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User: xiando

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  1. Re:Open their blinders with amazing apps on Why Open Source Phones Still Fail · · Score: 1

    Just make it simple guys. Remember KISS? Make it so hardware manufacturers can put Linux drivers on the CD and a penguin on the box without having to keep an assload of driver developers on hand just to try to keep up with the shifting sand that is Linux right now. Make it so ANY customer WITHOUT needing to do research or put in a metric crapload of CLI commands can simply walk into Best Buy and put a device in their cart and know 100% that it will work on Linux. If the "inferior" Windows and OSx can do that, then surely you guys can too...right?

    I prefer the current situation where the drivers are in The Kernel over your bright new idea of having to install the separately. And 99% of devices out there just work. The 0.01% who do not are brand new. The situation used to be much worse, it's gotten significantly better. USB 3 was supported since before the hardware became available.

    I strongly agree that hardware manufacturers should get better at showing off their Linux support and should have a logo on their boxes.

  2. Re: Only Microsoft? Really? on Microsoft Tweaks Browser Ballot As EU Deal Nears · · Score: 1

    This would be true except for one very very important factor: by making IE a "standard" part of the Windows install, Microsoft has leveraged their monopoly position to "advertise" and "market" IE. What better way is there to advertise your product than to have it preinstalled on almost every PC sold? No one except Microsoft can do this, and that's what makes it illegal.

    My sister has this incredibly small Mac boxen and it appeared to have some Mac web browser installed on it. I would assume that it came with the OS?? (or does it? I never actually used one myself, but I've seen people do)

  3. Re: How would you get a browser without one? on Microsoft Tweaks Browser Ballot As EU Deal Nears · · Score: 1

    The fair solution is to not have any kind of (pre-installed) browser or a ballot at all. A user is greeted with a desktop with no prompts or programs. If the user wants a web browser, they can install one from media.

    I would agree if Windows was a GNU/Linux distribution with some kind of free software package manager where you could emerge arora or apt-get install lynx. But it's not and (ab)using a browser seems to be the only easy way to get a browser on that OS. Get a CD/DVD sounds like a bad solution.

    They apparently wrote a "ballot" browser "package manager" and my humble opinion is that they should place it under "Internet" in the menu, not pop it up in peoples face.

  4. Re:Windows 8.. Linux distros actually updates... on Microsoft To Switch Focus To Windows 8 In July 2010 · · Score: 1

    Ah. So if you give the product away, frequent releases make sense; but if you profit off the product, that allows us to believe that frequent releases are just a ploy to make money (even though nobody actually buys the upgrades that frequently), so you should be criticized if you release frequently (even though you probably also have the same reasons to release frequently as anyone else).

    If your OS comes with close to all the applications you'll ever have on your computer then yes, very frequent updates do make sense. You end up with the same Gentoo system using a 5 year old CD as you do with the latest install CD, the only difference is that the distribution will update a whole lot more using the 5 old CD since more packages have been updated since then. The same goes for Ubuntu, install using a few years old CD and you will be downloading updates for hours and hours after installing, install with the latest CD and bang you're up to date. You end up with the same system regardless. Overall installation time becomes significantly shorter thanks to frequently updated installation mediums.

    Windows if very different, installing Windows XP and running the update manager will NOT give you a system identical to Windows 7. Linux distros have package managers who actually upgrade your system, Windows update merely bugfixes it.

  5. Time to change useragent and add another "gain" on Windows 7 Share Grows At XP's Expense · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So Windows 7 is "growing"? Sounds like I should "upgrade" by changing my general.useragent.override sometime soon, all those sites who do not work if you admit GNU/Linux as OS but do work if you are "using" Windows will probably start working great "using" Windows 7 sometime in the near future.

  6. Re:I agree with the recording industry on In AU, Film Studios Issue Ultimatum To ISPs · · Score: 1

    I think ISP's SHOULD deal with infringement notices, but they should also not have to do it for free. a fair administration charge would be applied to each request, say $1000. after all the isp will effectively loose a customer as well as wear support and legal costs out of it. oh whats that, that lunch wasn't free?!?! boohoo. I completely agree that ISPs should be able to charge huge fees for "infringement notices", specially all that bogus DMCA spam. I have gotten quite a lot of these, specially much from the criminal enterprises ARTISTdirect and BayTSP. It does cost time and money to reply and explain to the incompetent retards that running a legal bittorrent tracker with legal content is no reason to send DMCA spam about some random file using a completely different tracker. btw, ARTISTdirect is also known for denial of service attacks agains Revision3, who also happen to use BitTorrent for 100% legal purposes.

  7. Postal service on In AU, Film Studios Issue Ultimatum To ISPs · · Score: 1

    Letters and packages can contain all sorts of illicit material, I hope the movie industry doesn't manage to sue and buy judges into making them have to open every letter and every package just to make sure that there is no sign of "pirated" material inside. I never bought a single DVD, but I probably would have if the movie industry had not declared that it is somehow criminal to play legally bought DVDs on my GNU/Linux entertainment system back in the day. This joke of a trial has obviously not changed my opinion regarding buying DVDs.

  8. Re: OPECs actual reserves on Whistleblower Claims IEA Is Downplaying Peak Oil · · Score: 1

    I'm pretty sure OPEC allocates allowed production levels by each country's "known reserves", giving the rulers of those countries all kinds of incentive to exaggerate their reserves. This is true. It is also interesting to note that a) The OPEC countries one by one rapidly increased their known reserves when OPEC first got this rule, which is natural since your country would get to produce less when another country claims higher oil reserves if your country don't do the same and b) OPEC oil reserves have remained at those levels since. Think about it, you to from saying you have X to Y reserves in the ground when they decide that allowed production is a factor of known reserves and then pump oil up year after year after year and still have Y, NOT Y-$amount_produced, left in the ground - year after year after year.. does this add up?

  9. Re:peak oil clarification on Whistleblower Claims IEA Is Downplaying Peak Oil · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's really not. OPEC deliberately (and publicly) slows production to keep prices high. They've gotten used to the profits that $70+/bbl oil brings. We're never going back to pre-Katrina oil prices. In the long run, though, this is good - it merely ensures the rise of much more fuel efficient vehicles.

    Keep in mind that OPEC can and do slow production down to increase prices, but they can not increase production passed a certain point. That is where demand becomes higher than supply and prices go sky-high until they are high enough to make oil unaffordable for a whole lot of consumers. Oil reached $150 a barrel and then we had the "financial crisis". It will reach those levels again sooner than most people think.

  10. Re:Corporation != Profitable on Some Early Adopters Stung By Ubuntu's Karmic Koala · · Score: 1

    Really? That's your excuse. My indication is that they have never even attempted to do any kind of widespread testing. Its not like there are that many mainstream hardware configurations out there. Ubuntu is a corporately sponsored distribution they SHOULD have the cash somewhere. Just because they choose to make money in ways other

    That Canonical Ltd is a corporation does not mean that they are profitable, it just means that they are at minimum making enough to keep running (since corporations who do not disappear). They are not a publicly traded company, so we do not know how their balance sheet looks, but nothing indicates that they have large piles of gold in some secret vault somewhere. "They have the cash and should be using it to do $foo" arguments may be valid when it comes to Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) since you can actually check and see that they do or do not have those bars of gold lying around. Canonical Ltd is a small and insignificant corporation compared to Red Hat, which is probably why Red Hat Enterprise Linux gets way more testing and such.

  11. They should stay in Beta mode way longer on Some Early Adopters Stung By Ubuntu's Karmic Koala · · Score: 1

    I very recently gave my nice neighbor, a man in his 60s who had no previous computer experience, a P4-based laptop with Ubuntu on it. I tried the Karmic Beta on it and it had trouble with both the Ralink wireless and the soundcard. I reinstalled 8.10 on it before giving it away since that version actually works perfectly on this particular Fujitsu Siemens laptop. What I find rather odd and quite sad is that the final product was released only a few days after my Karmic Beta test. bugs.launchpad.net indicates that these bugs are still open even though they had been for some time prior to me checking for duplicates when I was about to file bug report after bug report. Perhaps the Ubuntu overlords should have a way longer release cycle? Could it be that it would be better for everyone if they actually made sure that most really important already-reported bugs regarding the beta are fixed before releasing the final version? No wireless and/or no sound are real deal-breakers when you're trying out a new OS for the first time, specially if you are used to a proprietary OS with working wireless and sound and the anti-virus and the virus and all those things.

    Nobody should be shocked and amazed to find that unfixed reported bugs remain bugs after a fan-fare "final" release. They knew, or should have known by looking at open bug reports, that the release was full of bugs.

  12. WHY would you do this? on Installing Linux On Old Hardware? · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I barely got passed "486MHz CPU, 28 MB of RAM" when this obvious question popped into my mind: WHY WOULD YOU EVER CONSIDER INSTALLING ANYTHING ON THIS HARDWARE? Throw it out the window and visit the local flee-markets. You can get something as new Pentium3-based laptops for the price of a cup of coffee there these days. Better laptops also tend to lie in piles on recycling points, perhaps you can grab a few better laptops if you go deliver yours there. Perhaps you have some special loving relationship to this hardware, if so then put it in a frame or something and install GNU/Linux on something else. Seriously. That hardware is just not worth the time and trouble unless you are making a museum exhibit of some kind. I realize that this does not help with your original question, I just felt compelled to point out the obvious.

  13. Re: WHY would you "secure" a WLAN? on New Improvements On the Attacks On WPA/TKIP · · Score: 1

    But one time not too long ago I logged into my one of my neighbours unsecured network (no idea who owned it) and noticed they had a printer on the network. So I downloaded the drivers off of HP and then sent a message to their printer telling them they should secure their wireless, and a website to show them how.

    I run my WLAN open, or "unsecured", intentionally and encourage everyone to do the same. Your neighbors are good people who leave their network open, so why would you be rude and abuse their printer?

    The Internet DOES NOT MAGICALLY BECOME SECURE by using encryption on a local wireless network. No. If you are talking https then you have end-to-end encryption. If you are talking http then you do not. These are the facts regardless of you using encryption 10 feet between your laptop and your router.

    If you want real security then use end-to-end encryption. If you do that then it no longer matters if that end-to-end encrypted connection goes encrypted or unencrypted through the air locally. "Securing" wireless networks in pointless and rude. It provides no security beyond your local network and it makes it harder for those good folks next door or folks who happen to park their car within range who want to update their facebook status or something.

  14. Re:Are people actually getting smarter? on Decline In US Newspaper Readership Accelerates · · Score: 1

    Blogs are usually secondary sources. Blogs aren't giving you a more accurate impression of what is actually going on in the real world. Blogs are giving you an accurate impression of what the participants in an echo-chamber unrepresentative of society at large believe is actually going on in the world.

    You need to ignore the parrot blogs. Yes, too many blogs really do just repeat what they read at some propaganda website and those parroting blogs are pure noise. What you need to look for are blogs written by bloggers who actually have some kind of first-hand knowledge of the subject they are writing about. Some guy in Malmö who are blogging about riots going on outside of his window, on the other hand, will probably give you more actual information about those riots than newspapers will.

  15. So AMD is squezed from both ends now on ARM Stealthily Rising As a Low-End Contender · · Score: 1

    The Intel has a monopoly on high-end CPUs right now while AMD is pretty much alone in delivering band-for-the-buck budget CPUs. Now ARM is trying to take on the really cheap budget segment? That is bad news for AMD, far worse news for them than it is for the Intel empire.

  16. Are people actually getting smarter? on Decline In US Newspaper Readership Accelerates · · Score: 1

    The amount of pure propaganda in the mainstream newspapers have exploded since the US started rapidly increasing false flag terrorism operations in the late 90s while the amount of actual real news have steadily declined. Could it be that people are getting smarter and are actually seeing through the propaganda now? I personally see no need to subscribe to newspapers anymore, they contain almost nothing but propaganda and blogs give a far more accurate impression of what is actually going on in the real world.

  17. Tor team prepared for this, still works in China on China Strangles Tor Ahead of National Day · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Tor developers knew that it would be very easy for tyrannical regimes to download the directory list and block all the IPs in it, so they prepared for this by implementing bridge support about a year ago. The bridge model makes it very hard to block Tor. Technologyreview briefly mentions this. What really happened, and you can all go read more about this in the Tor blog at blog.torproject.org, is that what has happened the last few days is that the number of people using Tor-servers directly dropped to near zero while the number of people using bridges exploded. People simply switched to using bridges when they found that the Tor-network had been blocked.

  18. Re:Freedom on BSA Says 41% of Software On Personal Computers Is Pirated · · Score: 1

    If the BSA was genuinely concerned about software piracy, they'd be actively promoting free and open alternatives.

    You do realize that BSA is a front for multinational software corporations only concerned with maximizing profits? They would claim that all free software is malware if they could get away with it. That seems a bit hard for them to do, so they just count free software users as pirated software users...

  19. Re: BSA invents statistics. on BSA Says 41% of Software On Personal Computers Is Pirated · · Score: 1

    BSA's "statistics" & story is that my all-GNU/Linux computers I must be running pirated software since a) I bought computers and b) I did not buy the Wintendo.

  20. Re: dd-wrt (ab)uses the binary blobs too, you know on Harald Welte Calls Out Netgear's Open Source Sham · · Score: 4, Informative

    The very same Broadcom blobs are included in dd-wrt. It must also be noted that dd-wrt is supposedly GPL software, yet the evidence in SVN clearly shows that a large portion of the code is Copyright evil corporations such as Intel and Microsoft and that these corporations have NOT given permission to use the code under the GPL. It is in many cases not even clear if they give permission to distribute the code at all.

  21. Re: Antivirus mostly == malware on Comcast's War On Infected PCs (Or All Customers) · · Score: 1

    Sure thing, users NEVER get popup warnings about being infected and promptly ignore them... Unless they are really from the virus itself and are asking for credit card information.

    This is so true. I was asked to look at a Windows box the other day because of numerous pop-up alerts about attacks from the Internet(s). I never heard of the "security software" which gave these warnings, so I disconnected it from the Internet. Guess what, it was supposedly still being "attacked" on random ports by random IPs. Who benefits from this crime? Me, obviously, since I secured dinner by removing the malware.

  22. Exactly HOW do they do this? on Comcast's War On Infected PCs (Or All Customers) · · Score: 1

    Comcast story is that "we are testing a new "Service Notice" customer alert that lets people know if we have reason to believe their home computer has been infected with a bot. The Service Notice is sent to appear in their Web browser with a direct link to our Anti-Virus Center where they can diagnose the problem and take steps to fix it"

    This sounds like they are going to inject the supposed "Service Notice" into tcp-streams on port 80 if you are using software Comcast never heard of such as GNU/Linux. Their story includes tidbits of information such as "They can also get the Comcast Toolbar which includes spyware and as well as pop-up ads with built-in phishing" (fixed that for them), but they do talk about the "Service Notice" they plan to inject into peoples web-pages as something different. I want my HTML pages as the server I fetch them from sends'em, I hope random "Service" (and eventually advertisement) injection does not become an industry standard.

  23. The current enemy is .. lacking on Report Claims Iran Has Data To Build a Nuclear Bomb · · Score: 0, Troll

    It appears that Obama won't go along with another false-flag terrorist attack, and the lack of such has made people loose interest in the supposed "war on terror". The ruling elite desperately needs another dangerous enemy. "Nukes in Iran" seems old already, but it may catch on if they repeat it if the predominant "media" repeats it over and over and over and over. "- The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia, but to keep the very structure of society intact."

  24. Nvidia PCI cards do not work when ATI card present on Patch Re-Enables PhysX When ATI Card Is Present · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My old box had two NVidia cards, one AGP and one PCI. That worked great. Current box has motherboard with AMD (ATI) IGP. XOrg lets me use just the NV PCI card or just the AMD PCI-E IGP, but I can not use both at the same time using the free radeon driver and the nvidia blob - and the blob is the only choice here since TV-out would be the whole point of using this card. This may not be nvidias fault, but I suspect that it is since their driver is a binary blob. I also feel like complaining that I never got the NVidia card to do tv-out or 3D using free software, those features require the binary blob. The AMD IGP does OpenGL 3D (using 2.6.32-rc1-git6/xorg git) and multihead HDMI+VGA all (ab)using free software, no binary blob required. I will never buy a NVidia product until or unless they provide some documentation and source, they are pretty much the only big player who has not done so at this point. AMDs half-assed documentation release gave us free software support for 3D and faster 2D than their binary blob in a very short time.

  25. More bad news for your electricity bill on Electric Car Nano-Batteries Aim For 500-Mile Range · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What will happen on the demand side of electricity when electric cars become common? Could it be that demand will quickly outgrow supply? What, oh what, will a KWH cost then? DIE, ELECTRIC CAR, DIE