You only need to look at recent events in New Orleans, Louisiana, after hurricane Katrina, to understand why having a gun for personal protection is a right, and a sensible one at that.
Just because society operates a certain way today doesn't mean it will be that way forever. In fact, if you are basing your assumptions on the entirety of human history, it's guaranteed that YOUR government WILL fail. It's just a matter of when.
Until you can guarantee me that my government will not fail, and will protect my personal safety in all cases, I'll keep my guns, thanks.
(Note: in the U.S. the police are under no legal obligation to protect any individual from personal harm.)
>Why is it that there are so many PHP based open source CMS which are hugely successful >(Drupal is used by The Onion, Spread Firefox, and more), but there is >not even one comparable solution based on Java?"
Maybe because Java offers no advantage over writing a system in PHP, which obviously is up to the task based on the successful projects you mention?
Seriously, why would you want to use Java when you don't have to? It's like asking why there is no web browser written in assembly language. Higher level languages get the job done with minimal aggravation and perform well enough that they're not the bottleneck.
PHP was tailor-made for this sort of thing, Java...wasn't.
Having used both, I can tell you phppgadmin is a bit more polished than phpmyadmin. Neither are particularly wonderful ways to interact with a database, but if you're stuck on a no-console web host, I'd much prefer to have the posgres/phppgadmin combo.
You're right, but again we have to consider what people are able to hear. The number of quantization levels that are used insures that the human ear can't tell the difference between two intermediate levels.
It's funny, I have an audiophile acquaintance who swears that records are superior in every way to "digital," and for the same reasons described above. The funny thing is, because of the large number of quantization levels used in a CD, the CD's dynamic range far surpasses that of any record player. More info here
Theoretically, yes, analog would always be superior. But in reality, physical limitations of the stylus on a record player limit that medium far more than quantization limits the CD. Those same physical limits exist in the human ear, too.
So, while digital might not be "perfect" theoretically, it's "perfect enough" allowing for the limitations of the human ear.
A buddy of mine and I in high school entered one of those King of the Hill competitions where you had a list of household items you could use to build a machine, and a set of objectives to accomplish.
There was a tie-breaking rule -- if no objectives were completed, whoever got furthest up the hill won.
So, figuring that nobody's machine would work perfectly, we built a car that ignored every objective but was lightening quick and used all of the allowed mousetraps to either propel itself or flip the other car over.
Our plan worked flawlessly, and in the last round we knocked the over car almost completely off the hill.
I see it as the ultimate engineering victory -- finding the easiest/cheapest way to accomplish a task in a competitive environment. Although I do think the organizers were a bit disappointed that we won.
I have car and health insurance, but I must admit insane insurance is new to me. I hope I don't ever need it.
Uh oh, I just had a thought. Maybe I DO have it but I'm just crazy enough to believe I don't. But wait, I'd be richer than I am now. Unless my wife is stealing from me!
Holy shit, I'm going to have to watch her a lot more closely from now on, and get the mail myself.
Have you ever tried to use soap in salt water? It just doesn't work. It's not slippery, it's more like trying to wash with a pumice stone.
I had the opportunity to try this while sailing to Bermuda when the wind died completely. Hoped to get a nice bath after three days of no showering, but it didn't work.
Can you expand on this? I've developed a networked toolkit and I'm extremely interested in this type of thing. I'm wondering if your idea is similar to mine:
I have flash demos on the web site, hello world and demo apps, the whole thing is documented exhaustively. I don't know how to explain it any better.
The problem is that the concept is completely new and foreign to someone who's thinking Internet == Web == HTTP. An asynchronous, stateful protocol is so far removed from the status quo that it really requires a leap to understand.
That's the major drawback, too. Singlehandedly getting people to switch from using and coding applications for a web browser to an NTW "browser" is nearly impossible. This is a case where the entrenched technology is so entrenched, and "good enough," so that a better solution will never really catch on.
And I've spent about a year of free time on this project, and have had no time to complete it. If I were getting paid for this, it would be one thing, but promoting such a project would be a full time job, and I have one of those already.:-)
If you'll allow me to plug a pet project of mine, I think an asynchronous networked GUI widget toolkit is the wave of the future. The client (browser) is responsible for drawing widgets and sending events to the server, which handles callbacks. It's AJAX done right.
The biggest problem I have is explaining to people why this is so different from X, or display postscript, etc.
Imagine writing a GUI app that runs over the network without you having to do any network coding. Sort of like X, but without the tremendous speed penalty of having to maintain graphics on the server side.
Or imagine writing an app interactively over a network by typing a few simple Lisp commands. (not that this protocol is limited to Lisp only)
Imagine serving ten thousand GUI clients from a cheap machine, or saving the entire state of each client's session so they can log off and on again without losing any work. NTW does all of this.
Unfortunately, I got everything almost done, and have not had much time to see the project to fruition. It's frustrating too when most people don't quite "get" it.
Backwards compatibility is important, but there are two ways you can do it.
One is to include all of the old stuff in your new OS, the other is to continue to support the old version, or possibly emulate it on the new version.
It seems that backwards compatibility significantly impedes progress. Why not continue to support the older versions, but separate them from the new stuff? Our computers are fast enough to run Windows 3.1 in a VM, much faster than it would run on the hardware it was designed for.
Better yet, include a copy of the old software in the new one, with a built in emulator designed to run it.
It's important to maintain backwards compatibility, but it's just not a good excuse for bad design decisions in new softare.
The problem with these stats is that for countries that have invested in a government sponsored program, everyone who wants internet access gets broadband, whether they want it or not.
I'm sure a significant number of people in the U.S. are satisfied with their current options. I know I am, and I have the option to get faster service for a slightly higher price. It's just not worth it to me. But these statistics as used in the story assume that I'm just desperate to get Internet access like they have in Korea, and that my livelihood depends on it, neither of which are true.
There's no such thing as giving Civ III a "whirl."
You can start a game in the afternoon. You'll be "just finishing up this turn" when the sun comes up the next morning, and you haven't slept at all. You've been warned.
Slashdot Mirror
You only need to look at recent events in New Orleans, Louisiana, after hurricane Katrina, to understand why having a gun for personal protection is a right, and a sensible one at that.
Just because society operates a certain way today doesn't mean it will be that way forever. In fact, if you are basing your assumptions on the entirety of human history, it's guaranteed that YOUR government WILL fail. It's just a matter of when.
Until you can guarantee me that my government will not fail, and will protect my personal safety in all cases, I'll keep my guns, thanks.
(Note: in the U.S. the police are under no legal obligation to protect any individual from personal harm.)
Well, normal latency reduction is around ten, and these cards, THESE ones right here, they go to eleven.
>Why is it that there are so many PHP based open source CMS which are hugely successful
>(Drupal is used by The Onion, Spread Firefox, and more), but there is
>not even one comparable solution based on Java?"
Maybe because Java offers no advantage over writing a system in PHP, which obviously is up to the task based on the successful projects you mention?
Seriously, why would you want to use Java when you don't have to? It's like asking why there is no web browser written in assembly language. Higher level languages get the job done with minimal aggravation and perform well enough that they're not the bottleneck.
PHP was tailor-made for this sort of thing, Java...wasn't.
So what you're saying is, Milton has been let go?
I tried reading the article, but after about the third page I just gave up trying to slog through it. My mind couldn't handle any more.
Do you mean like this?
Having used both, I can tell you phppgadmin is a bit more polished than phpmyadmin. Neither are particularly wonderful ways to interact with a database, but if you're stuck on a no-console web host, I'd much prefer to have the posgres/phppgadmin combo.
Let's type in Oprah's book list to find some books worth reading.
Just start ticketing people who brake for no reason on the highway.
In fact, there's hardly ever a reason to brake on the highway.
If you have to brake on the highway, either you did something wrong, or the person ahead of you did.
You're right, but again we have to consider what people are able to hear. The number of quantization levels that are used insures that the human ear can't tell the difference between two intermediate levels.
It's funny, I have an audiophile acquaintance who swears that records are superior in every way to "digital," and for the same reasons described above. The funny thing is, because of the large number of quantization levels used in a CD, the CD's dynamic range far surpasses that of any record player. More info here
Theoretically, yes, analog would always be superior. But in reality, physical limitations of the stylus on a record player limit that medium far more than quantization limits the CD. Those same physical limits exist in the human ear, too.
So, while digital might not be "perfect" theoretically, it's "perfect enough" allowing for the limitations of the human ear.
A buddy of mine and I in high school entered one of those King of the Hill competitions where you had a list of household items you could use to build a machine, and a set of objectives to accomplish.
There was a tie-breaking rule -- if no objectives were completed, whoever got furthest up the hill won.
So, figuring that nobody's machine would work perfectly, we built a car that ignored every objective but was lightening quick and used all of the allowed mousetraps to either propel itself or flip the other car over.
Our plan worked flawlessly, and in the last round we knocked the over car almost completely off the hill.
I see it as the ultimate engineering victory -- finding the easiest/cheapest way to accomplish a task in a competitive environment. Although I do think the organizers were a bit disappointed that we won.
I have car and health insurance, but I must admit insane insurance is new to me. I hope I don't ever need it.
Uh oh, I just had a thought. Maybe I DO have it but I'm just crazy enough to believe I don't. But wait, I'd be richer than I am now. Unless my wife is stealing from me!
Holy shit, I'm going to have to watch her a lot more closely from now on, and get the mail myself.
Has this happened to anyone else?
Oh, come on. Back when they had Gibsons, hacking was a walk in the park. All you'd need to do was sit around and guess at typical passwords.
It's harder today, what with intrusion detection systems and ceramic baseball bats that will smash a boom box in nothing flat if you're caught.
It's not that hard, as long as you have near exact change.
If I give you $20 for a $16 purchase, I expect four bills back. How are you going to stiff me? Slip me a five instead?
Oh, and a doddle appears to be a way to say something's easy.
Same as "a walk in the park."
You don't have to be from the UK. If you'd played Lemmings, the best game ever, you'd know :-)
Funny you should say that.
Have you ever tried to use soap in salt water? It just doesn't work. It's not slippery, it's more like trying to wash with a pumice stone.
I had the opportunity to try this while sailing to Bermuda when the wind died completely. Hoped to get a nice bath after three days of no showering, but it didn't work.
Hi, I'm Bluesman. I use the sleep feature on my Windows laptop regularly. Multiple times a day.
Now you know, and knowing's half the battle.
Can you expand on this? I've developed a networked toolkit and I'm extremely interested in this type of thing. I'm wondering if your idea is similar to mine:
http://ntw.sourceforge.net/
I have flash demos on the web site, hello world and demo apps, the whole thing is documented exhaustively. I don't know how to explain it any better.
:-)
The problem is that the concept is completely new and foreign to someone who's thinking Internet == Web == HTTP. An asynchronous, stateful protocol is so far removed from the status quo that it really requires a leap to understand.
That's the major drawback, too. Singlehandedly getting people to switch from using and coding applications for a web browser to an NTW "browser" is nearly impossible. This is a case where the entrenched technology is so entrenched, and "good enough," so that a better solution will never really catch on.
And I've spent about a year of free time on this project, and have had no time to complete it. If I were getting paid for this, it would be one thing, but promoting such a project would be a full time job, and I have one of those already.
http://ntw.sourceforge.net/
If you'll allow me to plug a pet project of mine, I think an asynchronous networked GUI widget toolkit is the wave of the future. The client (browser) is responsible for drawing widgets and sending events to the server, which handles callbacks. It's AJAX done right.
The biggest problem I have is explaining to people why this is so different from X, or display postscript, etc.
Imagine writing a GUI app that runs over the network without you having to do any network coding. Sort of like X, but without the tremendous speed penalty of having to maintain graphics on the server side.
Or imagine writing an app interactively over a network by typing a few simple Lisp commands. (not that this protocol is limited to Lisp only)
Imagine serving ten thousand GUI clients from a cheap machine, or saving the entire state of each client's session so they can log off and on again without losing any work. NTW does all of this.
Unfortunately, I got everything almost done, and have not had much time to see the project to fruition. It's frustrating too when most people don't quite "get" it.
No, that's Friday on Slashdot. Tomorrow we'll see this story again.
Backwards compatibility is important, but there are two ways you can do it.
One is to include all of the old stuff in your new OS, the other is to continue to support the old version, or possibly emulate it on the new version.
It seems that backwards compatibility significantly impedes progress. Why not continue to support the older versions, but separate them from the new stuff? Our computers are fast enough to run Windows 3.1 in a VM, much faster than it would run on the hardware it was designed for.
Better yet, include a copy of the old software in the new one, with a built in emulator designed to run it.
It's important to maintain backwards compatibility, but it's just not a good excuse for bad design decisions in new softare.
Wow, that's just 3.025 square miles to generate 1.21 gigawatts.
The problem with these stats is that for countries that have invested in a government sponsored program, everyone who wants internet access gets broadband, whether they want it or not.
I'm sure a significant number of people in the U.S. are satisfied with their current options. I know I am, and I have the option to get faster service for a slightly higher price. It's just not worth it to me. But these statistics as used in the story assume that I'm just desperate to get Internet access like they have in Korea, and that my livelihood depends on it, neither of which are true.
There's no such thing as giving Civ III a "whirl."
You can start a game in the afternoon. You'll be "just finishing up this turn" when the sun comes up the next morning, and you haven't slept at all. You've been warned.