Let's look at Sun's Open Source strategy:
You can take OpenSolaris source code and modify it. You cannot take OpenSolaris patented concepts and place them into other works OSS or otherwise. If things pan out for Sun that means they will have a large developer base dumping code into Solaris, which will make Solaris better and more competitive. Sun basically just improved Solaris with no R&D by leveraging the OSS community. It appears, as of now, that Sun is in this for free skilled labor and nothing else. They are trying to have their cake (revenues from Solaris) and eat it to (no competing products resulting from Open Solaris concepts because of patent issues). The open code without the freedom from patents is like saying "Hey, developers, help me make a buck off this OS by contributing your code for free."
It doesn't take a zealot or a great deal of common sense to notice this. I say let Sun do it, and when they don't attract the huge developer base they hoped to attract maybe they will rethink their OSS approach.
I think it comes down to public school atmosphere and neglected parenting.
Parenting is a full time job for both parents, and reinforcing things taught in school is one faucet of that job. Many parents, my friends included, think their kids education and well-roundedness will be the result of attending classes in school. They couldn't be more wrong. A U.S. History or U.S. Government teacher has one hour a day in which to cram a 3 hour course-required schedule to 30 students in a crammed classroom. At least that's the way it is in Arizona, one of the worst states for public schooling.
As far as the kids are concerned going to school is something that takes place when they aren't living their lives. I mean, learning is something they do in bits and spurts during a 1 hour course, and it can be thrown out the window during the after school trip to the mall with their friends.
It's really up to the parents to get involved and reinforce the ideas and priciples taught by the public school system. Only by making the student think and ponder the concept of Freedom of Speech will that concept become meaningful to the student, and they can then develop their own opinions about it. Making the student truly ponder it can be a simple dinner table discussion between the student and his or her parents and family.
Unfortunately I know too many parents who send their kids off to school so the parents can do their own thing, then send the kids off to play when the kids get home so the parents can continue to do their own thing. I wish more parents would take the education of their children farther than punishing or rewarding the kids based on the merits of their report cards.
The fact that you are a convicted child molestor, complete with picture, even if you're not?
Well, if the AZ Republic published this story about me, I'd become a pretty rich guy. Last I checked, editorial mistake or not, slander still brings a high bounty in a civil suit, reguardless of intent.
I'm now a "former" Marine, but in January of '03 I found myself shipped to Kuwait, and eventually wound up in Iraq. I had it a bit lucky. I worked as an "Intel Analyst" for the 6th Engineers.
In the COC (Combat Operations Center, center of confusion, or simply Circle of Cocksuckers), we had many little toys, ranging from Toshiba toughbooks to proxima projectors, etc. We used microwave relay to keep in touch with group and make sure our batallion commander was seeing the same operational picture that 1st FSSG was seeing.
That was all done via an electronically encrypted network. Which is fine and dandy when you have:
Electricity
Computers
A network
For forward units and combat units in the field the only thing they have that comes close is the field radio. While the encryption on these things is very advanced, the radio's are bullet, shock and explosion proof. Yes, the guy carrying your map, and perhaps a list of checkpoints might not be around forever. That is why field and forward units still have to employ non-electronic means of deciet and encryption. Even if it's as simple as one guy having the map, and the other guy having a clear piece of plastic with lines drawn on it.
If U.S. Marines and soldiers are still using "old fasioned" techniqies such as this, one could surmise that our enemies are doing the same.
Therefore, that old manual may have some relevance.
I really like the thought Star Wars Galaxies put into their PvP system. It eliminates almost all "griefing"
Basically, the system works like this:
No other player can just haul off and attack you, there are criteria that must be met before you can be attacked. Basically, if you are a member of a civil war faction ("Rebel" or "Imperial") and have listed yourself as "overt" you can be attacked by "overt" members of the opposite faction. If "covert" members of the opposite faction are traveling with an "overt", they can attack you once the "overt" guy does. Once the "coverts" traveling with the "overt" attack, they are fair game to you. All "overt" members of any faction are fair game to any "overt" member of the opposite faction at any time.
Another way is through one on one, or one on many duels. In order to duel, you must be challenged and accept, or challenge and have your challenge accepted. Either way, both players know it's coming.
Finally is a guild war. If your guild is at war with another guild you are always fair game to them, and they are always fair game to you, regardless of overtness or faction. This requires your guild master to "challenge" another guild and for that guild to recriprocate.
These measures really do a lot to ensure that newbies are killed off, and that high level jedi aren't just walking around killing whoever they please. You are never at risk of PvP combat unless you take active measures to put yourself at that risk on purpose.
Of course there are scenarios where a few overt rebel lure a few overt imps into a fight, then group up with a whole lot of covert rebels to gang up on and beat the shit out of the imps, but we call that tactics, not cheating. If the imps weren't looking for a fight, they wouldn't have been overt in the first place.
Novell is the defendant in this case. SCO has brought allegations against Novell in another attempt to steal money (basically). SCO has accused Novell of releasing statements to discredit SCO. Early on in the SCO drama Novell announced that it actually owned the rights to Unix. When Novell realized that it may not actually own those rights, SCO sued Novell for publishing those statements with malicious intent. (Whatever the hell that means). Anyway, these records could show that Novell had reason to believe that it still owned the copyrights to Unix. If they can still show they had reason to believe they owned Unix, the case might get thrown out because it will be really hard for SCO to then prove that Novell issued these claims with the intent to discredit SCO.
I just can't picture one of these space balloons without thinking about one end coming loose, and the whole thing blasting crazily about in space while making a ridiculously load farting noise.
I'd rather see more of these things applied to infants.
I don't think anyone has the money to keep an infant outfitted such as this. I have a 15 month old baby girl, and let me tell you, she can break a steel marble if she doesn't eat it first. All you have to do is put said steel marble within 15 feet of her and turn your back for an instant. I'd be replacing the webcam and GPS once a day, and picking the damned thing out of her diaper twice a day!
I for one agree. I don't think it's all that bad to bundle WMP with Windows. I don't use Windows and don't use WMP.
However, there are a couple of reprecussions that I can forsee. Given the dominance of the Windows OS, many end users will, by default, utilize the media player that was shipped sort of "for free" with their operating system instead of purchasing or perhaps just downloading RealMedia or QuickTime. Secondly, if the first scenario proves true, and market share of QuickTime, RealMedia, etc. drops to very low levels, then content providers will start supplying content in WMP formats only. Now you have a forced vendor lock-in, and the monopoly grows.
They are talking about Samba. It's the open source implementation of a SMB/CIFS stack. That's the protocol that Windows uses for file and print sharing, domain authentication, etc.
Forcing MS to release technical documentation describing the protocol is probably the most important issue, forget WMP! Microsoft, of course, doesn't want to make it easy to implement their file serving protocol. That will allow 3rd parties to more easily interoperate with Windows. That 3rd party could be a Linux box instead of another bought and paid for Windows box.
The release of this documentation will undoubtedly make the jobs of the Samba developers much easier. Good for Linux, bad for Microsoft. I for one don't care when something is bad for Microsoft.
It seems the general consensus of the/. community agrees. Both major canidates are loosers!
Honestly, the only reason George W. is going to get my vote is that he wants to stay the course in Iraq and complete the job the U.S. Armed Forces, my Unit, and I started. I'd hate to see that 8 months of my life wasted just so someone else would have to go back and do it all over again in another 10 years or so. I'm not quite sure how much I like the plans to complete the job though.
However, everything else about both of these canidates is nothing but filth. Neither one of them would know a real domestic issue if I beat them about the head and shoulders with it!
I want to hear them answer questions like:
What are your plans on dealing with the polarization of wealth, and the shrinking middle class of the U.S.?
Do you even know what polarization of wealth means?
Why does the typical "middle class" family now have to finance household appliances because they can no longer afford to meet the price range straight out and what is your administration going to do about it?
What plans do you have to return the economy to a state where a single "Blue Collar" 40hr per week paycheck will support an average family of 4 people?
How would your administration go about fixing the correctional institution in the U.S.? (If they need elaboration on the problems with our correctional institution, they should just be asked to leave the debate)
These are just a few questions I would like to hear these two stumble and jitter over answering.
When did the U.S. start picking it's bottom of the barrel to run for President? Christ! The problem is that these guys want to be president. Everyone with enough brains to acually be president realizes that they don't want to do it. Instead, they run multibillion dollar corporations and such.
I wish there were a way to organize a campaign for some pre-determined, well resume'd, professional CEO, college professor, or someone with some sense. That way we could get a professional voted into office wether he liked it or not. That's what happened to visionaries like Jefferson and Franklin, and look how well they did.
Don't take this wrong, but do you know a "linux user"? Most of us are little obsesive compulsive, erratic, and curious. We have nothing to do but become pastier and pastier while trying out distros.
In short....we get one more to play with, flame, fight and argue over, and most importantly compare/contrast/disect to our hearts content.
The examples in the article are classic examples of what not to do! Learn from the mistakes of others!
It's pretty obvious that these companies leapt blindly with both feet directly into a chasm they knew nothing about. Yeah, that was stupid...
It would also seem natural that said CIOs and equivalents would need something/someone to blame. Hell, they want to keep their jobs right? What a more handy scapegoat than the new kid on the enterprise block?
Hrm... I dunno how this, "Actually, I dunno, I can't really back that up. Anyone know the cost comparison's on Linux expertise in labor Vs. MCSEs and MS licensing?", is telling anyone that Linux is a cheaper solution, but hey, it's OK! Make up English as you go along. I'm sure somehow you'll feel better for it.
Hrm...Well, I'm the low, low man Jr. Linux/BSD admin. You know, the guy that does the "monitoring" adding of accounts and is permanently on call.....yeah, I'm that guy. I'm making around 50 so maybe I am right on track. Still, I think my company would spend a lot more on licensing just for the sheer amount of machines we have out there in the datacenter.
I'd hate to be the one to point to this out, but the article has nothing at all to do with Linux on the desktop/workstation. The article was describing the "failure" of Linux as an E-commerce and Web application server.
That being said, this article really describes the failure of Combe to properly implement the platform. In this particular instance there is no way to place the blame of this failure on Linux.
If you want to see some proof of just how successfull linux can be as an e-commerce platform have a look at JBoss and IBM.
"Combe was initially wary about its sites running on Linux, but it moved to offset that risk by making sure its provider contract had built-in service-level agreements. Case said he was surprised by how well the system worked, but Linux became an issue when Combe's Web applications needed a database, and the only option available to the company was one from Oracle Corp."
The only database option was Oracle? Why didn't they think about back-end indepenence when they designed the application? Oh well... I think they should have looked at dropping their web application platform in favor of a more back-end independent one (J2EE, PHP, whatever) before they just decided to migrate their OS. I just can't imagine anyone these days who would lock themselves into data-tier vendor like that. Of coruse, the article wasn't very descriptive about the "why".
Case also was concerned that his company did not have appropriate in-house Linux expertise. Those concerns were proved worthwhile two years ago when the ISP gave Combe two weeks' notice that it was closing its doors.
Read: "Case didn't want to spend the extra $73,000 a year to hire a full time Sr. Unix Admin to direct his dime a dozen MCSEs."
Actually, I dunno, I can't really back that up. Anyone know the cost comparison's on Linux expertise in labor Vs. MCSEs and MS licensing?
I see you point about those huge and powerful game engines and such. The only problem is those games require a ridiculous amount of $$$ dropped into hardware in order to play them. Some (most?) of these independ games are fun to play, not as pretty, but they run quite well will less horsepower.
Plus a few of them have native linux versions so there's no screwing around with wine or winex or whatever.
I strongly disagree. Most users are not idiots. By this statement I mean most users have the capacity, if not the desire, to learn quite a bit about technical security. My best friend and former roomate is fireman who can barely handle his remote control. However in a few Q & A sessions I've successfully taught him the concepts behind memory paging, how buffer overflows execute "arbitrary" code, and he's familiar in three seperate ideas of implementing SQL database load balancing. He picked up on these concepts through casual conversation. He's not some phenomenon, this occurance has come to pass often within my friends and family. Why? Well, when their computers break they call me, and I fix them. When they ask "what happened?" I friggin' tell them. I tell them in a way that they can understand it. Funny how they are having to call me less and less these days. I'm willing to bet it's not because of AOL's hammer-mouse fixer thingy.
Those aren't easy subjects to gain an understanding of....even if you background knowledge under you belt.
Microsoft knows damn well it can present detailed information on the nature of these flaws, what parts of the OS are affected, etc. in a way a great deal of it's costomers can understand.
For christ sake if "ass-crack" Bob down at GM Goodwrench or whatever can explain to me the concepts behind fuel-injector deterioration and how the balance between detergents and octane in gasoline affects their lifecycle, then MS can sure as hell explain a buffer overflow to a 33 yr old housewife.
It doesn't take a big leap in technology to protect kids online! It doesn't take a USB key that will likely leave the children more vulnerable! All it takes to protect a kid online is for said kid's parents to wake up, get a clue and take an interest!
I'm sure parent's will love this because it's being spun off as one less think parents will have to worry about. I can almost see thier false security blankets getting bigger.
Anyone with children who has woken up, obtained a clue and taken an interest should be outraged by the thought of this. Did the masterminds behind this operation even ask, inform or otherwise obtain the permission of the parents? I think not.
On that note and furthermore, the voice on the end of the phone would be the nerve racking and perfectly annoying voice of the "Hello, and Welcome to MovieFone, brought to you by....," guy.
Slashdot Mirror
Unfortunately I see it as a gimmick.
Let's look at Sun's Open Source strategy:
You can take OpenSolaris source code and modify it. You cannot take OpenSolaris patented concepts and place them into other works OSS or otherwise. If things pan out for Sun that means they will have a large developer base dumping code into Solaris, which will make Solaris better and more competitive. Sun basically just improved Solaris with no R&D by leveraging the OSS community. It appears, as of now, that Sun is in this for free skilled labor and nothing else. They are trying to have their cake (revenues from Solaris) and eat it to (no competing products resulting from Open Solaris concepts because of patent issues). The open code without the freedom from patents is like saying "Hey, developers, help me make a buck off this OS by contributing your code for free."
It doesn't take a zealot or a great deal of common sense to notice this. I say let Sun do it, and when they don't attract the huge developer base they hoped to attract maybe they will rethink their OSS approach.
I think it comes down to public school atmosphere and neglected parenting.
Parenting is a full time job for both parents, and reinforcing things taught in school is one faucet of that job. Many parents, my friends included, think their kids education and well-roundedness will be the result of attending classes in school. They couldn't be more wrong. A U.S. History or U.S. Government teacher has one hour a day in which to cram a 3 hour course-required schedule to 30 students in a crammed classroom. At least that's the way it is in Arizona, one of the worst states for public schooling.
As far as the kids are concerned going to school is something that takes place when they aren't living their lives. I mean, learning is something they do in bits and spurts during a 1 hour course, and it can be thrown out the window during the after school trip to the mall with their friends.
It's really up to the parents to get involved and reinforce the ideas and priciples taught by the public school system. Only by making the student think and ponder the concept of Freedom of Speech will that concept become meaningful to the student, and they can then develop their own opinions about it. Making the student truly ponder it can be a simple dinner table discussion between the student and his or her parents and family.
Unfortunately I know too many parents who send their kids off to school so the parents can do their own thing, then send the kids off to play when the kids get home so the parents can continue to do their own thing. I wish more parents would take the education of their children farther than punishing or rewarding the kids based on the merits of their report cards.
The fact that you are a convicted child molestor, complete with picture, even if you're not?
Well, if the AZ Republic published this story about me, I'd become a pretty rich guy. Last I checked, editorial mistake or not, slander still brings a high bounty in a civil suit, reguardless of intent.
In the COC (Combat Operations Center, center of confusion, or simply Circle of Cocksuckers), we had many little toys, ranging from Toshiba toughbooks to proxima projectors, etc. We used microwave relay to keep in touch with group and make sure our batallion commander was seeing the same operational picture that 1st FSSG was seeing.
That was all done via an electronically encrypted network. Which is fine and dandy when you have:
For forward units and combat units in the field the only thing they have that comes close is the field radio. While the encryption on these things is very advanced, the radio's are bullet, shock and explosion proof. Yes, the guy carrying your map, and perhaps a list of checkpoints might not be around forever. That is why field and forward units still have to employ non-electronic means of deciet and encryption. Even if it's as simple as one guy having the map, and the other guy having a clear piece of plastic with lines drawn on it.
If U.S. Marines and soldiers are still using "old fasioned" techniqies such as this, one could surmise that our enemies are doing the same.
Therefore, that old manual may have some relevance.
I really like the thought Star Wars Galaxies put into their PvP system. It eliminates almost all "griefing"
Basically, the system works like this:
No other player can just haul off and attack you, there are criteria that must be met before you can be attacked. Basically, if you are a member of a civil war faction ("Rebel" or "Imperial") and have listed yourself as "overt" you can be attacked by "overt" members of the opposite faction. If "covert" members of the opposite faction are traveling with an "overt", they can attack you once the "overt" guy does. Once the "coverts" traveling with the "overt" attack, they are fair game to you. All "overt" members of any faction are fair game to any "overt" member of the opposite faction at any time.
Another way is through one on one, or one on many duels. In order to duel, you must be challenged and accept, or challenge and have your challenge accepted. Either way, both players know it's coming.
Finally is a guild war. If your guild is at war with another guild you are always fair game to them, and they are always fair game to you, regardless of overtness or faction. This requires your guild master to "challenge" another guild and for that guild to recriprocate.
These measures really do a lot to ensure that newbies are killed off, and that high level jedi aren't just walking around killing whoever they please. You are never at risk of PvP combat unless you take active measures to put yourself at that risk on purpose.
Of course there are scenarios where a few overt rebel lure a few overt imps into a fight, then group up with a whole lot of covert rebels to gang up on and beat the shit out of the imps, but we call that tactics, not cheating. If the imps weren't looking for a fight, they wouldn't have been overt in the first place.
Novell is the defendant in this case. SCO has brought allegations against Novell in another attempt to steal money (basically). SCO has accused Novell of releasing statements to discredit SCO. Early on in the SCO drama Novell announced that it actually owned the rights to Unix. When Novell realized that it may not actually own those rights, SCO sued Novell for publishing those statements with malicious intent. (Whatever the hell that means). Anyway, these records could show that Novell had reason to believe that it still owned the copyrights to Unix. If they can still show they had reason to believe they owned Unix, the case might get thrown out because it will be really hard for SCO to then prove that Novell issued these claims with the intent to discredit SCO.
I just can't picture one of these space balloons without thinking about one end coming loose, and the whole thing blasting crazily about in space while making a ridiculously load farting noise.
I don't think anyone has the money to keep an infant outfitted such as this. I have a 15 month old baby girl, and let me tell you, she can break a steel marble if she doesn't eat it first. All you have to do is put said steel marble within 15 feet of her and turn your back for an instant. I'd be replacing the webcam and GPS once a day, and picking the damned thing out of her diaper twice a day!
However, there are a couple of reprecussions that I can forsee. Given the dominance of the Windows OS, many end users will, by default, utilize the media player that was shipped sort of "for free" with their operating system instead of purchasing or perhaps just downloading RealMedia or QuickTime. Secondly, if the first scenario proves true, and market share of QuickTime, RealMedia, etc. drops to very low levels, then content providers will start supplying content in WMP formats only. Now you have a forced vendor lock-in, and the monopoly grows.
Forcing MS to release technical documentation describing the protocol is probably the most important issue, forget WMP! Microsoft, of course, doesn't want to make it easy to implement their file serving protocol. That will allow 3rd parties to more easily interoperate with Windows. That 3rd party could be a Linux box instead of another bought and paid for Windows box.
The release of this documentation will undoubtedly make the jobs of the Samba developers much easier. Good for Linux, bad for Microsoft. I for one don't care when something is bad for Microsoft.
The text of your sig poped up as my login fortune for this session.....
Honestly, the only reason George W. is going to get my vote is that he wants to stay the course in Iraq and complete the job the U.S. Armed Forces, my Unit, and I started. I'd hate to see that 8 months of my life wasted just so someone else would have to go back and do it all over again in another 10 years or so. I'm not quite sure how much I like the plans to complete the job though.
However, everything else about both of these canidates is nothing but filth. Neither one of them would know a real domestic issue if I beat them about the head and shoulders with it!
I want to hear them answer questions like:
- What are your plans on dealing with the polarization of wealth, and the shrinking middle class of the U.S.?
- Do you even know what polarization of wealth means?
- Why does the typical "middle class" family now have to finance household appliances because they can no longer afford to meet the price range straight out and what is your administration going to do about it?
- What plans do you have to return the economy to a state where a single "Blue Collar" 40hr per week paycheck will support an average family of 4 people?
- How would your administration go about fixing the correctional institution in the U.S.? (If they need elaboration on the problems with our correctional institution, they should just be asked to leave the debate)
These are just a few questions I would like to hear these two stumble and jitter over answering.When did the U.S. start picking it's bottom of the barrel to run for President? Christ! The problem is that these guys want to be president. Everyone with enough brains to acually be president realizes that they don't want to do it. Instead, they run multibillion dollar corporations and such. I wish there were a way to organize a campaign for some pre-determined, well resume'd, professional CEO, college professor, or someone with some sense. That way we could get a professional voted into office wether he liked it or not. That's what happened to visionaries like Jefferson and Franklin, and look how well they did.
DVD Remastered THX Collector's Set....$49
Forcing wife to watch the whole trilogy yet again....priceless.
Swapping a distro isn't swapping the OS at all, it's all Gnu/Linux after all. It's sorta like putting it in different wrapping paper.
Don't take this wrong, but do you know a "linux user"? Most of us are little obsesive compulsive, erratic, and curious. We have nothing to do but become pastier and pastier while trying out distros.
In short....we get one more to play with, flame, fight and argue over, and most importantly compare/contrast/disect to our hearts content.
It's pretty obvious that these companies leapt blindly with both feet directly into a chasm they knew nothing about. Yeah, that was stupid...
It would also seem natural that said CIOs and equivalents would need something/someone to blame. Hell, they want to keep their jobs right? What a more handy scapegoat than the new kid on the enterprise block?
Hrm... I dunno how this, "Actually, I dunno, I can't really back that up. Anyone know the cost comparison's on Linux expertise in labor Vs. MCSEs and MS licensing?", is telling anyone that Linux is a cheaper solution, but hey, it's OK! Make up English as you go along. I'm sure somehow you'll feel better for it.
Hrm...Well, I'm the low, low man Jr. Linux/BSD admin. You know, the guy that does the "monitoring" adding of accounts and is permanently on call.....yeah, I'm that guy. I'm making around 50 so maybe I am right on track. Still, I think my company would spend a lot more on licensing just for the sheer amount of machines we have out there in the datacenter.
That being said, this article really describes the failure of Combe to properly implement the platform. In this particular instance there is no way to place the blame of this failure on Linux.
If you want to see some proof of just how successfull linux can be as an e-commerce platform have a look at JBoss and IBM.
The only database option was Oracle? Why didn't they think about back-end indepenence when they designed the application? Oh well... I think they should have looked at dropping their web application platform in favor of a more back-end independent one (J2EE, PHP, whatever) before they just decided to migrate their OS. I just can't imagine anyone these days who would lock themselves into data-tier vendor like that. Of coruse, the article wasn't very descriptive about the "why".
Case also was concerned that his company did not have appropriate in-house Linux expertise. Those concerns were proved worthwhile two years ago when the ISP gave Combe two weeks' notice that it was closing its doors.
Read: "Case didn't want to spend the extra $73,000 a year to hire a full time Sr. Unix Admin to direct his dime a dozen MCSEs." Actually, I dunno, I can't really back that up. Anyone know the cost comparison's on Linux expertise in labor Vs. MCSEs and MS licensing?
Plus a few of them have native linux versions so there's no screwing around with wine or winex or whatever.
I play the DH Lore Linux client. Works well. Very clean. I like it.
Those aren't easy subjects to gain an understanding of....even if you background knowledge under you belt.
Microsoft knows damn well it can present detailed information on the nature of these flaws, what parts of the OS are affected, etc. in a way a great deal of it's costomers can understand.
For christ sake if "ass-crack" Bob down at GM Goodwrench or whatever can explain to me the concepts behind fuel-injector deterioration and how the balance between detergents and octane in gasoline affects their lifecycle, then MS can sure as hell explain a buffer overflow to a 33 yr old housewife.
I'm sure parent's will love this because it's being spun off as one less think parents will have to worry about. I can almost see thier false security blankets getting bigger.
Anyone with children who has woken up, obtained a clue and taken an interest should be outraged by the thought of this. Did the masterminds behind this operation even ask, inform or otherwise obtain the permission of the parents? I think not.
On that note and furthermore, the voice on the end of the phone would be the nerve racking and perfectly annoying voice of the "Hello, and Welcome to MovieFone, brought to you by....," guy.