Nowadays, my main use of adblock is for privacy. You seem like you might not have adblock, but if you do go to a site with ads and bring up the list of blockable elements. Look at it carefully. Most of the elements not from the originating website aren't even advertisements, but 1x1 pixel (or some variation) trackers and tracking javascript scripts! Go to a gaming website and you'll find 4 or 5 of these things watching you.
I use adblock to keep these places from watching me.
I've noticed that a lot of DVDs are poorly mastered the same way, where the letterboxing is encoded right into the video. Take a 16:9 movie/show, add letterboxing to make it 4:3, then watch it on my widescreen monitor where two more black bars are added on the sides (I fix this by having VLC or mplayer crop the letterboxing during playback).
It's one of the several reasons I haven't bought any DVDs in several years.
On a fresh Windows XP install all you have is a shitty web browser, solitaire, and windowing system.
On a fresh Ubuntu install you have a decent web browser, office suite, dozens of games, text editors, images editors, all needed drivers, etc. The list goes on and on (I don't use Ubuntu so I don't know what else even). And it has all this in a smaller footprint, as you have shown.
We aren't talking about computer science students here. This is about teaching a useful tool to other disciplines. Physicists, for example, don't need to learn about pointer arithmetic and computer architectures to use programming as a useful tool. They are working at the level of mathematics, with high level concepts.
And Python is one of the better languages for that. They probably wouldn't need anything else for a long time.
The situation right now is that if they aren't learning Fortran, then they are probably learning Matlab, which, frankly, seriously sucks.
I ran his test it in Maryland and they are not hijacking my port 53 traffic.
TFA is completely right about Comcast DNS servers sucking. I frequently find myself switching to different DNS servers temporarily when Comcast is being particularly awful. Not only would it fix the problem, but the other DNS servers resolved requests much, much faster. If they were hijacking port 53 back then this wouldn't work.
I still don't doubt TFA's claims. It's exactly the sort of scummy thing Comcast would do.
Although he insists that there's no difference between "Free Software" and "Open Software"
He's saying that there is little difference between the original definition for Open Source and the definition for Free Software, which is true. It's all about context, which is provided by the following paragraph.
If you hadn't stopped reading there you would understand the context that makes this statement true. Read the next paragraph and it will make sense. In fact, TFA addresses important differences between Open Source and Free Software.
Hint: in your quoted sentence he is referring to a specific, older definition for Open Source.
This is specifically addressed in TFA. In fact, that's really what TFA is all about. Here is the exact quote again,
One is to believe there was a substantial difference in the software referred to by the terms "Free Software" and "Open Source."
He is referring to a specific definition -- the original definition -- for Open Source, which was practically the same as Free Software. Standing by itself there, without context, he seems inconsistent, but he's not. Now read down a bit,
Open Source is a failed re-branding effort over which its creators lost control, followed by brand degradation through abuse and over-extension into areas such as business and development models.
This is where the Open Source and Free Software divide when it comes to definitions. The brand Open Source was abused and stretched so that it is no longer consistent with Free Software. This makes his statements consistent with the official FSF stance: that Open Source and Free Software are now two different things.
This means that a resource, other than memory, can't be tied completely to an object. Anything using the object has to handle the resource manually, like basic C++ memory management, breaking the abstraction.
For example, I might want to tie, say, a database to an object. I create the object which opens/creates a database. I then use the object normally, and it makes transactions with the database as needed, but since finalize() is not reliable I have to explicitly call a close() method before I let the object fall out of scope if I want to keep the database synced up and tidy. And I can't call close() too soon or something else using the object will have a problem. If I have to do that I might as well be managing the memory too.
This has specifically annoyed me in the past and now, as I continually run into this limitation. It is on my list of "Reasons I Despise Java".
He used my trust to secretly (he obfuscated the code in order to hide it) make modifications to cripple/damage another program (ABP) without my consent. He had to apologize because it was perceived by many people as an attack. From Wikipedia,
Malware, a portmanteau from the words malicious and software, is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner's informed consent. The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code.
According to Wikipedia's definition, which seems pretty good to me, NoScript was briefly malware and so he broke that trust. It fits the definition perfectly. Only naive children would continue to trust someone who did something like that, and grown-ups would think twice about using NoScript.
If one was foolish enough to give them a real address, or any address at all.
I once moved into an apartment where they had the grocery store club card attached to the keys, left behind from the previous tenant. That card may have even passed through the hands of many different tenants, blurring their data collection. From the store's point of view, the owner of the card was severely changing purchase habits frequently.
Maybe we should all swap grocery store cards regularly to keep the benefits while anonymizing/disrupting the data collection?
I don't think GP is talking about one single central server, but rather your local wave server. With e-mail, I can download my own copies and tell the e-mail server to toss it's copies (like POP3). With wave, the server you use pretty much has to keep and store everything because the conversations are shared between many people on the same server. That's quite a load for the server and seems to shift the system closer to a single point of failure.
Slashdot Mirror
The first time I saw that video I thought it was some kind of joke.
Nowadays, my main use of adblock is for privacy. You seem like you might not have adblock, but if you do go to a site with ads and bring up the list of blockable elements. Look at it carefully. Most of the elements not from the originating website aren't even advertisements, but 1x1 pixel (or some variation) trackers and tracking javascript scripts! Go to a gaming website and you'll find 4 or 5 of these things watching you.
I use adblock to keep these places from watching me.
I've noticed that a lot of DVDs are poorly mastered the same way, where the letterboxing is encoded right into the video. Take a 16:9 movie/show, add letterboxing to make it 4:3, then watch it on my widescreen monitor where two more black bars are added on the sides (I fix this by having VLC or mplayer crop the letterboxing during playback).
It's one of the several reasons I haven't bought any DVDs in several years.
On a fresh Windows XP install all you have is a shitty web browser, solitaire, and windowing system.
On a fresh Ubuntu install you have a decent web browser, office suite, dozens of games, text editors, images editors, all needed drivers, etc. The list goes on and on (I don't use Ubuntu so I don't know what else even). And it has all this in a smaller footprint, as you have shown.
What are the practical applications of Mersenne Primes and why are people paying money to find them?
Here's one: PRNGs.
You need to learn what free speech is.
And, well, you go make something and I'm going to go on and copy it, and there's nothing you will be able to do about it.
Not quite. Copyright isn't about any sort of author's rights, but about creating authoring incentives at the cost of reader's rights.
I deal with the new Slashdot "features" by installing/writing Greasemonkey scripts to counter them.
Stop helping these people, then. Helping then only hurts them in the long run and perpetuates all sorts of problems. "Give a man a fish ..."
We aren't talking about computer science students here. This is about teaching a useful tool to other disciplines. Physicists, for example, don't need to learn about pointer arithmetic and computer architectures to use programming as a useful tool. They are working at the level of mathematics, with high level concepts.
And Python is one of the better languages for that. They probably wouldn't need anything else for a long time.
The situation right now is that if they aren't learning Fortran, then they are probably learning Matlab, which, frankly, seriously sucks.
Germany: won. We destroyed the army, roughed up the citizens for being a bunch of nasty losers, and then set about making them BFFs.
The bombing of Dresden?
I ran his test it in Maryland and they are not hijacking my port 53 traffic.
TFA is completely right about Comcast DNS servers sucking. I frequently find myself switching to different DNS servers temporarily when Comcast is being particularly awful. Not only would it fix the problem, but the other DNS servers resolved requests much, much faster. If they were hijacking port 53 back then this wouldn't work.
I still don't doubt TFA's claims. It's exactly the sort of scummy thing Comcast would do.
He was already been hopelessly fighting it himself.
Although he insists that there's no difference between "Free Software" and "Open Software"
He's saying that there is little difference between the original definition for Open Source and the definition for Free Software, which is true. It's all about context, which is provided by the following paragraph.
Who started the bickering over the FS vs OSS terms? None other than Richard Stallman himself.
Since the term "Free Software" is more than a decade older than "Open Source" you have that backwards.
If you hadn't stopped reading there you would understand the context that makes this statement true. Read the next paragraph and it will make sense. In fact, TFA addresses important differences between Open Source and Free Software.
Hint: in your quoted sentence he is referring to a specific, older definition for Open Source.
One is to believe there was a substantial difference in the software referred to by the terms "Free Software" and "Open Source."
He is referring to a specific definition -- the original definition -- for Open Source, which was practically the same as Free Software. Standing by itself there, without context, he seems inconsistent, but he's not. Now read down a bit,
Open Source is a failed re-branding effort over which its creators lost control, followed by brand degradation through abuse and over-extension into areas such as business and development models.
This is where the Open Source and Free Software divide when it comes to definitions. The brand Open Source was abused and stretched so that it is no longer consistent with Free Software. This makes his statements consistent with the official FSF stance: that Open Source and Free Software are now two different things.
I think I read once (no citation, sorry) that something like 80% of drivers believe they're above average in driving skill. They can't all be right!
Almost every human on earth has an above average number of legs. All those drivers could be right.
This means that a resource, other than memory, can't be tied completely to an object. Anything using the object has to handle the resource manually, like basic C++ memory management, breaking the abstraction.
For example, I might want to tie, say, a database to an object. I create the object which opens/creates a database. I then use the object normally, and it makes transactions with the database as needed, but since finalize() is not reliable I have to explicitly call a close() method before I let the object fall out of scope if I want to keep the database synced up and tidy. And I can't call close() too soon or something else using the object will have a problem. If I have to do that I might as well be managing the memory too.
This has specifically annoyed me in the past and now, as I continually run into this limitation. It is on my list of "Reasons I Despise Java".
Malware, a portmanteau from the words malicious and software, is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner's informed consent. The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code.
According to Wikipedia's definition, which seems pretty good to me, NoScript was briefly malware and so he broke that trust. It fits the definition perfectly. Only naive children would continue to trust someone who did something like that, and grown-ups would think twice about using NoScript.
Yes, Obama accidentally the document.
Did he accidentally the whole thing?
Ever since the author of NoScript decided to turn it into malware and attack my computer, I stopped using it. Any alternatives?
They send you directed advertisements in the mail
If one was foolish enough to give them a real address, or any address at all.
I once moved into an apartment where they had the grocery store club card attached to the keys, left behind from the previous tenant. That card may have even passed through the hands of many different tenants, blurring their data collection. From the store's point of view, the owner of the card was severely changing purchase habits frequently.
Maybe we should all swap grocery store cards regularly to keep the benefits while anonymizing/disrupting the data collection?
In January 1960, Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh made the first and only manned voyage [...].
He was boldly going where no one has gone before. I'm sure it will become a family tradition.
I don't think GP is talking about one single central server, but rather your local wave server. With e-mail, I can download my own copies and tell the e-mail server to toss it's copies (like POP3). With wave, the server you use pretty much has to keep and store everything because the conversations are shared between many people on the same server. That's quite a load for the server and seems to shift the system closer to a single point of failure.