Sure it's a little bloated, but all the double-buckey keystrokes feel like home to me. I dig the code development tools for various languages. Heck, I use Emacs under windows as my preferred source editor.
Remember though, we had a few 800 pound gorillas in the form of IBM and Novell.
Far more Earth shattering was the USL vs. BSD lawsuit. BSD went from being on the ropes to routing USL badly. Rumors are that part of the sealed evidence showed the much of Unix was actually lifted from BSD. Especially impressive because it was pretty much Berkley defending itself. There were no industry players coming to bat.
We aren't talking about $1 here and $0.50 there. We are talking about precious metals whose soul value is in scarcity and where the cost to harvest it is measured in billions of dollars.
Take gold. Gold is trading a almost $400/ounce. There only reason gold trades that high is because there is more or less a finite supply of it. Sure someone finds a few hundred pounds in a pirate ship, or in ancient treasure every couple of years. But when someone finds a new supply, prices for gold tumble.
Look no further than 1999. People were shitting themselves when gold was trading at $290/oz. Just about everyone and their maiden aunt Sue was involved in gold futures. In the end 10,000 tons of gold was trading on the market that didn't exist yet. Lenders but the kabosh on gold futures. 3 years later we are trading at $400, but most experts think it really should have been trading at $600.
Now, a project to bring pay back $10 billion dollars in asteroid gold would introduce, assuming it broke even, would need to introduce 250 million ounces into the market. IF the market continues to sell at $400/ounce (which it wouldn't for very long.) As the price drops to about $300/ounce, the number of units climbs to 333 million ounces. The more you sell, the more you have to sell, the further the price drops, and so on into a death spiral.
If we suddenly truck in tons of precious metals from space, and whet our appetite for them, the cease becomming precious. Whoever mines space will have a momentary blip of profit before the costs of spacetravel exceed the newly lowered price of the materials.
The reason we don't use the gold standard anymore is in part to prevent booms and busts in our currency caused by people flooding the market with new sources of gold. (The american dollar took a bath after the California and the Yukon gold rushes.)
So just forget about any long-term sustainable industries built on dragging what are presently exotic materials to Earth from space.
I'm just curious about the timing. All of these bold moves come after the announcement of delays in Longhorn. My thought is that they are trying to develop something to smooth out the revenue stream until they can start overcharging people for the new OS.
Companies only make bold moves like that in despiration or after a radical change in leadership.
One of these days I'm going to get around to writing my own diff system for news articles to keep me from getting 2 paragraphs into an AP column only to find it was lifted from Reuters.
And of course everyone seems to be using the same source. I recall reading one article about how a bomp the struck an American caravan in Palesting was triggered from a building about 330 feet away. Sound's pretty precise doesn't it? They just took someone elses guestimate of 100 meters and converted the units.
The heaviest element known to science was recently discovered by researchers
at the University of Fulchester. The element, tentatively named
Administratium, has no protons or electrons and thus has an atomic number of
0. However, it does have 1 neutron, 125 assistant neutrons, 75 vice neutrons
and 111 assistant vice neutrons. This gives it an atomic mass of 312. These
312 particles are held together by a force that involves the continuous
exchange of meson-like particles called morons.
Since it has no electrons, Administratium is inert. However, it can be
detected chemically as it impedes every reaction it comes in contact with.
According to the discoverers, a minute amount of Administratium caused one
reaction to take over four days to complete when it would have normally
occurred in less than one second. Administratium has a normal half-life of
approximately three years, at which time it does not actually decay but
instead undergoes a reorganisation in which assistant neutrons, vice
neutrons and assistant vice neutrons exchange places. Some studies have
shown that the atomic mass actually increases after each reorganisation.
Research at other laboratories indicates that Administratium occurs
naturally in the atmosphere. It tends to concentrate at certain points such
as government agencies, large corporations and universities and can usually
be found in the newest, best appointed and best maintained buildings.
Scientists point out that Administratium is known to be toxic at any level
of concentration and can easily destroy any productive reaction where it is
allowed to accumulate. Attempts are being made to determine how
Administratium can be controlled to prevent irreversible damage, but results
to date are not promising.
I would classify Microsoft as a malignant cancer. Malignant cancers spread to other tissues and tries to take over the whole body.
SCO is an inflamed tumor, at best. It's painful, and obvious, and it's sucking up blood supply. But try as it may, it's still confined to one spot. And the bigger it gets, the more obvious it becomes to all.
Hmmm, I'm having visions of a horse's head right now. Now whose pillow should it go on?
Re:Linux written to compete with SCO?
on
SCO News Roundup
·
· Score: 1
I laughed until I realized that there is some nutjob out there that would actually try this. And given the strange times in which we exist, there is an infantessimally small, but non-zero, chance they could pull it off.
Re:Linux written to compete with SCO?
on
SCO News Roundup
·
· Score: 1
Of course, SCO continues to distribute Linux so I guess it should sue itself too on those grounds.
Actually they usually employed horses and chains to pull the stake through people. Vlad learned that trick from the Turks. Sure a sharp stake would go right through, so they often used a rounded stake with a greased top.
Slashdot Mirror
I blew pizza out of my nose. Good job!
But can you build a beowulf cluster of those...
I have this hankering to develop a new distro. Cthulu Linux anyone? Or maybe Hast... (Snarf)
Sure it's a little bloated, but all the double-buckey keystrokes feel like home to me. I dig the code development tools for various languages. Heck, I use Emacs under windows as my preferred source editor.
More like a snow-angel of slightly bad day.
Far more Earth shattering was the USL vs. BSD lawsuit. BSD went from being on the ropes to routing USL badly. Rumors are that part of the sealed evidence showed the much of Unix was actually lifted from BSD. Especially impressive because it was pretty much Berkley defending itself. There were no industry players coming to bat.
Heck, why not make it look like an System/360 or a DEC. If you are going for deception, make it original.
... Profit!!!
Moderators, give this slashdotter a point.
Take gold. Gold is trading a almost $400/ounce. There only reason gold trades that high is because there is more or less a finite supply of it. Sure someone finds a few hundred pounds in a pirate ship, or in ancient treasure every couple of years. But when someone finds a new supply, prices for gold tumble.
Look no further than 1999. People were shitting themselves when gold was trading at $290/oz. Just about everyone and their maiden aunt Sue was involved in gold futures. In the end 10,000 tons of gold was trading on the market that didn't exist yet. Lenders but the kabosh on gold futures. 3 years later we are trading at $400, but most experts think it really should have been trading at $600.
Now, a project to bring pay back $10 billion dollars in asteroid gold would introduce, assuming it broke even, would need to introduce 250 million ounces into the market. IF the market continues to sell at $400/ounce (which it wouldn't for very long.) As the price drops to about $300/ounce, the number of units climbs to 333 million ounces. The more you sell, the more you have to sell, the further the price drops, and so on into a death spiral.
If we suddenly truck in tons of precious metals from space, and whet our appetite for them, the cease becomming precious. Whoever mines space will have a momentary blip of profit before the costs of spacetravel exceed the newly lowered price of the materials.
The reason we don't use the gold standard anymore is in part to prevent booms and busts in our currency caused by people flooding the market with new sources of gold. (The american dollar took a bath after the California and the Yukon gold rushes.)
So just forget about any long-term sustainable industries built on dragging what are presently exotic materials to Earth from space.
And I declare all lines Goatse humor hereby unfunny in this thread.
I'm a lesbian for sure. Ever since I was 12 I've found myself attracted to women.
Companies only make bold moves like that in despiration or after a radical change in leadership.
And of course everyone seems to be using the same source. I recall reading one article about how a bomp the struck an American caravan in Palesting was triggered from a building about 330 feet away. Sound's pretty precise doesn't it? They just took someone elses guestimate of 100 meters and converted the units.
4. A ham-fisted monopoly "like AT&T"
The news source you anti-trust.
New Element Discovered.
The heaviest element known to science was recently discovered by researchers at the University of Fulchester. The element, tentatively named Administratium, has no protons or electrons and thus has an atomic number of 0. However, it does have 1 neutron, 125 assistant neutrons, 75 vice neutrons and 111 assistant vice neutrons. This gives it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by a force that involves the continuous exchange of meson-like particles called morons.
Since it has no electrons, Administratium is inert. However, it can be detected chemically as it impedes every reaction it comes in contact with. According to the discoverers, a minute amount of Administratium caused one reaction to take over four days to complete when it would have normally occurred in less than one second. Administratium has a normal half-life of approximately three years, at which time it does not actually decay but instead undergoes a reorganisation in which assistant neutrons, vice neutrons and assistant vice neutrons exchange places. Some studies have shown that the atomic mass actually increases after each reorganisation.
Research at other laboratories indicates that Administratium occurs naturally in the atmosphere. It tends to concentrate at certain points such as government agencies, large corporations and universities and can usually be found in the newest, best appointed and best maintained buildings.
Scientists point out that Administratium is known to be toxic at any level of concentration and can easily destroy any productive reaction where it is allowed to accumulate. Attempts are being made to determine how Administratium can be controlled to prevent irreversible damage, but results to date are not promising.
You see, it was only a purple dragon to the people it was approaching. Everyone the dragon was moving away from saw it as a green dragon.
SCO is an inflamed tumor, at best. It's painful, and obvious, and it's sucking up blood supply. But try as it may, it's still confined to one spot. And the bigger it gets, the more obvious it becomes to all.
Hmmm, I'm having visions of a horse's head right now. Now whose pillow should it go on?
I laughed until I realized that there is some nutjob out there that would actually try this. And given the strange times in which we exist, there is an infantessimally small, but non-zero, chance they could pull it off.
Of course, SCO continues to distribute Linux so I guess it should sue itself too on those grounds.
The more you know.