Huge, mutant doomsday bugs will destroy us all
on
Gene Leakage
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· Score: 1
If we make plants immune to bugs, we'll just end up with bugs that eat plants that are immune to regular bugs.
You're ignoring the more hideous outcome. If we take away the insect's food source, they will turn on us!
Armies of huge, mutant arthropods preying on our women and children! Swarms of locusts and dragonflies as big as cows, swooping down on us with their child-eating mandibles!
Clearly, genetically engineered plants will only lead us to a life of slavery, ruled by a dominant race of insect-beings that we helped create.
I'm much more inclined to purchase a technical book after its value has been demonstrated
I sometimes do it the old fashioned way. Go down to the book store, flip through the book, see if it covers what I care about in a depth that makes it useful.
Also, I have to say that the reader reviews on Amazon often help when I'm trying to pick the right book.
If there's a downside, it's not immediately apparent.
Implicitly portable drivers can only be good for the consumer. If hardware manufacturers choose (correctly) to free their drivers then the consumer's realm of bootable OSes is broadened.
One of the excellent points made in "In The Beginning Was The Command Line" was that hardware manufactures will always write drivers for the Windows family of products. Microsoft doesn't have to lift a finger. Linux relies on volunteers to reverse engineer new devices. Be must hire people to do write drivers in-house.
How would the landscape change if every "alternative" OS was on equal footing with Microsoft in this respect?
I just sent mail to legalteam and sourcecodevoluneers to let them know they don't meet the requirements of an Open Source license. We'll see what they say.
How did he figure that stuff out?! There must be a security hole in Linux since his web server is running Linux! I'm going to make sure not to go to any more Linux web servers until this security hole get patched!!
It's a rare day when I'm carrying all at once:) but the point is, I would pay dearly to have a single device that did all those things.
Seems that a general purpose OS like Linux plus some highly specialized drivers to interface with the GPS, cell phone and pager units would do the trick.
What other devices/capabilities need unifying in this way?
Not to be rude, but TJ receives a lot of money that other schools don't get to see. Lots of tech companies in the Northern VA area dump money and equipment in there. I'm not saying it's good or bad, but it's undeniably true.
They may get the same amount from the state as other schools, but that doesn't mean they're working with the same budget.
The scary thing is that according to some authoratitive survey FCPS was ranked the 2nd best school system in the country. I don't know what factors were weighted how, but I do remember reading about this study.
It's really sad. Looking back on the state of West Potomac and some other schools near my old neighborhoods, it's flat-out depressing to think this is the best the United States has to offer.
Re: other magenet schools... I went to UIUC and I know Illinois had a TJ-esque boarding school for smart kids in grades 9-12. The problem with them is that they breed a sort of elitist culture. People like you, who may have been qualified, but weren't accepted (or didn't apply) end up with less opportunities than the kids who get in. Ugly.
Andrew Bunner and Haley Fiske were the culpable ones. With a little help from Adam Crock (we used his amp), Eric Leidman (he got us into the dark room) and a few others.
Apparently, the signal wasn't strong enough to reach the entire school, but enough people heard it to get Haley and I suspended for a couple days.
We were originally going to play "The Vice-Principal's Big Day" but eventually decided against it:)
Re: TJ and Linux... Taylor Beam et al in the systems lab were early fanatics as I recall. I was a Mac guy in those days.
I don't know about us rocking, but it's true that a lot of smart people come out of there. There always neat projects coming out of the senior tech labs.
Incidentally, since you were in my class, did you get to hear the "severe beating" senior prank on the PA?
If at this time next year they still have the same strategy, they haven't pulled the rug out from anyone and Mac OS X turns out to be Good... THEN I'll give Apple props for taking a step in the right direction.
I've seen too many about-faces from Cupertino... reserving judgement for next year's WWDC.
I'm less convinced that Be needs to go open source to live up to its potential. There may be some middle ground between Open Source(tm) and totally closed propriatary-ness that works better for companies that are built to sell software.
Finally, what OS is this guy working on? Something for embedded systems I wonder? I would think we would've heard of it otherwise... curious
>Be, (like Microsoft, Apple, etc.) says they will >never open source their OS. They don't need >reasons to screw their users; it's just a >mindset.
I don't think Be is out to screw users. Their plan is to make a really good, modern OS.
After reading a lot of well thought-out comments, I'm willing to concede this point:
A big part of the reason why the BeOS has some of the clearest, most consistent and elegant APIs is because these APIs were developed in the cathedral, not the bazaar.
I still think there's a lot to be gained by letting other people fix your bugs and implement your features, but I'm not sure if the official Open Source(tm) system would work for Be.
I summarized the sentiments that are being voiced here and wrote a respectful email to press@be.com asking if they would consider making an official response to the question "Why is the BeOS closed source?"
I really think they're a good company. They just don't yet understand why Open Source will ultimately be a Profitable Thing.
At any rate, we can hope for an "official company line" on Monday.
After the "I think they're porting Office to Linux" article, I'm inclined to view any Microsoft speculation from ZD with a lot of skepticism.
Rumor is false says employee in Office group
on
MS Office for Linux
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· Score: 1
I got the skinny from a friend of mine in Redmond. Well he did say 'Microsoft is a big company, it might be going on somewhere' he also said it was pretty bloodly unlikely.
If there was a serious effort, it would've gotten around to the people working on the Windows version of Office 2000... and it hasn't.
His offered the same theory that's been posted here several times. i.e. Microsoft marketing plans to 'attempt' a port and then announce "Linux is too immature, it won't work."
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If we make plants immune to bugs, we'll just end up with bugs that eat plants that are immune to regular bugs.
:P
You're ignoring the more hideous outcome. If we take away the insect's food source, they will turn on us!
Armies of huge, mutant arthropods preying on our women and children! Swarms of locusts and dragonflies as big as cows, swooping down on us with their child-eating mandibles!
Clearly, genetically engineered plants will only lead us to a life of slavery, ruled by a dominant race of insect-beings that we helped create.
I'm surprised no one else picked up on this.
... and include Linux and Mac support.
I'd rather see them just release the specs on how to communicate with the device. This is an itch geeks can't help but scratch.
I'm much more inclined to purchase a technical book after its value has been demonstrated
I sometimes do it the old fashioned way. Go down to the book store, flip through the book, see if it covers what I care about in a depth that makes it useful.
Also, I have to say that the reader reviews on Amazon often help when I'm trying to pick the right book.
Oh well, I guess I'll have to stick to magnetic media for now.
Um. These drives are magnetic media.
If there's a downside, it's not immediately apparent.
Implicitly portable drivers can only be good for the consumer. If hardware manufacturers choose (correctly) to free their drivers then the consumer's realm of bootable OSes is broadened.
One of the excellent points made in "In The Beginning Was The Command Line" was that hardware manufactures will always write drivers for the Windows family of products. Microsoft doesn't have to lift a finger. Linux relies on volunteers to reverse engineer new devices. Be must hire people to do write drivers in-house.
How would the landscape change if every "alternative" OS was on equal footing with Microsoft in this respect?
I just sent mail to legalteam and sourcecodevoluneers to let them know they don't meet the requirements of an Open Source license. We'll see what they say.
Open Source isn't a buzz-phrase.
He's right about the compiler being hard, but I'm sure Intel realized this when they decided to go the VLIW route.
How did he figure that stuff out?! There must be a security hole in Linux since his web server is running Linux! I'm going to make sure not to go to any more Linux web servers until this security hole get patched!!
;)
pager, etc.
:) but the point is, I would pay dearly to have a single device that did all those things.
It's a rare day when I'm carrying all at once
Seems that a general purpose OS like Linux plus some highly specialized drivers to interface with the GPS, cell phone and pager units would do the trick.
What other devices/capabilities need unifying in this way?
I for one sent emails to the effect of "You are wrong and here's why". That's the sort of thing that tells them they're making a mistake.
Sending threats makes us no better than them.
But then, what do we do for the middle mouse button :-)
Not to be rude, but TJ receives a lot of money that other schools don't get to see. Lots of tech companies in the Northern VA area dump money and equipment in there. I'm not saying it's good or bad, but it's undeniably true.
They may get the same amount from the state as other schools, but that doesn't mean they're working with the same budget.
Will-
The scary thing is that according to some authoratitive survey FCPS was ranked the 2nd best school system in the country. I don't know what factors were weighted how, but I do remember reading about this study.
It's really sad. Looking back on the state of West Potomac and some other schools near my old neighborhoods, it's flat-out depressing to think this is the best the United States has to offer.
Re: other magenet schools... I went to UIUC and I know Illinois had a TJ-esque boarding school for smart kids in grades 9-12. The problem with them is that they breed a sort of elitist culture. People like you, who may have been qualified, but weren't accepted (or didn't apply) end up with less opportunities than the kids who get in. Ugly.
Andrew Bunner and Haley Fiske were the culpable ones. With a little help from Adam Crock (we used his amp), Eric Leidman (he got us into the dark room) and a few others.
:)
... Taylor Beam et al in the systems lab were early fanatics as I recall. I was a Mac guy in those days.
Apparently, the signal wasn't strong enough to reach the entire school, but enough people heard it to get Haley and I suspended for a couple days.
We were originally going to play "The Vice-Principal's Big Day" but eventually decided against it
Re: TJ and Linux
Uh...
I don't know about us rocking, but it's true that a lot of smart people come out of there. There always neat projects coming out of the senior tech labs.
Incidentally, since you were in my class, did you get to hear the "severe beating" senior prank on the PA?
I had to laugh out loud while reading the babelfish version. An amazing technology, for sure, but translation agents have a ways to go.
I just don't like clicking on the "Later" button everytime I want to watch a Quicktime movie.
The only stumbling block I can see right now is the potential that MS would wake up and release their source code with an even more liberal license
Who wants to dive into the mess? It would help the WINE effort more than anything.
I don't hear developers chomping at the bit to get their hands dirty in Microsoft's code.
If at this time next year they still have the same strategy, they haven't pulled the rug out from anyone and Mac OS X turns out to be Good... THEN I'll give Apple props for taking a step in the right direction.
I've seen too many about-faces from Cupertino... reserving judgement for next year's WWDC.
Well, that about covers it!
Here, here. Well put.
I'm less convinced that Be needs to go open source to live up to its potential. There may be some middle ground between Open Source(tm) and totally closed propriatary-ness that works better for companies that are built to sell software.
Finally, what OS is this guy working on? Something for embedded systems I wonder? I would think we would've heard of it otherwise... curious
>Be, (like Microsoft, Apple, etc.) says they will
>never open source their OS. They don't need
>reasons to screw their users; it's just a
>mindset.
I don't think Be is out to screw users. Their plan is to make a really good, modern OS.
After reading a lot of well thought-out comments, I'm willing to concede this point:
A big part of the reason why the BeOS has some of the clearest, most consistent and elegant APIs is because these APIs were developed in the cathedral, not the bazaar.
I still think there's a lot to be gained by letting other people fix your bugs and implement your features, but I'm not sure if the official Open Source(tm) system would work for Be.
Hello all...
I summarized the sentiments that are being voiced here and wrote a respectful email to press@be.com asking if they would consider making an official response to the question "Why is the BeOS closed source?"
I really think they're a good company. They just don't yet understand why Open Source will ultimately be a Profitable Thing.
At any rate, we can hope for an "official company line" on Monday.
After the "I think they're porting Office to Linux" article, I'm inclined to view any Microsoft speculation from ZD with a lot of skepticism.
I got the skinny from a friend of mine in Redmond. Well he did say 'Microsoft is a big company, it might be going on somewhere' he also said it was pretty bloodly unlikely.
If there was a serious effort, it would've gotten around to the people working on the Windows version of Office 2000... and it hasn't.
His offered the same theory that's been posted here several times. i.e. Microsoft marketing plans to 'attempt' a port and then announce "Linux is too immature, it won't work."