The 1974 to 2003 period was dominated by the old analog 800-850 Mhz AMP's tech.
Depends on the country.
In the UK, the above is completely bogus.
I know this because I was involved in two projects (for separate companies) where my job was to facilitate the migration of
traffic from the analogue bands to the digital spectrum. I wrote software that would allow the radio experts to predict what
would happen to traffic coverage if they increased/reduced power on specific sites, if they went from monopole to three-sector,
or if they took a band from analogue and gave it to the digital network, or if they increased site resolution.
We also did simulations to determine finer grained traffic analysis than the data provided and (in both cases) we identified
coverage holes (that turned out to be real) in central London, United Kingdom.
And that was in 1994 (for the UK) and 1996 (for the rest of the world, with the primary focus the US)
As far as the main carriers were concerned analogue was on the way out in 1994, expecting to be completely replaced a few years later.
Its possible they kept the networks running longer than anticipated (I don't know, I did other things after this), but the
idea that the analouge bands were not being migrated to digital in this time frame is totally incorrect, false and misleading.
And in the UK, we've been digital for at least 10 years. We had our 3G auction in 2001.
Aha! A 30 year long study of mobile phones usages shows they don't create cancer.
Pretty interesting since mobile phones were not available in 1979. The study is Swedish, analogue mobile phone market starts in Sweden in 1981.
A lady I know in this village, her partner is someone that has been studying mobile phones and their effects for a long time.
They know people that use mobiles day in, day out, all day (literally). Typically these people are "Mr White Van Man", driving a van all
day taking directions as what to do etc.
These people they are studying have no short term memory capability, whatsoever. They are convinced it is the mobile phone usage, combined
with the extreme (all the time) usage pattern these people have.
Then there are my friends that design mobile phones - they tell me they go out of their way to choose frequencies that do not resonate
with human tissue. Which runs counter to some of my other friends that have the much reported "mobile phone hot ear". It would only get
hot if it were resonating with the signal and therefore attenuating the signal.
The interesting thing is that the mobile circuit designers are genuinely interested and do not write these events off as "can't happen", or "nothing
to worry about" or "scaremongering". Unlike the folks that represent the mobile phone industry (and the billions they stand to make).
Disclaimer. I have been involved in improving GSM (and other related technology) traffic planning coverage in the UK and also for traffic planning products marketed worldwide, in particular the American cellular market.
And no, I do not own a mobile phone. Make of that what you will.
What is a Register Wall? The kind of nonesense you get if you go to the New York Times website.
I have no idea if they still require me to login to view their content, but they used to.
The fact that I have no idea if they still require me to login shows just how entrenced the damage to your reputation is..
I simply won't visit the New York Times website because I don't want YET ANOTHER PASSWORD to remember.
Any site that wants me to register just to view content, I don't join.
Apart from Amazon, any site that wants to create an account just to purchase, I pass. I recently tried to purchase "Getting Real" but Lulu.com wanted me to register to make a purchase.
Why can't I just provide my name, address, credit card info, etc, then purchase? Why do I need to waste time creating an account, then have that information stored by them forever?
They did not get the sale. Their loss. I can read Getting Real online for free.
Yes you are. You want to be paid for your software works, but refuse to pay others for their software works.
That is the definition of hypocrisy. Say one thing, do the other.
I, on the other hand, want to be paid for my work. And I damn well pay for the software I use from other vendors.
That has caused many people on the other side of the transaction to believe the whole setup is bad, which leads to widespread rulebreaking.
You are right. A whole bunch of people have realised that people are benefiting from their work without being paid for it. And now they want to be paid for it. People steal my work daily. It does not help pay the mortgage, or cover the cost of creating the work. You seem to think its perfectly OK to steal from me. BTW, the software I create, you'd only want to use it if you are in business, and thus making money from using it. People steal because they think they can and should, not any other reason.
I abhore software patents and I do not wish for any extension of copyright law.
Because only ONE group of people can use it at any one time!
You are missing basic and fundamental parts here:
a) Cost of creation. If creation cost X million, but sale of individual items is small fraction of X, then of course you need to sell many items
b) Created item may benefit many people at once or only a few people at once, or one person at a time. If if benefits many people at once, and they get more from using than they pay, why is that wrong, why should the creator not be rewarded? They've still benefited each user of the item to a greater extent than the user of the item has paid.
When you finally get around to creating a digital work that takes much time (in my case, years) to create, you'll understand why your attitude is so ignorant. If you want my work, you can pay for it, or create it yourself.
The Dell Precision laptop series all supporting docking (D-Dock port replicator).
The hardware is excellent, as is the build quality.
Mine (a Dell Precision M6300) has 4GB RAM, 1920x1200 17" screen, 110GB disk, Core 2 Centrino at 2.X Ghz. Good track pad, good keyboard, matte screen (despite some other comments on here about glossy being OK, they are wrong, you want the matte screen), lots of USB ports, will dual screen easily using the ports (even
through the docking station), etc.
You can't buy them new for the price the OP wants, but you can buy them on Ebay, often in very good condition, for the price the user wants.
I concur with those that say widescreens and laptops suck for development. They do, but if you want/need a laptop for development and you don't want a Macbook Pro, this is the one to buy (currently its M6400, superceding the M6300).
My previous laptop, a Dell Inspiron 8000, purchased in 2000, is still working, the only niggles being shift and control keys that are slowing failing due to the aluminium oxide build up on the key contacts. Dell's are reliable and don't die (witness the tales of dying Macs elsewhere on this thread). And of course this machine has a proper 4:3 screen rather than a widescreen, so much nicer to use - sadly the market doesn't cater to developers in that respect.
Why is Firefox going backwards in usability? Despite all the publicity surrounding Microsoft's Ribbon bar, why do people put it in their software? Its horrible. It makes usability really suffer. What to do is not obvious. Where is the menu bar? Dunno, I can't see it. Hmm, well what do I do to get to see it? Dunno, its hidden. Try something. Like what? I dunno. Many minutes later after a lot of random mouse clicking (which does nothing) and key pressing, someone presses "Alt", at which point the menu magically appears. Wow, thats intuitive. NOT.
If I struggle with it, how on earth is my father, who is 70 soon, going to live with it? Well he isn't. He's self taught and I'm often surprised at the things he does on his own (installed Ubuntu without asking for any help +1 for Ubuntu the installer is that good), but Ribbons will floor him, for sure.
The Ribbon bar is about as a good a UI decision as Apple's single button mouse on the grounds that users aren't bright enough to understand multiple buttons. Doh!
Demon wanted all customers to take up eBilling several years ago. You had to opt out of eBilling.
I opted out because I wanted a printed invoice to give to the accountants and because I thought sooner or later
so cockup like this would happen.
My choice has been vindicated.
And no, I won't be looking for another vendor. Demon are more expensive than other vendors, but other than the eBilling foulup, they are generally good and no bandwidth restrictions or upper limits at all. And that is what I want.
Absolutely. A friend of mine once told me of a story where a band member friend had his violin case run over. He ran back to the case and was more concerned about the bow than the violin. He reckoned replacing the bow would be harder than replacing the violin.
As for instruments having off days - for sure. I play bagpipes. Some days they sing. Other days, best to put them down and not bother at all. Most days, somewhere in between:-)
This is grossly ignorant.
Know anything about aerodynamics? About fluid flow (air is a fluid) and lamina flow vs turbulent flow?
Consider that bicycles are reasonably easy to cycle until you hit (average per person) 12 mph (Imperial miles, the ones that count) and above that it gets much harder.
Magnify that to the speeds involved with this particular event. I doubt very much that just increasing by 13mph is that easy. Its almost certainly a Velocity^2 relationship or worse (almost certainly due to the problems with drive train and steam, let alone aero which I've alluded to).
Given that the US record is probably in US mph and the current record will be in Imperial mph (given that its a UK university that has done it), this is a high speed acheivement, but htne again, if the FIA ratify it, both records will have been recorded in Imperial mph.
Oh, and finally, the correct way to spell tyres, is with a 'y'.
Can I just point out that a mobile phone is in itself a mobile computing device (even without the ability to "run" your app of choice or a command shell.
Even the "bricks" that people carried around circa 1985 had more CPU power than most computers.
This patent is invalid right from the get go.
Why doesn't stallman take this view when it comes to food production? If you don't grow the food you don't control what goes in to the food (nutrients, pesticide residues, fertiliser residues, etc). Even if you go organic, you are still ceding control to the grower over how, when, where the food is grown, harvested and delivered to you.
Sometimes, allowing someone else to do some or all of the work for you is, wait for it, beneficial to both parties. In those cases you can park you ideological bigotry at the door. Sadly, despite his intellect he does not seem to get that.
Let alone the environmental issues. Pooling resources into centralised services can (and should) be beneficial if done correctly. His solution is definitely sub-optimal on this axis by a very large measure.
For these reasons other people provide web hosting for me, and I don't own a nuclear, coal or gas power station, I just use the services of one. Likewise, water, sewerage etc. Its all the same thing. I don't need to have the blueprints and physical access to the premises to use the service.
Which of course if you take Stallman's views on software and extend them to these things, you'd pretty much have to demand access to these. I can see it now, "Here you are Piping Snail, these keys will let you into the main reactor, be sure not to hit any of the controls with your bagpipe..."
Does stallman own a credit card or have a bank account? I hope not, because he'll be implicitly using other people's computers whenever he makes a transaction.
What about when he drives his car, unless its really old, he'll be using software written by people to control the engine, the air con, the windows etc. None of which he will have seen.
What about the roads he drives upon? All the traffic light systems are embedded systems, which he is implicitly using.
Likewise if he ever has need of surgery or emergency medical equipment.
and when he uses telephones, faxes, modems, etc...
...and so on...
Frankly, his whole position is untenable and thus hypocritical.
No ocpyright infringement. This is an original recording of a unique arrangement. Copyright exists in this new recording.
In the UK, the PRS (Performing Rights Society) will what a fee for the performance of this work because it is a derivative arrangement of an existing protected work. In turn the PRS will protect this arrangement and collect fees for that as well, should they accept a request to protect it.
Just to repeat though - Nothing to do with copyright.
The PRS perform useful and harmful work all over the UK. Useful in the for commercial performances they ensure the original composers and musicians get rewarded for their work.
Harmful in that their enforcement is over-zealous and results in them regarding not-for-profit performances (you and your mates playing tunes on folk instruments down the local pub) as a revenue generating exercise. This imposese ridiculous fees on pubs etc and results in music sessions shutting down etc. Resulting in less music for everyone and less space for musicians to hone their skills who some of which become the very people the PRS need to protect. So short sighted. I know many PRS members, and non of them think the PRS treat music sessions correctly.
The PRS are loathed just about everywhere for their heavy handed approach to licensing. They even insist that an employer is responsible for licensing an employees radio if used in that workspace (because everyone can listen to it, in theory, never mind the workspace is a noisy car mechanic workshop - yes, this went to court and sadly, the PRS won).
Many parallels to the RIAA, where what they gain on one hand they lose with the other through insensitive, heavy handed greed.
That implies you must be using a laptop to write code.
How can you produce your best code on laptop? Thats just incredible. Rubbish keyboard on all laptops and compromised mouse support.
I've got an excellent laptop, a Dell M6300 and its not up to the job despite a good large keyboard and 1920x1200 screen. Don't even mention a Macbook with its horrible keyboard and even worse mouse/trackpad etc.
You need a real machine, with good ergonomics etc. So basically that means separate screen (so you are not hunched over it), real keyboard that you situate a decent distance and height from the screen (unlike a laptop), same for mouse, multiple buttons on the mouse (Ouch, out goes the Apple). OS of your choice, Windows or Linux, doesn't matter.
Airplane? You've got to be kidding. Thats about as useful an environment as sitting at a bus-stop or in a cafe. Plain useless. If I'm in a plane, I'm suffering all the other folks because I want to go to the destination. If I'm in a cafe its because I'm hungry and/or I have some interesting company to hang out with.
The last thing I want is some inane conversation about football or a TV soap or some girl nattering about her boyfriend interfering with my software thought processes. Thats the unfortunate things about ears, unlike eyes you can't close them.
Silence. It can be great. As I get older I find I prefer it more. But often I code to music (Zappa through folk, no rap, no hip hop, no drum and bass - what could be worse?). Melody is good (rhythm implied by melody), rhythm without melody (drum and bad, hip hop, rap all fit that) is bad.
I often puncuate my software writing with playing musical instruments (border bagpipe and mandolin if you are interested). A good long walk often helps as well.
And yes, I do get to do all these things. I work for myself these days, but previous employers often let me arrive late for work or leave in the middle of hte day for 3 hours to go horse riding. All about getting the right things. I may be gone for 3 hours but most times those days they got 10 hours out of me those days (yes 10 in the office) and highly productive too (Emacs on various Unix and VMS back then).
Someone mentioned vi. For productivity? You are joking.
In an ideal world, vi, its progeny and derivatives (including Emacs vi-mode), like smallpox before it, would be eradicated. And all software developers would be a lot more productive. Bill Joy has a hell of a lot to answer for inflicting that upon the software world.
That is not insightful, its laughable.
Anyone using vi, or any derivative is not productive. vi is the 2nd worst editor in the world, bested only by edlin.
Shockingly bad.
Frankly, if she DOES, you should ignore her, unless her problem is directly related to the computer. Otherwise she is just a shallow waste of space, justs like you.
Yes, *JUST LIKE YOU*.
The computer you use, and the computer she uses (or does not use) have NOTHING, I'll repeat that, NOTHING, to do with whether you'll fall in love, get married, shag a hell of a lot, hopefully create some nice, well adjusted children, etc, etc,
If you think you iMac Pro laptop is important for this task, (like some f**kwits in some previous posts on slashdot), you are going to be very disappointed, and/or you are going to seriously hurt (possibly several years down the line) the woman you are hoping for).
Do yourself (and her) a favaour and forget about the fact the your iMac is more cool than your PC, and think about what *YOU*, as a *PERSON*, offer *HER*/*HIM* as a potential life partner.
I love nice cars, gadgets, hand made, bespoke, musical instruments - but it IS NOT WORTH A DAMN without someone that is with you *FOR THE RIGHT REASON" and that *IS NOT" because I've "GOTTA CEWLA LAPTOP than he has" and *IS NOT* because I am *WEALTHIER" than hs is, AND SO ON.
Finally, If you are so bright. Why do I need to spell the above out to you? I apoligise for the clumsy grammar.
And for those of you that think I'm clueless about OS and must be an MS zealot and therefore closed-minded, you shoud look to yourself first, I've worked on 7 different home computer systems in the 80s, bespoke 8 bit embedded systems, multi-platorm Unix/VMS systems, Windows, Linux etc, etc and I currently work supplyinf software tools for C++/C/Delphi/VB/Fortran/Java/JavaScript/Lua/Python/Ruby/Perl/Php. Its not as if I am not widely experienced.
Jeez, what an awful piece of cr*p. Sound of a vaccum cleaner, performance slower than an equivalent x86, Mhz for Mhz (timeframe: 2000/1).
Well maybe no in benchmarks, but if you had a box, side by side, both running Whistler, you couldn't tell the difference.
I had an early pre-release Intel box (well, I had several) plus pre-release Visual Studio and compilers. I ported a 2,000,000 line C++ CAD app from 32 bit MFC to 64 bit MFC. We did the port, but the box did not sing. It was horrible.
5 years earlier I'd used Sun's Windows emulation environment running Windows apps on Sparcstation pizza boxes. That was better.
Itanium is much more of a dead platform than x86.
I don't know how expandable SPARC is, in terms of future bandwidth, but if its available its a reasonable legacy bet, given Sun have the emulator software.
Real shame they dropped Alpha. That was a good platform. Ahread of its time. We had one in our office early nineties, running Digital UX. Sometime in 90-94. That thing was fast, compared to the competition.
ARM would be excellent though, I'd love that to happen. Same platform for desktop, mobile, embedded, low power, high performance. All we need is multi-core (sorry, haven't followed it closely enough to know if that is the horizon).
I've only used 2 machines in my life that have sounded like vaccuum cleaners:
1) Motorola Exorciser, 6809 development system with 8" floppies
2) Intel development Itanium box (several of).
Surely if you comment (in public) or discuss (in public or private, except with other jurors) about a trial for which you are a juror, that is contempt of court?
Well, in the UK, not sure if you have the same concept in the US.
Slashdot Mirror
Depends on the country.
In the UK, the above is completely bogus.
I know this because I was involved in two projects (for separate companies) where my job was to facilitate the migration of
traffic from the analogue bands to the digital spectrum. I wrote software that would allow the radio experts to predict what
would happen to traffic coverage if they increased/reduced power on specific sites, if they went from monopole to three-sector,
or if they took a band from analogue and gave it to the digital network, or if they increased site resolution.
We also did simulations to determine finer grained traffic analysis than the data provided and (in both cases) we identified
coverage holes (that turned out to be real) in central London, United Kingdom.
And that was in 1994 (for the UK) and 1996 (for the rest of the world, with the primary focus the US)
As far as the main carriers were concerned analogue was on the way out in 1994, expecting to be completely replaced a few years later.
Its possible they kept the networks running longer than anticipated (I don't know, I did other things after this), but the
idea that the analouge bands were not being migrated to digital in this time frame is totally incorrect, false and misleading.
And in the UK, we've been digital for at least 10 years. We had our 3G auction in 2001.
Aha! A 30 year long study of mobile phones usages shows they don't create cancer.
Pretty interesting since mobile phones were not available in 1979. The study is Swedish, analogue mobile phone market starts in Sweden in 1981.
A lady I know in this village, her partner is someone that has been studying mobile phones and their effects for a long time.
They know people that use mobiles day in, day out, all day (literally). Typically these people are "Mr White Van Man", driving a van all
day taking directions as what to do etc.
These people they are studying have no short term memory capability, whatsoever. They are convinced it is the mobile phone usage, combined
with the extreme (all the time) usage pattern these people have.
Then there are my friends that design mobile phones - they tell me they go out of their way to choose frequencies that do not resonate
with human tissue. Which runs counter to some of my other friends that have the much reported "mobile phone hot ear". It would only get
hot if it were resonating with the signal and therefore attenuating the signal.
The interesting thing is that the mobile circuit designers are genuinely interested and do not write these events off as "can't happen", or "nothing
to worry about" or "scaremongering". Unlike the folks that represent the mobile phone industry (and the billions they stand to make).
Disclaimer. I have been involved in improving GSM (and other related technology) traffic planning coverage in the UK and also for traffic planning products marketed worldwide, in particular the American cellular market.
And no, I do not own a mobile phone. Make of that what you will.
Paywalls are bad, so are Register Walls.
What is a Register Wall? The kind of nonesense you get if you go to the New York Times website.
I have no idea if they still require me to login to view their content, but they used to.
The fact that I have no idea if they still require me to login shows just how entrenced the damage to your reputation is..
I simply won't visit the New York Times website because I don't want YET ANOTHER PASSWORD to remember. Any site that wants me to register just to view content, I don't join.
Apart from Amazon, any site that wants to create an account just to purchase, I pass. I recently tried to purchase "Getting Real" but Lulu.com wanted me to register to make a purchase.
Why can't I just provide my name, address, credit card info, etc, then purchase? Why do I need to waste time creating an account, then have that information stored by them forever?
They did not get the sale. Their loss. I can read Getting Real online for free.
I pirate everything too, but I'm not an hypocrite
Yes you are. You want to be paid for your software works, but refuse to pay others for their software works.
That is the definition of hypocrisy. Say one thing, do the other.
I, on the other hand, want to be paid for my work. And I damn well pay for the software I use from other vendors.
That has caused many people on the other side of the transaction to believe the whole setup is bad, which leads to widespread rulebreaking.
You are right. A whole bunch of people have realised that people are benefiting from their work without being paid for it. And now they want to be paid for it. People steal my work daily. It does not help pay the mortgage, or cover the cost of creating the work. You seem to think its perfectly OK to steal from me. BTW, the software I create, you'd only want to use it if you are in business, and thus making money from using it. People steal because they think they can and should, not any other reason.
I abhore software patents and I do not wish for any extension of copyright law.
f you build a house you get paid ONCE by
Because only ONE group of people can use it at any one time!
You are missing basic and fundamental parts here:
a) Cost of creation. If creation cost X million, but sale of individual items is small fraction of X, then of course you need to sell many items b) Created item may benefit many people at once or only a few people at once, or one person at a time. If if benefits many people at once, and they get more from using than they pay, why is that wrong, why should the creator not be rewarded? They've still benefited each user of the item to a greater extent than the user of the item has paid.
When you finally get around to creating a digital work that takes much time (in my case, years) to create, you'll understand why your attitude is so ignorant. If you want my work, you can pay for it, or create it yourself.
Copyright is not theft.
Then you need to do some serious studying.
Using copyrighted material without paying for the right to do so (except for fair use situations), IS theft.
Your comments are not insightful, they are downright ignorant.
"owing in no small part on his insistence that his work be made available for unrestricted electronic distribution and copying."
The fundamental and basic point being, that is Cory's right to insist on those terms for his work, NOT FOR THE WORK OF OTHERS.
How long until you people get this? What works for one person does not necessarily work for another.
Windows 7 like a Cadillac
Like a Cadillac? That is an advertisment for speed? Blimey...
The Dell Precision laptop series all supporting docking (D-Dock port replicator).
The hardware is excellent, as is the build quality.
Mine (a Dell Precision M6300) has 4GB RAM, 1920x1200 17" screen, 110GB disk, Core 2 Centrino at 2.X Ghz. Good track pad, good keyboard, matte screen (despite some other comments on here about glossy being OK, they are wrong, you want the matte screen), lots of USB ports, will dual screen easily using the ports (even through the docking station), etc.
You can't buy them new for the price the OP wants, but you can buy them on Ebay, often in very good condition, for the price the user wants.
I concur with those that say widescreens and laptops suck for development. They do, but if you want/need a laptop for development and you don't want a Macbook Pro, this is the one to buy (currently its M6400, superceding the M6300).
My previous laptop, a Dell Inspiron 8000, purchased in 2000, is still working, the only niggles being shift and control keys that are slowing failing due to the aluminium oxide build up on the key contacts. Dell's are reliable and don't die (witness the tales of dying Macs elsewhere on this thread). And of course this machine has a proper 4:3 screen rather than a widescreen, so much nicer to use - sadly the market doesn't cater to developers in that respect.
Why is Firefox going backwards in usability? Despite all the publicity surrounding Microsoft's Ribbon bar, why do people put it in their software? Its horrible. It makes usability really suffer. What to do is not obvious. Where is the menu bar? Dunno, I can't see it. Hmm, well what do I do to get to see it? Dunno, its hidden. Try something. Like what? I dunno. Many minutes later after a lot of random mouse clicking (which does nothing) and key pressing, someone presses "Alt", at which point the menu magically appears. Wow, thats intuitive. NOT.
If I struggle with it, how on earth is my father, who is 70 soon, going to live with it? Well he isn't. He's self taught and I'm often surprised at the things he does on his own (installed Ubuntu without asking for any help +1 for Ubuntu the installer is that good), but Ribbons will floor him, for sure.
The Ribbon bar is about as a good a UI decision as Apple's single button mouse on the grounds that users aren't bright enough to understand multiple buttons. Doh!
Demon wanted all customers to take up eBilling several years ago. You had to opt out of eBilling. I opted out because I wanted a printed invoice to give to the accountants and because I thought sooner or later so cockup like this would happen. My choice has been vindicated. And no, I won't be looking for another vendor. Demon are more expensive than other vendors, but other than the eBilling foulup, they are generally good and no bandwidth restrictions or upper limits at all. And that is what I want.
As for instruments having off days - for sure. I play bagpipes. Some days they sing. Other days, best to put them down and not bother at all. Most days, somewhere in between :-)
POWER TO THE PEOPLE! (For those of you not in the UK, or those of you too young to recognise this, look up "Citizen Smith").
Thats 440 per year, on average.
Don't Ferrari only make something like 1,000 cars (of a particular version, save F50, or whatever) a year?
Thats not such a stretch, its a factor of 2.
I agree that the Stanley was history though, whenever I see a steam car its obvious the tech has been superceded.
This is grossly ignorant. Know anything about aerodynamics? About fluid flow (air is a fluid) and lamina flow vs turbulent flow? Consider that bicycles are reasonably easy to cycle until you hit (average per person) 12 mph (Imperial miles, the ones that count) and above that it gets much harder. Magnify that to the speeds involved with this particular event. I doubt very much that just increasing by 13mph is that easy. Its almost certainly a Velocity^2 relationship or worse (almost certainly due to the problems with drive train and steam, let alone aero which I've alluded to). Given that the US record is probably in US mph and the current record will be in Imperial mph (given that its a UK university that has done it), this is a high speed acheivement, but htne again, if the FIA ratify it, both records will have been recorded in Imperial mph. Oh, and finally, the correct way to spell tyres, is with a 'y'.
Can I just point out that a mobile phone is in itself a mobile computing device (even without the ability to "run" your app of choice or a command shell. Even the "bricks" that people carried around circa 1985 had more CPU power than most computers. This patent is invalid right from the get go.
Put a cloak on innocent objects to look like planes and on fighter planes to look like innocent objects.
Pretty useful for covert surveillance as well.
This is one hell of an innovation in technology, if it is for real.
As usual I can't be bothered to login because I'm not a kharma whore.
Why doesn't stallman take this view when it comes to food production? If you don't grow the food you don't control what goes in to the food (nutrients, pesticide residues, fertiliser residues, etc). Even if you go organic, you are still ceding control to the grower over how, when, where the food is grown, harvested and delivered to you.
Sometimes, allowing someone else to do some or all of the work for you is, wait for it, beneficial to both parties. In those cases you can park you ideological bigotry at the door. Sadly, despite his intellect he does not seem to get that.
Let alone the environmental issues. Pooling resources into centralised services can (and should) be beneficial if done correctly. His solution is definitely sub-optimal on this axis by a very large measure.
For these reasons other people provide web hosting for me, and I don't own a nuclear, coal or gas power station, I just use the services of one. Likewise, water, sewerage etc. Its all the same thing. I don't need to have the blueprints and physical access to the premises to use the service.
Which of course if you take Stallman's views on software and extend them to these things, you'd pretty much have to demand access to these. I can see it now, "Here you are Piping Snail, these keys will let you into the main reactor, be sure not to hit any of the controls with your bagpipe..."
Does stallman own a credit card or have a bank account? I hope not, because he'll be implicitly using other people's computers whenever he makes a transaction.
What about when he drives his car, unless its really old, he'll be using software written by people to control the engine, the air con, the windows etc. None of which he will have seen.
What about the roads he drives upon? All the traffic light systems are embedded systems, which he is implicitly using.
Likewise if he ever has need of surgery or emergency medical equipment.
and when he uses telephones, faxes, modems, etc...
...and so on...
Frankly, his whole position is untenable and thus hypocritical.
No ocpyright infringement. This is an original recording of a unique arrangement. Copyright exists in this new recording.
In the UK, the PRS (Performing Rights Society) will what a fee for the performance of this work because it is a derivative arrangement of an existing protected work. In turn the PRS will protect this arrangement and collect fees for that as well, should they accept a request to protect it.
Just to repeat though - Nothing to do with copyright.
The PRS perform useful and harmful work all over the UK. Useful in the for commercial performances they ensure the original composers and musicians get rewarded for their work.
Harmful in that their enforcement is over-zealous and results in them regarding not-for-profit performances (you and your mates playing tunes on folk instruments down the local pub) as a revenue generating exercise. This imposese ridiculous fees on pubs etc and results in music sessions shutting down etc. Resulting in less music for everyone and less space for musicians to hone their skills who some of which become the very people the PRS need to protect. So short sighted. I know many PRS members, and non of them think the PRS treat music sessions correctly.
The PRS are loathed just about everywhere for their heavy handed approach to licensing. They even insist that an employer is responsible for licensing an employees radio if used in that workspace (because everyone can listen to it, in theory, never mind the workspace is a noisy car mechanic workshop - yes, this went to court and sadly, the PRS won).
Many parallels to the RIAA, where what they gain on one hand they lose with the other through insensitive, heavy handed greed.
That implies you must be using a laptop to write code.
How can you produce your best code on laptop? Thats just incredible. Rubbish keyboard on all laptops and compromised mouse support.
I've got an excellent laptop, a Dell M6300 and its not up to the job despite a good large keyboard and 1920x1200 screen. Don't even mention a Macbook with its horrible keyboard and even worse mouse/trackpad etc.
You need a real machine, with good ergonomics etc. So basically that means separate screen (so you are not hunched over it), real keyboard that you situate a decent distance and height from the screen (unlike a laptop), same for mouse, multiple buttons on the mouse (Ouch, out goes the Apple). OS of your choice, Windows or Linux, doesn't matter.
Airplane? You've got to be kidding. Thats about as useful an environment as sitting at a bus-stop or in a cafe. Plain useless. If I'm in a plane, I'm suffering all the other folks because I want to go to the destination. If I'm in a cafe its because I'm hungry and/or I have some interesting company to hang out with.
The last thing I want is some inane conversation about football or a TV soap or some girl nattering about her boyfriend interfering with my software thought processes. Thats the unfortunate things about ears, unlike eyes you can't close them.
Silence. It can be great. As I get older I find I prefer it more. But often I code to music (Zappa through folk, no rap, no hip hop, no drum and bass - what could be worse?). Melody is good (rhythm implied by melody), rhythm without melody (drum and bad, hip hop, rap all fit that) is bad.
I often puncuate my software writing with playing musical instruments (border bagpipe and mandolin if you are interested). A good long walk often helps as well.
And yes, I do get to do all these things. I work for myself these days, but previous employers often let me arrive late for work or leave in the middle of hte day for 3 hours to go horse riding. All about getting the right things. I may be gone for 3 hours but most times those days they got 10 hours out of me those days (yes 10 in the office) and highly productive too (Emacs on various Unix and VMS back then).
Someone mentioned vi. For productivity? You are joking.
In an ideal world, vi, its progeny and derivatives (including Emacs vi-mode), like smallpox before it, would be eradicated. And all software developers would be a lot more productive. Bill Joy has a hell of a lot to answer for inflicting that upon the software world.
That is not insightful, its laughable. Anyone using vi, or any derivative is not productive. vi is the 2nd worst editor in the world, bested only by edlin. Shockingly bad.
You think she cares about the computer you use?
Frankly, if she DOES, you should ignore her, unless her problem is directly related to the computer. Otherwise she is just a shallow waste of space, justs like you.
Yes, *JUST LIKE YOU*.
The computer you use, and the computer she uses (or does not use) have NOTHING, I'll repeat that, NOTHING, to do with whether you'll fall in love, get married, shag a hell of a lot, hopefully create some nice, well adjusted children, etc, etc,
If you think you iMac Pro laptop is important for this task, (like some f**kwits in some previous posts on slashdot), you are going to be very disappointed, and/or you are going to seriously hurt (possibly several years down the line) the woman you are hoping for).
Do yourself (and her) a favaour and forget about the fact the your iMac is more cool than your PC, and think about what *YOU*, as a *PERSON*, offer *HER*/*HIM* as a potential life partner.
I love nice cars, gadgets, hand made, bespoke, musical instruments - but it IS NOT WORTH A DAMN without someone that is with you *FOR THE RIGHT REASON" and that *IS NOT" because I've "GOTTA CEWLA LAPTOP than he has" and *IS NOT* because I am *WEALTHIER" than hs is, AND SO ON.
Finally, If you are so bright. Why do I need to spell the above out to you? I apoligise for the clumsy grammar.
And for those of you that think I'm clueless about OS and must be an MS zealot and therefore closed-minded, you shoud look to yourself first, I've worked on 7 different home computer systems in the 80s, bespoke 8 bit embedded systems, multi-platorm Unix/VMS systems, Windows, Linux etc, etc and I currently work supplyinf software tools for C++/C/Delphi/VB/Fortran/Java/JavaScript/Lua/Python/Ruby/Perl/Php. Its not as if I am not widely experienced.
Have you ever used an Itanium box?
Jeez, what an awful piece of cr*p. Sound of a vaccum cleaner, performance slower than an equivalent x86, Mhz for Mhz (timeframe: 2000/1). Well maybe no in benchmarks, but if you had a box, side by side, both running Whistler, you couldn't tell the difference.
I had an early pre-release Intel box (well, I had several) plus pre-release Visual Studio and compilers. I ported a 2,000,000 line C++ CAD app from 32 bit MFC to 64 bit MFC. We did the port, but the box did not sing. It was horrible.
5 years earlier I'd used Sun's Windows emulation environment running Windows apps on Sparcstation pizza boxes. That was better.
Itanium is much more of a dead platform than x86.
I don't know how expandable SPARC is, in terms of future bandwidth, but if its available its a reasonable legacy bet, given Sun have the emulator software.
Real shame they dropped Alpha. That was a good platform. Ahread of its time. We had one in our office early nineties, running Digital UX. Sometime in 90-94. That thing was fast, compared to the competition.
ARM would be excellent though, I'd love that to happen. Same platform for desktop, mobile, embedded, low power, high performance. All we need is multi-core (sorry, haven't followed it closely enough to know if that is the horizon).
I've only used 2 machines in my life that have sounded like vaccuum cleaners:
1) Motorola Exorciser, 6809 development system with 8" floppies
2) Intel development Itanium box (several of).
Both were [polite]not very good[/polite].
Surely if you comment (in public) or discuss (in public or private, except with other jurors) about a trial for which you are a juror, that is contempt of court? Well, in the UK, not sure if you have the same concept in the US.