Yes, this is slashdot, where the trolls get more rabid and the moderators get more irrational, but remember, folks, it isn't just you: the whole WWW gets uglier with each passing day.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the creators of all cool-looking animated movie files for their work, because I'd rather be watching their movies than reading their HTML.
What inspired me, in my baseless ranting? I'm glad you asked! Not only does the story linked from slashdot look horrible, but so does its HTML--it's really broken. The HTML tag is commented out, the ads are in JavaScript, so not only are they annoying, but they output broken HTML if Java/JavaScript is not turned on; the commenting looks like some of the joking in the polls (this is the TITLE tag...), and the background and page layout doesn't scale at all.
Beyond that, their Terms & Conditions are also a travesty. First, the whole thing is invalid because condition #1 is false!
(I have no User Account with them, and I wish I didn't have to have one for *EVERY* frickin' web site I ever visit. That isn't the answer. A universal ID isn't, either, but I'm sure we could use some sort of common challenge/response method, at least...)
Let's hope our friends at Slashdot don't have an account, because you're not allowed to link below the main page of their site without express written permission from the webmaster. Oh, and you can only display the page on the screen or on paper, so you'd better delete that netscape cache...
You also need their express written permission to use the trademarks "The Times" and "The Sunday Times". So can I say "My grandfather likes to read The Sunday Times"? Can I write it? Sue me already, I'd love to see it.
Oh, and my favorite: we reserve the right to add or change this agreement, so if you do something we don't like, we can change that contract you agreed to, and sue you under the new one. Yeah, that's fair.
Summary: Screw corporations. Take back the web. If you need to have a DISCLAIMER on a web page, feel a need to sue your client base, or don't want to learn how to write HTML correctly, leave. If you'd rather make pretty pictures and movies, and let everyone see them, stay. --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
We of issue world who are [a]. [Linux] put thorough. We of issue world who are against gravel put thorough. We are Window. We are Door. We are [Microsoft]. We are plate. We are disengaged. [Linux] [on]. bad Window [on]. affable [Linux] [on]. bad Window [on]. affable. [Ender's] Lame regulations. We of issue world who are [a]. [Linux] put thorough. Finland [on]. inferior.
Oh yeah, I know how it happens, but I don't know why they do it. But these are technical sites, people! They should know enough not to do this, or at least clean up after a bad authoring tool.
(My text editor never uses a non-standard character set, therefore it's a great authoring tool!;)
I've seen this the most with Office--the latest version of Office only outputs good HTML for the latest version of IE for the latest version of Windows--sometimes.
(no, of course they aren't tied together, Microsoft would *never* do that, they just make up standards that no one has heard of before--the Microsoft Standards. Fun fun fun...) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Well, I've seen some of the e-mails that were tossed around when OpenBSD split, and some of the server logs...
You're right about the "script kiddies don't write their own material" part, in the strict definition of one, Theo knows enough to write his own tools if he has to.
But he *acts* like a script kiddie, which I guess was my point. Also, OpenBSD would be a good target user base. Hey, at least we'd get some script kiddies with real sysadmin skills, right? Future BOFH's of the world, unite! --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Why do people have to mangle the charset on these pages? It's almost unreadable in Solaris, with all those "?"'s littering it.
It's good to see something like this in an interview, though:
Unless security is your primary consideration, you probably aren?t going to use OpenBSD for all of your Unix servers. Linux, FreeBSD and NetBSD all excel in various areas where OpenBSD does not. However, OpenBSD certainly has its place, and should be part of any network administrator?s toolkit. For your most security-sensitive tasks, OpenBSD is very likely to be ?the right tool for the right job.?
Many Linux distros are great for a catch-all, newbie-friendly OS, whereas most BSD's (I've heard, I haven't used any of them extensively) feel more like a traditional Unix out-of-the-box.
(*please*, no "*BSD is Unix, Linux is not blah blah blah" comments. Because they're free, they both have *no* official "Unix" code, it was taken out of *BSD, and was never in Linux, but they share the same kernel interface, which is good enough for me)
For a Linux alternative, use FreeBSD. For other platforms, use NetBSD. If you like the way Linux does things, use Linux. Need security? Run OpenBSD. Want media/SMP goodies and a pretty interface? Get BeOS. etc., etc., etc.
They all have their niches, and *advocacy* involves recognizing that, and using the tool that's right for the job. So it's good to see some real BSD advocacy. --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
"Mr. D" fits right in here on Slashdot, I like that DIME-WARNER reference.
It's good to see an artist who understands that the problem isn't the sanctity of copyright, it's the corruption of the music industry. Now that an alternative exists, no one wants to help support an institution so foul that some people would even go to illegal means to do so.
Personally, I've been thinking of signing up for one of those music clubs--"11 free CDs for the price of 1!" Assume shipping and handling, and ~15 for a CD, and it comes out to between $2-3 for each CD. I consider that to be a fair price. It's way above manufacturing costs, and still mostly profit. The problem I'm having is finding enough CDs that they offer, that I actually like. But I could at least fill out my collection some, since I haven't been buying anything new for a while. (once it started getting over $14, I said "fuck it", and only bought used stuff...)
Darn terms getting in the way. I tend to reserve "Pure Evil", or evil-with-a-capital-E (Evil) for that, but yeah, it's at least annoying, and at mose somewhat evil.:)
I guess if someone included *ALL* of your code and nothing else in a package, and said "since this is under the BSDL and it is compatible with the GPL, I can release it as such", and changed the name, and listed you in the CREDITS and whatnot, then yes, they could. But that'd be a pissy thing to do. But if you had a clause forbidding it, it wouldn't be GPL-compatible anymore.:|
I'm still waiting for Microsoft to quietly release the Wine project on top of BSD with proprietary modifications as the next version of Windows, and say "See? Look at the lower system requirements, smaller code base, and excellent native POSIX compatibility we have now! If you want to pay extra, we'll even throw in an X-Se^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Next Generation Terminal Server functionality! (xhost +)"...;) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Credit is fine, but the first startup logo? That's what that "CREDITS" file is for. I'm sure the consumer doesn't know or care what "Jet3D" is, and if it was the first logo, *I'D* think I had bought a flight simulator by accident. Only the programmers would really care, so put it in something they'd read, don't force everyone else to see it (FIRST!)...
They also aren't *just* asking for credit. They're asking for either source code (to all your stuff, like a GPL'ed library, not an LGPL'ed one) or barring that, a private commercial licensing agreement. Quite a bit more than credit, I'd say.
I thought the old BSD license (advertising clause) was somewhat evil as well. If everyone did that, and was bound by it, we'd have all sorts of "sponsored by, blah blah blah" in every project. This license is worse because if another project did this, they'd be incompatible. (unless you displayed both logos simultaneously, so they could both be "FIRST"... In fact, XOR them together!;)
That clause in the BSDL was all that stopped it from being shareable with the GPL. (sharing the code back, though, is problematic, unless the author of said code simultaneously releases it under the BSDL, etc., etc., which makes the GPL somewhat evil, from the other perspective...)
Maybe a lot of thought, time and effort went into their product, but it doesn't look like it went into their license. I'd much rather people used one of the pre-existing, boilerplate licenses with commonly known restrictions and effects. It makes these issues much easier.
My other question was somewhat rhetorical, as in leading up to the next conclusion: no matter how great this library is, write your own so everyone can use it without these restrictions. --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Yeah, I was just joking, some people on slashdot can't grasp that. I try not to offend gay people, just humorless people. And sometimes humor gets a little too close to the truth, but... well, that's parody for you.
I doubt real homophobes are encouraged by other's use of slang. They might be repressed, or confused, but I hope they aren't that easily manipulated.
Remember, people, gay means happy! You *do* want people to be happy, right? If you didn't want that, that would certainly be queer... um, strange. Because queer means strange...
Oh, but I wasn't kidding about the lawyer part.:) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
The license looked like a standard NPL-ish thing until I got to this clause:
You must display the original unmodified Jet3D logo as the first logo on startup of your product, demo or application. You must also prominently display the Jet3D logo on any marketing materials, advertising or packaging of your product.
That's somewhat evil. Apparently you can change it and use it in your product as long as you give them back the changes, and keep your product open source. Otherwise, you must negotiate an agreement with them (if you want to keep it closed source)... So you could make a Linux version of this or whatnot, I'm guessing, but everyone would still be bound by the original license agreement? Might as well just write a 3D engine from scratch, or build off of whatever's out there. (id?)
This sounds really neat. I never made anything out of lego mindstorms, but I'm pretty impressed by any kid's toy that has a programming language, or allows you to build a scanner, a computer case, a Millenium Falcon, etc., etc.
In other news, a new subatomic particle was discovered: the legon. It turns out that there are many varieties of these interlocking particles, and they form the building blocks of reality, bonded together by duct tape. It is speculated that virtual worlds might be composed of pure legons without duct tape, presently referred to as "Zowie!" particles. Yow, are we virtual yet!?!!!
And if I hear anyone rant about the plural of lego being 'lego' and not legos or legoes or leggo my eggo or anything else, I'm going to stuff legos down their pants. (ha ha ha, a new slashdot trend!) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
It's a reasonable argument. It isn't *completely* wrong, but it has some problems...
Personally, *I* wouldn't even want to touch Microsoft's code! Their code would be invaluable for finding out how they really implement a particular feature, but I wouldn't necessarily want to copy their implementation.
Porting Wine to DOS would be much easier than cleaning up Microsoft's code. The code base is *much* smaller, and it has similar levels of functionality. Also, the extra features should be implemented much quicker with more code and more interested parties. (look at what Corel's support did for the project. Now think about what would happen if everybody got interested in it...)
Also, then Windows really would be free, and its source would be a lot cleaner, and it could run on anything x86, with Unix vendors free to hack in everything else. And it would run on Unix on Merced, quite likely.
As Windows is right now, yes, it's a huge mess. But it doesn't have to be. Bug-for-bug compatibility sucks, but hopefully some of that would get phased out over time, just like Windows does now. And if the Microsoft code had to be used, the first thing that would happen is a massive code cleanup, making the Mozillia project look like a cakewalk.
Of course, this might also mean that Windows would never *die*, and we'd all have little Windows apps mixed in with our X apps.:( --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
That is a beautiful article, and a wondrous solution. If I could have mod points, and the Score could go above 5, I'd give the points to you.
I've often wondered why it is that MS couldn't simply play fair, even with this lawsuit and the facts staring them in the face. They always release their apps to the Mac late, and now that Linux has at least as much market share, they still try to ignore it as a viable platform (even if it would make them money!).
But they've always had the gall to completely ignore the industry, their customers, their supporters and detractors, and only follow the money. Well guess what, that approach isn't working anymore. Following the money only ends up hurting everyone, including yourself for not seeing further money-making opportunities down the road when people like you and aren't conspiring against you. Microsoft isn't stupid, but their greed clouds their judgement, even still.
I'd love to see an actual "Open API" attitute to standards across the board, but I don't think it'll ever happen. The only solution right now seems to be to create competing open standards and patent them to keep them open.
Microsoft is a problem, but they aren't the only problem. I'd like to be able to legally use and create mp3's, gif's, and perhaps one day mp4's. I'd like to have a chance in hell of playing Sorensen encoded Quicktime 4 movies on Linux. I'd like to be able to write or use a truly free software DVD player without being branded a criminal.
There's something very wrong with the current laws and climate towards computer standards and intellectual property. There's nothing wrong with making a little money, but don't do it on the standards, do it on the apps! Would you play baseball if someone charged you for "using" the official rules? Of course not, you'd play wiffleball and softball if you had to, but you'd *want* to play baseball, and maybe you'd be forced to do it in secret... --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
But seriously, I meant this as a law of Hardware Envelopment, as a counterpoint to this one.
The Law of Software Envelopment: "Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs that cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can." -- JWZ
Examples of this are Emacs and Netscape.
Therefore:
Proposed Law of Hardware Envelopment: "Every console attempts to expand until it can play mp3's. Those consoles that cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can." -- PDB
You scared me for a second there. I didn't think they had a WinCE port of Quake 3 *yet*, or for that matter an x86 translator for the SH4, they'll have to get Transmeta working on it right away...;)
Yeah, but will the X-Box run Linux? (it could if it wants to be both a "Cheap-PC" *and* an "X-Box", I mean, my cheap PC is an X box because it runs Linux...) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Well, they're going to port Quake III:Arena to it, so I think it'll kick a *lot* of ass.:)
They also will have an mp3 player for it... Is there a new law that says hardware devices expand until they can play mp3's?
I'm surprised they aren't selling internet access like WebTV or something, though. And I'm sure Sega could have the best VRML plug-ins ever!;) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Hmm, that's funny. I thought the "king of floating point" was what made *Intel* absolutely superior to everyone else.
I concede that the cache speed is a problem for AMD, although in most benchmarks it seems to affect things perhaps less than optimizing for Intel chips does, and maybe makes the Athlon comarable in speed to the PIII, I have run into situations on my K6 where programs run horribly because of the cache. However, people need to start writing code with less cache misses where possible! Smaller is still better, a lot of the time. But AMD is working on that anyhow, just like Intel is working on actually releasing 1Ghz chips in any measurable quantity.
Also, Intel has major problems with (guess what?) overclockability, high power consumption, not producing reliable chips in quantity, not selling them for reasonable (market?) prices, and high operating temps! When you're pushing the chips this hard, they're *all* going to have these problems. I admit that the Athlon is a beast, but it's also faster, clock-for-clock, than the PIII core, which explains the extra transistors.
As to the future: Intel will have their new (slower for x86!) next generation architecture, while AMD will have... copper interconnects? Faster cache speeds? Even faster 64bit x86-compatible chips? Well, we'll see what the future brings, but I know who I'm rooting for.
And if you really want overclockability, low power consumption, good operating temps, etc., etc., don't look to fast chips from Intel *or* AMD, but rather wait for Transmeta or get a PPC chip or something. --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
This is not an insightful post. It is an extremely *REDUNDANT* post. Every time there is a post that gets moderated up for good reason someone has to jump in with the "This post isn't a new idea because I saw it on slashdot before, so you didn't really come up with this idea" post.
There's no insight in that anymore.
Or, rather, maybe someone thought it was *still* a valid point. The "Amiga back from the grave" is a redundant *SLASHDOT* story, so I'd expect some of the same kinds of comments. Quit your bitching, and don't waste our time encouraging downward moderation for good posts. Maybe someone *else* hasn't seen it before, or maybe you could post some *content* instead of whining.
Now I'll try to do my part. The closest thing I've seen to a modern Amiga these days is BeOS. However, the Amiga was also an impressive beast with its own special integrated hardware. Perhaps if a 'Be Box' was aggressively marketed as "The Next Amiga" and had really awesome graphics hardware, (read: decent support for at least one 3D-accelerator that it ships with, DVD, large HD, lots of RAM, popular editing applications...) we'd have a cool new toaster again!
But it probably won't happen, and all that intuitive interface stuff is just wasted on a Unix dude like me...:) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
How different is USB and Firewire in design from SCSI? On the face of it, they sound like very similar technologies, except that USB is built-in with less hassle. But I haven't checked it out in any detail, as is usually the case with me and most hardware I don't own (either one, as it happens).
Also, I was wondering about those USB keyboards: do I really need to be typing that fast? Do you think Word can keep up, or would the paperclip get dizzy?;) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Read this article, and read the last one, too; it's really funny. It looks like Wyse is floundering here. Let's look at some of their reasons.
Old article:
Wyse Technology has put Linux at the heart of its newest "thin-client" product, bumping Java aside as the best way to power the low-cost networked machines. [...] Previously, Wyse developed a machine based on the Java operating system and took it to a test market, during which Wyse learned "that this product was not meeting the needs of their customers," said a spokesman for the company. [...] Wyse also sells a line of thin clients based on Microsoft's Windows CE operating system, but those are able to connect only to Windows servers, McNaught said.
So what did we learn? Java doesn't meet the needs of their customers (for this particular device), and WinCE isn't appropriate because it only plays well with Windows machines...
New article:
Wyse Technology, the leading maker of dumbed-down computers known as thin clients, is retooling its product line for the home market. [...] The company uses Windows CE in its low-priced machines, McNaught said. Its more powerful ones use Embedded Windows NT, which is more powerful but requires more expensive hardware. [...] "Linux wasn't really the right solution," McNaught said. "I think Linux is going to be a huge deal on servers, but what we found out was it's too limiting on clients." [...] The foray into Linux did, however, give Wyse enough leverage to persuade Microsoft that a version of the Internet Explorer Web browser would be a major improvement to the Windows CE machines, he added.
New information? Well, instead of using one version of Windows, they have *two* versions: a 'light' version of windows, and an 'enterprise light'? I guess Windows doesn't scale well anywhere...
We get another "doesn't work for our customers" response, but this time with respect to Linux, not Java. Well, their customers changed, sort of. Now they seem to be targeting the home market first, with buisness second, although I fail to see where barcode reader support enters into the home market.
In business, selling a complete solution gets rid of this problem, but to simply integrate with existing systems, driver support is good. By supporting the right network protocols on a real network (business user), Linux is obviously the answer over Windows, but for actual physical driver support (home user) Windows will always have better driver support as long as companies only write for Windows (or not release source under a decent license...).
And finally... IE on a light machine?!?? Aggh! Not only does it not have enough *space* on the screen to display 95% of the web, it doesn't have enough storage space to store IE! And if it *does* get ported, (IE Light? Wait for WinCE ActDesk?) there will be a looong list of IE supported platforms before Linux *ever* gets there. Wow, the free IE web browser, specifically ported to everything but Linux, along with the complementary Office suite, which runs on Windows now and Mac a year later...
So Wyse doesn't have a business strategy. They're flailing around looking for a solution, an answer, a magic bullet. And if Java or Linux ain't it, I just *know* Windows ain't it. But changing your target market helps. There's a big market for products based around all three technologies, if they're produced and marketed right. But picking one and sticking to it is just as important as finding a strategy and identifying a market.
Does anyone know if this National Semiconductor processor (Geode?) is a descendant of the Cyrix MediaGX? I want to know if Wyse also had to switch chips on this one, or if it just got renamed in the shuffle.
And is Wyse going to release the new Amigas too?;)
I also find no mention Transmeta in the low-end net computer market amusing. It fits their business strategy... --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Thanks, though. There aren't as many VESA 2.0 compliant video cards out there as you might think. (this compared to ATAPI CD-ROM drives, say.) I hate proprietary hardware interfaces... --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Okay, I booted the thing, I'm posting this with BeOS... This time I stuck it on another drive, but it turns out the drive wasn't the issue. All my stuff is on an extended partition, so it's more of a DOS compatibility issue than a Linux one. (the installer didn't find anything in extended partitions when I checked it, but BeOS can read the raw drive just fine. Am I doing something wrong?)
Anyhow, first impressions: networking was really easy to set up, since it knows about my 3c905, and the layout UI is some MacOS / Windows hybrid which should be easy for novices to figure out. However, the command prompt is GNU Utils all the way, with should be great for us power users who don't care about that darn GUI thing.:)
My video card isn't supported out of the box, (it's a crappy Trident PCI card) so this is all in 640x480, grayscale. I don't have sound yet, but my TV card works, and since I have networking I'm going to look for drivers now. The default web browser is okay, (loads slashdot, lets me log in, can't see my user page though) and once Be gets more driver support out-of-the-box, (I guess there's more on the CD) and more applications running on it, (Windows compatibility layer?) this should be a killer OS! I like the anti-aliased text, even in grayscale. I'd like to see that on X more often... --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, this is slashdot, where the trolls get more rabid and the moderators get more irrational, but remember, folks, it isn't just you: the whole WWW gets uglier with each passing day.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the creators of all cool-looking animated movie files for their work, because I'd rather be watching their movies than reading their HTML.
What inspired me, in my baseless ranting? I'm glad you asked! Not only does the story linked from slashdot look horrible, but so does its HTML--it's really broken. The HTML tag is commented out, the ads are in JavaScript, so not only are they annoying, but they output broken HTML if Java/JavaScript is not turned on; the commenting looks like some of the joking in the polls (this is the TITLE tag...), and the background and page layout doesn't scale at all.
Beyond that, their Terms & Conditions are also a travesty. First, the whole thing is invalid because condition #1 is false!
(I have no User Account with them, and I wish I didn't have to have one for *EVERY* frickin' web site I ever visit. That isn't the answer. A universal ID isn't, either, but I'm sure we could use some sort of common challenge/response method, at least...)
Let's hope our friends at Slashdot don't have an account, because you're not allowed to link below the main page of their site without express written permission from the webmaster. Oh, and you can only display the page on the screen or on paper, so you'd better delete that netscape cache...
You also need their express written permission to use the trademarks "The Times" and "The Sunday Times". So can I say "My grandfather likes to read The Sunday Times"? Can I write it? Sue me already, I'd love to see it.
Oh, and my favorite: we reserve the right to add or change this agreement, so if you do something we don't like, we can change that contract you agreed to, and sue you under the new one. Yeah, that's fair.
Summary: Screw corporations. Take back the web. If you need to have a DISCLAIMER on a web page, feel a need to sue your client base, or don't want to learn how to write HTML correctly, leave. If you'd rather make pretty pictures and movies, and let everyone see them, stay.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
We of issue world who are [a]. [Linux] put thorough. We of issue world who are against gravel put thorough. We are Window. We are
Door. We are [Microsoft]. We are plate. We are disengaged. [Linux] [on]. bad Window [on]. affable [Linux] [on]. bad Window [on]. affable.
[Ender's] Lame regulations. We of issue world who are [a]. [Linux] put thorough. Finland [on]. inferior.
InterTran
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Well, make your own decisions. The information is easy enough to find, and Theo's e-mail is damning enough.
However, this is what I was talking about before -- I finally found the reference. It's sad how information can die out, on the net.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Oh yeah, I know how it happens, but I don't know why they do it. But these are technical sites, people! They should know enough not to do this, or at least clean up after a bad authoring tool.
;)
(My text editor never uses a non-standard character set, therefore it's a great authoring tool!
I've seen this the most with Office--the latest version of Office only outputs good HTML for the latest version of IE for the latest version of Windows--sometimes.
(no, of course they aren't tied together, Microsoft would *never* do that, they just make up standards that no one has heard of before--the Microsoft Standards. Fun fun fun...)
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Well, I've seen some of the e-mails that were tossed around when OpenBSD split, and some of the server logs...
You're right about the "script kiddies don't write their own material" part, in the strict definition of one, Theo knows enough to write his own tools if he has to.
But he *acts* like a script kiddie, which I guess was my point. Also, OpenBSD would be a good target user base. Hey, at least we'd get some script kiddies with real sysadmin skills, right? Future BOFH's of the world, unite!
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Yep, it's good to have the OS creator set an example for the users. Then if you want to be that profile, you can use that OS, right?
Bill Gates -- rich capitalist demigod
Linus Torvalds -- kernel hacker and all around nice guy
Theo de Raadt -- K-K00l 5kR1p7 k1DD1e!!1!
OpenBSD: the choice of the next generation of Slashdot users. *sigh*
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
It's good to see something like this in an interview, though:
Many Linux distros are great for a catch-all, newbie-friendly OS, whereas most BSD's (I've heard, I haven't used any of them extensively) feel more like a traditional Unix out-of-the-box.
(*please*, no "*BSD is Unix, Linux is not blah blah blah" comments. Because they're free, they both have *no* official "Unix" code, it was taken out of *BSD, and was never in Linux, but they share the same kernel interface, which is good enough for me)
For a Linux alternative, use FreeBSD. For other platforms, use NetBSD. If you like the way Linux does things, use Linux. Need security? Run OpenBSD. Want media/SMP goodies and a pretty interface? Get BeOS. etc., etc., etc.
They all have their niches, and *advocacy* involves recognizing that, and using the tool that's right for the job. So it's good to see some real BSD advocacy.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Drinking and coding is bad news: look what it did to Cox and the Linux kernel!
Although the DOS compatibility is a nice side-effect, after kicking back a few... I guess...
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
"Mr. D" fits right in here on Slashdot, I like that DIME-WARNER reference.
It's good to see an artist who understands that the problem isn't the sanctity of copyright, it's the corruption of the music industry. Now that an alternative exists, no one wants to help support an institution so foul that some people would even go to illegal means to do so.
Personally, I've been thinking of signing up for one of those music clubs--"11 free CDs for the price of 1!" Assume shipping and handling, and ~15 for a CD, and it comes out to between $2-3 for each CD. I consider that to be a fair price. It's way above manufacturing costs, and still mostly profit. The problem I'm having is finding enough CDs that they offer, that I actually like. But I could at least fill out my collection some, since I haven't been buying anything new for a while. (once it started getting over $14, I said "fuck it", and only bought used stuff...)
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Darn terms getting in the way. I tend to reserve "Pure Evil", or evil-with-a-capital-E (Evil) for that, but yeah, it's at least annoying, and at mose somewhat evil. :)
:|
;)
I guess if someone included *ALL* of your code and nothing else in a package, and said "since this is under the BSDL and it is compatible with the GPL, I can release it as such", and changed the name, and listed you in the CREDITS and whatnot, then yes, they could. But that'd be a pissy thing to do. But if you had a clause forbidding it, it wouldn't be GPL-compatible anymore.
I'm still waiting for Microsoft to quietly release the Wine project on top of BSD with proprietary modifications as the next version of Windows, and say "See? Look at the lower system requirements, smaller code base, and excellent native POSIX compatibility we have now! If you want to pay extra, we'll even throw in an X-Se^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Next Generation Terminal Server functionality! (xhost +)"...
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Credit is fine, but the first startup logo? That's what that "CREDITS" file is for. I'm sure the consumer doesn't know or care what "Jet3D" is, and if it was the first logo, *I'D* think I had bought a flight simulator by accident. Only the programmers would really care, so put it in something they'd read, don't force everyone else to see it (FIRST!)...
;)
They also aren't *just* asking for credit. They're asking for either source code (to all your stuff, like a GPL'ed library, not an LGPL'ed one) or barring that, a private commercial licensing agreement. Quite a bit more than credit, I'd say.
I thought the old BSD license (advertising clause) was somewhat evil as well. If everyone did that, and was bound by it, we'd have all sorts of "sponsored by, blah blah blah" in every project. This license is worse because if another project did this, they'd be incompatible. (unless you displayed both logos simultaneously, so they could both be "FIRST"... In fact, XOR them together!
That clause in the BSDL was all that stopped it from being shareable with the GPL. (sharing the code back, though, is problematic, unless the author of said code simultaneously releases it under the BSDL, etc., etc., which makes the GPL somewhat evil, from the other perspective...)
Maybe a lot of thought, time and effort went into their product, but it doesn't look like it went into their license. I'd much rather people used one of the pre-existing, boilerplate licenses with commonly known restrictions and effects. It makes these issues much easier.
My other question was somewhat rhetorical, as in leading up to the next conclusion: no matter how great this library is, write your own so everyone can use it without these restrictions.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Yeah, I was just joking, some people on slashdot can't grasp that. I try not to offend gay people, just humorless people. And sometimes humor gets a little too close to the truth, but... well, that's parody for you.
:)
I doubt real homophobes are encouraged by other's use of slang. They might be repressed, or confused, but I hope they aren't that easily manipulated.
Remember, people, gay means happy! You *do* want people to be happy, right? If you didn't want that, that would certainly be queer... um, strange. Because queer means strange...
Oh, but I wasn't kidding about the lawyer part.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
The license looked like a standard NPL-ish thing until I got to this clause:
That's somewhat evil. Apparently you can change it and use it in your product as long as you give them back the changes, and keep your product open source. Otherwise, you must negotiate an agreement with them (if you want to keep it closed source)... So you could make a Linux version of this or whatnot, I'm guessing, but everyone would still be bound by the original license agreement? Might as well just write a 3D engine from scratch, or build off of whatever's out there. (id?)
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
This sounds really neat. I never made anything out of lego mindstorms, but I'm pretty impressed by any kid's toy that has a programming language, or allows you to build a scanner, a computer case, a Millenium Falcon, etc., etc.
In other news, a new subatomic particle was discovered: the legon. It turns out that there are many varieties of these interlocking particles, and they form the building blocks of reality, bonded together by duct tape. It is speculated that virtual worlds might be composed of pure legons without duct tape, presently referred to as "Zowie!" particles. Yow, are we virtual yet!?!!!
And if I hear anyone rant about the plural of lego being 'lego' and not legos or legoes or leggo my eggo or anything else, I'm going to stuff legos down their pants. (ha ha ha, a new slashdot trend!)
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
It's a reasonable argument. It isn't *completely* wrong, but it has some problems...
:(
Personally, *I* wouldn't even want to touch Microsoft's code! Their code would be invaluable for finding out how they really implement a particular feature, but I wouldn't necessarily want to copy their implementation.
Porting Wine to DOS would be much easier than cleaning up Microsoft's code. The code base is *much* smaller, and it has similar levels of functionality. Also, the extra features should be implemented much quicker with more code and more interested parties. (look at what Corel's support did for the project. Now think about what would happen if everybody got interested in it...)
Also, then Windows really would be free, and its source would be a lot cleaner, and it could run on anything x86, with Unix vendors free to hack in everything else. And it would run on Unix on Merced, quite likely.
As Windows is right now, yes, it's a huge mess. But it doesn't have to be. Bug-for-bug compatibility sucks, but hopefully some of that would get phased out over time, just like Windows does now. And if the Microsoft code had to be used, the first thing that would happen is a massive code cleanup, making the Mozillia project look like a cakewalk.
Of course, this might also mean that Windows would never *die*, and we'd all have little Windows apps mixed in with our X apps.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
That is a beautiful article, and a wondrous solution. If I could have mod points, and the Score could go above 5, I'd give the points to you.
I've often wondered why it is that MS couldn't simply play fair, even with this lawsuit and the facts staring them in the face. They always release their apps to the Mac late, and now that Linux has at least as much market share, they still try to ignore it as a viable platform (even if it would make them money!).
But they've always had the gall to completely ignore the industry, their customers, their supporters and detractors, and only follow the money. Well guess what, that approach isn't working anymore. Following the money only ends up hurting everyone, including yourself for not seeing further money-making opportunities down the road when people like you and aren't conspiring against you. Microsoft isn't stupid, but their greed clouds their judgement, even still.
I'd love to see an actual "Open API" attitute to standards across the board, but I don't think it'll ever happen. The only solution right now seems to be to create competing open standards and patent them to keep them open.
Microsoft is a problem, but they aren't the only problem. I'd like to be able to legally use and create mp3's, gif's, and perhaps one day mp4's. I'd like to have a chance in hell of playing Sorensen encoded Quicktime 4 movies on Linux. I'd like to be able to write or use a truly free software DVD player without being branded a criminal.
There's something very wrong with the current laws and climate towards computer standards and intellectual property. There's nothing wrong with making a little money, but don't do it on the standards, do it on the apps! Would you play baseball if someone charged you for "using" the official rules? Of course not, you'd play wiffleball and softball if you had to, but you'd *want* to play baseball, and maybe you'd be forced to do it in secret...
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
It could be expanding very slowly. :)
But seriously, I meant this as a law of Hardware Envelopment, as a counterpoint to this one.
The Law of Software Envelopment:
"Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs that cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can." -- JWZ
Examples of this are Emacs and Netscape.
Therefore:
Proposed Law of Hardware Envelopment:
"Every console attempts to expand until it can play mp3's. Those consoles that cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can." -- PDB
Comments?
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
You scared me for a second there. I didn't think they had a WinCE port of Quake 3 *yet*, or for that matter an x86 translator for the SH4, they'll have to get Transmeta working on it right away... ;)
Yeah, but will the X-Box run Linux? (it could if it wants to be both a "Cheap-PC" *and* an "X-Box", I mean, my cheap PC is an X box because it runs Linux...)
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Well, they're going to port Quake III:Arena to it, so I think it'll kick a *lot* of ass. :)
;)
They also will have an mp3 player for it... Is there a new law that says hardware devices expand until they can play mp3's?
I'm surprised they aren't selling internet access like WebTV or something, though. And I'm sure Sega could have the best VRML plug-ins ever!
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Hmm, that's funny. I thought the "king of floating point" was what made *Intel* absolutely superior to everyone else.
I concede that the cache speed is a problem for AMD, although in most benchmarks it seems to affect things perhaps less than optimizing for Intel chips does, and maybe makes the Athlon comarable in speed to the PIII, I have run into situations on my K6 where programs run horribly because of the cache. However, people need to start writing code with less cache misses where possible! Smaller is still better, a lot of the time. But AMD is working on that anyhow, just like Intel is working on actually releasing 1Ghz chips in any measurable quantity.
Also, Intel has major problems with (guess what?) overclockability, high power consumption, not producing reliable chips in quantity, not selling them for reasonable (market?) prices, and high operating temps! When you're pushing the chips this hard, they're *all* going to have these problems. I admit that the Athlon is a beast, but it's also faster, clock-for-clock, than the PIII core, which explains the extra transistors.
As to the future: Intel will have their new (slower for x86!) next generation architecture, while AMD will have... copper interconnects? Faster cache speeds? Even faster 64bit x86-compatible chips? Well, we'll see what the future brings, but I know who I'm rooting for.
And if you really want overclockability, low power consumption, good operating temps, etc., etc., don't look to fast chips from Intel *or* AMD, but rather wait for Transmeta or get a PPC chip or something.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
This is not an insightful post. It is an extremely *REDUNDANT* post. Every time there is a post that gets moderated up for good reason someone has to jump in with the "This post isn't a new idea because I saw it on slashdot before, so you didn't really come up with this idea" post.
:)
There's no insight in that anymore.
Or, rather, maybe someone thought it was *still* a valid point. The "Amiga back from the grave" is a redundant *SLASHDOT* story, so I'd expect some of the same kinds of comments. Quit your bitching, and don't waste our time encouraging downward moderation for good posts. Maybe someone *else* hasn't seen it before, or maybe you could post some *content* instead of whining.
Now I'll try to do my part. The closest thing I've seen to a modern Amiga these days is BeOS. However, the Amiga was also an impressive beast with its own special integrated hardware. Perhaps if a 'Be Box' was aggressively marketed as "The Next Amiga" and had really awesome graphics hardware, (read: decent support for at least one 3D-accelerator that it ships with, DVD, large HD, lots of RAM, popular editing applications...) we'd have a cool new toaster again!
But it probably won't happen, and all that intuitive interface stuff is just wasted on a Unix dude like me...
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
How different is USB and Firewire in design from SCSI? On the face of it, they sound like very similar technologies, except that USB is built-in with less hassle. But I haven't checked it out in any detail, as is usually the case with me and most hardware I don't own (either one, as it happens).
;)
Also, I was wondering about those USB keyboards: do I really need to be typing that fast? Do you think Word can keep up, or would the paperclip get dizzy?
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Old article:
So what did we learn? Java doesn't meet the needs of their customers (for this particular device), and WinCE isn't appropriate because it only plays well with Windows machines...
New article:
New information? Well, instead of using one version of Windows, they have *two* versions: a 'light' version of windows, and an 'enterprise light'? I guess Windows doesn't scale well anywhere...
We get another "doesn't work for our customers" response, but this time with respect to Linux, not Java. Well, their customers changed, sort of. Now they seem to be targeting the home market first, with buisness second, although I fail to see where barcode reader support enters into the home market.
In business, selling a complete solution gets rid of this problem, but to simply integrate with existing systems, driver support is good. By supporting the right network protocols on a real network (business user), Linux is obviously the answer over Windows, but for actual physical driver support (home user) Windows will always have better driver support as long as companies only write for Windows (or not release source under a decent license...).
And finally... IE on a light machine?!?? Aggh! Not only does it not have enough *space* on the screen to display 95% of the web, it doesn't have enough storage space to store IE! And if it *does* get ported, (IE Light? Wait for WinCE ActDesk?) there will be a looong list of IE supported platforms before Linux *ever* gets there. Wow, the free IE web browser, specifically ported to everything but Linux, along with the complementary Office suite, which runs on Windows now and Mac a year later...
So Wyse doesn't have a business strategy. They're flailing around looking for a solution, an answer, a magic bullet. And if Java or Linux ain't it, I just *know* Windows ain't it. But changing your target market helps. There's a big market for products based around all three technologies, if they're produced and marketed right. But picking one and sticking to it is just as important as finding a strategy and identifying a market.
Does anyone know if this National Semiconductor processor (Geode?) is a descendant of the Cyrix MediaGX? I want to know if Wyse also had to switch chips on this one, or if it just got renamed in the shuffle.
And is Wyse going to release the new Amigas too?
I also find no mention Transmeta in the low-end net computer market amusing. It fits their business strategy...
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
No, it doesn't, or I'd do that in Linux. :)
Thanks, though. There aren't as many VESA 2.0 compliant video cards out there as you might think. (this compared to ATAPI CD-ROM drives, say.) I hate proprietary hardware interfaces...
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Okay, I booted the thing, I'm posting this with BeOS... This time I stuck it on another drive, but it turns out the drive wasn't the issue. All my stuff is on an extended partition, so it's more of a DOS compatibility issue than a Linux one. (the installer didn't find anything in extended partitions when I checked it, but BeOS can read the raw drive just fine. Am I doing something wrong?)
:)
Anyhow, first impressions: networking was really easy to set up, since it knows about my 3c905, and the layout UI is some MacOS / Windows hybrid which should be easy for novices to figure out. However, the command prompt is GNU Utils all the way, with should be great for us power users who don't care about that darn GUI thing.
My video card isn't supported out of the box, (it's a crappy Trident PCI card) so this is all in 640x480, grayscale. I don't have sound yet, but my TV card works, and since I have networking I'm going to look for drivers now. The default web browser is okay, (loads slashdot, lets me log in, can't see my user page though) and once Be gets more driver support out-of-the-box, (I guess there's more on the CD) and more applications running on it, (Windows compatibility layer?) this should be a killer OS! I like the anti-aliased text, even in grayscale. I'd like to see that on X more often...
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.