Spam is a huge problem and any ISP may obviously be subject to blacklisting due to infected machines,Telewest is probably no worse than any other. What I find interesting, though, is that the article states they think 16,000 machines are infected. And the slashdot article claims "have been working with customers to regain control of their machines.". Good luck, I am glad it's not me who's job it is to call all those 16.000 users... (my humble, unimportant opinion is that the users themselves should be responsible for making sure their computers are safe, but.. I'm not important)
Just use any search engine to find a lot of PHP exploits. One of my servers got 0wned by a phpBB 2.0.11 installation: Some bastard from Poland did it and used it to push warez at 30 MB/s. And yes, I found out how this was done (and how it still can be done) using Google. And yes, Google can also help you find a lot, thousands, of sites still using that and previous versions (even though a safe updated version was made available long ago now). This does not mean any kind of PHP project will be p0wned like that, but it does mean it is a good idea to carefully make sure security is not compremized when programming PHP. Other well-known commonly used software like phpmyadmin also have known exploits in recient versions.
I really someone with too much funds available reads this thread and sponsors you, but if not: Add as many advertisements as possible to the distribution site. If enough people use your software then they will inevitable be back to download upgrades and read the documentations, those surfers can be turned into money by adding enough advertisements. And do not be frightened to use some adult type of affiliate programs, a portion of your surfers are probably not visiting from work..
I could not agree more. Terminaled based programs are often more effective and gets things done faster. Sure, they are often a bit harder to learn, but once you've done that it's a whole lot better experience. But I don't use xterm, though, I use aterm...
I know. I am a bit strange to think GUI is over-rated. And in very many cases, GUI does the best job. But CLI, text-based, is my preferred choice for a broad variety of applications. Text-based simply gets the job done quicker and more smoothly in many cases. Actually, unless I am working with something that actually requires graphics I prefer text-based..
Really? "Major new OS versions will always have wrinkles to iron out, stop the presses!"? The reason for doing beta testing would be what? Is it too much to ask that vendors use beta versions of their own software in-house for a month before they release it? Is it too much to ask that they ship the software to a small number of beta testers before the final release in order to find those wrinkles and iron them out? If I were to pay for commercial software, would I be paying THEM for doing the work of beta-testing for them? If you bought a car, would you really accept that it broke down after a few hours, even if the store told you that "it is a new car, you can expect some wrinkles to be ironed out, we will take it into service and give you it back in working condition in a few weeks?"
The most interesting thing I noticed in the article was actually that the error message for the Connect to Server failure is "error code -36". A friend of mine who uses Mac OS X has always complained much about how the Mac never tells you anything about what is actually wrong, only gives you a number that is in no way useful for solving the problem. It is amazing this is still the case in Tiger, what in the world would be wrong with giving at least a tiny bit of information or just a hint of what is wrong? Even the good old Windows blue screen is more informative than "error code 4".
First of all, performance is in many cases the main issue when buying a system. If you have a huge load then the choice may be between buying one well-performing system or two or three systems to take that load. And when you say "price is" I assume you mean the retail price, which is to me almost totally irrelevant (at least in the long run). The real price for any kind of software is the cost of teaching humans how to use it, costs related to maintaining it and most importantly, costs related to downtime and lost productivity if the software is slow. Performance DOES matter.
I personally do not trust someone who claims to be
"Veritest is an independent testing agnecy authorized by Microsoft to carry out the testing for applications developed on windows platform." to do a fair evalution of Linux vs Windows. If a company who makes a product gives you a huge pile of money at regular intervals and you are asked to compare that product to another product, who are you going to vote for? Who is your daddy? Sadly, money is everything.
When reading this thread it hit me that I should make more people aware of a discovery that kind of surprised me even though I probably should have expected it to be so: SMS messages are stored six months here locally. The local police can at any point request a complete log of sent text-messages from half a year ago from the phone companies. There is no good reason to think this is any different in your country, whether or not a court order is required may differ (one is in theory required here, but the police generally just say they are investigating terrorism or narcotics to bypass that). So just so you all know: All your SMS is logged and can be used against you. What you say on the phone is not stored, so that is somewhat safer (but authorities can tap GSM phones easily, but not retrieve what you previously said, only who you said it to). Morse may have a huge advantage here, it is so rarely used I doubt anyone will try to tap that.
I generally send my sms messages from web services if I am at home or close to a computer connected to the Internet. Do not try to tell me that morse code can be done faster than I can write on a keyboard. OK, I write a lot of useless information like this comment here on Slashdot, so I have the advantage of writing fast, but still.. Morse may be faster than using those user-unfriendly mobile phone keyboard, but not faster than typing on normal keyboards..!
I agree that all browsers available should be supported generally, but the issue here is: zero-configuration networking, enables automatic discovery of computers, devices, and services on IP networks. These things are Operating System issues, the only reason they call it Internet Explorer plugin is probably that it is the file-manager. Opera and Mozilla are not file managers, thus they do not need a plugin to browse available printers etc on the LAN, and they will not work unless the underlying operating system has configured the network etc.:-)
This is why I constantly encourage users to make the switch to freenet NOW. Freenet is still very slow and immature, but at least it allows you to use it anonymously. Your ISP can not name you if it is impossible to find out who you are...
Closed source is in many cases better. If you are required to use the best software available to generate profit then obviously you will pay the price for private software if that is the best alternative for your needs. I personally prefer the Gimp over Photoshop, but after seeing what features the professional graphics artist use in their day to day work I fully understand that firms specialize in that field are willing to pay the extra money for the Adobe series of products. Gimp is still a joke in the eyes of the very professional users.
"Opensourceness itself does not mean that the software will be immediately high quality" This is true and this is also why I like open source: Open source projects start out very simple and crappy. But people use them anyway and help the developers improve by small contributions. So over time, the software becomes better and more advanced. This is why I love open source: It allows the software to evolve. Yes evolve. There are dozen of examples of open source projects where the original developers have left the project for something else, yet the project lives on because others pick up the touch and carry on working. This is rarely the case if a commercial niche software company goes out of business. Successfully commercial projects also evolve, but not in the same way: They are driven by profit only, not the pure need to make the software work. Evolution, or the possibility for it, is what makes GNU and Open Source a supreme development model in the long run.
The statement only seems partly true for those who are really, really big and have a kind of monopoly (you know who I mean). For smaller, niche software, they have to make it good and even better for each version or the customers will demand something better by buying something else. So a company who neglects their customers needs will go broke and disappear, giving those companies who listen to their customers a higher market share. And even the biggest software companies are seeing that their market share drops when they do something bad, because even the biggest monopolies face competition from things like Linux.
Just a tip: The plain old Midnight Commander (MC) still exists and THAT is actually still the best File Manager I know about. Yes. I seriously use that to Manage My Files, MC is still what I find most effective to move and organize files. Nautilus is to me a very nice File Launcher, meaning it is nice for looking through your files and opening them in programs. The ability to drag and drop files from it to programs is also very nice, but this has nothing to do with managing files. Application launcher seems to me like a better word for it, pure cli (i.e. mv) and MC are still, in my humble opinion, the best way to Manage Files.
I know this will sound rude. But I feel like saying it anyway. Gnome has very much been focused on becoming more userfriendly in Gnome2 and it has done this by a less-is-more approach. This has, for me, made it a lot more user-unfriendly. The simple file dialog boxes are a very good example of what I mean: They now by default open up half-opened so users will not be confused by the more advanced options in them. But the problem for me is that the advanced options are things I use every time, meaning an extra click or keyboard press every time I need to use them. There is no good reason for them to appear half-open, it is just done to make it simple. The result of this is only extra time spent using them every time to make it easier to use the first time for complete idiots. Something similar is also done with the features to make it more user-friendly: If a feature is to advanced for a beginner, they are simply removed or placed where they are completely unavailable or require a great deal of effort to use. Gnome2 has come user-friendly to the extend where it is almost impossible to use productive on a day to day basis. I seriously hope Gnome3 will be better. Not that I think I will ever use it as a main desktop again, but as I use a lot of Gnome2/GTK2 programs (like I also use KDE programs in my fluxbox) this annoy me very much.
I read the article with great interest and I also was disappointed. Not in the facts, but in the journalist that fell for Ericssons tactical play. What the article fails to mention (because the journalist failed to realize it) is that any company with world headquarters in Sweden can patent what ever software they feel like in the US and in Japan regardless of their ability to do it locally. This is just a tactical play, it would make no difference what so ever to their ability to patent software abroad if they move out or not. The patent situation in Sweden is the same as it is in the rest of EU, and it is the EU rules they want to change. They see an opening for doing so by playing the local Swedish government, they know that if Sweden changes then it may have an impact on the rest of the EU. I really hope the Swedish government does not fall for this tactical play, I hope they see through it and see it for what it is: A simple tactical empty threat.
The users of the software will still have the same problems regardless of where in the world the download page for the software is located. The Russia/MP3 issues comes to mind: the sites who sell music for giveaway prices from.ru are perfectly legal, but the users who buy from such sites are breaking local laws (there is really no difference for US users if they download from peer to peer networks or such sites, and the same applies to software programs).
All the software I use is clearly marked (with the GNU GPL..) in the documentation, readme-files, about-boxes and so on. I would hate to have a truckload of popups telling me about software patents distracting me from using the software for productive things. I do not see how such marking would be anything but majorly annoying for commercial software also. I could accept more patent markings it it was limited to the source code, though, a comment in the source saying "here we use patent foo" would be acceptable.
Like them or not, they ARE the best. I always find what i am looking for using Google. They are quick to remove spam-like pages, if those even appear as their excellent technology generally avoid falling for the simple black-hat tricks other search engines fall for. I even have the impression they look at the source code for the most popular sites to check if they actually are relevant and why they are ranking high. Their power is justified by simply being better than the others. And their power is given because they are quite honest, they know they would loose that very quickly if they started doing bad things. (yeah, I love Google..)
It is equally insane to buy something like that. The best way to stop any industry is to not buy any of their products.
Sadly, it is the demand that controls what corporations are allowed to do, their awesome power is given to them by the people who support them by buying their products.
...is long dead in my eyes. Online distribution is the way to go. CD discs, DVD discs and any other type of discs for that matter cause huge amounts of pollution. So do their players. Computers obviously also pollute, but the overall amount of damage to earth is less if you buy a player (computer) and download the media to it as opposed to the old, polluting distribution model where the media is delivered using something solid. I will never by solid media again, ever, not because industries who sell the products are evil, but because I care about the future of the planet. Less importantly, something tells me this new DVD-HD thing will not play on my Linux entertainment system, which kind of makes it unthinkable for me to buy it anyway.. (I do not own or want to own a television set, I view it as a limited and outdated device from the dark ages where polluting was accepted.. yes, I know damaging the earth for profit is still accepted, but hey. We are still in the dark ages).
Slashdot Mirror
Spam is a huge problem and any ISP may obviously be subject to blacklisting due to infected machines,Telewest is probably no worse than any other. What I find interesting, though, is that the article states they think 16,000 machines are infected. And the slashdot article claims "have been working with customers to regain control of their machines.". Good luck, I am glad it's not me who's job it is to call all those 16.000 users... (my humble, unimportant opinion is that the users themselves should be responsible for making sure their computers are safe, but .. I'm not important)
Just use any search engine to find a lot of PHP exploits. One of my servers got 0wned by a phpBB 2.0.11 installation: Some bastard from Poland did it and used it to push warez at 30 MB/s. And yes, I found out how this was done (and how it still can be done) using Google. And yes, Google can also help you find a lot, thousands, of sites still using that and previous versions (even though a safe updated version was made available long ago now). This does not mean any kind of PHP project will be p0wned like that, but it does mean it is a good idea to carefully make sure security is not compremized when programming PHP. Other well-known commonly used software like phpmyadmin also have known exploits in recient versions.
I really someone with too much funds available reads this thread and sponsors you, but if not: Add as many advertisements as possible to the distribution site. If enough people use your software then they will inevitable be back to download upgrades and read the documentations, those surfers can be turned into money by adding enough advertisements. And do not be frightened to use some adult type of affiliate programs, a portion of your surfers are probably not visiting from work..
I could not agree more. Terminaled based programs are often more effective and gets things done faster. Sure, they are often a bit harder to learn, but once you've done that it's a whole lot better experience. But I don't use xterm, though, I use aterm...
I know. I am a bit strange to think GUI is over-rated. And in very many cases, GUI does the best job. But CLI, text-based, is my preferred choice for a broad variety of applications. Text-based simply gets the job done quicker and more smoothly in many cases. Actually, unless I am working with something that actually requires graphics I prefer text-based..
Really? "Major new OS versions will always have wrinkles to iron out, stop the presses!"? The reason for doing beta testing would be what? Is it too much to ask that vendors use beta versions of their own software in-house for a month before they release it? Is it too much to ask that they ship the software to a small number of beta testers before the final release in order to find those wrinkles and iron them out? If I were to pay for commercial software, would I be paying THEM for doing the work of beta-testing for them? If you bought a car, would you really accept that it broke down after a few hours, even if the store told you that "it is a new car, you can expect some wrinkles to be ironed out, we will take it into service and give you it back in working condition in a few weeks?"
The most interesting thing I noticed in the article was actually that the error message for the Connect to Server failure is "error code -36". A friend of mine who uses Mac OS X has always complained much about how the Mac never tells you anything about what is actually wrong, only gives you a number that is in no way useful for solving the problem. It is amazing this is still the case in Tiger, what in the world would be wrong with giving at least a tiny bit of information or just a hint of what is wrong? Even the good old Windows blue screen is more informative than "error code 4".
First of all, performance is in many cases the main issue when buying a system. If you have a huge load then the choice may be between buying one well-performing system or two or three systems to take that load. And when you say "price is" I assume you mean the retail price, which is to me almost totally irrelevant (at least in the long run). The real price for any kind of software is the cost of teaching humans how to use it, costs related to maintaining it and most importantly, costs related to downtime and lost productivity if the software is slow. Performance DOES matter.
I personally do not trust someone who claims to be "Veritest is an independent testing agnecy authorized by Microsoft to carry out the testing for applications developed on windows platform." to do a fair evalution of Linux vs Windows. If a company who makes a product gives you a huge pile of money at regular intervals and you are asked to compare that product to another product, who are you going to vote for? Who is your daddy? Sadly, money is everything.
When reading this thread it hit me that I should make more people aware of a discovery that kind of surprised me even though I probably should have expected it to be so: SMS messages are stored six months here locally. The local police can at any point request a complete log of sent text-messages from half a year ago from the phone companies. There is no good reason to think this is any different in your country, whether or not a court order is required may differ (one is in theory required here, but the police generally just say they are investigating terrorism or narcotics to bypass that). So just so you all know: All your SMS is logged and can be used against you. What you say on the phone is not stored, so that is somewhat safer (but authorities can tap GSM phones easily, but not retrieve what you previously said, only who you said it to). Morse may have a huge advantage here, it is so rarely used I doubt anyone will try to tap that.
I generally send my sms messages from web services if I am at home or close to a computer connected to the Internet. Do not try to tell me that morse code can be done faster than I can write on a keyboard. OK, I write a lot of useless information like this comment here on Slashdot, so I have the advantage of writing fast, but still.. Morse may be faster than using those user-unfriendly mobile phone keyboard, but not faster than typing on normal keyboards..!
I agree that all browsers available should be supported generally, but the issue here is: zero-configuration networking, enables automatic discovery of computers, devices, and services on IP networks. These things are Operating System issues, the only reason they call it Internet Explorer plugin is probably that it is the file-manager. Opera and Mozilla are not file managers, thus they do not need a plugin to browse available printers etc on the LAN, and they will not work unless the underlying operating system has configured the network etc. :-)
It made me very happy to find that Linux has support for it and that even better support is under way. http://dot.kde.org/1114696139/
This is why I constantly encourage users to make the switch to freenet NOW. Freenet is still very slow and immature, but at least it allows you to use it anonymously. Your ISP can not name you if it is impossible to find out who you are...
Closed source is in many cases better. If you are required to use the best software available to generate profit then obviously you will pay the price for private software if that is the best alternative for your needs. I personally prefer the Gimp over Photoshop, but after seeing what features the professional graphics artist use in their day to day work I fully understand that firms specialize in that field are willing to pay the extra money for the Adobe series of products. Gimp is still a joke in the eyes of the very professional users.
"Opensourceness itself does not mean that the software will be immediately high quality" This is true and this is also why I like open source: Open source projects start out very simple and crappy. But people use them anyway and help the developers improve by small contributions. So over time, the software becomes better and more advanced. This is why I love open source: It allows the software to evolve. Yes evolve. There are dozen of examples of open source projects where the original developers have left the project for something else, yet the project lives on because others pick up the touch and carry on working. This is rarely the case if a commercial niche software company goes out of business. Successfully commercial projects also evolve, but not in the same way: They are driven by profit only, not the pure need to make the software work. Evolution, or the possibility for it, is what makes GNU and Open Source a supreme development model in the long run.
The statement only seems partly true for those who are really, really big and have a kind of monopoly (you know who I mean). For smaller, niche software, they have to make it good and even better for each version or the customers will demand something better by buying something else. So a company who neglects their customers needs will go broke and disappear, giving those companies who listen to their customers a higher market share. And even the biggest software companies are seeing that their market share drops when they do something bad, because even the biggest monopolies face competition from things like Linux.
Just a tip: The plain old Midnight Commander (MC) still exists and THAT is actually still the best File Manager I know about. Yes. I seriously use that to Manage My Files, MC is still what I find most effective to move and organize files. Nautilus is to me a very nice File Launcher, meaning it is nice for looking through your files and opening them in programs. The ability to drag and drop files from it to programs is also very nice, but this has nothing to do with managing files. Application launcher seems to me like a better word for it, pure cli (i.e. mv) and MC are still, in my humble opinion, the best way to Manage Files.
I know this will sound rude. But I feel like saying it anyway. Gnome has very much been focused on becoming more userfriendly in Gnome2 and it has done this by a less-is-more approach. This has, for me, made it a lot more user-unfriendly. The simple file dialog boxes are a very good example of what I mean: They now by default open up half-opened so users will not be confused by the more advanced options in them. But the problem for me is that the advanced options are things I use every time, meaning an extra click or keyboard press every time I need to use them. There is no good reason for them to appear half-open, it is just done to make it simple. The result of this is only extra time spent using them every time to make it easier to use the first time for complete idiots. Something similar is also done with the features to make it more user-friendly: If a feature is to advanced for a beginner, they are simply removed or placed where they are completely unavailable or require a great deal of effort to use. Gnome2 has come user-friendly to the extend where it is almost impossible to use productive on a day to day basis. I seriously hope Gnome3 will be better. Not that I think I will ever use it as a main desktop again, but as I use a lot of Gnome2/GTK2 programs (like I also use KDE programs in my fluxbox) this annoy me very much.
I read the article with great interest and I also was disappointed. Not in the facts, but in the journalist that fell for Ericssons tactical play. What the article fails to mention (because the journalist failed to realize it) is that any company with world headquarters in Sweden can patent what ever software they feel like in the US and in Japan regardless of their ability to do it locally. This is just a tactical play, it would make no difference what so ever to their ability to patent software abroad if they move out or not. The patent situation in Sweden is the same as it is in the rest of EU, and it is the EU rules they want to change. They see an opening for doing so by playing the local Swedish government, they know that if Sweden changes then it may have an impact on the rest of the EU. I really hope the Swedish government does not fall for this tactical play, I hope they see through it and see it for what it is: A simple tactical empty threat.
The users of the software will still have the same problems regardless of where in the world the download page for the software is located. The Russia/MP3 issues comes to mind: the sites who sell music for giveaway prices from .ru are perfectly legal, but the users who buy from such sites are breaking local laws (there is really no difference for US users if they download from peer to peer networks or such sites, and the same applies to software programs).
All the software I use is clearly marked (with the GNU GPL..) in the documentation, readme-files, about-boxes and so on. I would hate to have a truckload of popups telling me about software patents distracting me from using the software for productive things. I do not see how such marking would be anything but majorly annoying for commercial software also. I could accept more patent markings it it was limited to the source code, though, a comment in the source saying "here we use patent foo" would be acceptable.
Like them or not, they ARE the best. I always find what i am looking for using Google. They are quick to remove spam-like pages, if those even appear as their excellent technology generally avoid falling for the simple black-hat tricks other search engines fall for. I even have the impression they look at the source code for the most popular sites to check if they actually are relevant and why they are ranking high. Their power is justified by simply being better than the others. And their power is given because they are quite honest, they know they would loose that very quickly if they started doing bad things. (yeah, I love Google..)
It is equally insane to buy something like that. The best way to stop any industry is to not buy any of their products. Sadly, it is the demand that controls what corporations are allowed to do, their awesome power is given to them by the people who support them by buying their products.
...is long dead in my eyes. Online distribution is the way to go. CD discs, DVD discs and any other type of discs for that matter cause huge amounts of pollution. So do their players. Computers obviously also pollute, but the overall amount of damage to earth is less if you buy a player (computer) and download the media to it as opposed to the old, polluting distribution model where the media is delivered using something solid. I will never by solid media again, ever, not because industries who sell the products are evil, but because I care about the future of the planet. Less importantly, something tells me this new DVD-HD thing will not play on my Linux entertainment system, which kind of makes it unthinkable for me to buy it anyway.. (I do not own or want to own a television set, I view it as a limited and outdated device from the dark ages where polluting was accepted.. yes, I know damaging the earth for profit is still accepted, but hey. We are still in the dark ages).