I haven't read the list of patents under dispute, but hypertext--the basis of hyperlinking--has been around since the 1960s. (The innovation behind hyperlinking isn't the technology, but rather the way in which it is used.) Electronic ordering was around when I started BBSing in 1990 and it wasn't new then either. Obviously, the patents could cover specific details of the above but the broad terms used by the GP would be covered by prior art. + "on the web" doesn't make it innovative.
Do they have runners that just go and grab the purchase items and have others that put the display boxes back? I'm just trying to figure out how that would work in a large, busy store here in New York. The extra staff required (the runners) and the delays induced by such a system (and the resulting loss of sales) would probably cause a greater loss of revenue than the losses due to theft. Also, a lot of the shrink (retail term here for loss due to "missing" inventory, in case you don't use that term in NZ) is caused by employees and such a system does nothing to combat that.
All that does is prevent people turning in from the cross road from actually fitting into the road that they just turned in to (or tried to turn in to).
Maybe you can stop watching the MPG display because what you're doing is "good enough" but the rest of the (OCD) Slashdot population might have more problems. "I think I can do better!";-)
Sure, you have virtual terminals on Linux but that only lets one user use the console at a time. More on par with this is the Six-headed configuration. Add virtualization and I don't see why something very similar can't be archived. However, splitting of the display seems absolutely stupid. Even with a wide screens, the viewing configuration wouldn't be ergonomic so a multi-headed configuration with multiple console inputs seems smarter and more economical (since you don't have to start widening cubicles and paying for neck and back strain injuries) to me. The only reason to do something like what they're trying to do is simply to figure how to do it and then hopefully apply that knowledge to something that's actually useful.
Sure, that's why he was fired. But then they investigated him after he was fired when he wrote a comic about it, but I guess writing a comic about something that happened to you doesn't count as free speech.
Huh? Those are the manual installation instructions for many different distributions (and I've never even heard of some of those distributions). That's like pointing to a page with e-mail setup instructions for Outlook 97, 98, 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2007 and then complaining about the length of those instructions.
Under Debian (which I use), open Synaptic, search for wesnoth, right-click "Mark for Installation", click apply.
If you prefer the command-line (and the above shows that it's not a requirement--it's just faster in this case), sudo apt-get install wesnoth
Also, for the majority of those distributions listed, you can download the binary and double-click to install it. Just because there are a lot of free projects that don't provide binaries (which isn't the case in your example) doesn't indicate a shortcoming of Linux. Hell, I've found free software for Windows that needed to be compiled from the C source. Maybe more people write free software for Linux.
Citrix isn't required unless you want to publish applications (although I believe that there are other third party alternatives). You'd need the server license and install terminal services in application mode (as opposed to remote administration mode). Then you'd need a license for each user (all users that use the server, not just concurrent users) and a license for each user using Office. The GP's solution is apparently to combat piracy with more piracy. Now, if you replaced the desktops with thin clients and actually paid for the software licenses, they could potentially save money by paying for the software but spending less on the hardware.
Of the Americans that go out for sushi, they will probably have sushi more frequently than the average Japanese person does. I don't have sushi very often but I do eat it more frequently than my relatives in Japan. It's a delicacy, even in Japan (and perhaps more so). Also, the North American varieties of some fish actually make better sashimi so it's quite possible to have better quality and tastier sashimi in the states. Most Japanese people do not regularly stock sashimi quality fish (or varieties), nor do they frequently go out for sushi. In fact, I have never had sushi/sashimi at a relative's house [in Japan]. The only time I've had sushi/sashimi in Japan was when we went out to eat.
So what was he doing with it for 7 months? Bypassing CCA for the hell of it, tweaking his code, or making sure that it still works? I wouldn't want to go to Cisco only to demonstrate a hole that they patched 3 months ago. If they patched it, I'd want to know if it could be broken some other way. Distributing the code was probably the most irresponsible action that he took since he couldn't be sure of the others' intentions. A bug report would've been a better course of action rather than sitting on the exploit until the summer and would've proved that he was a good citizen. (It's not his problem if Cisco doesn't patch the hole or if the IT department doesn't update their firmware/software.)
Parent: -1 Uninformed in ways of Futurama quotes, thus disturbing and must be arrested until further investigation. What would be truly disturbing is a society in which Slashdot standards were enforced on the general population.:)
Don't forget that some providers charge more for "business class" Internet service (be it DSL or cable). Still, it would be about half the price of a T1 for Internet. If your company only needs Internet access for web browsing and doesn't have any public facing services, then what you propose would work fine. As a matter of fact, we tend to have similar setups for remote offices where the biggest concern is the VPN to the main office and they have no Internet facing services.
However, if you provide Internet facing services that can't go down (I'm not talking Amazon here, but still requiring close to 100% uptime), you don't really want to deal with DNS switch overs and telling customers that they have to wait for the DNS cache to expire your records. Shorter DNS refreshes have their own issues. Still, it's better not to go down while a customer is placing an order or if another company is relying on your site to be up so that they can do their own work.
Most of our customers have T1 lines because of the SLA, static IP blocks, PTR entries (reverse DNS, which is becoming more important if you want to get through many spam filters) and public facing services (mostly web sites, FTP sites, e-mail, VPN) or some combination of those. Others share the bandwidth between Internet and phones. Even in companies with moderate Internet activity (30 or so users), a 768kbps connection is fine. If you need a fatter pipe for downloads, get a cable modem and direct web traffic through that connection. If you need guaranteed uptimes for public facing services, get a T1 (or better). It's still a good option for the SMB market.
That was in incredible overreaction to what was a simple joke and I didn't mean you any harm. On the "Mythbusters," they sometimes precede certain explanations with "Warning: Scientific Content". They realize that what they do, in the format in which they do it, doesn't allow them to run the gamut of scientific processes. The emphasis of the show is entertainment of the masses (or at least a wider spectrum of semi-geeks), which explains all of the stuff that blows up on that show.
Don't confuse science with entertainment. It seems that the myth busters work from a layman's perspective and as such, fancy methodologies would bore the audience.
Fixed that for ya. Honestly, it would bore me too--despite being aware of various flaws throughout the show.
What's the difference between the customer paying for it or Dell footing the bill? Where do you think Dell got the money to foot the bill? Anyway, if only the virtual trees weren't just some PR move, that would be nice. For instance, if they sold different trees in Second Life that translated into the planting of a real tree, then that would be interesting.
As the GP stated, "People store stuff on network servers because they're told to, anyone who doesn't comply with IT is made to suffer the consequences." Keeping data on the individual PCs is costly. In an environment that's setup properly (folder redirection at least, no write access to the hard drive outside of the home directory, maybe the addition of roaming profiles), there's no reason to worry about data stored on the local disk. If they re-image the machine and you still have issues, swap out the hardware and you're working again. Such policies can easily save a user hours of downtime and it also saves the time of the IT staffer. It all translates into saving money for the company.
That's what I did--well, that's what I planned for. I don't have any firewire ports or SATA/eSATA on my system but I decided to make my investment somewhat future proof. I bought a SATA 300GB Seagate drive and got a $35 enclosure from AZiO with USB 2.0 and eSATA. What's nice is that it comes with a simple little slot converter that you connect to your internal SATA ports so you don't need to invest in an controller or motherboard with eSATA ports. For now, I have something that I can use (and the USB makes it very portable) and I'll get the bandwidth benefits when I upgrade my system.
I absolutely agree. However, I only block the annoying (animated, sounds, pop-ups, pop-unders, javascript positioned) and questionable (free iPods!) ads. If it's just an ad that sits silently on the side somewhere, I let it be. That is, unless those ads are served by the same company that servers the aforementioned ads.
All the talk in this thread about 1% of people being sociopaths, etc., doesn't explain the dramatic different rates of asshatery between different regions. Ass-hats like the weather in San Francisco?:)
Seriously though, I'm sure that there are some environments that reward ass-hats monetarily or otherwise and so, their numbers are concentrated. Also, not all ass-hats are sociopaths--some are that way by choice.
Disclaimer: The above does not mean that all people who live in San Francisco are ass-hats nor does it mean that all people who like the weather in San Francisco are ass-hats.
I don't really have a problem with the poor paying less taxes. The rich are going to spend money anyway. You can't tell me that some rich kid's parents aren't buying him an iPod, Xbox360, and PS3 because the taxes are too high. Having lived on $5.50/hr and watching all of my money go to living expenses and not having insurance, I can tell you that it sucks. I'm by no means rich now (I don't even have a 6 figure income) but I'm sure as hell not poor. What I've observed with my income climbing higher is that as I make more money, a significantly lower percentage goes to actual living expenses. Every raise that I get now is just cake. So, while the percentage of taxes that rich people pay is higher, it's because the percentage that goes to basic needs like food is lower. I guess from your point of view, anonymous coward, the poor don't count because they can't individually contribute enough money to the economy.
The practical reason is that you've migrated away from Windows but need to run a Windows app that doesn't run under Wine (which does happen, despite the shared code base) or use a device that doesn't work under (enter alternate OS here). You fire up a virtual machine and load up ReactOS without sending a red cent to Redmond. You could accomplish this another way but that would amount to copyright infringement.
To be fair, Windows doesn't require a reboot. The Exchange patch doesn't require a reboot either (unless something's in use at the time) but it does require the services to restart. However, I agree that there should be absolutely no patches required for the applications. Unfortunately, it may be more of a function of the programming language and the way the application is linked than a problem with the OS. For example, there is an update for glibc for the locales. Any application that statically linked the locale information would need a patch. Dynamically linked applications would only need the locale update for glibc. However, for something like Exchange where it only runs on a single OS, you'd think that they'd use the time zone info built into the OS. I suppose that there may be other reasons why an application might require its own update.
Obviously... I was simply point out that it's non-trivial for very large environments, especially if you've activated systems between the time of the backup and the detected corruption. If the systems that were previously activated automatically reactivate, then it's not that big of a deal. Still, it's something else to maintain.
Perhaps, but it's much more difficult than running *no* activation server, as was the previous method. Also, when you're talking about corporations with 10,000+ workstations, it might not be as trivial as you think. What happens when there's corruption in the license database?
Slashdot Mirror
I haven't read the list of patents under dispute, but hypertext--the basis of hyperlinking--has been around since the 1960s. (The innovation behind hyperlinking isn't the technology, but rather the way in which it is used.) Electronic ordering was around when I started BBSing in 1990 and it wasn't new then either. Obviously, the patents could cover specific details of the above but the broad terms used by the GP would be covered by prior art. + "on the web" doesn't make it innovative.
Do they have runners that just go and grab the purchase items and have others that put the display boxes back? I'm just trying to figure out how that would work in a large, busy store here in New York. The extra staff required (the runners) and the delays induced by such a system (and the resulting loss of sales) would probably cause a greater loss of revenue than the losses due to theft. Also, a lot of the shrink (retail term here for loss due to "missing" inventory, in case you don't use that term in NZ) is caused by employees and such a system does nothing to combat that.
All that does is prevent people turning in from the cross road from actually fitting into the road that they just turned in to (or tried to turn in to).
Maybe you can stop watching the MPG display because what you're doing is "good enough" but the rest of the (OCD) Slashdot population might have more problems. "I think I can do better!" ;-)
Sure, you have virtual terminals on Linux but that only lets one user use the console at a time. More on par with this is the Six-headed configuration. Add virtualization and I don't see why something very similar can't be archived. However, splitting of the display seems absolutely stupid. Even with a wide screens, the viewing configuration wouldn't be ergonomic so a multi-headed configuration with multiple console inputs seems smarter and more economical (since you don't have to start widening cubicles and paying for neck and back strain injuries) to me. The only reason to do something like what they're trying to do is simply to figure how to do it and then hopefully apply that knowledge to something that's actually useful.
Sure, that's why he was fired. But then they investigated him after he was fired when he wrote a comic about it, but I guess writing a comic about something that happened to you doesn't count as free speech.
Huh? Those are the manual installation instructions for many different distributions (and I've never even heard of some of those distributions). That's like pointing to a page with e-mail setup instructions for Outlook 97, 98, 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2007 and then complaining about the length of those instructions. Under Debian (which I use), open Synaptic, search for wesnoth, right-click "Mark for Installation", click apply. If you prefer the command-line (and the above shows that it's not a requirement--it's just faster in this case), sudo apt-get install wesnoth Also, for the majority of those distributions listed, you can download the binary and double-click to install it. Just because there are a lot of free projects that don't provide binaries (which isn't the case in your example) doesn't indicate a shortcoming of Linux. Hell, I've found free software for Windows that needed to be compiled from the C source. Maybe more people write free software for Linux.
Citrix isn't required unless you want to publish applications (although I believe that there are other third party alternatives). You'd need the server license and install terminal services in application mode (as opposed to remote administration mode). Then you'd need a license for each user (all users that use the server, not just concurrent users) and a license for each user using Office. The GP's solution is apparently to combat piracy with more piracy. Now, if you replaced the desktops with thin clients and actually paid for the software licenses, they could potentially save money by paying for the software but spending less on the hardware.
Of the Americans that go out for sushi, they will probably have sushi more frequently than the average Japanese person does. I don't have sushi very often but I do eat it more frequently than my relatives in Japan. It's a delicacy, even in Japan (and perhaps more so). Also, the North American varieties of some fish actually make better sashimi so it's quite possible to have better quality and tastier sashimi in the states. Most Japanese people do not regularly stock sashimi quality fish (or varieties), nor do they frequently go out for sushi. In fact, I have never had sushi/sashimi at a relative's house [in Japan]. The only time I've had sushi/sashimi in Japan was when we went out to eat.
So what was he doing with it for 7 months? Bypassing CCA for the hell of it, tweaking his code, or making sure that it still works? I wouldn't want to go to Cisco only to demonstrate a hole that they patched 3 months ago. If they patched it, I'd want to know if it could be broken some other way. Distributing the code was probably the most irresponsible action that he took since he couldn't be sure of the others' intentions. A bug report would've been a better course of action rather than sitting on the exploit until the summer and would've proved that he was a good citizen. (It's not his problem if Cisco doesn't patch the hole or if the IT department doesn't update their firmware/software.)
Don't forget that some providers charge more for "business class" Internet service (be it DSL or cable). Still, it would be about half the price of a T1 for Internet. If your company only needs Internet access for web browsing and doesn't have any public facing services, then what you propose would work fine. As a matter of fact, we tend to have similar setups for remote offices where the biggest concern is the VPN to the main office and they have no Internet facing services.
However, if you provide Internet facing services that can't go down (I'm not talking Amazon here, but still requiring close to 100% uptime), you don't really want to deal with DNS switch overs and telling customers that they have to wait for the DNS cache to expire your records. Shorter DNS refreshes have their own issues. Still, it's better not to go down while a customer is placing an order or if another company is relying on your site to be up so that they can do their own work.
Most of our customers have T1 lines because of the SLA, static IP blocks, PTR entries (reverse DNS, which is becoming more important if you want to get through many spam filters) and public facing services (mostly web sites, FTP sites, e-mail, VPN) or some combination of those. Others share the bandwidth between Internet and phones. Even in companies with moderate Internet activity (30 or so users), a 768kbps connection is fine. If you need a fatter pipe for downloads, get a cable modem and direct web traffic through that connection. If you need guaranteed uptimes for public facing services, get a T1 (or better). It's still a good option for the SMB market.
That was in incredible overreaction to what was a simple joke and I didn't mean you any harm. On the "Mythbusters," they sometimes precede certain explanations with "Warning: Scientific Content". They realize that what they do, in the format in which they do it, doesn't allow them to run the gamut of scientific processes. The emphasis of the show is entertainment of the masses (or at least a wider spectrum of semi-geeks), which explains all of the stuff that blows up on that show.
Don't confuse science with entertainment. It seems that the myth busters work from a layman's perspective and as such, fancy methodologies would bore the audience.
Fixed that for ya. Honestly, it would bore me too--despite being aware of various flaws throughout the show.
What's the difference between the customer paying for it or Dell footing the bill? Where do you think Dell got the money to foot the bill? Anyway, if only the virtual trees weren't just some PR move, that would be nice. For instance, if they sold different trees in Second Life that translated into the planting of a real tree, then that would be interesting.
As the GP stated, "People store stuff on network servers because they're told to, anyone who doesn't comply with IT is made to suffer the consequences." Keeping data on the individual PCs is costly. In an environment that's setup properly (folder redirection at least, no write access to the hard drive outside of the home directory, maybe the addition of roaming profiles), there's no reason to worry about data stored on the local disk. If they re-image the machine and you still have issues, swap out the hardware and you're working again. Such policies can easily save a user hours of downtime and it also saves the time of the IT staffer. It all translates into saving money for the company.
That's what I did--well, that's what I planned for. I don't have any firewire ports or SATA/eSATA on my system but I decided to make my investment somewhat future proof. I bought a SATA 300GB Seagate drive and got a $35 enclosure from AZiO with USB 2.0 and eSATA. What's nice is that it comes with a simple little slot converter that you connect to your internal SATA ports so you don't need to invest in an controller or motherboard with eSATA ports. For now, I have something that I can use (and the USB makes it very portable) and I'll get the bandwidth benefits when I upgrade my system.
I absolutely agree. However, I only block the annoying (animated, sounds, pop-ups, pop-unders, javascript positioned) and questionable (free iPods!) ads. If it's just an ad that sits silently on the side somewhere, I let it be. That is, unless those ads are served by the same company that servers the aforementioned ads.
Not posting as AC and actually participating in the system would probably provide some insight.
Seriously though, I'm sure that there are some environments that reward ass-hats monetarily or otherwise and so, their numbers are concentrated. Also, not all ass-hats are sociopaths--some are that way by choice.
Disclaimer: The above does not mean that all people who live in San Francisco are ass-hats nor does it mean that all people who like the weather in San Francisco are ass-hats.
I don't really have a problem with the poor paying less taxes. The rich are going to spend money anyway. You can't tell me that some rich kid's parents aren't buying him an iPod, Xbox360, and PS3 because the taxes are too high. Having lived on $5.50/hr and watching all of my money go to living expenses and not having insurance, I can tell you that it sucks. I'm by no means rich now (I don't even have a 6 figure income) but I'm sure as hell not poor. What I've observed with my income climbing higher is that as I make more money, a significantly lower percentage goes to actual living expenses. Every raise that I get now is just cake. So, while the percentage of taxes that rich people pay is higher, it's because the percentage that goes to basic needs like food is lower. I guess from your point of view, anonymous coward, the poor don't count because they can't individually contribute enough money to the economy.
The practical reason is that you've migrated away from Windows but need to run a Windows app that doesn't run under Wine (which does happen, despite the shared code base) or use a device that doesn't work under (enter alternate OS here). You fire up a virtual machine and load up ReactOS without sending a red cent to Redmond. You could accomplish this another way but that would amount to copyright infringement.
To be fair, Windows doesn't require a reboot. The Exchange patch doesn't require a reboot either (unless something's in use at the time) but it does require the services to restart. However, I agree that there should be absolutely no patches required for the applications. Unfortunately, it may be more of a function of the programming language and the way the application is linked than a problem with the OS. For example, there is an update for glibc for the locales. Any application that statically linked the locale information would need a patch. Dynamically linked applications would only need the locale update for glibc. However, for something like Exchange where it only runs on a single OS, you'd think that they'd use the time zone info built into the OS. I suppose that there may be other reasons why an application might require its own update.
Obviously... I was simply point out that it's non-trivial for very large environments, especially if you've activated systems between the time of the backup and the detected corruption. If the systems that were previously activated automatically reactivate, then it's not that big of a deal. Still, it's something else to maintain.
Perhaps, but it's much more difficult than running *no* activation server, as was the previous method. Also, when you're talking about corporations with 10,000+ workstations, it might not be as trivial as you think. What happens when there's corruption in the license database?