While iTunes works well for this, some of us still don't own iPods, and don't like installing a huge program like iTunes just for the podcasting feature.
My current favorite is winamp, although if Democracy Player ever became stable, it would be #1 in my book.
The only Podcast I listen to is The Frequency, dedicated primarily to Christian Music News, reviews, and interviews. (without being super cheesy)
With security being #1 in IE7, and numerous IE7 articles published by both microsoft and non-microsoft advocates praising the security and reliability of the new MS Browser, can we conclude that even with their upcoming browser media hype is still the best feature?
Personally, I understand if people don't want to use Firefox, it isn't the best browser either, no browser is the best across the board. I don't, however, understand why people want to continue to use Internet Explorer. It has been proven time and time again to be buggy, and patches take weeks longer than in most other browsers.
Not being a hardcore developer myself, I don't know what causes this, but might this have been avoided if Microsoft adhered to the Javascript standards rather than "tweaking it" for IE?
I still have issues now and then running Blender on my 6 month old ATI card, not to mention my linux laptop having no hardware accelleration because ATI doesn't seem to release too many Radeon Xpress 200M drivers that actually work.
As with all video card battles, I'm assuming nVidia will come out with one any moment now, right before ATI releases a physics engine, and back and forth and back and forth until they both get tired for a while. (all the while I'll be saving up for some previous-generation nVidia card with tried and true linux performance...)
there are several problems with a.xxx domain:
- you'd have to get every country in the world to go along with this
- how would you decide if a site needs a.xxx domain? There are lots of edge cases. Would collegehumor.com qualify?
- you'd have to create an 'internet police' to enforce compliance
1. Yes, that would be difficult, but worth the effort, IMO.
2. How do you decide if magazines need black covers on US shelves? There's also voting on it
3. Good point, keeping web sites accountable would only lead to poor, hungry, spammers/phishers/etc not making their monthly bills, which I for one couldn't live with.
Sorry, but I think we always come up with great excuses not to filter content, but as long as the end user gets the option, I think any amount of effort would be worth it. I feel like I can only visit a handful of known sites because so many others offer content I am interested in, but in truth have nothing but smut on them.
If it is difficult to avoid porn myself, when I'm actively trying to avoid it (including using off-the-shelf filters that haven't blocked anything yet), how can I trust my kids to avoid it? It is no longer a matter of trusting the user of the internet, but trusting the web site.
If we don't have a.xxx domain, at least require content rating tags be sent from the server in headers, so I can filter out all non-family rated webservers. (perhaps with add-on firmware modules for my wireless router)
Microsoft has a very simple concept when it comes to DRM/Licensing fees, they just charge the customer!
Remember buying your XBox, then having to buy the extra $35 kit to make it read them properly? Microsoft didn't care about having it locked down properly when they sold it, they just sold the units, and sold a separate kit later that opened it up as a DVD player.
Really, the issue here is the fact that the blu-ray/hddvd people are lagging on finally deciding how to best screw over their customers and throw out Fair-Use rights (or at least reshape them).
The fact that the original XBox required me to pay an extra $35 for the right to play ORIGINAL DVDs I already OWN, and PURCHASED at FULL PRICE is ridiculous. They could have easily added the ability to play DVDs for free at no cost to them, except for the fact that the MPAA and other organizations love slapping CSS encryption on everything.
Sony is getting caught up in the same debate, but it looks like they are taking the time to find out how to make it comply with those standards while hopefully not costing the end user more money for expansion kits to enable something that should work by default.
IMO, libdvdcss it. Screw the DVD authoring morons who make it legally impossible for me to play DVDs I purchased on my linux laptop. We all know every media encryption methods that doesn't require an internet connection will be easily cracked within days or weeks of release (since they have to give you the key to unlock the DVD, even if it is initially embedded in hardware), so all they are doing is screwing the legal users out of even more rights.
My stance, I'm not buying any HDDVD/Blu-Ray devices, and that includes consoles. Personally, the PC has been able to display far beyond HDTV specs for years now, and my off-the-shelf laptop gives a better gaming experience than the X360, so why the sudden rush to replace PCs with smaller PCs, especially now that they are getting comperable in price?
My advice: buy the console you want because you like the games it offers, or stop complaining about console manufacturers being delayed due to DRM issues and start complaining about the DRM issues that trample your rights as a consumer.
I've been using MySQL for years now, and PostgreSQL for about 3 months. Most of my new web apps are written in PostgreSQL when I have the opportunity to work with a PostgreSQL server. I do this not because I use all of the features Postgres has, but because it has them, ready for when I do want to use them.
I also like the license for Postgres. 100% free 100% of the time. I've re-read the MySQL license agreement, and it appears as though they have changed it to be even more confusing.
I love working with both MySQL and PostgreSQL, but the only difference for me as of now is I use phpPgAdmin instead of phpMyAdmin. And the difference in there is I have to create my tables inside a database's schema. I have no idea what this means, but there is a default schema "public" so I don't have to worry about what it means until I want to start taking advantage of the more robust features.
I guess there is one more difference though, I can set up complex queries and save them as a view, then in PHP I just SELECT * FROM posts WHERE user = $user; (of course there would be error checking and other syntax), which is much simpler than my PHP statement containing a huge 20 line query that pulls data from 5 or more linked tables.
Now, the reason I wouldn't use PostgreSQL in some instances, PostgreSQL still does not have any clustering features that I am aware of. (I'm a newbie, so maybe it does, but all signs point to no for now) I also think that MySQL has better user documentation. The day PostgreSQL sheds light on common pitfalls in their manual, and gives real-world usable examples of each documented function, I will be a happy man.
In the meantime, I agree with the article, more web hosts and privately owned web servers should look into Postgres before jumping into the MySQL boat. They may still stick with MySQL, but at least they saw what else was out there.
As a member of a 4 person IT group servicing a 75 person department, I can honestly say that is a great/horrible idea.
Great, because we can actually develop in-house applications that save enough money to justify our salaries, but horrible because we answer to a higher IT department that doesn't always see eye-to-eye with us.
Case in point: We are responsible for all things geeky, from database administration to web application development, to user account management. (yes, each department has its own file server and its own user administration system) One day, a user gets a virus that starts sending out spam, our network virus scanner detects it, and eliminates the threat. In the meantime, papa-IT deactivates the user's port. Now they cannot view any network drives/web applications/remote databases/etc. We then call the main IT department, request it be opened, listen to their rant as to why it was closed, assure them we have corrected the issue, and a few days, and about $50 from our budget later, it gets reactivated.
The 75 person department, of course, blames us. The same goes for company-wide data access, where we get blamed for the week long wait on getting a user account activated, when it should be a 10 minute job.
I still love having the ability to focus on my department's needs for application development (thank goodness I'm on the development side and not the user support side, but I used to be, so I still pitch in now and then), but I hate not having the control over the parts of the network that break the most often.
My advice, go with a decentralized IT model with a centralized core IT, but have one member of each departmental IT group be on a board that works with the core IT department and assists them in decision making/implementation processes, having all centralized and decentralized IT departments bound by an overall policies and procedures manual that is developed by everyone involved, and only changed with a majority vote.
Actually, I remember reading that OOo doesn't really dispute the fact that they aren't on par with the current Microsoft Office. I mean, this is OpenOffice.org 2.0, what did Microsoft Office 2.0 look like?
Based on the current accelleration curve, I think I'll stick with OOo for now. Fortunately I'm not too worried about having a better "bold" button for my word processor, as the current one works great. (Table editing tools could be improved 10 fold and still not be where it needs to be, but then again, I don't know how to do that either, so why complain?)
Considering the fact that they catgorized them in the manner that they did, I can't complain.
I will say that the fact that both reveal and showcase seem dangerously similar, and even use the same access keys (which cannot be changed without modifying the extension's source) which seemed a bit dissapointing.
As a web developer, the web developer extension is probably my favorite feature of Firefox. If it came down to it, I would choose the web developer extension over tabbed browsing (but just barely). I was definitely rooting for the guy to win in that category.
As an Open Source advocate, I hate to say this, but I agree.
As a small business owner, I am working on an open source project for higher education. The first obstacle I had to pass over was the thought that OSS needs to be 100% free as in beer.
What I hope will make my project work where other OSS has failed, is paid support, paid implementation, and the ability for customizations to be covered by said support. By charging a fraction of the cost of the closed source equivalent, but providing the same, if not better, functionality, support, and ease of use, I feel my product could actually work.
When I'm done, I'll be sure to add some OSS spam on slashdot, but I hope it will say something to the effect of: "The key to the success of this project was to use a true Open Source license, and give away the code (source and compiled) for free, but to focus my marketing on the implementation, support, and shiny polish of the finished product."
Just because our licensing methods are different doesn't mean our marketing methods have to be.
I thought the MySpace fears were over their 1970's approach to web layout. How many nested tables do they have?
I'm shocked that major TV shows, movies, and artists are actually using them as a media channel... its like the King's throne was taken so everyone started sitting in an outhouse swearing it was the Taj Mahal.
Either way, maybe the internet in general should be considered a hazard, not to mention the public transportation systems, libraries, schools, and the workplace. As usual it is probably a few older policy makers that are still having trouble dialing their cell phones and still don't know what an MP3 player is that are getting freaked out over this type of thing. (oh, and some of the soccermoms that still try and rewind DVDs before returning them)
After fighting with my scanner in windows (couldn't find the CDs and the manufacturer's site was a bit wonky at the time), I decided to try a last resort. I plugged it into my linux laptop.
Immediately (no driver installation, no softare configuration) it was ready and able to scan.
Just like the computer industry did for Windows 15 years ago, they can do the same thing now, for Linux. Offering support is what people pay them for, so why shouldn't they? In fact, if a major PC manufacturer like that threw their weight behind linux, perhaps hardware manufacturers would wise up and start producing linux drivers as well.
Edubuntu needs some work, but the core of what is needed for a classroom is there. The primary things we need to teach kids are simply how to use a computer. Surprisingly, Edubuntu and Windows aren't too horribly far off from each other. I have set up Ubuntu on quite a few computers, have customized them, installed new software, and tweaked them, all without using the command line.
The point being, it is much simpler than it used to be, and Edubuntu is geared specifically for this purpose. I imagine that Edubuntu will only be getting better throughout the years, and will be easier and easier to use.
In my wife's classroom the computers are primarily used to teach kids the basics, such as typing their stories, and occassionally making a presentation. They currently use Macs, and the network is always going in and out. I popped an ubuntu liveCD and was able to immediately print to a network printer that they had not been able to print to before then. In fact, the Ubuntu live CD was just as responsive as the OSX Tiger ran off the hard drive, so I could only assume that Ubuntu/Edubuntu would run even faster than OSX when properly installed.
My personal thought: I do not pity the schools that say they don't have any money, yet continue to upgrade OSX or Windows every chance they get. (although Mr. T might...)
In fact, when people call asking for donations, I ask if $100 would make a difference, and if so, they are free to install linux on their next PC instead of Windows. (I know windows XP Pro costs $300 on average, but manufacturers like Dell probably spend $100 or less per license.)
Hopefully Microsoft will offer a 100% free, easy to use, reliable, and rhobust OS for school systems. Until then, I don't see how there is even a question as to what to use. Edubuntu is free, easy to use, reliable, rhobust, and from what I've heard offers better support than Windows does. (Keep in mind Ubuntu's support covers the OS, and all of the software in the official repositories, not just Ubuntu's own code.)
What is the ratio of legitimate to illegitimate uses?
What alternatives exist to the legitimate uses?
How effectively could a ban be enforced?
BitTorrent and the like score quite badly on the first two points - most BT traffic is illegitimate, and there are plenty of legal ways to distribute files. The only question is how effective would any sort of regulation of BT really be.
I guess I'm an anomoly, but I've never downloaded an illegal torrent. I use it for Linux ISO's, and used to run a business that depended on getting those ISOs quick and reliably. The previous methods included other P2P filesharing networks that have since been removed by the MPAA and other organizations.
Not a single equivalent alternative exists. Period. Unless you consider FTP, but that can be used illegally as well, but once again it is not an equivalent alternative, just an alternative.
A ban could be enforced by simply forcing web sites to filter search results. Potentially leading to government controlled search engines results and the like. (see also: China)
Surprisingly, the only thing that makes me more angry about losing my rights online, is knowing its all the morons who download movies causing it. I would love to spit in the face of the MPAA and the RIAA, but only after spitting in the face of the individuals who encourage their actions by abusing their rights, usually in the form of downloading games, music, and movies.
It seems like the RIAA, the MPAA, and the illegal downloaders are all acting immature, and abusing the rights of others. The only person not abusing rights, is the exact person having their rights trampled on. As someone who doesn't steal software, music, or movies, I also won't break the law, so if I can't copy my CD to my computer because of some obscure law thought up by the RIAA, encouraged by the people who distribute music illegaly, that means I won't buy CDs, the RIAA won't make their money, and the people who have already proven to be okay with doing things illegal, will continue to copy their CDs.
Why not go ahead and make iTunes the only legal source of music purchasing, and iPods the only legal source of playing music?
It sounds harsh, but isn't that what you are suggesting? Eliminate the opposing forces, instead of increasing severity of the consequences of abusing rights?
Basically, the MPAA is targeting the wrong audience. Threaten the people doing the illegal downloading, and increase severity there. Don't threaten the rights of an entire country (or everyone in general). Find a way to restrict the rights of the abusers. Making it more difficult to do what I used to have rights to do in the past, only makes it harder to comply and easier to break the law. At the rate we are going, all recording devices will be banned, and we will only have read-only access to MPAA/RIAA provided content, with individual decoders created for each device we own.
Don't encourage the MPAA/RIAA to do this. The best way to discourage it, is to reform laws to revoke the rights of abusers, and leave my rights alone. Another way is to stop downloading content you don't have rights to.
Now the sad part, they make $990,000,000.00 and celebrate by giving away an iMac? Isn't an iMac like the Mac equivalent of an intel celeron?
Yay, thank you for making us hundreds of millions of dollars, here's the cheapest big computer we make... and 10 ipods...
I mean, it is cool that he gets an iPod and 9 eBay sales, and a crap load of music, but come on, I'd rather have some fancy powerbook or MacBook or something like that.
From the article: ''The Motion Picture Association of America estimates that the movie industry lost $5.4 billion last year due to piracy.'' Hrm, yeah, and I bet that's all people buying dvd's from other countries and bepassing the DRM with samsung equipment. Oh, wait, wasn't that the Linux pirates last week?
Contrary to popular belief, Linux is not the only OS you can bypass DVD encryption on. However, Linux is the only OS that you need to bypass encryption in order to play DVDs.
Personally, I would venture a guess that it was more the crap movies they produced, and the prices they charge for them. As a linux user, I've given up buying DVDs because it is illegal for me to play the DVDs I bought on my laptop, which is unacceptable. Purchasing more products from them would only encourage it.
Out of curiosity, if you heard your DVD player was recalled because it had more features than it was supposed to, would you really respond? Personally, if I weren't a geek and didn't know what was up already, I would research why they wanted to recall it, then I would discover what the MPAA is doing, and I'd be pissed. (It's hard to tell the MPAA is screwing you until you use an OS that doesn't have a single legal on-the-shelf 3rd party DVD playing software, and the only free software is deemed illegal.)
Personally, I'm wondering where I was when these things were being sold! A DVD player that plays DVDs! No wonder the MPAA is suing, you only leased the right to have a DVD copy of the movie, there is no implied playability unless you also purchase their decoders. Next they'll start selling descrambling glasses that you have to visit one of their eye doctors to have focused for you!
Serves 'em right, but then again, serves us right for those who copied movies every chance they got.
Let's check the facts:
Microsoft has a VERY large and very well-developed office suite that connects quite elegantly to a bunch of Microsoft's back office software.
So these start-ups are going to usurp that somehow?
Also, some people love to lease cars, but when it comes to software, I don't see it happening so much.
What they may do is fill some very small gap.
Microsoft has shown us in the past that they feel they are such a monolithic application vendor that all they need to do to retain customers is release software patches between software versions, with no real innovation at any point. So the chances of someone beating them to the web market is great, but you're right, that still doesn't mean Web based solutions will usurp that.
As of now, Microsoft is in the business of vendor lock-in. If a web application came out that would run on everyone's operating system and would create files usable by everyone, all without installing a single piece of software other than your web browser, I think this would be very attractive to a wide range of individuals. IT managers would enjoy the fact that all of their users could upgrade software by clicking "refresh" and everyone would have all of the tools everyone else has (assuming licensing doesn't get in the way). Moms would like it because they can use simple software designed to be easy to use and easy to install. Geeks would like it because its geeky, and updates would be a non-issue. And average end-users in an office settings wouldn't notice much of a difference.
I am also assuming that the web office suite would be open and free. If the Microsoft approach were taken, it probably wouldn't be attractive, other than they could offer limited features on the web, and have an easy "buy now" option for the full version.
Personally, as an individual who has done tech support for quite a few years, and is now going more towards development and graphic design, I am glad to get away from the "well-developed" office suite that accounts for 20% of the support issues I've had to deal with in the past. In fact, although I'm in an all-microsoft shop, I switched to linux and OpenOffice about 2 and a half months ago, and nobody has noticed yet!
In the end, there aren't many reasons a consumer, an IT manager, nor your average geek, would say no to a web-based office suite. Especially if they had a version that could run on local servers with minimal setup (for security purposes at large organizations, and for speed increases by running from localhost).
I'm avoiding the "well developed" portion of your comment because YMMV. I will say that people like to lease cars, and for some reason they already do lease software. As of now, I have to call and ask politely to get Microsoft to activate Windows XP when I reinstall it. By reading the EULA, I also found that I can't modify the software, nor can I give it away to friends and family. Software is "licensed" (similar enough to leased) from Microsoft. Open Source alternatives usually mean you "own" the software. If you want to resell it, resell it, if you want to copy it and share it, then fine. If you want to modify it to fit your needs, by all means. (This doesn't really apply to this topic, but I couldn't resist, as most closed-source software is licensed, and I'm sure the web apps could be easily installed with a small pre-packaged LAMP installation that is transparent to the end user.)
If it was true that Ogg Vorbis was an mp3 alternative with wide compatiblity, I wouldn't hesitate to use it though.
I find it funny that we are even talking about this anymore, as we as consumers have proved time and time again, feed us what works, we don't care about the details.
If we cared about the details, DVDs would be playable on all Operating Systems (legally) and we could make backups. All portable music players would play only Open Sourced formats, making them cheaper, all websites could use standard CSS because everyone, including IE, adheres to standards.
The simple fact of the matter is we buy the shiny things marketing departments tell us to buy.
If we were smart, we would hold out, and use only Ogg Vorbis now. When the mainstream takes a stand, manufacturers listen... In theory anyway, since so far all the mainstream has done is bent over.
Imagine if we waited until slavery was abolished in the US to take a stand against slavery... Or stood against hitler years after his death? This doesn't make sense to wait until there is no reason for change to elicit change.
If you want something better, and it exists, then use it. If you are content with the way things are now, then don't bother. Just remember that the fewer open standards we implement, the more we are locked into specific vendors, and the easier it is for large corporations to tell us how to use technology, instead of the other way around.
And no, I'm not a hippie. I just like choice, and want people to realize all of the issues with the RIAA, MPAA, etc. are caused by tolerating closed standards/ideals such as CSS-encrypted DVDs, the proprietary MP3 format, and copy-protected music downloads.
Of course, then again, maybe if we stopped abusing digital media formats, the recording industry wouldn't feel compelled to use proprietary formats and DRM, nor would they have the need to trample our Fair Use rights either.
Better System Wide Update. (kernel, OS, and software updates)
More Standard Media, default meda types don't bind you to a vendor. See also: VLC, XMMS, Songbird, and MPlayer
Parental control (privoxy, dansguardian, and safesquid, for those of you who want the computer to parent your kids for you)
Better Backups: Back up your entire system with a single command
Peer-to-Peer collaboration.... networking? Filesharing? what is this new buzzword, and why does it sound like what all computers have been doing for ages now? Especially Linux
Quick and accurate setup: Ubuntu allows you to resize partitions and dual boot without being an uber-geek.
And what the heck, I'll throw in some more:
Ubuntu Linux is free
It offers paid support if you need it
you won't
Installing software is as easy as clicking Applications>Add applications
There are more people who know the inner workings of a linux box than Windows, so free support is a forum post away,
Most linux software is developed for the sole purpose of having a good product, Microsoft products are developed for the primary purpose of making money
Everyone on slashdot will have more respect for you
Antivirus isn't an issue since we haven't gotten around to writing viruses yet either
Having a computer do exactly what you tell it to is easier to manage and leads to less time yelling at your monitor.
Adobe Photoshop : The Gimp
The Gimp ~= Photoshop 4 or 5
Dreamweaver: Bluefish or Quanta
Haven't gotten Bluefish or Quanta to give PHP tool tips consistently and allow me to upload my current file to the correct location on my ftp server simply by pressing a 2-key combination
iTunes: Amarok
Never heard of it, but songbird looks like it will be good when it comes out
And who wants those annoying flash-images anyway:P
Me and everyone who appreciates a good Strong Bad Email every now and again
I develope everything I do in Zend Studio running under Ubuntu Linux, and lothe being forced to use my windows box when hardware demands it. I would also prefer the Gimp step up to Photoshop CS quality, and a decent HTML editor with a usable FTP client be available, not to mention a fully-functional OS alternative to AutoCAD. Unfortunately, these products don't exist yet, and if they were available for Linux, I'd probably have an easier time switching my employer to linux. As soon as open source alternatives that can compete show up, I'll switch, but until then, I'd welcome some of the few good closed source apps.
And iTunes? I helped someone use iTunes before, I don't see why anyone would choose that over anything. Of course I don't have an iPod, nor do I buy music online. (the RIAA hasn't banned listening to the radio....yet)
But, the thing I most want to see in linux: ATI Drivers that don't suck
I doubt it would happen, but if it did, man it would be nice!! Imagine, counter-strike: source playable without forcing blender to slow down to an unusable state. (ATI does that to the windows version of blender too... guess they need some OpenGL classes?) And the few ATI drivers that are out don't work with newer laptop graphics chips, which unlike their desktop counterpart can't be switched for a more linux-friendly GPU
They also forgot Ender's Game, although I'm not sure of the filmability of it, since I myself am not a filmmaker. But it is definitely the best s/f film that never existed IMO
Yet another "me too" post, and I think I know why:
Douglas Adams Wrote the Screenplay, at least most of it. This was not an adams-less script, and it had been in the works for quite a long time. Sure, it was a different spin on the story, but the story was probably a different spin on the radio show.
How can a british film written by a british author based on a book by a british author be americanized? Unless by americanized they mean adapted for film, in which case yes, yes it was.
So if I user never heard of Firefox, but has heard of spyware, this study won't change anthing?
I work in a department that switching to Firefox would solve 25% of the tech support calls, but the users still insist on IE because they don't know the severity of the situation, and also don't even know what Firefox is. This article will actually help to prove to the non-techies that switching would be a good idea.
Recent versions of Windows will prompt you for an Admin password for stuff your user isn't allowed to touch...
I'll have to reconfigure my box then, it simply tells me I don't have the rights to do what I'm trying to do. My linux box is the only one that prompts me for a password.
But you are right, I can just as easily right-click and say run-as
I also have a windows machine to run the linux-unfriendly hardware I own, and have another linux desktop, laptop, and server. I feel just as secure on all of them until I get online, and even then, I just know which sites I trust, and I ignore the rest until I'm back on my linux box. I think Linux and Windows are interchangable except for hardware support, and security can be brought up to a very comfortable level in Windows. The problem is, windows seems to lose more functionality by doing this, and is more difficult to manage than a simple Ubuntu install is.
Slashdot Mirror
While iTunes works well for this, some of us still don't own iPods, and don't like installing a huge program like iTunes just for the podcasting feature.
My current favorite is winamp, although if Democracy Player ever became stable, it would be #1 in my book.
The only Podcast I listen to is The Frequency, dedicated primarily to Christian Music News, reviews, and interviews. (without being super cheesy)
With security being #1 in IE7, and numerous IE7 articles published by both microsoft and non-microsoft advocates praising the security and reliability of the new MS Browser, can we conclude that even with their upcoming browser media hype is still the best feature?
Personally, I understand if people don't want to use Firefox, it isn't the best browser either, no browser is the best across the board. I don't, however, understand why people want to continue to use Internet Explorer. It has been proven time and time again to be buggy, and patches take weeks longer than in most other browsers.
Not being a hardcore developer myself, I don't know what causes this, but might this have been avoided if Microsoft adhered to the Javascript standards rather than "tweaking it" for IE?
I'd like to second that!
I still have issues now and then running Blender on my 6 month old ATI card, not to mention my linux laptop having no hardware accelleration because ATI doesn't seem to release too many Radeon Xpress 200M drivers that actually work.
As with all video card battles, I'm assuming nVidia will come out with one any moment now, right before ATI releases a physics engine, and back and forth and back and forth until they both get tired for a while. (all the while I'll be saving up for some previous-generation nVidia card with tried and true linux performance...)
1. Yes, that would be difficult, but worth the effort, IMO.
2. How do you decide if magazines need black covers on US shelves? There's also voting on it
3. Good point, keeping web sites accountable would only lead to poor, hungry, spammers/phishers/etc not making their monthly bills, which I for one couldn't live with.
Sorry, but I think we always come up with great excuses not to filter content, but as long as the end user gets the option, I think any amount of effort would be worth it. I feel like I can only visit a handful of known sites because so many others offer content I am interested in, but in truth have nothing but smut on them.
If it is difficult to avoid porn myself, when I'm actively trying to avoid it (including using off-the-shelf filters that haven't blocked anything yet), how can I trust my kids to avoid it? It is no longer a matter of trusting the user of the internet, but trusting the web site.
If we don't have a .xxx domain, at least require content rating tags be sent from the server in headers, so I can filter out all non-family rated webservers. (perhaps with add-on firmware modules for my wireless router)
Microsoft has a very simple concept when it comes to DRM/Licensing fees, they just charge the customer!
Remember buying your XBox, then having to buy the extra $35 kit to make it read them properly? Microsoft didn't care about having it locked down properly when they sold it, they just sold the units, and sold a separate kit later that opened it up as a DVD player.
Really, the issue here is the fact that the blu-ray/hddvd people are lagging on finally deciding how to best screw over their customers and throw out Fair-Use rights (or at least reshape them).
The fact that the original XBox required me to pay an extra $35 for the right to play ORIGINAL DVDs I already OWN, and PURCHASED at FULL PRICE is ridiculous. They could have easily added the ability to play DVDs for free at no cost to them, except for the fact that the MPAA and other organizations love slapping CSS encryption on everything.
Sony is getting caught up in the same debate, but it looks like they are taking the time to find out how to make it comply with those standards while hopefully not costing the end user more money for expansion kits to enable something that should work by default.
IMO, libdvdcss it. Screw the DVD authoring morons who make it legally impossible for me to play DVDs I purchased on my linux laptop. We all know every media encryption methods that doesn't require an internet connection will be easily cracked within days or weeks of release (since they have to give you the key to unlock the DVD, even if it is initially embedded in hardware), so all they are doing is screwing the legal users out of even more rights.
My stance, I'm not buying any HDDVD/Blu-Ray devices, and that includes consoles. Personally, the PC has been able to display far beyond HDTV specs for years now, and my off-the-shelf laptop gives a better gaming experience than the X360, so why the sudden rush to replace PCs with smaller PCs, especially now that they are getting comperable in price?
My advice: buy the console you want because you like the games it offers, or stop complaining about console manufacturers being delayed due to DRM issues and start complaining about the DRM issues that trample your rights as a consumer.
I've been using MySQL for years now, and PostgreSQL for about 3 months. Most of my new web apps are written in PostgreSQL when I have the opportunity to work with a PostgreSQL server. I do this not because I use all of the features Postgres has, but because it has them, ready for when I do want to use them.
I also like the license for Postgres. 100% free 100% of the time. I've re-read the MySQL license agreement, and it appears as though they have changed it to be even more confusing.
I love working with both MySQL and PostgreSQL, but the only difference for me as of now is I use phpPgAdmin instead of phpMyAdmin. And the difference in there is I have to create my tables inside a database's schema. I have no idea what this means, but there is a default schema "public" so I don't have to worry about what it means until I want to start taking advantage of the more robust features.
I guess there is one more difference though, I can set up complex queries and save them as a view, then in PHP I just SELECT * FROM posts WHERE user = $user; (of course there would be error checking and other syntax), which is much simpler than my PHP statement containing a huge 20 line query that pulls data from 5 or more linked tables.
Now, the reason I wouldn't use PostgreSQL in some instances, PostgreSQL still does not have any clustering features that I am aware of. (I'm a newbie, so maybe it does, but all signs point to no for now) I also think that MySQL has better user documentation. The day PostgreSQL sheds light on common pitfalls in their manual, and gives real-world usable examples of each documented function, I will be a happy man.
In the meantime, I agree with the article, more web hosts and privately owned web servers should look into Postgres before jumping into the MySQL boat. They may still stick with MySQL, but at least they saw what else was out there.
As a member of a 4 person IT group servicing a 75 person department, I can honestly say that is a great/horrible idea.
Great, because we can actually develop in-house applications that save enough money to justify our salaries, but horrible because we answer to a higher IT department that doesn't always see eye-to-eye with us.
Case in point: We are responsible for all things geeky, from database administration to web application development, to user account management. (yes, each department has its own file server and its own user administration system) One day, a user gets a virus that starts sending out spam, our network virus scanner detects it, and eliminates the threat. In the meantime, papa-IT deactivates the user's port. Now they cannot view any network drives/web applications/remote databases/etc. We then call the main IT department, request it be opened, listen to their rant as to why it was closed, assure them we have corrected the issue, and a few days, and about $50 from our budget later, it gets reactivated.
The 75 person department, of course, blames us. The same goes for company-wide data access, where we get blamed for the week long wait on getting a user account activated, when it should be a 10 minute job.
I still love having the ability to focus on my department's needs for application development (thank goodness I'm on the development side and not the user support side, but I used to be, so I still pitch in now and then), but I hate not having the control over the parts of the network that break the most often.
My advice, go with a decentralized IT model with a centralized core IT, but have one member of each departmental IT group be on a board that works with the core IT department and assists them in decision making/implementation processes, having all centralized and decentralized IT departments bound by an overall policies and procedures manual that is developed by everyone involved, and only changed with a majority vote.
Actually, I remember reading that OOo doesn't really dispute the fact that they aren't on par with the current Microsoft Office. I mean, this is OpenOffice.org 2.0, what did Microsoft Office 2.0 look like?
Based on the current accelleration curve, I think I'll stick with OOo for now. Fortunately I'm not too worried about having a better "bold" button for my word processor, as the current one works great. (Table editing tools could be improved 10 fold and still not be where it needs to be, but then again, I don't know how to do that either, so why complain?)
Considering the fact that they catgorized them in the manner that they did, I can't complain.
I will say that the fact that both reveal and showcase seem dangerously similar, and even use the same access keys (which cannot be changed without modifying the extension's source) which seemed a bit dissapointing.
As a web developer, the web developer extension is probably my favorite feature of Firefox. If it came down to it, I would choose the web developer extension over tabbed browsing (but just barely). I was definitely rooting for the guy to win in that category.
As an Open Source advocate, I hate to say this, but I agree.
As a small business owner, I am working on an open source project for higher education. The first obstacle I had to pass over was the thought that OSS needs to be 100% free as in beer.
What I hope will make my project work where other OSS has failed, is paid support, paid implementation, and the ability for customizations to be covered by said support. By charging a fraction of the cost of the closed source equivalent, but providing the same, if not better, functionality, support, and ease of use, I feel my product could actually work.
When I'm done, I'll be sure to add some OSS spam on slashdot, but I hope it will say something to the effect of: "The key to the success of this project was to use a true Open Source license, and give away the code (source and compiled) for free, but to focus my marketing on the implementation, support, and shiny polish of the finished product."
Just because our licensing methods are different doesn't mean our marketing methods have to be.
I thought the MySpace fears were over their 1970's approach to web layout. How many nested tables do they have?
I'm shocked that major TV shows, movies, and artists are actually using them as a media channel... its like the King's throne was taken so everyone started sitting in an outhouse swearing it was the Taj Mahal.
Either way, maybe the internet in general should be considered a hazard, not to mention the public transportation systems, libraries, schools, and the workplace. As usual it is probably a few older policy makers that are still having trouble dialing their cell phones and still don't know what an MP3 player is that are getting freaked out over this type of thing. (oh, and some of the soccermoms that still try and rewind DVDs before returning them)
After fighting with my scanner in windows (couldn't find the CDs and the manufacturer's site was a bit wonky at the time), I decided to try a last resort. I plugged it into my linux laptop.
Immediately (no driver installation, no softare configuration) it was ready and able to scan.
Just like the computer industry did for Windows 15 years ago, they can do the same thing now, for Linux. Offering support is what people pay them for, so why shouldn't they? In fact, if a major PC manufacturer like that threw their weight behind linux, perhaps hardware manufacturers would wise up and start producing linux drivers as well.
Edubuntu needs some work, but the core of what is needed for a classroom is there. The primary things we need to teach kids are simply how to use a computer. Surprisingly, Edubuntu and Windows aren't too horribly far off from each other. I have set up Ubuntu on quite a few computers, have customized them, installed new software, and tweaked them, all without using the command line.
The point being, it is much simpler than it used to be, and Edubuntu is geared specifically for this purpose. I imagine that Edubuntu will only be getting better throughout the years, and will be easier and easier to use.
In my wife's classroom the computers are primarily used to teach kids the basics, such as typing their stories, and occassionally making a presentation. They currently use Macs, and the network is always going in and out. I popped an ubuntu liveCD and was able to immediately print to a network printer that they had not been able to print to before then. In fact, the Ubuntu live CD was just as responsive as the OSX Tiger ran off the hard drive, so I could only assume that Ubuntu/Edubuntu would run even faster than OSX when properly installed.
My personal thought: I do not pity the schools that say they don't have any money, yet continue to upgrade OSX or Windows every chance they get. (although Mr. T might...)
In fact, when people call asking for donations, I ask if $100 would make a difference, and if so, they are free to install linux on their next PC instead of Windows. (I know windows XP Pro costs $300 on average, but manufacturers like Dell probably spend $100 or less per license.)
Hopefully Microsoft will offer a 100% free, easy to use, reliable, and rhobust OS for school systems. Until then, I don't see how there is even a question as to what to use. Edubuntu is free, easy to use, reliable, rhobust, and from what I've heard offers better support than Windows does. (Keep in mind Ubuntu's support covers the OS, and all of the software in the official repositories, not just Ubuntu's own code.)
A Playstation 3 is never late, nor is it early. It arrives precisely when it means to.
Surprisingly, the only thing that makes me more angry about losing my rights online, is knowing its all the morons who download movies causing it. I would love to spit in the face of the MPAA and the RIAA, but only after spitting in the face of the individuals who encourage their actions by abusing their rights , usually in the form of downloading games, music, and movies.
It seems like the RIAA, the MPAA, and the illegal downloaders are all acting immature, and abusing the rights of others. The only person not abusing rights, is the exact person having their rights trampled on. As someone who doesn't steal software, music, or movies, I also won't break the law, so if I can't copy my CD to my computer because of some obscure law thought up by the RIAA, encouraged by the people who distribute music illegaly, that means I won't buy CDs, the RIAA won't make their money, and the people who have already proven to be okay with doing things illegal, will continue to copy their CDs.
Why not go ahead and make iTunes the only legal source of music purchasing, and iPods the only legal source of playing music?
It sounds harsh, but isn't that what you are suggesting? Eliminate the opposing forces, instead of increasing severity of the consequences of abusing rights?
Basically, the MPAA is targeting the wrong audience. Threaten the people doing the illegal downloading, and increase severity there. Don't threaten the rights of an entire country (or everyone in general). Find a way to restrict the rights of the abusers. Making it more difficult to do what I used to have rights to do in the past, only makes it harder to comply and easier to break the law. At the rate we are going, all recording devices will be banned, and we will only have read-only access to MPAA/RIAA provided content, with individual decoders created for each device we own.
Don't encourage the MPAA/RIAA to do this. The best way to discourage it, is to reform laws to revoke the rights of abusers, and leave my rights alone. Another way is to stop downloading content you don't have rights to.
Now the sad part, they make $990,000,000.00 and celebrate by giving away an iMac? Isn't an iMac like the Mac equivalent of an intel celeron?
Yay, thank you for making us hundreds of millions of dollars, here's the cheapest big computer we make... and 10 ipods...
I mean, it is cool that he gets an iPod and 9 eBay sales, and a crap load of music, but come on, I'd rather have some fancy powerbook or MacBook or something like that.
From the article: ''The Motion Picture Association of America estimates that the movie industry lost $5.4 billion last year due to piracy.'' Hrm, yeah, and I bet that's all people buying dvd's from other countries and bepassing the DRM with samsung equipment. Oh, wait, wasn't that the Linux pirates last week?
Contrary to popular belief, Linux is not the only OS you can bypass DVD encryption on. However, Linux is the only OS that you need to bypass encryption in order to play DVDs.
Personally, I would venture a guess that it was more the crap movies they produced, and the prices they charge for them. As a linux user, I've given up buying DVDs because it is illegal for me to play the DVDs I bought on my laptop, which is unacceptable. Purchasing more products from them would only encourage it.
Out of curiosity, if you heard your DVD player was recalled because it had more features than it was supposed to, would you really respond? Personally, if I weren't a geek and didn't know what was up already, I would research why they wanted to recall it, then I would discover what the MPAA is doing, and I'd be pissed. (It's hard to tell the MPAA is screwing you until you use an OS that doesn't have a single legal on-the-shelf 3rd party DVD playing software, and the only free software is deemed illegal.)
Personally, I'm wondering where I was when these things were being sold! A DVD player that plays DVDs! No wonder the MPAA is suing, you only leased the right to have a DVD copy of the movie, there is no implied playability unless you also purchase their decoders. Next they'll start selling descrambling glasses that you have to visit one of their eye doctors to have focused for you!
Serves 'em right, but then again, serves us right for those who copied movies every chance they got.
Let's check the facts:
Microsoft has a VERY large and very well-developed office suite that connects quite elegantly to a bunch of Microsoft's back office software.
So these start-ups are going to usurp that somehow?
Also, some people love to lease cars, but when it comes to software, I don't see it happening so much.
What they may do is fill some very small gap.
Microsoft has shown us in the past that they feel they are such a monolithic application vendor that all they need to do to retain customers is release software patches between software versions, with no real innovation at any point. So the chances of someone beating them to the web market is great, but you're right, that still doesn't mean Web based solutions will usurp that.
As of now, Microsoft is in the business of vendor lock-in. If a web application came out that would run on everyone's operating system and would create files usable by everyone, all without installing a single piece of software other than your web browser, I think this would be very attractive to a wide range of individuals. IT managers would enjoy the fact that all of their users could upgrade software by clicking "refresh" and everyone would have all of the tools everyone else has (assuming licensing doesn't get in the way). Moms would like it because they can use simple software designed to be easy to use and easy to install. Geeks would like it because its geeky, and updates would be a non-issue. And average end-users in an office settings wouldn't notice much of a difference.
I am also assuming that the web office suite would be open and free. If the Microsoft approach were taken, it probably wouldn't be attractive, other than they could offer limited features on the web, and have an easy "buy now" option for the full version.
Personally, as an individual who has done tech support for quite a few years, and is now going more towards development and graphic design, I am glad to get away from the "well-developed" office suite that accounts for 20% of the support issues I've had to deal with in the past. In fact, although I'm in an all-microsoft shop, I switched to linux and OpenOffice about 2 and a half months ago, and nobody has noticed yet!
In the end, there aren't many reasons a consumer, an IT manager, nor your average geek, would say no to a web-based office suite. Especially if they had a version that could run on local servers with minimal setup (for security purposes at large organizations, and for speed increases by running from localhost).
I'm avoiding the "well developed" portion of your comment because YMMV. I will say that people like to lease cars, and for some reason they already do lease software. As of now, I have to call and ask politely to get Microsoft to activate Windows XP when I reinstall it. By reading the EULA, I also found that I can't modify the software, nor can I give it away to friends and family. Software is "licensed" (similar enough to leased) from Microsoft. Open Source alternatives usually mean you "own" the software. If you want to resell it, resell it, if you want to copy it and share it, then fine. If you want to modify it to fit your needs, by all means. (This doesn't really apply to this topic, but I couldn't resist, as most closed-source software is licensed, and I'm sure the web apps could be easily installed with a small pre-packaged LAMP installation that is transparent to the end user.)
If it was true that Ogg Vorbis was an mp3 alternative with wide compatiblity, I wouldn't hesitate to use it though.
I find it funny that we are even talking about this anymore, as we as consumers have proved time and time again, feed us what works, we don't care about the details.
If we cared about the details, DVDs would be playable on all Operating Systems (legally) and we could make backups. All portable music players would play only Open Sourced formats, making them cheaper, all websites could use standard CSS because everyone, including IE, adheres to standards.
The simple fact of the matter is we buy the shiny things marketing departments tell us to buy.
If we were smart, we would hold out, and use only Ogg Vorbis now. When the mainstream takes a stand, manufacturers listen... In theory anyway, since so far all the mainstream has done is bent over.
Imagine if we waited until slavery was abolished in the US to take a stand against slavery... Or stood against hitler years after his death? This doesn't make sense to wait until there is no reason for change to elicit change.
If you want something better, and it exists, then use it. If you are content with the way things are now, then don't bother. Just remember that the fewer open standards we implement, the more we are locked into specific vendors, and the easier it is for large corporations to tell us how to use technology, instead of the other way around.
And no, I'm not a hippie. I just like choice, and want people to realize all of the issues with the RIAA, MPAA, etc. are caused by tolerating closed standards/ideals such as CSS-encrypted DVDs, the proprietary MP3 format, and copy-protected music downloads.
Of course, then again, maybe if we stopped abusing digital media formats, the recording industry wouldn't feel compelled to use proprietary formats and DRM, nor would they have the need to trample our Fair Use rights either.
So the top reason to buy Vista is "you have to".
Well, only if you want a *nix/OSX like system that runs microsoft software.
Top ten reasons to switch to Ubuntu:
- User Account Protection
- Firefox
- Compiz/glx (backports of dapper only though)
- Desktop Search
- Better System Wide Update. (kernel, OS, and software updates)
- More Standard Media, default meda types don't bind you to a vendor. See also: VLC, XMMS, Songbird, and MPlayer
- Parental control (privoxy, dansguardian, and safesquid, for those of you who want the computer to parent your kids for you)
- Better Backups: Back up your entire system with a single command
- Peer-to-Peer collaboration.... networking? Filesharing? what is this new buzzword, and why does it sound like what all computers have been doing for ages now? Especially Linux
- Quick and accurate setup: Ubuntu allows you to resize partitions and dual boot without being an uber-geek.
And what the heck, I'll throw in some more:Adobe Photoshop : The Gimp
The Gimp ~= Photoshop 4 or 5
Dreamweaver: Bluefish or Quanta
Haven't gotten Bluefish or Quanta to give PHP tool tips consistently and allow me to upload my current file to the correct location on my ftp server simply by pressing a 2-key combination
iTunes: Amarok
Never heard of it, but songbird looks like it will be good when it comes out
And who wants those annoying flash-images anyway :P
Me and everyone who appreciates a good Strong Bad Email every now and again
I develope everything I do in Zend Studio running under Ubuntu Linux, and lothe being forced to use my windows box when hardware demands it. I would also prefer the Gimp step up to Photoshop CS quality, and a decent HTML editor with a usable FTP client be available, not to mention a fully-functional OS alternative to AutoCAD. Unfortunately, these products don't exist yet, and if they were available for Linux, I'd probably have an easier time switching my employer to linux. As soon as open source alternatives that can compete show up, I'll switch, but until then, I'd welcome some of the few good closed source apps.
And iTunes? I helped someone use iTunes before, I don't see why anyone would choose that over anything. Of course I don't have an iPod, nor do I buy music online. (the RIAA hasn't banned listening to the radio....yet)
But, the thing I most want to see in linux:
ATI Drivers that don't suck
I doubt it would happen, but if it did, man it would be nice!! Imagine, counter-strike: source playable without forcing blender to slow down to an unusable state. (ATI does that to the windows version of blender too... guess they need some OpenGL classes?) And the few ATI drivers that are out don't work with newer laptop graphics chips, which unlike their desktop counterpart can't be switched for a more linux-friendly GPU
They also forgot Ender's Game, although I'm not sure of the filmability of it, since I myself am not a filmmaker. But it is definitely the best s/f film that never existed IMO
Yet another "me too" post, and I think I know why:
Douglas Adams Wrote the Screenplay, at least most of it. This was not an adams-less script, and it had been in the works for quite a long time. Sure, it was a different spin on the story, but the story was probably a different spin on the radio show.
How can a british film written by a british author based on a book by a british author be americanized? Unless by americanized they mean adapted for film, in which case yes, yes it was.
So if I user never heard of Firefox, but has heard of spyware, this study won't change anthing? I work in a department that switching to Firefox would solve 25% of the tech support calls, but the users still insist on IE because they don't know the severity of the situation, and also don't even know what Firefox is. This article will actually help to prove to the non-techies that switching would be a good idea.
I'll have to reconfigure my box then, it simply tells me I don't have the rights to do what I'm trying to do. My linux box is the only one that prompts me for a password.
But you are right, I can just as easily right-click and say run-as
I also have a windows machine to run the linux-unfriendly hardware I own, and have another linux desktop, laptop, and server. I feel just as secure on all of them until I get online, and even then, I just know which sites I trust, and I ignore the rest until I'm back on my linux box. I think Linux and Windows are interchangable except for hardware support, and security can be brought up to a very comfortable level in Windows. The problem is, windows seems to lose more functionality by doing this, and is more difficult to manage than a simple Ubuntu install is.