This and the lack of official support for servers is a huge problem for me.
I'd love to be able to set up WebDAV or have streaming video from home to wherever I am. I can't do it because most providers (and all the providers in my area) don't have fast enough upstream speeds and don't allow servers
The justification of lack of server support is twofold. First it's that you shouldn't make money off of their service unless you overpay for a "business" connection. (Which is BS. Bandwidth is bandwidth.) The second is that you'll use up everyone else's bandwidth, which is also BS. If they can provide 100Mbps downstream, I'll take 50Mbps BOTH WAYS for the same price. Fair's fair, right?
There's an autofill extension for Firefox already. I like it because it has multiple profiles and password protection. I have a profile for each ecommerce system my company uses. It saves a lot of time making up information that I'll be able to find int he database easily.
It's not just kiddie porn that's a problem. A lot of broadband companies will instantly turn off your connection if you go over your (often invisible) bandwidth ceiling or if you upload music or movies using BitTorrent.
At any rate, secure your damn network and any other network you set up. It takes maybe 5 minutes and is worth the hassle.
And if you want to set up a free WAP be sure to make it known that it's free and block all the ports for file sharing software.
If I leave a set of tools on my front step and it disappears, then I see my neighbor with it, just how mad can I be for having left it out for anyone to walk off with?
That analogy doesn't work because they can still use the wireless network while you're using it. A better one would be if you had a large estate with a long driveway and found people using the driveway as a way to get access to the state game lands near your house. You can still use the driveway, and suffer no ill effects from people using it. If you don't want people to use it, just put up a gate or a No Trespassing sign.
gcc? Yes.
php? Yes, but there's an even better distro with an installer package
LaTeX? No, but it's right here, with a bunch of apps that all act like they're supposed to.
Python? Yep. Just did a neat thing today with Quartz graphics and python, adding watermarks to PDFs.
And when I mean "just work" I mean not having dependencies to track down, having software upgrades that are easy, easy integration between apps. None of those things exist in Linux.
Don't blame windows for dumbing down the interface. Windows just copied Apple.
I can say that because I'm a Mac user. It's amazing what people will go through to get Linux to work, or even Windows. I like my computer to 'just work' and get out of my way.
Yes. Because I have nothing better to do than buy an internet connectin, set up DynDNS for all my friends and family and ssh in whenever they want software or have a problem.
Apple did the same thing. They created strict UI guidelines for developers to follow and a free development environment to build them in. There's already been an explosion in the Mac shareware market, but the difficulty isnt' finding an app that's useable (something I know all to well in Windows), the difficulty is finding the best app out of a group of equals.
And because every app has a similar look and feel and similary keyboard commands, every app acts like the other one, so there's no retraining.
I've had lots of fun amazing friends and relatives with it. "How did you do that?!"
You must have pretty advanced friends and relatives. Mine gave me the same reaction when they saw the cube transition during an iPhoto slideshow.
I have one of the base models (1.25Ghz, 256MB RAM, 40GB HD) that I use for a small home server. I had thought that it would be dreadfully slow compared to my Powerbook, which is the very top of the line (or, well, was the top of the line).
I was pleasantly suprised to find it was perfect for web, email, and word processing. It's even fast enough to use iPhoto.
So while it's not powerful per se, it's good enough for almost everybody.
Coal plants with scrubber technology do nothing to stop the release of greenhouse gasses or decrease our dependence on fossil fuels. I understand why Greenpeace is opposed to them.
Fission plants produce material that can be used in weapons or remains hazardous for hundreds of thousands or millions of years. I can understand why Greenpeace is opposed to them.
Fusion power plants have neither of these problems. They use water for fuel and produce material that isn't fissionable and is safe after about 50 years.
However, they do give an excuse for governments, corporations and people to not move toward a safe, clean energy grid made up of wind, solar, biofuels and maybe fusion. From this reasoning I can understand why Greenpeace would have trepidation.
Or they could not understand what nuclear fusion is and have a knee-jerk reaction.
Either way, criticizing them as anti-progress is wrong. I was at one of their mercury testing events where they served coffee that was brewed with solar power. They're nice people, and the chicks were really cute.
Not just solar cells, but wind power plants. The US is one of the few countries that can have an energy surplus by building wind power. If we build wind power plants across the midwest in the same fields we grow corn or raise cattle in, we could power the electrical grid 8 times over or produce enough hydrogen to power every automobile in the country and power the electrical grid 3 times over.
With this precedent, if someone steals a car on my property because I have a parking lot, I should be punished because by having a parking lot I encouraged the car thief to come by and steal a car.
At least this will mean more people will use public transportation.
I would rather see us live in harmony (as far as internet/advertising goes) and working on creating better services.
And if everyone just did their jobs and were smiling happy people, total communism would work and there'd be no war.
What you describe is impossible. The only thing we can do is make the fact that people are greedy, selfish, immature and irrational work to our advantage.
One of the things I've loved about being a Mac user is the really great applications from small developers. Delicious Library, Adium, Transmit, Burning Monkey Solitaire, OmniGraffle; all great apps.
While I'm sure that these great apps won't go away once we switch to Intel, I'm afraid they'll get lost in the dreck that's out there for PCs as things get ported over.
The problem is that we're not dealing with people. A corporation that holds data on tens of millions of people will only protect that data to a degree that it is still profitable to collect it. That is to say, they will weigh the risks and costs of a break in against the cost of security and choose the level of security that will give them profit.
Without government mandated security or huge penalties for leaking data from lawsuits, there is no real impetus to put up more than a token security system. And with a corporatist government in power fighting for tort 'reform,' neither of those things are going to happen.
There are better ways of doing that, however. Since the computer needs WiFi, why not send a traceroute out and get the information from there? The first node I come to has geographic information (*.lncstr01.pa.comcast.net). That should be enough to let you know you're in Lancaster, PA.
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I'd love to be able to set up WebDAV or have streaming video from home to wherever I am. I can't do it because most providers (and all the providers in my area) don't have fast enough upstream speeds and don't allow servers
The justification of lack of server support is twofold. First it's that you shouldn't make money off of their service unless you overpay for a "business" connection. (Which is BS. Bandwidth is bandwidth.) The second is that you'll use up everyone else's bandwidth, which is also BS. If they can provide 100Mbps downstream, I'll take 50Mbps BOTH WAYS for the same price. Fair's fair, right?
There's an autofill extension for Firefox already. I like it because it has multiple profiles and password protection. I have a profile for each ecommerce system my company uses. It saves a lot of time making up information that I'll be able to find int he database easily.
At any rate, secure your damn network and any other network you set up. It takes maybe 5 minutes and is worth the hassle.
And if you want to set up a free WAP be sure to make it known that it's free and block all the ports for file sharing software.
That analogy doesn't work because they can still use the wireless network while you're using it. A better one would be if you had a large estate with a long driveway and found people using the driveway as a way to get access to the state game lands near your house. You can still use the driveway, and suffer no ill effects from people using it. If you don't want people to use it, just put up a gate or a No Trespassing sign.
php? Yes, but there's an even better distro with an installer package
LaTeX? No, but it's right here, with a bunch of apps that all act like they're supposed to.
Python? Yep. Just did a neat thing today with Quartz graphics and python, adding watermarks to PDFs.
And when I mean "just work" I mean not having dependencies to track down, having software upgrades that are easy, easy integration between apps. None of those things exist in Linux.
I can say that because I'm a Mac user. It's amazing what people will go through to get Linux to work, or even Windows. I like my computer to 'just work' and get out of my way.
Yes. Because I have nothing better to do than buy an internet connectin, set up DynDNS for all my friends and family and ssh in whenever they want software or have a problem.
And because every app has a similar look and feel and similary keyboard commands, every app acts like the other one, so there's no retraining.
I've had lots of fun amazing friends and relatives with it. "How did you do that?!" You must have pretty advanced friends and relatives. Mine gave me the same reaction when they saw the cube transition during an iPhoto slideshow.
I have one of the base models (1.25Ghz, 256MB RAM, 40GB HD) that I use for a small home server. I had thought that it would be dreadfully slow compared to my Powerbook, which is the very top of the line (or, well, was the top of the line).
I was pleasantly suprised to find it was perfect for web, email, and word processing. It's even fast enough to use iPhoto.
So while it's not powerful per se, it's good enough for almost everybody.
(Am I the only one who spotted the two in that dream sequence?)
Aqualad just had an interview on /. Maybe you could ask him for help.
Fission plants produce material that can be used in weapons or remains hazardous for hundreds of thousands or millions of years. I can understand why Greenpeace is opposed to them.
Fusion power plants have neither of these problems. They use water for fuel and produce material that isn't fissionable and is safe after about 50 years.
However, they do give an excuse for governments, corporations and people to not move toward a safe, clean energy grid made up of wind, solar, biofuels and maybe fusion. From this reasoning I can understand why Greenpeace would have trepidation.
Or they could not understand what nuclear fusion is and have a knee-jerk reaction.
Either way, criticizing them as anti-progress is wrong. I was at one of their mercury testing events where they served coffee that was brewed with solar power. They're nice people, and the chicks were really cute.
* More proof that nobody is entirely evil.
Not just solar cells, but wind power plants. The US is one of the few countries that can have an energy surplus by building wind power. If we build wind power plants across the midwest in the same fields we grow corn or raise cattle in, we could power the electrical grid 8 times over or produce enough hydrogen to power every automobile in the country and power the electrical grid 3 times over.
Is this decision the end of the sports car?
At least this will mean more people will use public transportation.
Attention Marketdroids: You suck.
The horror!
If doubleclick were like Ford they would have bought out Mozilla and eliminated AdBlocking, just like Ford and others did with streetcars.
And if everyone just did their jobs and were smiling happy people, total communism would work and there'd be no war.
What you describe is impossible. The only thing we can do is make the fact that people are greedy, selfish, immature and irrational work to our advantage.
Figure that out and then get back to me.
While I'm sure that these great apps won't go away once we switch to Intel, I'm afraid they'll get lost in the dreck that's out there for PCs as things get ported over.
Without government mandated security or huge penalties for leaking data from lawsuits, there is no real impetus to put up more than a token security system. And with a corporatist government in power fighting for tort 'reform,' neither of those things are going to happen.
Maybe they're making the point that in 2056 web designers will still think that bandwidth is there to be exploited.
There are better ways of doing that, however. Since the computer needs WiFi, why not send a traceroute out and get the information from there? The first node I come to has geographic information (*.lncstr01.pa.comcast.net). That should be enough to let you know you're in Lancaster, PA.