I don't thing you fully understand the GP's point. Sure gcc runs on a lot of systems. But it doesn't run on all of them, and there are many good reasons to use other compilers even on the systems it supports. Performance being one. Intel and Sun compilers beat the pants off gcc, so not being able to use them is a significant defect of the code base. That's the whole point of using a standard language. Just because gcc is free doesn't mean custom language extensions are ok.
As for bash, this is the same thing. Maybe I don't want to have to install two shells on my machine (think embeded systems). Bash is actually quite resource hungry (compared to say busybox).
In general if you have to use specific tools with your program, then the program is not cross-platform. It becomes a gnu program bundled with parts of the gnu platform. In the same sense that java is not cross-platform, it is a platform.
So if you want to write code that *really* runs anywhere (and I agree that it may not be important for many developers), anything that lures you into using custom extensions is a bad thing. In this sense gnu is not fundamentally better that microsoft.
In practice however, gcc is better because it has things like "-ansi" which vc++ certainly doesn't have. But you should remember that even if gnu tries to play nice, gnu is not unix! The goal what to develop a full system. Being more or less compatible has always been a matter of strategy, not a fundamental objective.
It is something that you should be aware off when you start depending on gnu tools.
As Paul Halmos said, "Don't just read it; fight it! Ask your own questions, look for your own examples, discover your own proofs. Is the hypothesis necessary? Is the converse true? What happens in the classical special case? What about the degenerate cases? Where does the proof use the hypothesis?"
If this was Microsoft running an ad that said "Ubuntu Linux promotes terrorism," and Ubuntu asked Google to remove it, would you get all angry about how evil Ubuntu and Google are?
It does make sense if you realize that the only point of the exercise is economic promotion of the Geneva region. Robert Hensler is also pushing internet voting (using local technology) for the same reasons. See for instance this. The mention "ideal business location" should give you an idea of what this is all about.
It's worth watching if only for this wonderful bit of dialogue:
Bruce Willis goes to see the dirty fat nerd who lives with his mother.
- smelly nerd: What are you doing in my command center ?
- Willis: It's not a command center, it's a basement.
This is wrong. What you describe is true for Blu -Ray and HD-DVD, not for DVD which could always be copied bit for bit (as long as you had a dual-layer burner if necessary).
The bad guy can do pretty much anything from his computer. Stop an elevator in some private building? Sure why not. Hack into everything, control anything (all the street lights, stock markets, power plants.) Whatever.
The most ridiculous example of this I ever saw was in season 4 of 24. The plot goes something like this: The department of defense developed an "override device" that allows remote control of all the country nuclear power plants. Terrorists acquire the device and initiate the meltdown of all the plants. The operators of the plant cannot do anything about it, but thankfully an analyst from the (fictitious) counter terrorist unit manages to coble together a program in a few minutes, sends it to the plants and avoid the meltdowns. What makes the whole thing even funnier is that the guy who saves the day (whose job has naturally nothing to do with nuclear power plant control) writes the program directly in... machine code! He even asks a coworker to lookup the opcode of a jump instruction for him.
Russian flight controllers plan to dedicate much of Thursday morning, when the ISS flies over Russian ground stations, to working through the computer issues.
What does that mean ? That NASA doesn't relay communication to the russians so that they can start working on the problem right away ? Then they have more serious issues than a software error.
The whole thing sounds like there is no real trust between the two agency. I understand that you want to give work to everybody and maybe keep some technology secret but it is absurd to have two mission controls, two life support systems, two attitude control systems, with apparently not much coordination.
Slashdot Mirror
The torture test (http://www.mozilla.org/projects/mathml/demo/texvsmml.xhtml) should now be passed perfectly, with no prompt about missing fonts.
I prefer the laser equivalent of this, stereolithography. It is faster and more precise.
Some fancy pictures.
You are a genius. In case you didn't know your biological nose does the same. It is almost the definition of "nose".
No, accelerometer mounted in the wrong orientation
I don't thing you fully understand the GP's point. Sure gcc runs on a lot of systems. But it doesn't run on all of them, and there are many good reasons to use other compilers even on the systems it supports. Performance being one. Intel and Sun compilers beat the pants off gcc, so not being able to use them is a significant defect of the code base. That's the whole point of using a standard language. Just because gcc is free doesn't mean custom language extensions are ok. As for bash, this is the same thing. Maybe I don't want to have to install two shells on my machine (think embeded systems). Bash is actually quite resource hungry (compared to say busybox). In general if you have to use specific tools with your program, then the program is not cross-platform. It becomes a gnu program bundled with parts of the gnu platform. In the same sense that java is not cross-platform, it is a platform. So if you want to write code that *really* runs anywhere (and I agree that it may not be important for many developers), anything that lures you into using custom extensions is a bad thing. In this sense gnu is not fundamentally better that microsoft. In practice however, gcc is better because it has things like "-ansi" which vc++ certainly doesn't have. But you should remember that even if gnu tries to play nice, gnu is not unix! The goal what to develop a full system. Being more or less compatible has always been a matter of strategy, not a fundamental objective. It is something that you should be aware off when you start depending on gnu tools.
As Paul Halmos said, "Don't just read it; fight it! Ask your own questions, look for your own examples, discover your own proofs. Is the hypothesis necessary? Is the converse true? What happens in the classical special case? What about the degenerate cases? Where does the proof use the hypothesis?"
Yes.
It does make sense if you realize that the only point of the exercise is economic promotion of the Geneva region. Robert Hensler is also pushing internet voting (using local technology) for the same reasons. See for instance this. The mention "ideal business location" should give you an idea of what this is all about.
International Symposium on Flying Insects and Robots: http://fir.epfl.ch/monteverita.html
Insect size flapping MAV (Japan): http://www.fit.ac.jp/~y-kawa/
Yes you can... if you have the pocketpc emulator that comes with visual studio.
Telling readers that links are meant to be clicked is so 1995!
It's worth watching if only for this wonderful bit of dialogue:
Bruce Willis goes to see the dirty fat nerd who lives with his mother.
- smelly nerd: What are you doing in my command center ?
- Willis: It's not a command center, it's a basement.
This is wrong. What you describe is true for Blu -Ray and HD-DVD, not for DVD which could always be copied bit for bit (as long as you had a dual-layer burner if necessary).
Aah, the dreaded Canadian Rope Skipping Federation attack.
The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything... in 45 bytes.
http://www.cocaine.org/cocainenews/cocaine-rivers. html
I haven't tried it but I am sure you could hack together a solution by combining qemu and nspluginwrapper.
The most ridiculous example of this I ever saw was in season 4 of 24. The plot goes something like this: The department of defense developed an "override device" that allows remote control of all the country nuclear power plants. Terrorists acquire the device and initiate the meltdown of all the plants. The operators of the plant cannot do anything about it, but thankfully an analyst from the (fictitious) counter terrorist unit manages to coble together a program in a few minutes, sends it to the plants and avoid the meltdowns. What makes the whole thing even funnier is that the guy who saves the day (whose job has naturally nothing to do with nuclear power plant control) writes the program directly in... machine code! He even asks a coworker to lookup the opcode of a jump instruction for him.
this is even more discreet. They cannot see your face, man !
The researcher's page on the robot http://www.cn.stir.ac.uk/~tgeng/research.html. Check the videos they are quite amazing.
stone tablets...
"real men have fabs".
You are right. They should have used this picture to scare them off.
... they didn't use this one.