That's fascinating - none of this sounds like a dumb business move though.
If people are creeped out by these invasions of privacy they should shop elsewhere. There's a reason everything is so cheap... the cost differentials are moved elsewhere. (You as a community/country will *pay* the difference in cost versus another not-so-creepy store in other ways.)
but not for the reasons everyone else is pointing out. I *like* Novell - and liked them before they dove into Linux. They've got some incredibly great technology for managing huge, unwieldy networks that no one else has.
There were rumors a year ago or so before the SCO fiasco that IBM was looking to buy Novell - that would have been great--IBM would have kept Novell's good parts (ala Lotus) & dumped the rest. But I'm not so sure Sun would be as good as IBM--Sun, unlike IBM, is a company with a definite lack of consistent direction and has an uncertain future as Linux continues to encroach on it. Sun has had/has some really cool technologies, but I honestly don't think they'd really recognize the value of the stuff Novell would bring to the table and would probably screw it up because they'd be so focused on trying to leverage the Linux stuff. Which would be lame.
the cost-benefit analysis of doing it yourself...
on
Open Source Hotspots
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· Score: 2, Informative
you know, if you want to do it for a hobby so you can learn about WiFi, cool. Otherwise, the benefits of "rolling your own" access point on Linux are minimal. Dedicated hardware access points are really a miracle of engineering--they're full-featured yet cheaper than dirt (you can often pick them up for less than $30).
Unless your time is worth *nothing* most people would be better served by simply purchasing a dedicated hardware access point (most are powered by Linux anyhow).
There are very few people out there who can speak authoritatively about technology--teaching people how to use it without sounding like an arrogant prick. Leo is the *best* I've ever seen anywhere at this--and the tone at TechTV follows his lead.
The few times I watched G4 the people on it seemed to have a 'tude, because there isn't a "Leo" presence there. I hope Leo at least signs on as a creative consultant for the newly combined channel. (G4's design & branding looks like ti was done by a third-grader, as well...)
Comcast's lineup choices seem to be on target though--it's unfortunate they may be dropping Call for Help (at least until a massive write-in campagin restores it) but it's great to see Unscrewed made the cut! Martin Sargent is pretty brilliant--and I think his star (and Laura Swisher's) are just beginning to rise...
(and if you haven't seen Unscrewed, think of Letterman circa 1986...)
I'm bummed that I'll probably never get down to the Bay Area to see a taping of TSS or Unscrewed in time at this point.:(
I've been using a service called MoodLogic lately and it beats the crap out of the random shuffle. MoodLogic has a big database (ala CDDB) that categorizes songs by "feeling," "mood," or "tempo" - these are subjective concepts, yes, but are manually entered into the database by other MoodLogic users.
The result is that it does a damn good job of playing unique playlists of music that are thematically grouped--they "go together." It's like having a REAL DJ who knows a lot about music pick your playlist for you.
You can pick any song, artist, album, or arbitrary "style" and MoodLogic will create a playlist for you on the fly with songs that fit that selection.
I can't emphasize how much of a difference this has made to my music listening - I used to listen to whole albums or make my own limited playlists because the random shuffle was TOO random. But MoodLogic actually exposes a WHOLE lot of individual tracks I normally don't listen to. Very nifty.
They've recently released a version of their software that will siphon music to your TiVo as well, if you have the Home Media Option installed (check TiVo's website for this download). Instead of playing albums straight throguh, you can build themed playlists on the fly with your TiVo interface from another room. Brilliant.
It's nice to see there are companies out there so focused on _design_ - like Apple. Less *is* more - take everything unnecessary away. It'll save people a split second having to look at extra "stuff"--and this adds up.
Microsoft still doesn't seem to understand this (but then again, the general population doesn't seem to get it, either. More features must be more valuable.)
why it's seemingly "taking so long" to gain momentum: inertia, and it's harder to configure & use* (because there's no incentive to make it easy).
why it'll ultimately prevail: it has no acquisition costs. In business it usually always comes down to money.
(* The majority of "enterprise-grade" open source software I've used lately *is* more difficult to configure, at least, than win32-based stuff that installs with "setup.exe" But the open source stuff is more secure & cross-platform & extremely modular.:)
TiVo (the box) will die - TiVo (the company) won't
on
TiVo Will Die
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· Score: 1
TiVo (the box) could die - but not because of other PVRs. Ultimately services like the new "OnDemand" service where you can choose from thousands of programs and have them delivered directly to your cablebox will negate the need for TiVo altogether.
The reasoning the guy provides is flawed--the fact that there is not yet an HD TiVo isn't going to kill it. What is this guy on?
I suspect in five years or so, when direct-demand programming is rampantly available from everywhere, TiVo will simply reinvent itself as a company that provides the servers/end units/APIs/interfaces/programming that delivers & decodes that content. Hard drives are just a temporary stop-gap measure for "buffering" program so you can massage it later. The need for them will be eliminated if the cable company/satellite company can deliver tivo-like programming directly to you.
Wouldn't the money be better spent on regular commodity DRAM in servers? I mean, you can buy a lot more DRAM for a lot less money--and just use it as cache or hold an entire 2.5TB database in memory in a cluster.... I dunno, just seems like a waste.
But that's what government is good at - don't find a smarter way to run your database (so it's ultimately faster) - just throw it harder by applying more cash.
BSA is a marketing (PR) organization that uses light intimidation & fear tactics to force companies to comply with licensing.
SCO is a marketing organization that uses heavy intimidation & fear tactics to force companies to comply with (falsified) licensing requirements.
The BSA, as much as I hate them & their tactics, actually have a valid reason to exist but have no legal authority.
Therefore, the BSA would probably have nothing to do with SCO, as their claims about IP rights are dubious at best. Would companies like Microsoft and Autodesk (BSA members) want to be _visibly_ associated with a company that has become so hated so quickly such as SCO? Probably not good PR.
I'm sorry - I must take exception to these "hate" comments -
People who are trained exclusively on Windows should not be *expected* to get Novell, just as people who are trained exclusively on Linux can't see the bright spots in Windows. Novell is a very top-down system--because of this, it takes more time, more thought & more design to really get the system built properly. But as in engineering, the harder it is to build a system the harder it is to tear it down. Contrasted with Windows which grew from a bottom-up approach--it has its strengths, but scalability & mission-critical reliability was never a design goal. Ease of use was.
Windows has gotten a LOT better in the past few years--so much so that the differences between Netware & Windows have become, at least on the surface, negligible. We have many clients running pure Microsoft networks... but for me, I'm clinging to Netware & GroupWise for my own network as long as there's still some life left in those products--they give me tons of features and none of the headaches associated with supporting a pure-Microsoft environment. Their software is *still* better-engineered than most of what else is out there. It just takes time & effort to understand it--you really have to dig into it and get an idea of WHY they made certain design choices--once you do, you can set up a Novell-based system that runs rings around any Microsoft-based network. Compared to Windows, where things are just slapped together & pushed through until they work "well enough."
What ever happened to the "geek" mentality for going out and finding this information on your own? I see lots of blanket statements about how "Novell sucks" or "Microsoft sucks" but usually not a lot of concrete evidence to back these claims up. Everything has its purpose--if you have a knee-jerk reaction to something maybe it's a sign that you need to go invest some time in learning about it before letting the rest of the world know you don't have all of the information?
And yes - I think Novell, maybe, can do a bang-up job with these recent aquisitions. I just hope they don't screw up the marketing end of it like they have so many times in the past.
I was a bit disappointed overall - the keynote didn't have the bang & sizzle of years past.
The iPod mini is cute & very appealing, but the price tag is too steep to make a big impact. It should be $199--it would sweep the competition completely away overnight. I almost expect the price to drop shortly.
GarageBand *is* kind of innovative--the first time any company has tried to make music production accessible to the masses. I've had a nice MIDI keyboard here for months now that I like to dabble with--but the software I've tried has all been pretty intimidating for someone who just wants to experiment & lay down a few tracks.
new iPhoto w/ speed enhancements... new iMovie features... new iDVD features... new Office 2004... nice, but nothing spectacular.
I suspect they've got other big projects that'll be announced throughout the year. It just seemed to fall flat overall this time around.
cold turkey worked for me when I was playing around with Atkins a bit - the first few days were pretty hellish, then everything was back to normal - energy levels were up consistently throughout the day.
It stayed like that for several weeks...
Until I took a vacation to Vegas, had a few espresso drinks and got rehooked on it. Oh well. I suspect I'll be in and out of caffeine for the rest of my life. It's just so good.:)
and wasn't impressed. The writer is not a technical guru but tries to pass himself off as one to "the masses." Which is dangerous.
stuff like:
"Replace servers with P2P Too many network services - domain names, Web servers, email - rely on the old client-server model, which is vulnerable to attack."
really irked me.
articles like this add to the problem... a long whiny list of "problems," most of which are solved by education & training.
How can they make that kind of forecast without taking into account three things (that haven't happened yet):
1) major new technological advances that we don't know about yet that require larger investments in domestic IT
2) government-mandated protectionist policies (that don't exist yet) to help stem the tide of outsourced jobs to other countries
3) a backlash against outsourcing to countries and "giving away" our technological edge?
all they can do is plot a little line and see where it lands 12 years from now. Don't ever take reports like this seriously--no one can predict the future that far in advance.
But - it should be a wakeup call to people so they are at least aware of the trend.
How many Safari-related security problems have you seen reported? Compared to Internet Explorer?
How many ActiveX-related security problems have you seen on OS X?
How many scripting, or RPC, or buffer overrun-related problems have you seen on OS X?
Have you ever seen any AppleScript-related security problems like the VB-related ones on Windows? (you can call it macros, Windows Scripting Host,.ASP or whatever - it's still VB)
Most of the problems I've seen on OS X thus far are problems in the open source pieces that affect that product across the industry, including distros in Linux. This is one of the few security flaws that is _native_ to OS X - I can't even remember the last one I've seen. And it does require you to go through plenty of hoops - having control over the local DHCP server, for instance.
Yes - we're going to see security problems with OS X. But not ridiculously stupid ones that could have easily been prevented like we've seen on Windows... I think it's silly to even put them in the same league with each other.
"some guy" wrote that he thinks Macs suck. Big deal. Why does slashdot continue to post this drivel, other than to rile people up and make them vent their frustrations with one platform or the other? The guy is obviously foaming at the mouth - yeah, he makes for a "good story" (kinda like those LA car chases) but he's so incredibly biased in one direction (and seemingly trying to convince himself that he's completely right) that his drivel doesn't amount to much.
Each platform has its strengths and weaknesses. Everyone should do as much as possible to educate themselves about EVERYTHING OUT THERE, instead of just trying to align themselves with one and bash the others. It's as if their identity is defined by their platform of choice. Go outside; meet some people; go travel the world; get a life - don't pin your self worth on some piece of crap software someone wrote.
me? I use an iBook w/ Panther, a newly upgraded WinXP desktop on an Athlon 2500+, a dual-proc 450MHz PII Netware 6 server, a Linux server, etc. Use the tool that's right for the job.
GroupWise is a very sophisticated object-based database with advanced replication that's relatively easy to deploy and manage. Tell me why Exchange or Notes is better?
2) this did not fail - they took the best parts of WPOffice and created GroupWise, which, IMO, is way better than Exchange or Notes for most environments. GW has over 10% mkt share in the groupware arena now, making it #3 in the world.
3) Still there. It is fast. exteNd uses this (formerly silverstream) but so do TOMCAT & APACHE which are installed by default with Netware 6. iFolder, for one, uses this extensively.
Slashdot Mirror
I posted an ad for a help desk position for my small company on craigslist.
I received sixty resumes in four days. And probably 20% were well-to-over-qualified.
That's fascinating - none of this sounds like a dumb business move though.
If people are creeped out by these invasions of privacy they should shop elsewhere. There's a reason everything is so cheap... the cost differentials are moved elsewhere. (You as a community/country will *pay* the difference in cost versus another not-so-creepy store in other ways.)
but not for the reasons everyone else is pointing out. I *like* Novell - and liked them before they dove into Linux. They've got some incredibly great technology for managing huge, unwieldy networks that no one else has.
There were rumors a year ago or so before the SCO fiasco that IBM was looking to buy Novell - that would have been great--IBM would have kept Novell's good parts (ala Lotus) & dumped the rest. But I'm not so sure Sun would be as good as IBM--Sun, unlike IBM, is a company with a definite lack of consistent direction and has an uncertain future as Linux continues to encroach on it. Sun has had/has some really cool technologies, but I honestly don't think they'd really recognize the value of the stuff Novell would bring to the table and would probably screw it up because they'd be so focused on trying to leverage the Linux stuff. Which would be lame.
you know, if you want to do it for a hobby so you can learn about WiFi, cool. Otherwise, the benefits of "rolling your own" access point on Linux are minimal. Dedicated hardware access points are really a miracle of engineering--they're full-featured yet cheaper than dirt (you can often pick them up for less than $30).
Unless your time is worth *nothing* most people would be better served by simply purchasing a dedicated hardware access point (most are powered by Linux anyhow).
There are very few people out there who can speak authoritatively about technology--teaching people how to use it without sounding like an arrogant prick. Leo is the *best* I've ever seen anywhere at this--and the tone at TechTV follows his lead.
:(
The few times I watched G4 the people on it seemed to have a 'tude, because there isn't a "Leo" presence there. I hope Leo at least signs on as a creative consultant for the newly combined channel. (G4's design & branding looks like ti was done by a third-grader, as well...)
Comcast's lineup choices seem to be on target though--it's unfortunate they may be dropping Call for Help (at least until a massive write-in campagin restores it) but it's great to see Unscrewed made the cut! Martin Sargent is pretty brilliant--and I think his star (and Laura Swisher's) are just beginning to rise...
(and if you haven't seen Unscrewed, think of Letterman circa 1986...)
I'm bummed that I'll probably never get down to the Bay Area to see a taping of TSS or Unscrewed in time at this point.
but the people responsible for administrating that network should be canned!
What ever happened to the IT guys taking responsibility for not keeping an eye on things?
If you're the type of person whose data is important to others when you pass, then you'll probably already have staff to take care of it.
The result is that it does a damn good job of playing unique playlists of music that are thematically grouped--they "go together." It's like having a REAL DJ who knows a lot about music pick your playlist for you.
You can pick any song, artist, album, or arbitrary "style" and MoodLogic will create a playlist for you on the fly with songs that fit that selection.
I can't emphasize how much of a difference this has made to my music listening - I used to listen to whole albums or make my own limited playlists because the random shuffle was TOO random. But MoodLogic actually exposes a WHOLE lot of individual tracks I normally don't listen to. Very nifty.
They've recently released a version of their software that will siphon music to your TiVo as well, if you have the Home Media Option installed (check TiVo's website for this download). Instead of playing albums straight throguh, you can build themed playlists on the fly with your TiVo interface from another room. Brilliant.
This is where things will head, I hope.
It's nice to see there are companies out there so focused on _design_ - like Apple. Less *is* more - take everything unnecessary away. It'll save people a split second having to look at extra "stuff"--and this adds up.
Microsoft still doesn't seem to understand this (but then again, the general population doesn't seem to get it, either. More features must be more valuable.)
why it's seemingly "taking so long" to gain momentum: inertia, and it's harder to configure & use* (because there's no incentive to make it easy).
:)
why it'll ultimately prevail: it has no acquisition costs. In business it usually always comes down to money.
(* The majority of "enterprise-grade" open source software I've used lately *is* more difficult to configure, at least, than win32-based stuff that installs with "setup.exe" But the open source stuff is more secure & cross-platform & extremely modular.
TiVo (the box) could die - but not because of other PVRs. Ultimately services like the new "OnDemand" service where you can choose from thousands of programs and have them delivered directly to your cablebox will negate the need for TiVo altogether.
The reasoning the guy provides is flawed--the fact that there is not yet an HD TiVo isn't going to kill it. What is this guy on?
I suspect in five years or so, when direct-demand programming is rampantly available from everywhere, TiVo will simply reinvent itself as a company that provides the servers/end units/APIs/interfaces/programming that delivers & decodes that content. Hard drives are just a temporary stop-gap measure for "buffering" program so you can massage it later. The need for them will be eliminated if the cable company/satellite company can deliver tivo-like programming directly to you.
Wouldn't the money be better spent on regular commodity DRAM in servers? I mean, you can buy a lot more DRAM for a lot less money--and just use it as cache or hold an entire 2.5TB database in memory in a cluster.... I dunno, just seems like a waste.
But that's what government is good at - don't find a smarter way to run your database (so it's ultimately faster) - just throw it harder by applying more cash.
BSA is a marketing (PR) organization that uses light intimidation & fear tactics to force companies to comply with licensing.
SCO is a marketing organization that uses heavy intimidation & fear tactics to force companies to comply with (falsified) licensing requirements.
The BSA, as much as I hate them & their tactics, actually have a valid reason to exist but have no legal authority.
Therefore, the BSA would probably have nothing to do with SCO, as their claims about IP rights are dubious at best. Would companies like Microsoft and Autodesk (BSA members) want to be _visibly_ associated with a company that has become so hated so quickly such as SCO? Probably not good PR.
I'm sorry - I must take exception to these "hate" comments -
People who are trained exclusively on Windows should not be *expected* to get Novell, just as people who are trained exclusively on Linux can't see the bright spots in Windows. Novell is a very top-down system--because of this, it takes more time, more thought & more design to really get the system built properly. But as in engineering, the harder it is to build a system the harder it is to tear it down. Contrasted with Windows which grew from a bottom-up approach--it has its strengths, but scalability & mission-critical reliability was never a design goal. Ease of use was.
Windows has gotten a LOT better in the past few years--so much so that the differences between Netware & Windows have become, at least on the surface, negligible. We have many clients running pure Microsoft networks... but for me, I'm clinging to Netware & GroupWise for my own network as long as there's still some life left in those products--they give me tons of features and none of the headaches associated with supporting a pure-Microsoft environment. Their software is *still* better-engineered than most of what else is out there. It just takes time & effort to understand it--you really have to dig into it and get an idea of WHY they made certain design choices--once you do, you can set up a Novell-based system that runs rings around any Microsoft-based network. Compared to Windows, where things are just slapped together & pushed through until they work "well enough."
What ever happened to the "geek" mentality for going out and finding this information on your own? I see lots of blanket statements about how "Novell sucks" or "Microsoft sucks" but usually not a lot of concrete evidence to back these claims up. Everything has its purpose--if you have a knee-jerk reaction to something maybe it's a sign that you need to go invest some time in learning about it before letting the rest of the world know you don't have all of the information?
And yes - I think Novell, maybe, can do a bang-up job with these recent aquisitions. I just hope they don't screw up the marketing end of it like they have so many times in the past.
GroupWise has doubled its market share in the past three years.
It's the best overall e-mail package out there--more scalable than Exchange (& more reliable) and easier than Notes.
If you don't see it that way, then you've either been lied to or don't have a good grasp of what the rest of the playing field looks like.
I was a bit disappointed overall - the keynote didn't have the bang & sizzle of years past.
The iPod mini is cute & very appealing, but the price tag is too steep to make a big impact. It should be $199--it would sweep the competition completely away overnight. I almost expect the price to drop shortly.
GarageBand *is* kind of innovative--the first time any company has tried to make music production accessible to the masses. I've had a nice MIDI keyboard here for months now that I like to dabble with--but the software I've tried has all been pretty intimidating for someone who just wants to experiment & lay down a few tracks.
new iPhoto w/ speed enhancements... new iMovie features... new iDVD features... new Office 2004... nice, but nothing spectacular.
I suspect they've got other big projects that'll be announced throughout the year. It just seemed to fall flat overall this time around.
cold turkey worked for me when I was playing around with Atkins a bit - the first few days were pretty hellish, then everything was back to normal - energy levels were up consistently throughout the day.
:)
It stayed like that for several weeks...
Until I took a vacation to Vegas, had a few espresso drinks and got rehooked on it. Oh well. I suspect I'll be in and out of caffeine for the rest of my life. It's just so good.
and wasn't impressed. The writer is not a technical guru but tries to pass himself off as one to "the masses." Which is dangerous.
stuff like:
"Replace servers with P2P Too many network services - domain names, Web servers, email - rely on the old client-server model, which is vulnerable to attack."
really irked me.
articles like this add to the problem... a long whiny list of "problems," most of which are solved by education & training.
How can they make that kind of forecast without taking into account three things (that haven't happened yet):
1) major new technological advances that we don't know about yet that require larger investments in domestic IT
2) government-mandated protectionist policies (that don't exist yet) to help stem the tide of outsourced jobs to other countries
3) a backlash against outsourcing to countries and "giving away" our technological edge?
all they can do is plot a little line and see where it lands 12 years from now. Don't ever take reports like this seriously--no one can predict the future that far in advance.
But - it should be a wakeup call to people so they are at least aware of the trend.
don't you guys have a "delete" button?
how hard is that?
How many Safari-related security problems have you seen reported? Compared to Internet Explorer?
.ASP or whatever - it's still VB)
How many ActiveX-related security problems have you seen on OS X?
How many scripting, or RPC, or buffer overrun-related problems have you seen on OS X?
Have you ever seen any AppleScript-related security problems like the VB-related ones on Windows? (you can call it macros, Windows Scripting Host,
Most of the problems I've seen on OS X thus far are problems in the open source pieces that affect that product across the industry, including distros in Linux. This is one of the few security flaws that is _native_ to OS X - I can't even remember the last one I've seen. And it does require you to go through plenty of hoops - having control over the local DHCP server, for instance.
Yes - we're going to see security problems with OS X. But not ridiculously stupid ones that could have easily been prevented like we've seen on Windows... I think it's silly to even put them in the same league with each other.
"some guy" wrote that he thinks Macs suck. Big deal. Why does slashdot continue to post this drivel, other than to rile people up and make them vent their frustrations with one platform or the other? The guy is obviously foaming at the mouth - yeah, he makes for a "good story" (kinda like those LA car chases) but he's so incredibly biased in one direction (and seemingly trying to convince himself that he's completely right) that his drivel doesn't amount to much.
Each platform has its strengths and weaknesses. Everyone should do as much as possible to educate themselves about EVERYTHING OUT THERE, instead of just trying to align themselves with one and bash the others. It's as if their identity is defined by their platform of choice. Go outside; meet some people; go travel the world; get a life - don't pin your self worth on some piece of crap software someone wrote.
me? I use an iBook w/ Panther, a newly upgraded WinXP desktop on an Athlon 2500+, a dual-proc 450MHz PII Netware 6 server, a Linux server, etc. Use the tool that's right for the job.
GroupWise is a very sophisticated object-based database with advanced replication that's relatively easy to deploy and manage. Tell me why Exchange or Notes is better?
1) ultimately sold to SCO.
2) this did not fail - they took the best parts of WPOffice and created GroupWise, which, IMO, is way better than Exchange or Notes for most environments. GW has over 10% mkt share in the groupware arena now, making it #3 in the world.
3) Still there. It is fast. exteNd uses this (formerly silverstream) but so do TOMCAT & APACHE which are installed by default with Netware 6. iFolder, for one, uses this extensively.
I'm sorry, you can't blame the SCO mess on Novell.
They tried to fix it, you know.