My KDE taskbar does exactly what the patent describes...
When I have only three or four Eterms open, they're buttoned separately, when I have a dozen, they're collapsed into the same button, with a dropdown for individual access.
All right, I remember Not The Nine O'Clock News spoofs of Space Invaders competitions, and we even had an original table model in the office a couple of years back, but what's the Death Row Execution Method?
but the scary part is that Linux users are generally frm the top 1/3 of the IQ pool.
And out of that 1/3, fully 50% of them are below average.
I would like to believe that you are correct about the population of Linux developers, in a sort of self-reinforcing manner only the best/most appropriate patches will be accepted to a project anyway. But if a Linux distribution is to become ubiquitous, then we really hope that the user population becomes much more encompassing.
So, if you want Linux distributions to "win" and beat Micro$oft, then you must stop being superior about Linux users...:-)
RMS famously describes the laser printer episode as a genesis of the Free Software philosophy...
But before this happened, I had an experience that prepared me, helped me
see what to do, helped prepare me to see what to do when this happened,
because at certain point, Xerox gave the artificial intelligence lab,
where I worked, a laser printer, and this was a really handsome gift,
because it was the first time anybody outside Xerox had a laser printer.
It was very fast, printed a page a second, very fine in many respects, but
it was unreliable, because it was really a high-speed office copier that
had been modified into a printer. And you know, copiers jam, but there's
somebody there to fix them. The printer jammed and nobody saw. So it
stayed jammed for a long time.
Well, we had an idea for how to deal with this problem. Change it so that
whenever the printer gets a jam, the machine that runs the printer can tell
our timesharing machine, and tell the users who are waiting for
printouts, or something like that, you know, tell them, go fix the
printer. Because if they only knew it was jammed, of course, if you're
waiting for a printout, and you know that the printer is jammed, you
don't want to sit and wait forever, you're going to go fix it.
But, at that point, we were completely stymied, because the software
that ran that printer was not free software -- it had come with the
printer, and it was just a binary. We couldn't have the source code --
Xerox wouldn't let us have the source code. So, despite our skill as
programmers -- after all, we had written our own timesharing system
-- we were completely helpless to add this feature to the printer
software.
But later on, he considers some exceptions to FS...
And the issue doesn't really arise for software that goes in a watch or a
microwave oven, or an automobile ignition system. Because those are
places where you don't download software to install. It's not a real
computer, as far as the user is concerned. And so, it doesn't raise these
issues enough for them to be ethically important.
Now, these excepted examples sound precisely the analogue of the printer episode that started everything off in the first place...
While it's tempting to think that as windows PCs are pervasive, it is Win/PCs that need to support IPv6, there are other strategies available.
Each ISP could fit its entire dialup range of IPv4 addresses within a properly assigned IPv6 space, and utilise a NAT facility at the router or firewall level to remap addresses.
In this way, we could transform the entire backbone into IPv6, and allow each ISP to offer a much increased range of IPv4 addresses to subscribers.
Then, we can leave all those 'stable' OSs alone to continue supporting IPv4, which lets face it, works fine at the moment. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Stephen King's revenue experiment only works because of the immediacy of his marketing.
There is so much good stuff out there, that I often don't find out about it until (e.g. in the case of good authors) a few years after it comes out.
What would have happened if, say, Neal Stephenson had published Zodiac under Stephen King's model? How many of us were actually aware of him in 1995? How about in 1993? (Snow Crash)? I bought both of those books in '99 after reading The Diamond Age... If he'd used Stephen King's method (pay $x or I can't write the rest of the story) how long should he have waited before reaching $x? Surely not 4 years?
People with no real resources to persue their goals have to compromise somewhere, and publishers do offer that opportunity...
Ob./. - I haven't linked the author/book references. I would have linked to Amazon URLs, except I don't believe/. is too keen on Amazon, and the other e-bookshops that I know are either UK only, down, or really, really slow.
My children won't axiomatically know more about technology than I will, but they will be much more comfortable with the current expression of that technology, because they won't be comparing it with anything else.
People who have stopped learning are the people that say "kids are so clever". Kids are not clever. I have not yet met a "kid" who was clever as regards computing/technology. On the other hand, I've met loads of kids who are enthuiastic and undaunted by initial failure. Perhaps that is because they don't appreciate the consequences. Anyway, they don't let the problem beat them, and they eventually find a solution - whereas many many "adults" just give up.
So perhaps instead of seeing a fundamental shift in favour of youth, we are simply seeing a function of the take-up of new technologies. How many Industrial Revolution adults managed to make sense of their new tasks? How many "kids" were unfased by it all?
The assertation that around 10% of the "web" is disconnected is interesting. Just how can the existance of a disconnected page be inferred? And as has been pointed out, what about password-controlled areas and dynamic content? However, leaving that problem aside for the moment...
I'm sure that within these "Dark Matter" pages you would find a large number of "unsavoury activities" being carried out. Perhaps it would be valuable for an ISP to consider scanning web server assets (HTML, etc) to determine how much of it is unlinked - and to make a ToS/AUP that bars sites with too high a Dark Matter percentage. Especially if the server logs show traffic hitting the dark pages. Prime indication that something "non-connected" is going on - which if it isn't outright illegal is probably at least non-PC, webwise.
I just keep thinking of how cool it would be if suddenly MS Applications corp decided that it was in their financial interest to port to {Linux,BeOS,etc}
Almost the only thing within my organisation that keeps us on a (mainly) Windows OS platform is the availability of MS Office suite - which is pretty much the de-facto data exchange method for our customers
Star Office is a good start, but in the eyes of my users, not yet a replacement for MSOffice. Too much of an interface learning curve in an already busy place of work. (This is, of course, how MS keep going - they have never overestimated users:-)
If Microsoft (Apps) Corp was to produce a Linux version (port or native) of MS Office I for one would be pushing to get it on-line here. The alternatives would still be there, and would get better in the face of more competition. The TCO for a Linux desktop is usually "one good hacker" as opposed to MS OS, where is is "a handful of mediocre hackers, plus a big support contract, plus at least one almost mandatory product version upgrade every year"
Please don't confuse "I hate M$" with "I hate M$s monopoly on the interaction between good products and an OS that sucks". IMHO, naturally...
Just think, the coder who did w3history.org spent a lot of time writing a Javascript browser identification routine that tries really hard to spot my Opera browser, yet ends up denying me access to the site, telling me that they will add support for me "soon".
And all I needed was frame and Javascript support:-)
I guess simple HTML compliancy is a little passé these days.
Shouldn't there be a system with Network Solutions (who are generally very keen on blocking sites when controversy strikes) to de-register cool domain names when operated by the clueless?
Slashdot Mirror
Compare the speed cost of loading a "generic" binary to an "optimised" one, multiply by the number of times you load that binary.
Then look at the time required to compile the optimised copy.
How often, in the lifetime of a particular version of a binary, do you really need to reload it?
The promise of distcc is closely related to source distributions like Gentoo. The benefit is overstated. Don't waste your time.
My KDE taskbar does exactly what the patent describes ...
When I have only three or four Eterms open, they're buttoned separately, when I have a dozen, they're collapsed into the same button, with a dropdown for individual access.
All right, I remember Not The Nine O'Clock News spoofs of Space Invaders competitions, and we even had an original table model in the office a couple of years back, but what's the Death Row Execution Method?
"The red sun rises - blood has been spilled this night."
but the scary part is that Linux users are generally frm the top 1/3 of the IQ pool.
And out of that 1/3, fully 50% of them are below average.
I would like to believe that you are correct about the population of Linux developers, in a sort of self-reinforcing manner only the best /most appropriate patches will be accepted to a project anyway. But if a Linux distribution is to become ubiquitous, then we really hope that the user population becomes much more encompassing.
So, if you want Linux distributions to "win" and beat Micro$oft, then you must stop being superior about Linux users ... :-)
RMS famously describes the laser printer episode as a genesis of the Free Software philosophy ...
But later on, he considers some exceptions to FS ...
Now, these excepted examples sound precisely the analogue of the printer episode that started everything off in the first place ...
While it's tempting to think that as windows PCs are pervasive, it is Win/PCs that need to support IPv6, there are other strategies available.
Each ISP could fit its entire dialup range of IPv4 addresses within a properly assigned IPv6 space, and utilise a NAT facility at the router or firewall level to remap addresses.
In this way, we could transform the entire backbone into IPv6, and allow each ISP to offer a much increased range of IPv4 addresses to subscribers.
Then, we can leave all those 'stable' OSs alone to continue supporting IPv4, which lets face it, works fine at the moment. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
There is so much good stuff out there, that I often don't find out about it until (e.g. in the case of good authors) a few years after it comes out.
What would have happened if, say, Neal Stephenson had published Zodiac under Stephen King's model? How many of us were actually aware of him in 1995? How about in 1993? (Snow Crash)? I bought both of those books in '99 after reading The Diamond Age ... If he'd used Stephen King's method (pay $x or I can't write the rest of the story) how long should he have waited before reaching $x? Surely not 4 years?
People with no real resources to persue their goals have to compromise somewhere, and publishers do offer that opportunity ...
Ob. /. - I haven't linked the author/book references. I would have linked to Amazon URLs, except I don't believe /. is too keen on Amazon, and the other e-bookshops that I know are either UK only, down, or really, really slow.
The service is sponsored by Definite Linux, a UK Linux distribution.
My children won't axiomatically know more about technology than I will, but they will be much more comfortable with the current expression of that technology, because they won't be comparing it with anything else.
People who have stopped learning are the people that say "kids are so clever". Kids are not clever. I have not yet met a "kid" who was clever as regards computing/technology. On the other hand, I've met loads of kids who are enthuiastic and undaunted by initial failure. Perhaps that is because they don't appreciate the consequences. Anyway, they don't let the problem beat them, and they eventually find a solution - whereas many many "adults" just give up.
So perhaps instead of seeing a fundamental shift in favour of youth, we are simply seeing a function of the take-up of new technologies. How many Industrial Revolution adults managed to make sense of their new tasks? How many "kids" were unfased by it all?
I'm sure that within these "Dark Matter" pages you would find a large number of "unsavoury activities" being carried out. Perhaps it would be valuable for an ISP to consider scanning web server assets (HTML, etc) to determine how much of it is unlinked - and to make a ToS/AUP that bars sites with too high a Dark Matter percentage. Especially if the server logs show traffic hitting the dark pages. Prime indication that something "non-connected" is going on - which if it isn't outright illegal is probably at least non-PC, webwise.
Almost the only thing within my organisation that keeps us on a (mainly) Windows OS platform is the availability of MS Office suite - which is pretty much the de-facto data exchange method for our customers
Star Office is a good start, but in the eyes of my users, not yet a replacement for MSOffice. Too much of an interface learning curve in an already busy place of work. (This is, of course, how MS keep going - they have never overestimated users :-)
If Microsoft (Apps) Corp was to produce a Linux version (port or native) of MS Office I for one would be pushing to get it on-line here. The alternatives would still be there, and would get better in the face of more competition. The TCO for a Linux desktop is usually "one good hacker" as opposed to MS OS, where is is "a handful of mediocre hackers, plus a big support contract, plus at least one almost mandatory product version upgrade every year"
Please don't confuse "I hate M$" with "I hate M$s monopoly on the interaction between good products and an OS that sucks". IMHO, naturally ...
And all I needed was frame and Javascript support :-)
I guess simple HTML compliancy is a little passé these days.
Shouldn't there be a system with Network Solutions (who are generally very keen on blocking sites when controversy strikes) to de-register cool domain names when operated by the clueless?
(Oh, oh, oh ... was that end-of-year sarcasm? :-)