Or actually, malware is I guess what we should be calling it.
There's malware out there that will reformat your hard drive, right?
So maybe the best recommendation we can give these people is not to throw out their computers, but to try and have as much malware installed on their systems as possible, because eventually the situation repairs itself.
And as a bonus, every time the hard drive gets wiped means they reach for the Windows Install CD. What better opportunity for Linux evangelization than at the point of operating system installation? What do they have to lose by trying Linux at this point?
If we can see to it that enough of these Live/Install CD's are distributed en-masse, a la AOL, then the chances are good that at least some of these people will at least try installing Linux.
OpenOffice, Evolution, the GiMP, and Firefox? For free? Without malware or the threat of same? A lot of people are going to say "Yes!" to that.
Lines from Unix's source code have been copied into the heart of Linux, sometimes exactly and sometimes in a modified form designed to disguise their origin, according to SCO Group Chief Executive Darl McBride.
...and within which Darl McBride is quoted as saying:
"We're finding...cases where there is line-by-line code in the Linux kernel that is matching up to our UnixWare code."
So sell your bullshit somewhere else, Darl. We're all stocked up here. -- Why didn't you know?
"We're finding...cases where there is line-by-line code in the Linux kernel that is matching up to our UnixWare code... we're finding code that looks likes it's been obfuscated to make it look like it wasn't UnixWare code--but it was."
Quoting George Bush:
"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
I want to pre-answer the next "Ask Slashdot" question: How do you build a bullshit detector? Well, you get a cardboard box, and you get a magic marker. You use the magic marker to draw a dial on the box where one end is labeled TRUE and the other end is labeled BULLSHIT.
Then you draw a needle on the dial that points to BULLSHIT.
Then whenever you hear anybody on the TV who has the word 'CHIEF' or 'EXECUTIVE' or 'OFFICER' in their title, you point the box at the TV and there's your answer.
(also works with radio, newspapers and the Internet. Patent Pending of course.)
And instead of rugged, think small. You can get a small GPS that you can plug into your laptop via USB for under $100US. Should outlast the laptop.
As for mapping software, if you truly want it to be useful, just save off the coordinates and wait until you get Internet access, then integrate with Google Maps using their recently released API and you'll be able to actually look at the villages from above, on your computer.
Actually, this is the perfect time to be doing what you're doing.
Cause when I read the story it doesn't talk about this at all.
But assuming it did...
What does this accomplish? LCD's are cheap. Need to show different images to the person next to you? Get another LCD!
Moreover, I'm not at all pleased with the idea that I can be working on my laptop, and the person next to me can see something on there that I can't see. What happens if my pr0n collection for whatever reason decides to make an appearance on this separate channel? Or a file containing sensitive information?
If anything is needed, it's an LCD that restricts wide-angle viewing so that only the person actually using the laptop gets to see anything.
Ditto for ATM's, PDA's and cellphones.
Want to impress me with your feats of LCD derring-do? Get migraine-free 3D working. Now THAT would totally rock.
Yes, but I have enough mercury in my fish already, thank you very much.
(yeah yeah yeah, you say the new process won't do that, but the coal guys have lied to us sooooo many times now that unless you can pass the no-skid-marks-in-the-briefs test I don't want to hear about it anymore.)
Dudes, the question here isn't whether the engine pod is damaged, it's what's going to fall off the shuttle next?
This ain't no beer run these guys are going on, and it ain't like the hood ornament just decided to liberate itself. Most of the shit on the shuttle is like, important, right?
If I was captain of this upcoming mission, I'd be spam clicking the red alert button right about now. Maybe call in sick. Gotta have some unused vacation time coming to me, right? Use it or lose it!
I never liked the shuttle. A bunch of engineers were tasked with the job of building a reusable space vehicle, so they paint some wings on a rocket, give it a windshield, and call it a space plane. So it can return cargo, so what? Name something they brought down back from space that is worth all of the trouble we've gone through to glide back to Earth rather than parachute.
I'm pretty sure the Pan Am shuttle in 2001 could take off on its own. That was the whole point of the cut scene from the monkey throwing the bone in the air to the space vehicle, as if to say, "Look, no rocket boosters!"
And the only thing that fell off of anything in the movie was Frank.
...is to not print at all. I haven't had a printer for a decade now, and those two or three times that I've missed it were easily remedied by a trip to a Kinko's or some such similar service.
I have to believe that with the greater reliance on web and email for communications, along with bigger and better monitors, that most of the rest of you will cease missing their printers as well within the next few years.
So HP invented a new way to print, just it time for nobody to care.
It can be a tough call sometimes, and the grandparent is right about the benefits of abstraction but I just don't think it applies here. Like you say, PAM still has life left in it and everybody is using it.
Sometimes rolling your own API just adds to bloat.
I don't understand this. Isn't writing to PAM all you need to do to support authentication on Linux?
They're talking about writing this whole framework for Linux called BioAPI, and then once that's done they're going to work on a BioAPI-to-PAM gateway, but that seems like way too much work.
Why can't an authentication module simply maintain its own database to register the biometric data associated with each user?
The way it is now, pam_unix.so does a one-way hash of the password you create and compares it with a one-way hash of whatever password you enter to log on, right? The password once stored is never stored in the clear.
I get the fact that you can't do that with biometric data because the data never is exactly the same, i.e., the one-way hash of the fingerprint you use to create the account won't be the same as the one-way hash created as you log on. And to do the comparison otherwise you'd need to load the data into memory, which is like loading a password, which is bad.
This is a really tricky problem.
I just don't see why we need a new framework. Seems to me, we need a new kind of hash function.
Honestly, I didn't know that. Red Hat doesn't even exist to me. That's just a company you pay money to when you want to feel like your Linux installations are supported as far as I can tell.
As a Gentoo user, I have all the support I need via emerge and the Gentoo Forums.
I knew being a Gentoo user would subject me to some delays while waiting for everything to compile, but this is ridiculous! 8.0!?! I'm still running 2.6.10!
I guess what I was thinking of is something that consumers might want to use as a portal.
The ideal scenario is some kind of PDA-gadget they take with them to the market to compare the prices at that store with others in the same area, or for web purchases, something that interjects at the point-of-purchase.
That would be the perfect time to say, "Yes, Cocoa-Puffs ARE cheaper here, but did you know they anally rape their employees with weed whackers?", or something like that.
Build a website that catalogues all the evil shit corporations do to employees, so that consumers get to know about the evil shit and take their business elsewhere.
File operations? What, you mean like copying files? Did you seriously think that was what I was talking about?
Obviously a 7200RPM Serial ATA HD is going to be faster at reading and writing data than the Sony 400K floppy drive that was state-of-the-art at the time.
I'm talking about those operations you can compare the two on. Like file selection, drag-n-drop, e.g., the responsiveness of the interface. And if you think the 128K Mac Finder doesn't best today's Finger you either haven't a) used a 128K Mac, b) used today's Finder or c) are totally full of shit.
If that's still too much, there's the new Mac Mini. This is the new TINY machine apple released a few months back. You have to see it to believe it. Literally about the size of 4 cd cases stacked on top of each other. Comes with a 1.25GHz G4, but you'll need your own monitor, keyboard and mouse. Fits standard VGA and digital monitors, and USB keyboard/mouse.
Oh, yes, ROTFLMAO, let's compare price!
Mac Mini, cheapest Mac out there. $499.
Cheapest Dell? $299!
And that INCLUDES A MONITOR, A KEYBOARD AND A FUCKING PRINTER! The Mac Mini comes with NONE of those things.
Slashdot Mirror
Or actually, malware is I guess what we should be calling it.
There's malware out there that will reformat your hard drive, right?
So maybe the best recommendation we can give these people is not to throw out their computers, but to try and have as much malware installed on their systems as possible, because eventually the situation repairs itself.
And as a bonus, every time the hard drive gets wiped means they reach for the Windows Install CD. What better opportunity for Linux evangelization than at the point of operating system installation? What do they have to lose by trying Linux at this point?
If we can see to it that enough of these Live/Install CD's are distributed en-masse, a la AOL, then the chances are good that at least some of these people will at least try installing Linux.
OpenOffice, Evolution, the GiMP, and Firefox? For free? Without malware or the threat of same? A lot of people are going to say "Yes!" to that.
--
Why didn't you know?
--
Why didn't you know?
It isn't unrelated. Why do you think people like Darl McBride feel that they can get away with shit like this?
Because that's the example that's been set at the top.
Then you draw a needle on the dial that points to BULLSHIT.
Then whenever you hear anybody on the TV who has the word 'CHIEF' or 'EXECUTIVE' or 'OFFICER' in their title, you point the box at the TV and there's your answer.
(also works with radio, newspapers and the Internet. Patent Pending of course.)
And instead of rugged, think small. You can get a small GPS that you can plug into your laptop via USB for under $100US. Should outlast the laptop.
As for mapping software, if you truly want it to be useful, just save off the coordinates and wait until you get Internet access, then integrate with Google Maps using their recently released API and you'll be able to actually look at the villages from above, on your computer.
Actually, this is the perfect time to be doing what you're doing.
Cause when I read the story it doesn't talk about this at all.
But assuming it did...
What does this accomplish? LCD's are cheap. Need to show different images to the person next to you? Get another LCD!
Moreover, I'm not at all pleased with the idea that I can be working on my laptop, and the person next to me can see something on there that I can't see. What happens if my pr0n collection for whatever reason decides to make an appearance on this separate channel? Or a file containing sensitive information?
If anything is needed, it's an LCD that restricts wide-angle viewing so that only the person actually using the laptop gets to see anything.
Ditto for ATM's, PDA's and cellphones.
Want to impress me with your feats of LCD derring-do? Get migraine-free 3D working. Now THAT would totally rock.
Yes, but I have enough mercury in my fish already, thank you very much.
(yeah yeah yeah, you say the new process won't do that, but the coal guys have lied to us sooooo many times now that unless you can pass the no-skid-marks-in-the-briefs test I don't want to hear about it anymore.)
Dudes, the question here isn't whether the engine pod is damaged, it's what's going to fall off the shuttle next?
This ain't no beer run these guys are going on, and it ain't like the hood ornament just decided to liberate itself. Most of the shit on the shuttle is like, important, right?
If I was captain of this upcoming mission, I'd be spam clicking the red alert button right about now. Maybe call in sick. Gotta have some unused vacation time coming to me, right? Use it or lose it!
I never liked the shuttle. A bunch of engineers were tasked with the job of building a reusable space vehicle, so they paint some wings on a rocket, give it a windshield, and call it a space plane. So it can return cargo, so what? Name something they brought down back from space that is worth all of the trouble we've gone through to glide back to Earth rather than parachute.
I'm pretty sure the Pan Am shuttle in 2001 could take off on its own. That was the whole point of the cut scene from the monkey throwing the bone in the air to the space vehicle, as if to say, "Look, no rocket boosters!"
And the only thing that fell off of anything in the movie was Frank.
...is to not print at all. I haven't had a printer for a decade now, and those two or three times that I've missed it were easily remedied by a trip to a Kinko's or some such similar service.
I have to believe that with the greater reliance on web and email for communications, along with bigger and better monitors, that most of the rest of you will cease missing their printers as well within the next few years.
So HP invented a new way to print, just it time for nobody to care.
No, but I can CRASH when trying to avoid COMPUTER-GENERATED GPS tracking lines.
Moron indeed.
As I recall, the point to the Tron lightcycle game was to make your opponent crash.
Which means my opponent is trying to make me crash.
I don't need any help in that regard. I can get into accidents all by myself.
It can be a tough call sometimes, and the grandparent is right about the benefits of abstraction but I just don't think it applies here. Like you say, PAM still has life left in it and everybody is using it.
Sometimes rolling your own API just adds to bloat.
Well, you know, you can even have plaintext passwords stored in world-readable text files you keep in /hack/me/now but why would you use PAM for this?
The whole point I thought was to create a framework through which it would be impossible to recreate the user's authentication info.
We do what you're saying and the next thing you know, I have your fingerprint, or even better, I've replaced your fingerprint with mine.
I don't understand this. Isn't writing to PAM all you need to do to support authentication on Linux?
They're talking about writing this whole framework for Linux called BioAPI, and then once that's done they're going to work on a BioAPI-to-PAM gateway, but that seems like way too much work.
Why can't an authentication module simply maintain its own database to register the biometric data associated with each user?
The way it is now, pam_unix.so does a one-way hash of the password you create and compares it with a one-way hash of whatever password you enter to log on, right? The password once stored is never stored in the clear.
I get the fact that you can't do that with biometric data because the data never is exactly the same, i.e., the one-way hash of the fingerprint you use to create the account won't be the same as the one-way hash created as you log on. And to do the comparison otherwise you'd need to load the data into memory, which is like loading a password, which is bad.
This is a really tricky problem.
I just don't see why we need a new framework. Seems to me, we need a new kind of hash function.
Why can't that go into pam_finger.so?
In my way of thinking, you should be embarrassed to be running Red Hat.
Use rpm? I'd rather run Windows.
Honestly, I didn't know that. Red Hat doesn't even exist to me. That's just a company you pay money to when you want to feel like your Linux installations are supported as far as I can tell.
As a Gentoo user, I have all the support I need via emerge and the Gentoo Forums.
As per the email Google sent the GoogleBar guys.
I knew being a Gentoo user would subject me to some delays while waiting for everything to compile, but this is ridiculous! 8.0!?! I'm still running 2.6.10!
You're talking about speculation, right?
That's why this employee in the story got canned.
The whole point of this exercise is to introduce risk on the other side of the equation. I'm not saying it's fair.
But then, neither was it fair that this fellow lost his job.
True that.
I guess what I was thinking of is something that consumers might want to use as a portal.
The ideal scenario is some kind of PDA-gadget they take with them to the market to compare the prices at that store with others in the same area, or for web purchases, something that interjects at the point-of-purchase.
That would be the perfect time to say, "Yes, Cocoa-Puffs ARE cheaper here, but did you know they anally rape their employees with weed whackers?", or something like that.
Dammit, this is a dupe!?!
o nthisplanet.com should return: 200 timothy
I gave you a chance timothy AND YOU BLEW IT!
whodoesthemostdupestoriesonslashdotoranywhereelse
I feel so used.
Build a website that catalogues all the evil shit corporations do to employees, so that consumers get to know about the evil shit and take their business elsewhere.
Call it something like, whodotheyfuckoverwiththemoneyyougivethem.com, only shorter, while making sure the word stealth appears nowhere within.)
It it catches on, then corporations would be afraid of how their treatment towards employees could count against the way consumers look at them.
Fight fire with fire.
File operations? What, you mean like copying files? Did you seriously think that was what I was talking about?
Obviously a 7200RPM Serial ATA HD is going to be faster at reading and writing data than the Sony 400K floppy drive that was state-of-the-art at the time.
I'm talking about those operations you can compare the two on. Like file selection, drag-n-drop, e.g., the responsiveness of the interface. And if you think the 128K Mac Finder doesn't best today's Finger you either haven't a) used a 128K Mac, b) used today's Finder or c) are totally full of shit.
Looks like they were about to run out of Pacific.
I guess GHz really doesn't matter after all.
It's how high the steam cloud rises into the atmosphere that is the surest indicator of performance.
Mac Mini, cheapest Mac out there. $499.
Cheapest Dell? $299!
And that INCLUDES A MONITOR, A KEYBOARD AND A FUCKING PRINTER! The Mac Mini comes with NONE of those things.
Yeah, let's buy a Mac cause they're so cheap.
The real question is when do you need ten different sources of information simultaneously.
The answer? NEVER.
It was a stupid point. I'm sorry I even bothered dignifying it with an answer.