Future systems (assuming faster processors and more HD space) could include semantic analysis (e.g., Latent Semantic Analysis) to do an even better job and go beyond the word level.
Welcome to the future: the mail client in Mac OS X 10.2 uses latent semantic analysis. (This isn't just marketingspeak--my mail folder includes "LSMMap"--LS as in "latent semantic".)
Wouldn't object-oriented databases qualify as hierarchical (or some of them, at least)? A rather lengthy story ran a while back covering various reasons why object-oriented databases are useful, followed by various comments on cases where they aren't and why they aren't as common as relational ones today. The bottom line seems to be that they are in use today. One notable example comes to mind: LDAP. The aforementioned story has more. Despite the rather preachy tone, it's an interesting read.
I'm sure there are plenty of clueless anti-nuclear activists, but to dismiss them because the physics of nuclear power are sound and they don't realize that fact would be rather one-dimensional. It's easy to state that nuclear power is safe when it's used judiciously--it's also easy to point to Three Mile Island or any other disaster and say it's unsafe, but there's far more to the issue than that. An integral component of advocacy or activism should be looking at the safety track record of the parties involved and deciding whether they are capable of using nuclear power safely. The best-designed reactor could end up a smoldering heap of free radicals in the wrong hands.
Re:45 minutes too long
on
Review: A.I.
·
· Score: 2
The story featured in Wired is the original one--it was first published in 1969. He wrote two sequels, "Supertoys When Winter Comes" and "Supertoys in Other Seasons" thirty years later. AI incorporates at least one element from the latter.
You suggest Slashdot as a microcosm to demonstrate your theory, basically stating that the people who got Internet access later because it was available free are somehow inferior to "old-timers". If that's the case, consider this:
Your/. UID is 211,082. Mine is 108. Assume for a moment that it means I was here before you were. Does that mean that I'm more educated, more wealthy, more entitled to hold an opinion or more worthy of having Internet access than you are? By your reasoning, it does, but I don't buy it. Doesn't seem so reasonable when the shoe's on the other foot, eh?
The story's rife with errors; most of them have already been covered, so I won't elaborate on them. However, there's one particularly glaring one: the author implies that Apple uses BSD-licensed code exclusively, and thus is not required to open its modifications. What compiler does the author believe ships with Mac OS X?
Amazing--it's GCC! And even more amazing still, it's GPL'd! Apple has already fulfilled its legal obligation to make publicly available its modifications to GCC under the GPL. Moreover, it is continually working on merging its changes back into GCC 3 and assigning the copyright to the FSF. This is a boon to Apple's customers (eventually being able to build the official GCC 3 "out of the box"), but even more importantly, other platforms like LinuxPPC and GNUstep will be able to use Apple's AltiVec auto-vectorization and improved Obojective C support out of the box as well. This is truly beneficial to the community at large (e.g. non-Apple customers and Darwin users).
While this may only be minimally related to the what LL says, here's a "for what it's worth": Stairways Software (now Interarchy, a putrid shadow of its former self) had a now-dead product called Combadge that used existing e-mail infrastructure as the basis for an instant messaging system. It was never hyped very well, was limited to the Mac and was written by Stairways's most incompetent programmer (Andrew Tomazos), but it did show potential.
Torvalds seems to be busting on Mach and microkernel architecture in general (which is hardly news), not Mac OS X itself, though it's hard to tell from the mucho-sketchy article. If he's truly referring to the implementation of Mach in Mac OS X/Darwin, however, he hasn't done his homework. Yes, Mac OS X is based on Mach, but it isn't running a true microkernel. It's closer to being a so-called "message-passing kernel"--a monolithic-microkernel hybrid. From Apple's Inside Mac OS X: Kernel Environment (PDF, Google-ized text-only version)
Mach 3.0 was originally conceived as a simple, extensible, communications microkernel. It is capable of running standalone, with other traditional operating system services such as I/O, file systems, and networking stacks running as user-mode servers.
However, in Mac OS X, Mach is linked with other kernel components into a single kernel address space. This is primarily for performance; it is much faster to make a direct call between linked components than it is to send messages or do RPC between separate tasks. This modular structure results in a more robust and extensible system than a large, purely monolithic kernel would allow, without the performance penalty of a pure microkernel.
Because of its hybrid nature, the Xnu kernel in OS X provide some of the architectural benefits of Mach without as much of the overhead. Of course, you needn't take my word for it. Apple goes into greater detail in the PDF, and the kernel's design is documented elsewhere on the Web as well.
The Macintosh Classic booted from a ROM image if the command-option-X-O keys were held down. Being as it was ROM-based and all, it was fairly limited--I believe a variant of System 6 was included at a time when System 7 was becoming quite popular.
The statement "if all the music on the Web was pristine and complete" is erroneous. If this were a requirement, the "technology" would be nothing more than a hash function like MD5. Rather, it pyschoacoustically analyzes the sound. This isn't an impossibility--relatable's technology already does this. If you don't believe this, download FreeAmp and try it yourself. See if you can slip it up, rather than simply speculating about a technology's viability.
Also, relatable's technology, which seems similar, though I hesitate to jump to any conclusions, is format-ambivalent. It supports any audio format; thus using ogg or wav or something other than mp3 won't defeat it.
Perhaps this, along with the announcement of Mozilla being MPL-GPL dual-licensed, indicates that the commercial software industry is moving away from reactionary license creation to the use of commonly-accepted licenses.
Or perhaps these two distinct actions should simply be taken at face value. Yeah, that's probably it.
Cute as it may seem, there's no appropriate application for the "do it now and ask forgiveness later" principle. The moral course of action is to *ask permission*, not give credit and hope the originator of the design doesn't complain. Design is the result of someone's hard work and quite possibly the investment of money in that design, as is the case with Linux.com.
Moreover, what's the purpose behind that design? There's more to it than 'making something look cool'. An integral part of design is establishing a visual identity. Take cnet or Yahoo or any such 'collection' of sites. They all have a uniform style--one can easily recognize movies.yahoo.com as part of Yahoo. Stealing the design of a site dilutes the visual recognition the 'parent' site has established.
Make no mistake--as a Web designer (possibly not an accomplished one, but one nonetheless) I hold a bias. I'd be pretty darn annoyed if someone ripped off one of my designs. If said design was on a personal site, however, I'd entertain a request from someone to use it--but I wouldn't tolerate blatant theft. On the other hand, if someone stole one of my client's designs, it's out of my hands. I created it for them; how they defend it is their choice.
All IMHO, of course. Likewise, none of this speaks to the legalities involved--merely the moral implications.
Somehow I'm not seeing the merit in endowing the body with the ability to produce caffeine. It's a pretty poor substitute for something the body already creates: adrenaline.
Rather, wouldn't it be much easier to get kids to eat their broccoli if they knew it was caffeinated? Heck, I'd eat it...
--ian
Re:Does Every Employee Have To Post This Article?
on
Microcontroller Linux
·
· Score: 5
Is there some sort of Slashdot office pool involving the number of times this one goes up on the site?
This new stance by the WaSP is highly hypocritical. It suggested the 'delay the next version of Netscape for standards compliance' path in the first place. To ask Mozilla developers to hurry up is ridiculous and self-centered.
The AppleInsider story is bullshit. However, it's not unprecedented for Apple to receive OEM cards before ATi's retail versions Apple. The Blue & White G3 was introduced in January of 99, with a Rage 128 card. The retail version of the same card, the Rage Orion, shipped six months later, much to the chagrin of users desiring multiheaded systems.
Can it be swapped for a Radeon? There's no point in me engaging in idle speculation--just judge for yourself. Eventually, Apple will post developer specifications and clarify exactly how the card's connected to the motherboard.
Yes. Two new Power Mac systems will be introduced, one will use the Rage 128 Pro chipset (as currently featured in Power Mac G4s); the other will use the Radeon. Additionally, an iMac utilizing the Rage 4XL chipset (dunno what this is) will be announced. The press info is here:
Slashdot Mirror
Think prolonged power outage + no curtains.
Welcome to the future: the mail client in Mac OS X 10.2 uses latent semantic analysis. (This isn't just marketingspeak--my mail folder includes "LSMMap"--LS as in "latent semantic".)
1337ness for sale.
I'm sure there are plenty of clueless anti-nuclear activists, but to dismiss them because the physics of nuclear power are sound and they don't realize that fact would be rather one-dimensional. It's easy to state that nuclear power is safe when it's used judiciously--it's also easy to point to Three Mile Island or any other disaster and say it's unsafe, but there's far more to the issue than that. An integral component of advocacy or activism should be looking at the safety track record of the parties involved and deciding whether they are capable of using nuclear power safely. The best-designed reactor could end up a smoldering heap of free radicals in the wrong hands.
The story featured in Wired is the original one--it was first published in 1969. He wrote two sequels, "Supertoys When Winter Comes" and "Supertoys in Other Seasons" thirty years later. AI incorporates at least one element from the latter.
Your /. UID is 211,082. Mine is 108. Assume for a moment that it means I was here before you were. Does that mean that I'm more educated, more wealthy, more entitled to hold an opinion or more worthy of having Internet access than you are? By your reasoning, it does, but I don't buy it. Doesn't seem so reasonable when the shoe's on the other foot, eh?
The story's rife with errors; most of them have already been covered, so I won't elaborate on them. However, there's one particularly glaring one: the author implies that Apple uses BSD-licensed code exclusively, and thus is not required to open its modifications. What compiler does the author believe ships with Mac OS X?
Amazing--it's GCC! And even more amazing still, it's GPL'd! Apple has already fulfilled its legal obligation to make publicly available its modifications to GCC under the GPL. Moreover, it is continually working on merging its changes back into GCC 3 and assigning the copyright to the FSF. This is a boon to Apple's customers (eventually being able to build the official GCC 3 "out of the box"), but even more importantly, other platforms like LinuxPPC and GNUstep will be able to use Apple's AltiVec auto-vectorization and improved Obojective C support out of the box as well. This is truly beneficial to the community at large (e.g. non-Apple customers and Darwin users).
While this may only be minimally related to the what LL says, here's a "for what it's worth": Stairways Software (now Interarchy, a putrid shadow of its former self) had a now-dead product called Combadge that used existing e-mail infrastructure as the basis for an instant messaging system. It was never hyped very well, was limited to the Mac and was written by Stairways's most incompetent programmer (Andrew Tomazos), but it did show potential.
Torvalds seems to be busting on Mach and microkernel architecture in general (which is hardly news), not Mac OS X itself, though it's hard to tell from the mucho-sketchy article. If he's truly referring to the implementation of Mach in Mac OS X/Darwin, however, he hasn't done his homework. Yes, Mac OS X is based on Mach, but it isn't running a true microkernel. It's closer to being a so-called "message-passing kernel"--a monolithic-microkernel hybrid. From Apple's Inside Mac OS X: Kernel Environment (PDF, Google-ized text-only version)
Because of its hybrid nature, the Xnu kernel in OS X provide some of the architectural benefits of Mach without as much of the overhead. Of course, you needn't take my word for it. Apple goes into greater detail in the PDF, and the kernel's design is documented elsewhere on the Web as well.
The Macintosh Classic booted from a ROM image if the command-option-X-O keys were held down. Being as it was ROM-based and all, it was fairly limited--I believe a variant of System 6 was included at a time when System 7 was becoming quite popular.
--ian
Also, relatable's technology, which seems similar, though I hesitate to jump to any conclusions, is format-ambivalent. It supports any audio format; thus using ogg or wav or something other than mp3 won't defeat it.
Or perhaps these two distinct actions should simply be taken at face value. Yeah, that's probably it.
--ian
Cute as it may seem, there's no appropriate application for the "do it now and ask forgiveness later" principle. The moral course of action is to *ask permission*, not give credit and hope the originator of the design doesn't complain. Design is the result of someone's hard work and quite possibly the investment of money in that design, as is the case with Linux.com.
Moreover, what's the purpose behind that design? There's more to it than 'making something look cool'. An integral part of design is establishing a visual identity. Take cnet or Yahoo or any such 'collection' of sites. They all have a uniform style--one can easily recognize movies.yahoo.com as part of Yahoo. Stealing the design of a site dilutes the visual recognition the 'parent' site has established.
Make no mistake--as a Web designer (possibly not an accomplished one, but one nonetheless) I hold a bias. I'd be pretty darn annoyed if someone ripped off one of my designs. If said design was on a personal site, however, I'd entertain a request from someone to use it--but I wouldn't tolerate blatant theft. On the other hand, if someone stole one of my client's designs, it's out of my hands. I created it for them; how they defend it is their choice.
All IMHO, of course. Likewise, none of this speaks to the legalities involved--merely the moral implications.
Somehow I'm not seeing the merit in endowing the body with the ability to produce caffeine. It's a pretty poor substitute for something the body already creates: adrenaline.
Rather, wouldn't it be much easier to get kids to eat their broccoli if they knew it was caffeinated? Heck, I'd eat it...
--ian
So it would seem.
http://slashdot.org/search.pl?query=uClinux
How will having pgp-signed 'authoritative' files available prevent search-result spamming?
--ian
http://www.tivo.com/linux/
The rest of TiVo is userland--they can license in any way they desire, much like the packages included with Linux distributions.
1998-04-07: AppleShare IP Mail Server Buffer Overflow Vulnerability
--ian
This new stance by the WaSP is highly hypocritical. It suggested the 'delay the next version of Netscape for standards compliance' path in the first place. To ask Mozilla developers to hurry up is ridiculous and self-centered.
The AppleInsider story is bullshit. However, it's not unprecedented for Apple to receive OEM cards before ATi's retail versions Apple. The Blue & White G3 was introduced in January of 99, with a Rage 128 card. The retail version of the same card, the Rage Orion, shipped six months later, much to the chagrin of users desiring multiheaded systems.
They're now publically available--the product was introduced yesterday. The best source is probably the strangest rumors site of all, apple.com.
For what it's worth, here's a picture of the Cube's innards, with the Rage 128 card exposed:
http://www.go2mac.com/image.cfm?image=images/shows /MWNY2k/wednesday_2/cube_guts2.jpg
Can it be swapped for a Radeon? There's no point in me engaging in idle speculation--just judge for yourself. Eventually, Apple will post developer specifications and clarify exactly how the card's connected to the motherboard.
Cube with dual G4s. Slashback is supposedly story updates and corrections, right? Please make sure the corrections are correct.
Yes. Two new Power Mac systems will be introduced, one will use the Rage 128 Pro chipset (as currently featured in Power Mac G4s); the other will use the Radeon. Additionally, an iMac utilizing the Rage 4XL chipset (dunno what this is) will be announced. The press info is here:
http://www.businesswire.com/webbox/bw.071700/20199 0394.htm