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According to a couple of friends of mine who work in Greece, the job market is too MS-friendly, so I would be surprised that there are Univ's pro-Unix. That is a good thing though.

Actually, while MS is dominant in workstations in the job market, my experience is that they don't really rely on microsoft tools (like .net). But that's just the companies I know of, so YMMV! :)

Again, it is unfair to condemn MS for this specific thing. All large companies have a large patent portfolio for their protection. If they start using them for devious purposes, then we blame them, not before. Imagine if a patent troll company bought these patents. You think the linux world would be safer?

That's just an excuse. Let's leave aside that the patent system is fucked up for a moment. If microsoft were acting in good faith, they would license their patent for free use by the OpenGL consortium of which they are part of. The real deal is that microsoft views OpenGL as a threat. Again read Judge Jackson's findings and see how nicely OpenGl fits the description of an application that exposes it's own APIs etc. Other than that, take a look at the halloween documents, or see microsoft's response if, as some people do, you believe they were a hoax. Actually the part of microsoft's case I posted earlier was one were microsoft stopped intel from actually doing something good! The way they sabotaged Java with their own JVM, Internet explorer bundling, wmv pushing. They are more than evil...

After my i80386sx I had over 10 cpus, all AMD (starting with am486 DX4), for the simple reason that when I was budget conscious they had the performance/price, and when I could afford expensive processors they had both the performance/price and max performance. Still, they have a small market share. It is obvious that intel has done something far worse than MS, because MS did not have someone outperforming them for years and years (while at the same time being compatible!)... Hmm, a Mac fanboy might jump into this now, but there are far too many reasons why Mac OS does not qualify as an AMD equivalent of the software world...

Actually, with the logic you are applying, it is _really_ wierd that either linux or Mac OSX haven't gained a bigger market share. They are in many ways superior to windows. But other than that, you are right AMD offerings currently are superior to Intels'. Tech savvy people here insist on AMD. :)

For those wondering: Jargon File and Wikipedia entries for HCF.

I was going to write something long but why reinvent the wheel?
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/physical.html
Martial arts are also good for improving concentration and awareness skills, in addition to a more balanced self.

allowing the player to manipulate the action on screen by physically moving the controller itself

Two words: gorilla arm.

"This is now considered a classic cautionary tale to human-factors designers" - I guess some designers didn't hear the tale in time.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned water-powered computers yet!

A more serious article was published about a year ago on similar changes in constants.

Microsoft seeks to proprietize the Internet? I can't believe it.

Oh wait, sure I can: http://www.catb.org/~esr/halloween/

If you care about standards, you should take the time to read those.

Perhaps you need to look a bit closer to home for the source of your problems in getting help instead of blaming the community. For example, be sure to read http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html .

Personally, I haven't experience much rudeness on irc, except for a couple of times on #gentoo @ freenode, and it was quickly slapped down by people there.

The major exception to this has been when I've been in windows-scene channels. Quite a few bad experiences there; probably just a couple of bad places really.

The reason people look for help on irc: because people offer it. I used to help out on the #azureus and #azureus-support channels; pretty much mundane stuff like helping people get around their firewalls etc. Nowadays I normally sit on my LUG's irc channel, and we're all for helping people. Sometimes I also give a little help on issues I can solve on #debian and #gentoo. IRC is a good way to help people; it has properties very different to a forum or a mailing list, and these can be very useful in helping people sort out issues.

Often some people have rudeness to deal with because they're demanding attention for a particular situation. This wasn't really the case with the (great?)grandparent. Timecops problem does seem to be a bad experience with #linux-ha. Perhaps he could have tried a mailing list (often, mailing lists offer a better response rate with smaller projects/groups); I'm not looking at the log myself, so I really can't judge what the situation was like. I mean no offence, but I really am not going to take one disgrunted user's bad experience with a channel as godsend.

The best advice I can give to anyone is to read Eric Raymond's Howto Ask Questions The Smart Way. In my (and many other peoples) opinion, that document is definitive. Make sure you read it before you post.

I didn't get a chance to read all 650+ comments (and probably no one will read mine since it's posted so late). But a common theme in the 200 or so comments I read was that people ask a question after they already RTFM and are told to RTFM and they get mad. What you really need to do when you ask a question is tell people what you already did. It does two things 1) it lets them know that you are trying to solve the problem - not just expecting to be given the answer and 2) it let them know not to waste their time telling you something you already know. We may think ESR is crazy, but there are two things I really agree with him on 1) his opinion of guns and gun control, and 2) how to ask quesions: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html . It not just in the linux world that you do this, but anytime you need to ask an expert for help - you tell them what you tried and what didn't work. e.g. when I take my car into the shop for a problem I can't fix I tell the mechanic what I already tried and what the results were, they're usually very appreciatve because it saves them time and they can get to the real problem (and it saves me money in hourly labor charges!).

Indeed, see also ESR's How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

I'm not saying the snobbery doesn't exist, it certainly does, however the following document can be really useful when trying to get beyond it and get your question answered. http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
Before asking a technical question by e-mail, or in a newsgroup, or on a website chat board, do the following:

1. Try to find an answer by searching the Web.
2. Try to find an answer by reading the manual.
3. Try to find an answer by reading a FAQ.
4. Try to find an answer by inspection or experimentation.
5. Try to find an answer by asking a skilled friend.
6. If you're a programmer, try to find an answer by reading the source code.

I might be marked down because of this.
But what I see day to day in the IRC, very few new people do these very simple things.
This is why we go off on them, they dont even try to find the answer on there own.

Just remember....you were a n00b yourself once...

I remember that, that was back when I read the entire slackware instructions twice to be sure I only downloaded the floppy sets that I'd need to do what I want. And then once I installed it, I read the howto archive on the subjects I wanted to do, and learned how to do them. I remember writing my own chatscripts so that pppd could call my isp and get online. And I did all of this before I was able to get on irc and start asking questions of the other people who came before me.

The problem with most "n00b"s today is that they don't know what they want to do. The only reason they're trying to install linux is because it's the latest buzzword. Half the time they get something like slackware and end up going "omfgwtfbbq where are my iconnzzzzz?!?!?!1". Seeing that root@localhost# prompt just blows their mind.

Of course, this icon-oriented mentality is just one of the symptoms of someone who really should be using windows (or if they want to stick it to "the man", a Mac). Fear of text leads to fear of reading directions. For instance, Apache is preferred over IIS for a reason, and that's not because it comes in a one-size-fits-all configuration. Asking me how to configure it for your specific situation isn't productive because I have no clue what your situation is and no desire to consult for you for free to figure it out when it turns out you don't know either. And whining about not having a pretty GUI with a checkbox for "n00b1241512's optimum configuration" out of the box is just the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Who knows? Maybe I was an atypical n00b back in the 90's. Maybe everyone back then was installing random crap just to say they could, and pestering people about how to get on "mirc" in linux or asking why they can't just doubleclick on the counterstrike cd to install it and play it, and I just didn't get in on that action for some reason.

Personally, I no longer berate people for their stupid questions. I simply point them to google and to http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html and if they take that as an affront to their intelligence, then that's their own self-esteem problem.

10. The OS X help menu will have a selection of helpful things completely unrelated to OS X... perhaps a collection of ESR's works, most notably "How To Pick Up Girls".

Hey man, this is slashdot we use links here http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/sextips/pickup.h tml.

There I was going to moderate you up but now I can't. Alway Remember to Document your comments.

Ha Ha Only Serious

"Microsoft relies on the fact that its communication protocols are technologically innovative and are covered by intellectual-property rights"

"Linux can win as long as services / protocols are commodities .. By extending these protocols and developing new protocols, we can deny OSS projects entry into the market"

Blunk pointed out that Microsoft is claiming some form of IP rights over "a total of 130 protocols which Microsoft is offering for license." "Many of the listed protocols are [IETF] RFC [request for comment] documents, including but not limited to the core TCP/IP v4 and TCP/IP v6 protocol specifications," he said in his note.

Larry J. Blunk, Merit Network Inc. Nov 2004

You do realize he uses ESR's definition of "hacker", right?

Don't doubt that if Linux were destroyed tomorrow, Microsoft would be going after BSD before the weekend.

As far as the immorality of it, Linux is like a barter faire. Everything is free, but you have to give something back, and do the same for everyone else there. BSD is a good samaritan. BSD gives, not because it expects something in return, but because someday, you will do something good for BSD. If I released something based on BSD, then announced that the BSD contributors were a bunch of idiots, I would be lynched, and rightly so. But thats exactly what Microsoft does. They have used BSD licensed code on multiple occasions, and will stll propigate FUD telling us that Open Source are a bunch of flaky hippies that can't do for you what Windows does. BSD is less visible, so they let it be for now. But if they ever get the wolf, they WILL attack the mosquito.

You should check out documents like How to Ask a Question. Show me you've done some homework first.

I suggest we all start using "snarfed" as a synonym for "slashdotted". [ ... ]

"Snarf" already has a definition.

Schwab

LJ good. Blogger better. That is if blogging is your interest. Myspace is good for social networking with the non-geeks. Granted some of the layouts would make anyone who follows http://www.catb.org/~esr/html-hell.html rules religiously want to hurl but when most of your friends are unable to discern a hard drive from a rock Myspace is a good option.

I'm a largely self-taught programmer (I have a pure mathematics background - no programming required!) currently working at a top software company. I got here largely because of the initiative I showed working on personal projects. So I think the best thing to do for you would be to pick a project you find interesting, and implement it at home. Having something solid you can point to and say, "I did that," can be pretty persuasive.

A few links you might be interested in:

How To Become A Hacker

Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years

Hope this helps!

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/linus/le2.jpg

OMFG, he dresses just like ... like EVERYONE I KNOW.

Although everyone knows you NEVER wear white socks with the Birkenstocks after Labor Day.

http://ask.yahoo.com/20020913.html

Read sex for geeks by ESR, at this site. Giving mutiple orgasims is recomended. Note that you must get a girlfriend(s) first, and how is explained here.

"being able to break security doesn't make you a hacker any more than being able to hotwire cars makes you an automotive engineer. Unfortunately, many journalists and writers have been fooled into using the word hacker to describe crackers; this irritates real hackers no end." Great esr quote from http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html.

http://www.catb.org/~esr/guns/sheep.html

I tried that on couple of occasions. But such approach tends to confine less experienced to your vision. That's not nesecary good.

My personal experience. Code sharing. It's complicated as usual. There are lots of collisions. But it really helps.

It helps less experienced to learn 'how' things need to be done properly - and most importantly 'why' they are done so. (Experience is the answers to the question 'why' not 'how' as many wrongly think). Port of working code to another platform is good example of the task that could be given to newcomer. That teaches reviewing and analyzing code, and also automaticaly rookie starts picking up details of several platforms.

Also, that helps the leading programmer. Newbies - when put to task properly - start asking stupid questions. (It's very important to tell people how to ask proper questions - e.g. http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html ) If newbie stumbled on problem - probably others will stumble too. That's the good time to check why the problem was hit and what/how to amend so other newcomers will not hit the same problem. (e.g. improve/reword documentation, change variable names to better reflect what they do, improve comments, etc). Sometimes it happens newbies find problems: when you devel application for N years, you have in head some well established paths thru the programme's interface and logic. Newbies don't and they hit bugs more often since they use to explorer programme in general without any preferences yet.

If process is set properly, newbie can enrich experienced team with modern approaches/thinking, while newbie himself can learn from team how and why things are done. If process is set wrongly - there would be always collisions - and collisions are always the sign that the process and communication in team is poor.

As a rule of thumb, put newbies to solve new problems. That's easiest and simpliest approach. When faced with new problem - newbies and pros are somewhat equal.

Well, ESR is fond of shooting in general.

This is just another example of C Programmer's Disease. Oh, you don't like the arbitrary restriction of N rows? OK, have the arbitrary restriction of M rows, then.

I never understood why spreadsheets had any static limits. Well, I could see why VisiCalc or AppleWorks (the Apple II version) did, because in the 1980's we were just figuring out how to write the darned things. But in 2006? Get with the program, guys. Did you never study computer science? Are you so unimaginative that you think a C array is the best data structure for all data?

And then, of course, there are the people who ask why you'd ever have more than 64K rows in a spreadsheet. Yes, it's probably not ideal. So what? I suppose you could go buy Access or FileMaker or something (or maybe you already have Access), but that has a very different set of features, a new user interface to learn, etc. If I'm keeping a list, why should I have to redo all my work once it passes 64K rows?

Excel has all sorts of uses. If you want to convert tables of data from one format to another, or do a simple computation, it'll get the job done. I can show my little sister how to import text, make a graph of it, do some simple computation, and print out the result on the printer. But if there's more than 64K data points, she'll be SOL -- all because some moron at Microsoft used an array.

And you'll never be lost if you carry it with you.

http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/F/fiber-seeking-ba ckhoe.html

That is just one of the registries problems, plenty more here. The book in general is filled with reasons why the whole thing sucks.

I generally find usenet newsgroups are about the best source for programming questions.

I've often found that IRC is also very helpful. There are a number of good channels such as #C# and #C++ on DALnet and Freenode.

IRC can sometimes be hostile and is usually less professional than newsgroups. It also pays to know how to ask smart questions. A well-phrased and well-thought-out question that demonstrates you've already attempted to research the topic will get you much more helpful replies; otherwise you'll be in for a flamestorm of "RTFM!" and "STFW!".

Hmmm, Slash isn't linking my IRC URLs properly, but I'm sure you can find out how to log on through their websites: www.dal.net, www.freenode.org.

The real risk is perhaps The Final Virus.

recursion: n.

    See recursion. See also tail recursion.

From the Jargon File.

recursion: n.

    See recursion. See also tail recursion.

From the Jargon File.

recursion: n.

    See recursion. See also tail recursion.

From the Jargon File.

I can definitely vouch for TortoiseSVN's usefulness - I have used it on some of my own projects, and it's really easy enough for anyone. A great example of a well executed piece of software.

I agree that SVN, especially the Tortoise front-end, is really easy to work with. One caveat if you're working with binary files and have multiple developers: Make sure you have a recent server which supports file locking! SVN didn't originally support this; text files were merged together at commit time. You can't merge binaries. Our EEs found the lack of locks to be a major drawback a few releases ago when they were trying to work on schematics. They opted to stick with PVCS rather than work out some kludgy out-of-band method (ie., patch pumpkin) to prevent simultaneous edits to one file. Once file locks were supported they were happy again.

Of course, if you're working with people not used to version control, there's the little issue of training them to actually remember to lock the files before they start working on them...

"hello, this is lih-nus torvalds and i pronounce linux lih-nux."

http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/magic-story.html you may not know why it works but....

It's called the gripping hand.

Which leaves the reporter in a dilemma: report the facts as literally observed, and miss a scoop, or go ahead and read between the lines... and be played like trollmeat.

"He chose...poorly." - Grail Guardian, Indiana Jones: Last Crusade

I like the old net mantra for this. "YHBT. YHL. HAND."

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2006-03 /msg00091.html seems to indicate that the devs are still discussing HURD...

...of course HURD is the Gargantuan Ancient Granddaddy of Cathedral vs Bazaar style development ...

http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/samizdat-respons e.html

...I can tell you exactly why the HURD tanked. It was listening to a presentation by HURD's project lead in 1996, and realizing the project was doomed, that started me on the train of thought that led to "The Cathedral and the Bazaar". They were trying to do engineering and pure R&D at the same time; they lacked focus or any drive to actually ship code; and their development group was too small and inbred.

You're obviously a tad naive. Microsoft is almost certainly scared of people dual-booting with non-Microsoft OSes.

From Halloween I, A leaked, internal Microsoft document on Open Source Software:

"OSS poses a direct, short-term revenue and platform threat to Microsoft, particularly in server space. Additionally, the intrinsic parallelism and free idea exchange in OSS has benefits that are not replicable with our current licensing model and therefore present a long term developer mindshare threat. " (my emphasis)

Notice that there are THREE ways here that Microsoft feels that OSS is threatening it. A 'revenue threat', which is people not spending money on things that Microsoft sells, a 'platform threat' which is when people have an alternative to using Microsoft software, and Microsoft might lose it's monopoly, and a 'developer mindshare threat' which is when people make software for non-Microsoft platforms.

A dual-booted OSX/Vista box isn't a revenue threat, but it's potentially a 'platform threat' and a 'developer mindshare threat' (although the latter might be part-mitigated by your games example, of course). Microsoft isn't happy if it merely gets your money; it needs to totally dominate your computing world.

If they need toys why don't they go play corewar or life? Or just read some jargon?

It's not like there's a lack of toys out there if you're willing to look a little... Of course, getting that initial spark going can be a little more difficult.

GPL 3.0 license is a call to the faithful

I thought that open source was supposed to be a bazaar rather than a cathedral

The algorithm sounds like Dissociated Press to me.

No, it does not: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/M/Murphys-Law.html
Murphy's law states that if there is a right way and a wrong way to do something, someone will do it the wrong way.

What We Can Learn From BSD
By Chinese Karma Whore, Version 1.0

Everyone knows about BSD's failure and imminent demise. As we pore over the history of BSD, we'll uncover a story of fatal mistakes, poor priorities, and personal rivalry, and we'll learn what mistakes to avoid so as to save Linux from a similarly grisly fate.

Let's not be overly morbid and give BSD credit for its early successes. In the 1970s, Ken Thompson and Bill Joy both made significant contributions to the computing world on the BSD platform. In the 80s, DARPA saw BSD as the premiere open platform, and, after initial successes with the 4.1BSD product, gave the BSD company a 2 year contract.

These early triumphs would soon be forgotten in a series of internal conflicts that would mar BSD's progress. In 1992, AT&T filed suit against Berkeley Software, claiming that proprietary code agreements had been haphazardly violated. In the same year, BSD filed countersuit, reciprocating bad intentions and fueling internal rivalry. While AT&T and Berkeley Software lawyers battled in court, lead developers of various BSD distributions quarreled on Usenet. In 1995, Theo de Raadt, one of the founders of the NetBSD project, formed his own rival distribution, OpenBSD, as the result of a quarrel that he documents on his website. Mr. de Raadt's stubborn arrogance was later seen in his clash with Darren Reed, which resulted in the expulsion of IPF from the OpenBSD distribution.

As personal rivalries took precedence over a quality product, BSD's codebase became worse and worse. As we all know, incompatibilities between each BSD distribution make code sharing an arduous task. Research conducted at MIT found BSD's filesystem implementation to be "very poorly performing." Even BSD's acclaimed TCP/IP stack has lagged behind, according to this study.

Problems with BSD's codebase were compounded by fundamental flaws in the BSD design approach. As argued by Eric Raymond in his watershed essay, The Cathedral and the Bazaar, rapid, decentralized development models are inherently superior to slow, centralized ones in software development. BSD developers never heeded Mr. Raymond's lesson and insisted that centralized models lead to 'cleaner code.' Don't believe their hype - BSD's development model has significantly impaired its progress. Any achievements that BSD managed to make were nullified by the BSD license, which allows corporations and coders alike to reap profits without reciprocating the goodwill of open-source. Fortunately, Linux is not prone to this exploitation, as it is licensed under the GPL.

The failure of BSD culminated in the resignation of Jordan Hubbard and Michael Smith from the FreeBSD core team. They both believed that FreeBSD had long lost its earlier vitality. Like an empire in decline, BSD had become bureaucratic and stagnant. As Linux gains market share and as BSD sinks deeper into the mire of decay, their parting addresses will resound as fitting eulogies to BSD's demise.

I'll troll back. After you wait the obligatory 90 minutes for the IDE to load on your dual core PC with 4 gigs of ram.

*rolls eyes*

And after you generate the app, it's a beautiful thing to behold! 80k worth of code to maintain for a single form with an additional 15 xml files to store the configurations and data mappings, and proprietary HTML elements and tag specific to the java world....

But I missed the point! It's now an enterprise class application!

Sounds like this.

This whole thread is off topic.