Speaking of chipsets, until quite recently I was very disappointed that I could not get an Athlon based system with PCI that was 64 wide @ 66 MHz, where you could get an Intel system that way.
From where I sit: I buy AMD for home use and have been pretty happy with the chips, but the mobos and cooling fans in my system have not been as reliable as I would like.
Meanwhile, at work, they buy Dells time after time for their proven reliability. Never mind that the price/performance ratio is atrocious, especially after you factor in the cost of the RDRAM that is frequently part of the Intel based systems.
If AMD wants a bigger slice of the corporate market, it should really look hard into partners that don't shove their chips into "cost-conscious" MOBOs at every turn.
You're quite right and, well, the obstacles you describe are depressingly formidable.
I think there's room for making things much easier than they are now. Things like email clients that will use the recipient list to start looking for public keys in a local LDAP server or some bigger, web-wide repository, or local cache.
And friendlier front ends to deal with some of the issues, like generating fingerprints of keys and warning the user to call and verify that this key really belongs to Alice or Bob.
But while much progress can be made over where we are now, there will be an inescapable gap between the current level of common public understanding of encryption and what needs to exist.
This will be one of those things that gets fixed either by necessity (just as people had to learn how to use cars and telephones and how to run a checking account), or by education. I believe, with simple tools and some demonstations, it should be possible to teach school children the rudiments of PKI.
I think they're going to have to, as networked devices become ubiquitous and the consequences of shoddy security knowledge become more dire.
Direct marketing organizations, after years of probing and cross correlating data on consumers buying habits, etc. have come to the conclusion that predicting consumer behavior is like predicting which clump of grass a sheep will go after next.
"Most of the time we're pretty close to being right, but some of the time the consumer just raises his head says Baaaaa!"
It's just not providing the expected ROI.
You Gotta Be Kidding
on
30-pin SIMMs
·
· Score: 5, Funny
I remember paying over $100 for each 1 MB SIMM back in 1990 and there's absolutely no way I'd be willing to part with one for less than $80 because they're still perfectly functional.
Despite how large costs can seem when it comes time to negotiate a new Enterprise License Agreement with Microsoft, the really substantial costs are not in the software.
It's in the support.
I suspect most organizations spend several times as much on support as they do on either software or hardware.
But at least they know how expensive it is under an MS centric environment. They don't know how expensive it is under a Linux environment. Linux techs are rarer and higher paid than MCSEs at this point, so they have a right to be nervous. OTOH, they could win big as the number of required techs goes down. It's anyone's guess what the real costs will be and it depends critically on how the deployment is done and how much planning has gone into it.
Check back in a year and let us know.
[But we'll probably never hear about it either way because: failure is an orphan and success will become a prized business advantage not to be disclosed.]
It's that very fact that will shape future events.
People aren't going to want New Locks and Chains forced down their throats by congressional legislation based on the premise the most of the citizenry are thieves depriving RIAA and MPAA of hard earned dollars.
Let the marketplace decide without legislation. Let RIAA and MPAA start to release media only in encrypted form that is playable on one device at one time after the wireless connection is made to verify the users valid VISA card number.
See how many consumers buy those devices and let the market decide.
I think we all know what would happen if we let the market decide. It's too bad RIAA and MPAA aren't willing to do that.
It's simple. Let the existing data processing and communication equipment be. If someone uses their equipment to violate a copyright, that's a separate issue; let that violation be prosecuted on its own merits under the law.
Microsoft hopes professors will use the code in computer-science classes, and students will modify it in the lab and even suggest improvements.
I think this is an admirable idea.
And I can predict that the first suggestions will be along the lines of:
".NET! What a wonderful idea for a new internet infrastructure!"
"Why don't you put a friendly public license on this source code and distribute the whole kit and kaboodle just like the X window system, reference implementation code and everything, free for anyone to improve upon?"
There is even a place to report your victim "experiences" so they can be published.
Dozens of individuals JUST LIKE YOU are making thousands of dollars daily on the Internet everyday!!!!
I know, I was skeptical, too, until I read about this fantastic offer that a friend told me about. He was cashing checks every couple of days for thousands of dollars!!!!
Our free guide offers testimonies from thousands of clients that are ready and willing to buy the services that YOU, TOO, can offer over the Internet - for FREE!!!!
But you have to consider the context of the times to know what they'll do if ( antitrust_trial_active() ) { // present codeweavers plugin as evidence // that no one is "tied" to Windows
}
else { // send in BSA auditors to outfits daring // enough to buy Office without Windows // and insure next Office has API calls down // into the deepest bowels of the HAL and.NET // for good measure
}
This shows that Sun is getting to be either a little bit more courageous about letting go of its tight grip on Java, or that it is getting enlightened about the best long term policy is towards Java.
This will help Java overall in the long term and is an important step for them if they ever hope to be able to battle the instant ubiquity that Microsoft.NET will get on rollout as part of what is called Windows.
It's a brave move, because the Apache folks provide a useful open source Java web platform that is less expensive than many commercial offerings. But this allows developers to get their feet wet without a cost barrier. Sun can focus on adding true value, such as more performance, nice IDEs, etc. that developers will want once they get established doing JSP.
I've subscribed to some yahoo groups mailing lists that had some good, interesting information posted to it [linux-dell-laptops comes to mind].
In retrospect, it would have been nicer if that information were available on Usenet, as it was meant for that purpose.
Maybe someone can start a Usenet group (or use an existing one that is appropriate) and serve as a bridge between the two groups, relaying messages?
Along the same lines, I've always appreciated folks that subscribe to useful groups (linux-atm, for example) and maintain a public archive that is viewable and searchable over the web, such as what you can find at MARC. I give MARC credit for this.
There are definitely levels of public service and it's nice to see people contributing to making that knowledge available for the long term.
To make the functionality complete would be if each device could serve as a relay in a wireless network.
[Assuming relay usage isn't going to chew up your batteries too much] you could relay messages further than the limited range that these devices have for direct point to point contact.
Better, a few "wormholes" with stationary TX/RX that allow you to connect to land lines would be icing on the cake.
they'll continue to do it, illegally abusing their monopoly position, unless forced not to.
I've certainly thought so.
From that perspective, even Judge Jackson's breakup proposal would not have been an effective remedy, merely giving one company 90% of the OS market and the other company 90% of the Office productivty suite software market.
They really need a Standard Oil type breakup into about 8 Baby Bills, each with about 25% market share in one of the two markets, each company ready to claw tooth and nail to increase their market share.
Then you'd see some real movement in price, quality and innovation in the basic products. It's been too long that the Windows and Office have been mis-used as lock-in and leveraging tools for conquering other markets.
Have some pity, though, on the idealistic scientists trapped in a government bureaucracy when all they wanted to do was good basic science.
While their agency's funding gets whipsawed around like a political football (Wait, make sure you fund the contractors in my district!), they're trying to do something meaningful and worthwhile.
Along the lines of a ToDo list for NASA, I'd really like to see a few more investments into orbiting telescopes like the Hubble, but better, and perhaps even several of them to get a solar system wide VLBA effect.
If you think back to how much MS had to push to get themselves pre-installed onto machines back in the 1980s where they were still fighting tooth and nail against competitive offerings.
Now that Windows is effectively regarded as as much of necessary part of the computer as the motherboard, the shoe's on the other foot regarding their relationship with OEMs.
but the war in Afghanistan has -- correctly or not -- enhanced the idea that technologies are our only feasible response to the profoundly changed geopolitical reality that Osama Bin-Laden created last fall.
not, I should say.
Sure there's things that can be done with technology to help improve security in "The Post 911 World", but there's no substitute for really good, on the ground, human intelligence.
The U.S. is notorious for relying on tech toys, eyes in the sky, etc. while neglecting to send actual people to find out what is really going on in the world.
If you can get people to shut up for a few hours a day though sharing an office space is fairly productive
Reminds me of when I worked in an 8 person cubicle office.
I found that coming to work at 5 am allowed me some quality private time to get work done, thinking done, and especially writing. Then, in the early afternoon I'd knock off for some physical activity because my brain was too buzzed.
I dunno about you, but I find that, even more than coding or debugging, writing coherent prose requires a great deal of uninterrupted concentration. Chatter from cubemates is too distracting for such work.
I won't even venture to say how difficult it is to perform any kind of personnel management task if your office is on public display, as it is for a friend of mine. Talk about fishbowls!
I think clustered offices with doors that can be closed or open is a bonus.
Windows rate high in my book, too, probably because I've been depressed at times in offices that didn't have one.
We know that MS plays like this, Mike Tiemann knows this, and so do all the lawyers and judges hearing what he has to say.
But the events of last week showed the judge was more interested in closely following a particular legal track.
Are these allegations going to be entered into the proceedings of the court, or are they likely to be stricken out as "hearsay" because they do not very strictly address what the court wants to hear?
Maybe I'm getting the 9 dissenting states' separate suit confused with the remedy phase of the original MS trial. My apologies and hopes that someone more knowledgeable can clear this up for me...
This is a good initial move, to try and find out the reasons for switching from Windows PCs to Macs, because it can help them develop their market according to their strengths.
What's not said, and which is just as valuable, is assessing the inverse mapping.
Find out exactly why people might leave the ranks of Mac-dom and become assimilated into the Borg.
It's just as important to know the mechanics of people leaving your market as it is to know the mechanics of people entering your market.
In fact, in the face of a desktop market share that has generally been declining, I'd say it's imperative to know the exact reasons for defections if you hope to stem that tide.
One consequence of that would be an evolution towards truly spherical people.
Maybe, too, we'd start to develop tentacle like tethering arms.
Also, perhaps, without the usual gravitational based means for propulsion (legs, walking) we'd develop more general means, such as high powered flatulence.
Ah, but this is/., so you're probably way ahead of me on this one...
On one hand, everyone in a local area ought to have as much equal rights to the EM band for cell phone use as they have equal rights to acoustic energy bands for talking, boom boxes, etc. So that individuals have some right to low noise in movie theaters, for example.
On the other hand, suppose that individual in the theater is getting an urgent call having to do with life-threatening events affecting a loved one?
It's too easy to a draw a simple line that will be wrong.
Any activist vegetarian could probably give you a full lecture about the relative efficiencies, probably in terms of acres/hectares required to feed humans different diets.
Slashdot Mirror
Speaking of chipsets, until quite recently I was very disappointed that I could not get an Athlon based system with PCI that was 64 wide @ 66 MHz, where you could get an Intel system that way.
From where I sit: I buy AMD for home use and have been pretty happy with the chips, but the mobos and cooling fans in my system have not been as reliable as I would like.
Meanwhile, at work, they buy Dells time after time for their proven reliability. Never mind that the price/performance ratio is atrocious, especially after you factor in the cost of the RDRAM that is frequently part of the Intel based systems.
If AMD wants a bigger slice of the corporate market, it should really look hard into partners that don't shove their chips into "cost-conscious" MOBOs at every turn.
You're quite right and, well, the obstacles you describe are depressingly formidable.
I think there's room for making things much easier than they are now. Things like email clients that will use the recipient list to start looking for public keys in a local LDAP server or some bigger, web-wide repository, or local cache.
And friendlier front ends to deal with some of the issues, like generating fingerprints of keys and warning the user to call and verify that this key really belongs to Alice or Bob.
But while much progress can be made over where we are now, there will be an inescapable gap between the current level of common public understanding of encryption and what needs to exist.
This will be one of those things that gets fixed either by necessity (just as people had to learn how to use cars and telephones and how to run a checking account), or by education. I believe, with simple tools and some demonstations, it should be possible to teach school children the rudiments of PKI.
I think they're going to have to, as networked devices become ubiquitous and the consequences of shoddy security knowledge become more dire.
Direct marketing organizations, after years of probing and cross correlating data on consumers buying habits, etc. have come to the conclusion that predicting consumer behavior is like predicting which clump of grass a sheep will go after next.
"Most of the time we're pretty close to being right, but some of the time the consumer just raises his head says Baaaaa!"
It's just not providing the expected ROI.
I remember paying over $100 for each 1 MB SIMM back in 1990 and there's absolutely no way I'd be willing to part with one for less than $80 because they're still perfectly functional.
Despite how large costs can seem when it comes time to negotiate a new Enterprise License Agreement with Microsoft, the really substantial costs are not in the software.
It's in the support.
I suspect most organizations spend several times as much on support as they do on either software or hardware.
But at least they know how expensive it is under an MS centric environment. They don't know how expensive it is under a Linux environment. Linux techs are rarer and higher paid than MCSEs at this point, so they have a right to be nervous. OTOH, they could win big as the number of required techs goes down. It's anyone's guess what the real costs will be and it depends critically on how the deployment is done and how much planning has gone into it.
Check back in a year and let us know.
[But we'll probably never hear about it either way because: failure is an orphan and success will become a prized business advantage not to be disclosed.]
Money makes the world go round
It's that very fact that will shape future events.
People aren't going to want New Locks and Chains forced down their throats by congressional legislation based on the premise the most of the citizenry are thieves depriving RIAA and MPAA of hard earned dollars.
Let the marketplace decide without legislation. Let RIAA and MPAA start to release media only in encrypted form that is playable on one device at one time after the wireless connection is made to verify the users valid VISA card number.
See how many consumers buy those devices and let the market decide.
I think we all know what would happen if we let the market decide. It's too bad RIAA and MPAA aren't willing to do that.
It's simple. Let the existing data processing and communication equipment be. If someone uses their equipment to violate a copyright, that's a separate issue; let that violation be prosecuted on its own merits under the law.
Are there any astro uber geeks that can comment on the stability of this system from the standpoint of
- small changes of mass from the upper end of the elevator (like from space objects hitting and sticking, etc.)
- small oscillation modes (rubber band like) in the connecting fiber
Otherwise, I'd be Real Nervous® about having the base station of the elevator anywhere near MyBackYard.Microsoft hopes professors will use the code in computer-science classes, and students will modify it in the lab and even suggest improvements.
I think this is an admirable idea.
And I can predict that the first suggestions will be along the lines of:
There is even a place to report your victim "experiences" so they can be published.
Dozens of individuals JUST LIKE YOU are making thousands of dollars daily on the Internet everyday!!!!
I know, I was skeptical, too, until I read about this fantastic offer that a friend told me about. He was cashing checks every couple of days for thousands of dollars!!!!
Our free guide offers testimonies from thousands of clients that are ready and willing to buy the services that YOU, TOO, can offer over the Internet - for FREE!!!!
Right they won't like this.
But you have to consider the context of the times to know what they'll do
// present codeweavers plugin as evidence
// that no one is "tied" to Windows
// send in BSA auditors to outfits daring
// enough to buy Office without Windows
// and insure next Office has API calls down
// into the deepest bowels of the HAL and .NET
// for good measure
if ( antitrust_trial_active() ) {
}
else {
}
This shows that Sun is getting to be either a little bit more courageous about letting go of its tight grip on Java, or that it is getting enlightened about the best long term policy is towards Java.
This will help Java overall in the long term and is an important step for them if they ever hope to be able to battle the instant ubiquity that Microsoft .NET will get on rollout as part of what is called Windows.
It's a brave move, because the Apache folks provide a useful open source Java web platform that is less expensive than many commercial offerings. But this allows developers to get their feet wet without a cost barrier. Sun can focus on adding true value, such as more performance, nice IDEs, etc. that developers will want once they get established doing JSP.
But the first time I saw a recursive algorithm (eg, that for n!) I was quite impressed.
My sympathies.
I've subscribed to some yahoo groups mailing lists that had some good, interesting information posted to it [linux-dell-laptops comes to mind].
In retrospect, it would have been nicer if that information were available on Usenet, as it was meant for that purpose.
Maybe someone can start a Usenet group (or use an existing one that is appropriate) and serve as a bridge between the two groups, relaying messages?
Along the same lines, I've always appreciated folks that subscribe to useful groups (linux-atm, for example) and maintain a public archive that is viewable and searchable over the web, such as what you can find at MARC. I give MARC credit for this.
There are definitely levels of public service and it's nice to see people contributing to making that knowledge available for the long term.
To make the functionality complete would be if each device could serve as a relay in a wireless network.
[Assuming relay usage isn't going to chew up your batteries too much] you could relay messages further than the limited range that these devices have for direct point to point contact.
Better, a few "wormholes" with stationary TX/RX that allow you to connect to land lines would be icing on the cake.
they'll continue to do it, illegally abusing their monopoly position, unless forced not to.
I've certainly thought so.
From that perspective, even Judge Jackson's breakup proposal would not have been an effective remedy, merely giving one company 90% of the OS market and the other company 90% of the Office productivty suite software market.
They really need a Standard Oil type breakup into about 8 Baby Bills, each with about 25% market share in one of the two markets, each company ready to claw tooth and nail to increase their market share.
Then you'd see some real movement in price, quality and innovation in the basic products. It's been too long that the Windows and Office have been mis-used as lock-in and leveraging tools for conquering other markets.
Have some pity, though, on the idealistic scientists trapped in a government bureaucracy when all they wanted to do was good basic science.
While their agency's funding gets whipsawed around like a political football (Wait, make sure you fund the contractors in my district!), they're trying to do something meaningful and worthwhile.
Along the lines of a ToDo list for NASA, I'd really like to see a few more investments into orbiting telescopes like the Hubble, but better, and perhaps even several of them to get a solar system wide VLBA effect.
If you think back to how much MS had to push to get themselves pre-installed onto machines back in the 1980s where they were still fighting tooth and nail against competitive offerings.
Now that Windows is effectively regarded as as much of necessary part of the computer as the motherboard, the shoe's on the other foot regarding their relationship with OEMs.
Reminds me of the lyric from a song by the Police
creatively, such as what we're seeing now.
If what we're seeing now is "creative", then I'd sure hate to see what you call "agonizingly tedious and clueless".
but the war in Afghanistan has -- correctly or not -- enhanced the idea that technologies are our only feasible response to the profoundly changed geopolitical reality that Osama Bin-Laden created last fall.
not, I should say.
Sure there's things that can be done with technology to help improve security in "The Post 911 World", but there's no substitute for really good, on the ground, human intelligence.
The U.S. is notorious for relying on tech toys, eyes in the sky, etc. while neglecting to send actual people to find out what is really going on in the world.
If you can get people to shut up for a few hours a day though sharing an office space is fairly productive
Reminds me of when I worked in an 8 person cubicle office.
I found that coming to work at 5 am allowed me some quality private time to get work done, thinking done, and especially writing. Then, in the early afternoon I'd knock off for some physical activity because my brain was too buzzed.
I dunno about you, but I find that, even more than coding or debugging, writing coherent prose requires a great deal of uninterrupted concentration. Chatter from cubemates is too distracting for such work.
I won't even venture to say how difficult it is to perform any kind of personnel management task if your office is on public display, as it is for a friend of mine. Talk about fishbowls!
I think clustered offices with doors that can be closed or open is a bonus.
Windows rate high in my book, too, probably because I've been depressed at times in offices that didn't have one.
Yeah, yeah, like this is news.
We know that MS plays like this, Mike Tiemann knows this, and so do all the lawyers and judges hearing what he has to say.
But the events of last week showed the judge was more interested in closely following a particular legal track.
Are these allegations going to be entered into the proceedings of the court, or are they likely to be stricken out as "hearsay" because they do not very strictly address what the court wants to hear?
Maybe I'm getting the 9 dissenting states' separate suit confused with the remedy phase of the original MS trial. My apologies and hopes that someone more knowledgeable can clear this up for me...
This is a good initial move, to try and find out the reasons for switching from Windows PCs to Macs, because it can help them develop their market according to their strengths.
What's not said, and which is just as valuable, is assessing the inverse mapping.
Find out exactly why people might leave the ranks of Mac-dom and become assimilated into the Borg.
It's just as important to know the mechanics of people leaving your market as it is to know the mechanics of people entering your market.
In fact, in the face of a desktop market share that has generally been declining, I'd say it's imperative to know the exact reasons for defections if you hope to stem that tide.
One consequence of that would be an evolution towards truly spherical people.
Maybe, too, we'd start to develop tentacle like tethering arms.
Also, perhaps, without the usual gravitational based means for propulsion (legs, walking) we'd develop more general means, such as high powered flatulence.
Ah, but this is /., so you're probably way ahead of me on this one...
I have mixed feelings about this one.
On one hand, everyone in a local area ought to have as much equal rights to the EM band for cell phone use as they have equal rights to acoustic energy bands for talking, boom boxes, etc. So that individuals have some right to low noise in movie theaters, for example.
On the other hand, suppose that individual in the theater is getting an urgent call having to do with life-threatening events affecting a loved one?
It's too easy to a draw a simple line that will be wrong.
Place the humans into the nutrient rich broth.
It's probably more efficient.
Any activist vegetarian could probably give you a full lecture about the relative efficiencies, probably in terms of acres/hectares required to feed humans different diets.