Captain's log. Star date 1234567.
While exploring the surface of planet Z today, I met an interesting life-form. He introduced me to his girlfriend. You can probably guess the rest.
For the reasons you mentioned specifically, but also for a couple of other reasons stemming from lots and lots of contract work, I actively choose NOT to remember how I did X six months ago. Realistically, if most of us remembered "off the top of our heads" every algorithm devised over the last 6 months, then we probably wouldn't have much left in the way of short term memory for e.g. devising new algorithms, interacting effectively with human beings, you know - important things.
I guess that might matter in the (insert single-digit number here) country / countries that actually recognize (these) software patents. The rest of us are free to do what we want with / for free software;-)
if a broader definition of bloatware were to include the operating system itself (ahem windoze) I would gladly sign a(nother) petition to prevent its pre-installation. The last time I tried to get a refund for my unused copy of windows, it took several months, and several cases of being passed back and forth between reseller, manufacturer, microsoft, and so on.
Hopefully I'm the first to point this out, and I'm not repeating well-known facts, but Apple isn't exactly innovating with the iPad. It is an iPhone / iPodTouch with a bigger screen that lets the muscle of the Cortex chip inside of it atrophie... Does is even multi-task?
Apple is also notorious at introducing old technology to consumers with better aesthetic packaging (ahem... macbook), and the iPad is no exception. They are using the wrong display technology for a tablet. Maybe when the iPad2 comes out, they'll realize that they should be using Pixel-Qi technology. Just as they have strong-armed entire industries in the past (e.g. the GUI, OpenStep, fixing the price on display technology, claiming they invented multi-touch, various RF-related things, applications on a mobile wireless device, yada yada yada), I would not be surprised if they bought-out Pixel-Qi and prevented other companies from using the tech.
Yes, they are Pirates, and yes, that is what Pirates do.
Luckily, at least one company sporting Android has the right idea so-far.
"Good artists copy. Great artists steal." (quote from Pablo Picasso... subsequently stolen by Steve Jobs)
If Apple thinks that they can strong-arm the publishing industry (like they strong-armed the music and touchscreen industries already), I think they'll probably be looking at an anti-trust lawsuit within a fairly quick amount of time.
Why doesn't Amazon just increase the selling price of their books to accommodate the "Apple tax" and advertise that to their iPad consumers? I would imagine, that after N books, using a Kindle or Android device would soon pay for itself in the Apple Tax savings. Kindle or Android users should of course, only be charged the "regular" price for books;-)
The iPad, from what I've heard, is actually not a very great device for reading - much like a laptop, it requires a back-lit screen, which tends to give people headaches over time. The best solution for an e-reader will soon be on the market - any Android tablet with a Pixel-Qi screen. They're as easy to read as a newspaper even in direct sunlight and don't suffer from the poor screen-refresh times of the Kindle.
Of course, given Apple's monopolistic tendencies, they'll probably just buy out a controlling interest in Pixel Qi and prevent anyone else from using the technology;-)
we are all major nerds... with a sense of humor
on
World's Worst Hacker?
·
· Score: 1
This is awesome... thank you to whoever posted this... I can't remember the last time I laughed like that... sigh... One of the funniest things about this video is that the average person would have no freaking clue why it's so funny. We are all major nerds.
He probably meant that Linux is entering its "mature period" as an OS; it's stable. works on more platforms and devices than any other OS in the world, and is certainly something that has great potential to be used in new applications and devices - take Android as an example. Why would one even consider basing a new product on Linux otherwise?
As pointed out by Harald Welte (he's as good an authority on the subject as any), the Samsung Galaxy S is a good candidate. Samsung makes all of its source open and there probably isn't firmware locking, AFAIK.
It's not just opening the source on a product, it's also ensuring that the product is not 'defective by design' (in Stallman's own words). I.e. the vendor should not restrict the ability of somebody to modify and reinstall new software on a device with an openly available build and install system. One particular aspect of 'defective by design' is the concept of e-fuses that literally burn the jtag circuits of mobile phones for production runs. Now, whether or not the end-user actually gets the chip documentation required to modify their software in a meaningful way, is another story alltogether.
Please tell me I'm not the only one who sees this.
What if someone else uses your cellular phone, or worse, someone uses your cellular phone while you aren't aware of it? That's practically like giving anyone free access to your account.
I think the facebook geniuses are confusing the one-time-pass with the one-time-pad... particularly in this case, they are two very different things, specifically because the pad is requires that the key be exchanged *securely*.
Improve Octave. Specifically, for ARM.
Remember that open-source does not necessarily mean architecture independent.
Practically all software is written with the perception that the compiler optimizes any poorly written C / C++ code and that the target is a PC. While this is good for x86, relying on hardware instruction rescheduling to make code more 'efficient', it's pretty awful for anything else. Having done a lot of work with ARM / NEON optimizations myself, I can tell you first-hand that gcc does not do a great job of optimizing C code at all.
This is going to become increasingly important as ARM outpaces x86, so please do everyone a favour, and write the code correctly the first time.
There are several books about why this is so important, e.g. this one, but you'll probably find that its easier to just dive right in. Look at the Android source code, that's always a good example. uClibc / uClibc++ are also good examples.
I felt the quake in Montreal today, while working at home with my girlfriend. Although no dishes in our 3rd story apartment fell from the shelves and no structural damage to the building was immediately visible, it did serve as a good exercise about what to do in the event of a larger quake.
My girlfriend suggested that we stand in the middle of the building close to no visible exits. In spite of my immediate instinct to run down the stairs that we were directly beside, i went with her, which probably would have been a bad call, if the quake had been any larger in magnitude. In other words, if the building had collapsed we probably would have been trapped under debris.
The moral of the story is, that its sometimes a much wiser decision to exactly the opposite of what your girlfriend wants, even if it means that you won't be getting any for a few days.
Although nobody likes a rat (nobody who is ratted-out, in any case), Micron should actually get some respect for being the whistle-blower in this situation. A little honesty can really go a long way - especially if that is the way toward 400 million in, e.g. deficit-reductions.
Other examples of where Octave has much better potential than Matlab are:
1) Calling matlab-like matrix functions from another programming language.
2) Using Octave on an architecture other than x86.
3) Using Octave on mobile devices.
Slashdot Mirror
Captain's log. Star date 1234567.
While exploring the surface of planet Z today, I met an interesting life-form. He introduced me to his girlfriend. You can probably guess the rest.
For the reasons you mentioned specifically, but also for a couple of other reasons stemming from lots and lots of contract work, I actively choose NOT to remember how I did X six months ago. Realistically, if most of us remembered "off the top of our heads" every algorithm devised over the last 6 months, then we probably wouldn't have much left in the way of short term memory for e.g. devising new algorithms, interacting effectively with human beings, you know - important things.
I guess that might matter in the (insert single-digit number here) country / countries that actually recognize (these) software patents. The rest of us are free to do what we want with / for free software ;-)
JamVM puts OpenJDK to shame on ARM in terms of both size and speed.
if a broader definition of bloatware were to include the operating system itself (ahem windoze) I would gladly sign a(nother) petition to prevent its pre-installation. The last time I tried to get a refund for my unused copy of windows, it took several months, and several cases of being passed back and forth between reseller, manufacturer, microsoft, and so on.
I agree - the iPad was shipped prematurely
Hopefully I'm the first to point this out, and I'm not repeating well-known facts, but Apple isn't exactly innovating with the iPad. It is an iPhone / iPodTouch with a bigger screen that lets the muscle of the Cortex chip inside of it atrophie... Does is even multi-task?
Apple is also notorious at introducing old technology to consumers with better aesthetic packaging (ahem... macbook), and the iPad is no exception. They are using the wrong display technology for a tablet. Maybe when the iPad2 comes out, they'll realize that they should be using Pixel-Qi technology. Just as they have strong-armed entire industries in the past (e.g. the GUI, OpenStep, fixing the price on display technology, claiming they invented multi-touch, various RF-related things, applications on a mobile wireless device, yada yada yada), I would not be surprised if they bought-out Pixel-Qi and prevented other companies from using the tech.
Yes, they are Pirates, and yes, that is what Pirates do.
Luckily, at least one company sporting Android has the right idea so-far.
"Good artists copy. Great artists steal." (quote from Pablo Picasso... subsequently stolen by Steve Jobs)
If Apple thinks that they can strong-arm the publishing industry (like they strong-armed the music and touchscreen industries already), I think they'll probably be looking at an anti-trust lawsuit within a fairly quick amount of time.
Why doesn't Amazon just increase the selling price of their books to accommodate the "Apple tax" and advertise that to their iPad consumers? I would imagine, that after N books, using a Kindle or Android device would soon pay for itself in the Apple Tax savings. Kindle or Android users should of course, only be charged the "regular" price for books ;-)
The iPad, from what I've heard, is actually not a very great device for reading - much like a laptop, it requires a back-lit screen, which tends to give people headaches over time. The best solution for an e-reader will soon be on the market - any Android tablet with a Pixel-Qi screen. They're as easy to read as a newspaper even in direct sunlight and don't suffer from the poor screen-refresh times of the Kindle.
Of course, given Apple's monopolistic tendencies, they'll probably just buy out a controlling interest in Pixel Qi and prevent anyone else from using the technology ;-)
This is awesome... thank you to whoever posted this... I can't remember the last time I laughed like that... sigh... One of the funniest things about this video is that the average person would have no freaking clue why it's so funny. We are all major nerds.
My electric car is sooooo going to sound like a Hemi at stop lights!
He probably meant that Linux is entering its "mature period" as an OS; it's stable. works on more platforms and devices than any other OS in the world, and is certainly something that has great potential to be used in new applications and devices - take Android as an example. Why would one even consider basing a new product on Linux otherwise?
Is it just me, or does this GB emulator make your CPU peak as well? I've got some fairly older hardware.
Also, rendering on Chrome / Linux is pretty bad, there are lots of artifacts.
As pointed out by Harald Welte (he's as good an authority on the subject as any), the Samsung Galaxy S is a good candidate. Samsung makes all of its source open and there probably isn't firmware locking, AFAIK.
use amd chips. they're a fraction of the price of intel chips, and there's really no difference in performance.
It's not just opening the source on a product, it's also ensuring that the product is not 'defective by design' (in Stallman's own words). I.e. the vendor should not restrict the ability of somebody to modify and reinstall new software on a device with an openly available build and install system. One particular aspect of 'defective by design' is the concept of e-fuses that literally burn the jtag circuits of mobile phones for production runs. Now, whether or not the end-user actually gets the chip documentation required to modify their software in a meaningful way, is another story alltogether.
Please tell me I'm not the only one who sees this.
What if someone else uses your cellular phone, or worse, someone uses your cellular phone while you aren't aware of it? That's practically like giving anyone free access to your account.
I think the facebook geniuses are confusing the one-time-pass with the one-time-pad ... particularly in this case, they are two very different things, specifically because the pad is requires that the key be exchanged *securely*.
Improve Octave. Specifically, for ARM. Remember that open-source does not necessarily mean architecture independent. Practically all software is written with the perception that the compiler optimizes any poorly written C / C++ code and that the target is a PC. While this is good for x86, relying on hardware instruction rescheduling to make code more 'efficient', it's pretty awful for anything else. Having done a lot of work with ARM / NEON optimizations myself, I can tell you first-hand that gcc does not do a great job of optimizing C code at all. This is going to become increasingly important as ARM outpaces x86, so please do everyone a favour, and write the code correctly the first time. There are several books about why this is so important, e.g. this one, but you'll probably find that its easier to just dive right in. Look at the Android source code, that's always a good example. uClibc / uClibc++ are also good examples.
&& >= 60 km/h.
lol ... oh man, Gosling's patent basically describes every digital circuit in existence, some of which existed before he was even born.
Oh wait... no, sorry. I misread the title of this article and thought that it said "Microsoft Apologizes for Page-Turn Animation Patent".
Schya... and maybe monkeys will fly out of my ass.
that's about as much time as I waste reading this website every day too!
I felt the quake in Montreal today, while working at home with my girlfriend. Although no dishes in our 3rd story apartment fell from the shelves and no structural damage to the building was immediately visible, it did serve as a good exercise about what to do in the event of a larger quake.
My girlfriend suggested that we stand in the middle of the building close to no visible exits. In spite of my immediate instinct to run down the stairs that we were directly beside, i went with her, which probably would have been a bad call, if the quake had been any larger in magnitude. In other words, if the building had collapsed we probably would have been trapped under debris.
The moral of the story is, that its sometimes a much wiser decision to exactly the opposite of what your girlfriend wants, even if it means that you won't be getting any for a few days.
Although nobody likes a rat (nobody who is ratted-out, in any case), Micron should actually get some respect for being the whistle-blower in this situation. A little honesty can really go a long way - especially if that is the way toward 400 million in, e.g. deficit-reductions.
Other examples of where Octave has much better potential than Matlab are:
1) Calling matlab-like matrix functions from another programming language.
2) Using Octave on an architecture other than x86.
3) Using Octave on mobile devices.
(ARM Holdings is based in the UK).
Thank Jobs for that!
I would probably install Linux on it.