Network protocols are easy to monitor and reverse engineer with the right equipment.
It takes time and skill to be able to do it properly. There are many variables involved.
Why can't people reverse engineer the interfaces and duplicate them in their own software? Oh yeah, the State says it is illegal.
It's not illegal to reverse engineer a protocol or file format. If it was, how would the Samba developers be able to continue? How would the OpenOffice developers be able to continue? How would the Wine/Codeweavers/Cedega developers be able to continue?
However, Microsoft seems to be getting better about this. The new formats for MS Office 2007 are fairly open and very similar to OpenDocument. The file formats have been submitted to ECMA. Microsoft is funding an open source OpenDocument plugin for Word 2007. The open source project also includes a converter to going back and forth between OpenDocument and Office Open XML. Part of the Microsoft/Novell deal includes adding Office Open XML support to OpenOffice.
The converter and plugin require.NET 2. Hopefully it will be possible to run it under Mono eventually.
Really. I'm sure hypnosis could fix the problem and be much cheaper. Hell, the BanishPain file at Warp My Mind (NOT WORK SAFE) should do the trick. Though a live hypnotist could do the job more effectively. It's hard to go into trance against a file unless you're very susceptible.
Hypnosis is really powerful, and can also be very fun... Just take a look at the "Success Stories" on the forum at that site.
They have no food, no safe drinking water, no clean clothes, no medicine when they are sick, but they have the laptop computer which they cannot use for anything of value!
GCJ and Kaffe are very incomplete, and very slow. The only two Java apps I use that work with it (pdftk and Eclipse) run too slowly to be usable (and this is on an Athlon 64 3200+ with 4gb ram). Everything else doesn't work at all, requiring me to remove GCJ and install Sun's Java every time I reinstall my system*.
Hopefully distributions will integrate the real Java so things will actually work out of the box.
OmniGraffle for OS X is really nice as is Kivio for Linux/BSD. The downside, though is as you said: stencils. Both are very limited in that area. Other than that, though, they're much nicer than Visio, IMHO.
Many Windows don't know what "Winamp" is. They use Windows Media Player or iTunes. Please point people to alternatives such as Exaile (Gnome) and amoroK (KDE).
Please advocate something modern. XMMS still uses GTK1 and feels very out of place on a modern desktop. It does not compete with a modern Winamp in terms of functionality. Please point people towards modern Winamp-like programs such as Beep Media Player and Audacious.
From the article: "There is blue liquid in the chamber underneath, and the blue liquid is lighter than urine," he said. "So the urine sinks and the blue liquid stays on top and forms a seal which keeps the odor in."
The only GTA I've played on my computer is GTA III, but IMHO the controls suck. On the PS2 the controller controls everything. On the computer, I can't map too much to the gamepad and it still doesn't work quite right (ie, moving around). You're stuck with awkward key combinations and the mouse. Then again, most computer games I've used in the last few years seem to suffer from the same problems which is why I prefer consoles.
If you want to play the games on your computer, Grand Theft Auto I and II are available for free on Rockstar's website. I bought Grand Theft Auto III for $10 at Walmart over a year ago. It's probably still available.
Maybe he's thinking that they'll write a kernel module to enforce DRM and product activation. Possibly also using it to try and make Microsoft apps only work under SUSE.
Win32 compatibility is decent with Wine, though it has to be the most user hostile piece of software I deal with. Crossover Office is worth the money if you need to run Windows apps.
Maybe not, but every Swing app I use feels really slow, not to mention it looks really ugly. The ones I usually use are Netbeans and JAP (Java Anonymizing Proxy). I also use a few at work that also feel really slow. Eclipse, though, feels much faster.
How will they find the identities of the people who post anonymously to prosecute them?
You're assuming that many of the people doing that are smart enough to get away with it. Many will give themselves away at some point. Also, they could require that ISPs monitor and log all traffic coming from their users. If it's detected they're using things like Tor, I2P, JAP or other anonymizers they could be reported.
I started using Clusty a few months ago. It does a good job, though occasionally I can't find something with it. In those rare situations I use Scroogle.
If the headphones are going to anything like what comes with the iPod, it's really better to ship without. Damn those things sound terrible. A $15 Sony set I got at Best Lie sound much better.
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It takes time and skill to be able to do it properly. There are many variables involved.
It's not illegal to reverse engineer a protocol or file format. If it was, how would the Samba developers be able to continue? How would the OpenOffice developers be able to continue? How would the Wine/Codeweavers/Cedega developers be able to continue?
Vendor lockin.
However, Microsoft seems to be getting better about this. The new formats for MS Office 2007 are fairly open and very similar to OpenDocument. The file formats have been submitted to ECMA. Microsoft is funding an open source OpenDocument plugin for Word 2007. The open source project also includes a converter to going back and forth between OpenDocument and Office Open XML. Part of the Microsoft/Novell deal includes adding Office Open XML support to OpenOffice.
The converter and plugin require
Currently, the EU is smart enough to not have software patents. That probably wont last forever, though.
Really. I'm sure hypnosis could fix the problem and be much cheaper. Hell, the BanishPain file at Warp My Mind (NOT WORK SAFE) should do the trick. Though a live hypnotist could do the job more effectively. It's hard to go into trance against a file unless you're very susceptible.
Hypnosis is really powerful, and can also be very fun... Just take a look at the "Success Stories" on the forum at that site.
Wouldn't they have to change is name to Garihairi, though?
They can use the laptop for porn.
Did you take more than you were supposed to? "Junkies" take much more than a hospital gives.
Just like cough syrup. What the label says to take doesn't do anything. It's only fun when you "abuse" it.
Or suffocate them with nitrous oxide. Let them go out laughing...
Who cares?
GCJ and Kaffe are very incomplete, and very slow. The only two Java apps I use that work with it (pdftk and Eclipse) run too slowly to be usable (and this is on an Athlon 64 3200+ with 4gb ram). Everything else doesn't work at all, requiring me to remove GCJ and install Sun's Java every time I reinstall my system*.
Hopefully distributions will integrate the real Java so things will actually work out of the box.
* I do a clean reinstall every new release.
OmniGraffle for OS X is really nice as is Kivio for Linux/BSD. The downside, though is as you said: stencils. Both are very limited in that area. Other than that, though, they're much nicer than Visio, IMHO.
Two things.
I know I won't be using it. I don't know about the other guy, though.
How useful will that be when someone takes a dump in a urinal?
Yep.
The only GTA I've played on my computer is GTA III, but IMHO the controls suck. On the PS2 the controller controls everything. On the computer, I can't map too much to the gamepad and it still doesn't work quite right (ie, moving around). You're stuck with awkward key combinations and the mouse. Then again, most computer games I've used in the last few years seem to suffer from the same problems which is why I prefer consoles.
If you want to play the games on your computer, Grand Theft Auto I and II are available for free on Rockstar's website. I bought Grand Theft Auto III for $10 at Walmart over a year ago. It's probably still available.
$10's much better for three games.
Maybe he's thinking that they'll write a kernel module to enforce DRM and product activation. Possibly also using it to try and make Microsoft apps only work under SUSE.
Xen will run Win98 now if your processor supports virtualization. Otherwise, run VMWare player. Win98 works very well under it.
DOSBox or VMWare Player + FreeDOS.
Really, though, who still uses dos apps?
Win32 compatibility is decent with Wine, though it has to be the most user hostile piece of software I deal with. Crossover Office is worth the money if you need to run Windows apps.
It already exists. ntfs-3g has full read/write support and is fully open source.
Maybe not, but every Swing app I use feels really slow, not to mention it looks really ugly. The ones I usually use are Netbeans and JAP (Java Anonymizing Proxy). I also use a few at work that also feel really slow. Eclipse, though, feels much faster.
You're assuming that many of the people doing that are smart enough to get away with it. Many will give themselves away at some point. Also, they could require that ISPs monitor and log all traffic coming from their users. If it's detected they're using things like Tor, I2P, JAP or other anonymizers they could be reported.
I started using Clusty a few months ago. It does a good job, though occasionally I can't find something with it. In those rare situations I use Scroogle.
If the headphones are going to anything like what comes with the iPod, it's really better to ship without. Damn those things sound terrible. A $15 Sony set I got at Best Lie sound much better.
So I guess Japan bombed themselves?