Slashdot Mirror

Yeah, but what would they call it?

"The Director's Cut of South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut!"

(You couldn't get any stupider if you tried to make a recursive acronym. Really...)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Again, you catch my references.

(and I was just paraphrasing...)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Sometimes a long article is needed to properly get a point across, yes. But verboseness is often not what is needed. (Or, rather, eschew unnecessary verbosity :)

Katz often finds a controversial or nonsensical perspective, with lots of extra "Buzzwords From The HellMouth: A Katzian Diatribe". This article is more like what I would call interesting. But, each to their own.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

I don't know, I searched on Ask Jeeves, and turned up this list of recipies too:

bar cookies
butter spritz
gingerbread men
girl scout cookies
shortbread
snickerdoodles
turtle brownies
vegan chocolate cookies
springerle cookies

Children don't need to be going to bars, spritzing butter, messing around with "gingerbread men" or girl scouts (commonly called "making brownies"), snickering at shortbread, assaulting turtles, watching Springer, or coating Vegans in chocolate! Oh, the nerve of them!

Some people just don't get it. :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Something is very wrong, this is longer than your average Katz article. However, it looks like jamie has something important to say. Surfing software blocks content unexpectedly, not necessarily based on if it's 'pr0n' or not.

However, I say: is this so bad? I don't like censorship, but if I did, blocking "Babe: Pig in the City" would be a good start. Most kids don't know about porn when they're that young, but we could save them from many other societal ills. If only we had blocked Barney, Pokemon, Nintendo, etc., etc., they would realize that the only purpose for those computers is for their schoolwork. That's it.

And we could have more filters for adults, too, and block their pr0n, their Slashdot, their "Yahoo Pager", and make them work for a living, instead!

Then we could have a constitutional convention, and push for a perfect Communism, and have the government genetically engineer people to only want to do what the government wants them to do, so it wouldn't be so inhumane. And we'd work all day and all night, and we'd collapse occasionally, but we'd be happy and efficient, like ants are...
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

God, why did they have to write that page in FrontPage? It hurts to look at! And it uses basic HTML that any knowledgable 8-year-old would shun. And the images are worse... and...

I mean, come on, my web pages are crappy, but they just don't compare to the horror that is "Gentus Linux".

It's the HTML equivalent of "It R00Lz? D00D? GENTUS L1NUKZ 0WNZ U???"
In fact, why don't they have an option like that built into FrontPage, so that newbies don't write pages like that?
Oh, because they would. Gotcha.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Precisely. That's just like if Dell preconfigured their Windows boxes with special drivers for their hardware, and called it "Dell Windows". ...which isn't far from the truth.

So they screwed up and called it a distribution, so what? I *like* having my preconfigured computer work correctly, even if they call the OS "Charlene". (wait... that'd be pretty cool, actually... :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Dude, we're all over the place.

The Triangle: we just wish Cary wasn't there. :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Why? Oh God, why? Oh, the pain, the pain!

Oh. Um. Sorry. Just kidding.

What I meant to say was, do you think that an obfuscated C++ contest would be more fun than the traditional one?

'Cause you can still do all the ridiculous things that C lets you do, but now you can also overload operators (like ++, yeah!) to do stupid things (like take the square root if it's on the left, and take the cosine otherwise, yeah!)

And then you can make a couple of classes, and merge them together, and have fun function naming clashes, that's pretty cool too. Or pass 'this' around, or use templates for no reason at all... (and attempt to pass them to the C library Quicksort function!)

I mean, really, C++ has so much more potential here. It's a valuable addition to the set of programming languages that promote obfuscated programming and maintenance code. It's years ahead of BASIC and Perl, IMO.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Yo, how was this a 'Troll'?

No, really, Mr. Moderator, I want to know.

Post a reply anonymously, or normally if you really want to apologize.

(If you followed my link and knew what Flash was, you should have marked it as 'Funny'. Really, guys, it was some funny stuff.)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

I wonder if this business model will ever succeed.

There's an amusing and lengthy flash intro at FreeComputer.com, but no actual content yet, besides an e-mail address.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

At least until a Linux version comes out, or if you want to do some cross-platform development work:

The installer worked under Wine, and the compiler works too. When it calls the linker, it stalls on me, but I'll try invoking it separately.

The header files are a little bit different, but I could figure out most of it. Looks like the Windows way to do it is to steal whatever headers you need for compatibility and stick them in whatever file you're working on. I couldn't find gettimeofday, and timeval was defined in a couple of places (like winsock.h).

Of course, you could always use VMWare. And Borland also released their old C and Pascal compilers and IDEs a while back, if you need that. (I might try out the C compiler in this case. :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Moderate this back up, or post, you coward!

*I* sure didn't know what Bluetooth was, and I appreciate any information.

Also, Dr. Dobbs journal is very cool, it sounds like this is some pretty new stuff.

Don't punish people for being INFORMATIVE.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

You'd be working with two or three cameras.

The compressed file size might be 1.5-2 times the size still, but the raw file size would not be, and neither would the bandwidth.

(decompress file, write three images to memory == bandwidth) Unfortunately, bandwidth is an overloaded word these days. :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

If that works, I want it now! :)

That sure beats mirrors, but I guess you'd still have to get a "3-D!" digital camera with two lenses, and whatnot, just to take pictures. And movies would be fun, but take up at least 2-3 times the bandwidth.

Oh well. One small step for LCD's, one giant leap for Virtual Reality!
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

1) To Intel: "Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Nyah nyah!"

2) Let's hear it for DDR-SDRAM!

3) We don't have enough letters in front of "RAM" yet, no! I want SCFLEADDRAM!!!
(that's Super-Cali-Fragi-Listic-Expi-Ali-Docious-Dynamic-R andom-Access-Memory, for those who aren't in the know.)

4) AMD rulez! Oh man, I want a Crusoe. My K6/300 is just sucking lately.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Conspiracy theory time: hey, Rob, did you post that to defray the inevitable attack on the story posting?

...because the Microsoft guys have a lot of money, and they all own a lot of stuff. It's an investment. Like Transmeta.

Let me know when Microsoft owns 50% of something I care about. Then I'll start to worry!
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

GUIs make things prettier, and occasionally easier to use. But there should be a way to get what you want to do done with the existing GUI tools, and not have to make or buy a completely new one, as is often the case.

And there are many tasks where a CLI / text environment is easier *and* more efficient. I can select a portion of a document and stick it into another application with everything preserved with my favorite text editor. Or I can just use text files and filters. Nothing could be simpler.

CLIs are suitable for automating any repetitive task, *especially* interactive tasks. Nothing could possibly be more repetitive than a GUI, and there are powerful tools that can optimize interactive tasks. (expect, GIMP's script-fu... whole languages made for that job. I'm learning Scheme now, and it's interesting.)

Some simple things are simple in GUIs, but sometimes the metaphor is just plain broken, or there logically aren't enough options. Too many icons for different choices get hard to manage.

And I'd kill for a GUI environment that made "difficult things possible". Especially anything like the example I posted. (you'd have to build a "binary offset per line" function into your GUI text editor, and give it the power to do something a bit more powerful than global search and replace. And then add that to your other applications. Maybe an environment that shares GUI object thingies would work better for this...)

Everything I needed to know about CLIs originally came from a MS-DOS 3.3 manual. Back when the manual came with the OS and the computer, and it contained vital and detailed information. Ah yes, those were the days...
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

A pox on both your houses.

I, for one, am happy I learned my "unnecessarily arcane, arbitrary computer commands".

And I'll tell you a few other things.

* At times they can be necessary, but if you don't know them, then they can't help you.

* Arcane is a matter of perspective, like "User-friendly". If you LEARN them, they aren't so arcane anymore.

* Arbitrary is unjustified here. Many of the commands share common syntaxes or conventions, and again, if you LEARN them, they don't seem so arbitrary. Rather, their consistent interface is helpful.

So remember:

grep '' -b $x | tr : '\t' | uniq -f 1 -w 3 | expand | cut -c 1-10

You never know when you might need it. I used this the other day, because I didn't want to write it in C. And it helped me test out an approach to a problem. I wouldn't want to do that in Excel or Access or whatever Windows program purports to replace this functionality. (Perl? :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

I agree, which is why my fvwm2 setup is blue, and the background is black.

However, some people like eyecandy. And that's why slashdot posts this stuff, people download it, and make web pages which make me dizzy. Aww man...
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Sure, the Linux community is great and all, but remember that we're also part of a larger Free Software community. (and we also have commercial interests on Linux as well)

First, I'd say that the Linux Community has always been a supporter of the FSF, but not always the other way around. (spare me your GNU/Linux!) Also, the core BSD people have always been very gracious, unlike some of their (rabid FreeBSD) users (to balance out our rabid Linux-on-x86 users :).

Where am I going with this? Well, I guess I just don't want to hear more "Linux-is-good Rah-rah-rah" stuff as much as I want to hear "The cooperation in the Free Software and Hacker communities is astounding, and many wonderful projects and environments have come from this, such as Linux."

We should continue to support the development and implementation of new and cool ideas, and not let ourselves get too stuck on one platform or OS. Our portability is our strength.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Oh wait, I could have just read freshmeat.

What's supposed to be in 2.4, anyhow? SMP updates? Maybe my TV card will work better...
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Dude, Jesus was nailed to some 2x4's for trying to teach truth, according to you guys. I'd think that this sort of behavior would confirm a belief in Jesus, or at least a desire to imitate the Romans, and show that "God" approves of executing free-thinkers to eventually save humanity from themselves. Or something, it doesn't make much sense to me. Maybe that's why I'm not a Christian. ;)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

I'm using a K6/300, and I also tested it out on a 300Mhz UltraSparc.

Calls to gettimeofday? Randomizing, are we? :)

What are you using for development? Linux / gcc, or something completely different? Oh heck I'll just send you e-mail again. :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Dude, no one has forgotten about C.S. Lewis, okay? He wrote some very popular children's books, and even though at the end of the seventh book, his rabid Christian agenda leaks through into the Fantasy world, they're still very good books, and I'd still recommend them to any open-minded person interested in fantasy.

You could sooner say that we've forgotten about Jon Katz or Charles Babbage or Nicola Tesla than C.S. Lewis - he has a much larger following, IMO.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Sounds like a Gauntlet quote to me...

"Someone shot the food!"

Also, he'd have to be special to be on a talk-show. Flamboyant intellectual of 4 centuries ago just doesn't cut it. He had to be abducted by aliens and forced into weight-loss programs to get on Town Talk! :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

I like Brin, I was just mentioning that Earth was probably my favorite future prediction novel, but... what is he saying here?

That if this guy got teleported into the present, he'd adjust with alacrity, go online, try to gain his noteriety through flamboyance and strange opinions, and become... the most famous Slashdot troll of all? Bruno, thy name is MEEPT!!!
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Of course people you meet on the net are people. Yes, online friends are friends.

If I talk to you over the phone and tell you my life story, did we talk? What kind of stupid question is that? Why should e-mail be any different? I've known people who break up over e-mail. Does that mean they're still going out? Geez.

And the Wired article is hilarious! Also in the news: people who have been living for longer tend to die sooner! Oh my god! ;)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Heh heh heh.

This one. Since I told you about it, send me $50 if you win or something. ;)

Anyhow, I wrote my entry in C on Linux, it's like under 4k and runs in 80ms. I think the last version I submitted actually works correctly too, which really matters more. But it's a pretty simple problem. I just didn't want to change my simple algorithm any more. :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

This site can't be slashdotted already! Aw man...

I need to get a copy of the Art of Computer Programming sometime. Then I can stop skimming it in Barnes & Noble. Better that than Knuth's Big Dummies Guide to Visual Basic. (I only got it for the TrueType fonts...) ;)

Typesetting programs are a Unix tradition. (TeX -- hey, at least it's not roff.) But it's really interesting to hear about the internals from Knuth. I'm pretty impressed, that man makes anything sound interesting.

I'm amused that Knuth had features in TeX that Adobe couldn't implement without just using the same algorithm. He's just the algorithm man... I guess people still write books in TeX because it works well, not just because they're really old. ;)

Oh well, I really wanted to read the rest of that, but it's slashdotted now. Mirror? Someone? Please?
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Thanks for the informative reply.

I figured sethi probably didn't really take up space, since they have to use it all the time--but it still looks ugly. Not as ugly as having variable length instructions, I guess.

Yeah, I was talking about your average integer stuff, using gcc on x86 and cc on the Sparc, probably bottlenecked on I/O. (for a programming contest, actually.)

I wouldn't want to use my K6 for hardcore floating-point stuff, no, then I'd want an Athlon (or if I could afford it, an Alpha, but it shows that AMD is using Alpha technology...). :)

None of the architectures are really 'pure' anymore, instructions that retire in one cycle are getting more complicated these days, (and a lot of x86 instructions can do that now, but never on the 8086!) and we're using all kinds of weird optimization tricks, internal micro-ops, etc. But since CISC and RISC are pretty much theoretical anyhow, I'd still argue that CISC makes for simpler assemblers and RISC makes for simpler chips / decoding logic. :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Hey, Taco isn't stupid. That's why he's using Perl, instead of reinventing the wheel. :)

No, but I think the size of their egos might be directly proportional to the popularity of their website. Think about it...

Hey, I'm not Bruce Perens too! (he's bp -- I'm pb. :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

I would have to suggest -Wdammit for that, case-insensitive. (-WDAMMIT :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

That's why no one gives you mod points. :)

I'm talking about binary compatibility. I think it's on topic, and apparently a couple of people have found it interesting. I think I sufficiently developed my analogy, and explained why binary compatibility (for the OS or the hardware platform or both) can be a bad thing.

About that last part, I completely agree. There's nothing wrong with moderating my posts, but I would rather get replies instead. And the only replies I've gotten have been Anonymous (which would have been understandable, if a moderator wanted to reply) and they were either unintelligible (repeated part of my post, and nothing else) or inflammatory (but maybe we'll still have a good discussion). So understand if I'm not really thrilled with Anonymous Coward, but at least he replies to my posts. :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

I must admit, I've never programmed for ARM, I like x86, but there are still a lot of instructions I don't use. (but a few of them can really come in handy, like xchg) I wouldn't mind if the x86 had more registers, but it still does a pretty good job with what it has, anyhow.

Also, I find x86 code readable, and looking at a relatively clean RISC design, (based on what I know about RISC processors) Sparc assembler for instance looks pretty nasty. It uses three registers per instruction, so it doesn't have a mov: it just or's with a register that's always zero instead. When it branches, it also executes the instruction after the branch. Also, you constantly end up specifying which 16 bits of a 32-bit number you want to look at, and possibly or-ing the darn thing back together.

Blah blah blah fixed length instructions blah blah blah retiring in a single cycle... Maybe I'm just not used to it, or I shouldn't read optimized compiler output in my spare time, but that looks like a kludge to me. And performance seems pretty similar. (from the little benchmarking I've done, my K6/300 offers similar performance to a 300Mhz UltraSparc, and my computer is a lot cheaper.)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Oh man, the government always does that crap.

I sent an e-mail to the FCC about this ridiculous policy, but I never got a real answer.

I guess I should have sent them 18 diskettes and cover letters and stuff in every format known to man so they could read it. :|
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Yeah, guys, I know, I know. But back to the somewhat similar part:

If Transmeta opened that source, we'd have a look at how to convert our current x86 instructions into VLIW instructions. This would be interesting information for anyone trying to run x86 code on a VLIW chip decently, or anyone writing a C compiler for a VLIW chip looking for optimization tips.

(if we didn't already have a compiler, one approach would be to take something like egcs which optimizes for x86 very well, and use Transmeta's code as a VLIW back-end, maybe have it do some "profiling" as well.)

I also realize that all VLIW chips are not created equal, I know nothing about IA64 internals, I know they're supposed to try emulating x86 stuff anyhow. But this sort of experience would be helpful.

And I don't want Transmeta to have to give away their product. I'm just pointing out how useful their researches would be in a similar endeavor. I'm sure their experience will come in handy for them soon, either on their platforms, or someone else's.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

I completely agree.

But maybe that's because I just said this.

Posting mistake?
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

This shouldn't take too much work, right guys?

(remember "I just typed 'make'"? ;)

Linux could use to learn a thing or two from this... Wouldn't it be great when people said "We're considering doing a Linux port of XYZ Commercial Software", it ran on platforms besides x86? Now, a lot of apps do, but there's nothing wrong with a few more.

Being locked permanently into x86 binary compatibility would suck (although the Crusoe sounds pretty cool here), just as being locked into Linux binary comatibility would suck.

It reminds me of a fortune (the specs are somewhat dated, but multiply by the relevant ones by 16 or so and bear with me):

Imagine that Cray computer decides to make a personal computer. It has
a 150 MHz processor, 200 megabytes of RAM, 1500 megabytes of disk
storage, a screen resolution of 4096 x 4096 pixels, relies entirely on
voice recognition for input, fits in your shirt pocket and costs $300.
What's the first question that the computer community asks?

"Is it PC compatible?"

---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

On a chip this weird, we'll need the compiler. The fact that it's open source is awesome. That's just as cool as if Transmeta made their code-morphing software open source... (just so people understand, these are somewhat similar issues) Actually, maybe Transmeta could work on fast x86 translation for running natively on these platforms. I don't know if it'd be faster or better than the emulation or not.

CISC was made to make the assembler programmer's life easier. RISC was made to make the hardware manufacturer's life easier. VLIW was made to eke out more speed without using different (increasingly weird) techniques. I don't think it makes anyone's life particularly easy except for perhaps the end user. But I know it will make the compiler writer's lives hell. :)

My take on it is that by executing instructions in parallel by design, you can avoid the bother of reordering so many instructions on the fly, and trust the compiler to do a good job the first time. Therefore, good compilers will be cruicial to the speed improvements with this new platform.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

That's an excellent idea, and we were talking about this a while back, too.

I learned about computers from the Apple II's in my elementary school, and I'm fortunate that my parents bought me that Commodore 64 not long afterwards.

I've been hooked ever since, and I'd love to know more women who had the same experience. They didn't seem to share our obsession with them at the time, and everyone who "didn't get it" saw the computer class more as a glorified-typewriter class, I guess. I hope they know better now.

If it weren't for that introduction, I don't know what I'd be doing now, but I know I wouldn't be as happy about it, or as good at it. Some people are just born to work with computers, and if they don't find that out until its too late, it's a real shame.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Heh heh heh.

Watch out Wah, I said the same thing in a story posting, and I got flamed for it. However, at least we had some good discussion...

And yes, there definitely aren't enough women in Computer Science. Why? Because of MTV. It's all their fault. All they have to do is have Britney Spears come on there and say "Hi, I'm Britney Spears, and I think hashing is really sexy, so go meet those hot geeks in your Computer Labs", and we wouldn't have this problem... ;)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Anyone else find it funny that Novell used the "cross-platform" WingDings font in their table of how "cross-platform" their stuff is?

Someone tell me what character this is: ü

Man, I hope they didn't make that page with Word. :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

That's not new, and it's not very different from an idea.

However, it is an idea put forth by my favorite movie: Pump Up The Volume. The truth is like a virus, because it spreads...

"I like the idea that a voice can just go somewhere uninvited and just kind of hang out like a dirty thought in a nice clean mind.Maybe a thought is like a virus. You know, it can just kill all the healthy thoughts and just take over. That would be serious."
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

This started to happen in political campaigns, just because the mudslinging was so obvious, and the voters were offended. But it doesn't always work that way.

I'm amazed that Offspring was blocked. Anyone who actually listens to the words (and that's what this is about, right? Lyrics, getting your message across...) knows that Offspring is a lot less malicious than these people. Or maybe they're just really bad at math. Either way, I don't want them controlling what content I see.

"When will the world listen to reason /
I have a feeling it'll be a long time /
When will the truth come into season /
I have a feeling it'll be a long time..." - Offspring

Yeah, it is kinda catchy. Too bad, really. :|
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Is that how you get those cool little comments next to your score?
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Could someone explain to me how the extra THOUSAND or so posts in this thread is "Offtopic"? I think it's kinda relevant.

It's nice to see people moderating posts again, but they still aren't doing it right. (hint: good posts... moderate up...)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Well, I saw it coming. I wrote an auto-first-posting script a while back, actually, but I never used it because of the extra load on Slashdot. (it's slow enough as it is, and the problem doesn't seem to be the bandwidth. I can ping it just fine, so...)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

First... oh darn, I have to stop using shrink-wrapped software... :)

This might have an impact for most users, but some of us are just weird.

Second... hey, we can enforce the GPL now, in the box.

This should be interesting. I don't mind if license agreements are binding, as long as they aren't the "Microsoft-style license agreement"...

"We don't claim that this is even software. It might be an old toaster that we just boxed up. But don't blame us when... um... if it doesn't work right..."

If they expect that to be seriously enforced, they can expect a lawsuit in a matter of nanoseconds.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Gee, it's possible that the most hated troll with the least karma on slashdot might be.... President Clinton.
I guess that says something about the Slashdot community... :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.