Actually yes Java is very much like NeWS: the Next Generation. However, Sun has yet to market it as such.
It's a pity that most mainstream developers aren't aware that Java is much more than a VM for Web applets. It's also difficult to understand, to say the least, that Sun doesn't try to evangelise it as an X substitute on their own OS, while Microsoft is seemingly well aware that it could be a threat to its own desktop environment, and takes action against it.
...given that this is only place were you can actually experience gravitation collapsing in a hole. A wombat hole to be precise.
I certainly hope outer space black holes aren't giant wombat nests, or the research team might find themselves in deep trouble.
Film at 11.
I'm glad the GNU project was started before Linux
on
Thus Spake Stallman
·
· Score: 1
Because the GNU project created two of the base tools that made Unix system administration and programmation a joy in life: GNU Emacs and the GNU C Compiler.
And, when you think about it, most of the open source and almost every free software could not have existed without the later (and in most case the former).
Alright, you could have compiled your programs with some kind of commercial C compiler, but, at the time GCC started, you could not write any portable system software with a commercial compiler (well, it was quite difficult).
In fact, the companies which produced C compilers insisted on having different C idioms. Read the story about the relatively recent normalisation of ANSI C (and how it was/is not supported by software companies producing compilers) for facts about this important matter.
Had gcc not been GPLed you can be sure that we'd have a lot of incompatible variations on the same theme instead of a portable and reliable C compiler.
If GNU C hadn't existed, we would live in a quite different world where I doubt open source software could exist, and Linux (with or without GNU[1]) could succeed.
Heck, even when there is an non GPL open source alternative now, GPL bashing BSDists still use gcc.
On another matter, I may be wrong, but last time I checked, GNU covered every area of the POSIX.2 normalisation. While X, Apache, Perl, MySQL and the "other" important open source software that you'd want to include (rhetoricaly, I hope) in the GNU/Linux title don't provide such a conformance to a UNIX normalisation (BSD is another matter entirely: they knowingly ignore POSIX in some case).
I could work, with difficulty, with a UNIX system providing only GNU; with time and resources it might develop in a full-fledged interoperable UNIX system. It'd be impossible with any XFree86-only, Apache-only, Perl-only or (!) MySQL-only UNIX system. I choose to believe that the importance of these components to a Linux distribution is relatively less than that of GNU.
My nostalgia level is growing dangerously as I've been reading SJ article and some Slashdot comments. Wow, it looks to me like it was yesterday I learned about the crackdown. I'm glad to hear about other people keeping the same spirit of 10 years ago.
Now if we could only know the truth behind "The cuckoo's nest"...
Here in France, you almost cannot purchase standard (4:3) TV anymore. However, the new format (16:9) -- which, to my knowledge, is just a little higher and narrower than cinema (either 35mm or 70mm) to make it difficult (and not automatic) to adapt -- is still in need of programs.
Granted, some cable-TV programs (mostly sports) and most DVDs are 16:9 compliant, but you still loose some screen real-estate (black borders on top and bottom of the screen). You may also zoom the original 4:3 program so that it fills the full 16:9 screen but then people on screen start to look fat and distorted.
The bottom line is the format looks cool on paper, but the media people will need some time to produce native 16:9 shows and it's still not that much adapted to cinema. Monitor and TV industry conspiration anyone?
The bright side of this is that 4:3 TV are dirt cheap nowdays. A 32" 4:3 TV still looks a lot larger than a 28" 16:9 one.
From a strict computer science standpoint, I think Python is a very nice language. I like Python and I use it regularly in both personal and professional projects.
However, I think its syntax and "philosophy" is just far too different from the ubiquitous C/C++ language. I don't know about the curiculum in the US (I'm French, and I left university some time ago), but I think CS students should be able to master the languages used in the industry.
Java is simple and elegant (if not orthogonal) and its syntax is clearly more C like than Python. Are there any reasons, other than subjective ones ("Java is slow", "Java doesn't work on my computer" or "Java is not OpenSource"), that rule Java out?
Well, then there is the top performer Alpha processor as well. Today you can get an Alphaserver DS10 from Compaq for around US$2500.
(AXP 21264 @466MHz) SpecInt 24.6 SpecFP 47.9
Once again, Alpha just doesn't play in the same ballpark. And it runs Linux quite well too (not like those PowerMac which are hard to support). Alpha Processors Inc. and Compaq even seem to have a support service for running Linux on those beasts.
If you don't want to shell out the cash, you can still find AXP 21164 from 533MHz to 667MHz:
OK, integer is a lot less sexy, but it's the same price as a Pentium II (at least for the 533MHz version) and noone can touch the floating-point performance, yet.
Moreover, if you insist on having the fastest double-processors micro-computer ever on earth, you can still buy the all-new UP2000 from Alpha Processor Inc (a fully configured system costs around US $6000).
SpecInt 31.8 SpecFP 49.0
...and wait for the coming upgrade to 750MHz, which should have top perfs at around 45 SpecInt and 60 SpecFP:-)
I work for an ISP that is currently experimenting this technology. And if we can use it in France, you can bet that this is not cutting edge (the Internet community lags over here).
As for reliability, We experienced some problems with one of our clients last month, but it seems to work very well now.
Incidently isn't BreezeCom the provider of the technology?
This is a good idea IMHO, but there are some Slashdot functionnalities that are difficult to implement using NNTP.
I guess it might be difficult to implement the infamous Anonymous Coward poster. OK, I know there are many anonymous trollers lurking in Usenet, but I still think there is a difference. And the Anonymous Coward is useful when you want to spread a useful piece of info that does not stand well with eg your employer or cow-orkers.
Also, there are people behind firewalls that may not be able to access the NNTP server (and/or administrate the firewall to let them thru).
I think it would be difficult to keep posters into a specific thread (or subject tag) to link to the headline they respond to, lest we decide that each headline creates its own group.
And it would not be easy (impossible?) to implement the "search into older articles database" feature.
I totally agree, however, that reading comments with a newsreader would be much more comfortable than browsing. And let's not forget that Slashdot could be replicated among multiple NNTP servers, thus reducing the network and http daemon load.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually yes Java is very much like NeWS: the Next Generation. However, Sun has yet to market it as such.
It's a pity that most mainstream developers aren't aware that Java is much more than a VM for Web applets. It's also difficult to understand, to say the least, that Sun doesn't try to evangelise it as an X substitute on their own OS, while Microsoft is seemingly well aware that it could be a threat to its own desktop environment, and takes action against it.
...given that this is only place were you can actually experience gravitation collapsing in a hole. A wombat hole to be precise.
I certainly hope outer space black holes aren't giant wombat nests, or the research team might find themselves in deep trouble.
Film at 11.
Because the GNU project created two of the base tools that made Unix system administration and programmation a joy in life: GNU Emacs and the GNU C Compiler.
And, when you think about it, most of the open source and almost every free software could not have existed without the later (and in most case the former).
Alright, you could have compiled your programs with some kind of commercial C compiler, but, at the time GCC started, you could not write any portable system software with a commercial compiler (well, it was quite difficult).
In fact, the companies which produced C compilers insisted on having different C idioms. Read the story about the relatively recent normalisation of ANSI C (and how it was/is not supported by software companies producing compilers) for facts about this important matter.
Had gcc not been GPLed you can be sure that we'd have a lot of incompatible variations on the same theme instead of a portable and reliable C compiler.
If GNU C hadn't existed, we would live in a quite different world where I doubt open source software could exist, and Linux (with or without GNU[1]) could succeed.
Heck, even when there is an non GPL open source alternative now, GPL bashing BSDists still use gcc.
On another matter, I may be wrong, but last time I checked, GNU covered every area of the POSIX.2 normalisation. While X, Apache, Perl, MySQL and the "other" important open source software that you'd want to include (rhetoricaly, I hope) in the GNU/Linux title don't provide such a conformance to a UNIX normalisation (BSD is another matter entirely: they knowingly ignore POSIX in some case).
I could work, with difficulty, with a UNIX system providing only GNU; with time and resources it might develop in a full-fledged interoperable UNIX system. It'd be impossible with any XFree86-only, Apache-only, Perl-only or (!) MySQL-only UNIX system. I choose to believe that the importance of these components to a Linux distribution is relatively less than that of GNU.
[1] the pun involving a U2 song was not intended.
I don't think SourceForge will eventually use Alpha.
Remember SourceForge is sponsored by VA Linux, a company which main investor is Intel. They've lately become "its master voice" regarding CPU policy.
But again, I might be wrong.
If you like CG in movies, check out the Dinosaur trailer at http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/dinosaur/480. html
I don't think you will be disapointed...
PS: Please, keep down putting '@' everywhere. It makes you look like an '3l1337 D0ob'.
Right on!
My nostalgia level is growing dangerously as I've been reading SJ article and some Slashdot comments. Wow, it looks to me like it was yesterday I learned about the crackdown. I'm glad to hear about other people keeping the same spirit of 10 years ago.
Now if we could only know the truth behind "The cuckoo's nest"...
Here in France, you almost cannot purchase standard (4:3) TV anymore. However, the new format (16:9) -- which, to my knowledge, is just a little higher and narrower than cinema (either 35mm or 70mm) to make it difficult (and not automatic) to adapt -- is still in need of programs.
Granted, some cable-TV programs (mostly sports) and most DVDs are 16:9 compliant, but you still loose some screen real-estate (black borders on top and bottom of the screen). You may also zoom the original 4:3 program so that it fills the full 16:9 screen but then people on screen start to look fat and distorted.
The bottom line is the format looks cool on paper, but the media people will need some time to produce native 16:9 shows and it's still not that much adapted to cinema. Monitor and TV industry conspiration anyone?
The bright side of this is that 4:3 TV are dirt cheap nowdays. A 32" 4:3 TV still looks a lot larger than a 28" 16:9 one.
From a strict computer science standpoint, I think Python is a very nice language. I like Python and I use it regularly in both personal and professional projects.
However, I think its syntax and "philosophy" is just far too different from the ubiquitous C/C++ language. I don't know about the curiculum in the US (I'm French, and I left university some time ago), but I think CS students should be able to master the languages used in the industry.
Java is simple and elegant (if not orthogonal) and its syntax is clearly more C like than Python. Are there any reasons, other than subjective ones ("Java is slow", "Java doesn't work on my computer" or "Java is not OpenSource"), that rule Java out?
Well, then there is the top performer Alpha processor as well. Today you can get an Alphaserver DS10 from Compaq for around US$2500.
:-)
(AXP 21264 @466MHz)
SpecInt 24.6
SpecFP 47.9
Once again, Alpha just doesn't play in the same ballpark. And it runs Linux quite well too (not like those PowerMac which are hard to support). Alpha Processors Inc. and Compaq even seem to have a support service for running Linux on those beasts.
If you don't want to shell out the cash, you can still find AXP 21164 from 533MHz to 667MHz:
533HMz: 16.1 SPECint95, 22.5 SPECfp95
600MHz: 18.0 SPECint95, 27.0 SPECfp95
667MHz: 20.8 SPECint95, 32.4 SPECfp95
OK, integer is a lot less sexy, but it's the same price as a Pentium II (at least for the 533MHz version) and noone can touch the floating-point performance, yet.
Moreover, if you insist on having the fastest double-processors micro-computer ever on earth, you can still buy the all-new UP2000 from Alpha Processor Inc (a fully configured system costs around US $6000).
SpecInt 31.8
SpecFP 49.0
...and wait for the coming upgrade to 750MHz, which should have top perfs at around 45 SpecInt and 60 SpecFP
I work for an ISP that is currently experimenting this technology. And if we can use it in France, you can bet that this is not cutting edge (the Internet community lags over here).
As for reliability, We experienced some problems with one of our clients last month, but it seems to work very well now.
Incidently isn't BreezeCom the provider of the technology?
This is a good idea IMHO, but there are some Slashdot functionnalities that are difficult to implement using NNTP.
I guess it might be difficult to implement the infamous Anonymous Coward poster. OK, I know there are many anonymous trollers lurking in Usenet, but I still think there is a difference. And the Anonymous Coward is useful when you want to spread a useful piece of info that does not stand well with eg your employer or cow-orkers.
Also, there are people behind firewalls that may not be able to access the NNTP server (and/or administrate the firewall to let them thru).
I think it would be difficult to keep posters into a specific thread (or subject tag) to link to the headline they respond to, lest we decide that each headline creates its own group.
And it would not be easy (impossible?) to implement the "search into older articles database" feature.
I totally agree, however, that reading comments with a newsreader would be much more comfortable than browsing. And let's not forget that Slashdot could be replicated among multiple NNTP servers, thus reducing the network and http daemon load.