I know that for many people this will sound like nuke flame. But I know what I'm talking...
It's women one of the factors that stopped Space Exploration. More correctly to say, wifes did it.
Because US values could not pick with the risks of Space Exploration. For a country that highly values the "family values" the picture of widows and orphans in such a media boost was a big cost. Specially if their husbands die of being fried on capsules. Or nearly freeze on them in front of millions.
Not only the high politics but also this simple factor was determinant to stop Space Exploration. Sending excellent officers, good fathers and exemplary husbands to Space and get them back in a fridge or a pan was too much. Specially if we consider the conservative character of most women. For them this was coming from nonsense up to a irrational suicide commitement from the part of their partners. So sooner or later we would see shattered families, divorced astronauts or family conflicts. On that epoch, such situation was absolutely unnacceptable to Washington politicians.
If anyone gets offended with this let me tell you that I work in a critical field and I perfectly know the relations of women in relation to such kamikadzes like me or some of my colleagues. Things go up to the surrealistic/paranoid behaviour of "hunting other hidden skirt" beyond tons of cables and computer hardware. I'm "divorced" for the third time. And I'm already five days in my workplace 'round the clock.
"With whom you have been? - WITH HER! You know how beautiful she is? Shinning white, her corners are smooth and her head SHINES! And I've been making love with my head and her the whole night! How I love her!" - real citation
For stealing software or hardware one may charged to pay a fine or to stay in jail up to three-five years, depending on the articles of the Penal Codex that may be applied. So do you think this is communism?
Besides the state does not have the right to use certain types of software. There are specific laws and rules that disallow people to use them. For example military cannot use Windows in several fields of activity.
2000 - We plan to send 6 missions to Mars
2001 - We are planning to send 6 missions to Mars
2002 - Due to economy plans and cuts, missions will be 5.
2003 - Send one mission. Ooops...
2004 - Well someone forgot the scredriver in the engine. That will not happen again. So now we will send three missions.
2005 - We said three? Well two. The Senate was too furious to cut only one...
2006 - We are reading the new missions. Yeah we had to loose one year due to all these studies, controls and checks.
2007 - Launched another one. Ohhhh Daaaamnnn...
2008 - Well either the thing touched a meteorite or it fell in a canyon. No of course we don't believe in "alien conspirations"...
2009 - We are planning one mission.
2010 - We are still planning it.
2011 - Planning.
2012 - I ALREADY TOLD YOU! THERE ARE NO GREYS THERE!
2013 - Well... Hmmm... Launched another one. We made everything we could... Even choosed a lsower path just in case... Cross fingers...
2014 - Hurrah!!!!! ?????????!!!!
2015 - Well... it seems we got something anyway. Now we are planning six more missions...
...
9999 - Ladies and Gentlemen. I am proud to announce... Man made his first step on Mars. A small step for a man a LONG step for Mankind... OH DAMN!
I highly respect Dali's works and they are among those I like most. However I think that the father of Surrealism would get pretty scared about what we are doing now. Sincerly it is a pitty that he died too early. In terms of computer revolution I mean. I wonder what he would think about this mess we have today...
It's alive and well alive I may say. Yes it is not in the tops as years before. But then, the main stream was "File Server War". Microsoft decided to beat Novell and failed miserably then. Yes Novell also made the dumbiest thing of trying to overcome Microsoft. By fighting M$ in its own Motherland: Windows. Novell tried to launch a an Office series that would preform better than M$ Office. Yeah the thing was more innovative then M$. But the launch of Win95 killed the enterprise and Novell had to sell the whole stuff to Corel.
Meanwhile Novell remained the ONE file server enterprise. No other file server system preforms as well and good as Netware. In this point, the specialization of Novell managed to overdevelop this core task. Netware servers are not only fast but highly perfect. They possess a powerful set of tools to help in major and secondary tasks for file transfer and storage. Their reliability is extraordinary if we compare to other systems. In 8 years of work, I had only two serious cases of filesystem crash (!). And one of them was overcome because these guys are excellent developers. Their filesystem is an excellent piece of art. I know this because I had to see a whole GB in hexadecimal to recover it. FAT is a Frankenstein compared to it.
What about NDS? It is GENERATIONS ahead of anyone else. When you have thousands of users working on a a fileserver system it is a life in the clouds compared to the dumb NT file sharing world. And their emulation of 95/NT workstation administration, is several orders ahead of Microsoft. Under NDS you can administer stations, users and several other resources through an easy centralized interface with a level of control much higher than M$. In fact NDS is supposed to center all system administration around itself. And it does this in a way that can be only classified as "highly positive". Maybe it possesses some drawbacks. One of them that NT stations do not work better with it...
In the mean time there are some things that are not well with Novell. First its overlook on Linux. Until now I haven't seen tools and resources on Linux that could be compared to the Windows ones. Things are still too raw here. Second its closed source environment. Sincerly this is what hinders Novell. Developers and experts are few due to this situation. Yes they distribute SDK's, tools, docs and have a powerful support for developers. But the fact that they sell an "extravagant OS" in such way blows the whole thing.
Anyway I would say that this is a closed source OS that deserves a good look. Note: file server services work with the new Linux kernel and things seem not bad in preformance. This is not NFS.
Ok I think US Patent Office has been doing the MOST STUPID THING. However the proud of the European Commission on claiming that US Patents fail because they are technological arts is even more dumb.
What is software? A technological art. The windows, mouses, clicks, arrows, links, pages are all ABSTRACTIONS. Once I wrote here to pick some guy from Amazonia and to show him what we see on our screens. I wonder what he would say.
All software and even hardware is a mixture of mathematics, logic, empirics and our capacity to abstract. Tell me what is the command ping. Can anyone tell me exactly say what this thing is? Yeah most would say "it tests the link between two computers". But take a look at your early days and try to remember how hard it was to understand the "ms", the address names, the IP numbers and all the sequence they made. Ignorance? Correct. Until the abstraction reached you. So that you forget to remind that "ping 127.0.0.1" may not fitunder such definition. So you correct to "link between devices". However lo always remains a software abstraction as it possesses no real device.
I think that US Patent Office had VERY GOOD INTENTIONS when first it started to patent software. And it was correctly patenting them as they are in fact a technological art. Only short-sightness spoiled things. US Patent Office should clearly not to be blame on this. No one could ever dream on what computers would turn into. Yesterday, they were simple algorithms you launched through punch cards and got results in a printer terminal. Today they are Second Reality. A world that even substitutes our existing one and even dominates it. A world getting deeper and deeper into Abstraction. A world no Dali would ever imagine in his wildest dreams.
Now technocrat Europe tries to make a bigger error. My, my, software development will be possible only in Russia. No wonder that now we are already on the top. No kidding people! Try to take a look at this:
http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i08/08a04301.htm
And btw: Patenting software and even hardware is FORBIDDEN here. They are considered as Works of Art and fall into copyright laws...
Has Ellison explicitely signed the EULA with Microsoft? Does he explicitly talk about benchmarks made without permission from Microsoft? Is not he expressing his opinion and the opinion of his company? Hey Redmond? Where is that 1st Amendement that lays in the Constitution of the country you reside? Maybe, inside a company it may not work, but this is public speech!
Besides why are you always doing things upside down? Where is the written license for Win98 on IBM comps? Russian Law demands it. So what should I do with those CD's that came with these computers? Why you violate the law by stating on your User's Guide:
"No part of this document can be reproduced or transferred in no form and no means, no matter electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, record on magnetic carrier, if there is not written permission from Microsoft"
This is a part of User's Guide for Win98. I'm citing. Do you read? CITING! And on Russian Law I have the DAMN right to do it!
Do you know what this stuff reminds of? Scientologists. Microsoft seems to be turning into another high-tech church.
Has anyone take a look at MSFT stock chart? It's rising!
Well Windowzers nothing to worry about. It were Microsoft partners who sneaked the code.
Microsoft partners:
"AAAAAAAHHHhhhhhh. AT LAST!!! Now we can get a look at that dumbiness of kernel exception that has been segfaulting our code for 10 monthes and get a fix for it...
Hello? Mr. Investors? We finally get a solution to our problems. This time code will be stable and fast. Soon a new set of fresh killer-apps will be on the market. So Windows will still live for some time...
Investors:
Ok Dealers NOW you can buy some of that M$ stock."
If these guys managed to sneak at least a section of all that embedded all-integrated code then Microsoft is in deep trouble.
Its is known for quite long that there is some "secret code" that allows such apps like Excel or Explorer to work more tightly with the core of the system. Even Microsoft, back in the middle of the 90's, recognized that their Excel got a boost in preformance due to such hacks. Now, imagine what will happen if the code gets well known. First Microsoft looses its warhorse. Second, these hacks can be exploited to take control over the system. Note: I am not stating an hypotesis but a fact that I saw with this "all-in-one" mess, two years ago. It's a pitty I didn't have that source code back then:)
It seems people missed the point.
on
Mir Lives
·
· Score: 2
No people, the station is going down...
Right here people has talked more and more on bringing it down without question.
Yeah it may live theoretically five years more. But do the risks cost it? The station is really old. Everything there is overaged. Even the main structures. Cosmic radiation does not forget about them also... So upon a certain moment such things turns from national pride to a useless weight and a dnagerous headache. I believe that, if the station was not so battered by lack of funds then it could have lived some years more. No one cared and the station got not only older but also beaten... Right now I consider that it is a risk to hold it up there, as future glitches may be too serious to be controlled. Besides if the real wrong thing happens, then it will be a serious financial burden to the Federation. And a blow in prestige.
Frankly, if I was the decisionmaker I would not send the station into sea. No, I would send it to the Moon. This stuff is somehow a museum. Maybe we cannot bring it down in one piece. But today we can send it only in little pieces today. But future generations would manage to do this in a much better way and save this monument of Mankind.
People does anyone have contacts with someone in Amazonia or some very_lost_place? Well this is not bashing anyone. Sincerly I respect and understand those that may live in such places but I just got a Damn Idea...
What is our environment? Engeneering or Art? Well let's ask someone who never had seen a computer, What He Sees on the screen. Did you get my idea? All of us live under a world of windows, buttons, menus, pictures, links and a lot of other stuff. Now How this would look like to someone else? A Picasso picture? Salvador Dali is a schoolboy? Kazcinsky never reached the top?
Yeah most of us would think: "he will think, a mess". But in fact what he woulf think about this?
On the other side. Do you remeber that one of the "click"? The patent that claims clicks in links. What about if I use a keyboard, a pen, a touchscreen or voice?
In Russian law it is specifically forbidden to patent patents or even chip designs. These products are considered mostly at the same level as productions of Art(:) ) and are consequently covered by the local copyright laws. Besides, today, these laws talk particularly about software and computer designs. Other acts, such as Penal Codex possesses a specific part concerning software and computer designs. In any case, the whole Body of Law in Russia considers our little wonderful world much the same as Art. Hope this stays for long.
PS: Are you now proud of being considred a Picasso?
Really weak? In what terms? Experience? Well I saw/worked on all windowzes from Win 1.0beta to Windows 2000. Linux I have a far worser experience only a few years since 0.99...
The point of my comment? Well ten worst games? Well it is interesting. But I think that 10 worst OSes will be more interesting.
Why it wasn't marked offtopic? Well I don't eat with Taco or work with Hemos or sleep with Rob. So if it wasn't marked offtopic is not my fault...
"Now we can see that undoubtely Windows BEATS Linux! The benchmarks shows an average of Windows 2000 being 10000 times more faster on a Redhat 10.0/LAM-MPI/Plex86 PIV 1,5MHz 256 Mb RAM 30Gb HDD rather then Linux-only on this same machine! This result proves the reliability and superior speed of Windows 2000 compared to any other platform! Linux shows nothing that can be compared to this always new, always fresh OS from Microsoft...
For testing benchmarks, a network of 1000 machines was used, linked through 1Gb Ethernet. On all machines we ran Windows & Linux."
Sorry but I also have to disagree on your analysis of IBM. The IBM you talk about is the battered IBM after nearly 10 years of pushing a "Big Idea" (tm). The big idea was to deliver "everytthing in one bunch", a ultra-system that integrated everything from Ironclads to personal computers (the famous PS/2). I still remember this time because I had a relative too close to these events. IBM did push hard to implement OS/2. However, in 1995 it started to give up as Win95 was surely a winner. The "super-integration" was a fiasco. People run for the traditional PC and refused the PS/2. In the beginning OS/2 worked in IBM-only hardware. Microsoft did also some Dirty Job (copyright Bill Gates) to this process by mining most development of OS/2 (at least three times it put IBM in shambles).
The IBM you talk about is the IBM loosing billions of dollars, bathered by internal conflicts, loosing the all-mighty monopoly in the market of computer systems and being slandered by Microsoft. To reach this it took ten years for IBM.
Btw. This new Microsoft's.NET concept reminds too much the same "Hurrah!" mode of IBM's legions in the 80's. So you may get an idea...
I still rememeber how, some years ago, OS/2 decided to overcome Windows. Unfortunately M$ did a smart move in time, by launching Win95. Most of OS/2 Windows emulation was based on 16 bit Windows. Besides, the mixed nature of Win95 (it has both 16/32 bit code) and its weird integration/embedding, made the transfer of Win32 code to OS/2 a nearly impossible task. During the years, it seems that IBM tried several times to recover from this blow. However M$ managed to smartly maneuver and avoid the danger. First by forcing IBM to accept its supermacy on market. Second by smartly destroing those who could help IBM to move OS/2 forward.
Today the situation is pretty different. First people don't wanna move from a classic Win32 basis, that has established deep roots. Most people use, for years, Win98/NT. Some have transferred to Win00, but this OS looks more as a continuation of old NT traditions. So, improvements are more superfluous than useful. The only good thing is that it is stable for a larger field of activies than Win98/NT.
In the mean time I have seen that M$ customers became quite conservative. The new great WinMe looks as the biggest M$ fiasco since th ill-famous DOS 4.0. Apart from this, we have to note that M$ does not promise any inovations in the short future.
Right now the Linux front presents three great achievements:
VMWare is working stable and fast on Linux.
Recently Wine started to launch such important apps like Word00 & Excel00
Now Plex86 seems set forward to start implementing Windows emulation on Linux
If nothing changes, than soon we may face the fact that te last M$ bastion will fall. If M$ does not have in its hat a new rabbit or a new OS implementation then it will surely loose ground. First by those who don't need anymore "two OS's in one hardware". Second becaudse many average users will be able to launch M$ soft on linux.
Well one of them might be RedHat 7.0. Pitty to say this but even redpartisans here are flaming it very badly.
However two OSes will surely be on the Ten Most: Win00 and WinMe (Win you? No thanks).
Well Windows00 may have got some points to stay out of the Ten Worst as a desktop system. However, as a server, it is surely inside. As far as I see, no one tries to use it as a server system. Sincerly, I would say that after more than half year I have met only one attempt.
However the absolute champion is surely Windows Me. Fantastic! In a region where still 80% of users live M$, I have not seen one single copy of this thing. And I still remember how, some years ago, people would hunt for Windows Betas, raw betas, release candidates and even weird copies snagged from Redmond's Howl. Today, WinMe does not show up even on pirated copies. No one even talks about it. Most people don't even record about its existence.
Sincerly no one even remebers when this thing was launched...
So M$ maybe you have the honour to be in a line with a Linux distro. However 1st place goes to you. For the first time in 15 years (since you launched that mutant called DOS 4.0).
People do you consider this Funny? It's should be "Laugh and cry because it's real". Petty that moderation doen't allow this.:) Once I saw a site where someone offered his services for spying on companies. And, on what concerns "classified ads _requiring_ for Industrial Spies"? Roam a little around the Internet. You would surely find them. It's a Mad World we have here.
Power on password? On theft that's not a solution at all. It's only a hassle to either cut power to your CMOS or change drive to other computer. Besides is not you hard drive password stored on CMOS? If so, that's double insecurity...
Hard Drive passwords? Sincerly I have slightly heard about these. But I have also heard of the dumbiness of some. I am not sure if IBM falls in this category. Some HDD seem to have a possibility to have a password, which can be installed from any computer through special tools. However this password is stored on the disk itself. A careful work with the controller may turn this feature off, by wiping the surface where the password is and make a recovery of the partition table in certain cases. This is not exactly the same as those software tools that "protect" HDD's. In this case it seems that a read/write to the 0 cylinder "triggers" the call on the controller.
There seems also to exist passwords capable of being stored on the controller itself. But well, what barrages an expert from wiping this password with the proper signal? Most chips have a very simple system of basic calls, even in cases when they preform very complex tasks.
In the bad end. You peek the controller and substitute for another one... That is not so rare. Experts call it the "last solution" for burned HDD controllers.
In the very bad end. Pick up the disk itself. The one 99% of you people never see because it is inside of the that black/silver cage. With propper tools, the stuff can be copied...
I may partially agree with your post but you don't put the whole picture.
The theft of diplomatic/strategic laptops. Sincerly the Gulf War case is a problem of IQ of the person carrying the laptop. It is tremendously stupid to walk away from an authorised environment with such information, and specially with time-critical one. And mostly with everything stuffed in one small briefcase which was visibly expensive. The only thing that he lacked was a paper in his back : "ROB ME!"
You forget about the Unauthorised users in a legit environment. Worse, the "Legit"/"Unauthorised" users in a VERY legit environment. The famous 90% of brek-ins. And, besides, the case we are looking here. People grabbed the one laptop that carried critical information and nothing else. Which is stupid because expertise may get a track on them. At least we know they are insiders...
These chips/mips/encryptions & Co. You know what they are? 90% of the cases pure trash. My experience has shown that many of these devices only help weakening your own awarness. Once I knew about a case when a very expensive program, with a special encryption chip, was broken in less than... guess... 15 seconds! Why? Because developers didn't have brains to do anything better than:
Start program
If function_to_check_for_encryption_chip==1 then continue
else cry "THIEVES!!!!"
Well people knocked this off by stamping two assembler instructions in place of this condition. And had the whole stuff fresh and running. This is one of the most well advertised corporations of America that produces key and encryption devices... So I wouldn't be so sure to put my money on such things.
Sincerly, in most corporate environments, where people know about computers as much they know about typewritters and calculators, you will forcefully find the ill-famous password: "1234". Once, I found it in the admin of the accounting system for a commercial bank. But this is not the worst. The madness was that, in one of the database files, the login & password were there UNENCRYPTED! Side by side... Grab and play Monopolio...
:))))))))))))))))))))))))
Was not encryption equalized to "Ammunitions" by the Department of Commerce? Dear fellow Americans, weren't you crying all this time that this is incorrect?
Ok, people NOW RUN to the D.C. and CONFIRM: "YEAH IT'S AMMUNITIONS, NO, IT'S GUNS, NO, IT'S COOOLER THAN NUKES!!!!
In the meantime sneak a draft to them about considering security tools also as High-Grade Weapons. And stamp all this with the Right To Bear Arms.
Btw don't forget that the suggestion came from Russia. As always, we have been good partners on what considers this stuff. And don't worry about us not being able to get your weapons. We will always find a way to exchange them:)
Well if we go to the extremes then... beware your hands, your feet, or, even your head:)))))))))))))
A great destructive method is kicking out the computer. Specially if it's turned on. Besides you think about kicking it... So don't be horrified if court decides to have you slandered in the best of medieval ways. Anyway, you're carrying illegal devices, rigth?
Starting from encryption is not the best way to secure information. Personally I think that the first measure of security is time. Sincerly I consider that this is mostly the only measure of real security.
Do you have an confidential agreement to be signed tomorrow? Hold it in a place that does not give a chance to anyone to see it before being signed.
Do you have an highly confidential database? Calculate the potential of a break-in and for how long the base should be confidential until you process countermeasures.
Never consider information "eternally" confidential. There is not such thing in Nature.
Maybe people will never know 100% what you know. But surely they will get something out of you. Your problem is to qualify information, and secure it in the propper way. Some information is needed to use in the laptop. but you don't need the whole client database on it. It's better to loose two contracts than to have all your company naked in front of the concurrency.
Encryption is good. But encryption can be broken. In fact encryption should only be considered as an element that "delays" access to information but it does not secure it forever. The stronger the encryption the longer it will be taken to broke it. But, there is a big "BUT here.
The most fundamental of all is that, no matter what you do with information, the time X is not broken. Several people use to encrypt their E-mails, documents, filesystems. but they forget that still there is memory, EM emissions, swap files. Specially I noted that many people forget to look over their shoulders when dealing with information. Someone is typing his "honey123" password and you are standing back and looking.
Slashdot Mirror
I know that for many people this will sound like nuke flame. But I know what I'm talking...
It's women one of the factors that stopped Space Exploration. More correctly to say, wifes did it.
Because US values could not pick with the risks of Space Exploration. For a country that highly values the "family values" the picture of widows and orphans in such a media boost was a big cost. Specially if their husbands die of being fried on capsules. Or nearly freeze on them in front of millions.
Not only the high politics but also this simple factor was determinant to stop Space Exploration. Sending excellent officers, good fathers and exemplary husbands to Space and get them back in a fridge or a pan was too much. Specially if we consider the conservative character of most women. For them this was coming from nonsense up to a irrational suicide commitement from the part of their partners. So sooner or later we would see shattered families, divorced astronauts or family conflicts. On that epoch, such situation was absolutely unnacceptable to Washington politicians.
If anyone gets offended with this let me tell you that I work in a critical field and I perfectly know the relations of women in relation to such kamikadzes like me or some of my colleagues. Things go up to the surrealistic/paranoid behaviour of "hunting other hidden skirt" beyond tons of cables and computer hardware. I'm "divorced" for the third time. And I'm already five days in my workplace 'round the clock.
"With whom you have been? - WITH HER! You know how beautiful she is? Shinning white, her corners are smooth and her head SHINES! And I've been making love with my head and her the whole night! How I love her!" - real citation
For stealing software or hardware one may charged to pay a fine or to stay in jail up to three-five years, depending on the articles of the Penal Codex that may be applied. So do you think this is communism?
Besides the state does not have the right to use certain types of software. There are specific laws and rules that disallow people to use them. For example military cannot use Windows in several fields of activity.
2000 - We plan to send 6 missions to Mars
2001 - We are planning to send 6 missions to Mars
2002 - Due to economy plans and cuts, missions will be 5.
2003 - Send one mission. Ooops...
2004 - Well someone forgot the scredriver in the engine. That will not happen again. So now we will send three missions.
2005 - We said three? Well two. The Senate was too furious to cut only one...
2006 - We are reading the new missions. Yeah we had to loose one year due to all these studies, controls and checks.
2007 - Launched another one. Ohhhh Daaaamnnn...
2008 - Well either the thing touched a meteorite or it fell in a canyon. No of course we don't believe in "alien conspirations"...
2009 - We are planning one mission.
2010 - We are still planning it.
2011 - Planning.
2012 - I ALREADY TOLD YOU! THERE ARE NO GREYS THERE!
2013 - Well... Hmmm... Launched another one. We made everything we could... Even choosed a lsower path just in case... Cross fingers...
2014 - Hurrah!!!!! ?????????!!!!
2015 - Well... it seems we got something anyway. Now we are planning six more missions...
...
9999 - Ladies and Gentlemen. I am proud to announce... Man made his first step on Mars. A small step for a man a LONG step for Mankind... OH DAMN!
I highly respect Dali's works and they are among those I like most. However I think that the father of Surrealism would get pretty scared about what we are doing now. Sincerly it is a pitty that he died too early. In terms of computer revolution I mean. I wonder what he would think about this mess we have today...
:)
S. Dali in 2000: "You see? I was right!"
It's alive and well alive I may say. Yes it is not in the tops as years before. But then, the main stream was "File Server War". Microsoft decided to beat Novell and failed miserably then. Yes Novell also made the dumbiest thing of trying to overcome Microsoft. By fighting M$ in its own Motherland: Windows. Novell tried to launch a an Office series that would preform better than M$ Office. Yeah the thing was more innovative then M$. But the launch of Win95 killed the enterprise and Novell had to sell the whole stuff to Corel.
Meanwhile Novell remained the ONE file server enterprise. No other file server system preforms as well and good as Netware. In this point, the specialization of Novell managed to overdevelop this core task. Netware servers are not only fast but highly perfect. They possess a powerful set of tools to help in major and secondary tasks for file transfer and storage. Their reliability is extraordinary if we compare to other systems. In 8 years of work, I had only two serious cases of filesystem crash (!). And one of them was overcome because these guys are excellent developers. Their filesystem is an excellent piece of art. I know this because I had to see a whole GB in hexadecimal to recover it. FAT is a Frankenstein compared to it.
What about NDS? It is GENERATIONS ahead of anyone else. When you have thousands of users working on a a fileserver system it is a life in the clouds compared to the dumb NT file sharing world. And their emulation of 95/NT workstation administration, is several orders ahead of Microsoft. Under NDS you can administer stations, users and several other resources through an easy centralized interface with a level of control much higher than M$. In fact NDS is supposed to center all system administration around itself. And it does this in a way that can be only classified as "highly positive". Maybe it possesses some drawbacks. One of them that NT stations do not work better with it...
In the mean time there are some things that are not well with Novell. First its overlook on Linux. Until now I haven't seen tools and resources on Linux that could be compared to the Windows ones. Things are still too raw here. Second its closed source environment. Sincerly this is what hinders Novell. Developers and experts are few due to this situation. Yes they distribute SDK's, tools, docs and have a powerful support for developers. But the fact that they sell an "extravagant OS" in such way blows the whole thing.
Anyway I would say that this is a closed source OS that deserves a good look. Note: file server services work with the new Linux kernel and things seem not bad in preformance. This is not NFS.
Ok I think US Patent Office has been doing the MOST STUPID THING. However the proud of the European Commission on claiming that US Patents fail because they are technological arts is even more dumb.
What is software? A technological art. The windows, mouses, clicks, arrows, links, pages are all ABSTRACTIONS. Once I wrote here to pick some guy from Amazonia and to show him what we see on our screens. I wonder what he would say.
All software and even hardware is a mixture of mathematics, logic, empirics and our capacity to abstract. Tell me what is the command ping. Can anyone tell me exactly say what this thing is? Yeah most would say "it tests the link between two computers". But take a look at your early days and try to remember how hard it was to understand the "ms", the address names, the IP numbers and all the sequence they made. Ignorance? Correct. Until the abstraction reached you. So that you forget to remind that "ping 127.0.0.1" may not fitunder such definition. So you correct to "link between devices". However lo always remains a software abstraction as it possesses no real device.
I think that US Patent Office had VERY GOOD INTENTIONS when first it started to patent software. And it was correctly patenting them as they are in fact a technological art. Only short-sightness spoiled things. US Patent Office should clearly not to be blame on this. No one could ever dream on what computers would turn into. Yesterday, they were simple algorithms you launched through punch cards and got results in a printer terminal. Today they are Second Reality. A world that even substitutes our existing one and even dominates it. A world getting deeper and deeper into Abstraction. A world no Dali would ever imagine in his wildest dreams.
Now technocrat Europe tries to make a bigger error. My, my, software development will be possible only in Russia. No wonder that now we are already on the top. No kidding people! Try to take a look at this:
http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i08/08a04301.htm
And btw: Patenting software and even hardware is FORBIDDEN here. They are considered as Works of Art and fall into copyright laws...
Has Ellison explicitely signed the EULA with Microsoft? Does he explicitly talk about benchmarks made without permission from Microsoft? Is not he expressing his opinion and the opinion of his company? Hey Redmond? Where is that 1st Amendement that lays in the Constitution of the country you reside? Maybe, inside a company it may not work, but this is public speech!
Besides why are you always doing things upside down? Where is the written license for Win98 on IBM comps? Russian Law demands it. So what should I do with those CD's that came with these computers? Why you violate the law by stating on your User's Guide:
"No part of this document can be reproduced or transferred in no form and no means, no matter electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, record on magnetic carrier, if there is not written permission from Microsoft"
This is a part of User's Guide for Win98. I'm citing. Do you read? CITING! And on Russian Law I have the DAMN right to do it!
Do you know what this stuff reminds of? Scientologists. Microsoft seems to be turning into another high-tech church.
Has anyone take a look at MSFT stock chart? It's rising!
Well Windowzers nothing to worry about. It were Microsoft partners who sneaked the code.
Microsoft partners:
"AAAAAAAHHHhhhhhh. AT LAST!!! Now we can get a look at that dumbiness of kernel exception that has been segfaulting our code for 10 monthes and get a fix for it...
Hello? Mr. Investors? We finally get a solution to our problems. This time code will be stable and fast. Soon a new set of fresh killer-apps will be on the market. So Windows will still live for some time...
Investors:
Ok Dealers NOW you can buy some of that M$ stock."
If these guys managed to sneak at least a section of all that embedded all-integrated code then Microsoft is in deep trouble.
:)
Its is known for quite long that there is some "secret code" that allows such apps like Excel or Explorer to work more tightly with the core of the system. Even Microsoft, back in the middle of the 90's, recognized that their Excel got a boost in preformance due to such hacks. Now, imagine what will happen if the code gets well known. First Microsoft looses its warhorse. Second, these hacks can be exploited to take control over the system. Note: I am not stating an hypotesis but a fact that I saw with this "all-in-one" mess, two years ago. It's a pitty I didn't have that source code back then
No people, the station is going down...
Right here people has talked more and more on bringing it down without question.
Yeah it may live theoretically five years more. But do the risks cost it? The station is really old. Everything there is overaged. Even the main structures. Cosmic radiation does not forget about them also... So upon a certain moment such things turns from national pride to a useless weight and a dnagerous headache. I believe that, if the station was not so battered by lack of funds then it could have lived some years more. No one cared and the station got not only older but also beaten... Right now I consider that it is a risk to hold it up there, as future glitches may be too serious to be controlled. Besides if the real wrong thing happens, then it will be a serious financial burden to the Federation. And a blow in prestige.
Frankly, if I was the decisionmaker I would not send the station into sea. No, I would send it to the Moon. This stuff is somehow a museum. Maybe we cannot bring it down in one piece. But today we can send it only in little pieces today. But future generations would manage to do this in a much better way and save this monument of Mankind.
People does anyone have contacts with someone in Amazonia or some very_lost_place? Well this is not bashing anyone. Sincerly I respect and understand those that may live in such places but I just got a Damn Idea...
What is our environment? Engeneering or Art? Well let's ask someone who never had seen a computer, What He Sees on the screen. Did you get my idea? All of us live under a world of windows, buttons, menus, pictures, links and a lot of other stuff. Now How this would look like to someone else? A Picasso picture? Salvador Dali is a schoolboy? Kazcinsky never reached the top?
Yeah most of us would think: "he will think, a mess". But in fact what he woulf think about this?
On the other side. Do you remeber that one of the "click"? The patent that claims clicks in links. What about if I use a keyboard, a pen, a touchscreen or voice?
Sorry for the patent patents. I meant software.
In Russian law it is specifically forbidden to patent patents or even chip designs. These products are considered mostly at the same level as productions of Art( :) ) and are consequently covered by the local copyright laws. Besides, today, these laws talk particularly about software and computer designs. Other acts, such as Penal Codex possesses a specific part concerning software and computer designs. In any case, the whole Body of Law in Russia considers our little wonderful world much the same as Art. Hope this stays for long.
PS: Are you now proud of being considred a Picasso?
Really weak? In what terms? Experience? Well I saw/worked on all windowzes from Win 1.0beta to Windows 2000. Linux I have a far worser experience only a few years since 0.99...
The point of my comment? Well ten worst games? Well it is interesting. But I think that 10 worst OSes will be more interesting.
Why it wasn't marked offtopic? Well I don't eat with Taco or work with Hemos or sleep with Rob. So if it wasn't marked offtopic is not my fault...
"Now we can see that undoubtely Windows BEATS Linux! The benchmarks shows an average of Windows 2000 being 10000 times more faster on a Redhat 10.0/LAM-MPI/Plex86 PIV 1,5MHz 256 Mb RAM 30Gb HDD rather then Linux-only on this same machine! This result proves the reliability and superior speed of Windows 2000 compared to any other platform! Linux shows nothing that can be compared to this always new, always fresh OS from Microsoft...
For testing benchmarks, a network of 1000 machines was used, linked through 1Gb Ethernet. On all machines we ran Windows & Linux."
Sorry but I also have to disagree on your analysis of IBM. The IBM you talk about is the battered IBM after nearly 10 years of pushing a "Big Idea" (tm). The big idea was to deliver "everytthing in one bunch", a ultra-system that integrated everything from Ironclads to personal computers (the famous PS/2). I still remember this time because I had a relative too close to these events. IBM did push hard to implement OS/2. However, in 1995 it started to give up as Win95 was surely a winner. The "super-integration" was a fiasco. People run for the traditional PC and refused the PS/2. In the beginning OS/2 worked in IBM-only hardware. Microsoft did also some Dirty Job (copyright Bill Gates) to this process by mining most development of OS/2 (at least three times it put IBM in shambles).
.NET concept reminds too much the same "Hurrah!" mode of IBM's legions in the 80's. So you may get an idea...
The IBM you talk about is the IBM loosing billions of dollars, bathered by internal conflicts, loosing the all-mighty monopoly in the market of computer systems and being slandered by Microsoft. To reach this it took ten years for IBM.
Btw. This new Microsoft's
I still rememeber how, some years ago, OS/2 decided to overcome Windows. Unfortunately M$ did a smart move in time, by launching Win95. Most of OS/2 Windows emulation was based on 16 bit Windows. Besides, the mixed nature of Win95 (it has both 16/32 bit code) and its weird integration/embedding, made the transfer of Win32 code to OS/2 a nearly impossible task. During the years, it seems that IBM tried several times to recover from this blow. However M$ managed to smartly maneuver and avoid the danger. First by forcing IBM to accept its supermacy on market. Second by smartly destroing those who could help IBM to move OS/2 forward.
Today the situation is pretty different. First people don't wanna move from a classic Win32 basis, that has established deep roots. Most people use, for years, Win98/NT. Some have transferred to Win00, but this OS looks more as a continuation of old NT traditions. So, improvements are more superfluous than useful. The only good thing is that it is stable for a larger field of activies than Win98/NT.
In the mean time I have seen that M$ customers became quite conservative. The new great WinMe looks as the biggest M$ fiasco since th ill-famous DOS 4.0. Apart from this, we have to note that M$ does not promise any inovations in the short future.
Right now the Linux front presents three great achievements:
VMWare is working stable and fast on Linux.
Recently Wine started to launch such important apps like Word00 & Excel00
Now Plex86 seems set forward to start implementing Windows emulation on Linux
If nothing changes, than soon we may face the fact that te last M$ bastion will fall. If M$ does not have in its hat a new rabbit or a new OS implementation then it will surely loose ground. First by those who don't need anymore "two OS's in one hardware". Second becaudse many average users will be able to launch M$ soft on linux.
So time to start counting backwards...
Well one of them might be RedHat 7.0. Pitty to say this but even redpartisans here are flaming it very badly.
However two OSes will surely be on the Ten Most: Win00 and WinMe (Win you? No thanks).
Well Windows00 may have got some points to stay out of the Ten Worst as a desktop system. However, as a server, it is surely inside. As far as I see, no one tries to use it as a server system. Sincerly, I would say that after more than half year I have met only one attempt.
However the absolute champion is surely Windows Me. Fantastic! In a region where still 80% of users live M$, I have not seen one single copy of this thing. And I still remember how, some years ago, people would hunt for Windows Betas, raw betas, release candidates and even weird copies snagged from Redmond's Howl. Today, WinMe does not show up even on pirated copies. No one even talks about it. Most people don't even record about its existence.
Sincerly no one even remebers when this thing was launched...
So M$ maybe you have the honour to be in a line with a Linux distro. However 1st place goes to you. For the first time in 15 years (since you launched that mutant called DOS 4.0).
People do you consider this Funny? It's should be "Laugh and cry because it's real". Petty that moderation doen't allow this. :) Once I saw a site where someone offered his services for spying on companies. And, on what concerns "classified ads _requiring_ for Industrial Spies"? Roam a little around the Internet. You would surely find them. It's a Mad World we have here.
1 power on password
2 hard drive password
my thinkpad does both
Power on password? On theft that's not a solution at all. It's only a hassle to either cut power to your CMOS or change drive to other computer. Besides is not you hard drive password stored on CMOS? If so, that's double insecurity...
Hard Drive passwords? Sincerly I have slightly heard about these. But I have also heard of the dumbiness of some. I am not sure if IBM falls in this category. Some HDD seem to have a possibility to have a password, which can be installed from any computer through special tools. However this password is stored on the disk itself. A careful work with the controller may turn this feature off, by wiping the surface where the password is and make a recovery of the partition table in certain cases. This is not exactly the same as those software tools that "protect" HDD's. In this case it seems that a read/write to the 0 cylinder "triggers" the call on the controller.
There seems also to exist passwords capable of being stored on the controller itself. But well, what barrages an expert from wiping this password with the proper signal? Most chips have a very simple system of basic calls, even in cases when they preform very complex tasks.
In the bad end. You peek the controller and substitute for another one... That is not so rare. Experts call it the "last solution" for burned HDD controllers.
In the very bad end. Pick up the disk itself. The one 99% of you people never see because it is inside of the that black/silver cage. With propper tools, the stuff can be copied...
I may partially agree with your post but you don't put the whole picture.
The theft of diplomatic/strategic laptops. Sincerly the Gulf War case is a problem of IQ of the person carrying the laptop. It is tremendously stupid to walk away from an authorised environment with such information, and specially with time-critical one. And mostly with everything stuffed in one small briefcase which was visibly expensive. The only thing that he lacked was a paper in his back : "ROB ME!"
You forget about the Unauthorised users in a legit environment. Worse, the "Legit"/"Unauthorised" users in a VERY legit environment. The famous 90% of brek-ins. And, besides, the case we are looking here. People grabbed the one laptop that carried critical information and nothing else. Which is stupid because expertise may get a track on them. At least we know they are insiders...
These chips/mips/encryptions & Co. You know what they are? 90% of the cases pure trash. My experience has shown that many of these devices only help weakening your own awarness. Once I knew about a case when a very expensive program, with a special encryption chip, was broken in less than... guess... 15 seconds! Why? Because developers didn't have brains to do anything better than:
Start program
If function_to_check_for_encryption_chip==1 then continue
else cry "THIEVES!!!!"
Well people knocked this off by stamping two assembler instructions in place of this condition. And had the whole stuff fresh and running. This is one of the most well advertised corporations of America that produces key and encryption devices... So I wouldn't be so sure to put my money on such things.
Sincerly, in most corporate environments, where people know about computers as much they know about typewritters and calculators, you will forcefully find the ill-famous password: "1234". Once, I found it in the admin of the accounting system for a commercial bank. But this is not the worst. The madness was that, in one of the database files, the login & password were there UNENCRYPTED! Side by side... Grab and play Monopolio...
:))))))))))))))))))))))))
:)
Was not encryption equalized to "Ammunitions" by the Department of Commerce? Dear fellow Americans, weren't you crying all this time that this is incorrect?
Ok, people NOW RUN to the D.C. and CONFIRM: "YEAH IT'S AMMUNITIONS, NO, IT'S GUNS, NO, IT'S COOOLER THAN NUKES!!!!
In the meantime sneak a draft to them about considering security tools also as High-Grade Weapons. And stamp all this with the Right To Bear Arms.
Btw don't forget that the suggestion came from Russia. As always, we have been good partners on what considers this stuff. And don't worry about us not being able to get your weapons. We will always find a way to exchange them
Well if we go to the extremes then... beware your hands, your feet, or, even your head :)))))))))))))
A great destructive method is kicking out the computer. Specially if it's turned on. Besides you think about kicking it... So don't be horrified if court decides to have you slandered in the best of medieval ways. Anyway, you're carrying illegal devices, rigth?
Starting from encryption is not the best way to secure information. Personally I think that the first measure of security is time. Sincerly I consider that this is mostly the only measure of real security.
Do you have an confidential agreement to be signed tomorrow? Hold it in a place that does not give a chance to anyone to see it before being signed.
Do you have an highly confidential database? Calculate the potential of a break-in and for how long the base should be confidential until you process countermeasures.
Never consider information "eternally" confidential. There is not such thing in Nature.
Maybe people will never know 100% what you know. But surely they will get something out of you. Your problem is to qualify information, and secure it in the propper way. Some information is needed to use in the laptop. but you don't need the whole client database on it. It's better to loose two contracts than to have all your company naked in front of the concurrency.
Encryption is good. But encryption can be broken. In fact encryption should only be considered as an element that "delays" access to information but it does not secure it forever. The stronger the encryption the longer it will be taken to broke it. But, there is a big "BUT here.
The most fundamental of all is that, no matter what you do with information, the time X is not broken. Several people use to encrypt their E-mails, documents, filesystems. but they forget that still there is memory, EM emissions, swap files. Specially I noted that many people forget to look over their shoulders when dealing with information. Someone is typing his "honey123" password and you are standing back and looking.