When I wrote "the kernel doesn't matter" in the parent comment, I meant that because the choice of a specific underlying kernel (linux, darwin, hurd, win32, msdos) doesn't affect the validity of Stallman's argument, he was justified in using "GNU" to refer to systems with a GNU userland no matter the kernel.
but [GPLing everything I write for homework] seems like a safe thing to do in case it comes up (who knows, someone may want the tetris game I wrote for OpenGL class).
If you're writing Tetris® games, you're either working for the Tetris Company or violating a trademark. "Tetris" is to tetramino game as "Xerox" is to photocopier. Would you say "I built a Xerox® machine for a senior project"?
Besides, who wants OpenGL tetraminoes when you can get Tetanus On Drugs, i.e. tetraminoes with a 2 1/2-D spinning, zooming, and distorting display, without the hefty video hardware requirements? Heck, TOD is playable even on a 486/25 with cheap onboard Tseng video.
As someone previously said, why should a proud and experienced community of Unix architects blindly follow the lead of some newcomers in the platform and components business?
At one time, Unix architects were "newcomers in the platform and components business." The.NET philosophy meshes well with the UNIX philosophy: small, portable components that work together well.
But as I pointed out, the source is open, and there are in fact even binaries for most platforms available anyway. Ispell binaries are available for MS/DOS, Win32, OS/2, and even the Amiga, as well as *nix.
But not classic Mac. Classic Mac OS apps don't even have a concept of a "pipe" or a "command line," instead exposing local services through AppleScript; to my knowledge, nobody has made AppleScript bindings for Ispell. And under both Win32 and classic Mac OS, spawning a new process (any process) is very slow.
Are you implying that Mozilla will use an "asymptotic fraction of 1" version numbering system similar to TeX's "asymptotic fraction of " system?
Speaking of TeX, it appears that if a new bug pops up in TeX the day after Knuth dies, it won't get fixed for 70 years (or longer if Disney's Congress continues to extend the copyright term) because Knuth's last will and testament includes freezing TeX.
I wonder how long it will take for someone to port xbill [xbill.org] (which would be more popular than Quake according to the xbill homepage) to the XBox
For one thing, xbill is a heavily mouse-oriented clickfest similar to Hampsterdeath, and the Xbox doesn't come with a mouse.
For another, Microsoft must approve every piece of software that runs on a home XBox so that the company can make up the money it spent marketing the console. (Console makers make a slight profit on the console itself but take a loss in initial marketing that they make up with software sales.)
My expectation was that I would be able to make a back-up copy because VHS tapes are known to fragile. Sony's decisions to put content protection on a tape that I personally own clearly kept me from performing a normal operation. Therefore they should be responsible for replacing the tape.
Sony will probably use the counterargument that because the warranty on the media has expired, you are responsible for paying the cost of replacing the tape.
For example, I want to buy lower quality versions of movies on a DVD format like that used on the Game Cube. It'd require using a lossier format like DivX, but it means the discs are more portable.
What point would there be to making it smaller other than to make it handheld or otherwise wearable? And why would you want to make a medium that requires a user's full attention wearable? Movies aren't like CD audio, which a fellow can listen to while walking down the street.
Less bulkier
The box for a DOL disc is the same size as the box for a DVD. (DOL discs are the Nintendo GameCube's optical medium.) This shows that DVDs are already "portable enough" in that you can easily move them from one DVD player to another.
I doubt its true but someone once told me that VCR's with RCA inputs had [to] include a macrovision chip to scramble the signal.
It's true. Page 4 of this LoC document states that the DMCA requires new VCRs manufactured or sold in the United States to respond to automatic gain control and four-line colorstripe copy protection; both techniques are used in the Macrovision system. The relevant statute is 17 USC 1201(k).
Well, in fact even if it's a strong crypto from tape to screen I still can use a camcorder
Not necessarily. What if the legislature in your jurisdiction passes a law similar to the SSSCA draft, requiring all camcorders sold after $DATE to recognize and act on watermarks embedded in each frame of the video?
Next you'll say, "Well I can still use my old camcorder."
What about on computers with video cards that have analog output, but the operating system does not allow copying to analog?
Then the OS maker would be shooting itself in the foot, as the vast majority of the installed base of computer displays are VGA, and VGA is an analog video signal.
Why do Chinese people have so much trouble making plurals?
Probably because marking number on nouns is optional in Chinese. Chinese has a noun for "one or more men" or "one or more" of anything else, and you can add adjectives that translate as "one" or "many" to make the noun specifically singular or plural.
Just add an 's' and be done with it!
That doesn't work on all nouns. Child does not become *childs, and sheep does not become *sheeps.
I still cannot figure out how he says storing data on DRAM is cheaper than storing it on hard-disks. Maybe, if you buy in bulk?
When you pay for DRAM, you get read latency measured in nanoseconds rather than milliseconds, which lets you get more queries done faster with less processing hardware. The key metric here is seeks per second. From the article:
Schmidt: "it costs less money and it is more efficient to use DRAM as storage as opposed to hard disks -- which is kind of amazing. It turns out that DRAM is 200,000 times more efficient when it comes to storing seekable data. In a disk architecture, you have to wait for a disk arm to retrieve information off of a hard-disk platter. DRAM is not only cheaper, but queries are lightning fast."
With a rotating disk, if you wanted to access a million different pieces of data, you would have to either wait for a million seeks or set up a 1,000-way mirror and wait for 1,000 seeks. Because DRAM seeks several orders of magnitude more quickly, you don't need as many mirrors of the data to get the same number of seeks per second.
Although in theory at least you *could* use sprites for the same effect
Not exactly. If you're just rotating and scaling a background in 2D, it might work, but in pseudo-3D as F-Zero and Mario Kart use, no way. For one thing, scaling a sprite above 2x isn't going to work because of the limit on a sprite's width. For another, it's much harder to change a rotated sprite's origin per scanline than to change a Mode 7 background's, and because you can't set it to a subpixel, you won't easily be able to get the sprites to line up at the joint. For yet another, GBA DMA likes contiguous destination addresses, and the sprite rotation and scaling registers are not contiguous by any means.
if you didn't mind eating most of your sprite memory and/or having extremely chunky backgrounds.:)
Sprite memory and background memory are completely separate in GBA. In tiled modes (0, 1, 2), you get 64 KB of memory for background textures and maps, 32 KB for sprite textures, 1 KB for sprite vertices, and 1 KB for the palette lookup table.
...i assume "iapetus" isn't related to "japheth" or "geppetto"...
FYI GBA doesn't have Mode 7 hardware either - Mode7esque effects are normally achieved by messing with the hardware sprite registers between scanlines.
Not sprites, but backgrounds. Mode 7 is created by setting up DMA to copy new values into the background's rotation and scaling registers before each scanline. And the Game Boy Advance has not one but two layers of Mode 7 (in graphics mode 2), in addition to the sprite scaling and rotation functions. I should know; I'm working on a GBA puzzle game that uses such an effect (but in graphics mode 1, which has two normal tile layers and one Mode 7 layer).
Good idea, considering that Devkit Advance (a GCC port for cross-development of GBA software) is also available on Linux. However, some of the graphics tools may be Windows-specific.
nad then have a decent development platform that is legal. Otherwise little Johhny will have to search the WareZ sites for Visual studio or VC++
You assume that there is no relatively easy-to-use development environment on Windows other than Visual C++. Have you considered RHIDE (Borland-ish IDE for DOS, which is also available for Linux) plus MinGW (GCC port for native development of Windows software) or RHIDE plus Devkit Advance?
Windows creates criminals
You have that backwards. Microsoft Corporation is a criminal. Microsoft created Windows. Therefore, criminals created Windows.
Why use LZW for GIFs when the PNG image format is so much better? PNG has better compression, a better license, and more features!
Because PNG doesn't support animation, and unlike Mozilla, IE doesn't support MNG (the animated variant of PNG). To check for MNG support in your browser, head over to this page.
info on how to program a gba, using a gba?
i wouldnt imagine a gba would make a great programming platform, altho it makes a nice target to develop for.
I assume that the boy has access to the family winbox and can get an MBV2 cable with his saved allowance. From there, he can use the family cable modem to download devkit advance and an emulator to the winbox, look at a couple examples, play with them, and learn how to program. Just make sure somebody else teaches him how to write maintainable code.
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When I wrote "the kernel doesn't matter" in the parent comment, I meant that because the choice of a specific underlying kernel (linux, darwin, hurd, win32, msdos) doesn't affect the validity of Stallman's argument, he was justified in using "GNU" to refer to systems with a GNU userland no matter the kernel.
I wouldn't say that I built a Xerox® machine...I'd say that I built a xerox machine
That's close enough for dilution, as US trademark law uppercases everything before comparing anything.
When I go to make a copy, I generally don't say that I'm going to go make a xerographic copy...I say that I'm going to go make a xerox.
In Indiana, I've heard "go make a copy" or sometimes more specifically "go make a photocopy."
but [GPLing everything I write for homework] seems like a safe thing to do in case it comes up (who knows, someone may want the tetris game I wrote for OpenGL class).
If you're writing Tetris® games, you're either working for the Tetris Company or violating a trademark. "Tetris" is to tetramino game as "Xerox" is to photocopier. Would you say "I built a Xerox® machine for a senior project"?
Besides, who wants OpenGL tetraminoes when you can get Tetanus On Drugs, i.e. tetraminoes with a 2 1/2-D spinning, zooming, and distorting display, without the hefty video hardware requirements? Heck, TOD is playable even on a 486/25 with cheap onboard Tseng video.
It's just GNU, with Linux being only mentioned in passing. Is there no limit to this man's megalomania?
I explained this in an earlier comment. Summary: The GNU userland can run on many kernels, not just Linux.
Anyone else notice that he's dropped GNU/Linux altogether? Now it's just GNU. No credit given at all to the kernel. I guess it's just not important.
That's because the issues are the same, whether you run GNU/Linux, GNU/Solaris, GNU/Win32, GNU/DOS, or any other port of the GNU userland.
He isn't pro-Free software in the least. He is simply pro-GPL and anti-everything else.
He's pro-free software. He understands that BSD-class licenses (especially for noddy programs under 2 KLOC or for software used in embedded systems), weak copyleft licenses (especially for free clones of common libraries), and GPL-class strong copyleft licenses all have their place.
As someone previously said, why should a proud and experienced community of Unix architects blindly follow the lead of some newcomers in the platform and components business?
At one time, Unix architects were "newcomers in the platform and components business." The .NET philosophy meshes well with the UNIX philosophy: small, portable components that work together well.
[Richard Stallman is] just bitter he can't call it GNU/.NET.
No, but he can call his team's version dotGNU.
But as I pointed out, the source is open, and there are in fact even binaries for most platforms available anyway. Ispell binaries are available for MS/DOS, Win32, OS/2, and even the Amiga, as well as *nix.
But not classic Mac. Classic Mac OS apps don't even have a concept of a "pipe" or a "command line," instead exposing local services through AppleScript; to my knowledge, nobody has made AppleScript bindings for Ispell. And under both Win32 and classic Mac OS, spawning a new process (any process) is very slow.
Mozilla .999999843 released!
Are you implying that Mozilla will use an "asymptotic fraction of 1" version numbering system similar to TeX's "asymptotic fraction of " system?
Speaking of TeX, it appears that if a new bug pops up in TeX the day after Knuth dies, it won't get fixed for 70 years (or longer if Disney's Congress continues to extend the copyright term) because Knuth's last will and testament includes freezing TeX.
I wonder how long it will take for someone to port xbill [xbill.org] (which would be more popular than Quake according to the xbill homepage) to the XBox
For one thing, xbill is a heavily mouse-oriented clickfest similar to Hampsterdeath, and the Xbox doesn't come with a mouse.
For another, Microsoft must approve every piece of software that runs on a home XBox so that the company can make up the money it spent marketing the console. (Console makers make a slight profit on the console itself but take a loss in initial marketing that they make up with software sales.)
Bother Sorenson if you want it open-sourced.
Sorenson's video codec is not Sorenson's to give it away as a result of the exclusive license to Apple.
Bother Sorenson and Apple legal representatives in a conference call if you want it open-sourced.
My expectation was that I would be able to make a back-up copy because VHS tapes are known to fragile. Sony's decisions to put content protection on a tape that I personally own clearly kept me from performing a normal operation. Therefore they should be responsible for replacing the tape.
Sony will probably use the counterargument that because the warranty on the media has expired, you are responsible for paying the cost of replacing the tape.
ERROR 404. Your have not met the required funds to view this page.
The HTTP RFC actually specifies such an error code: HTTP/1.1 402 Payment Required
For example, I want to buy lower quality versions of movies on a DVD format like that used on the Game Cube. It'd require using a lossier format like DivX, but it means the discs are more portable.
What point would there be to making it smaller other than to make it handheld or otherwise wearable? And why would you want to make a medium that requires a user's full attention wearable? Movies aren't like CD audio, which a fellow can listen to while walking down the street.
Less bulkier
The box for a DOL disc is the same size as the box for a DVD. (DOL discs are the Nintendo GameCube's optical medium.) This shows that DVDs are already "portable enough" in that you can easily move them from one DVD player to another.
I doubt its true but someone once told me that VCR's with RCA inputs had [to] include a macrovision chip to scramble the signal.
It's true. Page 4 of this LoC document states that the DMCA requires new VCRs manufactured or sold in the United States to respond to automatic gain control and four-line colorstripe copy protection; both techniques are used in the Macrovision system. The relevant statute is 17 USC 1201(k).
Well, in fact even if it's a strong crypto from tape to screen I still can use a camcorder
Not necessarily. What if the legislature in your jurisdiction passes a law similar to the SSSCA draft, requiring all camcorders sold after $DATE to recognize and act on watermarks embedded in each frame of the video?
Next you'll say, "Well I can still use my old camcorder."
Until it wears out.
What about on computers with video cards that have analog output, but the operating system does not allow copying to analog?
Then the OS maker would be shooting itself in the foot, as the vast majority of the installed base of computer displays are VGA, and VGA is an analog video signal.
Why do Chinese people have so much trouble making plurals?
Probably because marking number on nouns is optional in Chinese. Chinese has a noun for "one or more men" or "one or more" of anything else, and you can add adjectives that translate as "one" or "many" to make the noun specifically singular or plural.
Just add an 's' and be done with it!
That doesn't work on all nouns. Child does not become *childs, and sheep does not become *sheeps.
I still cannot figure out how he says storing data on DRAM is cheaper than storing it on hard-disks. Maybe, if you buy in bulk?
When you pay for DRAM, you get read latency measured in nanoseconds rather than milliseconds, which lets you get more queries done faster with less processing hardware. The key metric here is seeks per second. From the article:
With a rotating disk, if you wanted to access a million different pieces of data, you would have to either wait for a million seeks or set up a 1,000-way mirror and wait for 1,000 seeks. Because DRAM seeks several orders of magnitude more quickly, you don't need as many mirrors of the data to get the same number of seeks per second.
Although in theory at least you *could* use sprites for the same effect
Not exactly. If you're just rotating and scaling a background in 2D, it might work, but in pseudo-3D as F-Zero and Mario Kart use, no way. For one thing, scaling a sprite above 2x isn't going to work because of the limit on a sprite's width. For another, it's much harder to change a rotated sprite's origin per scanline than to change a Mode 7 background's, and because you can't set it to a subpixel, you won't easily be able to get the sprites to line up at the joint. For yet another, GBA DMA likes contiguous destination addresses, and the sprite rotation and scaling registers are not contiguous by any means.
if you didn't mind eating most of your sprite memory and/or having extremely chunky backgrounds. :)
Sprite memory and background memory are completely separate in GBA. In tiled modes (0, 1, 2), you get 64 KB of memory for background textures and maps, 32 KB for sprite textures, 1 KB for sprite vertices, and 1 KB for the palette lookup table.
FYI GBA doesn't have Mode 7 hardware either - Mode7esque effects are normally achieved by messing with the hardware sprite registers between scanlines.
Not sprites, but backgrounds. Mode 7 is created by setting up DMA to copy new values into the background's rotation and scaling registers before each scanline. And the Game Boy Advance has not one but two layers of Mode 7 (in graphics mode 2), in addition to the sprite scaling and rotation functions. I should know; I'm working on a GBA puzzle game that uses such an effect (but in graphics mode 1, which has two normal tile layers and one Mode 7 layer).
buy a nice 2nd hand computer, install linux on it
Good idea, considering that Devkit Advance (a GCC port for cross-development of GBA software) is also available on Linux. However, some of the graphics tools may be Windows-specific.
nad then have a decent development platform that is legal. Otherwise little Johhny will have to search the WareZ sites for Visual studio or VC++
You assume that there is no relatively easy-to-use development environment on Windows other than Visual C++. Have you considered RHIDE (Borland-ish IDE for DOS, which is also available for Linux) plus MinGW (GCC port for native development of Windows software) or RHIDE plus Devkit Advance?
Windows creates criminals
You have that backwards. Microsoft Corporation is a criminal. Microsoft created Windows. Therefore, criminals created Windows.
I just spent 15 minutes and made a simple side scrolling example for my daughter in C with SDL using a VGA framebuffer...
I've done the same thing with Allegro (very similar to SDL). I was more concerned about the frame rate that the system would be able to push.
Why use LZW for GIFs when the PNG image format is so much better? PNG has better compression, a better license, and more features!
Because PNG doesn't support animation, and unlike Mozilla, IE doesn't support MNG (the animated variant of PNG). To check for MNG support in your browser, head over to this page.
info on how to program a gba, using a gba? i wouldnt imagine a gba would make a great programming platform, altho it makes a nice target to develop for.
I assume that the boy has access to the family winbox and can get an MBV2 cable with his saved allowance. From there, he can use the family cable modem to download devkit advance and an emulator to the winbox, look at a couple examples, play with them, and learn how to program. Just make sure somebody else teaches him how to write maintainable code.