This was the/exact/ same argument that Audio CD Manufacturers used against jettisonning the boxes and just distributing the jewel cases. I remember Peter Townshend confronting a group of Industry folk and whining, "Gentlemen, you need to buy better browsers."
Unfortunately, less than a decade later, I don't think we have the kind of grassroots environmentalism alive to do this again.. There aren't any big media icons involved with software, aside from various CEOs and the 'Linux Nuts'. People are just sick of hearing about how their world is falling apart, because they keep doing the same stupid things, and many environmental concerns seem to have fallen to the wayside as just another story.
The comparison was between a stock Linux, Corel, and BeOS R5 running the new OpenGL.. The idea is to compare a couple showroom cars with the new car that will be coming out soon, not to compare jacked up, hotrodded and nitro'd versions of each car with each other.
We all know Linux can get better OpenGL performance in the hands of someone willing to spend hours tuning it. That's Linux's great strength, and the biggest reason it drives Joe User to the brink of madness, trying to figure out the documentation. BeOS's big strength is that it comes out of the box, running near optimally, and you don't/need/ to recompile a new X server, a new kernel module, then hack a few startup scripts, reading six different docs along the way, two of them outdated and the third not even focussed on what Joe is trying to do.
And I don't think BeNews is claiming this is an end-all, be-all benchmark. They're just commenting that the new OpenGL implementation has come along quite nicely. Take a breath, swallow your meds, and just settle down. This goes for my fellow BeOS zealots, too.. Calm down, guys, you're starting to look like Linux geeks.;)
Mmmm.. I'm not too impressed by either.. V5 and GF2 are both just more of the same technology. V5 has more units, GF2 has a faster clock, and looks like it's going to come out on top between the two.
There's just no spark in the Video Card field anymore.
Actually, I believe a Human would be far easier to beat, in RoShamBo. People tend towards very obvious patterns, and have trouble tracking and analyzing long patterns of prior (and remarkably dull) data. A Markov chain system, with some weighting to make it/look/ like it isn't a Markov chain system, should outwit paltry humans.
By the time that the hardware costs for manufacturing have been reduced to the point where the DC and PS2 are profitable at their current price, I believe we will see that the prices will drop, much like they have with the Nintendo 64 / Playstation pricewar.
Phillips, Panasonic et Al. will have to join in this pricewar, as well. What would/really/ be cute, is if this licensing could be employed to fashion a legitimate emulator or even some sort of bastardized drop-in card for PCs.
Last I heard, which was the early days of the Connectix controversy, Sony was/still/ taking a slight loss with their dual-shock Playstation package, even though it's been out for four years. But they make up for it with their royalties.
Okay, I've been trying to wrap my head around this for a little while now, and I still can't come up with a reason/why/ some company would want to license and manufacture Dreamcast or PS2-based equipment that would wind up competing with the 'Vanilla' DC or PS2 consoles.
Realize that both the DC and the PS2 are sold at a loss, because Sega and Sony makes their money off a royalty on software sold for the systems. This makes the consoles cheap and palatable by Joe Consumer, so he'll buy one, get hooked, and buy a ton of software at a slightly inflated price. Give them the razor, sell the blades.
Now, it would be ludicrous for another company to try to sell something in the same market space as the DC or PS2, based on the DC or PS2 firmware, because they don't have that software royalty coming in. They'd have to manufacture a DC or PS2 clone, and sell it for more money, probably bundling in a few features as justification to Joe Consumer.
This just seems like one of those worthless Public Relations gestures on the behalf of Sony and Sega, much like many recent companies releasing software as 'Open Source.'
Their malfunction was selling the console for what it actually cost to manufacture. That box was rather pricey, although it/did/ do some fantastic things, for its time.
Later, Sega's Saturn and Sony's Playstation would manage to make high-end hardware more appealing to consumers by selling the console at a loss, and making their money of the licensing of software. The modern equivalent of give away the razor, sell the blades. Sony managed to outlicense Sega, using its entertainment industry clout to muscle past them. Game developers also complained loud and often about the Saturn's APIs being as ugly as they come.
Atari Jaguar tried this, too, but Atari tried to keep all their game development in house, which caused what was a really stellar piece of hardware in the closet, because it had no software to go with it. I think the first game that I had to actually take breaks playing, because it scared the hell out of me, was the Jaguar's Aliens Vs. Predator.
I agree, I have never gotten the same results on multiple host environments from WxWindows, GTK+, or FLTK. My application required a signifigant amount of fine control over the widgets, and their placement, and invariably, one or two of the host environments would need special tweaks.
I would really suggest that you use a seperated front-end, back-end model of development. Write the common application logic in one tree, and have the platform-dependent UI communicate the user's requests and the application's response.
As for using Java for all of this.. I'll use Java once it's mature. All these different runtime environments and the rather hefty configuration requirements on the user to install the runtime that we would require, makes it a real headache for professional developers. We get more support calls on our one Java-2 dependent app than the five other more complex apps in the suite, and most of them are JRE problems.
You sir, are obviously unfamiliar with the common practice of counting how many times a press release uses buzzwords to inflate its own importance, and comparing it to the Microsoft index.
This is a proven method of determining technologies that are in danger of being subsumed by Microsoft; simply count how many meaningless marketing buzzwords are in their inital press release, and divide by the length of the press release, in words.
The higher the result, the more danger of being assimilated. Don't believe me? Take a look at Kerberos. Buzzword saturated, and a Adapt-Expand-Break victim of Win2k.
(And this might also just happen to be a/joke/, sir. Try not to take things so seriously in the future, hm?)
Okay, this is a troll and a half, but my Python-zealotry badge refuses to let me ignore the gauntlet:
You just answered your own question./You/ have your own consistent, easy-to-follow way. I have my own consistent, easy to follow way. My friend has his own consistant, obfuscated perl-hacker-on-meth way. Problem is, when one of us looks at another's code, we have to keep dealing with your new way.
Python makes it a requisite to perform indenting. The sensitivity is something that you can get over, in the course of a few minutes, while you learn the language.
If you/still/ can't handle it, there is a preprocessor available, written in Python, that allows you to use BEGIN.. END style syntax. Just don't expect any Python programmers to respect your silly coding style.;)
It isn't dead, by a long mile.. It's just quiet. There's a free interpreter for most platforms called 'UCBLogo', and its derivative for windows environments, called 'MSWLogo'. I've been using MSWLogo as an environment for introducing elementary school children to procedural thinking and logic, and we plan to use Python for a second phase for students who show a desire to continue learning how to program.
We use Logo, first, because it's got a very high work-to-results ratio for the children. That kind of visual feedback is priceless, for getting them to think in a methodical fashion about a problem. Python requires a bit more of a learning curve before the children get 'interesting' programs that they enjoy, which is why we teach it to them, second.
The idea is, get them addicted, and identify the ones who want to learn more, then switch them onto a professional, albeit gentle, language. I'm still debating whether I'd rather use Pascal than Python, because it's strongly typed, but the quick turnaround for type-it, eval-it environments is nice for teaching.
But I agree with earlier comments. The first rule, is never underestimate your students. The second, is to never slow them down. Once you've given them a foundation, hand them a list of projects to do, and let them move at their own pace in accomplishing them. Younger students prefer praise as a motivator, older students will find their own motivations, and will want a more mentor-like relationship.
Having looked at the reviews at Ars Technica, I'm not terribly impressed with the Xeon's improvement over the Coppermines, especially considering the cost and the recent poor quality of Intel's supporting chipsets. (QA? What's QA?)
Slashdot Mirror
Next thing you know, they'll be producing Python++ and confusing the living hell out of my MS-loving manager!
This was the /exact/ same argument that Audio CD Manufacturers used against jettisonning the boxes and just distributing the jewel cases. I remember Peter Townshend confronting a group of Industry folk and whining, "Gentlemen, you need to buy better browsers."
Unfortunately, less than a decade later, I don't think we have the kind of grassroots environmentalism alive to do this again.. There aren't any big media icons involved with software, aside from various CEOs and the 'Linux Nuts'. People are just sick of hearing about how their world is falling apart, because they keep doing the same stupid things, and many environmental concerns seem to have fallen to the wayside as just another story.
The comparison was between a stock Linux, Corel, and BeOS R5 running the new OpenGL.. The idea is to compare a couple showroom cars with the new car that will be coming out soon, not to compare jacked up, hotrodded and nitro'd versions of each car with each other.
We all know Linux can get better OpenGL performance in the hands of someone willing to spend hours tuning it. That's Linux's great strength, and the biggest reason it drives Joe User to the brink of madness, trying to figure out the documentation. BeOS's big strength is that it comes out of the box, running near optimally, and you don't /need/ to recompile a new X server, a new kernel module, then hack a few startup scripts, reading six different docs along the way, two of them outdated and the third not even focussed on what Joe is trying to do.
And I don't think BeNews is claiming this is an end-all, be-all benchmark. They're just commenting that the new OpenGL implementation has come along quite nicely. Take a breath, swallow your meds, and just settle down. This goes for my fellow BeOS zealots, too.. Calm down, guys, you're starting to look like Linux geeks. ;)
Mmmm.. I'm not too impressed by either.. V5 and GF2 are both just more of the same technology. V5 has more units, GF2 has a faster clock, and looks like it's going to come out on top between the two.
There's just no spark in the Video Card field anymore.
1) 2D V5 support is available in the newest patch for R5. The OpenGL support will probably follow soon after.
2) V5 has been released. It's even on the shelves of CompUSA.
Have a nice day!
Actually, I believe a Human would be far easier to beat, in RoShamBo. People tend towards very obvious patterns, and have trouble tracking and analyzing long patterns of prior (and remarkably dull) data. A Markov chain system, with some weighting to make it /look/ like it isn't a Markov chain system, should outwit paltry humans.
By the time that the hardware costs for manufacturing have been reduced to the point where the DC and PS2 are profitable at their current price, I believe we will see that the prices will drop, much like they have with the Nintendo 64 / Playstation pricewar.
Phillips, Panasonic et Al. will have to join in this pricewar, as well. What would /really/ be cute, is if this licensing could be employed to fashion a legitimate emulator or even some sort of bastardized drop-in card for PCs.
Last I heard, which was the early days of the Connectix controversy, Sony was /still/ taking a slight loss with their dual-shock Playstation package, even though it's been out for four years. But they make up for it with their royalties.
Okay, I've been trying to wrap my head around this for a little while now, and I still can't come up with a reason /why/ some company would want to license and manufacture Dreamcast or PS2-based equipment that would wind up competing with the 'Vanilla' DC or PS2 consoles.
Realize that both the DC and the PS2 are sold at a loss, because Sega and Sony makes their money off a royalty on software sold for the systems. This makes the consoles cheap and palatable by Joe Consumer, so he'll buy one, get hooked, and buy a ton of software at a slightly inflated price. Give them the razor, sell the blades.
Now, it would be ludicrous for another company to try to sell something in the same market space as the DC or PS2, based on the DC or PS2 firmware, because they don't have that software royalty coming in. They'd have to manufacture a DC or PS2 clone, and sell it for more money, probably bundling in a few features as justification to Joe Consumer.
This just seems like one of those worthless Public Relations gestures on the behalf of Sony and Sega, much like many recent companies releasing software as 'Open Source.'
Their malfunction was selling the console for what it actually cost to manufacture. That box was rather pricey, although it /did/ do some fantastic things, for its time.
Later, Sega's Saturn and Sony's Playstation would manage to make high-end hardware more appealing to consumers by selling the console at a loss, and making their money of the licensing of software. The modern equivalent of give away the razor, sell the blades. Sony managed to outlicense Sega, using its entertainment industry clout to muscle past them. Game developers also complained loud and often about the Saturn's APIs being as ugly as they come.
Atari Jaguar tried this, too, but Atari tried to keep all their game development in house, which caused what was a really stellar piece of hardware in the closet, because it had no software to go with it. I think the first game that I had to actually take breaks playing, because it scared the hell out of me, was the Jaguar's Aliens Vs. Predator.
Yup. Same place they get military intelligence.
I agree, I have never gotten the same results on multiple host environments from WxWindows, GTK+, or FLTK. My application required a signifigant amount of fine control over the widgets, and their placement, and invariably, one or two of the host environments would need special tweaks.
I would really suggest that you use a seperated front-end, back-end model of development. Write the common application logic in one tree, and have the platform-dependent UI communicate the user's requests and the application's response.
As for using Java for all of this.. I'll use Java once it's mature. All these different runtime environments and the rather hefty configuration requirements on the user to install the runtime that we would require, makes it a real headache for professional developers. We get more support calls on our one Java-2 dependent app than the five other more complex apps in the suite, and most of them are JRE problems.
*gasp* How dare you interfere with our historic revisionism! Everybody knows Al Gore invented the internet.
You sir, are obviously unfamiliar with the common practice of counting how many times a press release uses buzzwords to inflate its own importance, and comparing it to the Microsoft index.
This is a proven method of determining technologies that are in danger of being subsumed by Microsoft; simply count how many meaningless marketing buzzwords are in their inital press release, and divide by the length of the press release, in words.
The higher the result, the more danger of being assimilated. Don't believe me? Take a look at Kerberos. Buzzword saturated, and a Adapt-Expand-Break victim of Win2k.
(And this might also just happen to be a /joke/, sir. Try not to take things so seriously in the future, hm?)
Those aren't warts! Those are beauty marks! ;)
Some of the changes in the future is moving the Continuations back into the trunk of the language, and with it, lightweight threads.
Probably as outdated as Windows 2000 feels, now ?
Okay, this is a troll and a half, but my Python-zealotry badge refuses to let me ignore the gauntlet:
You just answered your own question. /You/ have your own consistent, easy-to-follow way. I have my own consistent, easy to follow way. My friend has his own consistant, obfuscated perl-hacker-on-meth way. Problem is, when one of us looks at another's code, we have to keep dealing with your new way.
Python makes it a requisite to perform indenting. The sensitivity is something that you can get over, in the course of a few minutes, while you learn the language.
If you /still/ can't handle it, there is a preprocessor available, written in Python, that allows you to use BEGIN .. END style syntax. Just don't expect any Python programmers to respect your silly coding style. ;)
(-1, Humor Deficient.)
You really don't think this guy was serious, do you?
It isn't dead, by a long mile.. It's just quiet. There's a free interpreter for most platforms called 'UCBLogo', and its derivative for windows environments, called 'MSWLogo'. I've been using MSWLogo as an environment for introducing elementary school children to procedural thinking and logic, and we plan to use Python for a second phase for students who show a desire to continue learning how to program.
We use Logo, first, because it's got a very high work-to-results ratio for the children. That kind of visual feedback is priceless, for getting them to think in a methodical fashion about a problem. Python requires a bit more of a learning curve before the children get 'interesting' programs that they enjoy, which is why we teach it to them, second.
The idea is, get them addicted, and identify the ones who want to learn more, then switch them onto a professional, albeit gentle, language. I'm still debating whether I'd rather use Pascal than Python, because it's strongly typed, but the quick turnaround for type-it, eval-it environments is nice for teaching.
But I agree with earlier comments. The first rule, is never underestimate your students. The second, is to never slow them down. Once you've given them a foundation, hand them a list of projects to do, and let them move at their own pace in accomplishing them. Younger students prefer praise as a motivator, older students will find their own motivations, and will want a more mentor-like relationship.
Good luck!
And your MTBF will be.. ?
There's a /reason/ people like those E6500s.. They make a lot of things convenient for the most expensive part of any site: The admins.
Not fair to whom? The Xeon? ;)
Having looked at the reviews at Ars Technica, I'm not terribly impressed with the Xeon's improvement over the Coppermines, especially considering the cost and the recent poor quality of Intel's supporting chipsets. (QA? What's QA?)
Call me, when Intel jettisons the x86 legacy.
Oh come now, lighten up.. For those of you quick-trigger zealots, BeDope is a /parody/ site.
What next? Flaming segfault?
I must protest. Almost any language is easier to write mantainable code than Intercal. =)
It's one thing to pick up a few tons of fertilizer.. Where does one go shopping for rocket fuel, hmm?
Does this have the Send/Recv/Reply mechanism? This is pretty much the only reason I like QNX. (Although Photon is pretty damn cute.)