You have never been to the Mojave Desert. It's not 200 miles of beach. There are cliffs, dunes, meth labs in trailers, unexploded ordinance from military training exercises, and so on.
What did you think dune buggie were designed to handle?
Ok, I present the following predictions for 10 years out.
First off, only geeks will be using desktop computers like we know them. Everyone else will be on a dumb terminal to a mainframe, or a computer that in knitted into some other product (like your stereo or your car.) Data plugs are going to be as common as electrical plugs (in some buildings they already are.) Indeed, I see a convergence of the two for small appliances.
A quasi-religious organization will spring up around technology. In that theology geeks are the clergy, who are here to introduce the common man to "the clue."
The US Economy will shift to a socialist system. The socialism will create an entitlement to heath, education, even public transit. The private sector, no longer having to pay for these things, will suddenly realize they can hire a lot more people. People realize they can work for a lot less money. Well, at least following the meltdown of housing prices during the real-estate crash of 2009.
That would be because Linux IS just the kernel. Everything that runs on top of it GNU.
Re:The famous Linus - Tanenbaum debate
on
Linus on Linux in 1994
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Andrew who?
I think the discussion of Micro-kernel versus monolithic kernel is academic at this point. Monolithic kernels have been made more flexible through the use of loadable modules. Window has shown that no matter what kernel you start with, you can still produce an unstable, insecure, and all around broken OS. If you try hard enough.
You are going to rake Linux over the coals for THAT.
Come on, man. Given all the things that X does that windows and MacOS don't, you are bitching because your pr0n is dithered if you start in a lesser color mode? Well what about the fact that you can take a cheapo 486 and, using only a network card a minimal [Li]|[U]nix install, run the entire desktop environment of another machine?
Or maybe the fact you can run graphical apps transparently and securely over the network, with SSH.
And by the way that "Tinker OS for the Desktop" has been running more or less in it's present form for 25 years. I can run X apps written years ago for a completely different platform, and they still knit in properly with the desktop. Heck, I can display X apps written years ago and running on another machine.
I find on older hardware the driver support is actually better for Linux than newer versions of Windows.
Just try to get an All-In-Wonder 128 to work under XP. It does work, if you don't mind random blue-screens. Between the 2.6 kernel and the new KDE, I actually have all of the stuff working on my Vaio. That's more than I did under XP. (The thing is a few years old, it came with ME for god's sake.)
You have me on the scanners. But then again, good luck getting older scanners to work with newer OS's. My wife has clients who had to throw out stuff that didn't work with XP.
Are you talking about windows or linux in that case? Frankly Win4Lin does a better job of running my old programs than XP. (I mean, REALLY old programs.) Sure DirectX isn't 100% there, but Photoshop and AutoCAD don't use it, nor does Office, the network management tools for my switches, Cygwin, or much of anything else I use on a day to day basis.
Tell me about it. I just cleaned yet another program that hijacks search results from google and funnels them to someone else's portal off a VP's machine. A web page installed it at some point, and damned if I can figure out how to get rid of it.
I nuked the DLL's the worm installed. I nuked the registry entries. I even got it to the point that it doesn't reset his web page every time he opens explorer. But deep down, some dll was over-written, and it's not coming up on virus scans, and good luck tracking down md5 hashes of internet explorer components.
I introduced him to Mozilla, and implored him to sin no more.
What differentiates Linux from windows is the amount of attention paid to all of it's various sub-systems. Pick any chunk of Linux, and you will find a active developer who is constantly working on making that particular driver the best little thing he or she can.
Windows on the other hand is sterile and ferile. No one is personally involved in one particular aspect (at least for very long, comparitively speaking.) So you get mountains of code that, once written, are rarely re-thought. They work, they go through testing, and until some new function is needed for it or some vulnerability found, never given a second thought.
Hey, I work in a science museum. 4 years ago I took over, and we went from no network to speak of to email and internet for everyone in the building.
At the time the VPs insisted on bringing in hired guns to sanity check what I was doing. Heck, I didn't mind. Besides, all they knew was Cisco and exchange. I pretty much had to write their report on how linux operates as an email server, a firewall, and a web server. (Not that organizations hadn't been using Linux for years at that point.) Heck, I even ended up doing most of the legwork for the audits.
Needless to say, after that experience I have found that contractors are at best a sounding board. You sure as hell better have an idea of what you want before you call them.
It's worse than that. Microsoft really, really believes that the product was worth $500 when they gave it away, and/or sold it at a discount. The amount it was discounted they express as a loss on the balance sheet, or as a deductable gift.
Well, until somebody screws up and the entire accounting department is being traded for smokes in a federal pen.
I write a lot of my own ebuilds. I have the portage tree, and then there is MY version of the portage tree. I have, at any given time, about 4 patches or new ebuilds submitted and awaiting approval on Gentoo's bugzilla system.
More the memory bandwidth issue than anything else. Intel, even with the server processors, is stuck at 533 MHz front side bus. The opterons do a lot better, it's just a question of which I can get cheaper.
I'm running Gentoo, so I don't care if I have to specially compile. I just want a machine that's going to actually USE the MHz it comes with. (Without resorting to massive cache.)
Re:what is considered the younger generation?
on
TV Losing to Video Games
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· Score: 2, Informative
Hey, I'm pushing 30 and the sole reason my computer still has a TV capture cards is for my PS2.
My wife and I just had a baby, and I tell you this, TV is vorboten. I have the entire Robotech series on DVD. Friends have other anime series. My mom has every Disney movie made on VHS.
Folks, we don't need TV. Between us, our friends, and our extended families we probably have several childhood's worth of programming.
Outside and play if it's a nice day. Movie or video game if it's nasty out.
I plan on collecting a ton of educational (or just plain cartoony cute) games for her to play. And if I can't find anything decent I'll write it myself, damnit.
If you can't control when it stops and starts, you don't have time for it.
Frankly, by the time you have a "commodity" like component for software it's pretty much obsolete. How long have "relational databases" been around? 5 years or so? And how long will they still be around? We have hundreds of thousands of CompSci grads working on the "next big thing." Defragmenting tools were eliminated by improving the file system itself (ala ReiserFS) or simply by increasing the size of the disk to the point that files never have to be split.
The real commodities are standards. SQL is popular because there is an ANSI standard behind it. SELECT has a structure that all database backends understand. I can develop and INSERT statement that works with everything from sqlite to Oracle/PL.
802.11b isn't a technology. It's a standard. HTTP blew everyone's doors off not because it was sexy, but because it was ubiquitous. Windows took over the desktop because they ripped what they needed to as far as UI standards from Apple and them coupled it with cheap commodity PC's.
Standards are the commodities of technology. Once you have standards, you can build on them to create your "Next Big Thing" because they allow you to tie in everyone elses "Other Big Thing".
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What did you think dune buggie were designed to handle?
What, you think Sol III is the only world with Internet access!
First off, only geeks will be using desktop computers like we know them. Everyone else will be on a dumb terminal to a mainframe, or a computer that in knitted into some other product (like your stereo or your car.) Data plugs are going to be as common as electrical plugs (in some buildings they already are.) Indeed, I see a convergence of the two for small appliances.
A quasi-religious organization will spring up around technology. In that theology geeks are the clergy, who are here to introduce the common man to "the clue."
The US Economy will shift to a socialist system. The socialism will create an entitlement to heath, education, even public transit. The private sector, no longer having to pay for these things, will suddenly realize they can hire a lot more people. People realize they can work for a lot less money. Well, at least following the meltdown of housing prices during the real-estate crash of 2009.
Do it. It's worth it. My Vaio feels like a new computer.
That would be because Linux IS just the kernel. Everything that runs on top of it GNU.
I think the discussion of Micro-kernel versus monolithic kernel is academic at this point. Monolithic kernels have been made more flexible through the use of loadable modules. Window has shown that no matter what kernel you start with, you can still produce an unstable, insecure, and all around broken OS. If you try hard enough.
You are standing on a planet that is constantly evolving, and revolving at 900 miles an hour...
Come on, man. Given all the things that X does that windows and MacOS don't, you are bitching because your pr0n is dithered if you start in a lesser color mode? Well what about the fact that you can take a cheapo 486 and, using only a network card a minimal [Li]|[U]nix install, run the entire desktop environment of another machine?
Or maybe the fact you can run graphical apps transparently and securely over the network, with SSH.
And by the way that "Tinker OS for the Desktop" has been running more or less in it's present form for 25 years. I can run X apps written years ago for a completely different platform, and they still knit in properly with the desktop. Heck, I can display X apps written years ago and running on another machine.
"Tinker OS", Bah.
Accounting mistakes are fraud with or without intent. At least that's what I understand of case law.
Oh dear god, please expunge the "women in prison" scenes that just flashed through my mind. Use a brillo pad, and some goof off if you have to...
Don't you read sluggy?
Just try to get an All-In-Wonder 128 to work under XP. It does work, if you don't mind random blue-screens. Between the 2.6 kernel and the new KDE, I actually have all of the stuff working on my Vaio. That's more than I did under XP. (The thing is a few years old, it came with ME for god's sake.)
You have me on the scanners. But then again, good luck getting older scanners to work with newer OS's. My wife has clients who had to throw out stuff that didn't work with XP.
I'm just speaking from experience.
Just try to run a Java-based app under XP. Try.
I nuked the DLL's the worm installed. I nuked the registry entries. I even got it to the point that it doesn't reset his web page every time he opens explorer. But deep down, some dll was over-written, and it's not coming up on virus scans, and good luck tracking down md5 hashes of internet explorer components.
I introduced him to Mozilla, and implored him to sin no more.
Windows on the other hand is sterile and ferile. No one is personally involved in one particular aspect (at least for very long, comparitively speaking.) So you get mountains of code that, once written, are rarely re-thought. They work, they go through testing, and until some new function is needed for it or some vulnerability found, never given a second thought.
Think Bit Rot.
At the time the VPs insisted on bringing in hired guns to sanity check what I was doing. Heck, I didn't mind. Besides, all they knew was Cisco and exchange. I pretty much had to write their report on how linux operates as an email server, a firewall, and a web server. (Not that organizations hadn't been using Linux for years at that point.) Heck, I even ended up doing most of the legwork for the audits.
Needless to say, after that experience I have found that contractors are at best a sounding board. You sure as hell better have an idea of what you want before you call them.
Unfortunately most people don't have a clue.
Well, until somebody screws up and the entire accounting department is being traded for smokes in a federal pen.
I write a lot of my own ebuilds. I have the portage tree, and then there is MY version of the portage tree. I have, at any given time, about 4 patches or new ebuilds submitted and awaiting approval on Gentoo's bugzilla system.
I'm running Gentoo, so I don't care if I have to specially compile. I just want a machine that's going to actually USE the MHz it comes with. (Without resorting to massive cache.)
I'm just having trouble finding it again.
That's only because they heard a Humvee lost it's top.
Nah, Deathrace 2000. More on-target.
(What, you were expecting a flame war?)
My wife and I just had a baby, and I tell you this, TV is vorboten. I have the entire Robotech series on DVD. Friends have other anime series. My mom has every Disney movie made on VHS.
Folks, we don't need TV. Between us, our friends, and our extended families we probably have several childhood's worth of programming.
Outside and play if it's a nice day. Movie or video game if it's nasty out.
I plan on collecting a ton of educational (or just plain cartoony cute) games for her to play. And if I can't find anything decent I'll write it myself, damnit.
If you can't control when it stops and starts, you don't have time for it.
The real commodities are standards. SQL is popular because there is an ANSI standard behind it. SELECT has a structure that all database backends understand. I can develop and INSERT statement that works with everything from sqlite to Oracle/PL.
802.11b isn't a technology. It's a standard. HTTP blew everyone's doors off not because it was sexy, but because it was ubiquitous. Windows took over the desktop because they ripped what they needed to as far as UI standards from Apple and them coupled it with cheap commodity PC's.
Standards are the commodities of technology. Once you have standards, you can build on them to create your "Next Big Thing" because they allow you to tie in everyone elses "Other Big Thing".