Slashdot Mirror
VoIP at $15 a Pop
AndersBrownworth writes: "Creative has released what they are calling the VoIP Blaster, a $15 USB device (2 for $20) that lets you plug in a normal POTS type telephone and make Voice-over-IP calls to anyone on the Internet. Creative has some closed source software with it that they manage to sneak per call charges in with, but ignoring that one can install the open source fobbit software and do point-to-point unmetered VoIP calls to anyone else with a G.723.1 codec VoIP phone. I just got off a NC to CA call placed from behind a firewall and the quality rocked. It sounded far better than a cell phone. The Fobbit software is fairly solid on FreeBSD and Windows with a couple bugs in the Linux port." This device has been out for a while now, with mixed reviews, at least with the included software, but it's nice to see this effort to turn off the meter.
Attention!
The KDE project is famous for its funded and organised trolling of weblogs and message board associated with Linux and Free software/open source. Outrageous newbie impressing claims are made for the software and huge quanities of FUD are spread to destroy competitors. If this sounds familiar, then you are correct, most of these tactics were lifted straight from Microsoft's arsenal of dirty tricks. The Windows look and feel isnot the only thing the KDE project has copied! In this short article I will address some of the lies andFUD spread by the KDE trolling teams. It is my hope that this, in some small way, will redress the balance and re-introduce two things almost eradicated by the KDE project: Honesty and facts.
The oft-heard cry of the noisiest KDE advocates. No explanation is given, the reader is expected to simply grok the wholesomeness of KDE and the lack of this mystical quality in GNOME. It is nonsense of course. Neither desktop is particularly "integrated" compared to Windows XP, and certainly not compared any version of the Apple Mac. Whatever "integrated" actually means.
Again, such nebulous arguments are never explained, and the reader is expected to simply understand the truth of the zealots statement. Both KDE and GNOME have user-interface irritations (all systems do), but "ease of use" is not a simple thing to measure. KDE has never been subjected to detailed user testing, unlike GNOME [gnome.org], and the claims of user-friendliness are from crazed supporters and not average users. Furthermore, the KDE faithful rarely look beyond simple-minded copying of Windows, and forget that administering a desktop system is just as important as having widgets in the correct place on the toolbar. For example: What about application installation and removal? GNOME has the excellent RedCarpet by Ximian [ximian.com], which makes the installation, removal and updating of applications trivial. KDE users are expected to fend for themselves with brutal command line driven systems. GNOME also has the excellent Ximian setup tools to handle various tricky cross-platform and potentially risky system configuration operations. KDE offers none of this, only a few small half-assed Linux-only tools, which make no attempt at check-pointing to return to known working configurations.
In what sense? Arguably more people use KDE, but it is a close run thing. Most KDE zealots use the results of online polls as proof of their superior userbase - which is, quite frankly, complete and utter nonsense.Online polls are the joke of the century; it doesn't even require a motivated script kiddie to render then worthless. A single post alerting the faithful on a zealot-ridden site can skew the result so much it makes American presidential elections look fair and well organised. Popularity is also difficult to measure when *both* GNOME and KDE are frequently installed on the same system. The systems can co-exist and even run atthe same time, except for certain applications such as panels. Many KDE users actually run GNOME applications for their superior features and stability, not realising that by doing so they are barely running KDE atall.
One of the few solid measures of popularity is commercial use of a desktop, and here, GNOME is far ahead with both Hewlett Packard and Sun committing to using GNOME as the desktop for their Unix systems. This also ties in with the previously mentioned ease of use. Sun's major contribution to the GNOME project is in the areas of user/developer documentation, testing, accessiblity and user-testing. Three of the less glamourous parts of desktop development. The arrival of the GNOME 2.x series will see these contributions reach fruitition and allow GNOME to make a quantum leap ahead of KDE in most of the basic computer/user issues.
Oh for a penny every time this lie is told in any KDE story! Konqueror not a bad piece of software. It's authors deserve praise for the work done on it. However, the sheer amount of orgasmic gushing by the KDE faithful is completely out of proportion to its actual quality. It is quite unreliable and evensimple standards compliant pages can crash it quite comprehensively. It is also lax in its support of basic web standards compared to either Mozilla or Opera. It is also extremely slow - much slower than the latest incarnations of the GNOME Nautilus filemanager/browser (a target of much KDE FUD during its development).
See also: Qt/TrollTech. This is the most common wail heard by KDE developers, and yet it is easily disproved by looking at the actual applications for GNOME/GTK and KDE/Qt. KDE applications often have larger version numbers than GNOME ones... an old trick played by commerical software developers. Most KDE apps seem to jumpfor 1.x releases long before they are ready - KOffice being the best example. None of the components in Koffice are worthy of a 1.0 release, let alone 1.1 or 1.2.
GNOME applications get much more testing in their 0.x stages and despite shorter development phases theymature and reach stable featureful release states much more quickly. Some examples of this are: the superb Evolution (groupware/email), Gnumeric (spreadsheet), Pan (newsreader), The GIMP (image manipulation), Abiword (word processing), RedCarpet, X-Chat (IRC client), XMMS (media player), Galeon (web browser), and for developers: Glade and Anjuta. All of these packages ooze quality, and far outclass their KDE counterparts. It is nounderstatement to say that GNOME is at least 18 months ahead of KDE in applications, and pulling stillfurther ahead.
It's not only in the area of user applications that GNOME is vastly more advanced. With the forthcoming 2.x release, a number of impressive behind the scenes technologies will finally mature: component technology (bonobo), media (Gstreamer), internationalisation (pango). As a developement platform, GNOME 2.x is, conservatively, 2-3 years ahead of KDE. And what is more, because it is not tied to a lowest common denominator cross-platform bloat-fest like the Qt toolkit, the lead (as with applications) can only increase further.
It is also worth noting that GNOME also develops code for use outside the project (see the XML libraries as one example) - the KDE project rarely (if ever) engages in this kind of work. KDE developers ensure that all software must link with Qt, and hence tie it closely with the Qt toolkit preventing re-use and enhancing the value of TrollTech intellectual property.
Yet despite all this, we are still regularly fed the lie that Qt and C++ makes application and desktop development easier. Judge for yourself.
KDE is written in C++. While this is not necessarily a problem, it can be when Visual Basic reject programmers(which the KDE project is overrun with) do not know enough to avoid important pitfalls that plague C++ software projects. Stupid use of autoincrementing operators and iteration with C++ objects; and masses of unnecessary allocations and deallocations of memory are two of the most common. KDE suffers badly from both problems.
Perhaps the most cretinous of all problems is blaming the extremely slow startup times of KDE apps on GCC. The GNOME 1.x releases were hardly svelt (2.x fixes many of these issues), but GNOME is a fashion cat-walk superwaif when compared to KDE's 500lb fat-momma cheese-burger scoffing trailer trash. One need only look at the recent fuss over ugly KDE hacks (such as prelinking) used to bandage up the design and coding flaws in the decrepit KDEarchitecture to see the truth.
Fundamental misunderstanding. The KDE project releases as one big lump of code due to its use of C++ and the many problems this causes with libraries. The project bumps the version number of the entire KDE system for the smallest modifications. GNOME, on the other hand is componentized and each component releases on a (almost) separate schedule, bumping it's own version number but not the main GNOME version (1.4, for example). Occasional releases of the entire GNOME system happen, and that's when the GNOME version number is bumped (currently it is at 1.4). To see this in action, use RedCarpet and you will regular updates to GNOME components. GNOME development is not slower, it is in fact faster and more advanced. Lamers and newbies, however, fail to understand the advantages of this method and just see KDE 1.1.1 followed a few weeks later by KDE 1.1.2. Wow! KDE roolz.
The Qt toolkit (the software at the heart of KDE) is supposedly a cross-platform toolkit allowing the luckydeveloper the opportunity to write Windows/Linux/Mac software all at once. And yet, among the magicalmythical claims made, the most nonsensical is that it makes applications which take advantage of thedistinct features of the different platforms. This is of course, nonsense. Qt is a bloated, slow layerthat is slapped over a native system's APIs in an attempt to make all the systems look alike. It no moretakes advantage of Linux/Windows/Mac than Java does - in fact it offers many of the disadvantages of Java with few of the advantages. If you have ever wondered why the KDE desktop looks so much like Windows... youneed look no further than Qt. Qt is a lowest common denominator toolkit, and that LCD is Windows - Trolltech's,the creator of Qt, real market.
To Be Written. Ideas: Qt started out as non-Free. KDE developers knew this violated the GPL, didn't care, stoleothers' GPL code by porting it to link (in violation of the license) with Qt and are therefore untrustworthy. KDE core developers work for TrollTech. Expensive per developer licensing for writing closed-source with Qt, and hence KDE. Trolltech only moved towards the GPL because of the success of GNOME. Labyrinthine licensing nightmare (3 licenses todeal with). Gradual migration of features belonging in KDE into Qt (and so into TrollTech's IP portfolio), allowing easy porting of apps to the revenue generating Windows world (see TheKompany for a perfect example), thereby making KDE an irrelevant launcher of Qt applications. Claims made that Qt is GPL, while true, hide the real truth. There cannot be a real fork of Qt for the KDE project: Core developers work for Trolltech; any fork would need to be full GPL and hence ban any closed-source apps from KDE altogether (all KDE apps must link with Qt); Any commerical licensees of Qt (non-GPL) would and could only follow TrollTech. KDE is stitched up good and proper.
To be Written. Ideas: Mosfet liquid theme is an ugly and unstable hack. GNOME GTk icons are better thought-outand of a far higher quality than the poorly drawn and cartoonish and confusing KDE ones. Qt is basically a Windows-look on a Unix platform.
So you thought the blackout was a good idea and you made a pact with yourself to post nothing for that week when suddenly - without really knowing why - you post a comment during blackout week...
.. and the number one reason for breaking the Slashdot Blackout, is ...
...." - so I just had to type
Hi, I'm the The_Fire_Horse and you might remember me from such posts as 'Everything you wanted to know about Semen' and 'Who is CowboyNeal - really'
My task today is to simply list, what I think, are the top 10 reasons that people posted during the GREAT SLASHDOT BACKOUT
10. Jon Katz posting a blatent fucking advert for his latest book
9. That 'coool' story about the android head - you had to ask "When will the Real Doll version be available?"
8. A blackout - great! At least all the other insightful posters will be out of my hair and I can get some KARMA !
7. You're addicted to Slashdot - just admit it. You can't help yourself
6. Sorry, but I just HAD to have a break from study - its either post to slashdot or I'll just burst (see above)
5. I got drunk and forget about the blackout
4. I was downloading pr0n and my mum walked in on me, so I quickly started typing in shit to cover my arse
3. I dont give a fuck about any blackout - what is this - some kind of commie ritual or something?
2. You are a smelly, stinky troll and dont care what anyone else thinks (hey - that's me!)
1. I really like the community, but I want to make the editors see the effect of no comments for a week, but I cruised by slashdot and saw "Read More
F I R S T
P O S T
But I will be ze next president of France.
"en raison de la mauvaise signalisation excessive de ce IP ou sous-filet"
test
#10#13
Jon Katz
1972 - 2002
Phillip "Jon" Katz was found dead on April 22nd of the year 2002. I have a copy of
the ABC News obituary here [esva.net]. It's fairly gruesome.
Some folks have asked me what I know about Jon Katz. It occurs to me
that most folks have probably never heard the story, and of the ones who
have heard of it, few would know or remember the details. So here's what I
know about Jon Katz, plus a little history to put it in context. The
dates could be off a bit. I also have a copy of Ben Baker's take on the whole deal, which goes into a lot more detail.
In 1985 I wrote a program called ARC. It became very popular with the
operators of electronic bulletin boards, which was what the online world
consisted of in those pre-Internet days. A big part of ARC's popularity
was because we made the source code available. I know that seems strange
these days, but back then a lot of software was distributed in source.
Every company that made computers made a completely different computer.
Different architectures, operating systems, languages, everything.
Getting a program written for one computer to work on another was often a
major undertaking.
Then sometime around 1987 or so Jon Katz came out with PKARC, which was
basically my ARC program with the compression/decompression routines
rewritten in assembler, which made it run a lot faster. I have to hand it
to him, he had a real talent for assembly coding.
We approached him about licensing, but he rejected the idea. One thing
led to another, and eventually we sued him. Fortunately his program was
such a blatant copy of mine that we were able to win the lawsuit before we
ran out of money. In a negotiated settlement he again rejected any
suggestion of licensing and went for a cash-out settlement. He repaid us for
most of our legal bills and promised to stop selling his program sometime
in 1988.
Then he fiddled with the file format a bit, renamed it from PKARC to
PKZIP, and kept right on selling it.
We sort of lost touch after that. We would have liked to have kept in
touch, but we couldn't afford the legal bills. There wasn't a lot to sue
for anyway. None of us was getting rich.
So now Jon Katz is dead. He drank himself to death, alone in a motel
room, a bottle of booze in his hand and five empties in the room. One can
only guess what drove him to such a tragic end, but it is a fitting
demise for a man whose professional reputation is based entirely on a lie.
I can think of no more fitting epitath than the final clause of the
original ARC copyright statement:
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
For the love of God would somebody please hug a root???
Thanks!
You sound like a sad soul my friend. Why attack someone like that? Remember that we should love one another.