This was the same link I was looking at. Drilling down a bit it looks like the problems are related to the libarchive program included in SUSE, Debian, Gentoo...
The compatibility list didn't go into detail on what portion of the software was affected. I just noticed that MS was pronounced as unaffected and yet many linux distros were? Just making the point that it's not always MS stuff that gets hit by the bug. I would have thought that whoever made the bzip2 and tar software would have been mentioned rather than the distro if that were the only issue.
Actually the article linked to stated that Symantec tested all their products against the bug, and found that it was not affected. Where did you get your info about them from?
I know/.'ers like to discount MS's beta process as a bunch of rubbish. But the beta process is there to eliminate the brave earlier adopter problems at actual launch time. And traditionally it has worked.
Free software may have had 64-bit versions - but was there any advantage over the 32 bit versions? Negligible in most cases. 32-bit software reworked to run on x64 isn't exactly cutting edge. Then once you had a x64 OS, you just ran 32-bit apps on it in compatibility mode.
No, in the real world people count on their Windows apps to run their daily business. In your dream world, who is creating the everyday business apps to compete with the Windows counterparts that run nearly every business in the US?
LOL that's BS, not sure why it's modded interesting. If toilets cost that much to flush I do believe there would be money raining down on my house all day long from all the planes going over.
I think this is a great solution. Force the squatters to pay a lot up front, and eliminate the grace period. That way they won't want to output a lot of money, even if it's about $50, to register because they won't make enough money on the domain to make it worthwhile. I think that most people would not mind paying a bit more up front as long as renewal was easy and cheap like it is now.
While they are at it, they should make scams, like Domain Registry of America does, to deceive people into switching registrars. There should be huge fines for this kind of thing, to the tune of $1000's per domain. You've got to make it financially devestating for people to engage in nasty behavior like this.
While I don't think you can make the squatting illegal, I think you can make it harder to make money on, which will effectively eliminate within a couple of years.
Are you talking about enterprise subscriptions? Granted, I don't do enough work with large corporations to have any experience dealing with site licenses like this. Regardless of whether the subscription is based on number of computers at a site or numbers of licenses purchased, I thought they still purchased a software assurance license to keep the OS current, rather than just have access to the purchased and previous OS selections.
MS could care less about what OS they are installing - the profit level is the same and the customer is happy. All it does is give them numbers to flaunt for Vista adoption, if they even use those. I'd also really have to question the sanity of customers who are buying software assurance for the OS anyway, considering the infrequent upgrade schedule.
And yet this argument is invalid because most people know that Vista includes downgrade rights to XP Home or XP Pro. You don't need to buy XP again. They aren't artificially boosting sales in this manner, at least not on a wide scale.
The reason Microsoft has always been a good stock buy even though the stock price has dropped through the roof in recent years, is they consistently make money. I expect there are enough smart people in that organization that they will continue to put out products that make money. I don't care how long this FOSS fad goes along, eventually people will realize that in order for software to keep progressing, they have to be doing it for profit, and people will gladly pay for the priviledge of using a system that is professionally maintained and supported. You have to admit, even the companies driving desktop linux are those who profit from it, not those who do nothing but tweak it and give it away.
I suppose if they really want to make it fair, they should have a separate race class and let all the other runners strap springs onto their shoes also. Then we'll find out how much of an athlete this guy is compared to other world-class runners.
Why don't they sell bandwidth on 95th Percentile like they do servers at datacenters?
Give users 1Mbps on 95th percentile and that should take care of the needs of 95% of your users. Tier it for 2Mbps, 5Mbps, and 10Mbps for those who want to pay for it. Then those 5% who need more bandwidth can pay the extra $$ for those always leeching connections.
You could deal with overages in one of two ways: (1) Limit bandwidth to 1Mpbs (or whatever level they have) for the duration of the billing period, or (2) charge a flat fee per GB or per Mbps for overage.
Considering that when I went to the Sprint store and they said the Q had problems with freezing and network connections, I'm not surprised - but I don't believe that has anything to do with Windows Mobile. My HTC phone works fine with Windows Mobile. I'll give you the battery life point - though again that has less to do with Windows Mobile and more to do with the amount of radios and antennas drawing power from these super smartphones every second you have it powered on.
For one, sending a software serial number, unencrypted, over the internet in plain text is hardly protecting investment, it's almost encouraging piracy using that serial.
Secondly, while not immoral, phoning home is widely considered unethical, especially when it is without the user's knowledge or consent. The EULA is no place to put this, everyone knows that nobody reads these and hiding behind those is just begging for a class action suit.
There are other ways to verify software - look at Microsoft's activation process, which at least is up front, stated on the box, and limits to a small number the amount of systems the product can be installed on. Sure, the other alternative is going entirely to FOSS, but the problem with FOSS applications is that without financial incentive, little to no innovation is being done - people are merely trying to clone functionality of mainstream tools and with few exceptions doing a lousy job of it.
While the limewire program itself may not contain adware, the installation file usually has you install Bonzibuddy or some other adware. And most people will just install anything the installer recommends without considering the consequences.
Problem with RAM is that it's volatile and you'd be screwed if power went out while writing back to that cache. Intel Turbo Memory uses an internal PCI Xpress slot as it's interface, and employs high speed flash memory. While not as fast as RAM memory, at least you wouldn't have to keep a battery in it to power it for long enough to write the entire contents of a RAM cache back to memory. Besides, if you want a RAM cache, isn't that what the OS does already with RAM? If you want control over what goes into your RAM cache, there are a number of softwares which will create a RAM drive, which you can then load with the data you choose at system startup.
9. I agree with you - the cost of powering old equipment is going to be the driving force behind hardware upgrades in the next 2 years, not the requirement for more speed and capacity. I don't think people have been upgrading their systems a little bit at a time since the sub-$1000 computer became mainstream. The only systems that are going to be upgraded that way are the systems that are designed for expansion, like servers that are designed for storage expansion or blade-type expansion.
10. I don't think they mean skimping on data backups, they mean de-duplication of unnecessary hardware and not necessarily data backups. For instance not having 2TB of storage on a server when it is only using 100GB - use thin provisioning to give that server access to a dynamic storage volume that gives it only the space it needs. Cut down on duplicate hardware that handles things like backup AD controllers, data backup, etc. and put those tasks on virtual servers. Virtualize your tape libraries with an offsite hard disk backup array. All these lessen the power footprint of your datacenter without lessening the redundancy of your critical data backups.
While datacenters may be physically secured, they are also sometimes broken into. The last thing a company wants is to have personal information lost because a server was stolen. It may depend on what law or regulations are put in place to provide for data security compliance, and it may depend on what type of data the datacenter holds. I can sure see banks, insurance companies, or any company with a large amount of employee data, wanted to have that data encrypted at all times.
1. They already exist, but for about $4000 for example here
2. On board RAM cache - it's called Intel Turbo Memory, it's cheap and it's been availabe on laptops for several months now and will soon be on the desktop also. Coupled with Vista readyboost it will do what you want it to, or it can also serve as a high speed flash RAM drive on which you can install frequently used apps or files.
3. They have them in 2GB also.
For the rest, they already have 32GB Flash for a reasonable price (around $300) if you make the comparison to RAM rather than spinning platters.
Windows does not make this a default because it really shouldn't be. Like you pointed out, most people don't even know it is possible, and in the small business world where I do most of my work, it is rarely necessary. It doesn't know whether you are installing a PC into a 2 user home network or a 15000 PC corporate network. If that's the only fault of the desktop OS I don't consider that a problem.
The Windows tools for creating this setup are entirely contained via GUI on the Windows Server, and are available whether you are running 2 clients or 20000. You have to have your apps you use installed on the desktop, but otherwise I wouldn't consider the implementation clunky or obscure. Most companies of any decent size have a standard application set on every desktop. And if you are in a small (50 users) network evironment you can often use MS Small Business Server which automates even more of the setup. I don't have much experience with the tools on *nix so I can't really compare the two, but I am familiar enough with the Windows tools to know that they are adequate even if they are a bit inferior.
Yes, but understanding the tools used is definitely an atypical user. Most users just want a particular piece of software to do a particular job without having to understand it - and as long as you provide that to them an painlessly as possible, they are happy. No matter what OS or hardware they are using.
More like 36.4% of people dumb enough to let limewire install, did. Probably the reason they went to pcpitstop is because limewire downloaded some crap that messed up their computer. And I wouldn't consider Pcpitstop to be an unknown entity, they seem to have a pretty good reputation with the minor blemish of a spat back in 2005 with a Google ad for a product that unloaded a bunch of popups.
OK so you get 440mbps. That's pretty close to the average 400mbps that GigE will handle. A typical network connection is only going to sustain data throughput of, on average, 40% of the spec speed. Typical sustained data transfer from a single SATA drive on the desktop is going to be 60-80MB/s, and your network connection is still slower than that. Throw all that data out if you're accessing a database or small files scattered all over the drive, because that will depend more on the latency of the disk than any other factors.
Slashdot Mirror
This was the same link I was looking at. Drilling down a bit it looks like the problems are related to the libarchive program included in SUSE, Debian, Gentoo...
The difference is when a Linux update goes haywire, the user is blamed.
When a Windows update goes haywire, Microsoft is blamed.
The compatibility list didn't go into detail on what portion of the software was affected. I just noticed that MS was pronounced as unaffected and yet many linux distros were? Just making the point that it's not always MS stuff that gets hit by the bug. I would have thought that whoever made the bzip2 and tar software would have been mentioned rather than the distro if that were the only issue.
Actually the article linked to stated that Symantec tested all their products against the bug, and found that it was not affected. Where did you get your info about them from?
Did anyone read TFA and realize that of the programs that were known to be vulnerable, the majority were various brands of Linux?
I know /.'ers like to discount MS's beta process as a bunch of rubbish. But the beta process is there to eliminate the brave earlier adopter problems at actual launch time. And traditionally it has worked.
Free software may have had 64-bit versions - but was there any advantage over the 32 bit versions? Negligible in most cases. 32-bit software reworked to run on x64 isn't exactly cutting edge. Then once you had a x64 OS, you just ran 32-bit apps on it in compatibility mode.
No, in the real world people count on their Windows apps to run their daily business. In your dream world, who is creating the everyday business apps to compete with the Windows counterparts that run nearly every business in the US?
"Anonymous said...
In retrospect, I'm just glad Richard Reid didn't try to hide a bomb in his undershorts."
Ain't that the truth!!
LOL that's BS, not sure why it's modded interesting. If toilets cost that much to flush I do believe there would be money raining down on my house all day long from all the planes going over.
I think this is a great solution. Force the squatters to pay a lot up front, and eliminate the grace period. That way they won't want to output a lot of money, even if it's about $50, to register because they won't make enough money on the domain to make it worthwhile. I think that most people would not mind paying a bit more up front as long as renewal was easy and cheap like it is now.
While they are at it, they should make scams, like Domain Registry of America does, to deceive people into switching registrars. There should be huge fines for this kind of thing, to the tune of $1000's per domain. You've got to make it financially devestating for people to engage in nasty behavior like this.
While I don't think you can make the squatting illegal, I think you can make it harder to make money on, which will effectively eliminate within a couple of years.
Are you talking about enterprise subscriptions? Granted, I don't do enough work with large corporations to have any experience dealing with site licenses like this. Regardless of whether the subscription is based on number of computers at a site or numbers of licenses purchased, I thought they still purchased a software assurance license to keep the OS current, rather than just have access to the purchased and previous OS selections.
MS could care less about what OS they are installing - the profit level is the same and the customer is happy. All it does is give them numbers to flaunt for Vista adoption, if they even use those. I'd also really have to question the sanity of customers who are buying software assurance for the OS anyway, considering the infrequent upgrade schedule.
And yet this argument is invalid because most people know that Vista includes downgrade rights to XP Home or XP Pro. You don't need to buy XP again. They aren't artificially boosting sales in this manner, at least not on a wide scale.
The reason Microsoft has always been a good stock buy even though the stock price has dropped through the roof in recent years, is they consistently make money. I expect there are enough smart people in that organization that they will continue to put out products that make money. I don't care how long this FOSS fad goes along, eventually people will realize that in order for software to keep progressing, they have to be doing it for profit, and people will gladly pay for the priviledge of using a system that is professionally maintained and supported. You have to admit, even the companies driving desktop linux are those who profit from it, not those who do nothing but tweak it and give it away.
I suppose if they really want to make it fair, they should have a separate race class and let all the other runners strap springs onto their shoes also. Then we'll find out how much of an athlete this guy is compared to other world-class runners.
Why don't they sell bandwidth on 95th Percentile like they do servers at datacenters?
Give users 1Mbps on 95th percentile and that should take care of the needs of 95% of your users. Tier it for 2Mbps, 5Mbps, and 10Mbps for those who want to pay for it. Then those 5% who need more bandwidth can pay the extra $$ for those always leeching connections.
You could deal with overages in one of two ways: (1) Limit bandwidth to 1Mpbs (or whatever level they have) for the duration of the billing period, or (2) charge a flat fee per GB or per Mbps for overage.
Considering that when I went to the Sprint store and they said the Q had problems with freezing and network connections, I'm not surprised - but I don't believe that has anything to do with Windows Mobile. My HTC phone works fine with Windows Mobile. I'll give you the battery life point - though again that has less to do with Windows Mobile and more to do with the amount of radios and antennas drawing power from these super smartphones every second you have it powered on.
For one, sending a software serial number, unencrypted, over the internet in plain text is hardly protecting investment, it's almost encouraging piracy using that serial.
Secondly, while not immoral, phoning home is widely considered unethical, especially when it is without the user's knowledge or consent. The EULA is no place to put this, everyone knows that nobody reads these and hiding behind those is just begging for a class action suit.
There are other ways to verify software - look at Microsoft's activation process, which at least is up front, stated on the box, and limits to a small number the amount of systems the product can be installed on. Sure, the other alternative is going entirely to FOSS, but the problem with FOSS applications is that without financial incentive, little to no innovation is being done - people are merely trying to clone functionality of mainstream tools and with few exceptions doing a lousy job of it.
While the limewire program itself may not contain adware, the installation file usually has you install Bonzibuddy or some other adware. And most people will just install anything the installer recommends without considering the consequences.
Problem with RAM is that it's volatile and you'd be screwed if power went out while writing back to that cache. Intel Turbo Memory uses an internal PCI Xpress slot as it's interface, and employs high speed flash memory. While not as fast as RAM memory, at least you wouldn't have to keep a battery in it to power it for long enough to write the entire contents of a RAM cache back to memory. Besides, if you want a RAM cache, isn't that what the OS does already with RAM? If you want control over what goes into your RAM cache, there are a number of softwares which will create a RAM drive, which you can then load with the data you choose at system startup.
9. I agree with you - the cost of powering old equipment is going to be the driving force behind hardware upgrades in the next 2 years, not the requirement for more speed and capacity. I don't think people have been upgrading their systems a little bit at a time since the sub-$1000 computer became mainstream. The only systems that are going to be upgraded that way are the systems that are designed for expansion, like servers that are designed for storage expansion or blade-type expansion.
10. I don't think they mean skimping on data backups, they mean de-duplication of unnecessary hardware and not necessarily data backups. For instance not having 2TB of storage on a server when it is only using 100GB - use thin provisioning to give that server access to a dynamic storage volume that gives it only the space it needs. Cut down on duplicate hardware that handles things like backup AD controllers, data backup, etc. and put those tasks on virtual servers. Virtualize your tape libraries with an offsite hard disk backup array. All these lessen the power footprint of your datacenter without lessening the redundancy of your critical data backups.
While datacenters may be physically secured, they are also sometimes broken into. The last thing a company wants is to have personal information lost because a server was stolen. It may depend on what law or regulations are put in place to provide for data security compliance, and it may depend on what type of data the datacenter holds. I can sure see banks, insurance companies, or any company with a large amount of employee data, wanted to have that data encrypted at all times.
1. They already exist, but for about $4000 for example here
2. On board RAM cache - it's called Intel Turbo Memory, it's cheap and it's been availabe on laptops for several months now and will soon be on the desktop also. Coupled with Vista readyboost it will do what you want it to, or it can also serve as a high speed flash RAM drive on which you can install frequently used apps or files.
3. They have them in 2GB also.
For the rest, they already have 32GB Flash for a reasonable price (around $300) if you make the comparison to RAM rather than spinning platters.
Windows does not make this a default because it really shouldn't be. Like you pointed out, most people don't even know it is possible, and in the small business world where I do most of my work, it is rarely necessary. It doesn't know whether you are installing a PC into a 2 user home network or a 15000 PC corporate network. If that's the only fault of the desktop OS I don't consider that a problem.
The Windows tools for creating this setup are entirely contained via GUI on the Windows Server, and are available whether you are running 2 clients or 20000. You have to have your apps you use installed on the desktop, but otherwise I wouldn't consider the implementation clunky or obscure. Most companies of any decent size have a standard application set on every desktop. And if you are in a small (50 users) network evironment you can often use MS Small Business Server which automates even more of the setup. I don't have much experience with the tools on *nix so I can't really compare the two, but I am familiar enough with the Windows tools to know that they are adequate even if they are a bit inferior.
Yes, but understanding the tools used is definitely an atypical user. Most users just want a particular piece of software to do a particular job without having to understand it - and as long as you provide that to them an painlessly as possible, they are happy. No matter what OS or hardware they are using.
More like 36.4% of people dumb enough to let limewire install, did. Probably the reason they went to pcpitstop is because limewire downloaded some crap that messed up their computer. And I wouldn't consider Pcpitstop to be an unknown entity, they seem to have a pretty good reputation with the minor blemish of a spat back in 2005 with a Google ad for a product that unloaded a bunch of popups.
OK so you get 440mbps. That's pretty close to the average 400mbps that GigE will handle. A typical network connection is only going to sustain data throughput of, on average, 40% of the spec speed. Typical sustained data transfer from a single SATA drive on the desktop is going to be 60-80MB/s, and your network connection is still slower than that.
Throw all that data out if you're accessing a database or small files scattered all over the drive, because that will depend more on the latency of the disk than any other factors.