I can see that MS would want several Linux partners for several reasons: 1) When people want to go with a free OS, MS can push them towards the MS supported version so they will then be able to sell them Linux versions of applications. 2) No matter which government or country or industry decides they want to oust MS products from their IT departments, this gives MS a foot back in the door to start selling them more product again. "isatrap" is damned right. This play is simply MS try to re-assert its presence in those places it has been shut out of already.
Wow, what a difference a few years makes. The comparisons you use are strange. I take it you never used windows before NT or 95. What you are _REALLY_saying is that windows has been around so long, the windows way of doing things is what users expect... No, I'm not going to tell you that is a lame way of looking at things, but you seem to think that most users _KNOW_ how things are supposed to be and how they are supposed to work. I deal with users every day that don't know how to do even the simplest tasks in windows, and are amazed when someone knows such things off the top of their head. My point is that your comparison is falacious in that it makes an assumption about what _regular users_ know and want.
What I find is that they want a magic disc that they can put in the slot in the front of their "hard drive unit" and magically everything either works, or fixes itself. They are just as confused about having to run setup from a CD as they are about running an install script. Either one is a kind of "black magic" to them as they don't understand either. Many of them don't know if they have installed software or not, despite having run the installation CD.
The hunt for drivers or updates is something that all computer users used to have to do. The Linux desktop, while not exactly a shining example of easy to use/install software, is still a viable alternative, and if _regular people_ have to learn one OS or another, there is no reason not to learn Linux. Remember, _regular people_ are baffled by every OS, not just Linux. Your ranting is counter productive, and seems to settle on windows simply because its been here for a few years, and until every other OS looks and works like windows, then windows is the only OS to use. This is not sound logical reasoning.
Despite your disregard for my opinion (doesn't matter) the matter of counting brass tacks is in the meaning of counting final facts, or summarizing the facts:
Brass tacks is an object used in the popular expression "get down to the brass tacks". The expression usually means clearing out confusing details and finding out the real facts about something. The etymology of the expression likely has roots in the way fabric manufacturers used to mark out a yard in tacks on the counter so customers could buy their fabric accordingly.
Meaning that when you count the brass tacks, you have finalized the facts, or sale, or truth.
More MS FUD about being open, yet MS has never yet shown themselves to be anything but selfinterested proprietary money grabbers... Okay, yes, that sounds vaguely troll-like, but lets be realistic (no smoke without fire) and say, we really need to see genuine advances on the part of MS to believe anything they say, or that others might say nicely about them.
Not to be the boy who cried wolf, but why does anything that MS does that even sounds vaguely like Open Source make the news if it isn't Open Sourced? Just sounds like more FUD to me.... call me cynical, but I don't like when my OS calls home and does other things I don't want it to. When you count the brass tacks, this is just more propaganda
This, even if enforced, will not protect children from themselves, or the unscrupulous... it will, however, give polititians someone to roast on an open fire to make them look good in election years.... This should be the VFMA (vote for me act) as that is how it will be used, like many other bad laws in the US
{IANAL and other disclaimers here} The best thing about DVD Jon's work is that it proves, disturbingly and resoundingly, that the current *AA business model based on DRM is at best faulty, and at worst an attack on fair use and civil liberties. While that sounds a bit over the top, imagine a world where there were no DVD Jon's to show that the big corporations locks can be picked. Imagine a world where the emporer's new clothes were never laughed at?
The point being that this only serves to help illuminate, in the minds of lawmakers, how feeble the current DRM schemes and laws really are, whether the work is ultimately found illegal or not.
If you could preload half the code you run on the CPU over to a CPU/GPU chip, and cut down buss use by >50% by utilizing a 'smart' GPU chip, this should enhance overall system performance by tons in graphic intensive applications. Not to mention that it simplifies simpler system needs (say embedded or wireless) for smaller systems that require less space but provide required functionality with high graphics performance. Just my thought
I have a slightly cynical view of the corporate world. In my experience, corporate powermongers are most likely to do what is simply the best for their bottom line. The backlash on outsourcing is happening as we speak, without regard to your opinions on the subject. India is outsourcing to China, and the chain of events just gets more complex. Globalization will simply be the final effect of managers chasing ever last bit of 'value for money' that they can find. While finance institutions may not want to share their software with others, those 'others' will build systems that are then bought by finance companies, and viola! software is shared.
The problem of driving wages up or down, and creating competitions for jobs is a rather complex equation. As a manager, do you want to hire a team (at 1/2 the cost of USA counterparts) then spend 80% of the savings trying to communicate, or simply spend the full cost of local workers and get to market faster? That, being the simplification of the issue, is further complicated because the 50% savings rarely remains that high. Soon after the outsourcing contract, those cheap workers will want higher wages, more benefits, etc.
There is not much room for altruism, it will be those chasing the almighty dollar that causes globalization.
First a story about loss of privacy concerning personal data, now this story about Ronald taking your bank account login details? Why weren't fast food companies mentioned in 1984?
This has been going on for quite a long time now. Have you ever had the cable company ask for your SSN to see if they can give you service at your new home? I asked a guy in a phone boutique in the mall about a new handset; he wanted my phone service account login information to look it up for me! I see people give away this information every day to people that they should not trust, but do trust for some reason. Awareness of loss of privacy is the problem, or rather lack of it. Many people naively expect people to be trustworthy, especially when it comes to things they are not aware of, or informed about. Sadly, I think it will be a hard fight to make people aware of the precarious position that their private data is in.
I know it sounds troll like, but when will MS contemplate sending out Linux LiveCD's on patch Tuesday, AOL style, to every household as a way to fix zero-day attacks? It would fix zero-day attacks on all MS products all at once....
Well, its just a thought.... and would certainly be more interesting news than yet another MS product zero-day attack.
While it is true that computers and microcontrollers are showing up everywhere, that doesn't mean that stringing together a line of cubes with built-in ARM-9 controllers will replace that beefy database server in the data center. While the promise of 'the network is the computer' is coming true (to an extent; thank you Google), it will not end in a meshed network of small computers all talking to one another. At least I hope not, god what a security nightmare that would be!
Just another example of clever people taking advantage of anyone that is unfortunate enough to not know to click on unwanted popup things that ask them to click here, or enter your financial information etc.
The internet will not be safe, ever, because of those people. Yes, "click here to win a date with name-a-rising-star" will always find its way to someone that thinks there is some remote possibility that Bill Gates will pay you to forward emails, or that a music hall-of-famer needs a date from someone just like them. The human factor in security will always be the weakest link. ALWAYS.
This could be useful in many ways
on
A GUI For Books
·
· Score: 1
If you imagine this as a tablet pc, or electronic book, kids can get pronunciation and other learning information about the words they are reading, or even the content. Imagine HTML being used to its full potential. You get the quarterly report in summary form, and links take you to the additiona information that you wish to see by selecting from the menu presented when you click on a word or link...
The first time that I actually started to worry that FF might have a problem, and that I should be careful, it turns out to be a hoax. I don't know whether to be happy about this or not?
The video doesn't seem to verify in any way that this vehicle is any more controllable than those $20 plastic UFO things you can buy in the mall... the only control is up or down... ?? Its going to take some seasoned software/hardware to control the flight since the entire vehicle rotates. I'm guessing > $2500 in hardware just to get an attempt at controlled flights. That's just a guess, but there is a persistent problem with things that rotate... orientation. I'm thinking it will be difficult to even judge the angular velocity of the wing part? There is a huge amount of math to solve before it becomes useful.
Well, it doesn't take anything to put the Vonage router next to your cable modem, and put them both on your UPS. Of course, that will only last as long as your UPS works, its still better than nothing. The parent's argument is also falacious. When was the last time that you needed the phone when power was out? There are times, I agree, but its been decades since I needed both power and the phone and both were missing. In real emergencies, there is also a cell phone network, and more often than not, a neighbors phone. Paying 1/3 of the price, and not having that always powered service is a fair trade.
Most natural disasters take out the phones anyway, just the way things work most of the time. Oh, and things like 9/11... well, phone networks of all kinds are totally screwed. The current day situations where that always powered service comes in handy are few and far between. The extra cost isn't worth the security it brings.
The more present danger to Vonage or Skype service is the ISP blocking or dropping packets. Power is seldom an issue, and mostly used as FUD.
In most major metropolitan areas, as well as other places, cell phones are replacing landlines, and this totally screws the statistics on most if not all of the FUD use see from landline providers.
By switching cellular carriers (fixed rate plan) and to Vonage, I cut my phone bills > %50. I talk regularly to other countries (hours/day) and my Sidekick is a very cool phone. I have yet to use more minutes than I have on my plans, and Vonage has been very good value for money.
The arguments that other companies put out there are designer FUD to try to get a piece of the pie that Vonage and Skype grabbed hold of first.
I'll do without a VoIP or landline phone when power is out, charge my cellular in the car if need be, and deal with the problem that way... and I'll happily do it in the name of saving $80 or more per month.
Go ahead and think me a troll, but that extra money is seriously good to have.
Not that I'm completely sure of everything, but those old analogue phone lines that got replaced by Vonage service were insecure as can be, and Vonage didn't sell their service because its secure, they sold it because its CHEAPER! I'm also reasonably secure in thinking that Comcast has done more than just lie, I think they have done what they can to mess up how Vonage service routers work. Since Comcast changed to TimeWarner in my area, service has been much better, no dropped packets or dropped Vonage calls.
Comcast has every reason to be underhanded in their dealings with Vonage customers, and not much reason to be worried. Lets guess who spends lots of money in Washington D.C.? Vonage? or maybe its Comcast that spends more?
Verizon is also not trying to play nice either. They only want to offer good deals if you buy bundled services. This is business in the USA.
The whole argument about security is false, misleading, and only made to confuse customers... trouble is the media gets confused too. It doesn't matter what voice service you use, it is susceptible to interception, end of story. The only thing that you can hope to do is make it more difficult to intercept it. Military grade encryption end-to-end is not available, and the US government won't allow it to be used anyway if they can at all prevent its use. (think of the children, or think of the terrorists) So the argument about which VoIP service is secure is a totally mute point.
It is the blocking part without user interaction that provokes that 'just click ok' reflex all the time. When the OS (or any machine, service, etc.) coddles the user to the point that they don't know what they are doing, or having the computer do, it breeds ignorance. No, I'm not dumb enough to think that all computer users must be sysadmins, but software that deepens their ignorance is not good software. Intelligent software should tell user's what is happening, why(if possible), and what the software can do about it, and/or what the user should do about it. I know that clippy was pretty annoying, but a less annoying and more intelligent approach like clippy would help user's to make better security decisions in the future. Just two cents worth.
Just the other day, some/.er was trying to say that Linux isn't ready for primetime. While this might be taken out of context slightly, it doesn't look like Windows is ready for primetime either. More to the point, the differences between OS's is more a case of how many problems and what type of problems you are willing to put up with. I can't see this story as anything but a boon for the various Linux distributions, and of course, for Apple.
One facet of this comparison is that Linux (generally) does not claim to be perfect, or the best operating system to have. This, to me, looks like the playground bully trying to recover from having his pants fall down around his ankles.
While WGA is a plausibly good idea for someone that sells their software, the implementation of it has left a lot to be desired.
At least as I see things. That is the hope that in the 'exploitation' of this countersuit, the judge sees some evidence of wrong-doing by the RIAA, and that judge, in some way, agrees they are using anticompetative practices. If that is all that is firmly established in this court case, it is enough to let other lawyers build upon, or I hope that it is.
One thing is sure, as my grandpa used to say, there is no smoke without fire. The trouble is often seeing through the smoke to find the fire. I for one hope that Limewire and their lawyers at least make it more than slightly noticable to John Q. Public that the RIAA is anti-competative and anti-consumer. I hope they are able to blow aside the smoke so we all can see the smoldering fire of the RIAA's business model.
Slashdot Mirror
I can see that MS would want several Linux partners for several reasons: 1) When people want to go with a free OS, MS can push them towards the MS supported version so they will then be able to sell them Linux versions of applications. 2) No matter which government or country or industry decides they want to oust MS products from their IT departments, this gives MS a foot back in the door to start selling them more product again. "isatrap" is damned right. This play is simply MS try to re-assert its presence in those places it has been shut out of already.
Wow, what a difference a few years makes. The comparisons you use are strange. I take it you never used windows before NT or 95. What you are _REALLY_saying is that windows has been around so long, the windows way of doing things is what users expect... No, I'm not going to tell you that is a lame way of looking at things, but you seem to think that most users _KNOW_ how things are supposed to be and how they are supposed to work. I deal with users every day that don't know how to do even the simplest tasks in windows, and are amazed when someone knows such things off the top of their head. My point is that your comparison is falacious in that it makes an assumption about what _regular users_ know and want.
What I find is that they want a magic disc that they can put in the slot in the front of their "hard drive unit" and magically everything either works, or fixes itself. They are just as confused about having to run setup from a CD as they are about running an install script. Either one is a kind of "black magic" to them as they don't understand either. Many of them don't know if they have installed software or not, despite having run the installation CD.
The hunt for drivers or updates is something that all computer users used to have to do. The Linux desktop, while not exactly a shining example of easy to use/install software, is still a viable alternative, and if _regular people_ have to learn one OS or another, there is no reason not to learn Linux. Remember, _regular people_ are baffled by every OS, not just Linux. Your ranting is counter productive, and seems to settle on windows simply because its been here for a few years, and until every other OS looks and works like windows, then windows is the only OS to use. This is not sound logical reasoning.
Tonight, I think someone will mod you troll for that comment... oooohhhh
Despite your disregard for my opinion (doesn't matter) the matter of counting brass tacks is in the meaning of counting final facts, or summarizing the facts:
Brass tacks is an object used in the popular expression "get down to the brass tacks". The expression usually means clearing out confusing details and finding out the real facts about something. The etymology of the expression likely has roots in the way fabric manufacturers used to mark out a yard in tacks on the counter so customers could buy their fabric accordingly.
Meaning that when you count the brass tacks, you have finalized the facts, or sale, or truth.
YMMV
More MS FUD about being open, yet MS has never yet shown themselves to be anything but selfinterested proprietary money grabbers... Okay, yes, that sounds vaguely troll-like, but lets be realistic (no smoke without fire) and say, we really need to see genuine advances on the part of MS to believe anything they say, or that others might say nicely about them.
Not to be the boy who cried wolf, but why does anything that MS does that even sounds vaguely like Open Source make the news if it isn't Open Sourced? Just sounds like more FUD to me.... call me cynical, but I don't like when my OS calls home and does other things I don't want it to. When you count the brass tacks, this is just more propaganda
This, even if enforced, will not protect children from themselves, or the unscrupulous... it will, however, give polititians someone to roast on an open fire to make them look good in election years.... This should be the VFMA (vote for me act) as that is how it will be used, like many other bad laws in the US
{IANAL and other disclaimers here}
The best thing about DVD Jon's work is that it proves, disturbingly and resoundingly, that the current *AA business model based on DRM is at best faulty, and at worst an attack on fair use and civil liberties. While that sounds a bit over the top, imagine a world where there were no DVD Jon's to show that the big corporations locks can be picked. Imagine a world where the emporer's new clothes were never laughed at?
The point being that this only serves to help illuminate, in the minds of lawmakers, how feeble the current DRM schemes and laws really are, whether the work is ultimately found illegal or not.
If you could preload half the code you run on the CPU over to a CPU/GPU chip, and cut down buss use by >50% by utilizing a 'smart' GPU chip, this should enhance overall system performance by tons in graphic intensive applications. Not to mention that it simplifies simpler system needs (say embedded or wireless) for smaller systems that require less space but provide required functionality with high graphics performance. Just my thought
I have a slightly cynical view of the corporate world. In my experience, corporate powermongers are most likely to do what is simply the best for their bottom line. The backlash on outsourcing is happening as we speak, without regard to your opinions on the subject. India is outsourcing to China, and the chain of events just gets more complex. Globalization will simply be the final effect of managers chasing ever last bit of 'value for money' that they can find. While finance institutions may not want to share their software with others, those 'others' will build systems that are then bought by finance companies, and viola! software is shared.
The problem of driving wages up or down, and creating competitions for jobs is a rather complex equation. As a manager, do you want to hire a team (at 1/2 the cost of USA counterparts) then spend 80% of the savings trying to communicate, or simply spend the full cost of local workers and get to market faster? That, being the simplification of the issue, is further complicated because the 50% savings rarely remains that high. Soon after the outsourcing contract, those cheap workers will want higher wages, more benefits, etc.
There is not much room for altruism, it will be those chasing the almighty dollar that causes globalization.
First a story about loss of privacy concerning personal data, now this story about Ronald taking your bank account login details? Why weren't fast food companies mentioned in 1984?
This has been going on for quite a long time now. Have you ever had the cable company ask for your SSN to see if they can give you service at your new home? I asked a guy in a phone boutique in the mall about a new handset; he wanted my phone service account login information to look it up for me! I see people give away this information every day to people that they should not trust, but do trust for some reason. Awareness of loss of privacy is the problem, or rather lack of it. Many people naively expect people to be trustworthy, especially when it comes to things they are not aware of, or informed about. Sadly, I think it will be a hard fight to make people aware of the precarious position that their private data is in.
I know it sounds troll like, but when will MS contemplate sending out Linux LiveCD's on patch Tuesday, AOL style, to every household as a way to fix zero-day attacks? It would fix zero-day attacks on all MS products all at once....
Well, its just a thought.... and would certainly be more interesting news than yet another MS product zero-day attack.
While it is true that computers and microcontrollers are showing up everywhere, that doesn't mean that stringing together a line of cubes with built-in ARM-9 controllers will replace that beefy database server in the data center. While the promise of 'the network is the computer' is coming true (to an extent; thank you Google), it will not end in a meshed network of small computers all talking to one another. At least I hope not, god what a security nightmare that would be!
to build you a sand box to take care of all the new features but still protect your pc from all the evils of the world wide web.
Seriously, shouldn't 2.0 come equipped with some things that make it safer, not just more flashy?
Just another example of clever people taking advantage of anyone that is unfortunate enough to not know to click on unwanted popup things that ask them to click here, or enter your financial information etc.
The internet will not be safe, ever, because of those people. Yes, "click here to win a date with name-a-rising-star" will always find its way to someone that thinks there is some remote possibility that Bill Gates will pay you to forward emails, or that a music hall-of-famer needs a date from someone just like them. The human factor in security will always be the weakest link. ALWAYS.
If you imagine this as a tablet pc, or electronic book, kids can get pronunciation and other learning information about the words they are reading, or even the content. Imagine HTML being used to its full potential. You get the quarterly report in summary form, and links take you to the additiona information that you wish to see by selecting from the menu presented when you click on a word or link...
Oh wait...
Never mind
Is it just me, or is everyone else having trouble understanding why this is news.
Ants are invading picnics... news at 11.
The first time that I actually started to worry that FF might have a problem, and that I should be careful, it turns out to be a hoax. I don't know whether to be happy about this or not?
The video doesn't seem to verify in any way that this vehicle is any more controllable than those $20 plastic UFO things you can buy in the mall... the only control is up or down... ?? Its going to take some seasoned software/hardware to control the flight since the entire vehicle rotates. I'm guessing > $2500 in hardware just to get an attempt at controlled flights. That's just a guess, but there is a persistent problem with things that rotate... orientation. I'm thinking it will be difficult to even judge the angular velocity of the wing part? There is a huge amount of math to solve before it becomes useful.
but it is nice to see the playground bully get a black eye, whether he deserved it or not.
Well, it doesn't take anything to put the Vonage router next to your cable modem, and put them both on your UPS. Of course, that will only last as long as your UPS works, its still better than nothing. The parent's argument is also falacious. When was the last time that you needed the phone when power was out? There are times, I agree, but its been decades since I needed both power and the phone and both were missing. In real emergencies, there is also a cell phone network, and more often than not, a neighbors phone. Paying 1/3 of the price, and not having that always powered service is a fair trade.
Most natural disasters take out the phones anyway, just the way things work most of the time. Oh, and things like 9/11... well, phone networks of all kinds are totally screwed. The current day situations where that always powered service comes in handy are few and far between. The extra cost isn't worth the security it brings.
The more present danger to Vonage or Skype service is the ISP blocking or dropping packets. Power is seldom an issue, and mostly used as FUD.
In most major metropolitan areas, as well as other places, cell phones are replacing landlines, and this totally screws the statistics on most if not all of the FUD use see from landline providers.
By switching cellular carriers (fixed rate plan) and to Vonage, I cut my phone bills > %50. I talk regularly to other countries (hours/day) and my Sidekick is a very cool phone. I have yet to use more minutes than I have on my plans, and Vonage has been very good value for money.
The arguments that other companies put out there are designer FUD to try to get a piece of the pie that Vonage and Skype grabbed hold of first.
I'll do without a VoIP or landline phone when power is out, charge my cellular in the car if need be, and deal with the problem that way... and I'll happily do it in the name of saving $80 or more per month.
Go ahead and think me a troll, but that extra money is seriously good to have.
Not that I'm completely sure of everything, but those old analogue phone lines that got replaced by Vonage service were insecure as can be, and Vonage didn't sell their service because its secure, they sold it because its CHEAPER! I'm also reasonably secure in thinking that Comcast has done more than just lie, I think they have done what they can to mess up how Vonage service routers work. Since Comcast changed to TimeWarner in my area, service has been much better, no dropped packets or dropped Vonage calls.
Comcast has every reason to be underhanded in their dealings with Vonage customers, and not much reason to be worried. Lets guess who spends lots of money in Washington D.C.? Vonage? or maybe its Comcast that spends more?
Verizon is also not trying to play nice either. They only want to offer good deals if you buy bundled services. This is business in the USA.
The whole argument about security is false, misleading, and only made to confuse customers... trouble is the media gets confused too.
It doesn't matter what voice service you use, it is susceptible to interception, end of story. The only thing that you can hope to do is make it more difficult to intercept it. Military grade encryption end-to-end is not available, and the US government won't allow it to be used anyway if they can at all prevent its use. (think of the children, or think of the terrorists) So the argument about which VoIP service is secure is a totally mute point.
It is the blocking part without user interaction that provokes that 'just click ok' reflex all the time. When the OS (or any machine, service, etc.) coddles the user to the point that they don't know what they are doing, or having the computer do, it breeds ignorance. No, I'm not dumb enough to think that all computer users must be sysadmins, but software that deepens their ignorance is not good software. Intelligent software should tell user's what is happening, why(if possible), and what the software can do about it, and/or what the user should do about it. I know that clippy was pretty annoying, but a less annoying and more intelligent approach like clippy would help user's to make better security decisions in the future. Just two cents worth.
Just the other day, some /.er was trying to say that Linux isn't ready for primetime. While this might be taken out of context slightly, it doesn't look like Windows is ready for primetime either. More to the point, the differences between OS's is more a case of how many problems and what type of problems you are willing to put up with. I can't see this story as anything but a boon for the various Linux distributions, and of course, for Apple.
One facet of this comparison is that Linux (generally) does not claim to be perfect, or the best operating system to have. This, to me, looks like the playground bully trying to recover from having his pants fall down around his ankles.
While WGA is a plausibly good idea for someone that sells their software, the implementation of it has left a lot to be desired.
At least as I see things. That is the hope that in the 'exploitation' of this countersuit, the judge sees some evidence of wrong-doing by the RIAA, and that judge, in some way, agrees they are using anticompetative practices. If that is all that is firmly established in this court case, it is enough to let other lawyers build upon, or I hope that it is.
One thing is sure, as my grandpa used to say, there is no smoke without fire. The trouble is often seeing through the smoke to find the fire. I for one hope that Limewire and their lawyers at least make it more than slightly noticable to John Q. Public that the RIAA is anti-competative and anti-consumer. I hope they are able to blow aside the smoke so we all can see the smoldering fire of the RIAA's business model.