This got my credit card over a year ago in Saskatchewan, Canada. However, my card was skimmed at a do-it-yourself ticket-terminal at the local movie theatre.
It turned out it was a very large network of people who came together and organized the attack and paid people all over the country to do this and sent the info back to 'headquarters' in Ontario Canada.
They racked up over $600 in charges and it all appeared to have been used at Gas stations in Toronto / Missisaga in Ontario.
They put these things on any 'do-it-yourself' terminal they could find. This included pay-at-the-pump gas stations, ATM's, and any kiosk that could read a debit/credit card.
Luckily Mastercard covers things like this so it was much easier to report and reverse than a few friends of mine who had their debit cards skimmed. They had a much harder process to deal with.
The move to "Chip" cards ([url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_card[/url]) are rapidly increasing these days. I know my local credit union is fully switched over, although maybe half of the retailers in town actually support them.
Yes you will have to learn something and won't have something you claim as "usable" right away but I feel everyone should learn the basics from the UNIX world when delving into the Linux world.
I started on SuSE (8.0 at the time when it was still spelled SuSE - little 'u') and didn't really learn anything until I started compiling software not in the repo's... then I moved into compiling my own kernel for better driver support then I eventually made the switch to Gentoo.
As I was learning to use and configure it I realized I was completely blinded by the click-et-y-click-ness of SuSE. GUI config tools ruin the mood when it comes to learning and loving Linux.
If you don't learn how to fix issues manually you will have a bad time. GUI tools can fudge the config if you somehow install the wrong version for the version of the software. In that case the GUI tool will break and you will be stuck with an unusable mess and may have to resort to CLI to fix it.
Learn the basics first or you will regret it.
(footnote: if you remember the old SuSE config tools - YaST I think - in version 8.0 and the way they operated in the day, they had a lot of serious issues and frustrated me on a regular basis.)
Man, Flash Player locks up the CPU and crashes more often with gold releases than most alpha software. I think you'd have to be sadist to run software in alpha for Linux from Adobe.
Really? Honestly I haven't ever had any real issues with Flash since I've been running the 64bit release of about a year ago. Even before that I had minimal issues running the 32bit version under 64bit Firefox via NSPluginWrapper. I'm running Gentoo Linux and it works fine. No crashing, no lagging aside from trying to run YouTube in fullscreen doesn't always work out so swell (24" LCD @ 1920x1200 resolution). I suppose that's the lack of H/W acceleration. I also don't have any issues using Adobe Reader. Maybe I am just lucky?
Your files are too large. Facebook scales them down and the larger the file the more RAM and CPU cycles it takes to scale it down. Just scale your photos down to 1024x768 or close to that depending on your aspect ratio and you shouldn't have any issues with multile files. It will also be much faster as your files will be tiny. My camera takes photos at 10MP an the file size is usually around 5MB. Scaling them down brings them closer to 200kB.
Canadian here as well... I honestly don't think I've seen a car that doesn't come with it standard. Mind you I've only purchased 2 cars in my life and none of them brand new (2-3 years old).
I take time to disable everything I don't need in the kernel so it compiles the kernel and modules in about 30 minutes (on an AMD X2 5200+, 4GB DDR2 RAM, Nvidia nForce Chipset)
Seriously, especially if it's not locked down to disallow other operating systems.
I'm not interested in Ubuntu or Chromium OS, I'd like to install whatever flavour or Linux/BSD/${OtherOS} I feel (obviously that means something that will run on ARM, anyway).
I bought an iPod for my wife for that price (8GB model) and it is very restricted and physically smaller than what she actually uses it for (eBook reader via BookShelf and light web browsing).
Just want to point out that the odds of winning this competition are increased because: 1) the user base is smaller 2) making real money selling an app at $0.99 has been shown to be difficult in the sea of garbage apps out there (that is also assuming you can even get your app accepted)
I know this comment will get lost in the sea of other comments, but my recommendation to you would be a hybrid solution.
Create a small partition (1GB would be overkill) and format it FAT32. Create another partition for the rest of the drive (or however you please) with your choice of FS (I prefer XFS, personally).
I use SSHFS to interact with a VPS web server I rent from the states.
The problem is that large files bog your system down to nothing. I tried transferring a 1.2GiB file (via command line) and it essentially made my computer unusable until it was done. Luckily I do sleep sometimes so I stopped and started it before I went to bed and let it do it's thing and it worked fine.
I think my upload speed was mostly to blame, but I think it had something to do with the FUSE wrapper that slowed down everything and not just the internet connection. Perhaps it was a bug and has been fixed in recent versions? This was over a year ago.
Otherwise it's great and it's directly integrated with my OS and "just works" for me and my use. Generally I deal with files under 1MiB, that 1.2GiB file was a tarball of all of the files to roll out on the new server when I switched from hosting my own in my home.
I think that's the point. It is dead simple. It's virtually no configuration and it "just works." No fiddling about with drivers. It works with anything that has a usable 802.11 b/g/n wireless card in it.
So, you can use an iPod Touch/iPhone, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, or any other hand held device that supports Wifi and doesn't have the ability to do bluetooth or usb tethering.
I think they need to start bundling these mini hotspots into cars for long trips. Then I can check my e-mail from my laptop (not while driving, mind you -- the wife can check it while I drive, or vice versa) the kids in the back can play on the net via ipod touch, or play their video games online with their DS/PSP, etc. etc.
Lots of applications for portable wifi hotspots via the cell towers.
Do you have a family? If so, will you be able to continue to support them?
I am expecting my first child any time now (5 days over due date). I am currently self employed and make great money doing it. Especially this time of year, as opposed to the 8 week 'vacation' I have every summer because business dies and income dries right up. Although that is easily manageable with some basic savings and balancing of numbers.
I've been hmming and hauing the thought of finding something more stable and doesn't require me to be on my toes 24/7. There are some openings at [a very large local employer] that I've been considering applying to in the spring.
You always have to weigh the pro's and cons. For me I am actually quite torn but I suppose we'll see what happens when my child is born.
My Pros of current job: - Flexible. I work when I want and don't when I don't want (it's great when the wife is in and out of false labor all week) - Good money for the amount of work involved.
My Cons of current job: - Can be long days if they work out that way. - No stability in the long run - Keeping my own accounting for taxes, etc. (trivial, really)
The new job would be a 30% pay decrease, but would be stable all year 'round. My days would most likely be shorter than what I am pushing myself to do right now. I would have most benefits and coverage for dental, drugs, etc... which would be handy although i've been fine without it so far! (might change with the baby)
My biggest worry with jumping into a new job would be that I would probably have to ask the wife to go back to work. Which turns into paying for day care, etc. etc..... just a bunch of crap I'd rather not deal with.
So, to the point. If you have family and you are making ends meet no problem right now, stick to it. If you don't have family and could take a potential pay cut, go for it. Your happiness is worth a lot.
I am waiting for the ability to run it ala VirtualBox or Vmware Player/Workstation.
I don't have any use for my Mac mini other than checking some web design comparability with Safari under OSX (Win port does not like WINE). I can run XP under VirtualBox no problems but the Win Port of Safari isn't exactly the same anyway.
I don't like having yet another piece of hardware I don't even need sitting around. I already have two desktops, 2 laptop, media center pc and my homebuilt router (ITX board w/ dual Gb lan + gb switch + wifi card running pfSense).
Perhaps this Rebel product will lead the way into running OSX under virtualized hardware?
Not coming to Canada... unfortunately. *sigh* Linky.
I don't understand the statement "The service will not be available in Canada due to licensing agreements and other legal issues." We can buy/rent most (all?) of the media coming out of the states off the shelves, no questions asked.
Perhaps someone like Walmart will have to come out with a streaming service, and bring it to Canada to open the floodgates. As much as I'm not fond of the huge Megacorps they tend to lead the way in for things such as this.
That's the question. It's not how much money they spend it's what value does it have compared to the money.
Virtually nothing.
There is a much larger city 65km (40 miles) away that has much more to offer in terms of facilities and services.
Our new facility will not be able to accommodate any type of concerts, so they'll go to the other city... that also has the airport (next closest is 225km away).
Just seems like a waste of money. We do need a new Hockey and Curling facility (but have many outdoor soccer facilities). I think our council could trim some bulk off that $56 million and put it towards other things.
Oh, to top it off, we're borrowing the money from the provincial government. Which we will have to pay back... with interest.
... sounds like a walk in the park compared to their other spending. I think that number is off by a factor of 100 or so.
In contrast, my small city (~40,000 people) in central Canada is spending ~$56,000,000 on a new Multiplex/Sports center. Supposed to have a new hockey rink, curling rinks, soccer area's with artificial turf.
I'd my city council spend it on a Cloud Computing Centre.
Or I use virtual desktops basically for the same thing
I think you hit my soft spot right there.
I've been using Linux for a few years (since 2002-ish) and I really like XFCE. It's virtual desktop support is great. My favorite part is the mouse resistance on the edge of the screen to switch to the next screen.
All you need to do is drag the mouse to the edge of the screen, and give it a nice push. Depending on how you have your virtual desktops arranged, I have two rows of 4, so a total of 8 virtual desktops, so they are arranged in a grid like so: [1][2][3][4] [5][6][7][8]
1: Work Stuff (usually a web browser, file browser and text editor) 2: Usually a terminal and sometimes graphics stuff. 3&4: "Extra Work Stuff", VirtualBox and a terminal usually sit somewhere on these two. 5: Music and Media 6: "General Stuff" (on #6 right now) Usually a web browser(firefox), aMSN and E-mail (Thunderbird) 7&8: "Extra General Stuff" When I'm compiling things they usually sit on one of these two. Sometimes I use 7 to find a document quick when I need to show it to someone (easier to switch to 7 than to minimize stuff and open a folder)
a very nice 480Mhz CPU. USB 2.0 while other devices have USB 1.1 Wireless N and Gigabit (which is available in other routers) 8MB Flash/64MB Ram
That's nothing!
My router has the following:
a very nice VIA C7 @ 1.5GHz Processor
4 x USB 2.0 (External)
4 x USB 2.0 (Internal)
Wireless B/G (upgradable to N if I buy a new PCI card that is supported)
1024MB RAM
1024MB HDD (USB Flash Drive)
Comes with a built in dual gigabit NIC, which I have expanded with an 8 Port Gigabit Switch, to provide 7 ports of pure Gigabit goodness to my computers.
Runs pfSense 1.2.3 (beta still - I think).
All for the low, low price of about $330 at the time.
Pricelist from about 2 years ago, although the Wireless card is new of about 2 months. Prices in Canadian dollars. - $120 for Jetway J7F4K1G5D mobo - $20 for Buffalo 1GB DDR2 RAM - $25 for OCZ Rally2 USB Drive - $75 for Apex MW-100 Enclosure - $65 for Netgear GS608 8 Port Switch - $25 for Gigabyte GN-WP01GS PCI Wireless B/G Card = $330 or so Total.
Cue the Linux fanbois......screaming about how Bill is abandoning their customers after YEARS of support, whilst the Penguin does the same with 2 years of a kernel release.
Note the silence of the Mac Jihad.
I guess you read the summary backwards and didn't even consider clicking on the article.
I'm no Microsoft fan (Linux purist of 6 years now) but they are merely requiringhardware makers to provide stable 32-bit and 64-bit drivers in order to get a "Works with Windows 7 Certification."
This is a good thing for every day people.
Just recently I tried to help out a friend with a Vista 64bit computer to get his Hauppauge WinTV PVR 150 to work. Apparently it does not support any more than 3GB of RAM and is basically unusable (he has 8GB of RAM). It causes programs to crash and flat-out will not work with Pinnacle Studio 9. Hauppauge claims it has something to do with the 64bit memory allocation or something. I can't quite remember what it was.
Maybe this will require them to revisit their drivers and make it "Just Work" like it should.
Slashdot Mirror
This got my credit card over a year ago in Saskatchewan, Canada. However, my card was skimmed at a do-it-yourself ticket-terminal at the local movie theatre.
It turned out it was a very large network of people who came together and organized the attack and paid people all over the country to do this and sent the info back to 'headquarters' in Ontario Canada.
They racked up over $600 in charges and it all appeared to have been used at Gas stations in Toronto / Missisaga in Ontario.
They put these things on any 'do-it-yourself' terminal they could find. This included pay-at-the-pump gas stations, ATM's, and any kiosk that could read a debit/credit card.
Luckily Mastercard covers things like this so it was much easier to report and reverse than a few friends of mine who had their debit cards skimmed. They had a much harder process to deal with.
The move to "Chip" cards ([url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_card[/url]) are rapidly increasing these days. I know my local credit union is fully switched over, although maybe half of the retailers in town actually support them.
Seriously.
Yes you will have to learn something and won't have something you claim as "usable" right away but I feel everyone should learn the basics from the UNIX world when delving into the Linux world.
I started on SuSE (8.0 at the time when it was still spelled SuSE - little 'u') and didn't really learn anything until I started compiling software not in the repo's... then I moved into compiling my own kernel for better driver support then I eventually made the switch to Gentoo.
As I was learning to use and configure it I realized I was completely blinded by the click-et-y-click-ness of SuSE. GUI config tools ruin the mood when it comes to learning and loving Linux.
If you don't learn how to fix issues manually you will have a bad time. GUI tools can fudge the config if you somehow install the wrong version for the version of the software. In that case the GUI tool will break and you will be stuck with an unusable mess and may have to resort to CLI to fix it.
Learn the basics first or you will regret it.
(footnote: if you remember the old SuSE config tools - YaST I think - in version 8.0 and the way they operated in the day, they had a lot of serious issues and frustrated me on a regular basis.)
Man, Flash Player locks up the CPU and crashes more often with gold releases than most alpha software. I think you'd have to be sadist to run software in alpha for Linux from Adobe.
Really? Honestly I haven't ever had any real issues with Flash since I've been running the 64bit release of about a year ago.
Even before that I had minimal issues running the 32bit version under 64bit Firefox via NSPluginWrapper.
I'm running Gentoo Linux and it works fine. No crashing, no lagging aside from trying to run YouTube in fullscreen doesn't always work out so swell (24" LCD @ 1920x1200 resolution). I suppose that's the lack of H/W acceleration.
I also don't have any issues using Adobe Reader. Maybe I am just lucky?
Your files are too large. Facebook scales them down and the larger the file the more RAM and CPU cycles it takes to scale it down.
Just scale your photos down to 1024x768 or close to that depending on your aspect ratio and you shouldn't have any issues with multile files. It will also be much faster as your files will be tiny. My camera takes photos at 10MP an the file size is usually around 5MB. Scaling them down brings them closer to 200kB.
Canadian here as well... I honestly don't think I've seen a car that doesn't come with it standard. Mind you I've only purchased 2 cars in my life and none of them brand new (2-3 years old).
Its great!
I take time to disable everything I don't need in the kernel so it compiles the kernel and modules in about 30 minutes (on an AMD X2 5200+, 4GB DDR2 RAM, Nvidia nForce Chipset)
Seriously, especially if it's not locked down to disallow other operating systems.
I'm not interested in Ubuntu or Chromium OS, I'd like to install whatever flavour or Linux/BSD/${OtherOS} I feel (obviously that means something that will run on ARM, anyway).
I bought an iPod for my wife for that price (8GB model) and it is very restricted and physically smaller than what she actually uses it for (eBook reader via BookShelf and light web browsing).
Just want to point out that the odds of winning this competition are increased because:
1) the user base is smaller
2) making real money selling an app at $0.99 has been shown to be difficult in the sea of garbage apps out there (that is also assuming you can even get your app accepted)
I know this comment will get lost in the sea of other comments, but my recommendation to you would be a hybrid solution.
Create a small partition (1GB would be overkill) and format it FAT32.
Create another partition for the rest of the drive (or however you please) with your choice of FS (I prefer XFS, personally).
Store the drivers(/utilties) for the FS you chose and store them on the FAT32 drive.
Some popular drivers/utilties for Windows are:
ext2fsd for EXT2 - http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsd/
rfstool for ReiserFS - http://freshmeat.net/projects/rfstool/
ltools for EXT2/EXT2/ReiserFS - http://www2.hs-esslingen.de/~zimmerma/software/ltools.html/
and so on and so forth (a simple google for "[FS] Windows Compatibility" usually works.)
Just my thoughts. :-)
How heavy is a cloud?
You've got your answer. /mesnickers
I use SSHFS to interact with a VPS web server I rent from the states.
The problem is that large files bog your system down to nothing. I tried transferring a 1.2GiB file (via command line) and it essentially made my computer unusable until it was done. Luckily I do sleep sometimes so I stopped and started it before I went to bed and let it do it's thing and it worked fine.
I think my upload speed was mostly to blame, but I think it had something to do with the FUSE wrapper that slowed down everything and not just the internet connection. Perhaps it was a bug and has been fixed in recent versions? This was over a year ago.
Otherwise it's great and it's directly integrated with my OS and "just works" for me and my use. Generally I deal with files under 1MiB, that 1.2GiB file was a tarball of all of the files to roll out on the new server when I switched from hosting my own in my home.
though yes, this device would make it dead simple
I think that's the point. It is dead simple. It's virtually no configuration and it "just works." No fiddling about with drivers. It works with anything that has a usable 802.11 b/g/n wireless card in it.
So, you can use an iPod Touch/iPhone, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, or any other hand held device that supports Wifi and doesn't have the ability to do bluetooth or usb tethering.
I think they need to start bundling these mini hotspots into cars for long trips. Then I can check my e-mail from my laptop (not while driving, mind you -- the wife can check it while I drive, or vice versa) the kids in the back can play on the net via ipod touch, or play their video games online with their DS/PSP, etc. etc.
Lots of applications for portable wifi hotspots via the cell towers.
Do you have a family? If so, will you be able to continue to support them?
I am expecting my first child any time now (5 days over due date). I am currently self employed and make great money doing it. Especially this time of year, as opposed to the 8 week 'vacation' I have every summer because business dies and income dries right up. Although that is easily manageable with some basic savings and balancing of numbers.
I've been hmming and hauing the thought of finding something more stable and doesn't require me to be on my toes 24/7. There are some openings at [a very large local employer] that I've been considering applying to in the spring.
You always have to weigh the pro's and cons. For me I am actually quite torn but I suppose we'll see what happens when my child is born.
My Pros of current job:
- Flexible. I work when I want and don't when I don't want (it's great when the wife is in and out of false labor all week)
- Good money for the amount of work involved.
My Cons of current job:
- Can be long days if they work out that way.
- No stability in the long run
- Keeping my own accounting for taxes, etc. (trivial, really)
The new job would be a 30% pay decrease, but would be stable all year 'round.
My days would most likely be shorter than what I am pushing myself to do right now.
I would have most benefits and coverage for dental, drugs, etc... which would be handy although i've been fine without it so far! (might change with the baby)
My biggest worry with jumping into a new job would be that I would probably have to ask the wife to go back to work. Which turns into paying for day care, etc. etc..... just a bunch of crap I'd rather not deal with.
So, to the point. If you have family and you are making ends meet no problem right now, stick to it.
If you don't have family and could take a potential pay cut, go for it. Your happiness is worth a lot.
I am waiting for the ability to run it ala VirtualBox or Vmware Player/Workstation.
I don't have any use for my Mac mini other than checking some web design comparability with Safari under OSX (Win port does not like WINE). I can run XP under VirtualBox no problems but the Win Port of Safari isn't exactly the same anyway.
I don't like having yet another piece of hardware I don't even need sitting around. I already have two desktops, 2 laptop, media center pc and my homebuilt router (ITX board w/ dual Gb lan + gb switch + wifi card running pfSense).
Perhaps this Rebel product will lead the way into running OSX under virtualized hardware?
Not coming to Canada... unfortunately. *sigh* Linky.
I don't understand the statement "The service will not be available in Canada due to licensing agreements and other legal issues."
We can buy/rent most (all?) of the media coming out of the states off the shelves, no questions asked.
Perhaps someone like Walmart will have to come out with a streaming service, and bring it to Canada to open the floodgates. As much as I'm not fond of the huge Megacorps they tend to lead the way in for things such as this.
How much will the small city get from the center?
That's the question. It's not how much money they spend it's what value does it have compared to the money.
Virtually nothing.
There is a much larger city 65km (40 miles) away that has much more to offer in terms of facilities and services.
Our new facility will not be able to accommodate any type of concerts, so they'll go to the other city... that also has the airport (next closest is 225km away).
Just seems like a waste of money. We do need a new Hockey and Curling facility (but have many outdoor soccer facilities). I think our council could trim some bulk off that $56 million and put it towards other things.
Oh, to top it off, we're borrowing the money from the provincial government. Which we will have to pay back... with interest.
... sounds like a walk in the park compared to their other spending. I think that number is off by a factor of 100 or so.
In contrast, my small city (~40,000 people) in central Canada is spending ~$56,000,000 on a new Multiplex/Sports center. Supposed to have a new hockey rink, curling rinks, soccer area's with artificial turf.
I'd my city council spend it on a Cloud Computing Centre.
Or I use virtual desktops basically for the same thing
I think you hit my soft spot right there.
I've been using Linux for a few years (since 2002-ish) and I really like XFCE. It's virtual desktop support is great. My favorite part is the mouse resistance on the edge of the screen to switch to the next screen.
All you need to do is drag the mouse to the edge of the screen, and give it a nice push. Depending on how you have your virtual desktops arranged, I have two rows of 4, so a total of 8 virtual desktops, so they are arranged in a grid like so:
[1][2][3][4]
[5][6][7][8]
1: Work Stuff (usually a web browser, file browser and text editor)
2: Usually a terminal and sometimes graphics stuff.
3&4: "Extra Work Stuff", VirtualBox and a terminal usually sit somewhere on these two.
5: Music and Media
6: "General Stuff" (on #6 right now) Usually a web browser(firefox), aMSN and E-mail (Thunderbird)
7&8: "Extra General Stuff" When I'm compiling things they usually sit on one of these two. Sometimes I use 7 to find a document quick when I need to show it to someone (easier to switch to 7 than to minimize stuff and open a folder)
And to top it off, here's a screenshot!
Damnit!
Oh well, I tried. I guess I have to pay for stuff now.
I'LL WRITE IT AND WE'LL DO IT LIVE!
(While I'm on the topic, and trying to avoid the 'no caps' filter, I get the feeling some of us listen to Howard Stern and/or Bubba The Love Sponge?)
"hotspares" are not necessary for the home environment. As the product in the article is intended for.
a very nice 480Mhz CPU.
USB 2.0 while other devices have USB 1.1
Wireless N and Gigabit (which is available in other routers)
8MB Flash/64MB Ram
That's nothing!
My router has the following:
Comes with a built in dual gigabit NIC, which I have expanded with an 8 Port Gigabit Switch, to provide 7 ports of pure Gigabit goodness to my computers.
Runs pfSense 1.2.3 (beta still - I think).
All for the low, low price of about $330 at the time.
Pricelist from about 2 years ago, although the Wireless card is new of about 2 months. Prices in Canadian dollars.
- $120 for Jetway J7F4K1G5D mobo
- $20 for Buffalo 1GB DDR2 RAM
- $25 for OCZ Rally2 USB Drive
- $75 for Apex MW-100 Enclosure
- $65 for Netgear GS608 8 Port Switch
- $25 for Gigabyte GN-WP01GS PCI Wireless B/G Card
= $330 or so Total.
According to Google Maps, it is 501 miles driving. Source.
Someone needs to check their facts. :-)
Just sayin'.
Or if you want to delv into the open source world, check out VirtualBox. It supports the CPU extensions if they are available, but are not required.
I use it for setting up test environments for software development under various Linux and BSD flavours on a Gentoo Linux host. Works great for me.
Cue the Linux fanbois... ...screaming about how Bill is abandoning their customers after YEARS of support, whilst the Penguin does the same with 2 years of a kernel release.
Note the silence of the Mac Jihad.
I guess you read the summary backwards and didn't even consider clicking on the article.
I'm no Microsoft fan (Linux purist of 6 years now) but they are merely requiring hardware makers to provide stable 32-bit and 64-bit drivers in order to get a "Works with Windows 7 Certification."
This is a good thing for every day people.
Just recently I tried to help out a friend with a Vista 64bit computer to get his Hauppauge WinTV PVR 150 to work. Apparently it does not support any more than 3GB of RAM and is basically unusable (he has 8GB of RAM). It causes programs to crash and flat-out will not work with Pinnacle Studio 9.
Hauppauge claims it has something to do with the 64bit memory allocation or something. I can't quite remember what it was.
Maybe this will require them to revisit their drivers and make it "Just Work" like it should.