Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:Probably not worthy of a front page article... (Score 1) 99

What percentage of apache users will actually fulfil all the criteria for this issue to even matter to them at all?

Considering the ubiquity of apache webserver i'd say even a very low percentage of installs would still be a lot.

Also it's always good to know about existing vulnerabilities if only to update documentation.

Comment Re:I pity programmers (Score 1) 163

I've heard people talk about playing a game and being unable to see the game for the involuntary analysis of programming, organizational, or stylistic choices crowding on their brains.

I think it really only happens when the product is bad or just so so, cause on the other hand when it is really good and you can see how well it's been done it's even more of a pleasure.

Comment Re:IMHO, no (Score 1) 772

The concepts are what are hard to learn, the syntax is the easy part. So many similar languages may trip you up at time, but if you can work through the syntax differences and keep hacking at it it's not too difficult to learn.

Don't forget the ecosystem.
I agree that the syntax is just a formality but the environment, libs and tools can be more difficult to get used to.

Comment Re:Google has an advantage (Score 1) 249

Even android is about getting users on their platform, having their eyeballs where they want them.

I disagree, Android is about preventing a single actor (apple) to be too dominant and be able to leverage this dominance to be the sole vector of ads on a platform (as apple is planning/doing) therefore potentially preventing google to display ads on said platform.

Comment Re:Openness during use (Score 1) 102

I fail to see how Facebook or any other social network could own your, "most important data." Or is it common practice now to keep your bank account information and genetic sequence stored on the cloud?

For some people having some link to other people is pretty important. And sometimes the only direct link you have is facebook.
It's not important like "must not fall into the wrong hands" but more like "must not lose it".

Comment Re:Can any kind of e-voting be trusted ? (Score 1) 218

Can you trust non e-voting either?

As a matter a fact I can trust the process that is open enough that anyone can be there and check that counting is done properly.
Indeed this is based on the belief that enough people with diverging goals will care about the elections and be present to check that everything is ok.

The e-voting is a black box and absolutely no kind of verification can be done. That's my problem with it.

Comment Can any kind of e-voting be trusted ? (Score 1) 218

I don't get this e-voting thing.

Even if the software is open sourced how can i ever know that the version running is the one it claims to be ?

I also don't understand how the count can ever be verified without compromising the anonymity of the vote. If you don't trust the system you cannot trust any kind of verification it would do nor any kind of output it would produce (including any paper trail). Does anyone have any insight on the subject ?

And i'm not even talking about software bugs. Even without any kind of malicious intentions we could still face plenty of problems.

Is it me being too paranoid or are the people talking about the subject not seeing the issues at hand ?
Or could it not be some form of social engineering to introduce a backdoor in all future elections ?

Honestly i'd love to see counterarguments.

Comment Re:The Road Ubuntu is on... (Score 1) 360

These days CDR has been practically obsoleted by DVD+/-R(W) and writeable blu-ray. I wish Ubuntu would make the jump. I personally find it very inconvenient to have to keep a stock of 80 minute blank CDRs around just for ubuntu releases.

Save yourself some pain man, just install from a USB key.

Comment Server side ActionScript ? (Score 1) 132

I've been intrigued by this whole serverside js thing since i started doing a lot of flex and therefore using actionscript a lot.
Callbacks are so cool :)

But thing is js is still a mess if you have a lot of code.
What we really need is server side actionscript to get proper OO syntax, strong typing and namespaces.

If i ever got that, i'd be a happy camper !

Comment Re:I do think people need to understand that (Score 4, Informative) 663

You're completely missing the point.

Nobody cares about a single codec. Someone makes a good proprietary codec ? Good for them !

The problem arises when it becomes a required base part of the web.

Remember the GIF debacle ? Remember that many open source image editor did not have the capability to save gif images ? That's exactly what is at stake here.
Have one company control a base standard of the web makes it control who can or cannot create the tools to create web content. Of course big players like Google or Mozilla have the funds to pay royalties, but what about that guy who made a simple command line tool to split/merge h264 videos ?

You can argue that the MPEG-LA has made the codec royalty free but truth is they can instantly make it illegal to open source any software using h264.

That's what the fuss is all about, not just throwing two bucks at a video codec.

Slashdot Top Deals

"Experience has proved that some people indeed know everything." -- Russell Baker

Working...