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Comment Re:And yet, even at 24, it's not the year of Linux (Score 1) 152

I disagree.

I use Linux daily, all day long. Close to 7 days a week. When I buy a new laptop I format it before first boot up, and install Linux. (I have a a pretty good collection of unused Windows licenses dating back to 2003.)

I no longer support friends or clients running Windows. By choice. My 73 yr old mother begged me to install Linux on not only her desktop, but to put it on her little netbook as well. She loves it! Converted my best non-computer-friend over to Linux, at least 6 years ago.

I work with and use Linux daily because I like it. I don't hate the other guys, I just don't like them as much.

Comment I am grateful the OpenBSD team decided to do this (Score 2) 164

These guys are just awesome!!! I am so grateful to the OpenBSD team for taking this on. I'm going to back up being grateful by supporting this team in any manner that I am able to, and also try to find a way to support their efforts. Be it pizza, donating cash, or maybe even help them test their latest patches and provide any feedback I can.

Comment Fresh air from the real world? (Score 0) 311

You could also consider that the child will likely have an entire lifetime of interaction with electronic devices. Instead of fostering an early development for something that will likely be inevitable anyway, why not take the kid outdoors out into the real world and foster a love at an early age for the non-cyber world as well?

Comment Or you could just start your own OSS company... (Score 1) 506

I am not bragging or even recommending it as a solution for someone else, but for me it is working out.

I wanted the same thing, to get away from spending all my time working on desktops with viruses. I grew tired of it and just felt it was a stupid waste to be doing the same thing over and over all the time. So now I run my own web hosting / Drupal hosting & design business. I started the business 9 years ago part-time. It has not always paid the bills, but has almost always helped to pay the bills. Now, although I am still struggling to get more business, (like everyone else) I am working for myself full time.

I run the entire thing from my Ubuntu (currently) based laptop. My servers all run OpenBSD exclusively. I am 100% Microsoft FREE end-to-end. One of my early goals was to demonstrate that readily available "off-the-shelf" OSS could be used to entirely run a business. It can be done and I do it.

China

Submission + - China is the No. 1 hacker threat to U.S. firms (nwsource.com)

LABarr writes: "In this story from the Seattle Times, with data collected by Bloomberg News, China is hacking it's way into US firms both large and small. From the article, "What has been happening over the course of the last five years is that China --let's call it for what it is, has been hacking its way into every corporation it can find listed in Dun & Bradstreet," said Richard Clarke, former special adviser on cybersecurity to former President George W. Bush." How much longer can the can the US and the International community pretend that this problem will just go away? With the outright theft of an estimated $500 billion annually in Intellectual Property, why doesn't this get more attention by the politicians and more play in the national media? What can be done and what kind of leverage should be applied on China to get them to stop?"

Comment Who is kidding whom here? (Score 3, Insightful) 151

China cracking down on counterfeit goods, eh? First off despite what the article says, I doubt China is really serious about this problem. I suspect it will be just like the problem of how China is "very serious about curbing the digital information available to it's own population," i.e. the Great firewall of China. This prevents information from getting into or or even out China. (My cousin went to China last summer and could not even post to facebook or his own blog) Yet despite China claiming they police their own citizens, in reality next to nothing actually done to control their citizen's attacking my servers on a daily basis. I average 3 to 6 hacking attempts per day. Over 90 percent of that traffic comes from China. Am I supposed to be happy that the situation isn't 10x times worse?

The Chinese government doesn't really seem to be too concerned with efforts make their citizens play nice with the rest of the world... So how are we supposed to believe they are taking the issue of black market / counterfeit goods seriously?

Curbing counterfeit goods or stopping hackers from illegal activity is a moral ethics problem as much as anything and I just don't see the Chinese government encouraging (or enforcing) it's citizens to do the right thing. This seems like another "we're getting tough on crime" PR stunt but in reality it's just business as usual.

Patents

8-Year-Old Receives Patent 142

Knile writes "While not the youngest patent recipient ever (that would be a four year old in Texas), Bryce Gunderman has received a patent at age 8 for a space-saver that combines an outlet cover plate with a shelf. From the article: '"I thought how I was going to make a lot of money," Bryce said about what raced through his brain when he received the patent.'"

Comment Re:Remember People (Score 1) 258

Actually I was thinking along the same lines... If you don't want to have the exposure to someone else killing your device, don't get a "smart" device. A plain phone that does text and voice is all most of us really need. If you want a smart-phone device that does more then, well, live with the hidden options of the mobile OS creator. The same goes for my Laptop. I don't want someone else's ideas of what they think I need or need to be protected from.

Idle

2012 Mayan Calendar 'Doomsday' Date Might Be Wrong 144

astroengine writes "A UC Santa Barbara associate professor is disputing the accuracy of the mesoamerican 'Long Count' calendar after highlighting several astronomical flaws in a correlation factor used to synchronize the ancient Mayan calendar with our modern Gregorian calendar. If proven to be correct, Gerardo Aldana may have nudged the infamous December 21, 2012 'End of the World' date out by at least 60 days. Unfortunately, even if the apocalypse is rescheduled, doomsday theorists will unlikely take note."
Image

Man Patents Self-Burying Coffin 159

disco_tracy writes "A California inventor has filed a patent for a coffin that screws into the ground vertically. The reason? It greatly reduces excavation labor and burial costs, decreases land use, and opens up more space for burials in unused areas of a cemetery. Writer Clark Boyd also lists 5 other unconventional burial options, including lye, ecopods, GPS devices that track bodies buried without headstones, cryogenics and — my favorite — getting buried in the sky."

Comment Missing option: Cell Phone Jammer!!! (Score 1) 789

Oh, if only it were legal to use one in your car...

I could drive around in a bubble of cell phone jamming delight. Just imagine the number of accidents as the idiots frantically tried to re-establish their calls. I'd call those accidents darwinism at it's finest, except the risk to the general public is simply too great.

Comment Re:Diesel (Score 1) 1141

My car is a small car that gets good mileage. But it could be a big car with a diesel engine and still get better mileage, with more reliability to boot. Why will the United States not make the move to diesel engines? Why do the big three refuse to make diesel automobiles? And why does only VW import diesel automobiles. They make a killing on their TDI models, but no car companies follow suit.

I think it has to do with money just like everything else. My understanding is that it actually costs less to "crack" (produce) diesel out of oil than it does to make gas. Yet at the pump diesel prices are usually higher. Why? I am guessing this is because the oil companies know you will be needing less diesel so they jack the price up accordingly.

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