect with "regular people" on this for years. I've been either dismissed as overly paranoid or way too distrustful of the government or way too caring about if someone else knows {insert supposedly trivial information here}.
Even if someone *does* "get" what I'm talking about, they much prefer texting to meeting in person. Even at the digital security level, they want it invisible to them when it's done - but then it's a waste of effort because if "someone else" does the "security" for you, you have to assume it's not actually secure at all and backdoored for the govt *and worse* for profit to anyone who will pay for details.
I'm guilty of this also - at the level we're talking about I don't have the resources or desire to review code and review open source compiler code, to analyze hardware for built in back doors and firmware for back doors and then to compile a vetted OS, and then all my apps etc. Who *besides* the NSA or foreign governments could do that?
I'm basically resigned that we're screwed from a technical perspective, and don't hold out much hope from a political perspective - if that even could have any real effects with the secret programs like PRISM.
You keep moving the goalposts. What OS do you know that works like that?
It's certainly not Windows. If you think the average user can get a Windows install to last 5 years without hiring "expert" help to deal with on of a myriad of issues, and without *ever* googling how to do something, you have a very select group of users.
Maybe you're thinking of MacOS, which I could believe, but then I realize most mac's except the mini cost over $1k, so it's not that.
I think you're imagining an OS, which explains much of your responses.
Well, to feed the troll:
SL happens to be RHEL / CENTOS - so I imagine, as it is, free - anyone who wants to download SL or CENTOS could use it. It's got very little to do with scientific stuff any more than Windows (which we also use, but generally have so many problems with - though that may be more Labview) other than the name. I wouldn't go off saying who uses an OS made for looking outside through (snarking on the name or manufacturer) - it has little to do with CERN, and actually, CERN has a different OS SLC, not the one I'm talking about which is built at Fermilab. But whatever.
And I said that the Thinkcenters are up and down the line, and mentioned Ideacenters - way to miss what I was saying. The Ideacenter Q150 retailed @ $350. If your getting them cheaper or more consumer focused, you're getting a deal I've never seen. The Thinkstation I'm thinking of is all of $600 with a Core i3 when it came out. Again, very consumer pricerange - even offered with a Windows License, so you could use Win 7 Pro - just because retail workers know jack about what is offered from reputable manufacturers doesn't invalidate the actually knowledgeable IT workers positions.
Now for a great car analogy in the slashdot meme - just because you may think you can only get a Chrysler 200 in a low end car doesn't mean you couldn't have picked up a Nissian Sentra for the same money with far less chance of issues down the road.
So yea, forgive me if I suggest you not spend money on crap hardware at rip-off Worst Try. Forgive me if I suggest you consult professionals rather than salesmen if you want to get quality equipment. And forgive me if I like to use what works well instead of whats popular.
I find it's more about mainstream appeal. If there's something that a large percentage of computer users might use, such as a web browser or a file editor, there will be several very good proprietary and OSS solutions to choose from, all kept up to date, and at least a couple very good at what they do.
The more niche you get, the more you tend to find one or may two half baked solutions, whether it's proprietary or OSS.
Or, you know, buy some software (the proprietary method) that makes that work for you. Acronis B&R11 or O&O DriveImage6 will let you boot their device, do an in-place machine independent driver "fix" (you just need the "F6" driver accessible to the boot CD) and boot the device with HAL and mass storage (and sometimes network) drivers all fixed for you. Install other drivers (often video) and you're golden. All for $80 or so.
We have Lenovo Thinkstation and Thinkcentre desktops all up and down the line, and some Ideastation USFFs that all run Scientific Linux 6 out of the box. We've done updates through SL6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3 and 6.4 and all work. SL6 is supported for 10 years. The hardware will be recycled before SL6 is unusable, though we'll likely look at SL7 when released for new features.
I suppose if you buy random e-machines and want to use a random assortment of distros you might have issues, but heck, if you wanted to use every version of "supported" Windows, from XP x32 to 8.1 on a random e-machine, it might not work well either (I haven't seen hardware with drivers recently for XP, Vista, 7 and 8... many drop Vista for instance)...
I love Amazon, and I've used e-book readers since 2000. They're great if I know exactly what book I want to read, or if I know I want to read the next book from Author X. Amazon is even sometimes useful in their recommendations of what people read or looked at that were similar to the book I'm currently looking at.
What all the web based tools fall down for me is browsing. I can't look at a shelf of Thrillers, Mysteries, or Fantasy. I won't find new types of books via Amazon's recommendations, just an ever narrowing slice of books more and more similar to the ones I've already bought.
Maybe I'm old fashioned somehow, but I don't necessarily enjoy the bubble effect the web has. When I want a new book I find interesting, I can browse a bookstore and likely come out with one in 15 minutes. With Amazon, I've spent weeks trying to find a "good book" to read that isn't a sequel, or extremely similar to one I've just read.
I also find that while I'll pick up a book that may be enjoyable from a shelf based on cover art, blurb on the back etc, Amazon almost has too much information - do I really want a book that only got 3 stars? Do I read the reviews, which often take any reason to read the book away? Is it all scammed by companies? Too much work, and I rarely get a book.