I think we're forgetting the rather nice paper that was linked from Slashdot some weeks ago that stated quite clearly*,
It's not just the number of security exploits an O.S. or application has which makes it a bad or good choice, but the level of access allowed by the exploit and whether or not the exploit is accessable remotely or locally.
Context is just as important as content.
* Could someone reply and link that article please? I forget what it was called and I'd like a copy, thanks.
And nothing going on upstairs, evident by your choice in distro!
If it works for you, you use it. If you have no reason to change, why would you?
I'll probably get flamed for this but I'll admit it, I run Windows 2000 on my workstation.
[Waits for booing and hissing to stop.]
There are valid reasons for doing so - certain hardware drivers mainly but also there are applications I use that are simply not on Linux, such as a VRML viewer that follows the entire standard properly (keeping in mind I haven't looked in a month).
So there you go. Debian doing a fine server job that I have no reason to change it, and W2K doing it's job satisfactorily - no blue screens until I do them manually >:)
If you like Gentoo, use it. I applaude your energy and drive to actually find out what you can do with your computer rather than just accepting the crud that might have come with a store bought setup.
As for the rest of your comment, where did you get the mdma/e from?
I'm not saying he should be released with a simple "Naughty naughty!". I'd think that taking all of his material possessions and monetary wealth would be a pretty big punishment to a man who's made his life and living making "easy" money.
Add to that the promise that a minor infraction would land him in the pokey and I'd suspect that either, he'd go straight, or he'd be a better criminal later.
That's not perfect obviously, and I'm still thinking about the fine details.
I just think that there is something inherently wrong in a system that can punish non-violent criminals more then violent criminals.
A little OT, murder is a harsh thing, no less harsh than if it's done by the state or an individual.
You didn't bring this up but I'll use it as an illustration:
The death penalty goes beyond punishment in this case and verges into revenge, and a multiple sentence is preferable to simply killing the murderer.
What if s/he's an athiest? They won't regard it as punishment, merely the state "getting back at them".
$40? If you stole fourty dollars from a little old lady, I'd hold you down and let that little old lady kick the crap out of you. If it was a big multinational corporation, I'd do nothing, but I'd probably tell you,
`When they stole that money by cheating customers with shoddy merchandise, you became a parasite by stealing from the thieves.'
It's not hypocritical on my part until I say I'm not a parasite and then do the exact same thing.
Crime and punishment should be proportionate, and actually make the criminal feel sorry for what they have done. Otherwise it is simply state-endorsed revenge, and just as ugly and wrong as the crime committed.
I don't use Gentoo myself - the server downstairs runs Debian - but it's nice to see that it's moving forward, being updated, and being used.
It's good for people to have the ability to choose what they want, and if this revision encourages people who've previously tried Gentoo and found it in some way lacking - never tried it myself - then maybe they'll try it again and find what they missed the first time.
Forward my GNU/Linux friends, onwards to a less viral, more versatile, personally empowering digital horizon.
9 years in prison for what amounts to shoddy dealings.
Who was killed by Jeremy? Who was maimed by Jeremy? Who was raped by Jeremy?
Sure, fraud isn't nice, but wouldn't a more effective punishment, and deterrent for others, be to simply take away everything he's bought and accrued?
All money? Gone. All property? Gone. Divide it up and spread it around his home state's health and education services.
Make him bankrupt and let him get back on his feet like any other poor person with the threat hanging over his head that if he does one more illegal thing to do with fraud or money, then into prison he goes for a couple of years.
Murder, Rape, Arson, Assault with a Deadly Weapon, Armed Robbery... Things that actually do people or property physical harm can get less time than this.
His sentence isn't justice, it's ego-driven revenge.
How does Active Accessibility become a trademark? It's two common english words that could be used to describe anything.
My stairs have Active Accessibility. My bicycle has Active Accessibility. My television has Active Accessibility.
I can understand the need for a business to have recognisable trademarks. You don't want people to be chatting and one person says,
`I use Dogs Bollocks 2002. It's the best.'
And the other person thinks he's talking about a separate competitors product with the same name.
What I don't understand though is this apparent need companies have to register plain english (or whatever their native tongue is) words without any sort of company recognition built into the trademark.
Would it not be better to have,
`MS Active Accessibility' instead of plain `Active Accessibility' simply for the fact that it would possibly negate any confusion over whether I mean Microsoft's Active Accessibility or my stair's Active Accessibility?
And what about the poor bugger named Tex Murphy? Does he get into trouble any time his name comes up on the `Net along with something to do with games?
Putting aside the CD key problem for a moment, this seriously begs the question,
`Why shouldn't we, as consumers, pirate the games and send money orders of the retail purchase price directly to the game creators?'
Seriously, does anyone know how much money Vivendi Universal get per unit as the of HL2 publishers (in percentages)?
I would really like to play HL2. I've been waiting very patiently for it since seeing some demonstration movies, and now it's available, I'd like to purchase it, but I have a real problem with Vivendi Universal.
I wonder what the response (official and unofficial) from Valve would be if I emailed them and asked,
`Would you mind if I downloaded illegal copies of your games and sent you guys money orders for the retail purchase price?'
I bought a new Canon Pixma iP3000 for AU$218.00 at Big-W. It came with four full ink catridges - one black, one cyan, one magenta, and one yellow - and a separate print head that pops in an out as easy as the individual ink tanks that it cradles.
Actually, if you look at the cost of the ink cartridges as separate items, the printer itself cost just over AU$100.00.
I like it. It does what I need it to do, including printing on compact discs, has in-built duplexing (double-sided printing), and will take paper either from a top loading sheet feed or a tray that slides into it's base - automatically switching from one source to the other when original source is empty.
Unfortunately I don't think there's native drivers for linux but my workstation is a W2K box so it's not really a negative for me.
As to whether it could be monitoring me or not. {shrug}
Okay, so it's a real-time "god's eye-view" of the battlefield for military men to monitor theatres ala Command and Conquer style interfaces.
From the article:
[T]he Pentagon is building its own Internet, the military's world wide web for the wars of the future.
The goal is to give all American commanders and troops a moving picture of all foreign enemies and threats - "a God's-eye view" of battle.
This "Internet in the sky," Peter Teets, under secretary of the Air Force, told Congress, would allow "marines in a Humvee, in a faraway land, in the middle of a rainstorm, to open up their laptops, request imagery" from a spy satellite, and "get it downloaded within seconds."
I'm picturing something like...
Son-of-General (sitting in front of dead computer): `Aw crap, now how am I gonna play Age of Wonderous Dominions 2015 Extreme? I know! Dad!'
General (sitting in his study using a computer hooked into GiG): `What son?'
SoG: `I can't play my computer games dad? Can I use your computer?'
G: `I keep telling you son, this is a tool, not a toy. You can't play those games on here.'
SoG: `PleaseDadpleaseDadpleaseDadpleaseDad!'
G: `Of'er crying... Alright.'
SoG: `Thanks Dad!'
[Meanwhile out in the battlefield during a relatively quiet period...]
Sargeant: `Er, men, we've got new orders. It seems we have to,' (reads palmtop), `act like romans and attack the rampaging goth hordes. And Jackson,'
Jackson: `Sah!'
S (still reading palmtop): `Go shoot that tree.'
J: `Sah!' {blamblamblam}
...Shadowrun, the pencil and paper role play game (ignoring the whole mysticism aspect), or read William Gibson's books?
VoIP communications proliferating around the western world, phones with 3D-accelerated chipsets, desktops with 3D environments, UI's that operate via trodes on the skin, WAN's LAN's and PAN's integrating hardware, software, and wetware...
The technology is getting very cool. Now if only we can keep the politics out.
I can see a day when your ISP will link to another ISP via Wi-Max (or an equivelant tech), and another ISP, and another... creating an independant Internet not reliant on a wired and "restrained by Big Brother" infrastructure.
Your phone calls will be over VoIP through either your PC, PDA, or mobile phone. Your email will be routed through independant nodes remaining detached from governmental or multinational corporate infrastructure.
The space program will progress to the degree where many more privately owned satellites will be launched into space and create a global network that overcomes the latency and dataflow problems of satellite sheerly through it's if not anything else.
People, technically minded ones, will drive for more "personally empowering" software - mainly communications software that increases the speed, scope, and deliverable nature of all manner of data.
We will encounter a "wall" where the government tries to grasp control of this exponentially growing network, and the wall will be broken through.
These are strange days for tech. Big companies are embracing technology for the soul purpose of squeezing every dollar, pound, and euro out of it, while the public and the publically minded private enterprises are pushing for person-orientated tech.
We are looking at the beginning of a technological cold-war.
It's between you who would use the technology available to you to better your life, and those who would have you remain ignorant - eating happy sound-bites and tasting media tidbits.
Good for Siemens. I like it when companies put out useful tech. Hopefully they will produce more of this kind of technology in the future.
The copper is required, but if you read about about the technicalities of DSL then you see that your phone line can be "dry" or "dead".
From http://tldp.org - DSL-Howto (Section 2.3: Wiring/Installation Options):
* Dedicated Line. Some DSLs require a dedicated, or "dry", wire pair, e.g.
IDSL. This means a separate, physical line without dial-tone for DSL and
Internet connectivity. Also, DSL services from CLECs (independent telcos
like Covad), may use a dedicated line, depending on their line sharing
agreement with the local incumbent carrier. (Instead the CLEC will
actually lease a loop from the ILEC.) On your end, this simply means
using one of the unused wire pairs in the telco wire bundle, and
connecting it to the DSL jack.
I've seen this myself with my own DSL connection when my phone line was "dead" for half a day. No dialtone, no incoming or outgoing calls, but I had DSL.
Maybe we shouldn't have a dry or dead line for free - after all, it is held for you and you still use the DSLAM - but if you're not using the POTS system for calls, I don't think you should pay the same rental as someone actually making phone calls.
Slashdot Mirror
I think we're forgetting the rather nice paper that was linked from Slashdot some weeks ago that stated quite clearly*,
It's not just the number of security exploits an O.S. or application has which makes it a bad or good choice, but the level of access allowed by the exploit and whether or not the exploit is accessable remotely or locally.
Context is just as important as content.
* Could someone reply and link that article please? I forget what it was called and I'd like a copy, thanks.
Biomechanical sits at his desk doing a little bit of web design and decides he needs an image so he loads up GIMP.
He clicks, Start -> Programs -> GIMP -> GIMP 2, and GIMP starts loading.
Cue mental flashback...
Zed: `Bring out the gimp.'
Maynard: `But the gimp's sleeping.'
Zed: `Well I guess you'll have to go wake him up now, won't you.'
Now GIMP is loaded and Biomechanical is rubbing his nose into the thick shag carpet, a.l.a. dog in pain, trying to rub out a disturbing mental image.
BTW, I do like the movie.
I wonder if someone gave Dana Rohrabacher a copy of X2: The Threat or Vega Strike for his birthday?
After playing those for a few hours I always go outside and gaze up at the sky wistfully.
I hope Elite 4 is released soon.
We should give these games to more politicians around the world - with god mode pre-enabled - and say (lie outright),
`This could be you. Just forget the military and help us get into space.'
A boy's got to have his dreams.
"Forward my GNU/Linux friends, onwards to a less viral, more versatile, personally empowering digital horizon."
Oh shit...marketroids....
{chuckle}
Nah, I just thought it was a nice thing to finish on. Maybe it would give someone a laugh. :)
And nothing going on upstairs, evident by your choice in distro!
If it works for you, you use it. If you have no reason to change, why would you?
I'll probably get flamed for this but I'll admit it, I run Windows 2000 on my workstation.
[Waits for booing and hissing to stop.]
There are valid reasons for doing so - certain hardware drivers mainly but also there are applications I use that are simply not on Linux, such as a VRML viewer that follows the entire standard properly (keeping in mind I haven't looked in a month).
So there you go. Debian doing a fine server job that I have no reason to change it, and W2K doing it's job satisfactorily - no blue screens until I do them manually >:)
If you like Gentoo, use it. I applaude your energy and drive to actually find out what you can do with your computer rather than just accepting the crud that might have come with a store bought setup.
As for the rest of your comment, where did you get the mdma/e from?
Sorry for my ignorance but what is "mdma/e"?
I'm not saying he should be released with a simple "Naughty naughty!". I'd think that taking all of his material possessions and monetary wealth would be a pretty big punishment to a man who's made his life and living making "easy" money.
Add to that the promise that a minor infraction would land him in the pokey and I'd suspect that either, he'd go straight, or he'd be a better criminal later.
That's not perfect obviously, and I'm still thinking about the fine details.
I just think that there is something inherently wrong in a system that can punish non-violent criminals more then violent criminals.
A little OT, murder is a harsh thing, no less harsh than if it's done by the state or an individual.
You didn't bring this up but I'll use it as an illustration:
The death penalty goes beyond punishment in this case and verges into revenge, and a multiple sentence is preferable to simply killing the murderer.
What if s/he's an athiest? They won't regard it as punishment, merely the state "getting back at them".
$40? If you stole fourty dollars from a little old lady, I'd hold you down and let that little old lady kick the crap out of you. If it was a big multinational corporation, I'd do nothing, but I'd probably tell you,
`When they stole that money by cheating customers with shoddy merchandise, you became a parasite by stealing from the thieves.'
It's not hypocritical on my part until I say I'm not a parasite and then do the exact same thing.
Crime and punishment should be proportionate, and actually make the criminal feel sorry for what they have done. Otherwise it is simply state-endorsed revenge, and just as ugly and wrong as the crime committed.
I don't use Gentoo myself - the server downstairs runs Debian - but it's nice to see that it's moving forward, being updated, and being used.
It's good for people to have the ability to choose what they want, and if this revision encourages people who've previously tried Gentoo and found it in some way lacking - never tried it myself - then maybe they'll try it again and find what they missed the first time.
Forward my GNU/Linux friends, onwards to a less viral, more versatile, personally empowering digital horizon.
[Minor correction]
If those people who purchased "goods" from Jeremy can be tracked down, they should receive a full refund out of his accrued monies.
If not, then the state's health and education services should get them.
9 years in prison for what amounts to shoddy dealings.
Who was killed by Jeremy? Who was maimed by Jeremy? Who was raped by Jeremy?
Sure, fraud isn't nice, but wouldn't a more effective punishment, and deterrent for others, be to simply take away everything he's bought and accrued?
All money? Gone. All property? Gone. Divide it up and spread it around his home state's health and education services.
Make him bankrupt and let him get back on his feet like any other poor person with the threat hanging over his head that if he does one more illegal thing to do with fraud or money, then into prison he goes for a couple of years.
Murder, Rape, Arson, Assault with a Deadly Weapon, Armed Robbery... Things that actually do people or property physical harm can get less time than this.
His sentence isn't justice, it's ego-driven revenge.
MS Active Accessibility? Are you referring to MicroSoft Active Accessibility, or My Stair's Active Accessibility?
{Chuckle} Didn't notice that when I was writing. :)
And tell me that's not a case of a egotistical marketing think-tank.m icrosoft.com%2Flibrary%2Ftoolbar%2F3.0%2Ftrademark s%2Fen-us.mspx&siteId=3&oId=2100-1012-5449348&ontI d=7343&lop=nl.ex
[Link from news.com.com article] http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.
Second on the list: Active Accessibility.
How does Active Accessibility become a trademark? It's two common english words that could be used to describe anything.
My stairs have Active Accessibility. My bicycle has Active Accessibility. My television has Active Accessibility.
I can understand the need for a business to have recognisable trademarks. You don't want people to be chatting and one person says,
`I use Dogs Bollocks 2002. It's the best.'
And the other person thinks he's talking about a separate competitors product with the same name.
What I don't understand though is this apparent need companies have to register plain english (or whatever their native tongue is) words without any sort of company recognition built into the trademark.
Would it not be better to have, `MS Active Accessibility' instead of plain `Active Accessibility' simply for the fact that it would possibly negate any confusion over whether I mean Microsoft's Active Accessibility or my stair's Active Accessibility?
And what about the poor bugger named Tex Murphy? Does he get into trouble any time his name comes up on the `Net along with something to do with games?
Putting aside the CD key problem for a moment, this seriously begs the question,
`Why shouldn't we, as consumers, pirate the games and send money orders of the retail purchase price directly to the game creators?'
Seriously, does anyone know how much money Vivendi Universal get per unit as the of HL2 publishers (in percentages)?
I would really like to play HL2. I've been waiting very patiently for it since seeing some demonstration movies, and now it's available, I'd like to purchase it, but I have a real problem with Vivendi Universal.
I wonder what the response (official and unofficial) from Valve would be if I emailed them and asked,
`Would you mind if I downloaded illegal copies of your games and sent you guys money orders for the retail purchase price?'
VU? FU!
I bought a new Canon Pixma iP3000 for AU$218.00 at Big-W. It came with four full ink catridges - one black, one cyan, one magenta, and one yellow - and a separate print head that pops in an out as easy as the individual ink tanks that it cradles.
Actually, if you look at the cost of the ink cartridges as separate items, the printer itself cost just over AU$100.00.
I like it. It does what I need it to do, including printing on compact discs, has in-built duplexing (double-sided printing), and will take paper either from a top loading sheet feed or a tray that slides into it's base - automatically switching from one source to the other when original source is empty.
Unfortunately I don't think there's native drivers for linux but my workstation is a W2K box so it's not really a negative for me.
As to whether it could be monitoring me or not. {shrug}
From the article:
[T]he Pentagon is building its own Internet, the military's world wide web for the wars of the future.
The goal is to give all American commanders and troops a moving picture of all foreign enemies and threats - "a God's-eye view" of battle.
This "Internet in the sky," Peter Teets, under secretary of the Air Force, told Congress, would allow "marines in a Humvee, in a faraway land, in the middle of a rainstorm, to open up their laptops, request imagery" from a spy satellite, and "get it downloaded within seconds."
I'm picturing something like...
Son-of-General (sitting in front of dead computer): `Aw crap, now how am I gonna play Age of Wonderous Dominions 2015 Extreme? I know! Dad!'
General (sitting in his study using a computer hooked into GiG): `What son?'
SoG: `I can't play my computer games dad? Can I use your computer?'
G: `I keep telling you son, this is a tool, not a toy. You can't play those games on here.'
SoG: `PleaseDadpleaseDadpleaseDadpleaseDad!'
G: `Of'er crying... Alright.'
SoG: `Thanks Dad!'
[Meanwhile out in the battlefield during a relatively quiet period...]
Sargeant: `Er, men, we've got new orders. It seems we have to,' (reads palmtop), `act like romans and attack the rampaging goth hordes. And Jackson,'
Jackson: `Sah!'
S (still reading palmtop): `Go shoot that tree.'
J: `Sah!' {blamblamblam}
...Shadowrun, the pencil and paper role play game (ignoring the whole mysticism aspect), or read William Gibson's books?
VoIP communications proliferating around the western world, phones with 3D-accelerated chipsets, desktops with 3D environments, UI's that operate via trodes on the skin, WAN's LAN's and PAN's integrating hardware, software, and wetware...
The technology is getting very cool. Now if only we can keep the politics out.
I can see a day when your ISP will link to another ISP via Wi-Max (or an equivelant tech), and another ISP, and another... creating an independant Internet not reliant on a wired and "restrained by Big Brother" infrastructure.
Your phone calls will be over VoIP through either your PC, PDA, or mobile phone. Your email will be routed through independant nodes remaining detached from governmental or multinational corporate infrastructure.
The space program will progress to the degree where many more privately owned satellites will be launched into space and create a global network that overcomes the latency and dataflow problems of satellite sheerly through it's if not anything else.
People, technically minded ones, will drive for more "personally empowering" software - mainly communications software that increases the speed, scope, and deliverable nature of all manner of data.
We will encounter a "wall" where the government tries to grasp control of this exponentially growing network, and the wall will be broken through.
These are strange days for tech. Big companies are embracing technology for the soul purpose of squeezing every dollar, pound, and euro out of it, while the public and the publically minded private enterprises are pushing for person-orientated tech.
We are looking at the beginning of a technological cold-war.
It's between you who would use the technology available to you to better your life, and those who would have you remain ignorant - eating happy sound-bites and tasting media tidbits.
Good for Siemens. I like it when companies put out useful tech. Hopefully they will produce more of this kind of technology in the future.
The copper is required, but if you read about about the technicalities of DSL then you see that your phone line can be "dry" or "dead".
From http://tldp.org - DSL-Howto (Section 2.3: Wiring/Installation Options):
* Dedicated Line. Some DSLs require a dedicated, or "dry", wire pair, e.g. IDSL. This means a separate, physical line without dial-tone for DSL and Internet connectivity. Also, DSL services from CLECs (independent telcos like Covad), may use a dedicated line, depending on their line sharing agreement with the local incumbent carrier. (Instead the CLEC will actually lease a loop from the ILEC.) On your end, this simply means using one of the unused wire pairs in the telco wire bundle, and connecting it to the DSL jack.
I've seen this myself with my own DSL connection when my phone line was "dead" for half a day. No dialtone, no incoming or outgoing calls, but I had DSL.
Maybe we shouldn't have a dry or dead line for free - after all, it is held for you and you still use the DSLAM - but if you're not using the POTS system for calls, I don't think you should pay the same rental as someone actually making phone calls.