Is this a troll? If not, think, then post. Reading the article would help, too. First, there are there many advantages to having a freely redistributable database engine on desktops. You may already have applications running on your desktop that use MSDE without you realising it. And secondly, as a developer, I find it very handy to have a desktop database to test against.
Consider that one of the first groups to use a new version of Windows will be the developers (,developers, developers), and you can see that this isn't Microsoft's smartest move
(Mind you, not that I was going to upgrade to Vista anytime soon)
Do people have a choice? Is there any such thing as free will? Free will appears to be a contradiction in terms, unless you believe in mind-body duality. What are we but the sum of our genetics and experiences? Are not our reactions to any given stimulus, given enough information, completely predictable? If they are not, then that is surely down to quantum weirdness, and that (IMO) doesn't count as free will either.
Maybe people shouldn't blamed for their decisions, but pitied. We instinctually and emotionally shy away from any such conclusion, because we want there to be someone to blame, but that doesn't mean we're right.
However, that doesn't mean there isn't any hope. The things we say, the ways we act, they are also stimuli. They also can affect the way people think and act. We are not alone, islands of predetermination, doomed to our fates. We can save each other.
So keep shouting, brother. Some will hear and believe, and be saved.
What if the "piles" weren't physical storage at all, but categories? Or search results? Getting your search results is only half the battle, then you have to find the one that you actually want.
What if your system learnt your preferences for document formats, and used the pile highlighting techniques to make, say, PDFs stand out in your search results?
This is actually something I've been feebly stumbling towards at the back of my mind for a while, and it's both exciting and disappointing to have them beat me to it:)
Obviously, this system isn't perfect yet, it's a prototype. I still think it holds a lot of promise. "Piles of stuff" seems to be a genuine, widespread affordance, much more intuitive than files and folders.
Yes, I know, the only truly intuitive interface is the nipple...
I'd like to hear some examples to back that up, because I have to disagree. In general, game sequels, like film sequels, are a disappointment, with only a few bright stars bucking the trend (GTA, for instance).
I'm quite fond of FPS games. I'd consider that Deus Ex: Invisible War, Jedi Knight II, Jedi Academy, Halo 2, Rogue Agent, and even in some ways Half Life 2 to be disappointing. The list goes on. Most genres have the same problem. The original game is fresh, unexpected, a new experience. The followup is often a lazy retread, fails to offer anything new, doesn't reach the same visceral heights of experience and immersion, or compromises too much in attempt to appeal to everyone. Which of course leads to it appealing to nobody.
Less graphics improvements, more gameplay, please. Of course, the PS3 and the 360 are determinedly ploughing on in the opposite direction, because they seem to believe that's what people want. I don't know, maybe they're right...
*fades off into the distance, muttering about how it was all fields here once*
This is not a flamebait response, but most moderators will treat it so.
No. Aggressive, yes. Unhelpful, possibly. Anyway, to the point:
Yes I work overtime most/sometimes.
I will be equally blunt. It appears that you're doing your job wrong. Having to work overtime on a regular basis implies poor planning or lack of focus. Of course, if you're using that overtime to improve your skills, I withdraw my comment. I just hope that you're not charging for that time:).
Oh, an anonymous coward is being intellectually lazy and cynical about an article on slashdot, whilst forgetting that it's also a site for general discussion about things that geeks care about. Colour me suprised. Why is this news?
You're coming at the problem from the wrong angle.
Most people don't care which browser is visiting their website, what they care about is what functionality the browser supports.
There are standards-based ways of doing that, ranging from information in HTTP headers through to the fact that if( myObject.possiblyNonExistantObject) Does The Right Thing (TM) (which was either a stroke of genius forethought or a lucky accident).
Keep it simple, solve the problem you actually have.
Pure supposition. Here's another take, equally as likely:
MS already had a plan showing how much they'd have to invest to make the 360 backwards compatible, and they were waiting for Sony to confirm their plans before deciding to commit the resources.
Wait, here's another one:
MS had already decided to make the 360 backwards compatible, but were pretending they hadn't decided so that they would have something new to say about the 360 after the PS3 launch, in an attempt to take some of the wind out of Sony's sails.
Hey, this is a fun game, I bet I could play this all day...
Or go a step further and remove the requirement for the average user to deal with the clumsy and confusing file-and-folder metaphor. Which, admittedly, both Windows and OSX are edging towards.
You're absolutely right, the standard mitochondrial DNA analysis places them in 'schweinfurthii' (which, geographically, they border with).
However, it has been pointed out that mtDNA analyses cannot always distinguish between closely related species, and the answer cannot be definitively known until a a full nuclear DNA analysis is performed.
Also, it's worth nothing that, whilst chimps can grow to various sizes, these apes are considerably larger than even the largest chimp on record, and their behaviour is substantially different from typical chimp behaviour
You are missing the point, or possibly phrasing yours badly.
Nothing in the GPL prevents you from selling derivative works. However, for every person you sell the compiled version of that code to, you must also make the source available, under the terms of the GPL. Which means, yes, they could redistribute your code, and you might theoretically make no more profit out of it after your first sale.
So, what you're actually complaining about is the GPL restricts your freedom to use other people's hard work to save you time and money, add a little bit of your own code, and then sell the result, keeping the source to yourself and giving nothing back to the people on whose shoulders you stood.
Yes, the GPL restricts the freedom of the few to be parasites, so that the many gain other freedoms. Your freedom to swing your fist ends at my face.
If you remove human error, you might possibly avoid farces like the last US election.
If a method of e-voting can be proven to be reliable and fast, it then becomes possible to hold votes more often. Then it becomes possible (with a suitably large amount of campaigning and reform), to expand the remit of democracy from just "Who shall govern?" to questions like "Shall we go to war?" It truly becomes a government of the people.
Personally I'm big into this! I feel that the potential for Europe to regain power and all of that is pretty massive. However, outside of the USA there is one big problem - language. You may think that this is getting better - go to Brussels, goto Barcelona and see how many 20-30 year olds speak English; not many.
Can't speak for Barcelona, but I was in Brussels (and elsewhere in Belgium) about two weeks ago, and it's one of the most multi-lingual countries in the world. People who don't speak at least two languages seemed unusual. The youngest was in Bruges, and she can't have been more than 17. Even the older generation seemed to speak at least Flemish and French.
Oh, please, people. It's music. Communication in sonic form. It requires a degree of effort, and the best examples of it require serious effort and a thoughtful mind. It is not, however, the sodding Trail of Tears. These people are not heroes, not deities, and most of them, I challenge, are as deep as a rain puddle, along with the rest of humanity. Just because they can put average poetry to music, it doesn't make them a great philosopher.
I've been informed by a work colleague that Gaak was very lucky.. apparently, the Magna Science Centre (in the UK, people, not Australia) has two doors very close to each other. One door leads to the carpark. The other leads to a flight of stairs:)
The Internet does nothing by itself (in fact, it could be argued the Internet does nothing period, but I digress). The Internet doesn't make information/rumor/lies, it's the people who use it. All that's going on here is he's being smacked in the face, apparently for the first time in his life, with the true nature of humanity, which is particularly easy to observe on the Internet. For those who haven't been keeping up:
Humanity is largely made up of lackbrained, slackjawed gawpers who'll believe any toss spouted by just about any authority figure.
Most of humanity talks toss most of the time.
I refer the honourable gentleman to Sturgeon's Law.
People are this idiotic all on their own, all the time. People aren't just willing to fall into the "us vs. them" mentality, they're eager. All the Internet does is accelerate the process.
On the Internet, no-one can hide from the true nature of humanity. Do something about it or deal with it.
To most people, information is stored in order, not disorder (entropy).
Unfortunately, as is often the case, most people are wrong. As you seem to be aware, most ordered systems are trivial to describe: x^2 + y^2 - r^2 = 0 describes a circle, and that's all the information it contains. A vaguely circular collection of random points requires a lot more effort to describe, and therefore has more information.
Random digits are "useful" in most contexts because each digit is "relevant", each digit is a "surprise", each digit means something. Nonrandom digits usually don't tell you anything you hadn't already worked out from their predecessors.
Just Lizardtech aren't going out of the way to tell anybody about it
Um. It took me one click to get to a page where I could download the Linux SDK, and from that page one more click to get to the page from which I could download the source code. The only other thing they could have done is plaster "LINUX SOURCE AVAILABLE" all over the homepage 8-)
On a side note, would it have CmdrTaco to do some research before posting?
OK, just assuming this isn't a total put on... It serves no purpose to society but to sate the unwholesome appetites of certain elements of the male population who, for whatever reason, cannot find themselves a woman to marry.
Or in other words, as long as they're married, it's alright for them to have unwholesame appetites and use women purely for sexual satisfaction? That'd be the "marriage as legalised sex slavery" school of thought, then?
Besides which, marriage is an invention of religion, and not being religious, I do not take suggestions that I need to have my relationships officially "sanctioned" particularly kindly.
Pornography is degrading to both men and women. It encourages the myth that all men are interested in is looking at naked women and thinking about fornicating with them
No it doesn't. Men buying pornography might encourage that idea, and, oh, look at that, men do buy pornography. In fact, history has proved that if pornography is not available, people create their own.
You are also revealing your own sexism; pornography for women also exists. Strange though it may seem, women are also sexual creatures who can, shock, horror, get aroused by looking at pictures. I've even heard tales they can have their own orgasms, but I'm sure that's a myth.
and its whole purpose is to encourage the sin of onanism, something which God-fearing Christians know to be wrong.
IANABS, but wasn't Onan's sin that he didn't fertilise his wife when God wanted him to, i.e., his sin was disobeying God and not consummating his marriage. I don't believe there's anywhere in the Bible that states that a single man masturbating is a sin, but, like I say, IANABS.
A true man has no need to look at glossy pictures of naked women, they are quite capable of finding themselves a real woman...and dragging her back to his cave by her hair if necessary.
Actually, I think you'll find that population dynamics put forward very good reasons why not every man, no matter how "manly" will find a lifetime partner.
Women are exploited in these magazines with both the promise of money and the supposed "liberating" experiance of being photographed without any clothes on.
Hm. Have you actually talked to any of these women? Their general attitude tends to be that the liberating factor is the money. They're not doing for art's sake, they're doing it for their bank balance.
These are lies from an industry filled with perverts of the highest order, people for whom Satan is a way of life.
Good job you didn't mention any names there, or you could have been in for one (ehem) hell of a lawsuit. I very much doubt you could prove any member of the porn industry is a secret Satanist!
Being Christian is one thing. Not being able to face up to human nature and blaming Satan for it is another.
Slashdot Mirror
Is this a troll? If not, think, then post. Reading the article would help, too. First, there are there many advantages to having a freely redistributable database engine on desktops. You may already have applications running on your desktop that use MSDE without you realising it. And secondly, as a developer, I find it very handy to have a desktop database to test against.
Consider that one of the first groups to use a new version of Windows will be the developers (,developers, developers), and you can see that this isn't Microsoft's smartest move
(Mind you, not that I was going to upgrade to Vista anytime soon)
Oh, I don't know, I sort of like it. It's an eggcorn
Excuse me whilst I go on a little ramble here...
Do people have a choice? Is there any such thing as free will? Free will appears to be a contradiction in terms, unless you believe in mind-body duality. What are we but the sum of our genetics and experiences? Are not our reactions to any given stimulus, given enough information, completely predictable? If they are not, then that is surely down to quantum weirdness, and that (IMO) doesn't count as free will either.
Maybe people shouldn't blamed for their decisions, but pitied. We instinctually and emotionally shy away from any such conclusion, because we want there to be someone to blame, but that doesn't mean we're right.
However, that doesn't mean there isn't any hope. The things we say, the ways we act, they are also stimuli. They also can affect the way people think and act. We are not alone, islands of predetermination, doomed to our fates. We can save each other.
So keep shouting, brother. Some will hear and believe, and be saved.
I wouldn't be so quick to damn it.
:)
What if the "piles" weren't physical storage at all, but categories? Or search results? Getting your search results is only half the battle, then you have to find the one that you actually want.
What if your system learnt your preferences for document formats, and used the pile highlighting techniques to make, say, PDFs stand out in your search results?
This is actually something I've been feebly stumbling towards at the back of my mind for a while, and it's both exciting and disappointing to have them beat me to it
Obviously, this system isn't perfect yet, it's a prototype. I still think it holds a lot of promise. "Piles of stuff" seems to be a genuine, widespread affordance, much more intuitive than files and folders.
Yes, I know, the only truly intuitive interface is the nipple...
I'd like to hear some examples to back that up, because I have to disagree. In general, game sequels, like film sequels, are a disappointment, with only a few bright stars bucking the trend (GTA, for instance).
I'm quite fond of FPS games. I'd consider that Deus Ex: Invisible War, Jedi Knight II, Jedi Academy, Halo 2, Rogue Agent, and even in some ways Half Life 2 to be disappointing. The list goes on. Most genres have the same problem. The original game is fresh, unexpected, a new experience. The followup is often a lazy retread, fails to offer anything new, doesn't reach the same visceral heights of experience and immersion, or compromises too much in attempt to appeal to everyone. Which of course leads to it appealing to nobody.
Less graphics improvements, more gameplay, please. Of course, the PS3 and the 360 are determinedly ploughing on in the opposite direction, because they seem to believe that's what people want. I don't know, maybe they're right...
*fades off into the distance, muttering about how it was all fields here once*
This is not a flamebait response, but most moderators will treat it so.
No. Aggressive, yes. Unhelpful, possibly. Anyway, to the point:
Yes I work overtime most/sometimes.
I will be equally blunt. It appears that you're doing your job wrong. Having to work overtime on a regular basis implies poor planning or lack of focus. Of course, if you're using that overtime to improve your skills, I withdraw my comment. I just hope that you're not charging for that time :).
Oh, an anonymous coward is being intellectually lazy and cynical about an article on slashdot, whilst forgetting that it's also a site for general discussion about things that geeks care about. Colour me suprised. Why is this news?
You're coming at the problem from the wrong angle.
Most people don't care which browser is visiting their website, what they care about is what functionality the browser supports.
There are standards-based ways of doing that, ranging from information in HTTP headers through to the fact that if( myObject.possiblyNonExistantObject) Does The Right Thing (TM) (which was either a stroke of genius forethought or a lucky accident).
Keep it simple, solve the problem you actually have.
Pure supposition. Here's another take, equally as likely:
MS already had a plan showing how much they'd have to invest to make the 360 backwards compatible, and they were waiting for Sony to confirm their plans before deciding to commit the resources.
Wait, here's another one:
MS had already decided to make the 360 backwards compatible, but were pretending they hadn't decided so that they would have something new to say about the 360 after the PS3 launch, in an attempt to take some of the wind out of Sony's sails.
Hey, this is a fun game, I bet I could play this all day...
Or go a step further and remove the requirement for the average user to deal with the clumsy and confusing file-and-folder metaphor. Which, admittedly, both Windows and OSX are edging towards.
Ah. You mean safety critical. :)
You're absolutely right, the standard mitochondrial DNA analysis places them in 'schweinfurthii' (which, geographically, they border with).
However, it has been pointed out that mtDNA analyses cannot always distinguish between closely related species, and the answer cannot be definitively known until a a full nuclear DNA analysis is performed.
Also, it's worth nothing that, whilst chimps can grow to various sizes, these apes are considerably larger than even the largest chimp on record, and their behaviour is substantially different from typical chimp behaviour
No, actually, quoted by the orginal article (RTFA, etc), out of context...thanks for playing, though.
It's still a bizarre thing to say.
You are missing the point, or possibly phrasing yours badly.
Nothing in the GPL prevents you from selling derivative works. However, for every person you sell the compiled version of that code to, you must also make the source available, under the terms of the GPL. Which means, yes, they could redistribute your code, and you might theoretically make no more profit out of it after your first sale.
So, what you're actually complaining about is the GPL restricts your freedom to use other people's hard work to save you time and money, add a little bit of your own code, and then sell the result, keeping the source to yourself and giving nothing back to the people on whose shoulders you stood.
Yes, the GPL restricts the freedom of the few to be parasites, so that the many gain other freedoms. Your freedom to swing your fist ends at my face.
It's a pretty good trade-off, don't you think?
Two points spring to mind:
(A man can dream, can't he?)
Can't speak for Barcelona, but I was in Brussels (and elsewhere in Belgium) about two weeks ago, and it's one of the most multi-lingual countries in the world. People who don't speak at least two languages seemed unusual. The youngest was in Bruges, and she can't have been more than 17. Even the older generation seemed to speak at least Flemish and French.
Nice straw man argument/troll there. Possibly you ought to wait and examine the documents it puts out before leaping to wild conclusions?
Tim Bray's comments seem to indicate that the XML is indeed valid and parseable by anything.
Please mod the parent down.
While I agree in general:
It's their blood & sweat, not a packaged good.
Oh, please, people. It's music. Communication in sonic form. It requires a degree of effort, and the best examples of it require serious effort and a thoughtful mind. It is not, however, the sodding Trail of Tears. These people are not heroes, not deities, and most of them, I challenge, are as deep as a rain puddle, along with the rest of humanity. Just because they can put average poetry to music, it doesn't make them a great philosopher.
A little perspective on both sides, please.
I've been informed by a work colleague that Gaak was very lucky.. apparently, the Magna Science Centre (in the UK, people, not Australia) has two doors very close to each other. One door leads to the carpark. The other leads to a flight of stairs :)
...
"So, what did we learn today, Gaak?"
"STAIRS...HURT..."
The Internet does nothing by itself (in fact, it could be argued the Internet does nothing period, but I digress). The Internet doesn't make information/rumor/lies, it's the people who use it. All that's going on here is he's being smacked in the face, apparently for the first time in his life, with the true nature of humanity, which is particularly easy to observe on the Internet. For those who haven't been keeping up:
People are this idiotic all on their own, all the time. People aren't just willing to fall into the "us vs. them" mentality, they're eager. All the Internet does is accelerate the process.
On the Internet, no-one can hide from the true nature of humanity. Do something about it or deal with it.
(phew, I needed that...)
Er...wrong. If you have a routable IP address, you're connected to the Internet, period. Latency is irrelevant (You Will Be Assimilated).
Otherwise, I'd be interested to know where you'd draw the line, particularly speaking as someone who started out on a 2400 line 8-)
Unfortunately, as is often the case, most people are wrong. As you seem to be aware, most ordered systems are trivial to describe: x^2 + y^2 - r^2 = 0 describes a circle, and that's all the information it contains. A vaguely circular collection of random points requires a lot more effort to describe, and therefore has more information.
Random digits are "useful" in most contexts because each digit is "relevant", each digit is a "surprise", each digit means something. Nonrandom digits usually don't tell you anything you hadn't already worked out from their predecessors.
Um. It took me one click to get to a page where I could download the Linux SDK, and from that page one more click to get to the page from which I could download the source code. The only other thing they could have done is plaster "LINUX SOURCE AVAILABLE" all over the homepage 8-)
On a side note, would it have CmdrTaco to do some research before posting?
Or in other words, as long as they're married, it's alright for them to have unwholesame appetites and use women purely for sexual satisfaction? That'd be the "marriage as legalised sex slavery" school of thought, then?
Besides which, marriage is an invention of religion, and not being religious, I do not take suggestions that I need to have my relationships officially "sanctioned" particularly kindly.
Pornography is degrading to both men and women. It encourages the myth that all men are interested in is looking at naked women and thinking about fornicating with them
No it doesn't. Men buying pornography might encourage that idea, and, oh, look at that, men do buy pornography. In fact, history has proved that if pornography is not available, people create their own.
You are also revealing your own sexism; pornography for women also exists. Strange though it may seem, women are also sexual creatures who can, shock, horror, get aroused by looking at pictures. I've even heard tales they can have their own orgasms, but I'm sure that's a myth.
and its whole purpose is to encourage the sin of onanism, something which God-fearing Christians know to be wrong.
IANABS, but wasn't Onan's sin that he didn't fertilise his wife when God wanted him to, i.e., his sin was disobeying God and not consummating his marriage. I don't believe there's anywhere in the Bible that states that a single man masturbating is a sin, but, like I say, IANABS.
A true man has no need to look at glossy pictures of naked women, they are quite capable of finding themselves a real woman...and dragging her back to his cave by her hair if necessary.
Actually, I think you'll find that population dynamics put forward very good reasons why not every man, no matter how "manly" will find a lifetime partner.
Women are exploited in these magazines with both the promise of money and the supposed "liberating" experiance of being photographed without any clothes on.
Hm. Have you actually talked to any of these women? Their general attitude tends to be that the liberating factor is the money. They're not doing for art's sake, they're doing it for their bank balance.
These are lies from an industry filled with perverts of the highest order, people for whom Satan is a way of life.
Good job you didn't mention any names there, or you could have been in for one (ehem) hell of a lawsuit. I very much doubt you could prove any member of the porn industry is a secret Satanist!
Being Christian is one thing. Not being able to face up to human nature and blaming Satan for it is another.
This is either the most straight faced joke posting I've ever seen, or really, REALLY disturbing...