You're confusing two things, one is longevity, the other is redundancy.
The library at Alexandria was unique throughout the world; no matter what medium was used to store the data, if the container is destroyed (with significant prejudice, in this instance), the data will be lost.
The issue here was that the hardware was specific, expensive, and tied to a platform that died. Suddenly people realised they couldn't get to the data any more.
Sure, the project has little bearing on your life or mine, but it's still indicative of the difference between the storage mechanisms. Most history is considered pretty useless when it's recent (unless there's something dramatic happening: war, new peace, etc.). Only when it's old do we value it.
There was a British TV comedy about the manipulation of government by the civil service (and vice versa, sometimes:-) called 'Yes Minister', and 'Yes Prime Minister'. One of the favourite tactics of "Sir Humphrey" (civil service mandarin) is to deluge the minister with reams of information, to make it completely impossible to make a decision by a given deadline.
It strikes me that when a patent is 160,000 pages long, someone is trying the same tactic. Perhaps there ought to be a limit on the size of patent applications. After all, if it is sufficiently revolutionary to be awarded protection from its possible competition, it ought to be easily stated and understood. Let anything else just compete.
I suspect some would lose out, but I also think the patent system overall would win. The original patent applications were on a single sheet of paper....
The RM nimbus was the most popular computer in education at the time in the UK.
The IBM PC was nowhere to be seen, the Amiga was a dream in some designers head, the Mac hadn't been released over here. It's not the disk-designers fault that the best solutions at the time later failed to make a mark... As for BCPL, it was the precursor to 'C' (you've heard of 'C', I take it?)
So, basically, learn some history before you post complete crap.
I think the best example is probably the domesday book and the domesday project.
A thousand years ago (more or less) the Domesday book recorded a snapshot of life in England (and Wales I think,but I think the scots gave'em the finger:-), it's still available today.
20 (or so) years ago, the domesday project did the same thing - recorded to a laserdisk, and intended to be a resource of all things at that time. For the time, it was pretty fantastic - schools up and down the country took part, videos were made, maps, testaments from people of all walks of life.
There is now a project to try and resurrect the domesday project, because no technology available can read it. The book (though written in latin) is still perfectly legible. Which is the better technology ?
Paper every time, apart from when you're searching:-)
"Google's foes have a much firmer hold on customers", argued some bloke who wrote a book about Google, so is an immediate expert.
Perhaps. But Google has a much firmer hold on the search technology, and at least in this market, the technology is important. Google as a business need to sort out its stuff (perhaps, we don't really know), but I'd guess that the vast majority of the planet who use search engines, use google, and that can't be bad...
Simon.
Re:To me, "ISP" is much more narrower.
on
Who Is An ISP?
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· Score: 1
"although I guess I fall under the auspice of "Internet Service Provider" - the typical image is either a dial-up merchant, or someone like Colt/BT/Level3/(insert huge company here)"
The point I was making is that the usual definition of ISPs include legions of modem-users and/or enormous companies, not the 5-man-band that I work within.
Simon.
Count me in then
on
Who Is An ISP?
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Definitely covers me - I have a co-located server with clients websites running on it. I rent all my bandwidth though - would never really have thought of myself as an ISP, although I guess I fall under the auspice of "Internet Service Provider" - the typical image is either a dial-up merchant, or someone like Colt/BT/Level3/(insert huge company here)
is that this is news. Ok, it's not a vanilla BSD, but it is based on BSD, which has a fantastic record on security. What will be interesting to find out is where the bug came from - Apple or some third party...
I'm pretty sure it was Apple that could boast of no exploits against them (this was OS9 days). Sad to see that go, if it's true. Any unix-os is a friend of mine:-)
... which I can see being great for the phone. Does it interfere with the WiFi network as well ? If A interferes with B, shouldn't you expect (B) to interfere with A...
"Excuse me Mr. Jones, could you move to the other side of the room please, you're corrupting the network"...
Not in England, dunno about elsewhere. It roots back to empire days when the language of the court was considered too flowery by the common man. Plenty of references in old literature.
... of having a company strategy of "sue highly-visible companies" is that highly-visible companies are often deep-pocketed companies far larger than yourself...
I for one would just love Google to remove all references to SCO from their search engine. Unfortunately I think they're above that:-( I guess SCO may have some sort of a case in the USA for that as well, though IANAL.
Simon
Re:Still Not Real Clear on Design Patterns...
on
J2EE Design Patterns
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· Score: 3, Informative
Pretty much. For example, the 'Singleton' pattern is where you may have a single resource you want to share between multiple objects, without making a copy of the interface to that resource. Typical behaviour is to have a static getInstance() method which checks to see if a static object already exists and returns that instead of a new object. The contructor is usually kept private/protected to enforce the pattern.
The first time you read a "patterns" book, you'll sit thinking "but that's obviously how you do it". The advantage is that the pattern books generally spell out *why* it's the best solution, and you can then apply that knowledge in other situations.
Personally, I found 'Design patterns' hard reading. The concepts weren't hard, but the prose was painful. 'Patterns in Java' (not to recommend it too much - I mentioned it in another post as well:-) is far more readable, but there's a lot of crossover.
though not J2EE (only "standard" Java) is 'Patterns in Java', coming in a few volumes, though I rate the first one highest, the other two get increasingly abstract/uncommon. When does a pattern become an occurrence...
The cable companies (well, NTL anyway:-) seem to have had problems. I just set up squid on my colocated server at Level-3 and never noticed anything more. Is it still ongoing ?
Given the underlying reason why google is a good search engine (leveraging the popularity of the site by others), I don't want "my" search engine to be fooled into giving me commercially-orientated results.
If Google has re-organised the page-ranking system to cut out the link-merchants, I give it an unreserved thumbs up:-)
This is about the *existing* RHEL users keeping the product...
I suspect a fair few RH9 people (like me) are now evaluating their options. There are several distributions out there that the non-enterprise peeps can take a stab at before they decide to fork out for the RHEL edition.
There are a couple of advantages that RH offer - they are the de-facto standard, so if you use qualified software from a supplier, chances are it'll be qualified on RH, not debian...
They also offer support, and I've had to use it when installing on troublesome motherboards, but once something is installed, I'm reasonably ok on my own, so this isn't such a big deal for me...
The business imperatives to stay with RH are significantly less than with MS, so I would say 90% is a good figure, despite MS probably being able to claim higher than that. There is more choice on the linux OS, that's all there is to it...
I thought this was all Linus' doing - in the LWN text, he says that Andrew is off for a couple of weeks so he may release a test11 before Andrew decides to take it on for release management...
This probably won't be well-received on/. because it's counter to the "feelgood" nature of the story, but...
There's no reason to expect that just because someone does something good, they're not capable of doing something evil as well. There's many a tale of mafioso gang members going to church on Sunday with their mother, taking confession, and going out on Monday to kill someone....
I'm not saying that anyone who helps this project out is going on a gun-toting killing spree (as if!) but to say X can't do A because (s)he has done B is a bit too simplistic.
It's a nice idea. Don't hype it beyond what it is, it doesn't need it.
"Jack Valenti, now appearing in 'Cat on a hot tin roof'" - see him dance (or at least hop from foot to foot), see him sing (out at anyone and everyone), see him fall!
"Just think of all the money you'll save not having to implement DRM"
I wonder just how many people actually *do* a cost-benefit analysis these days, or is it just a 'tick-box' item ?
The world might be a better place, if people would actually *think* more, it's not hard... "Actions" => "consequences". "Actions" => "Consequences". Repeat as necessary...
Slashdot Mirror
You're confusing two things, one is longevity, the other is redundancy.
The library at Alexandria was unique throughout the world; no matter what medium was used to store the data, if the container is destroyed (with significant prejudice, in this instance), the data will be lost.
The issue here was that the hardware was specific, expensive, and tied to a platform that died. Suddenly people realised they couldn't get to the data any more.
Sure, the project has little bearing on your life or mine, but it's still indicative of the difference between the storage mechanisms. Most history is considered pretty useless when it's recent (unless there's something dramatic happening: war, new peace, etc.). Only when it's old do we value it.
Simon.
There was a British TV comedy about the manipulation of government by the civil service (and vice versa, sometimes :-) called 'Yes Minister', and 'Yes Prime Minister'. One of the favourite tactics of "Sir Humphrey" (civil service mandarin) is to deluge the minister with reams of information, to make it completely impossible to make a decision by a given deadline.
It strikes me that when a patent is 160,000 pages long, someone is trying the same tactic. Perhaps there ought to be a limit on the size of patent applications. After all, if it is sufficiently revolutionary to be awarded protection from its possible competition, it ought to be easily stated and understood. Let anything else just compete.
I suspect some would lose out, but I also think the patent system overall would win. The original patent applications were on a single sheet of paper....
Simon.
The RM nimbus was the most popular computer in education at the time in the UK.
The IBM PC was nowhere to be seen, the Amiga was a dream in some designers head, the Mac hadn't been released over here. It's not the disk-designers fault that the best solutions at the time later failed to make a mark... As for BCPL, it was the precursor to 'C' (you've heard of 'C', I take it?)
So, basically, learn some history before you post complete crap.
Simon.
The original, uncopied version of the domesday book is in fine fettle in the public record office, in Kew, London.
I stand by the claim that 1000 years (and counting) is better than 20 (and out).
Simon.
I think the best example is probably the domesday book and the domesday project.
,but I think the scots gave'em the finger :-), it's still available today.
:-)
A thousand years ago (more or less) the Domesday book recorded a snapshot of life in England (and Wales I think
20 (or so) years ago, the domesday project did the same thing - recorded to a laserdisk, and intended to be a resource of all things at that time. For the time, it was pretty fantastic - schools up and down the country took part, videos were made, maps, testaments from people of all walks of life.
There is now a project to try and resurrect the domesday project, because no technology available can read it. The book (though written in latin) is still perfectly legible. Which is the better technology ?
Paper every time, apart from when you're searching
Simon.
"Google's foes have a much firmer hold on customers", argued some bloke who wrote a book about Google, so is an immediate expert.
Perhaps. But Google has a much firmer hold on the search technology, and at least in this market, the technology is important. Google as a business need to sort out its stuff (perhaps, we don't really know), but I'd guess that the vast majority of the planet who use search engines, use google, and that can't be bad...
Simon.
Hmm. Look's like God's on the line. Hello ?
Simon
The point I was making is that the usual definition of ISPs include legions of modem-users and/or enormous companies, not the 5-man-band that I work within.
Simon.
Definitely covers me - I have a co-located server with clients websites running on it. I rent all my bandwidth though - would never really have thought of myself as an ISP, although I guess I fall under the auspice of "Internet Service Provider" - the typical image is either a dial-up merchant, or someone like Colt/BT/Level3/(insert huge company here)
Simon
is that this is news. Ok, it's not a vanilla BSD, but it is based on BSD, which has a fantastic record on security. What will be interesting to find out is where the bug came from - Apple or some third party ...
:-)
I'm pretty sure it was Apple that could boast of no exploits against them (this was OS9 days). Sad to see that go, if it's true. Any unix-os is a friend of mine
Simon
... which I can see being great for the phone. Does it interfere with the WiFi network as well ? If A interferes with B, shouldn't you expect (B) to interfere with A...
"Excuse me Mr. Jones, could you move to the other side of the room please, you're corrupting the network"...
Simon.
Coq and Isabelle are used heavily "for verification purposes" today. ... poor old Isabelle... Give a girl a break!
Simon.
Not in England, dunno about elsewhere. It roots back to empire days when the language of the court was considered too flowery by the common man. Plenty of references in old literature.
Simon.
... of having a company strategy of "sue highly-visible companies" is that highly-visible companies are often deep-pocketed companies far larger than yourself...
:-( I guess SCO may have some sort of a case in the USA for that as well, though IANAL.
I for one would just love Google to remove all references to SCO from their search engine. Unfortunately I think they're above that
Simon
Pretty much. For example, the 'Singleton' pattern is where you may have a single resource you want to share between multiple objects, without making a copy of the interface to that resource. Typical behaviour is to have a static getInstance() method which checks to see if a static object already exists and returns that instead of a new object. The contructor is usually kept private/protected to enforce the pattern.
:-) is far more readable, but there's a lot of crossover.
The first time you read a "patterns" book, you'll sit thinking "but that's obviously how you do it". The advantage is that the pattern books generally spell out *why* it's the best solution, and you can then apply that knowledge in other situations.
Personally, I found 'Design patterns' hard reading. The concepts weren't hard, but the prose was painful. 'Patterns in Java' (not to recommend it too much - I mentioned it in another post as well
Simon.
though not J2EE (only "standard" Java) is 'Patterns in Java', coming in a few volumes, though I rate the first one highest, the other two get increasingly abstract/uncommon. When does a pattern become an occurrence ...
Simon
a) The article says it's a consortium
...
:-) seem to have had problems. I just set up squid on my colocated server at Level-3 and never noticed anything more. Is it still ongoing ?
b) There's more than one cable
The cable companies (well, NTL anyway
Simon.
Given the underlying reason why google is a good search engine (leveraging the popularity of the site by others), I don't want "my" search engine to be fooled into giving me commercially-orientated results.
If Google has re-organised the page-ranking system to cut out the link-merchants, I give it an unreserved thumbs up
Simon.
This is about the *existing* RHEL users keeping the product...
I suspect a fair few RH9 people (like me) are now evaluating their options. There are several distributions out there that the non-enterprise peeps can take a stab at before they decide to fork out for the RHEL edition.
There are a couple of advantages that RH offer - they are the de-facto standard, so if you use qualified software from a supplier, chances are it'll be qualified on RH, not debian...
They also offer support, and I've had to use it when installing on troublesome motherboards, but once something is installed, I'm reasonably ok on my own, so this isn't such a big deal for me...
The business imperatives to stay with RH are significantly less than with MS, so I would say 90% is a good figure, despite MS probably being able to claim higher than that. There is more choice on the linux OS, that's all there is to it...
Random thoughts...
Simon
.. not only at the in-your-face cheek that it was done at all, but that it may even get past congress.
Wonder if this is how government has always behaved and now they're being found out more, or whether it's a particularly crap current bunch...
Simon
I thought this was all Linus' doing - in the LWN text, he says that Andrew is off for a couple of weeks so he may release a test11 before Andrew decides to take it on for release management...
Simon
This probably won't be well-received on /. because it's counter to the "feelgood" nature of the story, but...
There's no reason to expect that just because someone does something good, they're not capable of doing something evil as well. There's many a tale of mafioso gang members going to church on Sunday with their mother, taking confession, and going out on Monday to kill someone....
I'm not saying that anyone who helps this project out is going on a gun-toting killing spree (as if!) but to say X can't do A because (s)he has done B is a bit too simplistic.
It's a nice idea. Don't hype it beyond what it is, it doesn't need it.
Simon.
Sounds like a good idea to me - similar to public-key cryptography applied to the voting process, but with the decoding possible from two places...
Simon
"Jack Valenti, now appearing in 'Cat on a hot tin roof'" - see him dance (or at least hop from foot to foot), see him sing (out at anyone and everyone), see him fall!
Simon.
I wonder just how many people actually *do* a cost-benefit analysis these days, or is it just a 'tick-box' item ?
The world might be a better place, if people would actually *think* more, it's not hard... "Actions" => "consequences". "Actions" => "Consequences". Repeat as necessary...
Simon.