for the bashing from users/developers of BSD, OS X, Windows, and other groups, plus Sun, Microsoft, Apple, and a whole range of corporate special interests. Oh, and then there are all the computer columnists who are paid off by Microsoft, Apple, and other companies.
That was specifically aimed at your silly concept that Apple preferring Objective C instead of C++, and MS dropping C++ for C# is somehow a validation of C+Glib+GObject.
It shows is that C++ is a dead end for GUI and desktop application development. Hence, Qt and C++ are evolutionary dead ends.
Are you actually, seriously pushing forward GObject as a real object system preferred by developers of discerning taste?
No, I'm saying one shouldn't write applications in either C or C++ at all. And if one is writing in languages like Python or C#, then Gtk+ is a better toolkit to bind to those languages and build on. Qt only makes sense if your primary GUI development language is C++, but if it is, you might as well give up.
To be fair, cellular bandwidth is fundamentally limited, and has been extremely costly to deploy. It's not particularly surprising that the carriers want to recoup their investment.
Unlimited 3G plans (including tethering) in Europe are a fraction of what they are here in the US, and that is with more government regulations, more usage, and more available services. In fact, 3G in Europe isn't even an issue anymore--you get it everywhere--carriers are mostly done deploying 3.5G and have started 4G deployment.
The bridge in question connects one publicly accessible area to another publicly accessible area where there are limited ways to get across the freeway in question.
Would the bridge make the list of projects if Microsoft weren't involved? No? Then the public shouldn't pay a dime for it.
While Microsoft accounts for about 40% of the expected traffic on the new bridge, they [i.e. Microsoft] are actually footing the bill for approximately half the cost of the bridge.
All the non-Microsoft traffic might simply be taking the bridge because it's there and it has already been paid for. The question is what the actual utility of the bridge is to the public.
I've driven around the Microsoft campus a lot, and I don't see any public need for another bridge in that area.
GNOME never eliminated C++: they just never got there. Glib, Gobject and others reimplement most of that "overhead" you mention.
Yes, Glib implements its own object system. Its key features are that it only depends on the C standard and C standard library, and that it's a dynamic object system.
Qt uses a static object system, and then adds non-standard extensions on top of that because the C++ object system isn't good enough. And Qt doesn't even take advantage of the features C++ has for writing safer, more reliable code.
C++ is very suitable for GUI development: example Qt!
Your reasoning is circular. In fact, Apple rejected C++ for GUI development, Microsoft has abandoned it, and Linux has created an alternative.
The KDE community can continue invest an extraordinary effort to keep it alive and try to keep it up to date, but Qt is already an anachronism and an evolutionary dead end.
Gtk C code isn't pretty, but it has a much easier migration path to the future because its object system is much more suitable to GUI programming and because it isn't saddled with C++.
claiming they reap the benefit of content from news sites without contributing anything towards their costs
Well, they do (at least if the newspapers are stupid enough not to use Google ads). So what? Since when is it a principle of democracy or the free market that you need to pay for everything you "benefit from"?
As the US shows (Seattle PI, SF Chronicle, etc.), the days of the print paper and bloated newspaper organizations are numbered. This is just another attempt for irrelevant organizations like the Guardian to keep their outdated business models alive. Newspapers are hugely inefficient at what they do because they have become accustomed to living on a few percent off the top of a huge physical distribution chain. The modern equivalent of The Guardian is a a bunch of distributed, separate services: bloggers, commentators, classifieds, eBay, etc.
And from that data, you reach the conclusion that KDE is weighted down by the legacy of lots of C++ code (why isn't GNOME weighted down by the legacy of lots of C code then?).
The C++ runtime and standard libraries are a large superset of the C runtime and libraries, with the bulk and overhead to go with it. When using and binding C++, you have to deal with issues such as RTTI, name mangling, exception handling, template instantiation, new-vs-malloc, stream-vs-stdio, etc. None of those complexities buy you any functionality for KDE or Qt over Gnome/Gtk+; quite to the contrary, C++'s object system is singularly unsuitable for writing any kind of GUI software.
The first evolutionary step towards a better desktop is to eliminate C++ from GUI and application software altogether. Gnome has taken that step, KDE hasn't.
The real solution is to decriminalize possession of pictures, no matter what the content. Adults involving children in sexual acts should, of course, remain illegal, and automatically covers the creation of child pornography.
If you want a phone with full VoIP support, get an unlocked Nokia E71 for about $350; it works on AT&T's network. It has built-in support for VoIP (including Gizmo), WiFi, GPS, 3G, a full WebKit browser, a 3Mpixel camera, video recording, and lots of other features. I have that and an unlimited data plan, and I still don't bother using the VoIP feature; it's easier just to use regular cellular calls and not significantly more expensive. So, the notion that AT&T is preventing you from using VoIP on their network is a myth. Whatever restrictions there may be are specific to the iPhone.
Cromwell's killings in Ireland were in the context of a civil war and conquest; Catholics were resisting the conquest and that is why they were executed. That doesn't make it right, but it makes it very different from the holocaust. Jews in Germany were peaceful citizens, murdered by their neighbors solely because of their ethnicity.
Catholicism had also been responsible for widespread corruption, oppression, torture, and killings over centuries; protestants had good reasons to fear and fight Catholicism. Unlike Catholicism, Judaism doesn't recruit, conquer, or oppress other religions.
That's why scientists use double blind experiments and control experiments. So, with every cotton swab taken from a crime scene, forensic labs should get one or more "blank" ones to test, without knowing which is which.
They seem to be complaining that Google chooses not to play their music and hence not pay them. How much sense does that make? Are car dealerships going to complain that I'm not buying a new car?
I'd propose that we start posting how video games (especially violent ones, since that's this article's topic) DO affect you. How does virtual violence affect someone.
What makes you think that it affects people at all, at least any more than books, theater, or television?
It seems that most responses to this sort of article are of the form "violent video games have nothing to do with what he did!"
Violent tendencies probably cause an affinity to violent video games. But violent video games probably don't cause violent tendencies.
Look, the whole world culture is becoming more violent when compared to - say - the 1950s.
However, violent crime and violent deaths are actually decreasing.
I think it signals something deeply wrong with our culture, but it's interactivity alone does not single it out as threshold behavior.
Oh, please, get real. Most families used to slaughter animals to eat. There used to be public executions using unimaginably horrific and inhumane ways of killing. A large fraction of young men would go to war and kill and see killing first hand. As for violent stories, just look at the Old Testament: rape, torture, murder, genocide, it's all there.
Our culture is tame both in our experiences and in our actions.
I thought it causes lesbianism. I don't mind, but the German police chef might, if he is of the conservative knee-jerk persuasion (which he seems to be).
Actually, the UK did go off the rails. You just aren't that familiar with their history. Just read up on Oliver Cromwell, and maybe read some Irish web sites on what they feel about him.
You compare the fact that the UK had a period 350 years ago when it wasn't democratic to the fascism and systematic extermination of millions of minorities in Germany 70 years ago? I'm sorry, but that's preposterous. All nations have committed crimes against humanity, but WWII and the holocaust remain exceptional in human history.
Assuming that we ourselves cannot become fascists, communists or some other radical party is the surest way to slip down to just that level of madness. The lesson of Germany is that we all have to police ourselves.
I'm assuming no such thing; democracy is always at risk everywhere. But given the recency and severity of Germany's crimes, it is reasonable to subject Germany to special scrutiny and hold it to a higher standard.
Nobody has yet been able to answer successfully what it was about German culture that permitted the holocaust to happen, and nobody knows whether that element of German culture has been eradicated.
I think it is legitimate to single out Germany. Neither the US nor the UK have ever gone off the rails like Germany, so they're doing something right. Furthermore, Germany already has strong restrictions on speech that would be unconstitutional in the US.
People forget a bit too readily that the Nazis didn't come to power in Germany on a platform of genocide, they came to power on a platform of law-and-order, traditional values, and national pride.
History should have taught German police and government to refrain from trying to interfere in free speech and to be very tolerant of speech and content that people might find objectionable. Instead, they are apparently just reverting to their old ways.
When will these people learn that freedom is meaningless if it doesn't include the freedom to make bad choices? When will they learn that democracy is only possible if we accept the risk that our fellow citizens sometimes make bad choices?
Slashdot Mirror
for the bashing from users/developers of BSD, OS X, Windows, and other groups, plus Sun, Microsoft, Apple, and a whole range of corporate special interests. Oh, and then there are all the computer columnists who are paid off by Microsoft, Apple, and other companies.
That was specifically aimed at your silly concept that Apple preferring Objective C instead of C++, and MS dropping C++ for C# is somehow a validation of C+Glib+GObject.
It shows is that C++ is a dead end for GUI and desktop application development. Hence, Qt and C++ are evolutionary dead ends.
Are you actually, seriously pushing forward GObject as a real object system preferred by developers of discerning taste?
No, I'm saying one shouldn't write applications in either C or C++ at all. And if one is writing in languages like Python or C#, then Gtk+ is a better toolkit to bind to those languages and build on. Qt only makes sense if your primary GUI development language is C++, but if it is, you might as well give up.
To be fair, cellular bandwidth is fundamentally limited, and has been extremely costly to deploy. It's not particularly surprising that the carriers want to recoup their investment.
Unlimited 3G plans (including tethering) in Europe are a fraction of what they are here in the US, and that is with more government regulations, more usage, and more available services. In fact, 3G in Europe isn't even an issue anymore--you get it everywhere--carriers are mostly done deploying 3.5G and have started 4G deployment.
The bridge in question connects one publicly accessible area to another publicly accessible area where there are limited ways to get across the freeway in question.
Would the bridge make the list of projects if Microsoft weren't involved? No? Then the public shouldn't pay a dime for it.
While Microsoft accounts for about 40% of the expected traffic on the new bridge, they [i.e. Microsoft] are actually footing the bill for approximately half the cost of the bridge.
All the non-Microsoft traffic might simply be taking the bridge because it's there and it has already been paid for. The question is what the actual utility of the bridge is to the public.
I've driven around the Microsoft campus a lot, and I don't see any public need for another bridge in that area.
Guardian journalists simply are incapable of condensing their pompous bloviations down to 140 characters.
In what sense is it still "Internet Explorer" then?
Well, if you get rid of the paid staff
Nobody is "getting rid of" anybody; it's just that the business model that newspapers have grown up with is outdated.
No, they are there because of personal aggrandizement and ego. [...] Except recycled junk from opinionated and ill-informed bloggers.
And you think that most "real" journalists are any different? I don't.
GNOME never eliminated C++: they just never got there. Glib, Gobject and others reimplement most of that "overhead" you mention.
Yes, Glib implements its own object system. Its key features are that it only depends on the C standard and C standard library, and that it's a dynamic object system.
Qt uses a static object system, and then adds non-standard extensions on top of that because the C++ object system isn't good enough. And Qt doesn't even take advantage of the features C++ has for writing safer, more reliable code.
C++ is very suitable for GUI development: example Qt!
Your reasoning is circular. In fact, Apple rejected C++ for GUI development, Microsoft has abandoned it, and Linux has created an alternative.
The KDE community can continue invest an extraordinary effort to keep it alive and try to keep it up to date, but Qt is already an anachronism and an evolutionary dead end.
Gtk C code isn't pretty, but it has a much easier migration path to the future because its object system is much more suitable to GUI programming and because it isn't saddled with C++.
claiming they reap the benefit of content from news sites without contributing anything towards their costs
Well, they do (at least if the newspapers are stupid enough not to use Google ads). So what? Since when is it a principle of democracy or the free market that you need to pay for everything you "benefit from"?
As the US shows (Seattle PI, SF Chronicle, etc.), the days of the print paper and bloated newspaper organizations are numbered. This is just another attempt for irrelevant organizations like the Guardian to keep their outdated business models alive. Newspapers are hugely inefficient at what they do because they have become accustomed to living on a few percent off the top of a huge physical distribution chain. The modern equivalent of The Guardian is a a bunch of distributed, separate services: bloggers, commentators, classifieds, eBay, etc.
And from that data, you reach the conclusion that KDE is weighted down by the legacy of lots of C++ code (why isn't GNOME weighted down by the legacy of lots of C code then?).
The C++ runtime and standard libraries are a large superset of the C runtime and libraries, with the bulk and overhead to go with it. When using and binding C++, you have to deal with issues such as RTTI, name mangling, exception handling, template instantiation, new-vs-malloc, stream-vs-stdio, etc. None of those complexities buy you any functionality for KDE or Qt over Gnome/Gtk+; quite to the contrary, C++'s object system is singularly unsuitable for writing any kind of GUI software.
The first evolutionary step towards a better desktop is to eliminate C++ from GUI and application software altogether. Gnome has taken that step, KDE hasn't.
Sir, you have an excepcional brain.
So I have been told.
The real solution is to decriminalize possession of pictures, no matter what the content. Adults involving children in sexual acts should, of course, remain illegal, and automatically covers the creation of child pornography.
They won't work on the original iPod Touch (Apple disabled the microphone input on that one), only on the second generation.
If you want a phone with full VoIP support, get an unlocked Nokia E71 for about $350; it works on AT&T's network. It has built-in support for VoIP (including Gizmo), WiFi, GPS, 3G, a full WebKit browser, a 3Mpixel camera, video recording, and lots of other features. I have that and an unlimited data plan, and I still don't bother using the VoIP feature; it's easier just to use regular cellular calls and not significantly more expensive. So, the notion that AT&T is preventing you from using VoIP on their network is a myth. Whatever restrictions there may be are specific to the iPhone.
What's more "graudalist" than KDE's continued insistence on using C++?
Gnome has a good migration path to modern languages like Python and C#, without being weighted down by the legacy of lots of C++ code and support.
In my experience, "gifted students" have their own new product ideas; they don't need someone else's.
The special ingredient in XServe disk drives is... love. :-/
The two situations are completely different.
Cromwell's killings in Ireland were in the context of a civil war and conquest; Catholics were resisting the conquest and that is why they were executed. That doesn't make it right, but it makes it very different from the holocaust. Jews in Germany were peaceful citizens, murdered by their neighbors solely because of their ethnicity.
Catholicism had also been responsible for widespread corruption, oppression, torture, and killings over centuries; protestants had good reasons to fear and fight Catholicism. Unlike Catholicism, Judaism doesn't recruit, conquer, or oppress other religions.
That's why scientists use double blind experiments and control experiments. So, with every cotton swab taken from a crime scene, forensic labs should get one or more "blank" ones to test, without knowing which is which.
They seem to be complaining that Google chooses not to play their music and hence not pay them. How much sense does that make? Are car dealerships going to complain that I'm not buying a new car?
I'd propose that we start posting how video games (especially violent ones, since that's this article's topic) DO affect you. How does virtual violence affect someone.
What makes you think that it affects people at all, at least any more than books, theater, or television?
It seems that most responses to this sort of article are of the form "violent video games have nothing to do with what he did!"
Violent tendencies probably cause an affinity to violent video games. But violent video games probably don't cause violent tendencies.
Look, the whole world culture is becoming more violent when compared to - say - the 1950s.
However, violent crime and violent deaths are actually decreasing.
I think it signals something deeply wrong with our culture, but it's interactivity alone does not single it out as threshold behavior.
Oh, please, get real. Most families used to slaughter animals to eat. There used to be public executions using unimaginably horrific and inhumane ways of killing. A large fraction of young men would go to war and kill and see killing first hand. As for violent stories, just look at the Old Testament: rape, torture, murder, genocide, it's all there.
Our culture is tame both in our experiences and in our actions.
I'm sure there's something bad about golf
I thought it causes lesbianism. I don't mind, but the German police chef might, if he is of the conservative knee-jerk persuasion (which he seems to be).
Actually, the UK did go off the rails. You just aren't that familiar with their history. Just read up on Oliver Cromwell, and maybe read some Irish web sites on what they feel about him.
You compare the fact that the UK had a period 350 years ago when it wasn't democratic to the fascism and systematic extermination of millions of minorities in Germany 70 years ago? I'm sorry, but that's preposterous. All nations have committed crimes against humanity, but WWII and the holocaust remain exceptional in human history.
Assuming that we ourselves cannot become fascists, communists or some other radical party is the surest way to slip down to just that level of madness. The lesson of Germany is that we all have to police ourselves.
I'm assuming no such thing; democracy is always at risk everywhere. But given the recency and severity of Germany's crimes, it is reasonable to subject Germany to special scrutiny and hold it to a higher standard.
Nobody has yet been able to answer successfully what it was about German culture that permitted the holocaust to happen, and nobody knows whether that element of German culture has been eradicated.
I think it is legitimate to single out Germany. Neither the US nor the UK have ever gone off the rails like Germany, so they're doing something right. Furthermore, Germany already has strong restrictions on speech that would be unconstitutional in the US.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_by_country#Germany
Given its history, Germany has a special obligation to avoid fascist tendencies.
People forget a bit too readily that the Nazis didn't come to power in Germany on a platform of genocide, they came to power on a platform of law-and-order, traditional values, and national pride.
History should have taught German police and government to refrain from trying to interfere in free speech and to be very tolerant of speech and content that people might find objectionable. Instead, they are apparently just reverting to their old ways.
When will these people learn that freedom is meaningless if it doesn't include the freedom to make bad choices? When will they learn that democracy is only possible if we accept the risk that our fellow citizens sometimes make bad choices?