Is its following, community and wide range of available software.
Without something comparable, all the SBCs in the world amount to very little.
For example, consider the Orange Pi. It's based on a different architecture, it uses a different boot-up process.
Sure, it runs Linux, it's probably hardware compatible up to a point, it's cheaper: $15 compared to what? $30 for a RPi
(I'm not up to date on US dollar prices). Has it taken the world by storm? No. Can you buy it without sending your money
to China and waiting 1 - 2 months? Definitely not.
What it, and all the other SBCs, lack is the ease of use. The wide range of almost-working software. The examples to
create your own almost-working software. The documentation about what almost works and the "experts" (those people
who can make TWO LEDs flash) who can and will answer questions - preferable with correct answers.
The plastic enclosure can be stamped out for a penny a piece. The aluminium one would cost more. The device only has to last as long as its warranty period. No reviewer is going to have the device for more than a few days before they write their glowing, uncritical and simplistic reviews (basically: it's shiny, buy it) so the chances of one failing is minimal.
All the long-term successful technology companies have had to re-invent themselves to adapt to changes in the way people and technology interact. They diversify, experiment and can fail without it being fatal.
So far Facebook, which has only been going for 12 years (yes, I know that for all the NOOBS, that seems like forever - and considering their age, it probably is) and has no history of changing itself to adapt to radically different challenges. It might be able to, but until it has gone through a couple of metamorphoses, I wouldn't put any money on it's ability to change and survive.
Tools are judged by their ability to do the job repeatedly and without fail. To achieve this, only the best of design and manufacturing will do
Utter rubbish - it sounds like "reassuringly expensive" - an amusing phrase when applied to lager (beer), but trite in the real world. Tools are judged on their ability to get the job done. Most normal people are origin-blind. They don't, nor should, care where a tool, device, object was made or sold from. Just so long as it's fit for purpose and cost-effective.
As for buy.... <name of country> this is little more than subsidising inefficient or lazy production and fooling yourself that you're a "patriot". Great if you a re a politician - who's main job is to fool the gullible and ill-informed. But for most people it's irrelevant. There are factors that come into play: support, warranty and spares. However, buying from a local producer is no guarantee that you'll get any of those and the internet makes everywhere as accessible as they choose to be, Buying from a known and trusted brand should be sufficient but since so much of the population just looks at the price, even brand recognition counts for little - and supplies the same - in these days of disposability.
If you want to know what consumer devices pose a security threat (whether cheap or expensive, webcam, router/modem or other device), just look at the list of devices that other people have loaded some version of a Linux based O/S on to. These are the devices that can be easily subverted. If your organisation is sensitive to security threats, the list of "hackable" devices should also be your list of products that should never be allowed to connect inside your company's security fence.
Of course, there's probably a "dark" list of devices that can be hacked - just not by kiddies with a simple PC. Ultimately, nobody can defend against them.
Yes, the term is largely meaningless. It seems to me that LTS actually means that so long as you don't need to upgrade any third-party applications (that inevitably have dependencies on newer, non-LTS, libraries), then any bugs you report might get fixed - provided you're a MAJOR PLAYER in the Linux arena with clout and someone in the support team is bored enough to choose to fix bugs... and picks on yours as being easy enough to tackle.
So it's long-term support, all right. Just so long as you don't change anything that hasn't been "blessed" by whoever is providing that support. Of course, by the end of the LTS period, your system will be so out of date, that the only way to upgrade it will be to wipe it and start over. Ho, hum.
Yes. After years of "releases" that were mainly just support for obscure hardware and bug/security fixes, this offering might actually be worth the effort of upgrading my existing systems to.
I don't answer critical emails either. However, if you send me nice ones, or polite ones I might even read them.
You'd think that if this was something SERIOUS for Cisco, they'd at least bother to pick up the phone - maybe even go to the effort of finding someone who spoke russian. As it is, this outfit, like everyone else on the planet probably gets spammed senseless. Especially through public email addresses. Who can blame someone for ignoring emails from unsolicited sources?
To sum up, this sounds like the lazy excuse of an indolent individual: Why haven't you done X? asks the boss. "Well I sent them an email, but they never replied" whines the guy who just wants to get back to playing Facebook.
This piece is citing articles written in 2005 as "ye olde world" and saying "OMG! something amaaaazing has happened.
Well, those 10 years represent 2 or 3 generations of datacentre hardware, depending on how you amortise your assets. So if the author has only just woken up to SSDs or SCMs then what have they been doing for the past decade?
In practice, the biggest bottleneck in the datacentre has been the network for a longish time. And the biggest bottleneck in most systems is the user's think-time. It is that last aspect which lies at the heart of multi-user systems.
However, the guy does have a point: the need for "olde worlde" performance management - designing the bottlenecks out of a system and diagnosing where the choke-points are (ans. the network) when things slow down has largely disappeared. But as for the rest of his stuff? Yes, we know all that.
Internet freedoms will be slightly (more) curtailed
Linux will push out more fixes and hardware support - but nothing compelling that will be worth an upgrade (unless you like dickin' about with your computers, or need the fixed stuff)
Windows will continue to be Windows - nothing new there
There will be more cyber attacks, exploited security holes, scams and cockups
The Greek economy might finally crash - or it might not.
Apple will probably release some more stuff. The fans will all tell you they are the best versions ever and worth every penny
China will make more, faster, better, cheaper stuff then ever before
Oh yes - and there will be the olympics. But nothing else of any consequence.
At 2-3k for a "home" milling maching, it still doesn't make sense to buy your own. Far better to design your project and have a local shop fabricate your pieces for you. Whether that is by plain-old hand crafting or CNC-ing is immaterial, so long as the pieces fit.
The actual number of home projects that the average "maker" will complete in a year makes the cost of buying your own machinery very expensive, when you amortise the cost of the equipment (and the learning failures) across the number of successes. However, since with many "makers" the actual hobby isn't having and using the end product, it's the joy and anticipation of buying new toys and the fun of playing with them - any actual working pieces are simply a side-effect, then more toys is the way to go!
A better question for an IT forum would be to ask how the hell do you test whether the implementation (of which party to kill) works as designed?
It should be immediately obvious to anyone in a capitalist society that who dies is a cost-option. Let's say that opting to save the car's occupants comes at a $1million price premium on the cost of the vehicle.
surely there will be a continuous flow of supplies to help support a colony
And someone will control that flow of supplies. That someone will therefore have absolute influence over the colony.
As for trade: what, exactly could Mars possibly have that would be tradable - given the extreme cost of transportation? Maybe once there is a Martian "sphere of influence" with LMO and its moons there would be some local trade (since the gravitational costs of getting stuff up there would be lower). But still: what would the Red Planet have that couldn't be made cheaper on (say) Phobos?
But Earth - Mars trading? We already have enough sand and rocks. Mars is like Earth's remote deserts and even we don't trade with those places, since they have nothing of value to offer. Similarly, we don't even colonise those parts of our planet - so the reasons for going to Mars would be more about getting away from Earth than any positive aspects of Mars itself. That doesn't bode well for the prospects of any future colonists.
anyone who saw Star Wars once in 1977, and never watched it again until now, is clearly not a big fan of the sci-fi genre
I disagree. I saw the first one at the Leicester Square Odeon when it first came out and right from the opening sequence it was a game-changer. It needed a big, huge, screen and rumbling sound system. Without that, it's a weak imitation of the film I saw.
I saw the next one at the cinema, too. Not as good and the one's after that I didn't bother with.
However, I definitely am a fan - not someone obsessed with the notions portrayed in the film - but a fan of the idea, the presentation and the size of the venture. I do hope that the new episode matches up to my memories. I just don't hold out much hope for it.
Even if I don't live longer being happy, I'd still prefer to live a happy life than a miserable one. Happiness is still a worthy goal for its own sake (and I'd probably want a shorter - happier life even if there was an inverse correlation) so I don't see the point of this study.
25,000 people per hour could be taken down a freeway lane. While impressive, this movement capacity is only half that of a train
The train comparison is completely fatuous since no train can carry 25,000 and the smaller ones don't run frequently enough to sustain that level of movement. Plus, last time I checked, I can't get a train from right outside my doorstep.
Trains have some uses, but they lack the versatility of cars, and far more expensive to build and operate and they are only comparably efficient when full or nearly so.
Your average (or even top of the class) housebreaker is not a criminal mastermind. They do not keep up to date on security vulnerabilities and won't spend much time trying to spoof, or tap into an internet-based alarm system. they will smash your front door or window, grab what they can and be gone before the cops arrive.
If you want to protect against them, get a metal door or a large dog (always the best deterrent). If you want a home security system and you think that your attacker will have disabled it via a web based attack you've been watching too many bad movies. Although if you really are that impressionable, you'd be very easy for companies to sell you stuff.
If it does turn out that your enemies really are prepared and able to hack your house, cut your phone and power, jam your mobile phone and then break in - you've got bigger problems than a little system like this, or all the guns in the world, will protect you against.
OK, I can understand that if your boss is located a long way away, it's far easier to spend the entire day goofing off - playing Facebook, chatting, drinking coffee, arriving late / leaving early and talking on the phone to your friends and family. (and this works for bosses, too).
However, it makes it impossible to eavesdrop on their conversations and phone calls or see what they leave lying around on their desks. I have also found that with my boss in the same cluster of desks I get to answer her desk phone when she's away - and get to talk to all manner of "upper ranks" that I wouldn't normally get a chance to impress.
a small embedded device like the Raspberry Pi Zero require either Wi-Fi or Ethernet connectivity
One assumes that the Pi ONE will fix this shortcoming. Given the price of the ESP8266, I doubt it would cost more than $1 to add connectivity. The only reason I can think of for them not doing this in the first place is to wait for a better WiFi device to hit the streets.
Once the Pi has WiFi, it will be difficult to beat at that price.
Very simple. Presuming you are in the position to lead and have the backing of the directors it simply comes down to.... Right you lot, here's what we are going to do. If there are any objections please note them during your exit interview".
Of course, this does assume that the work has been fully scoped out, risk assessed (the risk appears to be lazy programmers) and costed.
if the development teams really are in the position to cherry-pick the work they do, the best course of action is to run away, very fast.
Information security is an endeavor that is frequently described in terms of war
And no sane person likes war... right?
The point is that to make Infosec more attractive to normal, sane, people the intent should be changed from one of confrontation and dominance to one that coveys an intent to make the world better, more secure, safer, and protected from the crazies out there.
If that sounds a lot like the (female dominated) caring professions, then so be it. But if you really believe that Infosec is there as part of a "war" then carry on as you were...
Slashdot Mirror
Is its following, community and wide range of available software.
Without something comparable, all the SBCs in the world amount to very little. For example, consider the Orange Pi. It's based on a different architecture, it uses a different boot-up process. Sure, it runs Linux, it's probably hardware compatible up to a point, it's cheaper: $15 compared to what? $30 for a RPi (I'm not up to date on US dollar prices). Has it taken the world by storm? No. Can you buy it without sending your money to China and waiting 1 - 2 months? Definitely not.
What it, and all the other SBCs, lack is the ease of use. The wide range of almost-working software. The examples to create your own almost-working software. The documentation about what almost works and the "experts" (those people who can make TWO LEDs flash) who can and will answer questions - preferable with correct answers.
Please explain like I'm five
OK, i t ' s . . t o o . . e x p e n s i v e.
The plastic enclosure can be stamped out for a penny a piece. The aluminium one would cost more. The device only has to last as long as its warranty period. No reviewer is going to have the device for more than a few days before they write their glowing, uncritical and simplistic reviews (basically: it's shiny, buy it) so the chances of one failing is minimal.
So far Facebook, which has only been going for 12 years (yes, I know that for all the NOOBS, that seems like forever - and considering their age, it probably is) and has no history of changing itself to adapt to radically different challenges. It might be able to, but until it has gone through a couple of metamorphoses, I wouldn't put any money on it's ability to change and survive.
Tools are judged by their ability to do the job repeatedly and without fail. To achieve this, only the best of design and manufacturing will do
Utter rubbish - it sounds like "reassuringly expensive" - an amusing phrase when applied to lager (beer), but trite in the real world. Tools are judged on their ability to get the job done. Most normal people are origin-blind. They don't, nor should, care where a tool, device, object was made or sold from. Just so long as it's fit for purpose and cost-effective.
As for buy .... <name of country> this is little more than subsidising inefficient or lazy production and fooling yourself that you're a "patriot". Great if you a re a politician - who's main job is to fool the gullible and ill-informed. But for most people it's irrelevant. There are factors that come into play: support, warranty and spares. However, buying from a local producer is no guarantee that you'll get any of those and the internet makes everywhere as accessible as they choose to be, Buying from a known and trusted brand should be sufficient but since so much of the population just looks at the price, even brand recognition counts for little - and supplies the same - in these days of disposability.
it is trivial to make these 100% secure and hacker proof disabling all backdoors if you have education and knowledge
Good. So it will be trivial for you to post a link to the source of your knowledge. Please .... don't be shy.
If you want to know what consumer devices pose a security threat (whether cheap or expensive, webcam, router/modem or other device), just look at the list of devices that other people have loaded some version of a Linux based O/S on to. These are the devices that can be easily subverted. If your organisation is sensitive to security threats, the list of "hackable" devices should also be your list of products that should never be allowed to connect inside your company's security fence.
Of course, there's probably a "dark" list of devices that can be hacked - just not by kiddies with a simple PC. Ultimately, nobody can defend against them.
Yes, the term is largely meaningless. It seems to me that LTS actually means that so long as you don't need to upgrade any third-party applications (that inevitably have dependencies on newer, non-LTS, libraries), then any bugs you report might get fixed - provided you're a MAJOR PLAYER in the Linux arena with clout and someone in the support team is bored enough to choose to fix bugs ... and picks on yours as being easy enough to tackle.
So it's long-term support, all right. Just so long as you don't change anything that hasn't been "blessed" by whoever is providing that support. Of course, by the end of the LTS period, your system will be so out of date, that the only way to upgrade it will be to wipe it and start over. Ho, hum.
Yes. After years of "releases" that were mainly just support for obscure hardware and bug/security fixes, this offering might actually be worth the effort of upgrading my existing systems to.
who didn't bother answering critical emails
I don't answer critical emails either. However, if you send me nice ones, or polite ones I might even read them.
You'd think that if this was something SERIOUS for Cisco, they'd at least bother to pick up the phone - maybe even go to the effort of finding someone who spoke russian. As it is, this outfit, like everyone else on the planet probably gets spammed senseless. Especially through public email addresses. Who can blame someone for ignoring emails from unsolicited sources?
To sum up, this sounds like the lazy excuse of an indolent individual: Why haven't you done X? asks the boss. "Well I sent them an email, but they never replied" whines the guy who just wants to get back to playing Facebook.
This piece is citing articles written in 2005 as "ye olde world" and saying "OMG! something amaaaazing has happened.
Well, those 10 years represent 2 or 3 generations of datacentre hardware, depending on how you amortise your assets. So if the author has only just woken up to SSDs or SCMs then what have they been doing for the past decade?
In practice, the biggest bottleneck in the datacentre has been the network for a longish time. And the biggest bottleneck in most systems is the user's think-time. It is that last aspect which lies at the heart of multi-user systems.
However, the guy does have a point: the need for "olde worlde" performance management - designing the bottlenecks out of a system and diagnosing where the choke-points are (ans. the network) when things slow down has largely disappeared. But as for the rest of his stuff? Yes, we know all that.
Linux will push out more fixes and hardware support - but nothing compelling that will be worth an upgrade (unless you like dickin' about with your computers, or need the fixed stuff)
Windows will continue to be Windows - nothing new there
There will be more cyber attacks, exploited security holes, scams and cockups
The Greek economy might finally crash - or it might not.
Apple will probably release some more stuff. The fans will all tell you they are the best versions ever and worth every penny
China will make more, faster, better, cheaper stuff then ever before
Oh yes - and there will be the olympics. But nothing else of any consequence.
Which SBCs, specifically.
As for being "made by some Chinese manufacturer" - you've just described 90% of the world's consumer electronics. Most of which is excellent.
The actual number of home projects that the average "maker" will complete in a year makes the cost of buying your own machinery very expensive, when you amortise the cost of the equipment (and the learning failures) across the number of successes. However, since with many "makers" the actual hobby isn't having and using the end product, it's the joy and anticipation of buying new toys and the fun of playing with them - any actual working pieces are simply a side-effect, then more toys is the way to go!
it misses the big question
A better question for an IT forum would be to ask how the hell do you test whether the implementation (of which party to kill) works as designed?
It should be immediately obvious to anyone in a capitalist society that who dies is a cost-option. Let's say that opting to save the car's occupants comes at a $1million price premium on the cost of the vehicle.
surely there will be a continuous flow of supplies to help support a colony
And someone will control that flow of supplies. That someone will therefore have absolute influence over the colony.
As for trade: what, exactly could Mars possibly have that would be tradable - given the extreme cost of transportation? Maybe once there is a Martian "sphere of influence" with LMO and its moons there would be some local trade (since the gravitational costs of getting stuff up there would be lower). But still: what would the Red Planet have that couldn't be made cheaper on (say) Phobos?
But Earth - Mars trading? We already have enough sand and rocks. Mars is like Earth's remote deserts and even we don't trade with those places, since they have nothing of value to offer. Similarly, we don't even colonise those parts of our planet - so the reasons for going to Mars would be more about getting away from Earth than any positive aspects of Mars itself. That doesn't bode well for the prospects of any future colonists.
anyone who saw Star Wars once in 1977, and never watched it again until now, is clearly not a big fan of the sci-fi genre
I disagree. I saw the first one at the Leicester Square Odeon when it first came out and right from the opening sequence it was a game-changer. It needed a big, huge, screen and rumbling sound system. Without that, it's a weak imitation of the film I saw.
I saw the next one at the cinema, too. Not as good and the one's after that I didn't bother with.
However, I definitely am a fan - not someone obsessed with the notions portrayed in the film - but a fan of the idea, the presentation and the size of the venture. I do hope that the new episode matches up to my memories. I just don't hold out much hope for it.
many other adults introduced to the sci-fi franchise as kids
Maybe you just grew up?
Even if I don't live longer being happy, I'd still prefer to live a happy life than a miserable one. Happiness is still a worthy goal for its own sake (and I'd probably want a shorter - happier life even if there was an inverse correlation) so I don't see the point of this study.
25,000 people per hour could be taken down a freeway lane. While impressive, this movement capacity is only half that of a train
The train comparison is completely fatuous since no train can carry 25,000 and the smaller ones don't run frequently enough to sustain that level of movement. Plus, last time I checked, I can't get a train from right outside my doorstep.
Trains have some uses, but they lack the versatility of cars, and far more expensive to build and operate and they are only comparably efficient when full or nearly so.
I wonder how the cable company will feel when it's suppliers start to "name and shame" it for outstanding invoices?
If you want to protect against them, get a metal door or a large dog (always the best deterrent). If you want a home security system and you think that your attacker will have disabled it via a web based attack you've been watching too many bad movies. Although if you really are that impressionable, you'd be very easy for companies to sell you stuff.
If it does turn out that your enemies really are prepared and able to hack your house, cut your phone and power, jam your mobile phone and then break in - you've got bigger problems than a little system like this, or all the guns in the world, will protect you against.
OK, I can understand that if your boss is located a long way away, it's far easier to spend the entire day goofing off - playing Facebook, chatting, drinking coffee, arriving late / leaving early and talking on the phone to your friends and family. (and this works for bosses, too).
However, it makes it impossible to eavesdrop on their conversations and phone calls or see what they leave lying around on their desks. I have also found that with my boss in the same cluster of desks I get to answer her desk phone when she's away - and get to talk to all manner of "upper ranks" that I wouldn't normally get a chance to impress.
a small embedded device like the Raspberry Pi Zero require either Wi-Fi or Ethernet connectivity
One assumes that the Pi ONE will fix this shortcoming. Given the price of the ESP8266, I doubt it would cost more than $1 to add connectivity. The only reason I can think of for them not doing this in the first place is to wait for a better WiFi device to hit the streets.
Once the Pi has WiFi, it will be difficult to beat at that price.
convincing the development teams
Very simple. Presuming you are in the position to lead and have the backing of the directors it simply comes down to .... Right you lot, here's what we are going to do. If there are any objections please note them during your exit interview".
Of course, this does assume that the work has been fully scoped out, risk assessed (the risk appears to be lazy programmers) and costed.
if the development teams really are in the position to cherry-pick the work they do, the best course of action is to run away, very fast.
Information security is an endeavor that is frequently described in terms of war
And no sane person likes war ... right?
The point is that to make Infosec more attractive to normal, sane, people the intent should be changed from one of confrontation and dominance to one that coveys an intent to make the world better, more secure, safer, and protected from the crazies out there.
If that sounds a lot like the (female dominated) caring professions, then so be it. But if you really believe that Infosec is there as part of a "war" then carry on as you were ...