In 2005, Microsoft was told to pay Amado $US6.1 million for violating Amado's patent, which covered technology to link spreadsheets and databases.
You mean they just thought of that last year?
It was the first time that Microsoft had updated its software for purely legal reasons.
It may have been the first time Microsoft had to update the software for legal reasons, but lest we forget the antitrust case. The settlement of United States v Microsoft did not require Microsoft to change any of its code, although Microsoft did have to make its own concessions. The article makes it seem like it's Microsoft's first run-in with the courts.
Re:The Linux Flaw
on
Ubuntu Hacks
·
· Score: 2, Informative
That's true. But I've tried a bunch of different Linux distros, and based on what I've tried, Ubuntu offers the best out-of-the-box functionality of all of them, as someone has posted. But you're right, it gets ugly when you have to manually install and configure hardware. Graphics cards, touchpads, and dare I say....wifi cards? A wifi card that is not automagically supported (cough, Broadcom-based prior to Ubuntu Dapper) is pretty difficult for someone who has no idea about Linux.
No, of course you need the Aero feature. Everyone knows from watching Hackers that the only way to really hack is to browse through 3-dimensional file system structures, which Aero will run.
In all seriousness, I think it's just a way for people to look at it and go "ohh wow, this is a great operating system, I should get it". Because some people think that way unfortunately...
Not necessarily a "concession" to science...The period after creation what science has been able to explain.
Science hasn't really given us a definitive answer about how the universe started. The Big Bang Theory works in a way, but where did the materials from the Big Bang come from? It's a good theory, but it doesn't explain everything. Same thing with human creation. We know that the reason a child forms is because a sperm and an egg combine to form a zygote, but why does life form? How does science explain why some things have the 6 characteristics of life, while others do not?
The subject of Creation (whether of the universe or of life) has not yet been completely explained by humans, if it ever will. Therefore it is not unreasonable to say that it is the work of a higher power.
If you read what someone has pointed out below: Original text
It says that the reason it should not be studied is because it is the moment of Creation. Middle and end of the universe do not deal with the moment of Creation.
I'm starting college August 27. And I'm moving into Wellness Housing. So yeah, I'm a stodgy bore. Sorry.
Point is, people shouldn't complain when their employers find out they've done something bad. Who cares if it's "just" on the Internet. They did it, and their employers should think what they want of whatever they did.
Finally, some repercussions for people who some how think the Internet is a separate dimension where whatever you do on the Information Super Highway does not affect what you do in Real Life (r).
I don't think it's such a bad idea. I don't know many people who are able to isolate the crazy, law-breaking, alcohol-chugging, insane part of their lives from their professional, money-raking, meat-on-the-table-getting parts of their lives. If they act this way on the Internet, they're bound to act that way somewhere else. Where that someone else is is left up to the job recruiters.
Agreed completely. Once you have someone who knows how to work a 'puter, they're a technology god. I think there should be more dedicated computer scientists and IT professionals than people that are just mixing different fields.
One benefit to.pdf is that it will look the same in anyone's viewer, whether Evince or Foxit or Acrobat. A.doc will look different viewed in OOo or Abi or even in different versions of MS Word.
Well said. This is why I love PDFs. Any file format that can transcend multiple platforms and architectures and applications without altering the way the data is displayed / interpreted is excellent, in my opinion.
I just bought a laptop last week. I got it from www.rcubedtech.com because it's one of the only Linux laptop vendors I can find (with decent prices).
I was originally considering a Lenovo Thinkpad as my second choice, but now I'm glad I did not.
Just because you saw it plastered all over the news does not mean it is the traditional area of expertise. Al-Quaida does use cyberterrorism.
Here are quotes from "The Terrorist Recognition Handbook" by Malcolm Nance, published in 2004:
"The computer is also a perfect communications device. Many groups such as the al-Qaeda backed Islamic Army of Aden-Abiyan use computers as a primary communications system via email and chat rooms. Al-Qaeda also has a policy of using floppy disks to deliver reports by hand for follow-on transmission from insecure locations, such as Internet cafes and friends' homes......
...Typical Class II Terrorist Profile, Most common operations and experience: explosive bombings...kidnappings...cyberattacks"
Cyberterrorism may not be the biggest thing to worry about, but it sure exists, and it could be bad.
Even you FF fanboys would be screwed without IE.... How would you download FF without it?
Opera, Netscape, FTP, IRC, IM, Kazaa, DC++, WinMX, LimeWire, or er anything on Linux or Macs.
I agree they are being hypocritical. As much as I like google, I fear that they have the potential for becoming a Microsoft, in a sense. There shouldn't be any preloaded software for a search engine on Dell computers. People should learn to type in the address bar, spend a few minutes looking for their favorite, and selecting "use current page" for their homepage. Let people think for themselves.
Not to mention the fact that the sample size was only 500. For those of you who know statistical surveys, that creates a greater margin of error. Typically surveys go for +- 3 percentage points with a 95% confidence interval, but you need over 1000 calls for that.
Am I the only one that doesn't exactly see this as a terrible thing?
I don't think it would be a good idea for familes or individuals to have this as their main computer, but think of the other options.
Think of public libraries: dozens and dozens of computers where people just want to do Internet research, nothing else. Card catalogues where the only software the computer runs is either a browser or a card database. Think of public kiosks that could be made with free internet access. I'm sure the thing is a piece of crap to run a lot of software, but if you just want a system that runs basic applications (especially a browser), I don't see anything wrong with this.
I'm surprised nobody fed in the Bible to see if it was authentic. If it were deemed inauthentic, I expect the intellectuals on here would take it as evidence that God does not exist.
An encounter with a linux snob (or any computer snob) won't drive away anyone who has a serious intention of learning it. In fact, in my case, it only helped me.
How? I asked plenty of dumb, n00b questions on forums and channels, etc, and of course got the same snobby answers. Was I discouraged? No, rather it just made me see how much I did not know and how much I could know. I admired them, not for their arrogance of course, but for their knowledge. Seeing how much someone could know about Linux only motivated to learn even faster how it worked. Sure it's not going to be the same reaction for everyone, but for anyone who is really committed to something, it's not going to matter.
I always find it interesting how they blame open source users for viruses and spyware, or in this case, rootkits.
Last time I checked, isn't it the Microsoft (R) Windows that has the problems with these things? How much malicious code do you see for Linux, BSD, etc... I'm sure the answer is much less than for Windows.
When there's a problem in the open source community, they blame each other. When there's a problem in the proprietary source community, they blame the open source.
They really have no argument against the rootkit sites. I mean, imagine if terrorists were talking about secret terrorist plans on a certain forum/wiki on some public website. Do you really think law enforcement would shut down the site and ignore it? I doubt it, it's out in the open, so police would want to read as much of it as possible so they can learn and be prepared. If they shut down the site, everything becomes secret and they have no useful information to work with.
Same goes for the rootkits. If it's public, security companies can study it and learn from it and prepare for the worst. If they shut it down, they won't even know it exists until it's already hit some companies.
Slashdot Mirror
It seems FoldingAtHome has one downside...
In 2005, Microsoft was told to pay Amado $US6.1 million for violating Amado's patent, which covered technology to link spreadsheets and databases.
You mean they just thought of that last year?
It was the first time that Microsoft had updated its software for purely legal reasons.
It may have been the first time Microsoft had to update the software for legal reasons, but lest we forget the antitrust case. The settlement of United States v Microsoft did not require Microsoft to change any of its code, although Microsoft did have to make its own concessions. The article makes it seem like it's Microsoft's first run-in with the courts.
That's true. But I've tried a bunch of different Linux distros, and based on what I've tried, Ubuntu offers the best out-of-the-box functionality of all of them, as someone has posted. But you're right, it gets ugly when you have to manually install and configure hardware. Graphics cards, touchpads, and dare I say....wifi cards? A wifi card that is not automagically supported (cough, Broadcom-based prior to Ubuntu Dapper) is pretty difficult for someone who has no idea about Linux.
Now just to find where humans fit into that line. I think they might be 6th or 7th, I'm not sure.
No, of course you need the Aero feature. Everyone knows from watching Hackers that the only way to really hack is to browse through 3-dimensional file system structures, which Aero will run.
In all seriousness, I think it's just a way for people to look at it and go "ohh wow, this is a great operating system, I should get it". Because some people think that way unfortunately...
As long as it's the newest, coolest gadget that you can eat potato chips with, does it really matter?
Does anyone have any cool ideas that are feasible with 50 BILLION?
Build a good operating system!!!!
Not necessarily a "concession" to science...The period after creation what science has been able to explain.
Science hasn't really given us a definitive answer about how the universe started. The Big Bang Theory works in a way, but where did the materials from the Big Bang come from? It's a good theory, but it doesn't explain everything. Same thing with human creation. We know that the reason a child forms is because a sperm and an egg combine to form a zygote, but why does life form? How does science explain why some things have the 6 characteristics of life, while others do not?
The subject of Creation (whether of the universe or of life) has not yet been completely explained by humans, if it ever will. Therefore it is not unreasonable to say that it is the work of a higher power.
If you read what someone has pointed out below:
Original text
It says that the reason it should not be studied is because it is the moment of Creation. Middle and end of the universe do not deal with the moment of Creation.
Don't confuse Catholics with fundamentalists...
I'm starting college August 27. And I'm moving into Wellness Housing. So yeah, I'm a stodgy bore. Sorry.
Point is, people shouldn't complain when their employers find out they've done something bad. Who cares if it's "just" on the Internet. They did it, and their employers should think what they want of whatever they did.
Finally, some repercussions for people who some how think the Internet is a separate dimension where whatever you do on the Information Super Highway does not affect what you do in Real Life (r).
I don't think it's such a bad idea. I don't know many people who are able to isolate the crazy, law-breaking, alcohol-chugging, insane part of their lives from their professional, money-raking, meat-on-the-table-getting parts of their lives. If they act this way on the Internet, they're bound to act that way somewhere else. Where that someone else is is left up to the job recruiters.
Agreed completely. Once you have someone who knows how to work a 'puter, they're a technology god. I think there should be more dedicated computer scientists and IT professionals than people that are just mixing different fields.
One benefit to .pdf is that it will look the same in anyone's viewer, whether Evince or Foxit or Acrobat. A .doc will look different viewed in OOo or Abi or even in different versions of MS Word.
Well said. This is why I love PDFs. Any file format that can transcend multiple platforms and architectures and applications without altering the way the data is displayed / interpreted is excellent, in my opinion.
I just bought a laptop last week. I got it from www.rcubedtech.com because it's one of the only Linux laptop vendors I can find (with decent prices). I was originally considering a Lenovo Thinkpad as my second choice, but now I'm glad I did not.
True. But conspiracy is the direct cause of terrorism. Very rarely is there terrorism without some specific, premeditated thought on the subject.
That said, I'm not suggesting we limit Internet communications because of terrorism, but the issue needs to be at least taken seriously.
Conspiracy is a crime.
"Traditional area of expertise" ?
Just because you saw it plastered all over the news does not mean it is the traditional area of expertise. Al-Quaida does use cyberterrorism.
Here are quotes from "The Terrorist Recognition Handbook" by Malcolm Nance, published in 2004:
"The computer is also a perfect communications device. Many groups such as the al-Qaeda backed Islamic Army of Aden-Abiyan use computers as a primary communications system via email and chat rooms. Al-Qaeda also has a policy of using floppy disks to deliver reports by hand for follow-on transmission from insecure locations, such as Internet cafes and friends' homes......
...Typical Class II Terrorist Profile, Most common operations and experience: explosive bombings...kidnappings...cyberattacks"
Cyberterrorism may not be the biggest thing to worry about, but it sure exists, and it could be bad.
Even you FF fanboys would be screwed without IE.... How would you download FF without it? Opera, Netscape, FTP, IRC, IM, Kazaa, DC++, WinMX, LimeWire, or er anything on Linux or Macs. I agree they are being hypocritical. As much as I like google, I fear that they have the potential for becoming a Microsoft, in a sense. There shouldn't be any preloaded software for a search engine on Dell computers. People should learn to type in the address bar, spend a few minutes looking for their favorite, and selecting "use current page" for their homepage. Let people think for themselves.
Not to mention the fact that the sample size was only 500. For those of you who know statistical surveys, that creates a greater margin of error. Typically surveys go for +- 3 percentage points with a 95% confidence interval, but you need over 1000 calls for that.
Am I the only one that doesn't exactly see this as a terrible thing? I don't think it would be a good idea for familes or individuals to have this as their main computer, but think of the other options. Think of public libraries: dozens and dozens of computers where people just want to do Internet research, nothing else. Card catalogues where the only software the computer runs is either a browser or a card database. Think of public kiosks that could be made with free internet access. I'm sure the thing is a piece of crap to run a lot of software, but if you just want a system that runs basic applications (especially a browser), I don't see anything wrong with this.
I'm surprised nobody fed in the Bible to see if it was authentic. If it were deemed inauthentic, I expect the intellectuals on here would take it as evidence that God does not exist.
Maybe I'd be more concerned if I watched TV. I haven't watched TV since sliced bread...er, broadband.
Is this always a bad thing?
An encounter with a linux snob (or any computer snob) won't drive away anyone who has a serious intention of learning it. In fact, in my case, it only helped me.
How? I asked plenty of dumb, n00b questions on forums and channels, etc, and of course got the same snobby answers. Was I discouraged? No, rather it just made me see how much I did not know and how much I could know. I admired them, not for their arrogance of course, but for their knowledge. Seeing how much someone could know about Linux only motivated to learn even faster how it worked. Sure it's not going to be the same reaction for everyone, but for anyone who is really committed to something, it's not going to matter.
I always find it interesting how they blame open source users for viruses and spyware, or in this case, rootkits. Last time I checked, isn't it the Microsoft (R) Windows that has the problems with these things? How much malicious code do you see for Linux, BSD, etc... I'm sure the answer is much less than for Windows.
When there's a problem in the open source community, they blame each other. When there's a problem in the proprietary source community, they blame the open source.
They really have no argument against the rootkit sites. I mean, imagine if terrorists were talking about secret terrorist plans on a certain forum/wiki on some public website. Do you really think law enforcement would shut down the site and ignore it? I doubt it, it's out in the open, so police would want to read as much of it as possible so they can learn and be prepared. If they shut down the site, everything becomes secret and they have no useful information to work with.
Same goes for the rootkits. If it's public, security companies can study it and learn from it and prepare for the worst. If they shut it down, they won't even know it exists until it's already hit some companies.