The question is: will doing the DB in hardware even help with anything?

Oracle is quick to mention the benefit of hardware encryption they've implemented that's transparent to the applications accessing the data. This is pretty huge because just about every SaaS I've ever worked on has been cobbled together without encryption in the original design and then later on when it was determined to be a valuable feature, the challenge of implementing it in the existing code base was gargantuan. Transparent encryption / decryption is a wonderful solution, and having it accelerated by the hardware would be tits.

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/options/advanced-security/index-099011.html

seth

To cut a long story short, the reason you hate Windows it seems is because you know absolutely nothing about it.

I think that's the point I'm making here. Without 'knowing' windows is to hate it. Your assertion is that once I would have learned all of Redmond's idiosyncrasies embedded in their UI decisions, then my 'hate' will melt away. An enlightened UI design does not require such a trial by fire.

Seth

What exactly is so bad about Windows? To describe using it as torture, you must have some rational well considered reasons, which I am sure everyone would benefit from hearing.

Here are my top 3 nits to pick on Windows. They sound very random, but that's because they have existed for many releases and would be VERY EASY for Redmond developers to address if usability was at all a priority.

• Command Console doesn't have simple highlight / copy / paste functionality.
• When the default application isn't set for a document type, the first choice that's provided in the resulting pop-up is "Do you want to wander around on the web to find an application that can open this document?" rather than the option of selecting an application from the list of installed applications.
• In SQL Server Management Studio, when you have multiple sessions open, they are tabbed. Even when you only have two or three tabs, the tabs are scrunched horizontally such that you can't read the labels, which usually start with the server name, then the database name. So, if you have six sessions all connecting to different databases on 'foo' server, all six tabs are labelled 'foo...'. Sure, that's not the OS, but that is an example of Redmond not giving a shit to produce quality usability in ways that would be trivially simple.

-- Seth Johnson

Sounds like a trip to the electronics recycler. For all the time you're going to invest into getting some very limited use out of that device, you could just get a decent $300 tablet that will be suited for many uses. Since you're a dad, you know that your time is valuable. More valuable than making this thing marginally more useful so you can save $212.

Put some edutainment apps on their and hand it over to your kids. No need to ruggedize it.

Not that http requests are how these passwords are being cracked, but to entertain you and the others who think so, I'll throw this word out to you:

botnet

Seth

Beardo, This is a great mechanism for me to abuse to lock all your users out of the system.

Great thinking, there.

Seth

Don't get me wrong here, I think Kim is a criminal and deserves to spend time behind bars.

He probably expects he will spend some more time in prison, and he's launching this service quickly while he still has his illicit capital from MegaUpload and before he has to go to prison for running it. While he's in prison, the new Mega service will become lucrative and he'll still be rich when he gets out of prison.

Seth

I'm not sure which 'first time around' you're referring to here... The pump-and-dump ponzi scheme he ran during the late nineties dot-com bubble or the MegaUpload website he ran in the later oughts? Both operations paid him handsomely, and he so far only did a short stint in jail on the stock fraud, but the case is pending against him on the MegaUpload website. He's got more money than OJ Simpson did when he hired his legal 'dream team', so there's a chance he might avoid prosecution for MegaUpload.

But if the guy is already a celebrity, isn't attention-whoring part of his job description?

In a related topic, it's been something of an industry rumor for the past six months that Dice has made a confidential offer to an ex-member of the band, Guns-n-Roses, to change his last name to "dot org".

This Paunch guy needs to watch his ass. There are larger, darker players who were using this exploit for their own purposes. Some of them invested heavily in developing it. By bringing it out into the open like this, Paunch has directly limited their use of this vulnerability. I would not be surprised if this is the last we hear of mr. Paunch. A cleanup team has likely been engaged and is working on tracking him down in the physical world as I type this...

Seth

Multiple monitors are connected to a computer. A single HDTV is connected to a console, and it's located in the living room. Very few families have multiple HDTVs installed next to one another in the living room.

Seth

This is a byproduct of them working on a console they intend to ship. It'll run linux, so this beta is a nice way for them to test a bunch of their architectural design without actually putting the hardware in thousands of people's living rooms.

As far as bug reporting goes, I doubt they'll prioritize stuff that's not relevant to their expected console architecture. Issues like, "Hey, I have dual monitors and steam blacks one out and it never comes back" are going to be pretty well ignored because the console is unlikely to support dual monitors. This is more about testing out scaling issues for the servers and verifying that updates are working as expected. A more exciting bug report for them would be along the lines of, "XYZ game released an update, but it requires my Steam client to by version 123, and I upgraded Steam to 123, but the game refuses to update."

Oh, and the other thing that's important about this Linux release is that it be valid for the developers to test their ports on prior to the console being finalized. Those limited-run developer hardware kits are way more expensive to issue than just giving studios a Linux install CD and some basic hardware requirements. This beta is probably about making sure the Steam client on Linux isn't too buggy for the devs to work with. This way, when the console is released there will be a healthy selection of titles available right away.

Seth

if Valve can get enough traction behind Linux gaming I can finally cut out Microsoft. It will take years for that to potentially happen but Steam on Linux it can only serve to help Linux in general.

Valve is openly discussing their forthcoming console. That sucker isn't going to include a Microsoft OS tax, so you better expect that Valve is going to set up strong incentives for developers to release on Linux. That's what their console is going to be built on top of.

Seth