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Alpha's Going Going Gone
WildCode writes "Get your Alphas now cause HP is releasing the last of the Alphas (the final one expected to be released in 2004), and there will be no more." I was already under the mistaken impression that Alpha was dead, so this story is rather bittersweet for me. Still, as far as architectures go, Alpha will probably be among my favorites. It was once vastly ahead of its time, if not severely cost-prohibitive.
Hello,
Consulting for several large companies, I'd always done my work on
Windows. Recently however, a top online investment firm asked us to do
some work using Linux. The concept of having access to source code was
very appealing to us, as we'd be able to modify the kernel to meet our
exacting standards which we're unable to do with Microsoft's products.
Although we met several technical challenges along the way
(specifically, Linux's lack of Token Ring support and the fact that we
were unable to defrag its ext2 file system), all in all the process
went smoothly. Everyone was very pleased with Linux, and we were
considering using it for a great deal of future internal projects.
So you can imagine our suprise when we were informed by a lawyer that
we would be required to publish our source code for others to use. It
was brought to our attention that Linux is copyrighted under something
called the GPL, or the Gnu Protective License. Part of this license
states that any changes to the kernel are to be made freely available.
Unfortunately for us, this meant that the great deal of time and money
we spent "touching up" Linux to work for this investment firm would
now be available at no cost to our competitors.
Furthermore, after reviewing this GPL our lawyers advised us that any
products compiled with GPL'ed tools - such as gcc - would also have to
its source code released. This was simply unacceptable.
Although we had planned for no one outside of this company to ever
use, let alone see the source code, we were now put in a difficult
position. We could either give away our hard work, or come up with
another solution. Although it was tought to do, there really was no
option: We had to rewrite the code, from scratch, for Windows 2000.
I think the biggest thing keeping Linux from being truly competitive
with Microsoft is this GPL. Its draconian requirements virtually
guarentee that no business will ever be able to use it. After my
experience with Linux, I won't be recommending it to any of my
associates. I may reconsider if Linux switches its license to
something a little more fair, such as Microsoft's "Shared Source".
Until then its attempts to socialize the software market will insure
it remains only a bit player.
Thank you for your time.
I don't want to start a holy war here, but what is the deal with you cat fanatics? I've been sitting here on my sofa in front of a cat (a sealpoint siamese) for about 20 minutes now while attempting to get it's attention away from a bug on the floor. 20 minutes. At home, with my labrador cross, which by all standards should be a lot dumber than this cat, the same operation would take about 2 minutes. If that.
In addition, during this attention seeking attempt, my children's attention is also held by the cat. And everything else has ground to a halt. Even trying to get the remote from my partner fails.
I won't bore you with the laundry list of other problems that I've encountered while dealing with other cats, but suffice it to say there have been many, not the least of which is I've never seen a cat that fetches as much as it's canine counterpart, despite the cat's faster ambulatory system. My terrier with one ingrown toenail runs consistently faster than this siamese at times, as the cat is often completely asleep. From a productivity standpoint, I don't get how people can claim that the cat is a superior animal.
Cat addicts, flame me if you'd like, but I'd rather hear some intelligent reasons why anyone would choose to use a cat over other faster, cheaper, more affectionate animals.
that's right. most of them are going out of the softwar gangster "product" "business" altogether, choosing instead to attempt to perpetuate their felonious LIEf'styles' buy unending frivolous litigation, &/or the touting of their worth less phonIE stock markup payper.
lookout bullow.
I'm more a classical architecture type of person; I like columns, capitals, and friezes.
The dark ages of America are upon us. Our energy grid is based on lies, supported by lies. Same for the housing industry.
Where is the innovation? We have an energy infrastructure based on a web of lies, defended and maintained by a hierarchy of liars, that has been largely unchanged for several decades and the powers that be sure like it that way. Research papers of the late 1990's revealed the possibility of building a completely autonomous robotic solar energy grid that could provide energy far in excess of all projected needs. Only the slightest human intervention was necessary to keep the "machine" running. Yet this reasearch received little or no attention outside of
a few select journals...why? There was no point of sale infrastructure, no easy
way for the energy barons to translate the new system into their favor, into their existing web of theft.
We have a housing industry that refuses to modernize or embrace the slightest lessons from the rest of America's manufacturing sectors. Want a house? Be prepared to pay for it the rest of your life, even though it's an order of magnitude less complex than the car in your driveway. The only manufactured housing are little piles of crap. We have materials and manufacturing processes that could crank out beautiful homes, homes that could last forever, yet we stick to the age old method of building homes step by step with skilled tradesmen and expensive, time consuming goverment oversight (permits, etc) every step of the way. If the auto industry worked the same way, you'd have to order your car, get a tradesman to install the engine, have it inspected three times by the government, have another tradesman install the hoses, etc...for every car sold. Absurd...yet it serves an important purpose...keeping you in debt for 20-30 years, keeping countless people employed.
Open your eyes, see the lies all around you. See how the machine holds you hostage. Think and speak about it, read all the alernative literature possible, especially anything to do with frugal living or alternative energy. These are the people that will take the USA to the next level, but only if enough people demand change so these infrastructures mature and become mainstream.