Wikio - Unix

Partnoy’s Complaint (Paul Murphy)

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 07:15:22 GMT

In reading Partnoy's complaint (aka "Infectious greed") I was struck by the extreme simplification of his views and moved to push them forward a bit by suggesting that companies like AMD could issue performance based derivatives in place of shares - and not only benefit from this in many ways, but improve market efficiency into the bargain.

Source : Paul Murphy (subscribe)

Explore : AMD

From Chapter Two: The appliance computing culture (Paul Murphy)

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 07:15:42 GMT

The most important thing to know about the appliance computing culture is that it's not interested in computers or computing - these things are seen purely as means to an end: a business end.

Source : Paul Murphy (subscribe)

Critical Look at Mac OS X Server and UNIX Architecture (iPhone Apps, Hacks & Reviews)

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:42:16 GMT

Critical Look at Mac OS X Server and UNIX Architecture Mac OS X Server is built on a fully compliant UNIX foundation and regretably often suffers f 5 Vote(s)

Source : iPhone Apps, Hacks & Reviews (subscribe)

Explore : OS X

Dancing on E-voting’s grave (Paul Murphy)

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:15:16 GMT

Any application, including e-voting applications, that run on programmable gear in user hands can be subverted. It may generally be difficult, the bad guys may usually get caught, but no auditor can ever prove that it has not been done - and that's why most states are now throwing away their investments in e-voting technology.

Source : Paul Murphy (subscribe)

An argument about switching costs (Paul Murphy)

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:15:29 GMT

When someone signing himself as "Dr. Dog" attacked the Sun Ray desktop solution recently he made the three most common mistakes - confusing applications with applications delivery, invoking the sunk cost fallacy, and valuing IT risk over business risk.

Source : Paul Murphy (subscribe)

Isn't Linux just UNIX under a different name? (iTWire - Latest Headlines)

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:19:23 GMT

What's the big deal about Linux? Isn't it at heart just a PC-based version of UNIX – the ‘70’s hit operating system which has outlived the predictions of its demise...

Source : iTWire - Latest Headlines (subscribe)

Explore : Linux, Operating Systems

Excel and Basic Accounting Error (Paul Murphy)

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:15:48 GMT

Just how bad are "power users" from both an IT and auditor standpoint? A fiairly good academic study of 3,744 disclosure documents admitting error concludes that only about 8% of companies can do financial statements directly from their financial systems, with the rest massaging the data in spreadsheets - unauditable, uncontrolled, error prone spreadsheets presumably weilded by power users.

Source : Paul Murphy (subscribe)

The UNIX Time-Sharing System* (Iitechtalk)

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:25:20 GMT

*_The UNIX Time-Sharing System*_* UNIX is a general-purpose, multi-user, interactive operating system for the larger Digital Equipment...

Source : Iitechtalk (subscribe)

Explore : Operating Systems

Compliance and IT (Paul Murphy)

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 07:15:55 GMT

When neither the auditors nor top management understand that IT can greatly reduce certain classes of compliance risk, it's up to us to take that ball and run with it - to bigger budgets, greater executive credibility, and better run businesses.

Source : Paul Murphy (subscribe)

Explore : Office of Management and Budget

Phynchronicity - The GUI for Fink (macZOT!)

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 06:56:15 GMT

The GUI for Fink: Phynchronicity Normally: $24.95 ZOT Price: $13.95 Click to MacZOT Phynchronicity is a graphical user interface (GUI) for the Fink Unix-software package management system on Mac OS X. Fink is a powerful command-line tool for installing and [...]

Source : macZOT! (subscribe)

Explore : Operating Systems, OS X

Exploits, vulnerabilities, and questions (Paul Murphy)

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 07:15:07 GMT

When I read a report showing an overwhelming security advantage for Windows over both Linux and MacOS X, I didn't immediately believe it and when I looked more closely I ended up with more questions than I started with - including a zinger: did Microsoft find and fix bugs in XP code for use in Vista, but not report or fix those bugs in XP?

Source : Paul Murphy (subscribe)

DefCon 16: Hackers and Gag Order in Sin City (QNX)

donotreply@osnews.com (Amjith Ramanujam) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 01:04:13 GMT

"In many ways the virtues that have brought Linux from a Unix look alike pet project to a competitive operating system are the same as the ideals behind DefCon. The community stood on each other's shoulders and developed piece after piece of software to fill in the gaps that were found through use. Programmer's built on the ideas of others creating tighter and tighter code to support...

Source : QNX (subscribe)

Explore : Operating Systems, Security, Software

Bill Hill on the Most Important OS (Frank La Vigne)

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:23:00 GMT

Bill Hill works at Microsoft Research and gets philosophical about which OS is the most important. Think it's Windows? Unix? Linux? Mac OS? Not even close. It's the human mind or "Homo Sapien 1.0" as Bill Hill calls it. Bill Hill - Windows is not the most important OS I mentioned this in my talk last night and linked to it , but the message is so good that it bears repeating. When you're building...

Source : Frank La Vigne (subscribe)

Interview with Andrew Tanenbaum, Creator of MINIX (OS News)

donotreply@osnews.com (David Adams) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:57:50 GMT

"I recently had the opportunity to interview Andrew S. Tanenbaum, creator of the extremely secure Unix-like operating sytem MINIX 3. Andrew is also the author of Operating Systems Design and Implementation, the must-have book on programming and designing operating systems, and the man whose work inspired Linus Torvalds to create Linux. He has published over 120 works on computers...

Source : OS News (subscribe)

Explore : Operating Systems, Software, System Administration

Master File Permissions in Unix/Linux Systems [How To] (Lifehacker)

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:05:00 GMT

Wired's newly-revamped Webmonkey site has an informative guide on seeing, changing, and understanding file permissions in Unix-like systems. These are the kind of operations and syntax that can often confuse and put off first-time Linux users or command line neophytes on OS X systems, but Webmonkey details the commands you need to change permissions on however many files for whichever users...

Source : Lifehacker (subscribe)

Explore : Linux, OS X, Technology Blogs

When equivalence is the wrong question (Paul Murphy)

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 07:15:44 GMT

Use the wrong tool for the job long enough and you'll become convinced that what you know how to do defines the job - and that tools which do it right must therefore be wrong. Sound absurd? It is; but it's true too - and the basis for a lot of negative decisions about open source.

Source : Paul Murphy (subscribe)

Explore : Open Source, Software

MacUpdate: NcFTP Client 3.2.2 - Fast ftp client. (Free) (mac.ro)

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 19:43:58 GMT

NcFTP Client 3.2.2 NcFTP Client is a fast and powerful open-source FTP client for Mac OS X. The program has been in service on UNIX systems since 1991 and is a popular alternative to the standard FTP program, /usr/bin/ftp. NcFTP offers many ease-of-use and performance enhancements over the stock ftp client. More information

Source : mac.ro (subscribe)

Explore : Open Source, OS X, Software

Pravda, Sutor, and IBM Linux (Paul Murphy)

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 07:15:03 GMT

I've just read a Linuxworld presentation, by IBM's Bob Sutor, that left me frothing - it's slyly anti-Sun and, I think, just as fundamentally counter-productive and wrong-headed as their collective response to SCO.

Source : Paul Murphy (subscribe)

Explore : IBM, Linux, PC, Shanghai Cooperation Organization

Development environments: Microsoft vs. Open Source (Paul Murphy)

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 07:15:13 GMT

In a previous discussion of OpenOffice versus Microsoft Office most respondents addressing the development issue seemed to prefer the Microsoft development tools over the comparable open source ones. I believe this is probably correct from the individual developer perspective, but wrong from the corporate perspective.

Source : Paul Murphy (subscribe)

Explore : OpenOffice, Open Source, Software

PortAuthority updates GUI for MacPorts UNIX tool (MAC News Network)

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 17:40:00 GMT

Code by Kevin has announced PortAuthority 2.6, an update to its graphical user-interface software for the MacPorts command-line tool for UNIX. MacPorts is an open-source community project that uses the Mac OS X command line, X-11 and Aqua software to bring UNIX to everyday users -- by providing a GUI for users seeking a simple interface over the co...

Source : MAC News Network (subscribe)

Explore : Apple, Computers, Open Source, Operating Systems, Software