IIS and SQL server were the biggest laughing stocks. The slammer worm (I think that was it anyway) was the fastest spreading worm ever at the time. It may still hold this record. It spread around the world in just a few minutes. While I would still only say their security is average and many times they don't take it seriously, they had a responsibility to their shareholders to clean up their act after the many embarrassing SQL server and IIS worms. It's not nearly as bad as it was at its crest.
Re:Linux is the biggest Linux gaming obstacle
on
Is id Abandoning Linux?
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
This is the epitome of FUD keeping people from switching to Linux. You COMPLETELY don't understand how software works apparently. First of all, there is a standard library for writing 3d games. It's called OpenGL. Second, what Desktop Environment you run is completely irrelevant to anything. I'm currently running Gnome on this computer. At home I have Fluxbox. At my parents they have KDE. Guess what? We can all run the exact same programs. People write programs for a certain toolkit, but in no way, shape, or form does this mean you can't run it in a different desktop environment. What desktop environment you are running has nothing, 0, none, zilch, to do with what programs you can run. The Windows world is no different in this respect. There are at least 10 different GUI toolkits floating around in the Windows world. For programs to work, all you need to do is include the proper libraries. The reason there is a low rate of Linux adoption in part is because of idiotic propaganda like this being spread around. It has zero basis of truth and I think anyone propagating this garbage should be called out for what they are.
Gaming on Linux has always been number #39 on list
on
Is id Abandoning Linux?
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
I hate to say it, but I don't think gaming on Linux is going to be a huge deal breaker for most people anyway. Most gamers I know are "Windows experts". They've got their Windows desktop super customized with skins and slick themes etc etc. They are probably the worst candidate for adopters of Linux. I've found Windows power users to be the most stubborn in switching. They think they understand something about computers and operating systems, but it comes down to they kinda understand how Windows works on the front end, and it's a HUGE blow to them when they have to start over. A lot of it is an ego thing. Instead of admitting they know less about computers than they thought, they pass it off as inferior. They do the same thing to Macs.
The best candidates to convert are people who actually really do understand how computers and operating systems work, or people that want a computer that "just works". Not people that get pissed off because there's no control panel. I come across this all the time. Windows users that I feel are scared they will look stupid and put Linux and OSX down as inferior. I'll ask them, "have you ever tried it?". Most have never tried it or made an attempt to figure out how it works. The thing that will bring about the most adoption of Linux and OSX is an entire generation being raised off Windows.
Before anyone even brings this up, the reason they usually do for-profit instead of not-for-profit is there is a crapload more bureaucracy associated with a not-for-profit and they'll end up spending a lot of money dealing with it.
If four officers can't handle a single non-drugged up student already handcuffed, turn in your badge, you are wimps and cowards. Tasers are NOT non-lethal. Do you think these officers actually understand ohms law? Or the bodies internal resistance? Or how much current can kill a person? No. They are basically given a Taser class and said "have at it". These things can deliver over 10,000 Volts! 20mA can kill a person. Do you realize how much resistance must be present to maintain 10,000V at less than 20mA? 500,000 ohms! You are talking about delivering 200 watts across someone's body. Go to the store and try to find a resistor that can handle 200 watts. Good luck. And because they think these things are perfectly safe, they use them haphazardly. If you feel your life is in danger from a 21 year old college student with no weapon already in handcuffs, hang your head in shame and turn in your badge, coward.
Zimbra is by far the best at what it does. It's better than every web based Groupware (is that the proper name?) software out there. Let's just hope Yahoo doesn't run it into the ground. I don't see why they'd actually want or need this software. Yahoo already has lot's of talented programmers and pretty decent software. The Zimbra code is probably useless to them and all of Zimbra's features and quality could be copied without owning them. It isn't like Google buying Youtube (i.e. buying established users) because Zimbra really only has a cult following. For how good it is, it really isn't that popular. This purchase really confuses me. Like I said, I hope they actually do something with Zimbra instead of buying it and letting it sit on the shelf.
They are big enough they can traffic shape. I understand it's shared internet, but Comcast is no mom and pop operation. I'm pretty sure they have the talent in house to implement that sort of thing. They could create some sort of algorithm such as if X customers are each using Y percent of the total pipe, allow Z mbits per customer to keep it fair. This creates a sliding scale of fairness so during offpeak usage one person can be allowed to use a crapload of bandwidth for big downloads, and during peak usage everyone still has pretty fast internet, but 3-4 people can't dominate the bandwidth usage and screw everyone else.
Insightful? I was trying to be funny... =( I guess I'm gonna have to go back to prop comedy.
Re:I'm surprised that no-one's mentioned Gorillas
on
DOS 5 Upgrade Video
·
· Score: 1
I hear this a lot, but while Windows doesn't come with any real way to compile, write, interpret, whatever, programs; programmers back then would be amazed at how many free ways there are to write software in the cutting edge of languages. In fact, I think we've reached the point where I'd say you can create programs in most programming languages for free.
Exactly. I use open source programs all day and have no clue the exact license, just that they are open source. Only zealots and those redistributing care about the nitty gritty of open source licenses. For me, all I care is that it's open source (within reason).
Why does the world seem to turn a blind eye to China's crap? If a terrorist group did this, we'd be at war. But since it's China, somehow we'll work around it. It just seems like a pattern of behavior from China. Their government is 100x worse than any middle eastern country, constantly imprisoning their own people and doing horrible horrible things (including murder). And because we can get cheap toys we turn a blind eye? That's the ultimate hypocrisy.
I think a lot of people miss the point that a job interview is a two way process. A place may look great in the ad, but when you actually get to the interview you may discover you potential boss is a complete tool. If I were reeeeeally desperate for a job I might take the job regardless, otherwise it's just not working somewhere you know you'll be miserable from the get-go.
Oh how the mighty have fallen! I didn't realize AOL was in such a bad situation right now. There was a story awhile back that the saving grace of the Soviet Union was to be "gas powered boots". I feel like AOL is at the same point right now with their "greetings that will actually say your name". Of course the wikipedia entry could be a little biased... but it honestly sounds like AOL has become Netscape. The focus isn't on the software anymore or even their internet service, but content delivery (of content they can get anywhere in a better format).
I think D2 has really encouraged reading of subcomments. When I'm not logged in and defaulted to D1 I almost never read deep into a discussion because it's a pain and I lose my spot. I suspect mods on D1 do the same. So comments that make it to +3 will probably make it to +5 and those not visible will be stuck. D2 has reeeeeally helped the moderation system and I find comments more appropriately rated in general.
It's disappointing that I got modded troll because it's acknowledged by most in the Java community that there were many big design mistakes in the first few versions of Java. Java 5 (aka 1.5) really was the first great version of Java.
The original GUI toolkit was admittedly thrown together for the sake of having a GUI toolkit. Swing is leaps and bounds better, but it's very confusing to beginners learning two GUI toolkits at the same time. If you didn't know the history of why there are two it's very confusing.
The original garbage collector sucked hardcore and was slow. The current garbage collector is actually pretty good, but for many they equate Java with being slow because of old versions.
Containers are leaps and bounds better and much more type-safe, but again it's confusing to beginners why there are so many redundant ways to use containers. There are numerous optimizations at the compiler level. The biggest being the ability compile code adaptively instead of the whole program on startup. I/O is confusing to learn and imo overly complex. Again, this is because of Java's subpar original I/O subsystem.
Java has really grown up and gotten leaps and bounds better over the years. Java today is what it should have been in the first place and what was originally advertised. That's where the marketing came in. Java honestly wasn't very impressive to me when it first gained attention. Today I'm very impressed by it. But most people don't understand how much Java has grown up and in their minds they have Java of 1999 stuck in their heads.
I think the most frustrating thing with Java is how many things they did wrong in early versions that we have to deal with today. It's an extremely confusing language to learn from scratch because for everything that doesn't make sense, someone has to give you a history on why it's done that way. I agree that half of Java has been marketing (but hell, half of.net is marketing too!). It really is an amazing language with a very rich set of API's provided by Sun, don't get me wrong. I just think Java has such a bad history it may never recover from all the preconceived notions it is currently entangled in.
A natural question to ask is "why would I want to use Vista". What advantages does Vista have over XP that would outweigh its pitfalls? For most it's a resounding "nothing". All their software has been field tested on XP. All their hardware has been field tested on XP. People in the real world don't just change for the sake of saying they are running the latest stuff. High school kids may get a boner over Vista's features, but for those of us in the real world Vista just doesn't offer any reason to change right now.
I pose the question to Slashdot... What reason would a large organization have at this point to run Vista?
No, no, no! This is a common misconception. Companies price to what the market will allow. Apple knew they could create enough marketing hype to charge whatever they wanted. Apple could have easily charged much less, but it's stupid to do that in business. You charge what the market will bear. I've created cheap products in markets that were overpriced and our products were of equal quality or better. Cisco's wireless equipment is WAY overpriced and other solutions are better and cheaper. Cisco charges for the Cisco name and the market will bear more for brand recognition. I can eat dinner at Chili's for 13 bucks or have the same meal at a local eatery for 7. Same quality. The local joint has no name recognition and the market will endure higher prices for the chili's name recognition. Companies with brand recognition would love for people to think price and quality are somehow connected, but they simply aren't.
Pfft. I know a genuine Panaphonics when I see it. And look, there's Magnetbox and Sorny.
Listen, I'm not going to lie to you. Those are all superior machines. But if you like to watch your TV, and I mean _really_ watch it, you want the Carnivale'. It features two-pronged wall plug, pre-molded hand grip well, durable outer casing to prevent fallapart...
Slashdot Mirror
IIS and SQL server were the biggest laughing stocks. The slammer worm (I think that was it anyway) was the fastest spreading worm ever at the time. It may still hold this record. It spread around the world in just a few minutes. While I would still only say their security is average and many times they don't take it seriously, they had a responsibility to their shareholders to clean up their act after the many embarrassing SQL server and IIS worms. It's not nearly as bad as it was at its crest.
This is the epitome of FUD keeping people from switching to Linux. You COMPLETELY don't understand how software works apparently. First of all, there is a standard library for writing 3d games. It's called OpenGL. Second, what Desktop Environment you run is completely irrelevant to anything. I'm currently running Gnome on this computer. At home I have Fluxbox. At my parents they have KDE. Guess what? We can all run the exact same programs. People write programs for a certain toolkit, but in no way, shape, or form does this mean you can't run it in a different desktop environment. What desktop environment you are running has nothing, 0, none, zilch, to do with what programs you can run. The Windows world is no different in this respect. There are at least 10 different GUI toolkits floating around in the Windows world. For programs to work, all you need to do is include the proper libraries. The reason there is a low rate of Linux adoption in part is because of idiotic propaganda like this being spread around. It has zero basis of truth and I think anyone propagating this garbage should be called out for what they are.
I hate to say it, but I don't think gaming on Linux is going to be a huge deal breaker for most people anyway. Most gamers I know are "Windows experts". They've got their Windows desktop super customized with skins and slick themes etc etc. They are probably the worst candidate for adopters of Linux. I've found Windows power users to be the most stubborn in switching. They think they understand something about computers and operating systems, but it comes down to they kinda understand how Windows works on the front end, and it's a HUGE blow to them when they have to start over. A lot of it is an ego thing. Instead of admitting they know less about computers than they thought, they pass it off as inferior. They do the same thing to Macs.
The best candidates to convert are people who actually really do understand how computers and operating systems work, or people that want a computer that "just works". Not people that get pissed off because there's no control panel. I come across this all the time. Windows users that I feel are scared they will look stupid and put Linux and OSX down as inferior. I'll ask them, "have you ever tried it?". Most have never tried it or made an attempt to figure out how it works. The thing that will bring about the most adoption of Linux and OSX is an entire generation being raised off Windows.
Before anyone even brings this up, the reason they usually do for-profit instead of not-for-profit is there is a crapload more bureaucracy associated with a not-for-profit and they'll end up spending a lot of money dealing with it.
If four officers can't handle a single non-drugged up student already handcuffed, turn in your badge, you are wimps and cowards. Tasers are NOT non-lethal. Do you think these officers actually understand ohms law? Or the bodies internal resistance? Or how much current can kill a person? No. They are basically given a Taser class and said "have at it". These things can deliver over 10,000 Volts! 20mA can kill a person. Do you realize how much resistance must be present to maintain 10,000V at less than 20mA? 500,000 ohms! You are talking about delivering 200 watts across someone's body. Go to the store and try to find a resistor that can handle 200 watts. Good luck. And because they think these things are perfectly safe, they use them haphazardly. If you feel your life is in danger from a 21 year old college student with no weapon already in handcuffs, hang your head in shame and turn in your badge, coward.
Zimbra is by far the best at what it does. It's better than every web based Groupware (is that the proper name?) software out there. Let's just hope Yahoo doesn't run it into the ground. I don't see why they'd actually want or need this software. Yahoo already has lot's of talented programmers and pretty decent software. The Zimbra code is probably useless to them and all of Zimbra's features and quality could be copied without owning them. It isn't like Google buying Youtube (i.e. buying established users) because Zimbra really only has a cult following. For how good it is, it really isn't that popular. This purchase really confuses me. Like I said, I hope they actually do something with Zimbra instead of buying it and letting it sit on the shelf.
They are big enough they can traffic shape. I understand it's shared internet, but Comcast is no mom and pop operation. I'm pretty sure they have the talent in house to implement that sort of thing. They could create some sort of algorithm such as if X customers are each using Y percent of the total pipe, allow Z mbits per customer to keep it fair. This creates a sliding scale of fairness so during offpeak usage one person can be allowed to use a crapload of bandwidth for big downloads, and during peak usage everyone still has pretty fast internet, but 3-4 people can't dominate the bandwidth usage and screw everyone else.
Insightful? I was trying to be funny... =( I guess I'm gonna have to go back to prop comedy.
I hear this a lot, but while Windows doesn't come with any real way to compile, write, interpret, whatever, programs; programmers back then would be amazed at how many free ways there are to write software in the cutting edge of languages. In fact, I think we've reached the point where I'd say you can create programs in most programming languages for free.
So a dual license? Blasphemy! I've never heard of a successful open source project using dual licensing!
My parents told me about this. They called them "sucka MC's".
Browsers are like girls. As long as your get adequate penetration you are pretty much ok.
Exactly. I use open source programs all day and have no clue the exact license, just that they are open source. Only zealots and those redistributing care about the nitty gritty of open source licenses. For me, all I care is that it's open source (within reason).
Why does the world seem to turn a blind eye to China's crap? If a terrorist group did this, we'd be at war. But since it's China, somehow we'll work around it. It just seems like a pattern of behavior from China. Their government is 100x worse than any middle eastern country, constantly imprisoning their own people and doing horrible horrible things (including murder). And because we can get cheap toys we turn a blind eye? That's the ultimate hypocrisy.
Just ask Mr Fusion.
Zawodny? Tay Zawodny?
I think a lot of people miss the point that a job interview is a two way process. A place may look great in the ad, but when you actually get to the interview you may discover you potential boss is a complete tool. If I were reeeeeally desperate for a job I might take the job regardless, otherwise it's just not working somewhere you know you'll be miserable from the get-go.
Oh how the mighty have fallen! I didn't realize AOL was in such a bad situation right now. There was a story awhile back that the saving grace of the Soviet Union was to be "gas powered boots". I feel like AOL is at the same point right now with their "greetings that will actually say your name". Of course the wikipedia entry could be a little biased... but it honestly sounds like AOL has become Netscape. The focus isn't on the software anymore or even their internet service, but content delivery (of content they can get anywhere in a better format).
Hey samzenpus, only Taco is allowed to make smarmy comments about the content of the story!!
I think D2 has really encouraged reading of subcomments. When I'm not logged in and defaulted to D1 I almost never read deep into a discussion because it's a pain and I lose my spot. I suspect mods on D1 do the same. So comments that make it to +3 will probably make it to +5 and those not visible will be stuck. D2 has reeeeeally helped the moderation system and I find comments more appropriately rated in general.
It's disappointing that I got modded troll because it's acknowledged by most in the Java community that there were many big design mistakes in the first few versions of Java. Java 5 (aka 1.5) really was the first great version of Java.
The original GUI toolkit was admittedly thrown together for the sake of having a GUI toolkit. Swing is leaps and bounds better, but it's very confusing to beginners learning two GUI toolkits at the same time. If you didn't know the history of why there are two it's very confusing.
The original garbage collector sucked hardcore and was slow. The current garbage collector is actually pretty good, but for many they equate Java with being slow because of old versions.
Containers are leaps and bounds better and much more type-safe, but again it's confusing to beginners why there are so many redundant ways to use containers. There are numerous optimizations at the compiler level. The biggest being the ability compile code adaptively instead of the whole program on startup. I/O is confusing to learn and imo overly complex. Again, this is because of Java's subpar original I/O subsystem.
Java has really grown up and gotten leaps and bounds better over the years. Java today is what it should have been in the first place and what was originally advertised. That's where the marketing came in. Java honestly wasn't very impressive to me when it first gained attention. Today I'm very impressed by it. But most people don't understand how much Java has grown up and in their minds they have Java of 1999 stuck in their heads.
I think the most frustrating thing with Java is how many things they did wrong in early versions that we have to deal with today. It's an extremely confusing language to learn from scratch because for everything that doesn't make sense, someone has to give you a history on why it's done that way. I agree that half of Java has been marketing (but hell, half of .net is marketing too!). It really is an amazing language with a very rich set of API's provided by Sun, don't get me wrong. I just think Java has such a bad history it may never recover from all the preconceived notions it is currently entangled in.
A natural question to ask is "why would I want to use Vista". What advantages does Vista have over XP that would outweigh its pitfalls? For most it's a resounding "nothing". All their software has been field tested on XP. All their hardware has been field tested on XP. People in the real world don't just change for the sake of saying they are running the latest stuff. High school kids may get a boner over Vista's features, but for those of us in the real world Vista just doesn't offer any reason to change right now.
I pose the question to Slashdot... What reason would a large organization have at this point to run Vista?
No, no, no! This is a common misconception. Companies price to what the market will allow. Apple knew they could create enough marketing hype to charge whatever they wanted. Apple could have easily charged much less, but it's stupid to do that in business. You charge what the market will bear. I've created cheap products in markets that were overpriced and our products were of equal quality or better. Cisco's wireless equipment is WAY overpriced and other solutions are better and cheaper. Cisco charges for the Cisco name and the market will bear more for brand recognition. I can eat dinner at Chili's for 13 bucks or have the same meal at a local eatery for 7. Same quality. The local joint has no name recognition and the market will endure higher prices for the chili's name recognition. Companies with brand recognition would love for people to think price and quality are somehow connected, but they simply aren't.
Pfft. I know a genuine Panaphonics when I see it. And look, there's Magnetbox and Sorny.
Listen, I'm not going to lie to you. Those are all superior machines. But if you like to watch your TV, and I mean _really_ watch it, you want the Carnivale'. It features two-pronged wall plug, pre-molded hand grip well, durable outer casing to prevent fallapart...