We don't let the Windows machine talk to the outside world much. And we stopped at SP2; the EULA for SP3 was unacceptable. That's when we really started the move away from Microsoft.
The remaining Windows machine here runs Windows 2000.
Works fine, far less hassle than XP. XP is always calling home to Microsoft for something or other.
Everything else runs QNX or Linux. The QNX machines are solid; the Linux machine seems to need attention about once a month.
Yeah, right. What invisible content really does is make it easier for search engine spammers. Most of the major search engines now ignore META tages for that reason.
What's to prevent lather/rinse/repeat? Nothing.
on
Why You Should Use XHTML
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· Score: 2, Insightful
We've now come full circle. First there was SGML, which is a "general purpose markup language for representing documents". Then HTML. Then XML. Now, XHTML, which is a "general purpose markup language for representing documents". What's wrong with this picture.
"Structured documents" for public distribution usually don't work. The problem is that the costs of tagging are incurred by different people than those who benefit from it. Unless you have some enforcement agency that makes people tag their data, it doesn't happen. Even then, the data quality tends to be terrible. The SEC used to require financial statements in a rigid SGML form, in the EX.27 schedule of 10K and 10Q filings. Companies hated that. Not only did they get the numbers wrong, they hated having to express their numbers "uncreatively".
There are ways it might happen. If Google said that "You must tag all "buyable things" in this format, or you don't get into our index", we'd see it happen. That's how a few big retailers forced manufacturers to bar code, two decades ago.
Short-selling reached half the float back in June. That's huge.
Right now, there seems to be an attempt to support the price at $4.25. Look at the daily chart. This follows attempts to support the price around $15 (failed), $10 (failed), then $5 (worked for a while, then failed.)
At some point, somebody is going to buy what's left of SCO for a very low price.
As I pointed out to one of the organizers of the major SETI projects a few years ago, any signal they could detect was legacy technology, already obsolete here on earth.
The problem is that any signal that doesn't look like noise is wasting bandwidth. About 80% of AM broadcast (including broadcast TV, which has an AM video signal with FM audio) is "carrier", so it's easy to find those signals. Most newer systems, like spread-spectrum cell phones, not only have no carrier, but they're spread out in time, space, and code. They look like noise unless you know how to synch up to them. There's redundancy, but it's inside the coding. You need to receive a high percentage of the bits to find it.
The SETI guys mostly look for "carriers", or at least signals with a big single-frequency component. The whole sky has already been searched for signals like that, and there are no high-power carrier emitters in range. Looking harder for carriers is a dead end.
Get a bill introduced in Congress that all games played in stadiums financed with public money must be broadcast free, without any copying restrictions, sold out or not. Watch the NFL squirm.
SCO has a stock buyback program, remember, which they've properly disclosed to the SEC and the public. There have been several attempts to support the price. There was one somewhere around 15, and one at 10, and one at 5. Each was a failure. The price went down anyway.
With the Associated Press reporting "Judge Dismisses Most of SCO Group Lawsuit", it's not likely that the latest attempt to support the price will work any better than the last three.
Some months ago, I quoted Churchill's line from WWII, from the point when the Allies first started winning - "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning". Well, now we're past that point. This is the beginning of the end.
Coming up, the August 4th summary judgement hearing in SCO vs. IBM. If IBM wins, it's essentially over. If not, it just takes longer.
No. Their tools will tell you if it can be assembled, not whether it will work. Pad2Pad doesn't have a logic simulator, an analog simulator, a useful parts library, or autorouting, let alone the more advanced tools.
There are good electronic design automation tools today that will tell you if your design will work. They have simulators; try before you build. That full toolset is about $10,000. If you're designing anything serious, it's worth it.
There are free tools, like Berkeley Spice, but it's a decade out of date. Free software hasn't kept up in this area.
Sudden big drop this morning. New 52-week low. Bad news from the hearing?
Things to watch in the network control room
on
Workplace Monotony?
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· Score: 1
Get some security cameras that let you see the outside world. Put up the satellite weather image. Put up a display of Internet traffic worldwide. Keep CNN with captioning on a screen. This gives the impression you're on top of things.
Not only is SCOX below $5, today's intraday low, $4.44, broke through the 52-week low.
SCO's real problem is that the lawsuits are starting to reach the point where SCO loses. AutoZone got a stay. Damlier-Chrysler has moved for summary judgement, and they have a procedural hearing tomorrow at which SCO probably won't look good.
Early next month, the big one, IBM's motion for summary judgement on the copyright claims, goes before the judge.
In the IBM case, SCO is frantically filing motions in all directions, desperately trying to stall a ruling on summary judgement or to raise issues that will convince the judge not to dismiss the copyright claims. If they lose on that one, it's the beginning of the end.
Doesn't matter. If lots of people poll every hour, eventually the polls will synch up. There's a neat phase-locking effect. Van Jacobson analyzed this over twenty years ago.
We have way too much traffic from dumb P2P schemes today, considering the relatively small volume of new content being distributed.
This needs major legal review. It may be necessary that contributors to GPLd code sign a statement that
"I have not now nor have I ever been a licensee of proprietary Microsoft source code."
If you've ever been hooked to an EEG and get to look at the outputs, you quickly realize that you can control some of the signals a little. But it's a very low resolution signal.
There was a "biofeedback" boom back in the 1970s. Most of these ideas were tried back then.
Bought a DVD player today for $29.95 at Best Buy. Works fine. Plays DVD, video CD, audio CD, MP3, etc. PAL, NTSC, progressive scan, Dolby, S-VHS, etc. UL approved, and verified in the UL database.
Now we're seeing what happens when the entire product and all its components come from a very low wage, but high tech, country.
Somebody is going to eat the iPod for lunch, probably before xmas.
Jihad! - The Holy War
on
Game with God
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Now that would sell in the Islamic world. Saudi Arabia would ban it, but people would buy it anyway.
So far, Islamic game software has been rather lame.
There's Come to Salah, but it's a "memorize the Qur'an" edutainment product. Something edgier is needed to sell to the Arab street.
What's needed is Diplomacy with the graphic quality of Tropico. You're a dictator trying to play off the religious fanatics against the moderates while dealing with neighboring warlords, US-backed enemies, and ambitious relatives. Try to suppress the imans, and you get a rebellion; give them power over education, and soon few of your people have any useful skills. Start a war to divert attention from your domestic problems, and run the risk of losing. Fail to follow the precepts of the Prophet and the people turn against you.
It must be playable in Internet cafes. That's your market.
Slashdot Mirror
We don't let the Windows machine talk to the outside world much. And we stopped at SP2; the EULA for SP3 was unacceptable. That's when we really started the move away from Microsoft.
Everything else runs QNX or Linux. The QNX machines are solid; the Linux machine seems to need attention about once a month.
Yeah, right. What invisible content really does is make it easier for search engine spammers. Most of the major search engines now ignore META tages for that reason.
"Structured documents" for public distribution usually don't work. The problem is that the costs of tagging are incurred by different people than those who benefit from it. Unless you have some enforcement agency that makes people tag their data, it doesn't happen. Even then, the data quality tends to be terrible. The SEC used to require financial statements in a rigid SGML form, in the EX.27 schedule of 10K and 10Q filings. Companies hated that. Not only did they get the numbers wrong, they hated having to express their numbers "uncreatively".
There are ways it might happen. If Google said that "You must tag all "buyable things" in this format, or you don't get into our index", we'd see it happen. That's how a few big retailers forced manufacturers to bar code, two decades ago.
Right now, there seems to be an attempt to support the price at $4.25. Look at the daily chart. This follows attempts to support the price around $15 (failed), $10 (failed), then $5 (worked for a while, then failed.)
At some point, somebody is going to buy what's left of SCO for a very low price.
The problem is that any signal that doesn't look like noise is wasting bandwidth. About 80% of AM broadcast (including broadcast TV, which has an AM video signal with FM audio) is "carrier", so it's easy to find those signals. Most newer systems, like spread-spectrum cell phones, not only have no carrier, but they're spread out in time, space, and code. They look like noise unless you know how to synch up to them. There's redundancy, but it's inside the coding. You need to receive a high percentage of the bits to find it.
The SETI guys mostly look for "carriers", or at least signals with a big single-frequency component. The whole sky has already been searched for signals like that, and there are no high-power carrier emitters in range. Looking harder for carriers is a dead end.
But at least he actually went out and did some work. Usually, he just writes clueless re-hashes of published articles.
Get a bill introduced in Congress that all games played in stadiums financed with public money must be broadcast free, without any copying restrictions, sold out or not. Watch the NFL squirm.
I was just looking at some of the source code. Those guys are coding like it's 1985. Pages of code to re-implement "stl::vector" for each type.
With the Associated Press reporting "Judge Dismisses Most of SCO Group Lawsuit", it's not likely that the latest attempt to support the price will work any better than the last three.
Some months ago, I quoted Churchill's line from WWII, from the point when the Allies first started winning - "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning". Well, now we're past that point. This is the beginning of the end.
Coming up, the August 4th summary judgement hearing in SCO vs. IBM. If IBM wins, it's essentially over. If not, it just takes longer.
There are good electronic design automation tools today that will tell you if your design will work. They have simulators; try before you build. That full toolset is about $10,000. If you're designing anything serious, it's worth it.
There are free tools, like Berkeley Spice, but it's a decade out of date. Free software hasn't kept up in this area.
Get a clue, editors.
It's not clear from the FAA site if a "sport pilot" certificate lets you fly in controlled airspace. I hope not.
Sudden big drop this morning. New 52-week low. Bad news from the hearing?
Get some security cameras that let you see the outside world. Put up the satellite weather image. Put up a display of Internet traffic worldwide. Keep CNN with captioning on a screen. This gives the impression you're on top of things.
Er, that page has CSS. It's not HTML 3.2.
SCO's real problem is that the lawsuits are starting to reach the point where SCO loses. AutoZone got a stay. Damlier-Chrysler has moved for summary judgement, and they have a procedural hearing tomorrow at which SCO probably won't look good. Early next month, the big one, IBM's motion for summary judgement on the copyright claims, goes before the judge.
In the IBM case, SCO is frantically filing motions in all directions, desperately trying to stall a ruling on summary judgement or to raise issues that will convince the judge not to dismiss the copyright claims. If they lose on that one, it's the beginning of the end.
That looks suspiciously like a Xerox Docutech with custom front panels.
We have way too much traffic from dumb P2P schemes today, considering the relatively small volume of new content being distributed.
This needs major legal review. It may be necessary that contributors to GPLd code sign a statement that "I have not now nor have I ever been a licensee of proprietary Microsoft source code."
There was a "biofeedback" boom back in the 1970s. Most of these ideas were tried back then.
Now we're seeing what happens when the entire product and all its components come from a very low wage, but high tech, country.
Somebody is going to eat the iPod for lunch, probably before xmas.
So far, Islamic game software has been rather lame. There's Come to Salah, but it's a "memorize the Qur'an" edutainment product. Something edgier is needed to sell to the Arab street.
What's needed is Diplomacy with the graphic quality of Tropico. You're a dictator trying to play off the religious fanatics against the moderates while dealing with neighboring warlords, US-backed enemies, and ambitious relatives. Try to suppress the imans, and you get a rebellion; give them power over education, and soon few of your people have any useful skills. Start a war to divert attention from your domestic problems, and run the risk of losing. Fail to follow the precepts of the Prophet and the people turn against you.
It must be playable in Internet cafes. That's your market.
The islamic world does have a sense of humor.
Yes.