It's been fun, it really has. Over the years as a lurker, as AC and then eventually as a lowly 6-digiter I have seen tons of insight, reasoned debate and out-and-out flame wars. There's been +5 Funny and -1 Troll and everything in between. And despite all of the bitching, there really was quite a bit of news for nerds and stuff that mattered.
Up until the last couple of months, when it all seems to have gone down the pan at warp factor nine. On this wonderful internet of ours things come and things go. Now is clearly the time for the venerable/. to go and I will help it on its way, albeit with a heavy heart.
I see (for all its good points) that the revival edition suffers from its episodic format. We have discrete 45-minute programmes (occasionally 2-parters) within a series which often has a loose story arc. Great for the MTV generation, perhaps, but for those of us who were brought up on classic DW, a bit of a let-down.
Back in the day we had each series consisting of (usually) six stories spread over sets of 4 episodes many of which ended on a cliff-hanger. This was great drama, well and tightly scripted. The special effects may seem crude in hindsight but they were cutting-edge then and kitcsh now. Most importantly there was a story and key to this was the Doctor who was on the side of the moral good. The zenith of the whole canon was surely the Key to Time series which gave a classic quest storyline over the arc with 6 quintessential plots for each part of the key and a reveal of superb quality. I doubt we'll ever see its like again, but I dearly hope the beeb will prove me wrong.
In essence, a return to a medium-length plot within a series-long story would be best, but I fear those in control won't countenance it.
1. Nobody really uses SUSE anymore. Even Slackware beats the pants off it for usability. Give SUSE the heave-ho and you're halfway to paradise. *
2. Java is 100% unnecessary for most of the productive tasks for which you will use a computer. Just bin it. If anything you think you want to run requires java, bin that too and just use a non-java equivalent. Java is very useful for mobile phones and old-style web apps, but nothing on the desktop since 2004.
3. This is the choir here. Nobody in this audience really cares whether 2012 is the year of the Linux desktop or not. The linux desktop is great: we know that and we use it. Whether everybody else uses it or not is largely irrelevant to us.
4. GNOME 3 sucks - this is widely established. The good news is that you run Linux, so you have your choice of XFCE, LXDE, Enlightenment, AfterStep, Ratpoison, Fluxbox, etc. Just run whichever window manager you want.
5. If your MUA won't export to mbox and/or maildir, why are you using it? Question 1 for any data-critical apps is always "How do I get my data out of it?". If an app cannot answer that, don't use it.
*OK, that one may be slightly contentious, but TBH, I've never (and I mean in since kernel 1.0) heard any convincing argument regarding why anyone should run SUSE over another distro. Counter-arguments happily invited.
In real life, you can choose to show your ID card to someone to prove who you are, but there is no way to do something like this over the Internet.
Easy - there is a one-time enrollment whereby the government signs your PGP key having proven your identity by one of the other robust means already in operation. That sig can always be verified by anyone who needs to. Job done.
Like you, the NeXTs introduced me to OOP and OOD. It was a whole new way of coding and allowed me to produce finished and polished apps in record time back then. The resultant code may only have run on NeXTs but that wasn't really the point at the time. I've not used a dev system since which had the ease of use or rapid development cycle.
These days the code I write is generally more portable, more efficient and the source is more maintainable. But it takes a lot longer to produce (even with all the frameworks and IDEs and what have you). Therein lies the rub. Apple, Microsoft and everyone else who wants to tempt the next generation of developers into their walled gardens will need to do at least as good a job as SJ did at NeXT to grab them and keep them. I doubt it will happen and in the grand scheme of things that's probably a good result for all of us.
Actually, it's starting to look like quality of products is always inversely proportional to quality of directors/management. If that isn't somebody's first law of economics, I'm claiming it.
It speaks volumes for how utterly shit the other lot are that this bunch are the better option.
Nobody actually wants a homeopath in charge of the NHS, but if the alternative means giving Ed Balls another five years of driving the economy into a brick wall we'll take our chances with Hunt. It will be very illuminating to see which path he opts for should he or a member of his family fall seriously ill.
5) Security.... Why can't I temporarily accept an a self-signed ssl cert? Why do I have to go through multiple steps to "permanently allow this acception"? Compare this to Chrome's red warning screen with a single click for "I understand the risks".
Er, you can. You see that tickbox which says "Permanently allow this exception"? You are perfectly free to untick it, at which point the exception becomes temporary. Very useful when visiting sites signed by dodgy CAs (yes, I'm looking at you, Comodo).
I do agree that this process could be made swifter, or at least optionally so for users who know what they are doing.
Certainly they are not free, but the taxpayers might not actually be paying for these since HMG sold (licensed) the 4G space to the telecoms firms in the first place. The idealist in me thinks that the filters would be paid for out of those funds.
Essentially with NFC you have this card/phone in your pocket which all day long is saying to every other device it meets, "Hey, are you an EPoS terminal? I'd really like to pay for something, now!". It is not clear to me why the dangers of this need to be demonstrated, least of all to delegates at BlackHat.
The shop is private property, so it could always be a condition of entry.
IANAL, but I suspect that the terms apply to the "offer to treat" or whatever it is called - that's when the contract is made. Payment is simply settling. Hopefully a legal eagle will be able to correct me on this.
Indeed they do not, but they can sue for breach of contract. If the shop has in their terms that people who take their goods without paying for them at the till will subsequently be charged 100 times the marked price then that is what should happen. If the customers (and for shoplifters I'm using the term very loosely here) don't like those terms they can "shop" elsewhere. If the shoplifters are not penalised heavily enough to pay for all the shop's extra security measures and losses through thievery then who does? It's the law-abiding customers who do pay for their goods who end up having to pay the extra. Where's the equity in that?
Except that they catch probably 1% of all shoplifters, so that the single miscreant would get fined 100 times the cost of what they stole, which seems to deny equity.
That would be a valid point if shoplifting were just a harmless passtime. However, since it's a crime why not fine them 100 times the cost of what they stole? It might teach them not to do it again. If they only get fined what they steal that's precisely the same as them paying for it at the checkout but with the added bonus that they might well get away with it.
If you can't do the time (or don't want to pay the fine), don't do the crime.
I'd probably open up a few domains for vanity use, with specific applications. A possible example might be.person, which could be registered by individuals for vanity domains in their name.
Slashdot Mirror
It's been fun, it really has. Over the years as a lurker, as AC and then eventually as a lowly 6-digiter I have seen tons of insight, reasoned debate and out-and-out flame wars. There's been +5 Funny and -1 Troll and everything in between. And despite all of the bitching, there really was quite a bit of news for nerds and stuff that mattered.
Up until the last couple of months, when it all seems to have gone down the pan at warp factor nine. On this wonderful internet of ours things come and things go. Now is clearly the time for the venerable /. to go and I will help it on its way, albeit with a heavy heart.
So long, slashdot!
'You can share Windows apps to the phone desktop,' said Mr. Shuttleworth
He said that? What did he actually mean to say, do you suppose? Hopefully something which even vaguely makes sense.
I see (for all its good points) that the revival edition suffers from its episodic format. We have discrete 45-minute programmes (occasionally 2-parters) within a series which often has a loose story arc. Great for the MTV generation, perhaps, but for those of us who were brought up on classic DW, a bit of a let-down.
Back in the day we had each series consisting of (usually) six stories spread over sets of 4 episodes many of which ended on a cliff-hanger. This was great drama, well and tightly scripted. The special effects may seem crude in hindsight but they were cutting-edge then and kitcsh now. Most importantly there was a story and key to this was the Doctor who was on the side of the moral good. The zenith of the whole canon was surely the Key to Time series which gave a classic quest storyline over the arc with 6 quintessential plots for each part of the key and a reveal of superb quality. I doubt we'll ever see its like again, but I dearly hope the beeb will prove me wrong.
In essence, a return to a medium-length plot within a series-long story would be best, but I fear those in control won't countenance it.
OK, here's the news:
1. Nobody really uses SUSE anymore. Even Slackware beats the pants off it for usability. Give SUSE the heave-ho and you're halfway to paradise. *
2. Java is 100% unnecessary for most of the productive tasks for which you will use a computer. Just bin it. If anything you think you want to run requires java, bin that too and just use a non-java equivalent. Java is very useful for mobile phones and old-style web apps, but nothing on the desktop since 2004.
3. This is the choir here. Nobody in this audience really cares whether 2012 is the year of the Linux desktop or not. The linux desktop is great: we know that and we use it. Whether everybody else uses it or not is largely irrelevant to us.
4. GNOME 3 sucks - this is widely established. The good news is that you run Linux, so you have your choice of XFCE, LXDE, Enlightenment, AfterStep, Ratpoison, Fluxbox, etc. Just run whichever window manager you want.
5. If your MUA won't export to mbox and/or maildir, why are you using it? Question 1 for any data-critical apps is always "How do I get my data out of it?". If an app cannot answer that, don't use it.
*OK, that one may be slightly contentious, but TBH, I've never (and I mean in since kernel 1.0) heard any convincing argument regarding why anyone should run SUSE over another distro. Counter-arguments happily invited.
Rectangular squares? I suppose you need to differentiate them from all those elliptical squares we see nowadays.
To drive traffic to SlashBi, of course.
Amen!
... oh, wait.
In real life, you can choose to show your ID card to someone to prove who you are, but there is no way to do something like this over the Internet.
Easy - there is a one-time enrollment whereby the government signs your PGP key having proven your identity by one of the other robust means already in operation. That sig can always be verified by anyone who needs to. Job done.
"Clay's Conclusion: Creativity is great, but plagiarism is faster."
Nice.
Not since 2008.. See, just because you type in capitals, it does not make your assertion true.
Like you, the NeXTs introduced me to OOP and OOD. It was a whole new way of coding and allowed me to produce finished and polished apps in record time back then. The resultant code may only have run on NeXTs but that wasn't really the point at the time. I've not used a dev system since which had the ease of use or rapid development cycle.
These days the code I write is generally more portable, more efficient and the source is more maintainable. But it takes a lot longer to produce (even with all the frameworks and IDEs and what have you). Therein lies the rub. Apple, Microsoft and everyone else who wants to tempt the next generation of developers into their walled gardens will need to do at least as good a job as SJ did at NeXT to grab them and keep them. I doubt it will happen and in the grand scheme of things that's probably a good result for all of us.
Or DEC. Or Silicon Graphics.
Actually, it's starting to look like quality of products is always inversely proportional to quality of directors/management. If that isn't somebody's first law of economics, I'm claiming it.
So it will become evident to everyone that the censorware serves no useful purpose and will be binned. Double bonus.
It speaks volumes for how utterly shit the other lot are that this bunch are the better option.
Nobody actually wants a homeopath in charge of the NHS, but if the alternative means giving Ed Balls another five years of driving the economy into a brick wall we'll take our chances with Hunt. It will be very illuminating to see which path he opts for should he or a member of his family fall seriously ill.
Putin comes to UK for some unrelated diplomatic visit.
Fait accomplit - he was here during the Olympics.
Or try the less cathedral-like approach of LedgerSMB which was forked from SQL-Ledger a few years ago. We moved then and haven't looked back.
5) Security.... Why can't I temporarily accept an a self-signed ssl cert? Why do I have to go through multiple steps to "permanently allow this acception"? Compare this to Chrome's red warning screen with a single click for "I understand the risks".
Er, you can. You see that tickbox which says "Permanently allow this exception"? You are perfectly free to untick it, at which point the exception becomes temporary. Very useful when visiting sites signed by dodgy CAs (yes, I'm looking at you, Comodo).
I do agree that this process could be made swifter, or at least optionally so for users who know what they are doing.
Certainly they are not free, but the taxpayers might not actually be paying for these since HMG sold (licensed) the 4G space to the telecoms firms in the first place. The idealist in me thinks that the filters would be paid for out of those funds.
Essentially with NFC you have this card/phone in your pocket which all day long is saying to every other device it meets, "Hey, are you an EPoS terminal? I'd really like to pay for something, now!". It is not clear to me why the dangers of this need to be demonstrated, least of all to delegates at BlackHat.
The shop is private property, so it could always be a condition of entry.
IANAL, but I suspect that the terms apply to the "offer to treat" or whatever it is called - that's when the contract is made. Payment is simply settling. Hopefully a legal eagle will be able to correct me on this.
Indeed they do not, but they can sue for breach of contract. If the shop has in their terms that people who take their goods without paying for them at the till will subsequently be charged 100 times the marked price then that is what should happen. If the customers (and for shoplifters I'm using the term very loosely here) don't like those terms they can "shop" elsewhere. If the shoplifters are not penalised heavily enough to pay for all the shop's extra security measures and losses through thievery then who does? It's the law-abiding customers who do pay for their goods who end up having to pay the extra. Where's the equity in that?
Except that they catch probably 1% of all shoplifters, so that the single miscreant would get fined 100 times the cost of what they stole, which seems to deny equity.
That would be a valid point if shoplifting were just a harmless passtime. However, since it's a crime why not fine them 100 times the cost of what they stole? It might teach them not to do it again. If they only get fined what they steal that's precisely the same as them paying for it at the checkout but with the added bonus that they might well get away with it.
If you can't do the time (or don't want to pay the fine), don't do the crime.
Indeed there is more to it. This is a screen for "smartphones and tablets" ie. a touchscreen with a matt finish. That is the novelty here.
I'd probably open up a few domains for vanity use, with specific applications. A possible example might be .person, which could be registered by individuals for vanity domains in their name.
We already have this - it's called .name
Link is http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/14/pgp_seal_encrypted_communications/ since it wasn't in the summary.