Slashdot Mirror
First Inter-Satellite Laser Link Established
exceed writes: "The New Scientist is reporting: 'A long-distance laser communication link between two Earth-orbiting satellites has been established for the first time. The technique allows fast-moving, low Earth orbit satellites to relay information to the ground almost instantaneously via a geostationary satellite fixed in a much higher orbit.'" Update: 11/24 22:28 GMT by T : Sorry, it's a duplicate. The lashing has begun.
fp for our American troops overseas! :)
First Post
Example why Linux users (and in this case authors of analog) are generally clueless fuckwits: ./analog if for some reason . isn't in your $PATH.)
<wankel> After you've compiled the program, just type
<wankel> analog
<wankel> to run the program. (Or
<wankel> "if for some reason"?
* wankel boggles
Wasn't this reported just a couple of days ago?
Here's the previous one, dated only a couple of days ago. hhmm...
There are 10 kinds of people; those who know ternary, those who don't, and those now hunting for a dictionary.
old Slashdot stories.
Banu
OSDN: How "Access" Is Spelled When You're Targeting
The Leading-Edge IT Development Community.
OSDN, the Open Source Development Network, is your gateway to one of the most influential technology communities in the world:
The Web-centric world of Linux/Open Source.
OSDN has combined and created over a dozen of the web's leading Open Source sites - with millions of viewers monthly - into one cohesive online community. You'll find the highly respected, heavily relied-upon sites that this elite and influential group require to advance their work. These sites include:
Penis!
Vagina!
Cock!
Pussy (WET)!
Tits!
Asshole!
Pink Hole!
Er,
Didn't we have this news just the other day?
Or did I see it somewhere else?
(Too lazy to go back and look)
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
aaa bbb ccc seen it before
to quote the FAQ: These are just mistakes on the part of the staff. They happen. We have posted over ten thousand stories in our history. The occasional duplicate is inevitable.
That's not my hand.
Somebody is checking how closely you read slashdot, Timmy.
And in (un)related news, the Linux kernel version 2.0 is finally released...
"No, no, no. Don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to."
Gentlemen, the time has come for a serious discussion on whether or not to continue using C for serious programming projects. As I will explain, I feel that C needs to be retired, much the same way that Fortran, Cobol and Perl have been. Furthermore, allow me to be so bold as to suggest a superior replacement to this outdated language.
To give you a little background on this subject, I was recently asked to develop a client/server project on a Unix platform for a Fortune 500 company. While I've never coded in C before I have coded in VB for fifteen years, and in Java for over ten, I was stunned to see how poorly C fared compared to these two, more low-level languages.
C's biggest difficulty, as we all know, is the fact that it is by far one of the slowest languages in existance, especially when compared to more modern languages such as Java. Although the reasons for this are varied, the main reasons seems to be the way C requires a programmer to laboriously work with chunks of memory.
Requiring a programmer to manipulate blocks of memory is a tedious way to program. This was satisfactory back in the early days of coding, but then again, so were punchcards. By using what are called "pointers" a C programmer is basically requiring the computer to do three sets of work rather than one. The first time requires the computer to duplicate whatever is stored in the memory space "pointed to" by the pointer. The second time requires it to perform the needed operation on this space. Finally the computer must delete the duplicate set and set the values of the original accordingly.
Clearly this is a horrendous use of resources and the chief reason why C is so slow. When one looks at a more modern (and a more serious) programming language like Java or, even better, Visual Basic, that lacks such archaic coding styles, one will also note a serious speed increase over C.
So what does this mean for the programming community? I think clearly that C needs to be abandonded. There are two candidates that would be a suitable replacement for it. Those are Java and Visual Basic.
Having programmed in both for many years, I believe that VB has the edge. Not only is it slightly faster than Java its also much easier to code in. I found C to be confusing, frightening and intimidating with its non-GUI-based coding style. Furthermore, I like to see the source code of the projects I work with. Java's source seems to be under the monopolistic thumb of Sun much the way that GCC is obscured from us by the marketing people at the FSF. Microsoft's "shared source" under which Visual Basic is released definately seems to be the most fair and reasonable of all the licenses in existance, with none of the harsh restrictions of the BSD license. It also lacks the GPLs requirement that anything coded with its tools becomes property of the FSF.
I hope to see a switch to VB very soon. I've already spoken with various luminaries in the *nix coding world and most are eager to begin to transition. Having just gotten off the phone with Mr. Alan Cox, I can say that he is quite thrilled with the speed increases that will occur when the Linux kernel is completely rewritten in Visual Basic. Richard Stallman plans to support this, and hopes that the great Swede himself, Linus Torvaldis, won't object to renaming Linux to VB/Linux. Although not a C coder himself, I'm told that Slashdot's very own Admiral Taco will support this on his web site.
Thank you for your time. Happy coding.
Egg Troll
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
They said a while back (few agos ago) that sometimes on the weekends they repost stories from earlier in the week to see if people pay attention. My guess is they like seeing all the people saying "wtf!? they already posted this!!" and then going on pissing themselves about it.
where did that come from, some irc log?
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Actually, it is the second link on slashdot. The first one happened yesterday.
I'd forgotten about this story in the day or so since it had been last posted here! Thanks for reminding me!
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
Second satellite laser link established.
To be fair, the submittal processing module does not display previous posts for an editor to take a quick look at. so mistakes are easy. That area of the software needs work.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Read slashdot. Post a story that appeared on /. the day after it appears.
2 35 &mode=thread
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/11/22/204
That's not an excuse. It's pathetic - we just read the site from time to time - THEY (the editors, story posters) actually run it.
Every day.
As a full time, PAID job.
Surely they have the memory span to remember an IDENTICAL article from TWO days ago. Sure, if it was posted 4000 articles ago, maybe I'd cut them some slack, but this ongoing, unceasing, uncaring duplicate and triplicate posting is lazy editing, no matter how you look at it.
If they're trying to run an interesting and informative news source, they're failing, and they're not winning over any readers by showing their blatant disinterest in slashdot's actual community (read: SOURCE OF CASH).
On a side note - notice there was absolutely no apology, explanation, or even reply, when 800 odd slashdot readers questioned JonKatz' ability to tell the truth in his "Message from Kabul" posting (couple of days ago, search for it if search is working).
The fact remains that although slashdot is a brilliant concept, fairly brilliantly executed, with a brilliant readership, it seems that the higher-ups have lost interest in maintaining that brilliant status.
You watch - they will get their come-uppance if they don't heed these problems.
Not to be a troll, but slashdot posts are like linux kernel releases - they're rapid, but aren't very well polished, and ocasionally major bugs like this (duplicates) are present.
y T: Sorry, it's a duplicate. The lashing has begun.
Tim, thanks for letting us know that this is a duplicate story. We're still all excited about the improved relay times that this will enable; for a lot of us it means that when we play Quake on Russian servers, someday we'll actually be able to see the rocket that hit us. Kind of like your Slashback feature, this will let us discuss what we've learned about this topic in the last few days.
I think, however, that as far as the lashing goes, that's a little TMI. What you guys do behind closed doors is, really, your own business.
If guns kill people, then CmdrTaco's keyboard misspells words.
REEEPOSTTTTT
Just kidding, what? you expect them to read their own site?
God! That would, be like, oh I don't know, Hotmail actually using Win2k for anything other than "Windows dressing", and leaving BSD at the back end (IIRC, mind you).
I just chalk it up to the fact they are too busy rejecting all my articles...paranoid, me? Nah.
HEY! What was that soun...
Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
I think that this story is so cool, that a repost is not necessarily a bad thing.
Thanks for reminding us this amazing, wonderful and powerful advance in technology.
Personally, I get so inured reading stuff, that I sometimes forget how damn cool some of these stories really are. Hearing them again is not necessarily a bad thing.
Oh yeah, its also not a bad thing to thank people for working hard, faux pas or not.
Thanks Slashdot.
it it happens happens to to the the best best of of us us.
I'm suprised no one got a double first post on this subject...that would be a record...and rather pathetic, quite possibly.
Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
Why Timothy it is still a great day.
;)
We won't be so hard on you anymore! We of course have the new guy to pick on.
We are all just waiting for Chrisd to slip up so that we might flame him to a cinder.
Rest easy young Tim, you are no longer a slashdot boy, you are a slashdot man!
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
That said, I think what is so bad about all of this is that Slashdot claims to be a news service -- but when you hold them to journalistic standards, suddenly they're nothing more but a discussion service. It's pretty hypocritical and I can understand why people might get fussed about it.
Pushin' 'n dealin', shovin' 'n stealin'
...read your own fscking site?! How hard is it for Slashdot article posters to recognize duplicates?!
yhbt. yhl. hand.
"The Skynet funding bill passed... Skynet went online August 4th, 1997 and became self-aware on August 29th"
jesus christ. do you not read your own fucking website?