Hah. True as this might be, this fact is not reflected AT ALL when looking at HP's driver support. Basically, if you're not using Redhat enterprise linux or Novell enterprise linux you are plain and simple out of luck. Reference: daily life and this site http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/cache/433096-0-0-0-121.html Note the vast differences between this page and the redhat matrix. Sorry to say but this matrix underligns for me the sad truth, that is that HP advocates linux by mouth perhaps, but not by actions.
Well, just google for "linux" and your peripheral. But to be clear, when I go to the store I already know full well what I want. If the salesperson tries to convince me otherwise in a manner I don't like, I'm outta there. I don't just go to the shop and have the salesman sell me anything he feels like. But I reckon lots of windows users might do just that...
Which is weird, come to think of it. If you go out to buy a car you probably already know what you plan to purchase. You go for the test drive, sure, and to find out how much free options the salesdude will throw in, but that's it. So, if they try to sell you a Toyota when you really want a Ford you woudn't take kindly to that, either. Right?
For me, buying computer parts works exactly like that. I do some research (Google), then I decide what I want, and I go out and buy that. Simple.
I don't care whos logo is on the friggin' box. For all I know Bruce Willis is endorsing the latest greatest GeForce TX14 but what does that tell me ? Zip. And any statement made by Microsoft on a box means exactly that much to me, too. I've been bitten way too often in the past to take ANY promise regarding fitness for a certain purpose at face value. Did you ever return a videocard when you found out that the cards' driver offered no 1280x640 resolution ? Or that you need to flash the f*cker before it stopped flimmering @60Hz ? I don't think so.
So, all in all, the phrase "designed for Windows" is just a hollow one. At best, you'll find that in 4 months' time they managed to make a driver update that fixes things that should've been working flawlessly from the start anyway...
True. But at the time I was kind of wary of anything USB. That has changed enormously, I have lots of USB equipment now; cardreaders, cameras, sticks, mice, keyboards. I guess I was a slow adopter.
But the scsi scanner was perfect for me; I already had a SCSI card in my machine for a DDS3 tapedrive so it was really the best thing to buy...
That may be true but IMHO you're taking the wrong approach. I myself converted my desktop(s) to linux back in 1998(!). The trick is to not want to ride the wave, ie. buy cards that are on the market 6 or twelve months, and always always check support prior to purchase. That way, you vote with your wallet, and you get nice, well supported stable systems.
I have to admit that, looking for a "genuine SCSI" scanner in 2002 when just about everything was USB got me some strange looks. But, I got a nice scsi HP scanner secondhand for close to $0 so in the end it all works out just fine.
Exactly. And I run a 7-disk raid5 array budget server on a (quality) 300 watt PSU for two full years now. Their power estimates (and the bad choices) are off by and large.
OMG. This article is wrong on a lot of things or makes really stupid claims and / or decisions. I could not believe my eyes.
First, the decision not to use any kind of raid. What are these guys smoking ? Didn't someone tell them this fact alone is simply inexcuseable ?
Then they really get going with the "assumed" power specs. Djeez. 15 watts per drive ?? It's not even close to 5 watts. Then, 70 watts for the videocard. Hey, what do you want to do with your fileserver, run UT at 200 fps ? Instead, slap in an old cheap 2D card and use less than 10 watts...
Then, by virtue of using an external firewire drive they conclude "we deem it smart to NOT use linux" WTF claim or logic is that ?
Further, ANYONE who takes the MTBF figures of harddrives at face value must have their heads examined. Who, in his right mind, will believe that a drive will sustain a period of a mere 10 years 24/7 use AND DEPEND ON THAT ? Much less, 20 years or the utterly laughable 137 years. Besides, by using 4 drive they effectively cut the expected MTBF by a factor 4. By using 8 drives the expected MTBF plunges from the theoretical 137 to 17 years.
Then it goes on. They choose not to use SATA !! Now that we finally have a better interface, one that does not suffer from all the problems of ATA (interference, short cable length, manageability) they are not going to use it. What idiots !!
This article is SO full of holes one could drive a truck through them...! I smell BS.
I know of no blacklist that does not first verify that you are indeed an open relay. If you know which service did this, then please let the rest of us know so that we can be sure not to use them.
What are you smoking ? Blacklists routinely add thousands and thousands of individual hosts without any check whatoever. Varying "reasons" include "You share a/21 with a known spammer" "Your IP is assumed as being inside a dialup pool". etcetera, etcetera. Bastards.
My guess is, 50 million copies of windows end up on the 50 million dual CPU systems your sales figure indicates and... well... I suppose those 10 million surplus windows CDs ended up alongside the AOL CDs in some landfill somwhere... Or maybe Microsoft lied about selling those, to keep their shareholders happy.
True, but it will nevertheless save a LOT of energy just by diminishing or even eliminating the "wasted" energy that is radiated as heat from lightbulbs and such.
Almost every device that uses energy emits "waste heat". Only in the rarest of cases this heat is actually wanted or reused. Mostly it is discarded.
Light is a much more useful "waste" than heat is. So chances are, with all the light that could be emitted by all our appliances, our need for the traditional light sources and thus the additional energy, could be reduced. Maybe even reduced dramatically...
Hehehe... I am unsure whether to say "Please mod parent up +1 Funny", or rather "mod parent down as -1 Redneck".;-)
But my bet is... you're being sarcastical ? If not... you're frightening me.
(Not that that matters anyhow, we're already under way to undermine the whole US monetary system by way of the Euro, but you already knew that, right.)
Wrong. SSNs are not unique. The combination of birthdate, name and SSN is unique.
Hmm. Well, depending on the resolution with which you record "birthdate" (days? minutes? seconds?) one could probably just about prove that the combination of name and birthdate is already unique, regardless of the SSN.
Unless maybe when your name is real common.
Come to think of it, names should maybe be deprecated altogether. Just record the time of birth, and the GPS coordinates thereof. Provably unique, and names are confusing anyhow.;-)
Or else, we can design a domain name system for that too; A network of central servers that can facilitate a name lookup. Just input GPS and date/time and it tells you the name of the subject !;-)
True, but like I said - when I rented that apartment my landlord simply trusted I was who I said I was.
Indeed, you did say that. Which raises quite an interesting question: Was your landlord breaking the law by not asking for proof of your ID, or was he not ? (I'm not trolling, I really don't know what the law says about that...)
Over here there are several laws governing such cases; for instance, since about 5 years an employer is required by law to have copies of ID papers of all their staff on site at all times. Similarly, the employee is required to carry ID with him / her as well.
AFAIK, both are punishable when either party cannot show ID when asked by police.
So, it would seem logical to me for a landlord to be required by law to check these things. Especially since (at least over here) one's address is used so extensively as a means of identification (or better put: a reasonably good way to trace someone should the need arise)
You sure you can only apply for a credit card in person? (a credit card is a lot different from a mortgage, BTW)
Let me clarify a bit.
I tend to agree with you that opening a bank account is different than applying for a creditcard. I also believe there are many CC companies that will try to convince you to join them, and without any hassle.
However, I also believe that, if you actually took them up on their generous offer, they will try to
get some proof of your ID in one or several ways like:
* Signed letters / contracts
* Crosschecks with other records
* Proof of residence / address
* Faxed or mailed copies of ID
* etc
Verifying someone knows their own SSN is one way to try to prevent all too blatant fraud. But what strikes me as odd is that they seem to accept that as proof enough.
Even worse, what really baffles me is that they put the burden on the victim, who then has to prove he hasn't applied for credit.
It should definitely be the other way round: The Creditcard company should have to prove that they took all the neccessary steps to prevent fraud or mistaken identity, by checking their facts way better than they obviously do now. It just doesn't fly to have the victim have to prove his innocence.
You don't have to prove you're innocent in court, not before being proven guilty. There is NO reason whatsoever that this golden rule shouldn't apply everywhere, and especially in the financial world.
That's funny. Those ten or so credit card applications I get in the mail each week say nothing about coming to see them IN PERSON.
From that I can only assume that you live in the US ? Which, I guess, just proves my point that it is a system just waiting to be abused.
Never mind what those spams may say, in Europe you cannot get a bankaccount without applying in person. I guess there may be CC companies that are so eager to close that they trust me without proof. But I reckon that even those will send letters to your address that you have to return to them, signed. Which does prove at least two things to them: (A) you have physical access to the mailbox/streetaddress you supplied, and (B) they have your signature on paper, which can be useful to prove you signed it (and if need be, all the way though handwriting recognition experts).
But then you would still need access to the mailbox of the address you suplied, or else how are you gonna retrieve those mailed documents ?
If you have access, chances are good you can be traced back to it.
But apart from that, I think the original poster meant some sort of quasi-official document, not just any letter anyone could have printed. Over here (Europe), you need a bankstatement (or something else that proves your address) in addition to an ID card for trivial things like joining a video rental store.
If you know an easy way to get hold of someone else's bankstatements, let me know. And after that, the only thing you have to do is fake an ID card with that same name and your photo on it and you're all set.;-)
In other words, this system is really fairly foolproof.
Djeez. No wonder you all need a homeland security office and ultraparanoid officials everywhere, if the underlying 'security' mechanisms are SO easy to break.
It may surprise some of you but in the rest of the world you actually need to show some real identity document, like a passport or drivers license, to get anyone to actually trust your identity.
Maybe something to implement in the next, say, 20 years in the great USA ?
Yeah. This sounds like a flame. So sue me. Another thing US residents seem to be really good at;-)
From what I know, this varies wildly with the band or artist. There are artists that routinely record an album in one week or even a couple of days, and even priding themselves that they can (and rightly so!).
On the other end of the spectrum, there are those that sit in wildly expensive 160-track digital recording-studios, drinking beer and dreaming of how they would make their album if only they had some inspiration and weren't as drunk as they are.;-)
Piling up a bill during a 5-month drinking party can already amount to an important figure, but if you choose to do that not in a nightclub, but in a multimillion dollar recording studio instead, with high-paid engineers and producers hanging around, bills tend to get really high.;-)
Though admittedly staying one year(!) in a studio while 'recording' their album is something of the past, I imagine that there is some very important money-spending going on by the hyped "Stars".
The rest of the musicians are checked into a smallish smelly studio without catering and told that by 5 PM they'd better be out with a finished recording tape 'or else'.
You do the math as to which average price this amounts to...
While this, at first, looks like a good laugh at the expense of Redmond, it is still what it is: Censorship. I suppose the admins can ban whatever they like since its their network, but still...
Ask yourself this question: What outroar would've happened if you substituted "Debian Linux" where it now says "Windows 2000/NT" ??
I'm not trolling. just trying to view things in a fair manner...
If you claim to have an installed base of, what was it, XXX.000 users, you better not be surprised that you get lamers on your channel asking things that are in the FM. If only one percent of computer users are lamers that still gives like, hundreds of lamers asking silly questions daily. Comes with the territory: Deal.
Do you think other developers of (truely) GPL programs don't have idiots harassing them with dumb questions ? What makes SmoothWall so special they are entitled to whine so much about it and kickban legitimate users that are just looking for some answers ?
Beside the point but, I have never seen such a blatant "commercial feel" site which, yet, just profits from hundreds other peoples' work. Lay off the omni-present paypal banners, why don't you.
Or do you plan on paying Linus, Alan et al for their contributions, too ?
I understand everyone's legitimate attempt at making a living, but there are arguably better ways to go about it. Also, maybe someone should point out the benefits of good PRE-sales PR to you.
Most companies have -at least- that part right, and only diss people in the after-sales traject. SmoothWall does it also before the actual sale...: Not too smart.
Have to admit, sounds real impressive. I have some experience designing my own firewalls, so I'll applaude that setup, it sounds fine.
However, several aspects make a great firewall. Ease of setup, great. Almost out-of-the-box VPN, even greater. But disregarding dead-basic things as pointed out in the article, most notably lack of shadow-passwords, is a big no-no in my book.
I'll take a cryptic firewall that's a b*tch to setup, yet is *as secure as can be* from the ground up, over a smoothly installable product anyday. Maybe that makes me a paranoid, maybe I just like hacking things together and don't like compromises. Most definitely I don't like compromises that are unneeded, unwarranted and plain wrong.
Add to that the arguably evil approach that SmoothWall exhibits towards its potential customers, and for me it's end of story.
That said, thank you for pointing out some of SmoothWalls' strong points, it's good to see a different angle on the subject.
Slashdot Mirror
Hah. True as this might be, this fact is not reflected AT ALL when looking at HP's driver support. Basically, if you're not using Redhat enterprise linux or Novell enterprise linux you are plain and simple out of luck. Reference: daily life and this site http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/cache/433096-0-0-0-121.html
Note the vast differences between this page and the redhat matrix.
Sorry to say but this matrix underligns for me the sad truth, that is that HP advocates linux by mouth perhaps, but not by actions.
By all accounts, this planet we're living on may not even survive 100 years, at least not the current lifeforms that inhabit it...
Well, just google for "linux" and your peripheral. But to be clear, when I go to the store I already know full well what I want. If the salesperson tries to convince me otherwise in a manner I don't like, I'm outta there.
I don't just go to the shop and have the salesman sell me anything he feels like. But I reckon lots of windows users might do just that...
Which is weird, come to think of it. If you go out to buy a car you probably already know what you plan to purchase. You go for the test drive, sure, and to find out how much free options the salesdude will throw in, but that's it. So, if they try to sell you a Toyota when you really want a Ford you woudn't take kindly to that, either.
Right?
For me, buying computer parts works exactly like that. I do some research (Google), then I decide what I want, and I go out and buy that. Simple.
I don't care whos logo is on the friggin' box. For all I know Bruce Willis is endorsing the latest greatest GeForce TX14 but what does that tell me ? Zip. And any statement made by Microsoft on a box means exactly that much to me, too. I've been bitten way too often in the past to take ANY promise regarding fitness for a certain purpose at face value. Did you ever return a videocard when you found out that the cards' driver offered no 1280x640 resolution ? Or that you need to flash the f*cker before it stopped flimmering @60Hz ?
I don't think so.
So, all in all, the phrase "designed for Windows" is just a hollow one. At best, you'll find that in 4 months' time they managed to make a driver update that fixes things that should've been working flawlessly from the start anyway...
True. But at the time I was kind of wary of anything USB. That has changed enormously, I have lots of USB equipment now; cardreaders, cameras, sticks, mice, keyboards.
I guess I was a slow adopter.
But the scsi scanner was perfect for me; I already had a SCSI card in my machine for a DDS3 tapedrive so it was really the best thing to buy...
That may be true but IMHO you're taking the wrong approach. I myself converted my desktop(s) to linux back in 1998(!). The trick is to not want to ride the wave, ie. buy cards that are on the market 6 or twelve months, and always always check support prior to purchase. That way, you vote with your wallet, and you get nice, well supported stable systems.
I have to admit that, looking for a "genuine SCSI" scanner in 2002 when just about everything was USB got me some strange looks. But, I got a nice scsi HP scanner secondhand for close to $0 so in the end it all works out just fine.
I vote we should go to Sedna before we go to Mars !
Exactly. And I run a 7-disk raid5 array budget server on a (quality) 300 watt PSU for two full years now. Their power estimates (and the bad choices) are off by and large.
OMG. This article is wrong on a lot of things or makes really stupid claims and / or decisions. I could not believe my eyes.
First, the decision not to use any kind of raid. What are these guys smoking ? Didn't someone tell them this fact alone is simply inexcuseable ?
Then they really get going with the "assumed" power specs. Djeez. 15 watts per drive ?? It's not even close to 5 watts. Then, 70 watts for the videocard. Hey, what do you want to do with your fileserver, run UT at 200 fps ? Instead, slap in an old cheap 2D card and use less than 10 watts...
Then, by virtue of using an external firewire drive they conclude "we deem it smart to NOT use linux" WTF claim or logic is that ?
Further, ANYONE who takes the MTBF figures of harddrives at face value must have their heads examined. Who, in his right mind, will believe that a drive will sustain a period of a mere 10 years 24/7 use AND DEPEND ON THAT ? Much less, 20 years or the utterly laughable 137 years. Besides, by using 4 drive they effectively cut the expected MTBF by a factor 4. By using 8 drives the expected MTBF plunges from the theoretical 137 to 17 years.
Then it goes on. They choose not to use SATA !! Now that we finally have a better interface, one that does not suffer from all the problems of ATA (interference, short cable length, manageability)
they are not going to use it. What idiots !!
This article is SO full of holes one could drive a truck through them...! I smell BS.
What are you smoking ? Blacklists routinely add thousands and thousands of individual hosts without any check whatoever. Varying "reasons" include "You share a /21 with a known spammer" "Your IP is assumed as being inside a dialup pool". etcetera, etcetera.
Bastards.
Your logic is severely flawed, of course. ;-)
My guess is, 50 million copies of windows end up on the 50 million dual CPU systems your sales figure indicates and... well... I suppose those 10 million surplus windows CDs ended up alongside the AOL CDs in some landfill somwhere... Or maybe Microsoft lied about selling those, to keep their shareholders happy.
True, but it will nevertheless save a LOT of energy just by diminishing or even eliminating the "wasted" energy that is radiated as heat from lightbulbs and such.
Almost every device that uses energy emits "waste heat". Only in the rarest of cases this heat is actually wanted or reused. Mostly it is discarded.
Light is a much more useful "waste" than heat is. So chances are, with all the light that could be emitted by all our appliances, our need for the traditional light sources and thus the additional energy, could be reduced.
Maybe even reduced dramatically...
Parts 1 2 and 3. What an awesome game. I still feel dizzy when I think back...
I still play Descent3 once in a while.
Hehehe... I am unsure whether to say "Please mod parent up +1 Funny", or rather "mod parent down as -1 Redneck". ;-)
But my bet is... you're being sarcastical ?
If not... you're frightening me.
(Not that that matters anyhow, we're already under way to undermine the whole US monetary system by way of the Euro, but you already knew that, right.)
Hmm.
Well, depending on the resolution with which you record "birthdate" (days? minutes? seconds?) one could probably just about prove that the combination of name and birthdate is already unique, regardless of the SSN.
Unless maybe when your name is real common.
Come to think of it, names should maybe be deprecated altogether. Just record the time of birth, and the GPS coordinates thereof. ;-) ;-)
Provably unique, and names are confusing anyhow.
Or else, we can design a domain name system for that too; A network of central servers that can facilitate a name lookup. Just input GPS and date/time and it tells you the name of the subject !
Indeed, you did say that. Which raises quite an interesting question: Was your landlord breaking the law by not asking for proof of your ID, or was he not ? (I'm not trolling, I really don't know what the law says about that...)
Over here there are several laws governing such cases; for instance, since about 5 years an employer is required by law to have copies of ID papers of all their staff on site at all times. Similarly, the employee is required to carry ID with him / her as well.
AFAIK, both are punishable when either party cannot show ID when asked by police.
So, it would seem logical to me for a landlord to be required by law to check these things. Especially since (at least over here) one's address is used so extensively as a means of identification (or better put: a reasonably good way to trace someone should the need arise)
Let me clarify a bit.
I tend to agree with you that opening a bank account is different than applying for a creditcard. I also believe there are many CC companies that will try to convince you to join them, and without any hassle.
However, I also believe that, if you actually took them up on their generous offer, they will try to get some proof of your ID in one or several ways like:
* Signed letters / contracts
* Crosschecks with other records
* Proof of residence / address
* Faxed or mailed copies of ID
* etc
Verifying someone knows their own SSN is one way to try to prevent all too blatant fraud. But what strikes me as odd is that they seem to accept that as proof enough.
Even worse, what really baffles me is that they put the burden on the victim, who then has to prove he hasn't applied for credit.
It should definitely be the other way round: The Creditcard company should have to prove that they took all the neccessary steps to prevent fraud or mistaken identity, by checking their facts way better than they obviously do now. It just doesn't fly to have the victim have to prove his innocence.
You don't have to prove you're innocent in court, not before being proven guilty. There is NO reason whatsoever that this golden rule shouldn't apply everywhere, and especially in the financial world.
From that I can only assume that you live in the US ? Which, I guess, just proves my point that it is a system just waiting to be abused.
Never mind what those spams may say, in Europe you cannot get a bankaccount without applying in person. I guess there may be CC companies that are so eager to close that they trust me without proof. But I reckon that even those will send letters to your address that you have to return to them, signed. Which does prove at least two things to them: (A) you have physical access to the mailbox/streetaddress you supplied, and (B) they have your signature on paper, which can be useful to prove you signed it (and if need be, all the way though handwriting recognition experts).
In any case, that is better than nothing.
But then you would still need access to the mailbox of the address you suplied, or else how are you gonna retrieve those mailed documents ?
;-)
If you have access, chances are good you can be traced back to it.
But apart from that, I think the original poster meant some sort of quasi-official document, not just any letter anyone could have printed. Over here (Europe), you need a bankstatement (or something else that proves your address) in addition to an ID card for trivial things like joining a video rental store.
If you know an easy way to get hold of someone else's bankstatements, let me know. And after that, the only thing you have to do is fake an ID card with that same name and your photo on it and you're all set.
In other words, this system is really fairly foolproof.
Again, it might surprise some of you ;-), but this is exactly the reason you can only apply for a credit card (loan, mortgage, etc) IN PERSON.
Sounds inconvenient ? Well, it depends on how secure you need to be. Typing in passwords is inconvenient as well...
Hm. So I need only your name and your SSN ??
;-)
Djeez. No wonder you all need a homeland security office and ultraparanoid officials everywhere, if the underlying 'security' mechanisms are SO easy to break.
It may surprise some of you but in the rest of the world you actually need to show some real identity document, like a passport or drivers license, to get anyone to actually trust your identity.
Maybe something to implement in the next, say, 20 years in the great USA ?
Yeah. This sounds like a flame. So sue me. Another thing US residents seem to be really good at
On the other end of the spectrum, there are those that sit in wildly expensive 160-track digital recording-studios, drinking beer and dreaming of how they would make their album if only they had some inspiration and weren't as drunk as they are. ;-)
Piling up a bill during a 5-month drinking party can already amount to an important figure, but if you choose to do that not in a nightclub, but in a multimillion dollar recording studio instead, with high-paid engineers and producers hanging around, bills tend to get really high. ;-)
Though admittedly staying one year(!) in a studio while 'recording' their album is something of the past, I imagine that there is some very important money-spending going on by the hyped "Stars".
The rest of the musicians are checked into a smallish smelly studio without catering and told that by 5 PM they'd better be out with a finished recording tape 'or else'.
You do the math as to which average price this amounts to...
While this, at first, looks like a good laugh at the expense of Redmond, it is still what it is: Censorship.
I suppose the admins can ban whatever they like since its their network, but still...
Ask yourself this question: What outroar would've happened if you substituted "Debian Linux" where it now says "Windows 2000/NT" ??
I'm not trolling. just trying to view things in a fair manner...
Anyone else reminds this form of... Shakespeare ?
Or am I way off base ?
If you claim to have an installed base of, what was it, XXX.000 users, you better not be surprised that you get lamers on your channel asking things that are in the FM. If only one percent of computer users are lamers that still gives like, hundreds of lamers asking silly questions daily. Comes with the territory: Deal.
Do you think other developers of (truely) GPL programs don't have idiots harassing them with dumb questions ? What makes SmoothWall so special they are entitled to whine so much about it and kickban legitimate users that are just looking for some answers ?
Beside the point but, I have never seen such a blatant "commercial feel" site which, yet, just profits from hundreds other peoples' work. Lay off the omni-present paypal banners, why don't you.
Or do you plan on paying Linus, Alan et al for their contributions, too ?
I understand everyone's legitimate attempt at making a living, but there are arguably better ways to go about it. Also, maybe someone should point out the benefits of good PRE-sales PR to you.
Most companies have -at least- that part right, and only diss people in the after-sales traject. SmoothWall does it also before the actual sale...: Not too smart.
Have to admit, sounds real impressive. I have some experience designing my own firewalls, so I'll applaude that setup, it sounds fine.
However, several aspects make a great firewall. Ease of setup, great. Almost out-of-the-box VPN, even greater. But disregarding dead-basic things as pointed out in the article, most notably lack of shadow-passwords, is a big no-no in my book.
I'll take a cryptic firewall that's a b*tch to setup, yet is *as secure as can be* from the ground up, over a smoothly installable product anyday. Maybe that makes me a paranoid, maybe I just like hacking things together and don't like compromises. Most definitely I don't like compromises that are unneeded, unwarranted and plain wrong.
Add to that the arguably evil approach that SmoothWall exhibits towards its potential customers, and for me it's end of story.
That said, thank you for pointing out some of SmoothWalls' strong points, it's good to see a different angle on the subject.