I'm actually pretty surprised by this news. It is well known that MS hates the GPL; but they are a big company, with a nontrivial legal team, and they know that the GPL has, thus far, held up in court.
I doubt MS legal would let it slip through, but what it could be a subcontractor job (much like the infamous Zune bug was).
I watched the last news video of them. Here is my impression:
* They recreated the feel of the 80's hacker optic mixed with matrix in an endless loop
(no, that was not a compliment)
* 20 % of the show was advertisement (maybe more)
* The news are mostly a summary on what you read here on security.slashdot.com
* The tone of the show gets boring.. well, immediately
The basic idea is nice, but the actual show is not that impressive. Could get better though..
A pragmatist will say XYZ is impossible until an idealist proves him/her wrong, and after that the pragmatist starts taking advantage of the progress done by the idealist.
I hate to be the one that breaks it to you, but the word "pragmatist" doesn't mean anything like what you think it does. In fact, to one who does know what it means, what you wrote is little more than gibberish.
I'm aware of the formal definition of pragmatism.
You're simply being pedantic.
People who claim being guided by pragmatic logic simply take a shorter/easier route, and that because they believe the path for a pure solution - even if worthy itself - is not worth the effort compared to a half-assed and more viable alternative. - If you reduce life to numbers, why do you care about anything at all in the first place?
That kind of limiting attitude is what I'm talking about.
But you are forgetting the browser wars, you forgot the end product of them which was IE6, the browser that made the web effectively unchanged for many years. The browser that opened the world up to every sort of malware out there.
I thought a stable software that hit 80% market share would be considered a success?
Or what about the pain of Windows 9X that bluescreened for no reason?
I suppose every line of code you ever wrote does exactly what you intended and nothing else? Modern operating systems are mindbogglingly complex, and with complex systems the "law" of unintended consequences reigns supreme. Talk to me when you develop the perfect operating system, completely without security flaws out of the box with no configuring, oh and it has to be flexible enough to do whatever the end user wants. Windows, Linux, Mac? They're all crap. Much like cars in the 40's and 50's, they're overbuilt, unwieldy and unsafe. In another 20-50 years we'll have refined, elegant design in Operating Systems, while maintaining usability and flexibility.
However, one point: you have to install the pirated version of the software to get the trojan and give it an administrator's password before it can pwn the machine, i.e., it's not a virus.
What does whether it is a trojan or a virus have to do with anything. Mac, botnet, malware. Good stuff.
Personally, as good as Ubuntu is, I see no obvious close runner up. It may take a single strong competitor to drive Ubuntu (and that competitor) to develop the combination of flexibility, common interface and ease of use that will be required to compete for the desktop of the 'average joe."
I hope you were being facetious. Chess can be approached from many viewpoints, but knowing how the pieces move is just the first step. You have to know how the pieces interact with each other and with your opponent's pieces. You have to know the strengths and weaknesses of the pieces. How they project power and the directions at which they are vulnerable.
But hey, MMORPG's are the same way, so I think you were being facetions.
Either way, the debate is CHARACTER skill advancement models versus CHARACTER level advancement models.
and wear them on your head.
Either this article (can't read it, I'm at work and tentonhammer is blocked) or at least the summary has confused CHARACTER skill with PLAYER skill.
Extremely lame to confuse that, worse to do it here.
Long term, the higher level of education will allow you higher level of responsibility. If you want to do technical work, concentrate on certs and experience. If you ever want to get into management, the masters level degree will be the key to open the door. Of course, the formula now is Degree + certs + experience.
In the U.S., it is hard to get in the door without a B.S. these days. There are so many techs in the system that the leadership positions are almost requiring a Masters to be considered.
It still should be "Think differently."
By all means build a computer for him.
Skimp on:
Case
peripherals
video (use onboard)
sound (use onboard)
Buy decent: better than average, but don't go cutting edge...costs too much
RAM - 3GB unless you use 64 bit OS and apps, otherise go 4 or 8
motherboard
processor
Spend extra on:
Hard Drives
Fans and Heatsinks
Power Supplies
And have a plan for when hard drive, fan, or power supply fails.
For processor, use a Core 2 Duo, 3GHz or higher. Reason? Simple, save a ton of cash over i7 or quad core. Pack it with RAM, but if you're not using a 64 bit OS, over 3Gigs is a waste.
As for software, sounds like he's running a database based system. Highly recommend looking over at one of the shareware repositories looking for software that does what you need it to do. He cannot possibly be the only veterinarian running a small business who needs "veterinary/medical record keeping + shipping & receiving + payroll" software. Someone has done this before.
Consider 3 or 4 machines. One for the database/file server. One for the front desk where the work is done. This one gets a nice monitor keyboard and mouse. The third is the backup machine. Server and backup machine need to be Raid 5 for redundancy, and the backup machine should be offsite. An online data repository might work for this, depending how much DATA needs to be backed up. Don't backup the OS and apps this way, a ghost type image taken after install+update is the best way to back those things up. This keeps the backups small.
Untrusted storage site means others can access the files.
Access means they can decrypt them. Given enough cycles, encryption can be broken.
If you want your encrypted files to be secure, keep your keys protected and do not allow access to the files.
IMO, preventing access to the files is priority, encryption is only there in case preventing access fails.
It boils down to acceptable risk.
"May your future be limited only by your dreams." -- Christa McAuliffe
