First of all assume that the only people who are going to be using these libraries to program are going to be programmers... This is a fair assumption since the only people who are going to be using these libraries are programmers.
Now do a search for "interface."
It is pretty clear that Miguel does care about the interfaces that the users of his libraries use. Or in other words, the interfaces that he cares about are the same interfaces that users use.
I'm only used to Debian, but in my experience downloading source code is a good way to screw up your system. Over time you forget which files each programs installs. Then three years later, you come back and you can't figure out what libraries you need for foo program and which ones you are supposed to delete. If install an official package, on the other hand, then the computer remembers all that stuff for you.
I would report a bug against the packages that upgraded stuff you didn't want upgraded. That sounds like a bug.
Debian stable is pretty good in this regard. You just put security.debian.org into your sources.list file. Then every morning you type "apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -u". One simple command updates all the security patches on your system. You don't need to type in each package individually. And there's no need to click anything.:)
My vote goes with Debian. It combines the ease of Debian with the high standards of Debian. Nobody else comes close.
>>"Too bad we aren't learning from the British and Soviet mistakes."
>>How do we know that the United States military isn't learning from British and Soviet mistakes?
I think Michael is talking about the American public.
Perhaps you are right that we would win easily because of our technology. But war is unpredictable. I prefer to enter with a thourough look at the risks.
Mine takes closer to 3 seconds but even 1 second is too slow.
Slashdot's search feature is broken but someone had a link to a page where they had javascript set up to open up 100 new windows. He did a comparison of a bunch of different browsers and Mozilla was way worse then any of the competitors at openning new windows.
Openning new windows doesn't really matter under windows because windows browsers don't support the middle button. But under Linux I almost always use my middle button to open a new window instead of clicking with my left button. Right now for example I have 5 mozilla windows open.
>> The idea that mozilla is slow and buggy is a myth.
Generally, I'd agree. My only problem with mozilla is how long it takes to create a new window. If this were optomised then mozilla would be just about perfect.
I've been using mozilla as my primrary browser for a couple weeks now.
In my experience helping CS 1 students, command line tools are easier to learn.
With a command line tool you simple create a text file and you use gcc to compile it.
With the borland or vc++ you have to go through a long process outlined here. The sad part about it is that people will have problems manipulating the compiler throughout the entire CS 1 course. They'll do something like include header files as source files or they'll try to reopen they're source by clicking on a source file instead of a project file...
Perhaps I'm stupid for not buying Qualys virus checker but this whole thing sounds bizare. What is the subject of the email? What does the email say?
I have tried many of the linux email programs at one time or another--pine, elm, mutt, postilion, balsa, tk-rat, kmail, evolution and sundry others to numerous to recount. And lets face it people, for proper email viruses you need an advanced Microsoft email client. Outlook is a good example.
First there is the problem of automatic or almost automatic execution. Linux email clients have not yet achieved the same optomistic attitude towards code in email attachments as Outlook. However, anyone who has used Linux is already familiar with this and I do not need to elaborate.
Then, because Linux lacks any sort of standards (http://microsoft.com for more information), there is no easy way to send emails out to everyone on the persons list. The easiest thing would be to use perl. But even this is poses problems and the Qualys guys don't mention anything about perl or how it sends the emails out.
Personally, I really doubt Qualys knows what it's talking about. Look at how many times Qualys has been talked about in the context of linux. Compare that to a reputable Linux endeavor.:P By the well know usenet-troll formula, Qualys is on it's last leg.
And also... Any security company should know that the only way to clean an infected computer is to reinstall. Installing more close source software on top of the close source virus seems like a silly thing to me.
(Not that I think Qualys would deliberately do something wrong but they don't seem competent enough to analyse this virus thouroughly or program a bug free fix).
I think if you link to old slashdot articles you should link to the part with all the comments.
so instead of linking to:
http://slashdot.org/articles/99/12/19/0729248.sh tm l
you should link to:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/12/19/0729 24 8
This makes it easier for those of us without karma to copy and paste one of the +5 insightful comments to the current discussion and thereby gleaning a little karma for ourselves. Or instead the insightful comments, someone could link to this comment and get modded +1 funny.;P
>>Surely the high end market should see the potential advantages in migrating to systems running on hardware custom built for Linux?
Oddly enough, I can't think of any advantage. The trend in high end computing recently seems to be to move to commodity hardware. We have clusters of x86 machines. SGI is moving to an Intel platform. And Compaq has sold the Alpha to Intel.
But it's interesting to note that on a -1 to 5 scale Christopher Tomas's post would rate a 3. While your suposededly more creative post would rate a mere 2. That means his post is 16% more interesting than your post.
This fact is more impressive when you consider the subject matter that Christopher had to work with. Three dimensional movies are something that have been around for years. Every so called "geek" should already be somewhat familiar with how they work. Yet Christopher managed to take this topic and transform it into something new and fascinating.
Christopher Tomas I salute you!
Re:How about intermediate formats?
on
Linux Office Suites
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
>>Do you wonder why people don't leave outlook after numerous virus attacks? It's that useful, that's why.
I think you give people too much credit. They use it because it's the default.
Most people don't even change their home page so how are they going to figure out what other email programs are out there, download/buy it, install it and configure it to download mail from their isp?
And in a business then it's even harder because someone has to go around to each computer and install a new email program and set it up. Then he/she has to teach users how it works. And there are _always_ problems with new software so that is more work...
If Eudora was the default instead of Outlook it would be just as popular.
Quite frankly, I think Apple's user interface is overrated. Sure, it's not as bad as windows but if that's your measure of the quality of a user interface then just about everyone is Jakob Nielsen.
Give developers freedom and don't use the ugly apps. It's not that complicated...
Actually people aren't sueing Microsoft for bundling software. They're sueing Microsoft for using it's monopoly status to destroy other companies.
Without restriction Microsoft can kill any software company that it wants to.
At this point it fairly well documented that Microsoft will use unfair and illegal tactics to kill any competitors...
If you think you are safe then you are very naive. Microsoft could put presure on hardware companies to not allow drives for your product. Microsoft could persuade the big OEMs to charge more if customers wanted to use your product. Or Microsoft could force them to not sell your product at all. Microsoft can try hire all your best programmers away from you. Microsoft could use their enormous advertising budget to slander your company and product. So how are you going to compete now that your software doesn't run on any hardware and either no one will sell it for you or if you do sell it, part of the profit goes directly to Microsoft.
Windows , kde and gnome are all crap as window managers.
The person who invented the start menu will be first against the wall when the revolution comes.
So you move your mouse down to the bottom left. Then the menu pops up above and to the right. So you start moving your mouse up again. Then the next menu goes down. Then up. By this time you've run out of space and so the menus start going left instead of right. And up and down again. And then finally you can start the stupid application.
In windows 90% of the time you have to navigate 4 submenus (normally one of the submenus has more than 30 items) and click 4 times to start an aplication. In enlightenment 90% you navigate one menu and click 2 times.
There is a reason why microsoft came out with the fade away start button bar and that's because people hate it wasting their desktop space. The people who don't use the fade away bar also hate it but they hate having the menu bar keep popping up in the middle of what they are trying to do all the time. What I end up doing is changing the configuration back and forth between popping up and standing around. And it's not because I love messing around, it's because Microsoft UI is utter crap!
I could go on... but the point is most drunken hobos could design a better window manager than windows 98.
Slashdot Mirror
First of all assume that the only people who are going to be using these libraries to program are going to be programmers... This is a fair assumption since the only people who are going to be using these libraries are programmers.
Now do a search for "interface."
It is pretty clear that Miguel does care about the interfaces that the users of his libraries use. Or in other words, the interfaces that he cares about are the same interfaces that users use.
Hope that helped.
Why do you download source code?
:)
I'm only used to Debian, but in my experience downloading source code is a good way to screw up your system. Over time you forget which files each programs installs. Then three years later, you come back and you can't figure out what libraries you need for foo program and which ones you are supposed to delete. If install an official package, on the other hand, then the computer remembers all that stuff for you.
I would report a bug against the packages that upgraded stuff you didn't want upgraded. That sounds like a bug.
Debian stable is pretty good in this regard. You just put security.debian.org into your sources.list file. Then every morning you type "apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -u". One simple command updates all the security patches on your system. You don't need to type in each package individually. And there's no need to click anything.
My vote goes with Debian. It combines the ease of Debian with the high standards of Debian. Nobody else comes close.
Heh. No, I didn't read the article... I just posted it in case someone didn't remember the event.
That's funny that the article thought they bombed the embassy on purpose.
I really doubt that they did it on purpose, but I guess you never know. It's sometimes hard to tell if people are really smart or really stupid.
>>With modern satellite imaging, and unmanned drones hanging around for endless days taking pictures and GPS coordinates, I wonder.
You have way to much faith in technology. Wasn't it just two years ago when we accidentally bombed a Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia?
I'm not saying that America shouldn't try punish Bin Laden but I am saying that unbridle optimism is not the correct attitude to have before a war.
>>"Too bad we aren't learning from the British and Soviet mistakes."
>>How do we know that the United States military isn't learning from British and Soviet mistakes?
I think Michael is talking about the American public.
Perhaps you are right that we would win easily because of our technology. But war is unpredictable. I prefer to enter with a thourough look at the risks.
Mine takes closer to 3 seconds but even 1 second is too slow.
Slashdot's search feature is broken but someone had a link to a page where they had javascript set up to open up 100 new windows. He did a comparison of a bunch of different browsers and Mozilla was way worse then any of the competitors at openning new windows.
Openning new windows doesn't really matter under windows because windows browsers don't support the middle button. But under Linux I almost always use my middle button to open a new window instead of clicking with my left button. Right now for example I have 5 mozilla windows open.
>> The idea that mozilla is slow and buggy is a myth.
Generally, I'd agree. My only problem with mozilla is how long it takes to create a new window. If this were optomised then mozilla would be just about perfect.
I've been using mozilla as my primrary browser for a couple weeks now.
Actually, Bowie J. Poag is a well known VA hater. These are the kinds of posts that we have come to expect from him in the past couple years...
If he didn't post we would worry that he was ill.
>>Win2k is not hard to secure; neither is any other MS system.
Well, actually Windows 98 is pretty difficult to secure.
In particular, I would point out the large number of local root exploits.
In my experience helping CS 1 students, command line tools are easier to learn.
With a command line tool you simple create a text file and you use gcc to compile it.
With the borland or vc++ you have to go through a long process outlined here. The sad part about it is that people will have problems manipulating the compiler throughout the entire CS 1 course. They'll do something like include header files as source files or they'll try to reopen they're source by clicking on a source file instead of a project file...
Perhaps I'm stupid for not buying Qualys virus checker but this whole thing sounds bizare. What is the subject of the email? What does the email say?
:P By the well know usenet-troll formula, Qualys is on it's last leg.
I have tried many of the linux email programs at one time or another--pine, elm, mutt, postilion, balsa, tk-rat, kmail, evolution and sundry others to numerous to recount. And lets face it people, for proper email viruses you need an advanced Microsoft email client. Outlook is a good example.
First there is the problem of automatic or almost automatic execution. Linux email clients have not yet achieved the same optomistic attitude towards code in email attachments as Outlook. However, anyone who has used Linux is already familiar with this and I do not need to elaborate.
Then, because Linux lacks any sort of standards (http://microsoft.com for more information), there is no easy way to send emails out to everyone on the persons list. The easiest thing would be to use perl. But even this is poses problems and the Qualys guys don't mention anything about perl or how it sends the emails out.
Personally, I really doubt Qualys knows what it's talking about. Look at how many times Qualys has been talked about in the context of linux. Compare that to a reputable Linux endeavor.
And also... Any security company should know that the only way to clean an infected computer is to reinstall. Installing more close source software on top of the close source virus seems like a silly thing to me.
(Not that I think Qualys would deliberately do something wrong but they don't seem competent enough to analyse this virus thouroughly or program a bug free fix).
Actually, slashdot is using an updated codebase so that's not true anymore.
I think if you link to old slashdot articles you should link to the part with all the comments.
h tm l
9 24 8
;P
so instead of linking to:
http://slashdot.org/articles/99/12/19/0729248.s
you should link to:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/12/19/072
This makes it easier for those of us without karma to copy and paste one of the +5 insightful comments to the current discussion and thereby gleaning a little karma for ourselves. Or instead the insightful comments, someone could link to this comment and get modded +1 funny.
>>Surely the high end market should see the potential advantages in migrating to systems running on hardware custom built for Linux?
Oddly enough, I can't think of any advantage. The trend in high end computing recently seems to be to move to commodity hardware. We have clusters of x86 machines. SGI is moving to an Intel platform. And Compaq has sold the Alpha to Intel.
I could be wrong of course...
Sarcasm is all well and good in it's place...
But it's interesting to note that on a -1 to 5 scale Christopher Tomas's post would rate a 3. While your suposededly more creative post would rate a mere 2. That means his post is 16% more interesting than your post.
This fact is more impressive when you consider the subject matter that Christopher had to work with. Three dimensional movies are something that have been around for years. Every so called "geek" should already be somewhat familiar with how they work. Yet Christopher managed to take this topic and transform it into something new and fascinating.
Christopher Tomas I salute you!
>>Do you wonder why people don't leave outlook after numerous virus attacks? It's that useful, that's why.
I think you give people too much credit. They use it because it's the default.
Most people don't even change their home page so how are they going to figure out what other email programs are out there, download/buy it, install it and configure it to download mail from their isp?
And in a business then it's even harder because someone has to go around to each computer and install a new email program and set it up. Then he/she has to teach users how it works. And there are _always_ problems with new software so that is more work...
If Eudora was the default instead of Outlook it would be just as popular.
You aren't going to persuade be-fan no matter how flawed and miss-informed his ideas are. He's been spouting this nonsense for years and years now.
You and I know that if we let people standardise on just one tool kit they will pick the most butt ugly, bug ridden piece of trash they can find. But that's the exact thing that be-fan would love.
Quite frankly, I think Apple's user interface is overrated. Sure, it's not as bad as windows but if that's your measure of the quality of a user interface then just about everyone is Jakob Nielsen.
Give developers freedom and don't use the ugly apps. It's not that complicated...
I'm not saying that Microsoft or Bill Gates aren't inovative
He probably used perl. If you can't do something in one line of perl then it's probably not worth doing.
sorry, I meant artical (not artical).
from the linuxfreak artical:
>>Third, senders of certain kinds of SPAM (not the lunch meat) may also be subjected to criminal prosecution under this statute.
SPAM (upper case) is a lunch meat and a trademark of Hormel.
spam (lower case) is unwanted email.
Actually openGL has rudimentary support for both...
through GLUT.
Actually people aren't sueing Microsoft for bundling software. They're sueing Microsoft for using it's monopoly status to destroy other companies.
Without restriction Microsoft can kill any software company that it wants to.
At this point it fairly well documented that Microsoft will use unfair and illegal tactics to kill any competitors...
If you think you are safe then you are very naive. Microsoft could put presure on hardware companies to not allow drives for your product. Microsoft could persuade the big OEMs to charge more if customers wanted to use your product. Or Microsoft could force them to not sell your product at all. Microsoft can try hire all your best programmers away from you. Microsoft could use their enormous advertising budget to slander your company and product. So how are you going to compete now that your software doesn't run on any hardware and either no one will sell it for you or if you do sell it, part of the profit goes directly to Microsoft.
>>Remember, there _is_ another side, even if the government won't/can't talk about it.
:P
It's nice to be even handed and try to understand both sides of the argument.
I won't deny that the government had reasons for trying to stop wide spread encryption. Reasons that it might not want to talk about.
But those reasons make me want encryption even more. The more I try to understand why the government wanted to read my email the less I like it.
Windows , kde and gnome are all crap as window managers.
The person who invented the start menu will be first against the wall when the revolution comes.
So you move your mouse down to the bottom left. Then the menu pops up above and to the right. So you start moving your mouse up again. Then the next menu goes down. Then up. By this time you've run out of space and so the menus start going left instead of right. And up and down again. And then finally you can start the stupid application.
In windows 90% of the time you have to navigate 4 submenus (normally one of the submenus has more than 30 items) and click 4 times to start an aplication. In enlightenment 90% you navigate one menu and click 2 times.
There is a reason why microsoft came out with the fade away start button bar and that's because people hate it wasting their desktop space. The people who don't use the fade away bar also hate it but they hate having the menu bar keep popping up in the middle of what they are trying to do all the time. What I end up doing is changing the configuration back and forth between popping up and standing around. And it's not because I love messing around, it's because Microsoft UI is utter crap!
I could go on... but the point is most drunken hobos could design a better window manager than windows 98.