Posts by Christian Berger

Re: Minority Report

Actually in real life he'd probably have been faster. Gesture control is very low bandwidth, you not only have a very fuzzy, but also a very slow language. Voice would be better, particularly for constrained systems. Saying something like "zoom 25" is fairly quick and precise.

I'm not sure however if voice would be faster than the keyboard. Although most people are faster speakers than typists, typing is considerably more precise. You can afford to have commands like vim, consisting of only 3 letters and one syllable. In voice based system that wouldn't be possible. Commands would have to be longer and you would need more redundancy for less probable commands. (You can still have context dependent commands like the single letter commands inside of vim, those would be like the "zoom" command in the above example.)

Re: Fragmentation

"They just want the (expletive) thing to work, first time every time. Turnkey simplicity."

Fascinating. Every time I have tried commercial software in the last decade, this is what I've been missing. You know for the last 10 years you simply install a Linux onto a normal computer and it runs with full hardware support no drivers to install, no configuration to be done, the base system simply works and you even get a browser.

While on Windows you first need to somehow get drivers for all your hardware since next to nothing is included with the operating system. If you connect even simple devices like USB to serial adapters you are greeted with a cryptic message asking you for drivers... even though all of those devices use exactly the same protocol.

MacOSX is better when it comes to hardware. Things often just work, but then again if you need any kind of software you are typically screwed. At least current versions of MacOSX have a rudimentary package manager mostly aimed at commercial applications.

There are frustrating times when I file bug reports for things obviously done by someone not thinking, but often when I look at commercial software I don't understand why anybody would voluntarily pay for this.

Re: the Unix vs. Windows battle in Linux

Actually NetworkManager is a good example why you should have text configuration files. What NetworkManager does is that it tries to somehow magically find out what you want. It's great when it works, but horrible when it doesn't.

In an ideal world, the parts of NetworkManager would not communicate via an opaque dBus protocol, but via configuration files, allowing you to swap automatic detection for manual configuration if you choose to.

XML for configuration is not much better than having a registry, since editing XML can be difficult and it's easy to screw up an XML file completely. XML is great if you have huge tree-like things to configure, but for things like network configuration, a simple stanza-based format is far more robust. You have a series of configuration options, grouped into stanzas by empty lines. If you come across an unknown option you print out a warning during parsing. That way It's easy to detect typos, but you can still parse the file.

Further more you have directories instead of simple files, if you have some piece of software creating a configuration (i.e. the part that detects modems), it'll simply create a file called 10-modemmanager.conf in some interfaces.d directory. This file will then usually not be touched by other programmes and modemmanager can just overwrite it.

Trying to create a "one size fits all" solution is hard and usually results in systems far more complex than needed and next to unmaintainable. The better way is to choose the simplest way to achieve a certain goal.

Re: TCO

Well true, the licensing cost is only a tiny fraction of the TCO. However with open source solutions there is the great thing that you can have multiple sources of support for the same product. So you can choose the one you prefer most. Plus you might even be able to find employees involved in the development.

Re: Still Snake oil

Exactly, and once you have a second instance using the same system, you'll have the same "secret key" on both systems. The next step is to build some sort of model hands with the right patterns. Maybe it's even possible to use some sort of modified LCD.

And that's all not taking into account brute-forcing those systems which may be possible.

traditional "business models" aren't that relevant in open source

Most companies use open source software to "outsource" part of their own internal software development. Why bother making your own kernel/ip stack for your router when you can just use Linux.

It just makes sense to contribute to a larger project instead of creating that large project all by yourself and locking it away.

That is by no means something new. When colour TV came to Germany, manufacturers designed a "common chassis" for all colour TV sets which manufacturers would then license and build. The only difference with open source is that the monetary aspect disappears. So instead of charging symbolic fees you charge nothing.

Re: Agreed

Well most GUIs can be upscaled for people with bad eyesight. For people with normal eyesight most screens/guis are far to large. Particularly on mobile devices you want to have small text.

Re: Speed is impressive

Well it's a great step up from the 5 Bit converters you currently have in fibre optic connections. (and even there only in the really fast ones) And even those converters are already in the price range of several $100.

If this one could be cheaper it could be a revolution.

Re: " VP of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group"

Well seriously as much as I dislike Microsoft, but that group has actually moved something. They are responsible for Windows going down from a random infection every 30 minutes after connecting it to the Internet, to nearly nothing. Now you need user intervention or the Flash or Java plugin to own a Windows machine. (or good SEO and a warez site)

Still they are also the ones mandating locking down computers with things like "Secure Boot", so it is a double edged sword.

Of course then there is also the group of people who find Microsoft trustworthy just because it's a big company. Those are common among industrial control company.

@Rampant Spaniel

"Exactly, and why is the leadership focusing on haircuts and nuclear weapons when there is a slightly larger problem of most of the populous starving to death."

That can be said about most governments. Why are governments talking about stricter copyright enforcement or (anti-) terror laws, when there are slightly larger problems of education and, in the case of some countries, most of the populous starving to death.

Governments very seldom actually solve problems. That's because if you are rational you will agree with most of your peers and never stand out rising to power, and most government positions are filled with people who don't have problems.

Re: Maybe some more detail on my setup

Ohh and BTW, I do have one of those HP-microservers, but it's currently not in use. I need to move and it'll probably be my main server in the new flat.

Re: Good ol'SIM

Well the problem of GSM interception lies in 2 parts.

1. Man in the Middle attacks are easily possible. (Basestations can turn off crypto)

2. The crypto is fairly weak. (by todays standards)

CDMA is probably not much better in that regard, and packets have nothing to do with it. There's just a far smaller crowd of people dealing with CDMA security.

@Ian McNee

Actually I'm surprised to see an ATM at all. I've been to Playmobilland before. It's a little enclave inside of Germany. As far as I know they are not a member of the EU and you need a Visa, which you can get at the border for 10 Euros.

I have not seen any ATMs in the country. Even if there were some, they probably would be heavily guarded. There are lots of guards in Playmobilland. Just like the palace guards they usually stand around doing nothing.