Despite CmdrTaco's skepticism, I think this kind of thing could be vital in certain markets. No, it isn't a silver bullet that fits into any environment, but then again, what is?
The fact is, that in places where such a technology could be useful, then this will allow people to replace Windows clients with more cost-effective Linux ones.
Golf actually is a sport. It is not "difficult in the same way that chess is difficult." The winning strategy is always to hit it into the hole. I'd say baseball is more chess-like than golf. The difficulty of golf is in the extreme control one must have over one's body, the physical discipline required to focus the power of a club onto the small surface area of the ball.
If you have played 18 holes of golf, then you know that it can indeed get you in shape.
Also, it might be helpful to look at the definition of the word "sport." Sport originally referred to hunting and fishing, which I would argue are also more of cerebral challenges. Making a long putt is more like kicking a field goal, whereas landing a halibut is similar to taking an opponent's queen.
While this project has a lot of "wow" factor, and its applications in security and fashion leap out at one, I think this invention could be a sign of a coming revolution in user interfaces as a whole.
Imagine if your computer could respond to your gestures. It can analyze your posture and tell when you are unhappy with the current performance, thus transferring more processing power to the current job. It could see you waving your arms and know that you want to kill the current process. It could even tell that you have gotten up to get some coffee, and have the screen-saver kick in.
This could be the end of the keyboard and mouse...forever! I think it would be really cool to get this "up and running" on Linux. Anyone want to start a SourceForge project for it? If we can pull this off, we might finally bump Linux into the forefront of OS innovation.
Wow, this sounds amazing. Imagine all that storage in a size so small! I think this represents a major boon for Linux fans around the world. One thing holding people back from "taking the plunge" is the huge number of CDs required to install Linux. IIRC, Mandrake is on 4 CDs while Red Hat is on 6 (!!!). People just can't be bothered when Windows comes on one easy-to-use disc.
I am as much in favor of standards as the next Free Software fan, and I'll probably get modded down for saying this, but I'm going to anyway. I use Linux for all my mission-critical servers, and even my home boxen. Fuck, I even run Linux on my car's mp3 jukebox.
But I have to say, the WaSP project could mean trouble for Linux zealots like me. Mozilla has only just (as in hours ago) become release-caliber, and besides that, what does Linux have in the way of standards-compliant browsers? Konqueror crashes every 12 seconds and Opera is closed-source, commercial, and evil.
At the moment, IE is the only production-caliber standards-compliant browser on the market. And it don't run on Linux. Until we get Mozilla and Konqueror up to speed, we should try to gloss over this fact rather than bring the embarrassing standards-compliance issue to the fore.
This couldn't come at a better time, IMHO. As a manager at a small media company, I have been very interested in the low price/high reliability of the Linux platform. The one thing holding us back to Windows and Mac was the apps. They just aren't there one Linux, yet.
But I'm downloading both of these now, and this may precipitate a switch in the near future. Admittedly, much of our work is in Flash, in the 468x60 and 336x280 formats, with no sound. But the industry may definitely expand in that direction, and we are already anticipating it.
I'm very excited about the possibilities, as all Linux aficionados should be.
On my list? The Holy Bible. Don't laugh; religion isn't dead.
I'm no "man of the cloth" myself. Fact is, I don't believe in God at all. But in these times of strife in the Middle East, it's important to refresh one's familiarity with the books that cause such fervor to the different peoples of the world.
So I will be reading the Old Testament, the Talmud, and the Quran, in an attempt to identify with the various combatants and determine for myself who is right.
I have to ask if the slashdot community finds this application of technology tasteful or moral. I will be the first to admit that cellular telephones have worked wonders for business people, emergency rescues, and friends meeting to see a movie.
But with this power came great responsibility. Once one carries a cell phone, one has "leashed" themself to whomever holds the number for that phone, whether it be colleagues, relatives, or a significant other. At the very least, wireless communication has been a mixed bag for humanity.
Is it right to foist such a double-edged sword on animals?
Agreed. It also represents a lot of possibilities for Free Software, as filtering out these bogus files is not the kind of thing that will take place behind the closed doors of Kazaa or LimeWire.
I expect we'll see the popularity of tools such as gtk-gnutella skyrocket, and Linux along with it. Once again, Open Source will save the day.
This is actually really good news. It's a sign that the music labels are going to try to deal with the P2P phenomenon on its own terms, not in the courts.
Fortunately, we will likely see a surge of new features in the more popular P2P clients that permit easy filtering of such "bad" files (e.g., an easy "delete and remember checksum" button). But as long as its a technological battle as opposed to a legal one, than it can be won.
On the other hand, the music labels may be shooting themselves in the foot in some cases. If I was trying to get the hot new "electronica" single, and ended up with "a 20 second clip looped over and over" I might not notice the difference!
IIRC, de Toqueville was the Frenchman who traipsed around some of early America's landmarks and acted snooty. He wrote a book about how stupid the USians were (while not actually using that word), which of course sold like hotcakes in the UK and now for some reason is required reading in American high schools.
I am wary of any think tank that associates itself with the name of Alexis de Toqueville, which as far as I'm concerned was besmirched from the start.
Back on-topic, this paper shows the same kind of anti-America, envy-motivated nonsense that de Toqueville spouted. Why don't they go back to France if they don't like the GPL. We are doing fine here with our superior software and baseball.
I have not had any problem buying on half.com. One person even included a few pieces of "Bazooka" brand bubble gum with my CD. I threw them away. I am not a fucking idiot, you know.
This is probably a good sign that there are too many comic book stores there. A small city such as Orlando can only realistically support one or two comic book stores, while a large city such as New York, Los Angeles, or Minneapolis could be expected to shelter a small handful, on the order of four.
So people sell used books online. The customers are happy (they get their books) and the sellers are happy (they sell more and get the best prices). Who loses?
Well, if the book's still in print then the publisher and author lose out on royalties. But that's all.
I think in a few years normal consoles will be small enough that we will just have a single device that plugs in to normal TVs, LCD monitors, or even its own portable mini-screen.
First, it is not the LKML (Linux Kernel Mailing List) license. That is not a license! It's the GPL (GNU Public License) license!
Second, Richard (not Roger) Stallman is not trying to steal anyone's IP except his own.
Third, if you used Linux on your accelerator it would not go down as much! Sure, I need to reboot every day just like any Win-dozer, but I never get a blue screen of death! Also, Linux is not warez because it is free!
Fourth, there could be companies that would be there just for tech support. There aren't any now, but I'm sure there would be. Read the stuff ESR (Edgar S. Raymond, another Open Source advocate) writes if you want more information.
Fifth, "know-nothing OS programmer"...LOLOLOLOLOLOL! Oh my god that is a good one. Maybe you have not heard of someone called Linux Torvalds who invented Linux and has turned down offers to work for M$ also as a matter of principle. He is the most gifted programmer in the world and if you call him "know-nothing" then I would suggest that it is you who really knows nothing.
Okay, this is exactly the kind of fear-mongering FUD that I am afraid of. Let me take this point-by-point.
Please, Palm, don't listen to this raving lunatic!
On the contrary, please do!
We have man-decades of work that depend on the reliability and low-cost of PalmOS.
Neither the reliability nor the low cost of PalmOS would be endangered by openning the source. Look at Linux: rock solid, and free as in dirt. Some projects that used to be closed source and then were openned have also become much more reliable as well as cheaper (obviously). Quake is a good example.
Opening the source will require us to make all that hard-won scientific knowledge available for free to the public.
I don't think you have read the GPL! Even if the tools you use are Open Source, you do not have to give away your data! The only exception is if your data is in the form of a program that statically links to GPLed software, and even that can be circumvented by using a tricky license like the BSD license.
How are we supposed to feed our families if Palm opens the source to PalmOS? With atoms?
Maybe this is a joke, but if you really are such a "physics genius" you should know that everything is made out of atoms: even food!
Re:moving slowly...open the source!!
on
PalmOS 5 Turns Gold
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Maybe I'm being trolled, but...
Any operating system...is going to be over the level of many programmers. I certainly wouldn't want to have to deal with lines and lines of palm assembly...
Palm does a good job with it, and I don't think there's enough "flashy" jobs to keep OSS programmers going.
Okay, I wasn't suggesting that you (whoever you are) should work on the Palm OS. I don't care if you like assembly programming, or if you find OS coding "flashy" or interesting. Your comment about assembly is especially telling. Clue: assembly languages are written to be programmed by people. Lots of people can understand and write assembly code. It is not javascript, but it is not voodoo either. Check out the Linux kernel source, and you will find plenty of assembly, all written by real life volunteers.
Check out the traffic on LKML sometime. Lots of people in the community find this kind of stuff very interesting and are quite capable of doing it.
Not to mention that they need the royalties from other companies licencing it.
That is only to recoup the costs of closed source development. Costs that would not exist were the source open.
moving slowly...open the source!!
on
PalmOS 5 Turns Gold
·
· Score: 0, Insightful
Well, as a staunch Palm user, I guess I should be happy. But what I want to do is grab Palm, shake them, and yell, "it's about goddamned time!" I mean, please...these are features that have been available in Linux for months, if not years!
This is just another example of a closed development model that can't cut it. Open the source, Palm! What are you afraid of?
I'm wondering if the same sort of thing might work for Linux? If anything, Linux advocates tend to be even more zealous than Mac-heads, but much more knowledgeable. I imagine we could put together something pretty persuasive, maybe even incorporating a little of the toned-down Free Software propoganda? Anyone?
Finally we see a government do things the right way. Australia was also the country that outed Echelon, IIRC. Nice going, Aussies! Now let's hope the U.S. feels the pressure to follow suit.
Well, I think that this healthy competition is going to help *all* distros!
What the fuck am I talking about? I'll tell you!!!!
Basically, people use different secure distros (or distributions) of Linux! Like Slackware or Debian! Then they don't get destroyed by hackers (unlike Windblowze!!!) and who gets the credit? LINUX!
And so all the different Linux dsitros do better! What do you think of my idea?
Slashdot Mirror
Haha, yeah. The stuff about the "crust" was pretty raunchy, too.
Thank you, Babelfish
Despite CmdrTaco's skepticism, I think this kind of thing could be vital in certain markets. No, it isn't a silver bullet that fits into any environment, but then again, what is?
The fact is, that in places where such a technology could be useful, then this will allow people to replace Windows clients with more cost-effective Linux ones.
And no matter how you look at it, that's a win.
Golf actually is a sport. It is not "difficult in the same way that chess is difficult." The winning strategy is always to hit it into the hole. I'd say baseball is more chess-like than golf. The difficulty of golf is in the extreme control one must have over one's body, the physical discipline required to focus the power of a club onto the small surface area of the ball.
If you have played 18 holes of golf, then you know that it can indeed get you in shape.
Also, it might be helpful to look at the definition of the word "sport." Sport originally referred to hunting and fishing, which I would argue are also more of cerebral challenges. Making a long putt is more like kicking a field goal, whereas landing a halibut is similar to taking an opponent's queen.
The correct grammar would be: "All your web page are belong to us." Third most frequent AYB error.
I agree, though, Google's main strength has always been the relevence of the results, not the size of the pool from which it draws those results.
While this project has a lot of "wow" factor, and its applications in security and fashion leap out at one, I think this invention could be a sign of a coming revolution in user interfaces as a whole.
Imagine if your computer could respond to your gestures. It can analyze your posture and tell when you are unhappy with the current performance, thus transferring more processing power to the current job. It could see you waving your arms and know that you want to kill the current process. It could even tell that you have gotten up to get some coffee, and have the screen-saver kick in.
This could be the end of the keyboard and mouse...forever! I think it would be really cool to get this "up and running" on Linux. Anyone want to start a SourceForge project for it? If we can pull this off, we might finally bump Linux into the forefront of OS innovation.
Wow, this sounds amazing. Imagine all that storage in a size so small! I think this represents a major boon for Linux fans around the world. One thing holding people back from "taking the plunge" is the huge number of CDs required to install Linux. IIRC, Mandrake is on 4 CDs while Red Hat is on 6 (!!!). People just can't be bothered when Windows comes on one easy-to-use disc.
I am as much in favor of standards as the next Free Software fan, and I'll probably get modded down for saying this, but I'm going to anyway. I use Linux for all my mission-critical servers, and even my home boxen. Fuck, I even run Linux on my car's mp3 jukebox.
But I have to say, the WaSP project could mean trouble for Linux zealots like me. Mozilla has only just (as in hours ago) become release-caliber, and besides that, what does Linux have in the way of standards-compliant browsers? Konqueror crashes every 12 seconds and Opera is closed-source, commercial, and evil.
At the moment, IE is the only production-caliber standards-compliant browser on the market. And it don't run on Linux. Until we get Mozilla and Konqueror up to speed, we should try to gloss over this fact rather than bring the embarrassing standards-compliance issue to the fore.
This couldn't come at a better time, IMHO. As a manager at a small media company, I have been very interested in the low price/high reliability of the Linux platform. The one thing holding us back to Windows and Mac was the apps. They just aren't there one Linux, yet.
But I'm downloading both of these now, and this may precipitate a switch in the near future. Admittedly, much of our work is in Flash, in the 468x60 and 336x280 formats, with no sound. But the industry may definitely expand in that direction, and we are already anticipating it.
I'm very excited about the possibilities, as all Linux aficionados should be.
On my list? The Holy Bible. Don't laugh; religion isn't dead.
I'm no "man of the cloth" myself. Fact is, I don't believe in God at all. But in these times of strife in the Middle East, it's important to refresh one's familiarity with the books that cause such fervor to the different peoples of the world.
So I will be reading the Old Testament, the Talmud, and the Quran, in an attempt to identify with the various combatants and determine for myself who is right.
I have to ask if the slashdot community finds this application of technology tasteful or moral. I will be the first to admit that cellular telephones have worked wonders for business people, emergency rescues, and friends meeting to see a movie.
But with this power came great responsibility. Once one carries a cell phone, one has "leashed" themself to whomever holds the number for that phone, whether it be colleagues, relatives, or a significant other. At the very least, wireless communication has been a mixed bag for humanity.
Is it right to foist such a double-edged sword on animals?
Agreed. It also represents a lot of possibilities for Free Software, as filtering out these bogus files is not the kind of thing that will take place behind the closed doors of Kazaa or LimeWire.
I expect we'll see the popularity of tools such as gtk-gnutella skyrocket, and Linux along with it. Once again, Open Source will save the day.
This is actually really good news. It's a sign that the music labels are going to try to deal with the P2P phenomenon on its own terms, not in the courts.
Fortunately, we will likely see a surge of new features in the more popular P2P clients that permit easy filtering of such "bad" files (e.g., an easy "delete and remember checksum" button). But as long as its a technological battle as opposed to a legal one, than it can be won.
On the other hand, the music labels may be shooting themselves in the foot in some cases. If I was trying to get the hot new "electronica" single, and ended up with "a 20 second clip looped over and over" I might not notice the difference!
IIRC, de Toqueville was the Frenchman who traipsed around some of early America's landmarks and acted snooty. He wrote a book about how stupid the USians were (while not actually using that word), which of course sold like hotcakes in the UK and now for some reason is required reading in American high schools.
I am wary of any think tank that associates itself with the name of Alexis de Toqueville, which as far as I'm concerned was besmirched from the start.
Back on-topic, this paper shows the same kind of anti-America, envy-motivated nonsense that de Toqueville spouted. Why don't they go back to France if they don't like the GPL. We are doing fine here with our superior software and baseball.
I have not had any problem buying on half.com. One person even included a few pieces of "Bazooka" brand bubble gum with my CD. I threw them away. I am not a fucking idiot, you know.
This is probably a good sign that there are too many comic book stores there. A small city such as Orlando can only realistically support one or two comic book stores, while a large city such as New York, Los Angeles, or Minneapolis could be expected to shelter a small handful, on the order of four.
So people sell used books online. The customers are happy (they get their books) and the sellers are happy (they sell more and get the best prices). Who loses?
Well, if the book's still in print then the publisher and author lose out on royalties. But that's all.
So why is everyone so up in arms about this?
I think in a few years normal consoles will be small enough that we will just have a single device that plugs in to normal TVs, LCD monitors, or even its own portable mini-screen.
And they'll run Linux, of course.
:P
This is going too far. Too far!
First, it is not the LKML (Linux Kernel Mailing List) license. That is not a license! It's the GPL (GNU Public License) license!
Second, Richard (not Roger) Stallman is not trying to steal anyone's IP except his own.
Third, if you used Linux on your accelerator it would not go down as much! Sure, I need to reboot every day just like any Win-dozer, but I never get a blue screen of death! Also, Linux is not warez because it is free!
Fourth, there could be companies that would be there just for tech support. There aren't any now, but I'm sure there would be. Read the stuff ESR (Edgar S. Raymond, another Open Source advocate) writes if you want more information.
Fifth, "know-nothing OS programmer"...LOLOLOLOLOLOL! Oh my god that is a good one. Maybe you have not heard of someone called Linux Torvalds who invented Linux and has turned down offers to work for M$ also as a matter of principle. He is the most gifted programmer in the world and if you call him "know-nothing" then I would suggest that it is you who really knows nothing.
Okay, this is exactly the kind of fear-mongering FUD that I am afraid of. Let me take this point-by-point.
Please, Palm, don't listen to this raving lunatic!
On the contrary, please do!
We have man-decades of work that depend on the reliability and low-cost of PalmOS.
Neither the reliability nor the low cost of PalmOS would be endangered by openning the source. Look at Linux: rock solid, and free as in dirt. Some projects that used to be closed source and then were openned have also become much more reliable as well as cheaper (obviously). Quake is a good example.
Opening the source will require us to make all that hard-won scientific knowledge available for free to the public.
I don't think you have read the GPL! Even if the tools you use are Open Source, you do not have to give away your data! The only exception is if your data is in the form of a program that statically links to GPLed software, and even that can be circumvented by using a tricky license like the BSD license.
How are we supposed to feed our families if Palm opens the source to PalmOS? With atoms?
Maybe this is a joke, but if you really are such a "physics genius" you should know that everything is made out of atoms: even food!
Maybe I'm being trolled, but...
Any operating system...is going to be over the level of many programmers. I certainly wouldn't want to have to deal with lines and lines of palm assembly...
Palm does a good job with it, and I don't think there's enough "flashy" jobs to keep OSS programmers going.
Okay, I wasn't suggesting that you (whoever you are) should work on the Palm OS. I don't care if you like assembly programming, or if you find OS coding "flashy" or interesting. Your comment about assembly is especially telling. Clue: assembly languages are written to be programmed by people. Lots of people can understand and write assembly code. It is not javascript, but it is not voodoo either. Check out the Linux kernel source, and you will find plenty of assembly, all written by real life volunteers.
Check out the traffic on LKML sometime. Lots of people in the community find this kind of stuff very interesting and are quite capable of doing it.
Not to mention that they need the royalties from other companies licencing it.
That is only to recoup the costs of closed source development. Costs that would not exist were the source open.
Well, as a staunch Palm user, I guess I should be happy. But what I want to do is grab Palm, shake them, and yell, "it's about goddamned time!" I mean, please...these are features that have been available in Linux for months, if not years!
This is just another example of a closed development model that can't cut it. Open the source, Palm! What are you afraid of?
I'm wondering if the same sort of thing might work for Linux? If anything, Linux advocates tend to be even more zealous than Mac-heads, but much more knowledgeable. I imagine we could put together something pretty persuasive, maybe even incorporating a little of the toned-down Free Software propoganda? Anyone?
Finally we see a government do things the right way. Australia was also the country that outed Echelon, IIRC. Nice going, Aussies! Now let's hope the U.S. feels the pressure to follow suit.
Well, I think that this healthy competition is going to help *all* distros!
What the fuck am I talking about? I'll tell you!!!!
Basically, people use different secure distros (or distributions) of Linux! Like Slackware or Debian! Then they don't get destroyed by hackers (unlike Windblowze!!!) and who gets the credit? LINUX!
And so all the different Linux dsitros do better! What do you think of my idea?