---
There once was a site called SlashDot
Where geeks and nerds complained a lot
When life took a toll
They called out "You troll!"
And proceeded to form a boycott
---
There once were some really young nerds
Who claimed to know more than the herds
Their purchase was blocked
But they simply mocked
Saying "You're all a big bunch of turds!"
---
Is this now a site where we can find this attitude consistently?:
"Oh no! God forbid they take away my 11-year-old's right to buy what the industry calls adult content without my knowledge when he still has 7 years before he's a legal adult!"
I'm thinking so. I'm about ready to give up on SlashDot. More comments on DeCSS and Napster articles than cool stuff like new tech and new scientific breakthroughs.
The thing is, I personally think you're falling into that same stupid-hole that you're saying he's in right now.
He was making the point that if you don't install software that was written well, something is going to go wrong. Same effect if you try running applications that weren't designed for the platform.
Ever tried running something that's only for NT in Win9x? It just won't work.
The same is true in *nix. If you run a BSD-compiled binary, chances are it's not going to run very well in Linux or AIX or HP-UX or Irix or whatever you're running.
Software crashes and instability are caused by several things: Code error, hardware problems, system misconfiguration (including permissions errors, incorrect settings, missing files, etc.), end user error, and the occasional exploit (initiated by remote user).
Note: All of these things are prevalent in all operating systems, from the various *nix flavors to MacOS to BeOS to Windows to DOS to PalmOS.
So don't pretend all third-party software is infallible simply because it's not Microsoft. Not all Windows crashes are the fault of poor Windows code.
You sound like one of those people who said "But why would I want to talk to someone 40 miles away?" when the telephone was invented.
You're making an entirely invalid comparison here. There is a drastic difference between long distance communication technology like the telephone and biotech implants. For example, ever wanted to avoid someone? Just get Caller ID and don't pick up the phone. Even though you can turn this particular model of implant off, what happens in the future when all the new babies born get implanted with ones that you can't turn off?
"Oh no!" you say. "That won't happen!" But that's the thing. It will happen. And soon. People will use these devices (probably even using Bluetooth) to pay for things, identify themselves, authenticate to their cars and guns (not that we'll have private gun ownership at that point) and boats and whatever. It could broadcast at 666Mhz and we could even call it the "Six-Six-Six" for fun. It's called the Mark of the Beast, and it's very real. It's also very scary.
I urge you to not let technology take away what's left of your humanity.
If you read the article, you would have noticed that the WinOS is embedded in ROM and then loaded into RAM. Sure, you could switch chips, but why go through the hassle? Would it even be worth it? That's the question.
How many regular Linux users have a dual-boot system so they can play games in Win32? I know several of the/. staff do, as well as many of my friends.
That evidence proves to me that porting Linux to the Xbox would be rather silly. It would be just like any other computer, except with output to NTSC/PAL. Would you want to run console-mode on a TV screen? Not to mention the pain in configuring X to match up with the custom NVidia chips.
As a games box, switching to Linux from the preexisting fully configured Windows setup would be a waste of effort. Sure, you would have novelty, but that's about it.
That really shows our moderators in action... When this comment gets moderated down to a score of 0 and yet this comment is left alone, which is just a guy pointing out an obvious troll/offtopic post. What's the deal? Especially on an article like this review, when the people in power are imposing their ideology on the masses, just as the moderators are forcing their personal opinions down the throats of readers like myself by moderating down posts when they know that most of the users browse at a threshold of 1.
While it's not censoring, it's knowledgable use of power to control the flow of information. They know that they can get away with hiding the posts, so they do it. It's not a question of whether or not the readers have a choice of what threshold to read at (which they do), but more of whether the moderators are intentionally moderating down posts as offtopic or redundant when they might actually be useful or insightful to some people.
When people take the time to write a post, even if it may seem 'redundant' to one moderator, we should respect that and at least let it slide with a score of 1. The example I'm replying to, while not the best post in the world by any means (No offense, legolas), didn't deserve to be moderated down in the fashion that it was.
Go ahead, moderate this post down. I know it's not something that everyone likes to talk about. I know that I'm posting under my real user, and I could care less if this ruins my karma. Slashdot karma doesn't mean one thing in the world that I live in.
Actually, if you want a good text-based windowing system, use screen.
It sets up several different virtual "VT100s" that are easily switched between with a key combination (^A+X, where X is a letter cooresponding to a certain command you wish to use. C is spawn new window, N is switch between, K is kill window, D is detach from VT) and also lets you detach from it and logout, leaving whatever you had running easily accessible.
That right there is a nice feature because you don't have to drop everything into background mode. You could leave a tail -f/var/log/messages open in one window, and have apache pumping status info into another one, and have three or four epic's running in their own windows, even from a telnet or ssh connection.
And it will run under X, even though most people wouldn't do that.:)
I find it quite interesting that despite the article title "Which CGI Language For Which Purpose?", many of the comments I'm reading are all big arguments over which language is easier, which language has better OOP, which has better flexibility, etc.
I think they were looking for more along the lines of "Which language would best be for serving an auction site?" or "Which setup might best serve a bulletin board news system with more than 5k users and 10k hits?"
All I know is that I have been developing web sites for the last 4 years. Recently I got into Perl with the help of a few friends of mine.
The major project I assist now is on an OpenBSD box running Apache without mod_perl. Now, yes, I realize that without mod_perl I'm losing quite a bit of speed, but I have no choice as far as configuration. It's not my box.
Which is another point that I'd like to bring up. Many of the benefits of certain languages are completely dependent on the configuration of the server. A great deal of people have no choice of configuration because they are either too broke (me) or because their management is ignorant, etc.
To conclude, I'd just like to say that for what I use it for, Perl works rather well. It serves my pages reliably, tells me when I've screwed up, and lets me do a lot of things as far as functionality that I didn't think were possible until I tried. I can load pages dynamically using a main layout file, and track hits to each of the sites and track individual users to see what kind of people are viewing the site and where they're visiting from.
For that, the benefits outweigh any side issues that may arise from the flaws in Perl's design.
So before you start posting any highly biased this-language-is-better-than-that-one posts, consider what the point of this Ask Slashdot was and try to find a reasonable answer for the question.
There's a good reason for bias. I rarely see any AC comments that have decent content in them. Why else would someone post anonymously? They don't want people figuring out who they are and chewing them out for saying stupid stuff.
Honestly, even with all the privacy issues and stuff like that, I lose respect for anyone who finds it necessary to post anonymously on a forum like this.
...which is what she had. She was used to old Apples and DOS--single-tasking "operating systems". The reason they were stable and reliable was that they were coded to be stable and reliable... obviously minus customization and the like.
The first operating systems I've seen that come close to what you suggest here are MacOS and possibly even BeOS, depending on how it is configured. But when you add the ability to customize things, you add the ability for bugs. This happens with all new features. By standarizing widgets and controls, a software platform can give programmers a little help.
If only now we could have an extremely reliable, easy-to-use software platform with a small learning curve that had a standarized widget and control scheme but allowed the user to modify these... I'd be impressed.
But you also need to remember that those same people who just want to type and look at web pages are going to be using programs like Netscape 6 that, without even asking the user or anything, automatically use skins and the like.
Believe me, my mom becomes confused when the desktop background is changed on a computer. What happens when, for example, Microsoft starts automatically configuring Windows to display an MSN "news summary" or something in the desktop? If my mom upgrades to that new version of Windows, she would be scared to death of the constantly changing background.
She had a hard time adjusting to Windows 95 even because everything was different from what she was used to (Apple IIe/g's, DOS, Win 3.1). I still have to help her do many things.
So regardless of who wants to use themes, the current trend is to say "Screw it, everyone wants themes" and not care about whether or not the users actually want the change in interface.
I think you read that wrong. It says that you cannot install it within any other operating systems. It even says later on in the FAQ that you can still put it in its own partition.
Why would you want to install it within something unless you can't partition? Windows is not required!
But then again, there is a lot of software available for BeOS, and more coming out each day. With it being available for free now, I'm sure we'll see a lot more coders stepping up and writing up faster/better software for this platform.
Then again, (I hate to compare such a great OS like BeOS to Windows, but..) how many of us who use Windows (grr) go through and remove all those extras?
He meant that with the lovely slashdot effect, the server will be so bogged down that it'll take forever to download the file on a dialup. Whereas normally you might get 5 or 6 k/sec on the download, with this you may only get about 1 or 2.
That's just how the world is. (quietly curses his location in the middle of nowhere)
That was exactly my thought. Even though I'm by no means a math scholar, I don't think there is any practical way to prove this without simply plugging all those numbers in.
My friend Jon wrote a C program the other day that made a list of prime numbers. He's currently past 1,000,000. I'm sure that his program could be modified in some way as to test these numbers. However, I don't think he'd enjoy using his CPU for that.
So it is my conclusion that only a dedicated person with a good calculator or a well-written program will be able to pull this off.
i don't see a problem with software for parents to keep their kids out of porn sites and what not, but i don't think that ISPs need to enforce it on their customers. i also think that many people make too much of a deal over "free speech" and such to a point where the debate becomes very ludicrous in nature.
Domain squatters are the plague of the internet nowadays. Sometimes the media reacts a bit too harshly, but there are enough top-level domains out there to get around the squatters, but many times the squatters use the domain ownership as a means of getting false hits for their banners or what-not.. which is very very lame.
My friend Jon (an op in Undernet #help and a Perl afficianado) wrote up a little perl bot that sits on IRC and responds to text from botnick from registered users and any sentence from unregistered users.
It would then use simple HTTP to post the text and get a response from HeX, which was a bot that participated in the Loebner contest.
Since we are starting a new IRC network, we used this as a way to get the random people who accidentally ended up on our network to talk. Needless to say, the results were quite humorous. We ended up adding a toggle because it would annoy the crap out of us.
Slashdot Mirror
---
There once was a site called SlashDot
Where geeks and nerds complained a lot
When life took a toll
They called out "You troll!"
And proceeded to form a boycott
---
There once were some really young nerds
Who claimed to know more than the herds
Their purchase was blocked
But they simply mocked
Saying "You're all a big bunch of turds!"
---
Is this now a site where we can find this attitude consistently?:
"Oh no! God forbid they take away my 11-year-old's right to buy what the industry calls adult content without my knowledge when he still has 7 years before he's a legal adult!"
I'm thinking so. I'm about ready to give up on SlashDot. More comments on DeCSS and Napster articles than cool stuff like new tech and new scientific breakthroughs.
Pick your battles, folks.
The thing is, I personally think you're falling into that same stupid-hole that you're saying he's in right now.
He was making the point that if you don't install software that was written well, something is going to go wrong. Same effect if you try running applications that weren't designed for the platform.
Ever tried running something that's only for NT in Win9x? It just won't work.
The same is true in *nix. If you run a BSD-compiled binary, chances are it's not going to run very well in Linux or AIX or HP-UX or Irix or whatever you're running.
Software crashes and instability are caused by several things: Code error, hardware problems, system misconfiguration (including permissions errors, incorrect settings, missing files, etc.), end user error, and the occasional exploit (initiated by remote user).
Note: All of these things are prevalent in all operating systems, from the various *nix flavors to MacOS to BeOS to Windows to DOS to PalmOS.
So don't pretend all third-party software is infallible simply because it's not Microsoft. Not all Windows crashes are the fault of poor Windows code.
You sound like one of those people who said "But why would I want to talk to someone 40 miles away?" when the telephone was invented.
You're making an entirely invalid comparison here. There is a drastic difference between long distance communication technology like the telephone and biotech implants. For example, ever wanted to avoid someone? Just get Caller ID and don't pick up the phone. Even though you can turn this particular model of implant off, what happens in the future when all the new babies born get implanted with ones that you can't turn off?
"Oh no!" you say. "That won't happen!" But that's the thing. It will happen. And soon. People will use these devices (probably even using Bluetooth) to pay for things, identify themselves, authenticate to their cars and guns (not that we'll have private gun ownership at that point) and boats and whatever. It could broadcast at 666Mhz and we could even call it the "Six-Six-Six" for fun. It's called the Mark of the Beast, and it's very real. It's also very scary.
I urge you to not let technology take away what's left of your humanity.
If you read the article, you would have noticed that the WinOS is embedded in ROM and then loaded into RAM. Sure, you could switch chips, but why go through the hassle? Would it even be worth it? That's the question.
How many regular Linux users have a dual-boot system so they can play games in Win32? I know several of the /. staff do, as well as many of my friends.
That evidence proves to me that porting Linux to the Xbox would be rather silly. It would be just like any other computer, except with output to NTSC/PAL. Would you want to run console-mode on a TV screen? Not to mention the pain in configuring X to match up with the custom NVidia chips.
As a games box, switching to Linux from the preexisting fully configured Windows setup would be a waste of effort. Sure, you would have novelty, but that's about it.
While it's not censoring, it's knowledgable use of power to control the flow of information. They know that they can get away with hiding the posts, so they do it. It's not a question of whether or not the readers have a choice of what threshold to read at (which they do), but more of whether the moderators are intentionally moderating down posts as offtopic or redundant when they might actually be useful or insightful to some people.
When people take the time to write a post, even if it may seem 'redundant' to one moderator, we should respect that and at least let it slide with a score of 1. The example I'm replying to, while not the best post in the world by any means (No offense, legolas), didn't deserve to be moderated down in the fashion that it was.
Go ahead, moderate this post down. I know it's not something that everyone likes to talk about. I know that I'm posting under my real user, and I could care less if this ruins my karma. Slashdot karma doesn't mean one thing in the world that I live in.
ftp://ftp.uni-er langen.de/pub/utilities/screen/screen-3.9.5.tar.gz
Actually, if you want a good text-based windowing system, use screen.
It sets up several different virtual "VT100s" that are easily switched between with a key combination (^A+X, where X is a letter cooresponding to a certain command you wish to use. C is spawn new window, N is switch between, K is kill window, D is detach from VT) and also lets you detach from it and logout, leaving whatever you had running easily accessible.
That right there is a nice feature because you don't have to drop everything into background mode. You could leave a tail -f /var/log/messages open in one window, and have apache pumping status info into another one, and have three or four epic's running in their own windows, even from a telnet or ssh connection.
And it will run under X, even though most people wouldn't do that. :)
I find it quite interesting that despite the article title "Which CGI Language For Which Purpose?", many of the comments I'm reading are all big arguments over which language is easier, which language has better OOP, which has better flexibility, etc.
I think they were looking for more along the lines of "Which language would best be for serving an auction site?" or "Which setup might best serve a bulletin board news system with more than 5k users and 10k hits?"
All I know is that I have been developing web sites for the last 4 years. Recently I got into Perl with the help of a few friends of mine.
The major project I assist now is on an OpenBSD box running Apache without mod_perl. Now, yes, I realize that without mod_perl I'm losing quite a bit of speed, but I have no choice as far as configuration. It's not my box.
Which is another point that I'd like to bring up. Many of the benefits of certain languages are completely dependent on the configuration of the server. A great deal of people have no choice of configuration because they are either too broke (me) or because their management is ignorant, etc.
To conclude, I'd just like to say that for what I use it for, Perl works rather well. It serves my pages reliably, tells me when I've screwed up, and lets me do a lot of things as far as functionality that I didn't think were possible until I tried. I can load pages dynamically using a main layout file, and track hits to each of the sites and track individual users to see what kind of people are viewing the site and where they're visiting from.
For that, the benefits outweigh any side issues that may arise from the flaws in Perl's design.
So before you start posting any highly biased this-language-is-better-than-that-one posts, consider what the point of this Ask Slashdot was and try to find a reasonable answer for the question.
And people who don't spell things correctly because they're too lazy to preview their comment are even worse.
Not to mention the fact that AC just doesn't do much for your image.
There's a good reason for bias. I rarely see any AC comments that have decent content in them. Why else would someone post anonymously? They don't want people figuring out who they are and chewing them out for saying stupid stuff.
Honestly, even with all the privacy issues and stuff like that, I lose respect for anyone who finds it necessary to post anonymously on a forum like this.
The first operating systems I've seen that come close to what you suggest here are MacOS and possibly even BeOS, depending on how it is configured. But when you add the ability to customize things, you add the ability for bugs. This happens with all new features. By standarizing widgets and controls, a software platform can give programmers a little help.
If only now we could have an extremely reliable, easy-to-use software platform with a small learning curve that had a standarized widget and control scheme but allowed the user to modify these... I'd be impressed.
But you also need to remember that those same people who just want to type and look at web pages are going to be using programs like Netscape 6 that, without even asking the user or anything, automatically use skins and the like.
Believe me, my mom becomes confused when the desktop background is changed on a computer. What happens when, for example, Microsoft starts automatically configuring Windows to display an MSN "news summary" or something in the desktop? If my mom upgrades to that new version of Windows, she would be scared to death of the constantly changing background.
She had a hard time adjusting to Windows 95 even because everything was different from what she was used to (Apple IIe/g's, DOS, Win 3.1). I still have to help her do many things.
So regardless of who wants to use themes, the current trend is to say "Screw it, everyone wants themes" and not care about whether or not the users actually want the change in interface.
I think you read that wrong. It says that you cannot install it within any other operating systems. It even says later on in the FAQ that you can still put it in its own partition.
Why would you want to install it within something unless you can't partition?
Windows is not required!
But then again, there is a lot of software available for BeOS, and more coming out each day. With it being available for free now, I'm sure we'll see a lot more coders stepping up and writing up faster/better software for this platform.
Then again, (I hate to compare such a great OS like BeOS to Windows, but..) how many of us who use Windows (grr) go through and remove all those extras?
I know I do. I like software choice, personally.
He meant that with the lovely slashdot effect, the server will be so bogged down that it'll take forever to download the file on a dialup. Whereas normally you might get 5 or 6 k/sec on the download, with this you may only get about 1 or 2.
That's just how the world is. (quietly curses his location in the middle of nowhere)
Aah. Thank you. I had this nice feeling that I was incorrect. :)
Plus, it's been a while for me anyways. Maybe I'll learn some more of this stuff this summer. I'm taking Number Theory *grin*.
That means that -1 is a prime number. It is divisible by 1 and itself. 1 * -1 = -1. I've never seen it listed as such, but by all technicality it is.
That was exactly my thought. Even though I'm by no means a math scholar, I don't think there is any practical way to prove this without simply plugging all those numbers in.
My friend Jon wrote a C program the other day that made a list of prime numbers. He's currently past 1,000,000. I'm sure that his program could be modified in some way as to test these numbers. However, I don't think he'd enjoy using his CPU for that.
So it is my conclusion that only a dedicated person with a good calculator or a well-written program will be able to pull this off.
Count me out.
Domain squatters are the plague of the internet nowadays. Sometimes the media reacts a bit too harshly, but there are enough top-level domains out there to get around the squatters, but many times the squatters use the domain ownership as a means of getting false hits for their banners or what-not.. which is very very lame.
My friend Jon (an op in Undernet #help and a Perl afficianado) wrote up a little perl bot that sits on IRC and responds to text from botnick from registered users and any sentence from unregistered users.
It would then use simple HTTP to post the text and get a response from HeX, which was a bot that participated in the Loebner contest.
Since we are starting a new IRC network, we used this as a way to get the random people who accidentally ended up on our network to talk. Needless to say, the results were quite humorous. We ended up adding a toggle because it would annoy the crap out of us.