Anyone crossing the road from behind a parked car whilst using a smartphone, fiddling with a music player or otherwise not paying total attention to the large, fast moving, multi ton objects hurtling along the road deserves to get run over.
Well if this ever comes to market it will be fun. Teenagers of the (hopefully not too distant) future will be able to swap a single disk containing a library of the entire worlds recorded music, maybe even encoded in FLAC to boot !
I can just see all the MAFIAA lawyers having fits of apoplexy now:)
A better idea would be to make a top level domain for kids (".kids" ?) which is reserved for child friendly web sites.
Then you could make devices (browsers/firewalls/filters/operating systems) that will restrict access to this tld only and put whatever resources are appropriate into policing the domain to make sure that any site in ".kids" is actually safe for the little darlings.
Then the technologically illiterate could just buy these devices and be sure that little Johnny/Sally can browse in their little walled garden safely.
But this is too easy and obvious a solution as the truth is that they do not want to protect. They just want to control.
Today it's evil pron... Tomorrow it will be any other information the government doesn't like.
And you can be sure whilst naked breasts, penises etc are banned they'll be able to watch as many war films as they like without so much as a "tut, tut".
So Firefox, the browser that was supposed to "take back the web" and offer a slimmed down, secure, fast browsing experience is now going to further bloat itself up by incoporating the known security nightmare of PDF.
Apart from one thing... Windows 7 doesn't run perfectly good 32 bit drivers for perfectly good, sometimes hellishly expensive and still best in breed, hardware that works 100% perfectly under Windows XP.
Why ? it's not like it can't be done ?
I'd love to go 64 bit (for the extra memory if nothing else) but there are no drivers for lots of my (perfectly working) audio hardware.
Cheers for the effort. However drakfirewall looks like a Mandriva specific bit of software.
So not much use for Ubuntu really (no package of that name in the repositories etc. etc.)
Still I'll have a look at it as if it does actually give the user control then this is *exactly* what is need for Ubuntu/other desktop Linux oses.
If it does look to do the job I'll try rasiing another feature request to port it to Ubunut. And no doubt it will get ignored like the other times I've tried.
I've been saying for years (to little effect) that desktop Linux is desperately missing a decent firewall which gives the *USER* a choice as to whether any process/program can communicate with the network.
Zone alarm used to be a must have for any Windows box because it would not only block incoming connections but it would prompt the user whenever *anything* tried to get out to the internet. No exceptions. Nothing left the machine without you, the all important user, giving it the go ahead (I actually tested an early version used a packet sniffer and it actually did "just what it said in the tin")
This was not only invaluable for giving you control of your machine but it was an excellent method for spotting viruses on peoples machines because as soon as the program tried to connect out to the net a nice pop up would appear asking if you wanted to allow this (and did you want your answer rememberred). Err.. no and never ! Even better people actually listened when I expleined this to them and didn't just let anything connect.
Without such a fully featured, user friendly, firewall desktop Linux users are completely at the mercy of developers doing whatever the hell they like with your machine. Download covers from Amazon for your MP3 collection (thereby telling Amazon exactly what you have on your machine) ? Likewise for IMDB covers ? Sending Amazon keystrokes from the Unity lens ? What next, all keystrokes to go to GOogle for some research effort ?
Without a decent firewall asking if you want to allow stuff to phone home (and denying all by default) the average user has *no idea whatsoever* what information is being leaked out of their nice little Linux desktop.
It's about time people understood that it's as important to be able to block outgoing connections as it is to block incoming connections.
And it's about time the Linux developer community got their fingers out and put such a firewall in place. Hell if I had the time to learn the low level networking stuff I'd have a go myself but age and multiple commitments mean I just don't have the time.
However it's one of the main reason I prefer Windows to Linux on the desktop as at least there are several Windows firewalls that work in this way. Desktop Linux is not only simply not secure but is totally complacent about user security.
Sadly Linux developers do not have your privacy foremost in their minds..
> It's the kind of thing that doesn't make me interested in any form of desktop or GUI open source development and hasn't for years. It's the same old bullshit
Wish I had mod points today I'd mod this right up ! +10 insightful.
The latest Gnome/Unity fiascos has put me completely off desktop Linux. There are so many areas of Linux that are in desperate need of improvement (pro audio apps, pro image manipulation apps, pro video apps) - not to mention all the usability bugs that never get fixed.
But what do the developers do ? Continually fuck around with the desktop metaphor, keep breaking things, continually "reinvent the wheel" (extremely badly), or needlessly trying to push new paradigms down our throats. "Hey we haven't rewritten subsystem X this week so let's throw out what we've got (thereby conveniently ignoring all the bugs) and let's write something entirely new (with all nwe bugs that will never be fixed) instead".
It's a huge, huge waste of time.
Not to mention the fact I'd got quite a number of people in my locaility to start using Ubuntu. When they pulled that Unity shit every single one of them was on my case complaining how the latest updates had broken their computer and "how can we get rid of this rubbish ?"
Desktop linux is a waste of time. Excellent server. Complete waste of time as a desktop. Constantly moving operational metaphors, not enough pro quality apps and no desire to fix bugs (let's make new buggy, shitty "shiny" instead)
Any series of bytes, of any arbitary length, can be viewed as representing a number. In the case of a file containing (say) 100,000 bytes that's a large number but the point holds that the byte sequence can stil be viewed as a number.
And what's more ridiculous than trying to prevent people sharing a number ?
If that number, represented as a sequence of bytes, can be interpreted by some music playing software to produce sound well... that's just magic:)
If the latest desktop developments from Ubunut are any indication then I'm betting this phone will feature a standard desktop interface something like Gnome 2.0 or Mate.
A keyboard and mouse will be required to get the best experience:)
As long as it's made clear up front then people who buy this sort of crap deserve everything they get. Anyone moaning about it deserves a bitch slap.
On the other hand the companies producing this crap deserve to get ZERO sales and go out out business. Sadly though the great unwashed horde will just buy whatever crapola is dangled in front of them and then cry softly into their pillows when it doesn't work...
If one bunch of cavemen has nukes everyone should have nukes. personally I think every individual should havea nuke as this would make for all round civilized discourse.
having looked at the web site the device costs about 75 euros. To do a job that I can do myself by simply looking at my plants and adding water/feed as required.
You seem to forget that in the UK the word "unlimited" does not actually mean unlimited when it comes to bandwidth in internet connections. It means "some arbitary amount that we're nto going to tell you about in advance".
Slashdot Mirror
Gnome is definitely a POS. Not sure if I'm referring to the same acronym you are though :)
Both remaining users are said to slightly care.
If these goons want to see what the worst threat to freedom is they should simply install mirrors throughout all NSA buildings.
Anyone crossing the road from behind a parked car whilst using a smartphone, fiddling with a music player or otherwise not paying total attention to the large, fast moving, multi ton objects hurtling along the road deserves to get run over.
They really do.
Well go ahead and post her picture and real phone number to an adult dating site whilst she watches you.
For bonus points giggle about it (in a mocking impression of her) whilst you're doing it.
See how much she likes that.
Nope. People would only choose Linux if the programs they wished to use were available on Linux. It's all about the programs.
Nobody uses a computer just to play with the operating system (apart from people writing operating systems)
Well if this ever comes to market it will be fun. Teenagers of the (hopefully not too distant) future will be able to swap a single disk containing a library of the entire worlds recorded music, maybe even encoded in FLAC to boot !
I can just see all the MAFIAA lawyers having fits of apoplexy now :)
A better idea would be to make a top level domain for kids (".kids" ?) which is reserved for child friendly web sites.
Then you could make devices (browsers/firewalls/filters/operating systems) that will restrict access to this tld only and put whatever resources are appropriate into policing the domain to make sure that any site in ".kids" is actually safe for the little darlings.
Then the technologically illiterate could just buy these devices and be sure that little Johnny/Sally can browse in their little walled garden safely.
But this is too easy and obvious a solution as the truth is that they do not want to protect. They just want to control.
Today it's evil pron... Tomorrow it will be any other information the government doesn't like.
And you can be sure whilst naked breasts, penises etc are banned they'll be able to watch as many war films as they like without so much as a "tut, tut".
Not if it's encrypted usin a sufficiently large one time pad.
So Firefox, the browser that was supposed to "take back the web" and offer a slimmed down, secure, fast browsing experience is now going to further bloat itself up by incoporating the known security nightmare of PDF.
Mozilla = Plot well and truly lost.
Now that will be a good day !
Apart from one thing... Windows 7 doesn't run perfectly good 32 bit drivers for perfectly good, sometimes hellishly expensive and still best in breed, hardware that works 100% perfectly under Windows XP.
Why ? it's not like it can't be done ?
I'd love to go 64 bit (for the extra memory if nothing else) but there are no drivers for lots of my (perfectly working) audio hardware.
Ho hum
Cheers for the effort. However drakfirewall looks like a Mandriva specific bit of software.
So not much use for Ubuntu really (no package of that name in the repositories etc. etc.)
Still I'll have a look at it as if it does actually give the user control then this is *exactly* what is need for Ubuntu/other desktop Linux oses.
If it does look to do the job I'll try rasiing another feature request to port it to Ubunut. And no doubt it will get ignored like the other times I've tried.
I've been saying for years (to little effect) that desktop Linux is desperately missing a decent firewall which gives the *USER* a choice as to whether any process/program can communicate with the network.
Zone alarm used to be a must have for any Windows box because it would not only block incoming connections but it would prompt the user whenever *anything* tried to get out to the internet. No exceptions. Nothing left the machine without you, the all important user, giving it the go ahead (I actually tested an early version used a packet sniffer and it actually did "just what it said in the tin")
This was not only invaluable for giving you control of your machine but it was an excellent method for spotting viruses on peoples machines because as soon as the program tried to connect out to the net a nice pop up would appear asking if you wanted to allow this (and did you want your answer rememberred). Err.. no and never ! Even better people actually listened when I expleined this to them and didn't just let anything connect.
Without such a fully featured, user friendly, firewall desktop Linux users are completely at the mercy of developers doing whatever the hell they like with your machine. Download covers from Amazon for your MP3 collection (thereby telling Amazon exactly what you have on your machine) ? Likewise for IMDB covers ? Sending Amazon keystrokes from the Unity lens ? What next, all keystrokes to go to GOogle for some research effort ?
Without a decent firewall asking if you want to allow stuff to phone home (and denying all by default) the average user has *no idea whatsoever* what information is being leaked out of their nice little Linux desktop.
It's about time people understood that it's as important to be able to block outgoing connections as it is to block incoming connections.
And it's about time the Linux developer community got their fingers out and put such a firewall in place. Hell if I had the time to learn the low level networking stuff I'd have a go myself but age and multiple commitments mean I just don't have the time.
However it's one of the main reason I prefer Windows to Linux on the desktop as at least there are several Windows firewalls that work in this way. Desktop Linux is not only simply not secure but is totally complacent about user security.
Sadly Linux developers do not have your privacy foremost in their minds..
More like akin to bolting a jackbooted Stasi thug directly onto your face.
> It's the kind of thing that doesn't make me interested in any form of desktop or GUI open source development and hasn't for years. It's the same old bullshit
Wish I had mod points today I'd mod this right up ! +10 insightful.
The latest Gnome/Unity fiascos has put me completely off desktop Linux. There are so many areas of Linux that are in desperate need of improvement (pro audio apps, pro image manipulation apps, pro video apps) - not to mention all the usability bugs that never get fixed.
But what do the developers do ? Continually fuck around with the desktop metaphor, keep breaking things, continually "reinvent the wheel" (extremely badly), or needlessly trying to push new paradigms down our throats. "Hey we haven't rewritten subsystem X this week so let's throw out what we've got (thereby conveniently ignoring all the bugs) and let's write something entirely new (with all nwe bugs that will never be fixed) instead".
It's a huge, huge waste of time.
Not to mention the fact I'd got quite a number of people in my locaility to start using Ubuntu. When they pulled that Unity shit every single one of them was on my case complaining how the latest updates had broken their computer and "how can we get rid of this rubbish ?"
Desktop linux is a waste of time. Excellent server. Complete waste of time as a desktop. Constantly moving operational metaphors, not enough pro quality apps and no desire to fix bugs (let's make new buggy, shitty "shiny" instead)
There I've said it.
And those that don't want the content should not have to pay the ridiclous licence fee.
And let's not foget one important thing.
Any series of bytes, of any arbitary length, can be viewed as representing a number. In the case of a file containing (say) 100,000 bytes that's a large number but the point holds that the byte sequence can stil be viewed as a number.
And what's more ridiculous than trying to prevent people sharing a number ?
If that number, represented as a sequence of bytes, can be interpreted by some music playing software to produce sound well... that's just magic :)
If the latest desktop developments from Ubunut are any indication then I'm betting this phone will feature a standard desktop interface something like Gnome 2.0 or Mate.
A keyboard and mouse will be required to get the best experience :)
As long as it's made clear up front then people who buy this sort of crap deserve everything they get. Anyone moaning about it deserves a bitch slap.
On the other hand the companies producing this crap deserve to get ZERO sales and go out out business. Sadly though the great unwashed horde will just buy whatever crapola is dangled in front of them and then cry softly into their pillows when it doesn't work...
Ho hum :)
Yup. Damn straight.
If one bunch of cavemen has nukes everyone should have nukes. personally I think every individual should havea nuke as this would make for all round civilized discourse.
Firing defenceless animals off into space for their twisted pleasure ?
BOMB THE BASTARDS.
having looked at the web site the device costs about 75 euros. To do a job that I can do myself by simply looking at my plants and adding water/feed as required.
Oh well, if you've got money to burn...
>If you don't like it you can uninstall it.
That's like saying if someone shits in your bed you can always wash your bedding. The fact is that they shit in your bed.
You seem to forget that in the UK the word "unlimited" does not actually mean unlimited when it comes to bandwidth in internet connections. It means "some arbitary amount that we're nto going to tell you about in advance".