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If sun really wanted to get Java multi-platform they would get the following straight:

1. Built in support for every major Linux distribution.
2. Automatic or at least automated update of the JVM on your system to the latest stable version. By components hopefully as the whole thing is a little big.
3. Finish the damn Java plug-in for browsers. No one wants to include Java in their browser anymore, so just finish that Java runtime as a plug-in deal and get it out there.

Then we could have some serious open source Java projects for Linux and I could finally start contributing...

Hotnutz.com - Funny

They went to all the trouble of having this thing online, but the bridesmaids' dresses still looked bad and Uncle Frank still got drunk and said something inappropriate about the bride's "knockers."

Why is it whenever you get family together, no matter where you are they misbehave?

A least the photo's weren't as expensive - *PrintScreen*.

Hotnutz.com - Funny

I would recommend that this item not be sold to the President, who knows where he'll try to stick it.


Hotnutz.com - Funny

The subject of this message refers not to the news item, but to the non-stop and ever inceasing volume of ctiticism from message posters leveled at every kind of topic posted.

"Less personal info. Less legal stuff. Less stuff about commercial software. Less opinion pieces from [whoever]."

What are we left with? A bunch of dry news items about kernel releases and KDE upgrades. I much prefer the occasional personal piece from our online friends, or the occasional humourous new topic.

If you are posting a message on here complaining about the signal/noise ratio on Slashdot, think it over first. You are about to become the noise, not the signal.

Hotnutz.com

I honestly think that these sorts of beliefs hold back the acceptance of computing into the areas where it could be used in the most interesting ways, i.e. by people who may not understand computers.

Sure TCP/IP is complicated. So is a Pentium chip, I don't know how superpipelining works and I use the thing just fine. There are a zillion examples of this in technology - compexity made usable. Unfortunately we haven't mastered it in computing yet.

When we do, and giving up the idea that our area of specialization is just too complex for anyone to simplify is the first step, then I think we'll really be making some progress.

Hotnutz.com

Thank god somebody finally pointed out that not everyone here is qualified to make the sort of off the cuff remarks about issues being "obviously" one way or the other.

There's nothing wrong with stating your opinion on an open forum, but all to often on here it starts sounding like a Papal decree or a state of the union address.

More humilty, less vitriol!

Hotnutz.com

A question: because of the Crusoe code morphing technology does this mean that we could program it to translate Java byte code into the Crusoe VLIW instruction set and get a hardware speed JVM? That would be sweet...

Hotnutz.com

So now that mobile Linux has been demoed to the world, when is Linus going to release the source? I didn't hear any mention of it during the webcast (although I had to leave part way through). And I guess the other question is, is this a kernel fork in progress, or is it a common kernel with what we've been seeing in development right now?

Hotnutz.com

What the RIAA is saying makes sense, if you accept their business model as the only way to distribute recorded material for profit.

The kind of personal digital control that people are regaining over the mediums that surround them is forcing certain industries to take a hard look at what it is they sell. Does the RIAA promote the sale of plastic discs in colourful cases, or do they sell music?

Once they stop fighting for the things that they sell, rather than the ideas that they sell then they can start focusing on a business model that works.

As far as I'm concerned, the cat is out of the bag as far as digital distribution goes. The RIAA can spend its last remaining years of importance fighting to put it back in, or it can find a better way to do things.

Hotnutz.com

This is the danger of anti-trust law and the seemingly logical arguments that support those laws. I don't mean to say that you're wrong, because these issues are notoriously slippery, I mean to say that it is by no means this simple.

Your argument is that there is a significant barrier to entry into the market and that competitors cannot easily begin to compete because of this barrier.

My point would be that there is a significant barrier to entry into every market, otherwise I'd be in them all. Your related point that it would take a not trivial amount of money to begin competing also doesn't make sense, as if there is enough profit to be made then the appropriate investment is justified.

My point is, that monopoly or no as a company's performance begins to suck then the money to be made will outweigh the cost of entry, otherwise its not worth entering the market at all.

See Bionomics by Micheal Rothschild for where I get all my ideas.

Hotnutz.com

Its not a coincidence that this retraction comes just hours after a large number of work at home Slashdot readers started filing for damages due to Linux "research" involving the latest Playboy issue.

I don't think anyone really can know the lasting trauma of a poorly placed papercut till it happens to a sensitive area.

Hotnutz.com

So from reading the article it seems that we've lost a site that sells tennis balls that go on your car antenna, and a meeting place for celtic musicians.

I don't know about you, but that sounds like acceptable losses to me. You know the old saying, if you're gonna make an omlette, you've gotta break a couple tennis balls.

Hotnutz.com

[Make your own joke about Linux in Playboy]

"I know we all go on about only reading the articles, but did you see that [insert unattractive Linux celeb here] centerfold!? Oh my god, check out the [disk array/mouse pad/beowulf cluster] on that one!"

There ya go, now you don't need to read the rest of the posts.

Hotnutz.com

Hey guys, it looks like this problem is everywhere. My grandmother just put up a site to show her recipes for cookies that she gives to orphans. Not only that, the damn site doesn't support Netscape 2.x OR Quicken for Windows 3.11!

Dudes its time for some serious hacking. Get her.

I've also got some rumours of a Lisa Loeb fan page that won't let any small mouth bass view the site. That's only a rumour right now though, let's not get all worked up over nothing.


Hotnutz.com

Ok there Mr. NC tax collector, let's take a look at what I bought this online year:

Guns & Ammo subscription
7 pounds, nitro glycerine
3000 rounds, armour piercing 50 mm rounds
2 kilos, weapons grade plutonium

Thats about it, so did you want me to send in the cheque, or are you going to send some nice people around to collect it? Yeah, ok I thought you might be sending someone...

Hotnutz.com

I read a while back that meta data for sites would eventually move to an XML based standard which would accurately describe the content of the site?

Whatever happened to that? I don't mind all that much being taken to the front page of a site if I know that site has the information somewhere in there, I just hate having to hit seven sites to find that one.

Hotnutz.com

This is definately one of the great examples of Science Fiction, in that it remains firmly grounded in strong characters and thoughtful developments.

There is probably several layers of meaning in there, but to preserve my enjoyment of the book I just enjoyed it at the surface.

Hotnutz.com

I know its probably too late for anyone to read this, but I found this actually in the article:

"We've implemented a stop ship, which is a due diligence move to screen for the erratum," Dell spokesman Ken Bissell said Wednesday.

Implemented a stop ship? Give me a break, its called "we've stopped shipping." These PR guys have GOT to start speaking normal english.


Hotnutz.com

Hey this is great, Microsoft is finally really connecting with today's youth:

"Microsoft also disclosed that it has plans to integrate young Ajay Puri's brain right into the next release of their popular Office suite of products.

'With advances in cybernetics, we can finally integrate a whole human brain into Excel,' said a Microsoft spokesman. 'We just needed one young enough to get used to being trapped inside that helpful paperclip for the rest of his life.'"

Keep up the good work!

Hotnutz.com

If this is the man behind the AIBO, then what is he doing back there?

Hey - leave that thing alone, GET OFF!

Hotnutz.com

I know alot of you were worried that Hotnutz wouldn't make the big switch to Y2K, well this seems as good an opportunity as any to let you know we're looking good:

Y2K Press Release


Hotnutz.com

I know alot of you were worried that Hotnutz wouldn't make the big switch to Y2K, well this seems as good an opportunity as any to let you know we're looking good:

Y2K Press Release


Hotnutz.com

The most important differences are as follows:

Geek: Thinks Milli Vanilli were pretty cool, scandal or not.
Nerd: Did the spectral analysis on their voices to determine lip-synching well before the press announcement.

Geek: Has 3 friends and trouble meeting new people.
Nerd: Has 3 friends, but recyles through the use of role playing games and secret code names, bringing the total to 27.

Geek: Will be at home come the new millenium.
Nerd: Did the math to figure out the new millenium starts 2001, will be at home for both.


Hotnutz.com

There's a truth about the first computers that people rarely discuss anymore, and its about time somebody set the record straight.

We all know that most of the first computers didn't work at all, they were little more than great empty cabinets with flashing lights. The real truth on how they computed isn't rooted in the development of the vacuum tube or the transistor, it was due to the hundreds of midgets who lived inside the machine and worked day and night on mathematics problems.

Those first computers had to be built to confuse the ruskies, we all agree on that, but at what cost? What was the human toll in pushing those little guys faster and faster, first 1000 times faster than regular humans, then millions of times. Those first years were lessons in heat dissipation of a different sort, let me tell you 720 midgets in a box need a special kind of cooling.

Let's not let history slip from our memories and cause us to forget the real, tiny heroes of the information age.

Hotnutz.com

Can we really take the "Liberation Army Daily" seriously as a publication when their journalistic integrity has been called into question on so many occasions?

I mean who can forget the time when they ran the story about the red army sargeant deep undercover as a slightly plump Ms. Lewinsky? What about their coverage of the Tonya Harding affair? Can you say biased?

I think its time we realized that "KGB Today" is probably the only unbiased, reliable news source left in the world.

Hotnutz.com

And one that doesn't get ever get included, but we're getting used to rejection.

(Hint: The link is in the sig)

Hotnutz.com

The real problem with Sony here is their penchant for closed or proprietary formats and devices. They were into that 2.88 MB floppy drive for a while, then the mini-disc, and now they're pushing this memory stick when it seems to me that it provides very few advantages over the industry standard flash memory.

Who knows how well they'll operate in an environment where they have to get along with a number of different devices.

Hotnutz.com

This is actually their second product release from what I can see, their first being the somewhat unpopular xclock2000.

From the press release: "Xclock2000 shows our committment to the Linux community by providing the clock necessary to finally bring Linux to the desktop. Features such as 7 independant clock arms, multi-threading and expanded support for the times 2:30 and 7:15 finally bring the concept of clock to the 21st century."

The Linuxone IPO, scheduled for next week, is expected to bring in over $75 to the company. Money the company says will be used to expand their product line in the area of "weed, cocaine or something like that."

Hotnutz.com

I'm sure there's no correlation between rising /. usage and lowering pregnancy rates.

None at all.

Hotnutz.com

Took the above person's advice, and here was my contribution, feel free to steal whatever you like:

I am writing to express my disappointment with your recent suing of Barnes and Noble over the alleged infringements to your 1 click shopping method. Patents like this do not advance business on the interenet, nor does their use as a weapon in harming your nearest competitors during the critical christmas season.

I don't think anyone with any technical aptitude will agree with you that the 1-click shopping technology is either difficult to develop or original, so I'm not really sure what you hope to gain in this pursuit.

As your leader likes to remind us in interviews, success online is as much about mindshare and brand as it is technology, and you are most definately alienating any person with technical knowledge from your brand with this move.

I would perhaps threaten to stop buying things from your site, but I long ago decided to do that when you started ramming beanie babies and hula-hoops down my throat.

You're the market leader by a long shot, why don't you act like it and play fair.

Matt
Hotnutz.com

The real problem that causes the age minimum is this year's featured "Novell Fly Girls" dance troupe, which will be performing their controversial routine entitled "10 Base T&A". Check for them in the program under keynote speeches, wednesday morning.

Other highlights should include Steve Ballmer performing an interpretive dance to a collection of his favorite "slow jams." Look for that in the alley near the west entrance.


Hotnutz.com

If its an invention or a device with unique characteristics / purposes, then he should definately talk to a patent lawyer and get advice on whether to file a claim. Actually, he should probably talk to a patent lawyer in any case.

Other than that, get a lawyer to do you up some Non-Disclosures and make sure that anybody he talks to signs them. Most VC firms worth anything should be willing to do that as they regularily deal with proprietary or secret information.

Good luck and most of all, take the advice of a lawyer over any you read here. Especially mine.



Hotnutz.com

The real question here is what are they "researching" down there at the University if New Mexico?


Hotnutz.com

As I understand it, the real problem with the release was that they couldn't figure out how to make the box in clear blue plastic.

Is it just me, or is the world now being made out of clear plastic? Man, Steve Jobs has more control over the appearance of more objects...


Hotnutz.com

Thats interesting that you've had success with the IBM JDK 1.1.8. I had lots of problems even running IBM tools for DB2 under their release, although they ran well under Blackdown 1.1.7v3.

Weird. I hope they get all those revisions sorted out and everyone just gets behind a nice, solid v1.2.

And a little more speed can't hurt.


Hotnutz.com

Its an interesting time for journalism and journalists right now. Especially for those publications that deal with technology related issues. With the increasing speed of developements, the proliferation of information sources and the raw speed at which a story can propogate and grow on the Internet, journalistic integrity is having a tough time weeding out the fake stuff.

Slashdot itself is most certainly not immune to this effect and has on more than one occasion contributed to the spread of an incorrect of exagerated story, perhaps causing other more traditional media sources to pick up on the story themselves.

Unfortunately at this point in time, we can't have both lightning fast information reporting with 100% accuracy. The two are inversely related.

Hotnutz.com

I don't understand why the Linux community, and the OSS movement as it relates to Linux, has to think of any company as an enemy.

The very nature of OSS as a non-profit operation means that the normal rules of capitalistic competition do no apply. As open source software's original goal was never "domination of the desktop", but more provide free alternatives that any may choose or not choose, then what possible effect can an enemy of Linux have on those who choose it?

The real enemy of Linux specifically at this point is its success. Questions like how long can donated development co-exist with a deluge of commercial releases will make this a very interesting ride. But please, let's get off the track of us versus the world and who's with us and who's against us.


Hotnutz.com

The only problem with this announcement is that those terminator genes, although designed to be a profit saving device, may have been the only mechanism to save us from widespread ecological damage due to a runaway genetically modified plant.

With the terminator gene in place the harmful spread would have been limited to one generation, now they're free to expand indefinately.


Hotnutz.com

Selling machines doesn't necessarily create a profitable company. Take a look at SGI's last earnings report. Not too good, and trending down.

Not to slight them, I like SGI, but they've gotta find their niche again.

Hotnutz.com

Also announced by SGI today: "New logo, faster systems, a potato peeler that even makes julienne fries and anything else they hope will save their ass."

Hotnutz.com

Wow, 30 years, congratulations to all involved.

For those of you just finding out about Python, its an easy to use object oriented programming language that includes built in support for large moles and radioactive cats.

The underlying object framework is a fat lady with garters, and networking is implemented with a system of cartoon tunnels under the countryside.

For any more information, please contact Luigi Fercotti at (011) 6524-245, after 6 pm (011) 2152-487.


Hotnutz.com

Well the first techie appreciation day is almost over, and by all counts it was a great success.

We heard speeches about the difficulties of holding onto jobs, the instability in a techies life and the isolation caused by it all.

The fact that these problems are caused by massive salaries, a huge job market and owning houses so big that we can't find the front door anymore was not mentioned.

Look in the employment section of any newspaper; techie appreciation day is everyday.


Hotnutz.com

Completed in the year 1999, the good chip Itanium set sail for the new world. They said it couldn't crash, that new technology made it invincible.

However, late one night the ill-fated CPU struck a large 32-bit instruction floating somewhere in the "Internet information economy" which ripped a large hole in her stack and damaged her bus. With the cache on fire, the order was made to abandon chip.

Luckily a nearby chip, the SS Athlon was able to support all of the Itanium's users and no lives were lost.

Except for that damn Leo DiCaprio who exploded.

Hotnutz.com

In a related press release, Microsoft corp announced support for the emerging C3D data format:

"Microsoft corp has been waiting for portable storage capacities to catch up with our dreams for the desktop. We have already developed a 74 GB talking paperclip that can help users with letter writing and swear in spanish.

With current storage technologies we are severely limited in what we can do. A simple 28 MB singing elephant is not much good when it only knows one song."

When asked whether Microsoft CEO Bill Gates' android brain will accept the new disc format, company officials said "We have no idea what you're talking about."

They then smiled and winked before hiding under the table and claiming they were invisible.

Hotnutz.com

Man, I didn't think they were in this much trouble. From the article:

"Last quarter, AMD reported a walloping $173 million in operating losses and revealed that Atiq Raza, one of its most highly regarded executives, had made a deal with Beelzebub and was recalled to the astral plane for punishment.

There was no word on how Andy Groves, CEO of Intel corp had managed to maintain his working relationship with the lord of the underworld.

Some cite his strict open door policy, while others think he may actually be the devil."


Hotnutz.com

If you read down near the bottom of the article, however, you will find this:

"The network was configured with just 11 artificial neurons, and in a sub-stage a live goat brain. The brain was activated through a patented process involving a castle and a lightning storm.

The researchers said one day they hoped that all humanity could benifit from the power of lighting.

Then they laughed kind of ominously."


Hotnutz.com

Uhhh, from the IBM product website:

"Our wearable computers will bring user interaction to new heights. For example, when email is received the user is automatically notified by the unit which sticks a pin in their eye."


Hotnutz.com

I think I remember hearing of Microsoft attempting to collect the prize from locker #784 in Grand Central station.

However, when a Microsoft representative tried to retrieve the prize, they were surprised by Mr. Ellison's underfed and agitated toupee trapped within the locker.

The Microsoft rep. is listed in fair condition and is awaiting the beginning of his medical benefits to begin treatment.


Hotnutz.com

Printed material is easier on the eyes, the contrast is better, its more portable and you can leave it somewhere and not worry about it.

Until we get some digital replacements that can meet these requirements, there will still be uses for printed material.


Hotnutz.com

"Hilton hotels has confirmed that there are no current plans for a space hotel.

In related news, Hilton corporation revealed they would be using some of the technology designed for use in space to create 'odourless bedding' and 'non-irritant complimentary shampoo.'

These technologies are currently beyond the hotel industry's capabilities."

Hotnutz.com