Then again, browser traffic depends greatly on your target audience. I'll bet that/. gets more than it's fair share of mozilla/gecko/KHTML based browsers along with ThinkGeek, sourceforge and freshmeat to name a few. Something a little more (don't flame me for this please) mainstream may have to reconsider their users tech knowledge/usage though.
There's serveral reasons that Linux doesn't work for a lot of people, and sometimes, I can sympathize. I actually run a Fedora 4 box and Windows 2000 right now, and this is my experience in the problems:
A lot of hardware doesn't work well for Linux (or takes an enormous amount of tweaking) because a lot of hardware vendors don't open source their drivers and so the community must be users and semi-hardware developers to help eachother to get things working. Although my nVidia 6800 GT actually gets better perforance in Linux than it did in windows;) However, there is a giant community of users more than eager to help eachother out when getting started or even finding expert advice.
A lot of services don't work as well in Linux because the vendors don't see it worth paying someone else to support a platform with such a small user base and/or they don't want to learn a new system to support. Micro$oft has made sure that IE still won't comply with the new CSS standards in IE7, and with such a large percentage or the market, they enforce their proprietary garbage on everyone. This makes things incompatible on many platforms because a lot of companies only want to worry about the 80-90% of users that have Windows computers. It's been a somewhat recent trend to support the mac, and that's just plain sad. In time, we can hope that with the server market victories, the desktop can follow.
With about 8 bazillion different distros of Linux, it's possible that a person could pick up Gentoo and quit before they even have their system compiled, while other flavors are built to help people get used to Linux. Sometimes, people just get a really bad first impression. You just have to find the right customization for you.
The most important thing that I've seen holding Linux back is advocacy. I see many who are not advocates, but zealots (I used to be guilty too), and that scares many people away from trying it. Linux isn't for everyone, but I love it for certain purposes. I play games with Windows, and I program on Linux. It's a setup that works for me, but not everyone's story can be the same.
No perception grants an actually greater level of security, but perception can grant one a level of anonymity. Microsoft is not targeted because it is widely used, I have not claimed that, and that is where you seem to have interpreted pieces of my statements. However, it is targeted because it is widely hated. Teenagers are more likely to vandalize a car if they know it belongs to their school principal.
The security granted from anonymity is not *actual security* based upon the system's merits, but still has influence.
I understand your point completely, but what I mean is that a large factor in why Windows gets hacked as often as it does compared to other platforms is because of the Microsoft image. Linux isn't perfect and neither is any other system for that matter, but Windows, being such a widely despised OS is what helps provoke people to break it.
I'm not trying to make definitive statements for everything, but simply provide some insight. Please don't take everything I say as such a literal maxim.
Any Windows problem is an evergreen issue, but the fact of the matter is that it won't be difficult to fix it: It will be time consuming. Some dark and foreboding feeling in my chest tells me that we won't see the end of these 'new security risks' until at least Service Pack 1.
What I think/. really needs is a non-geek-friendly site for the masses to inform those that wouldn't normally be smart enough to know to just use Safari/Firefox/whatever instead of trusting Windows to do anything with any measure of accuracy or reliability. I've learned a lot from some linked articles and other users on this site in a relatively short amount of time, but this is just a "Well DUH!" issue that should be reserved for the M$ developers who need to fix it:)
It's not just a matter of a bad implementation. Even seasoned sysadmin pros will tell you that part of the reason Linux is so secure is because the public doesn't perceive it as The Enemy and script kiddies don't think it's so much fun to take apart and take out a RedHat server as a Window Server 2003 one.
Of course Micro$oft will completely screw up RSS implementation, and that's to be expected with almost everything they do except marketing, but what will make RSS the new medium for M$ worms is that M$ has established itself as a target. People want M$ dead and they think it's fun to destroy it even though the illeterate computer user may think that they have to buy a new computer. OS X won't suffer as much because Apple isn't a hated monolith in the tech industry. M$, on the other hand, has such a reputation that everything they make walks around with a red target on it. It won't be long before people crack open the protocol and exploit it only because it's M$. It doesn't make it right, but that should be the majority of the RSS worm problem for the future.
He even looks like the typical bald Denny's manager. And he looked about as smart as one when he tried to tell people that Windows Server 2003 was more secure than RedHat 6:)
I see the business in Ballmer's statement, but this is a PR gamble much unlike those of yore. Usually, to keep people from screaming about monopolies, Micro$oft has typically put on the happy face of friendship and embraced opponents with open arms in the face of oncoming cameras and recorders. This is the first time I've ever heard them say (albiet, in business terms) "We fucked up" in any given market. Usually, they redirect the issue as if it's 'back in further development' and that the competition is simply 'good' and go on to the newest big and bold plan. This is a curious first for them. I'm not sure whether to be relieved or frightened at what it may portend.
While the PR from Motorola on this makes it look like nothing but hype for Motorola, it would be an interesting concept to take a stab at. However, M$ plans on making phones that will kill off the iPod, and while I don't think this will happen, a good enough media phone could kill the Shuffle. If Apple plays this right, they could outdate their own shuffle with an enhanced capacity iTunes phone, and destroy Micro$oft's dream at the same time.
And there's more. While I'm not the expert on this, it seems quite possible that AMD has had this case ready to go for some time now. There was a sudden rush for 64-bit (despite many software shortcomings to suit the architecture), and then the realtively short gap before the dual-cores hit the market. With this kind of CPU war that I've been seeing, it's not only (great | just plain) publicity, but it's well timed. How many of the major online custom PC builders offer the AMD X2? Not as many as the Intel dual-core.
Methinks, AMD hopes to turn the tide from being the niche market of gamers/power users to a gereral audience.
I just hope, for thier sake, that this all works out. I hope, for my sake, that an X2 will finally be affordable for me:)
Thanks for the clarification. I was only aware of most of that in a more general sense. But also, from my legal knowledge, I've seen cases filed and won on no no real grounds such as Dell vs. Michael Dell about the domain dellwebsites.com, which was owned by a web designer whose last name was Dell. I think Apple should be pretty safe by now, but these days, technology IP is a vicious bloodthirsty place.
But to hell with all the legal mish-mash for now, yay podcasting!
I think this is absolutely zippy. Though what I have to wonder about is this: Isn't Apple going through/finishing a patent violation suit already? I've heard of a few cases attempting to get their way into the courts for podcasts' ability to distribute copyrighted material (see also: BetaMAX circa-way too damn long ago for this to still be an issue). I wonder if anyone will try to raise hell against Apple for 'built in piracy abilities'
I realize that such claims may not always be legitimate, but neither are half of the lawsuits out there. Stride confidently, but still carry a big stick.
But until any of that mess ever happens (if it ever does) I'm happy with this. It's one more integrated media component until mac releases its intel machines, and I'll get one of those:)
This sounds fascinating in every respect, but for the moment, I'll sit the in ER lobby holding my spleen in my left hand until they give me the rest of the article.
While they said that there is no brain damage, I want to know how long it was from revival to testing for damage. Besides, damage to the frontal lobe can be microscopic and yet completely change a human's personality. While the procedure isn't blunt trauma, I would have to wonder about the long term possiblities of some kind of neurochemical backlash or anything of the like. Once they've figured out all of that, then I'll put my organs in a wheelbarrow for them to stich me back up as a new recruit for The Horde.
SCO can bid all they want, but they've already made their stain in the technology world. Darl made himself the most hated man in tech faster than Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer combined in a shorter period of time. I could say that it's nice to see OSS in a UNIX system, but the course of action they've taken is mostly impossible to reverse. It's as meaningless as M$ telling the world that they'll open source Windoze. I'm not really sure this does any good considering the audience they've already alienated and the server market that Linux is gathering for itself based on its merits rather than marketing and property rights.
It seems like every time the RIAA (or any of their partners) tries to come up with a P2P middle ground, it just ends up sounding more and more rediculous. iTunes is a giant hit with a few other legitimate services gaining popularity, and illegal trade still happens, but all this grey area is sounding really stupid. Either you swap and hope you don't get caught or purchase legally.
I could be wrong, but this doesn't seem like an area that can be easily worked out without splitting into polar opposite capmps. Honestly, a good compromise leaves everyone pissed off. (At least in this situation)
I think the obsession with blogging comes from the same desire for watching 'Reality TV'. In many ways, I think people are becoming escapist and seeking to live through others to compensate for their own lack of experience. Also, there is a growing perverse desire to spy on people and find out their inner secrets. Even though blogs and reality TV are shown publicly for anyone to view, there is still some sense of detachment in that the person viewed or read about isn't physically there.
Pop/poop culture aside- blogs are becoming so popular lately that I don't even tell most people that I have one because I don't want to hear about how theirs' is all about their personal life (which they then recite to me). But like most trends, it will die away. Remember all those crappy looking GeoCities and AOL pages in the early days of public internet? I do.
I don't really identify with most trends that pop/poop culture follows, but when they all find something new to stare at, the people who still care to write can write without the white noise of daily activity journals and marketing can find something else to scan.
I have to admit, this is honestly a decent idea. The thing I have noticed about 'blogs' and journals and such is that they've made expression on the internet much more coherent than it used to be. Once you weed out all of the "OMFG! I was so...", you only have to scan for keywords to find out what is on the mind of the writer. I've seen documentaries about traditional marketing, and the methods were atrocious. Usually, the market researcher would do a street study and find a handful of the trendiest people for the demographic and ask them their questions. Now, they can practically run a spider on blogspot, modblog and livejournal and have results that aren't so biased on personal appearance and managablity.
Besides, if they ran a study and hit http://fiz4pope.modblog.com/, then we'd be in for a hell of a surprise. Or maybe I'd just be locked up.
The internet will evolve. I realize that po(o)p-ups are still present in the modern internet browsing experience, but the form of ads have changed throughout the years, and when pop-ups become obsolete, change will continue.
When the primative JavaScript pop-ups of yesteryear started to phase out, email signature ads became more popular. Now we see Google adwords on almost half the blogs you can imagine today. And someday, we may find a way to kill the pop-up for good, but maybe they'll make a smarter pop-up.
I'm sure the bloodsucking fiends in marketing will think of something. They always do;)
Build a better spam guard and we'll build better spammers. Security measures that claim to be 'enhanced' will just drive the culprits to create software to fake a sender ID. And, as afore mentioned, if that doesn't get results, then they hit the competition. I wish M$ could just 'take one for the team' and leave their crappy freemail as the universal spam redirect.
Before I'm declared as redundant, I'm trying to clarify the point that has been screamed out already.
What baffles me the most about Opera being identified as IE has nothing to do with market share or overall browser dominance. It confuses me because Opera is written to be standards compliant. I don't care if they identify themselves as The Enemy but I can't see it being any benefit to Opera to associate their browser with one that goes against everything Opera stands for. I would have thought that it would be more likely to identify itself as Mozilla or in its own classification so as to tell everyone "X percent of the market uses the only browser to (soon if not already) pass the Acid2 test."
I'm not confused by the market share, but rather the question of identity and the quest for compliance with standards versus proprietary stagnation.
I think it's mostly because the pop-American trend for TV is getting way too drama based. Every minute, the 'news' is telling you:
"Your neighborhood is no longer safe. Is the government cheating you out of hard earned money? (Insert new crash diet) is sweeping the nation with reports of (success | hospitalization). More breaking coverage on celebrities that you'll never meet."
They realized that they don't need content anymore as long as watching becomes an experience comparable to a rollercoaster or new horror/suspense film. And now it can be delivered in high quality video. Pretty soon, news video pages will be virtual copies of iFilm.com:)
Slashdot Mirror
Then again, browser traffic depends greatly on your target audience. I'll bet that /. gets more than it's fair share of mozilla/gecko/KHTML based browsers along with ThinkGeek, sourceforge and freshmeat to name a few. Something a little more (don't flame me for this please) mainstream may have to reconsider their users tech knowledge/usage though.
There's serveral reasons that Linux doesn't work for a lot of people, and sometimes, I can sympathize. I actually run a Fedora 4 box and Windows 2000 right now, and this is my experience in the problems:
;) However, there is a giant community of users more than eager to help eachother out when getting started or even finding expert advice.
A lot of hardware doesn't work well for Linux (or takes an enormous amount of tweaking) because a lot of hardware vendors don't open source their drivers and so the community must be users and semi-hardware developers to help eachother to get things working. Although my nVidia 6800 GT actually gets better perforance in Linux than it did in windows
A lot of services don't work as well in Linux because the vendors don't see it worth paying someone else to support a platform with such a small user base and/or they don't want to learn a new system to support. Micro$oft has made sure that IE still won't comply with the new CSS standards in IE7, and with such a large percentage or the market, they enforce their proprietary garbage on everyone. This makes things incompatible on many platforms because a lot of companies only want to worry about the 80-90% of users that have Windows computers. It's been a somewhat recent trend to support the mac, and that's just plain sad. In time, we can hope that with the server market victories, the desktop can follow.
With about 8 bazillion different distros of Linux, it's possible that a person could pick up Gentoo and quit before they even have their system compiled, while other flavors are built to help people get used to Linux. Sometimes, people just get a really bad first impression. You just have to find the right customization for you.
The most important thing that I've seen holding Linux back is advocacy. I see many who are not advocates, but zealots (I used to be guilty too), and that scares many people away from trying it. Linux isn't for everyone, but I love it for certain purposes. I play games with Windows, and I program on Linux. It's a setup that works for me, but not everyone's story can be the same.
No perception grants an actually greater level of security, but perception can grant one a level of anonymity. Microsoft is not targeted because it is widely used, I have not claimed that, and that is where you seem to have interpreted pieces of my statements. However, it is targeted because it is widely hated. Teenagers are more likely to vandalize a car if they know it belongs to their school principal.
The security granted from anonymity is not *actual security* based upon the system's merits, but still has influence.
And if you don't my asking, what's an FXP site?
Notice that I said "part" of the reason.
I understand your point completely, but what I mean is that a large factor in why Windows gets hacked as often as it does compared to other platforms is because of the Microsoft image. Linux isn't perfect and neither is any other system for that matter, but Windows, being such a widely despised OS is what helps provoke people to break it.
I'm not trying to make definitive statements for everything, but simply provide some insight. Please don't take everything I say as such a literal maxim.
Any Windows problem is an evergreen issue, but the fact of the matter is that it won't be difficult to fix it: It will be time consuming. Some dark and foreboding feeling in my chest tells me that we won't see the end of these 'new security risks' until at least Service Pack 1.
/. really needs is a non-geek-friendly site for the masses to inform those that wouldn't normally be smart enough to know to just use Safari/Firefox/whatever instead of trusting Windows to do anything with any measure of accuracy or reliability. I've learned a lot from some linked articles and other users on this site in a relatively short amount of time, but this is just a "Well DUH!" issue that should be reserved for the M$ developers who need to fix it :)
What I think
It's not just a matter of a bad implementation. Even seasoned sysadmin pros will tell you that part of the reason Linux is so secure is because the public doesn't perceive it as The Enemy and script kiddies don't think it's so much fun to take apart and take out a RedHat server as a Window Server 2003 one.
Of course Micro$oft will completely screw up RSS implementation, and that's to be expected with almost everything they do except marketing, but what will make RSS the new medium for M$ worms is that M$ has established itself as a target. People want M$ dead and they think it's fun to destroy it even though the illeterate computer user may think that they have to buy a new computer. OS X won't suffer as much because Apple isn't a hated monolith in the tech industry. M$, on the other hand, has such a reputation that everything they make walks around with a red target on it. It won't be long before people crack open the protocol and exploit it only because it's M$. It doesn't make it right, but that should be the majority of the RSS worm problem for the future.
He even looks like the typical bald Denny's manager. And he looked about as smart as one when he tried to tell people that Windows Server 2003 was more secure than RedHat 6 :)
I see the business in Ballmer's statement, but this is a PR gamble much unlike those of yore. Usually, to keep people from screaming about monopolies, Micro$oft has typically put on the happy face of friendship and embraced opponents with open arms in the face of oncoming cameras and recorders. This is the first time I've ever heard them say (albiet, in business terms) "We fucked up" in any given market. Usually, they redirect the issue as if it's 'back in further development' and that the competition is simply 'good' and go on to the newest big and bold plan. This is a curious first for them. I'm not sure whether to be relieved or frightened at what it may portend.
Is it just me, or do these all look like programming acronyms?
While the PR from Motorola on this makes it look like nothing but hype for Motorola, it would be an interesting concept to take a stab at. However, M$ plans on making phones that will kill off the iPod, and while I don't think this will happen, a good enough media phone could kill the Shuffle. If Apple plays this right, they could outdate their own shuffle with an enhanced capacity iTunes phone, and destroy Micro$oft's dream at the same time.
But Motorola will making the phone, won't that make it a BUTN?
"Thirty-two cores on one chip by 2010. You heard it first here."
;)
Actually, given the absurdity of that claim, I'll bet that Dvoraksaid it first
And there's more. While I'm not the expert on this, it seems quite possible that AMD has had this case ready to go for some time now. There was a sudden rush for 64-bit (despite many software shortcomings to suit the architecture), and then the realtively short gap before the dual-cores hit the market. With this kind of CPU war that I've been seeing, it's not only (great | just plain) publicity, but it's well timed. How many of the major online custom PC builders offer the AMD X2? Not as many as the Intel dual-core.
:)
Methinks, AMD hopes to turn the tide from being the niche market of gamers/power users to a gereral audience.
I just hope, for thier sake, that this all works out. I hope, for my sake, that an X2 will finally be affordable for me
Thanks for the clarification. I was only aware of most of that in a more general sense. But also, from my legal knowledge, I've seen cases filed and won on no no real grounds such as Dell vs. Michael Dell about the domain dellwebsites.com, which was owned by a web designer whose last name was Dell. I think Apple should be pretty safe by now, but these days, technology IP is a vicious bloodthirsty place.
But to hell with all the legal mish-mash for now, yay podcasting!
I think this is absolutely zippy. Though what I have to wonder about is this: Isn't Apple going through/finishing a patent violation suit already? I've heard of a few cases attempting to get their way into the courts for podcasts' ability to distribute copyrighted material (see also: BetaMAX circa-way too damn long ago for this to still be an issue). I wonder if anyone will try to raise hell against Apple for 'built in piracy abilities'
:)
I realize that such claims may not always be legitimate, but neither are half of the lawsuits out there. Stride confidently, but still carry a big stick.
But until any of that mess ever happens (if it ever does) I'm happy with this. It's one more integrated media component until mac releases its intel machines, and I'll get one of those
This sounds fascinating in every respect, but for the moment, I'll sit the in ER lobby holding my spleen in my left hand until they give me the rest of the article.
While they said that there is no brain damage, I want to know how long it was from revival to testing for damage. Besides, damage to the frontal lobe can be microscopic and yet completely change a human's personality. While the procedure isn't blunt trauma, I would have to wonder about the long term possiblities of some kind of neurochemical backlash or anything of the like. Once they've figured out all of that, then I'll put my organs in a wheelbarrow for them to stich me back up as a new recruit for The Horde.
If I remember correctly, the term would be Craniopagus conjoined twins.
SCO can bid all they want, but they've already made their stain in the technology world. Darl made himself the most hated man in tech faster than Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer combined in a shorter period of time. I could say that it's nice to see OSS in a UNIX system, but the course of action they've taken is mostly impossible to reverse. It's as meaningless as M$ telling the world that they'll open source Windoze. I'm not really sure this does any good considering the audience they've already alienated and the server market that Linux is gathering for itself based on its merits rather than marketing and property rights.
It seems like every time the RIAA (or any of their partners) tries to come up with a P2P middle ground, it just ends up sounding more and more rediculous. iTunes is a giant hit with a few other legitimate services gaining popularity, and illegal trade still happens, but all this grey area is sounding really stupid. Either you swap and hope you don't get caught or purchase legally.
I could be wrong, but this doesn't seem like an area that can be easily worked out without splitting into polar opposite capmps. Honestly, a good compromise leaves everyone pissed off. (At least in this situation)
I think the obsession with blogging comes from the same desire for watching 'Reality TV'. In many ways, I think people are becoming escapist and seeking to live through others to compensate for their own lack of experience. Also, there is a growing perverse desire to spy on people and find out their inner secrets. Even though blogs and reality TV are shown publicly for anyone to view, there is still some sense of detachment in that the person viewed or read about isn't physically there.
Pop/poop culture aside- blogs are becoming so popular lately that I don't even tell most people that I have one because I don't want to hear about how theirs' is all about their personal life (which they then recite to me). But like most trends, it will die away. Remember all those crappy looking GeoCities and AOL pages in the early days of public internet? I do.
I don't really identify with most trends that pop/poop culture follows, but when they all find something new to stare at, the people who still care to write can write without the white noise of daily activity journals and marketing can find something else to scan.
I have to admit, this is honestly a decent idea. The thing I have noticed about 'blogs' and journals and such is that they've made expression on the internet much more coherent than it used to be. Once you weed out all of the "OMFG! I was so...", you only have to scan for keywords to find out what is on the mind of the writer. I've seen documentaries about traditional marketing, and the methods were atrocious. Usually, the market researcher would do a street study and find a handful of the trendiest people for the demographic and ask them their questions. Now, they can practically run a spider on blogspot, modblog and livejournal and have results that aren't so biased on personal appearance and managablity.
Besides, if they ran a study and hit http://fiz4pope.modblog.com/, then we'd be in for a hell of a surprise. Or maybe I'd just be locked up.
The internet will evolve. I realize that po(o)p-ups are still present in the modern internet browsing experience, but the form of ads have changed throughout the years, and when pop-ups become obsolete, change will continue.
;)
When the primative JavaScript pop-ups of yesteryear started to phase out, email signature ads became more popular. Now we see Google adwords on almost half the blogs you can imagine today. And someday, we may find a way to kill the pop-up for good, but maybe they'll make a smarter pop-up.
I'm sure the bloodsucking fiends in marketing will think of something. They always do
Build a better spam guard and we'll build better spammers. Security measures that claim to be 'enhanced' will just drive the culprits to create software to fake a sender ID. And, as afore mentioned, if that doesn't get results, then they hit the competition. I wish M$ could just 'take one for the team' and leave their crappy freemail as the universal spam redirect.
Before I'm declared as redundant, I'm trying to clarify the point that has been screamed out already.
What baffles me the most about Opera being identified as IE has nothing to do with market share or overall browser dominance. It confuses me because Opera is written to be standards compliant. I don't care if they identify themselves as The Enemy but I can't see it being any benefit to Opera to associate their browser with one that goes against everything Opera stands for. I would have thought that it would be more likely to identify itself as Mozilla or in its own classification so as to tell everyone "X percent of the market uses the only browser to (soon if not already) pass the Acid2 test."
I'm not confused by the market share, but rather the question of identity and the quest for compliance with standards versus proprietary stagnation.
I think it's mostly because the pop-American trend for TV is getting way too drama based. Every minute, the 'news' is telling you:
:)
"Your neighborhood is no longer safe. Is the government cheating you out of hard earned money? (Insert new crash diet) is sweeping the nation with reports of (success | hospitalization). More breaking coverage on celebrities that you'll never meet."
They realized that they don't need content anymore as long as watching becomes an experience comparable to a rollercoaster or new horror/suspense film. And now it can be delivered in high quality video. Pretty soon, news video pages will be virtual copies of iFilm.com