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New Borland/Inprise Linux Developer Survey
We've mentioned the Borland/Inprise Linux Developers Surveys before. Kinda like the The Linux Counter, it's a way for the needs of the community to be codified and show the corporate folks that we really do count - in numbers and in skills. So, check out the latest survey and we'll probably post the results in a few weeks.
Update: 02/15 01:46 by michael : Readers will notice that one of your fellow readers is abusing the system. Take my word for it that CmdrTaco is well aware of the situation and is preparing to Take Steps. It is frankly a shame that Slashdot's loose authentication system which is designed to allow people to participate without providing your name, SSN and mother's maiden name like so many other forums is also subject to abuse. Fixes are at hand in the very near future, so don't e-mail, don't call, don't post complaining that Slashdot is going to the dogs -- we're on it. Well, I'm not on it, but you know what I mean. :)
I hope it's as funny as that other survey they had a while back.
Why do we need to go to them to show that we exist? Aren't they dependant on us enough as it is? Seriously now, it makes me sick.
Why do they care now? I'm sure corel will push them as hard as they can to crush microsoft.
[ c h a d o k e r e ]
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
--
" It's a ligne Maginot-in-the-sky "
Corel just bought Inprise/Borland, and according to the recent interview with Slashdot Corel really seems to be going all-out for Linux.
I think Corel is really committed to Linux and this isn't just a publicity thing. They really hate MS over there, as would anyone who has tried to compete with MS on a core product. They might be pretty clueless when it comes to the GPL, but give them a chance.
If they become a good member of the Linux community think of what they have to offer. Graphics knowledge from Corel PhotoPaint and Corel Draw. A very good word processing program (I maintain anything with "reveal codes" has to be superior to Word). Good IDEs from Inprise/Borland. They even have some really good hardware knowledge. Remember they're the ones originally behind the Netwinder
I know this is somewhat offtopic, but as an Ottawa resident I'm just hoping that a local company can inspire a little fear in Microsoft and hope we can help them do it instead of just flaming them for their errors.
... I really look forward to the day that Delphi, or C++ Builder, is available for software development on Linux.
And I hope that surveys like this are done honestly by the Linux community - Inprise/Borland have always been a great company for developers, and it can only make sense for them to be involved in the Linux movement.
It seems to me, that with Inprise/Borland on its turf, Linux would be an ideal software development platform. Better than the existing options, anyway.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Be sure to go to their form and in the comments add how BSD is YOUR choice of OS!
And, point out how a BSD-esque licence is a choice.
The last time they asked about Linux, they didn't have checkoffs for BSD. This time they did.
If it was said on slashdot, it MUST be true!
It is 9:34 PM EST. There are about 140 comments on this message. Fully 90 percent of them are very, very lame spam, not even trolls.
When it's in moderation, they're amusing, or at least tolerable. This is just ridiculous though. The slashdot people should think about doing something about this and PRONTO. I like slashdot and I don't like the thought of having to go elsewhere.
Where has all the intelligent life gone?
If you can't figure out how to mail me, don't.
For linux tips: http://www.linuxtipsblog.com
Do everyone a favor. if you plan to spam, aim it at the main article and not at this post. If you actually have something to say, reply to this message and change the Subject to whatever you want.
-- Life is like a line of waiting taxi cabs pulled up to the curb in front of a fancy hotel. You never know which raving lunatic is going to get you to your destination - or for that matter, whether you'll get your destination at all." (www.myboot.com)--
1083 now :)
This is insane. Well Trolls have finally got my attention. Now what do we all do about it?
allow one IP to post only so many comments in a 2 minute period??????
MOST TROLLED STORY!
Most spammed story. Don't glorify yourselves. These aren't trolls.
Also, you aren't even the one who came up with the shell scripts. However, I suppose now that they're posted, you and all of your script kiddie friends will be using them.
Read this if you still don't get it.
It's nice to have a survey which might be useful for someone every now and then. It's been a long time since the last one. Usually the questions / alternatives are at least nonsence, if not total garbage.
This time all the questions were "answerable". There were only a small number of questions which didn't have enough choices (like the KDE / GNOME - hey, I don't use either one of them!). Anyway, the general feeling of this questionnaire was rather nice, and I'm glad if my answers can help Borland. Nice job, and it becomes nicer if they really can use the stats gathered.
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It has to work - rfc1925
...unless this hole is closed and closed quickly.
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For the past few days, the amount of moderation done has been practically non-existant. It's not just a case of moderation posts being wasted on trolls...I haven't seen very much positive moderation either.
CmdrTaco, if you have any desire to save Slashdot, here is what you MUST do:
1) People should get a rating based on the TIME they have been a Slashdot, not just this "karma". New members posts start at -1, no exceptions. After three months, they start at 0. After three more months, they start at 1. This means that if a troll wants to troll, he'll have to put in his dues for six months. If he then wants to blow it all on a single, grand, troll parade...fine. He can start all over.
2) Karma needs to weigh much, much more. People with karma over 50 should start posting at 2. People with karma over 100 should start posting at 3. People with karma over 200 should start posting at 4 and people with karma over 500 (if they exist) must be worth reading.
3) Each post takes exponentially longer to be posted to the system. First post takes one second to reach the forum. The next takes two seconds. The following takes four. Then eight, sixteen and so forth. In the end, if someone really wants to post more than 20 messages in a single day, they'll have to wait until tomorror for people to see them. That way these floods STOP.
4) More moderation. I'd much rather see a war of moderation than a war of trolls. Give anyone with karma over 100 permanent moderation status. The only way it gets revoked is if them make a posting, and then it is revoked for twenty-four hours (thought on that article permanently).
The fact is that there aren't enough moderators to keep the trolls in -1 land and put READABLE (I don't care if they suck at this point...so long as they aren't trolls) post at 3 or higher. 90% of the posts in the past few days have been 0 and maybe another 5% are the 1's and 2's that regular folks are awarded.
It has to stop.
- JoeShmoe
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-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
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...)
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
It is plain to see that you are not the run-of-the-mill troll. And not just because you know how to use sed correctly!
What would you propose to eliminate the need for all the hateful waste of bandwidth trolling going on here? There has always been what I call 'enlightened trolling': The funny or inane comments that make my cup of coffee enjoyable in the morning, and the 'middle-finger in the face of convention' unpopular opinions with serious merit. Now there appear th be a second breed, the 'destructives'. How do we keep the former and kill the latter?
.sig: Now legally binding!
Actually, despite sucking for many, many years, Microsoft seems to have got their act together, and the latest version of Word is actually pretty good. That's not to say it's perfect, but overall I prefer it to WordPerfect. Much of that, though, is simply due to the interface. Easy access to styles makes for a less stressful word processing experience.
Where WordPerfect really comes into its own (apart from the fact that I can run it under Linux :-) is foreign language support. I *can't* do my family tree in Word because it won't let me insert Polish accented characters. WordPerfect under Linux does let me do so. Whether that's an issue with Windows or Word, I don't know, but to a certain extent I don't care. WP lets me do it, so that's what I use.
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
It will probably ship in the third quarter of this year - or maybe the fourth (that's from the newsgroups)
The command line C++/Object Pascal compiler is working now.
It will use Qt as a toolkit (not my choice, but at least it's not Motif!) (That's from an interview at www.linuxjournal.com here with Dale Fuller - Borland CEO - done just after the merger)
It seems likely that the compilers will be a free download (and maybe even open source) - and perhaps even a free "Entry Level" version of Kylix will be available.
They aren't sure about the licencing for the VCL yet.
Btw, the Interbase open source project is still going along nicely. A new company has been set up to run it. See here for more news.
I agree that most of the spam is a nuisance, but even spam can be fun and original. Look at this "President Clinton", for instance. He published his scripts, so he is now an "Open Source" spammer :)
Anyway, the fact that I'm reading and commentig this story is a tribute to the "President Clinton" spammer and the AC with the staircase subject comments. I would never read another story about a so-called "survey", I have seen so many "surveys" done without the necessary statistical rigor, I don't care for another. But look at the comments! 1100+, oh, this must be Troll Day! I can't miss this! So here I am. I might even click an ad banner or two, who knows? I'm a potential customer.
On the other hand, what turns me off are some of the "insightful" and "interesting" comments. I absolutely hate that politically correct bullshit! Those trite long winded sentences are totally void of semantic content if you filter out the PCBS. My sugestion to improve /. is to suppress the "insightful" and "interesting" labels, and add an "original" label instead. If you want a deep discussion on a subject, find the appropriate usenet group and stay there for a few weeks on each thread, carefully dissecting the implications.
The Slashdot owners must decide who they want as readers. If it's the PCBS bunch, too bad, there are so many places that cater to those that /. will be just one more in the crowd. Now, if it's a stand-alone, unique "News for Nerds, Stuff that matters", please keep this place geeky. Geeks *HATE* trite politically correct bullshit. Geeks like original humor, even if it's a bit scatological and absolutely irreverent. And, most important, geeks buy many, many more computer parts than the PCBS lovers do! Remember this, Andover/VALinux
From the /. moderator guidelines: If you can't be deep, be funny
Post the IP's the messages came from in a separate story for everyone to know.
a remark from my time meta-moderating: that's true that 6 out of 10 posts were trolls. that's a sorry loss of moderation points (for moderators, not meta moderators..). seems like slashdot is going through same period as internet did in 1993 - from a subculture it went mainstream, inviting not-so-responsible folk. quality of posts has decreased, yes. pity i can't contribute to it, quality. i like to browse at 4, but my comments rarely reach 2. but that makes sense, however.
God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ --1Thes5:9
See above.
You, my friend, are a member of the "politically correct" Gestapo. While you may not hold all PC views, in this case, you certainly are all too ready to pounce on anything that might discriminate against anything or anyone. Though I disagree with much of JoeSchmoe's proposals, I respect his right to say it. I'll not try to scare any meaningfull discussion away by tossing out words such as "gestapo".
Is the New York Times or the Economist fascist because they don't allow any schmoe write for them? No. Am I fascist because I wish to read something dynamic, more current, and interactice than the Economist (et. al), yet don't have the time to read every flame, troll, and dogmatic post on Slashdot? Because not everyone in this world has anything worthwhile to contribute, moderation and editorial control are necessary.
Trolls are Trolls. When I read a comment,I demand a certain level of effort, coherance, intelligence, and fairness. I don't have to listen to these trolls if I don't want to. Nor should I have to SEE these comments, if it is avoidable.
My problem with JoeSchmoe is that his solutions likely wouldn't be very effective, and might even have the oppositive effect.
I believe the degree of correlation between seniority and quality of posts is nominal. In other words, an individual who posts semi-regularly for a couple months likely isn't a one-time flamer. I would not, however, go beyond that. In my experience the differences between someone with a #xxxx and a #xxxxx ID are barely noticable.
....anyhow, I've got other ideas for moderation, but I don't have time to get into it now...hasta =)
I'll do it for cheesy poofs.
While I agree the whole delay between multiple posts thing has potential, where are these temporary posts going to be kept? In a temp database? Should there be a daemon running that is constantly sorting the database by timestamps and the total number of posts for the day and popping the one of the top into the normal database... I think Slashdot is already slow enough.....
A better answer would be to make a few code improvements that would stop most low level cracks and slow down the more advanced ones. It's obvious that these can still be by-passed but it would take considerable more work.
1) Check to see if the method is a GET or POST. It's much easier to whip up a quick script for a GET since it reads the variables from the URL string.
2) Check the referring URL. Yes, this can be spoofed and you can turn it off in some clients but it's yet another speed bump.
3) Add the users IP into the database for each post (They may already do this..) so it can be used later. If the user is a constant problem, ipchains -J DENY them or their subnet for a while.
Any other suggestions?
--
A mind is a terrible thing to taste.
"A mind is a terrible thing to taste."
This is the 'foundation' level package, and is a free download. Also available for Windows and Solaris.
free experimental electronic music netlabel at www.viablehybrid.com
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...)
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
I'm glad to see Borland reiterating their commitment to Linux. I have used Delphi since it came out, and Turbo Pascal before that. I have no problem with C (though C++ makes my skin crawl), but Delphi makes the construction of a UI a minor event, not the majority of the app. That's as it should be.
/. stem from fears on the part of the current community of Linux developers that they will soon be drowned in a sea of Windows emigres. It is a well-founded concern. Many of us developing for Windows would like to be developing for Linux, but as commercial developers, cannot simply drop everything to adopt a new OS, new GUI interface, new compiler, and to build a new tool set.
I wonder whether many of the most negative comments on
Contrary to the ravings of RMS, I don't find anything wrong with being paid for my work. The single most offensive aspect of the Open Source movement is the tendency of its adherents to froth at the mouth over the notion of any software which is not free. I pay for a distribution, because I prefer to do that, rather than to download for the many hours it takes to obtain one for "free".
As a resident of North America, I am steeped in the principles of a reasonably free market, and in the notion that profit for labor and risk is an honorable thing. OSS folk take note: the market will determine whether or not Borland's commercially offered Linux-based tools survive. I believe that once Kylix hits the streets, we will see a tremendous upswing in the use of Linux, and in the availability of applications for the desktop.
Linux socialists: brace yourselves, the deluge is near.
With the success of commercial tools, as well as free ones, we will see the maturity of Linux in the market, and then MS will truly have something to fear.
--- Bill
I'd like to take a minute to break down michael's addendum:
> "Readers will notice that one of your fellow readers is abusing the system."
Right away, the tone is "us vs. them". "One of your fellow readers?" Remember when the Slashdot editors were part of the community that read their site? Now, we're "readers". They're "editors".
I don't care for this tone at all. It sounds too much like an elementary-school teacher -- "One of you students has decided to spoil it for the rest...."
> "Take my word for it that CmdrTaco is well aware of the situation and is preparing to Take Steps."
"Take Steps" with capitalization -- are the editors about to send someone to the principal's office? Is someone going to have to grab ankles while CmdrTaco administers a spanking?
> "It is frankly a shame that Slashdot's loose authentication system which is designed to allow people to participate without providing your name, SSN and mother's maiden name like so many other forums is also subject to abuse."
Translation: "We've built a popular interactive site by not forcing participants to answer intrusive questions. We may have to change this policy now that we're big-time." This sentence is just dripping with anticipation of Bad Things.
Face it, folks. Slashdot is a big-money "portal" site now. The fact that the spambot is being treated as such a crisis is evidence. Slashdot is just like ZDNet or MSNBC with a pronounced pro-Linux bias. The ".org" extension is deceptive and should be dropped.
The spambot is just a simple shell script. It could have been written at any point in Slashdot's life. I'm sure many people who visit this site have had the idea of auto-posting at one point. So why did it happen now?
Slashdot has gone the way of much of the "alternative" media of the 80's/90's generation. It's alternative until it makes money. Then, it becomes mainstream. People didn't care about taking risks before because there was nothing to lose. Now, stockholders and managers depend on "alternative" and they learn to stick with what works.
There's very little that's alternative about Slashdot now.
"News for Nerds?" -- Only if you define "nerd" as a Linux zealot prone to knee-jerk outrage against corporations and government.
"Stuff that matters" -- If your entire life revolves around computers and the internet.
Welcome to the mainstream, Slashdot. It was fun but now it's time to grow up.
-- In the future, everyone will code Perl for 15 minutes. --
I think the Gimp is actually a better, if less mature, program than Corel PhotoPaint. Likewise, I think Emacs is a better IDE than what Inprise/Borland have to offer.
Those commercial Windows-based tools have been designed to appear simple to learn and use. But they reach their limits quickly when it comes to customizability and scripting. The risk is that more and more Linux users will go the "easy" route, get the "free entry level" commercial tools and never learn what Linux and UNIX are all about.
I suppose that a Windows-like environment with a working POSIX-compliant kernel and modular GUI toolkit is still better than a Windows-like environment with a Win32 API, but I think there is a lot more to Linux/UNIX than just that, and this influx of commercial tools threatens it.
My management has been making noises for a number of years about porting from AIX to Win NT to enjoy a cost savings. Three points seem to be escaping their attention:
Capturing some portion of the market porting from high-end Unix systems to less expensive hardware running Linux or FreeBSD could be a big win. Oracle already has a head start in this because in many cases the applications are already using Oracle, and they have ported their software to Linux.
I realize this instead Borland/Inprise's native market, but if they can ease this transition, there may be potential sales for them.
Also, the survey mentioned localization into a variety of languages. These days, there are a lot of market niches that require support for the local language. And supporting a few of the big ones may not be enough. I'd rather see a mechanism that allows developers or end users to drop in translations to accomplish their own localization. Using gettext would be an excellent idea. But if there is a licensing issue with that, at least use a mechanism that will support
I have to agree with points 1, 2 and 4. The trolling is getting tiring. Karma and devotion to this site ought to count for something.
:-)
Issue 3, exponential delays for posting, might
be a bit tough to implement. Perhaps not nearly as important as newbies starting at -1.
Anyway, looks like Slashdot is in for a little DDoS of its own.
Disclaimer: I am a fool. IANALBTANSTAAFL
It seems bizarre to use a system where everyone and anyone is considered irrelevant until proven meaningful.
Instead, it should be that you are <B>meaningful until proven irrelevant</B>.
How about changing the point range to -5 and +3.
Everyone's posts start at +1 max, decreasing over time as they are moderated down. Persistently Irrelevant Posters (PIPs) would soon end up posting at -5.
Another idea: anonymous posters must enter a name and email address <B>at the time of posting</B> if they do not log in. If you want to constantly post garbage, you'll have to spend time rotating your name spoof over and over.
To share the moderation load, you should be able to view only unmoderated comments, i.e. ones that need your touch.
I do not believe anyone should get any automatic bonuses. But it should be very common for people to get automatic penalties.
Disclaimer: I am a fool. IANALATANSTAAFL
Well, you can tell. You'll notice that most of my posts which are at +2 are just (Score: 2), rather than, for example, (Score: 2, Informative). Similarly, that's how you can tell the difference between someone whose default posting level is -1 and someone who just got moderated down.
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"'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
"'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
Quine "quine?