The worst will be to excel on one and not be able to say a word on the other eight.

And even worser is not to be able to understand anything else, but only the excellence of the grammar in the language you believe to understand. Usually those who excel are even uncapable to understand dialects. You know how pretty is Jamaican English? Several years ago I could easily understand it. But, many english speakers don't make an idea of what Jamaicans say. Quite sad.

You living on Earth, not in Nutziland.

Sincerly, it seems I have been in a time machine for all these years.
Quite long ago I was an active ./'tter. Some 8-9 years ago. We had lots of FUD, Flood and Flame around here.
And you know what is the most strinkgly thing I see now. Entered time machine. BRRRRRRR. Zero... I'm exactly in the same place at the very same time I left.

Back then, there were already tons of people claiming the Hell and the Tartarus for the way Linux is built. Well, apart of remarking that Linux is JUST a kernel, let me mention a few things. Just as 9 years ago.

1. GTK, KDE and alikes are probably not ideal code. But they are two standards well fixed and working on Linux environment. Don't like them, push for YOUR standard. Don't like anything at all, gather your team and MAKE your standard. I AM a KDE fan, I LIKE KDE and have been using it since it was a raw alpha stuff. Now my friends at one work, where I was the all-power BOfH LOVED GTK/Gnome and could not see KDE by 2 thousand miles. And that's what is GREAT on Linux - there is a CHOICE!

2. I use KDE on most of my desktops. But on my Eee PC I use Enlightenment as it is much more economic and has all the resources I need there. I have also a Zaurus (Linux, of course) and a server without graphical BLOAT on it. I also have a router with Linux on it. Now., are you telling me that all this hardware will work perfectly under a "standard"? Aren't you telling me that if I will have ONE desktop, then every dumb programmer will demand that the graphic system shall be EVERYWHERE? Look, I know what programmers are and how many of them think, specially the IDE crowd. If this thing goes this way, I am pretty sure that we end in a all-embedded, full-featured, completely geekish MONOLITH. And then, problems will not be only compatibility. It will be price... And probably my Zaurus will have a few kilos more... Besides, what will be the difference from Windows?

3. Frankly, only a dodo doesn't know that problems exist on the development of many libraries. But, what is a community for? People this stuff works and it will work while there is a community. It is not just a question of volunteerism but self-discipline. While I have been pretty inactive for these last years, still, when something was real wrong, I would knock the bugtrackers and developers. And without this, there is NO Linux. There is a product. Want to use it? Great, consume it. But then, don't blame for the bloat, monolitics and managers believing they are masters of the Universe. If you want to turn Linux systems into pure consumer products, you will have to be bound into what the seller thinks is best for you, not the contrary. You have only two choices - you either accept it or not. Considering what happened in the past, with IBM, Apple and Microsoft, I believe that such environment on Linux will be pretty damaging. And, frankly, it makes me wonder why the whinning is coming from Google.

People, don't give your freedoms. I know it is quite spicy for me to say this, I am in no way an american patriot, but the America's Founding Fathers had some true words about "giving up Freedom".

On which of the languages I know?
Sorry, but sincerly, it is pretty hard to remember the grammar of some 9 languages I know. And I am not taking into account programming.

More. It is pain to take into account the grammar of each language, if you are reading almost simoultaneously three or four languages.

Yes, it's a handicap I cannot stick into a specific grammar. But I can read on several languages and write, in a possible comprehensible manner, on them.

Now I know several jerks who are too sticked to grammar, make a whole fuss out of it and are only able to create a complete nonsense out of a text. If I note that I had these cases on juridical documents, which decided will someone go to the gallows or not... I do prefer my horrible grammar.

ModDown offtopic but I get pretty mad when people try to teach grammar not by the error but by playing smarties.

Maybe I would recast it. Used for more than 11 years, last time two weeks ago...

Sincerly, if I well remember it was time limited, almost since the very beginning. If you remember the gratis version, then you are older than me :)
Anyway... Let me push my brains.... Eeeeee, pushing... There was a command line version that seemed to be wholly free. But as I was already a *nix master of Zen (ok, bash me), I didn't had such a need to use it. John the Ripper and others did much better on *nix and were much more stable, if my memory tells me correctly the story.

Anyway this was a great tool but a tool "on-the-fly". For me. I knew several people the used it systematically.

Why do you ask? For the Cow? Make some research. You are from an .edu...

I used it in on-the-fly tests. Sometimes it came with more than 80% of passwords being cracked in minutes. Yes, it is not optimal, it is a pure Windowzz program with some bloat inside, too much brute force and a pretty bad tendency to overload the system in certain occasions. For a fast check the tool was simply ideal.

Imagine that you have a major breakup inside a pretty critical place. Now people, as dumb as they usually are, claim everything but, it is not their fault. Don't go for John the Rippers & Co. They are for pretty serious stuff and less to check Windowzzz crappy systems. You have a job to do and it is not playing magick tricks on a circus. You pick up L0phtCrack and make some runs on the spot. And you come with a result that most passwords are "1234", others are not less smart and several people have no passwords at all. Particularly those same jerks where the break'in happened.

Half job done...

Loph who?...
What cracks?
12 years? That's pretty old stuff. Who needs it?
Does it work on iPhone?
Can I crack my XBox with it?

Really people, I bet that 90% of slashdotters are still wondering what is L0phtCrack and how can you eat it.
I waited for 10 minutes. No replies. Mute reaction.

L0phtCrack, and their creators, the "L0pht Heavy Industries" group, were once shinning stars inside the Hacker community. Now who remembers them? There are not even scriptkiddies around, all society is a scripkiddy.

L0pht people also created the "tool that never got its true name" - "netcat", which can only be found in most *nix systems as "nc". Pretty great tool, just two weeks ago I used it, once again, for more than 11 years.

Hail to you guys, happy to see you around.

And Hail to the Cow!

Pal, you don't get the idea. Every single "smart" or computer stuff I ever used, since Doom came up, has to pass the Doom test. Doom runs, it's good. Doesn't run, it's glamourous high-tech trash for geeky nerds. Even my phone had to pass it :)))))

I never used the Gameboy for some reason... Hehe...

Now that makes me think of buying an iPhone

As someone who had a face to face with Military Intelligence I would concord with your words on MI but I would note you that the question is not capability but crime. Crime is not capability. It is a process which, at least, degradates the very frame of society in every level and form.

If we have a crime gang going wild, we need to track not only their capabilities but also their relations motives and modus vivendi. And note, I am writing "capabilities" in plural. Now how in MI conditions can you give a solution to this problem? Sincerly? Not even the police forces have an answer for it! How the MI will have? The whole problem is to mitigate, as much as possible the threat. If you can take them down, great. If you are taking down a capability and giving them more strength... Hey, pal, you are probably creating a hurricane out of a cup of water.

If crime is the intent, we shall fight crime, not the means. Now I agree that the means, today, are pretty near to military capabilities. Anyway, Internet is DARPA's daughter isn't it? So I do agree that MI has something to do here. But not to rule the game. That's stupid if you just count for the fact that you are dealing with a foe with "capabilities".

And besides, military are very, very approachable by crime gangs of all sorts. You may try to tell me that these are unfortunate exceptions and sad cases. You may even stand high for your brass and state, straightforwardly, that such thing ain't possible on MI. Unfortunately I know of a MI group, in a certain country, that has been using cybergangs and being used by them. What I saw is too far from the usual MI task and looks like a pornographic variant of "Catch 22".

Oh, btw. An US staunch ally but likes to use US resources... Wonder what your cybercommand would do with them.