> If you are contracted to write a specific piece of software for a company you are performing the role of the manufacturer, and they are the customer > The price is variable, but once the project is complete the price becomes fixed. >The company has a tangible product and does not need to contact you further. > (Support contracts and the like really are separate products entirely, which most certainly qualify for the "service" mindset.)
I don't think the developer in your example sounds as much like a manufacturer but more like a plumber. "I installed the new pipes and checked everything out; it's now working. If something fails or your needs change call me and I'll come check it out and bill you hourly."
Plumbers perform a service despite producing tangible results. This is the model that I think that Open Source will lead to, if it gets enough penetration. As a developer, I don't know whether to be happy, sad, or indifferent, but it's what it looks like to me.
Currently software for the retail market looks like something different to me, but I wonder if it could survive if open source were to really start gaining acceptance? Could I take OpenOffice and put it in a box and sell it at Best Buy today? (source on the CD and so forth) Is there a market for that? What would my motivation be as a customer to spend even $10 on something I could get for free? Or what value could I add to something GPLed that is worth paying for by an end user? Support? Customization? More services are the only thing I can come up with easily.
Here in Cincinnati they are saying there will be billions of them - 500 per square meter. That's fairly unusal if you ask me. See this article for what they are predicting here. Should be interesting.
Definitely not - it's not at all gory or anything like that when lions eat in Zoo Tycoon. I've played Zoo Tycoon with my 5 year old and I'd say it's completely G-Rated, and it's entertaining to boot.
I've had DSL since 1998. I believe we had one of the earlier successful, widespread DSL rollouts. (Before that I will say that there WAS a big void in broadband - ISDN was never a real option here.)
Note that over the weekend Cincinnati Bell jumped residential broadband from 768kbs downstream to 3Mbit, without a rate increase! This is the second time they've significantly increased the bandwidth with no change in rates - the first time was just before the RoadRunner rollout. Long live competition!
Not all cats want to belong to a "pack". Getting another cat could make your cat more unhappy (particularly if it's more than a couple of years old and has been living along that whole time.) I'd recommend this book to all cat owners. It addresses many aspects of cats, including their psychology and physical health, how to properly train them, etc. (And how to introduce new cats into your home without traumatizing your existing cat.) ObDisclaimer: It's been a long time since I've had a cat.
A simple arcade-like game I played on the Amiga. You had to float around on various levels of a spaceship, taking control of increasingly more powerful robots. It was one of those games that was really simple, but had excellent gameplay and you became addicted quickly...
My understanding is that when you switch an Athlon64 or Opteron into 64bit mode, that you suddenly get access to more general purpose registers than the x86 normally has. So the compiler can generate more efficient code in 64bit mode, making use of the extra registers and so forth. I don't know if this makes a difference in real world apps or not though.
My Rockport leather walking shoes with rubber soles set off metal detectors at airports every time. As a matter of fact, when I read the question I thought "they want Rockports minus the metal detector problem."
Having said that, the Rockports are easy to take on and off and put through the scanner (I take them right off any more, even if they don't ask) and are by far the best shoes I've ever worn on a daily basis...
Is it a blog about the people that Tom has met in his social network? If it's about computer networks, he's got a lot to learn since his site is now inaccessible;-)
It's saying 75% of _Internet_ traffic is not HTTP, as far as I can tell. Back in the old days most Internet traffic was SMTP, NNTP, and FTP. I'm not too surprised if SMTP still is a large part of Internet traffic.
The summary makes it sound like 75% of port 80 connections aren't from web browsers, which would be weird IMHO. (On the other hand, there are lots and lots of web crawlers/spiders out there, so I could believe this stat too, at least for an "average" site.)
I just bought a Brother HL-5040. linuxprinting.org gives it a "works perfectly" rating, it's fast, it's quiet, it has expandable memory using a standard SDRAM DIMM... The toner is cheaper than Samsung's if you use the extended capacity cartridges.
I searched for "OfficeMax coupons" on google and found a $30 off rebate deal + free shipping from a local store, and it cost me less than $200 after rebates. So far it's all good - just a satisifed customer, as they say.
Here was my favorite (this might be the C64 version, I upgraded at some point). 10 x = int(rand(1)*65536) 20 y = int(rand(1)*255) 30 poke x, y 40 goto 10
The best was when the running program would overwrite itself with some random syntax error and crash. Or when the sound would get wedged on making a horrible noise. Or the screen would "melt" for eternity:-)
Of course, this was the program of choice for KMart and other places where they had machines on public display!
Eventually I upgraded the old vic with 16k (thanks to the grandparents), and an extended basic cartridge. (I could only use one at a time though!) The extended basic cartridge allowed killer hires graphics kind of like hires mode on an Apple II. I figured out how to draw circles and stuff and thought I was pretty clever.
As other people have mentioned, once I got the C64 I pretty much only used one command: load "*",8,1
(Insert messages about "The Bandit"...) Those were the days! Although to some degree Linux has brought back the fun for me, I definitely have fun scripting and programming on my Linux machines. (Before you reply 'get a life', I'm married and have kids and do have a life, thanks very much!)
> And then run xterm side-by-side with both of them?:-P
Have you tried KDE 3.1.x? Even with 3.0, I could not switch from xterm to konsole, partially because it felt too slow. But with 3.1.x, I'm a konsole user now... (I had been using xterm since 1990 or so prior to that.)
> Dont you just love it when someone says a general concluding statement and dosnt even try half of the offering?
Almost as much as AC replies to my posts!
> Here is where that other half comes in. Ever try Evolution?
Nope, not really. I don't use Outlook either, so I wouldn't be able to determine if Evolution was equivalent or not. Does Evolution integrate well with Exchange?
> on my RH8(!!) it works without any problems for 99% of the devices. usb sticks, memory card readers, webcams, all seem to work great.
I've had mixed experiences here. I've had some devices (mice, printers) work fine out of the box. Others (webcams, scanners) have taken some effort but eventually I was able to make them work - usually after compiling beta drivers or whatever. I've got one digital camera that I have yet to see work in linux, but it's been a year or so since I've tried.
Yes, but it's small and all engineers. All but one of us do use Linux on the desktop. I use CrossOver to deal with "real".doc and PowerPoint, when it's required for electronic submission or whatever. (I'm just a satisfied customer, no affiliation.)
> Office workers use one or two applications all day long, every day. > Everything else is a waste of space. Open sources vaunted "choice" is completely beside the point for them.
Actually, that was my point. For doing word processing, generating memos and so forth, OpenOffice is pretty much there. 1.1 has decent import of.doc files although it's still not 100%. The spreadsheet works great for me but I have not tried to do any real complex stuff with it.
KDE is close enough to Windoze for most people to acclimate, IMHO. Mozilla works well enough as a browser to replace IE for most apps. (CrossOver deals with IE well enough for the 1% that don't work for me.) I like Konqueror but it has too many rendering issues for me to use for real.
Some offices do thrive on Lotus Notes, although I think there's a native port to Linux from IBM. Others have lots of custom VB thingies, too.
> As for attaching a "randpm USB thing" to the boss's hardware...well, you must > think that office workers can bring toys from home.
I don't think people can bring in random stuff, that's why I said it's a problem for grandma and grandpa but not your average secretary. Or are you saying people DO bring in their own stuff?
I have to say that if Linux isn't ready for the Desktop, that it is VERY close with KDE 3.x and OpenOffice. I can't speak for Gnome, I haven't used it in a long time.
For office environments, I think Linux is pretty much there. The only real missing thing IMHO is the expectation that you can plug in random USB things and that they'll work. This is probably a problem for grandma and grandpa, but I don't think it's a problem for your average corporate secretary.
I'd love to try one, but there's no way that I'd pay $1200 for one.
Maybe one could build a similar machine with one of these guys.
Of course, it is an x86. I have yet to see a low cost motherboard in any form factor that was not an x86 (or an incredibly outdated, I suppose you could get a cheap Mac 68k mobo on ebay or something.) The C3 is cheap and has amazing performance/Watt. Given its addition to the x86 landscape I guess I'm not too concerned about finding a cheaper ARM or PowerPC solution.
> Actually, my experience with older Ultra Sparcs (1, 2, etc...) is that they are MUCH faster under linux than under Solaris.
My point actually wasn't about speed; it's just that there is nothing interesting (to me) about running Linux on Sparc. It would be mostly like running Linux on a slow x86, but without the benefit of things like acroread or flash.
On the other hand, running Solaris on sparc hardware would at least be a different experience...
I've run across several free Sparcs, including an Ultra 2 that a friend's company was throwing away. It looks as though I can download Solaris for it for free now too! I thought about running Linux on it, but I'm not sure what the point would be since it would be slower than the x86s I've got around.
Don't forget IBM's JFS, it's in 2.4 AFAIK, and the last time that there were benchmarks linked from slashdot, it actually seemed the best overall, even over the highly anticipated reiser4.
Slashdot Mirror
> If you are contracted to write a specific piece of software for a company you are performing the role of the manufacturer, and they are the customer
> The price is variable, but once the project is complete the price becomes fixed.
>The company has a tangible product and does not need to contact you further.
> (Support contracts and the like really are separate products entirely, which most certainly qualify for the "service" mindset.)
I don't think the developer in your example sounds as much like a manufacturer but more like a plumber. "I installed the new pipes and checked everything out; it's now working. If something fails or your needs change call me and I'll come check it out and bill you hourly."
Plumbers perform a service despite producing tangible results. This is the model that I think that Open Source will lead to, if it gets enough penetration. As a developer, I don't know whether to be happy, sad, or indifferent, but it's what it looks like to me.
Currently software for the retail market looks like something different to me, but I wonder if it could survive if open source were to really start gaining acceptance? Could I take OpenOffice and put it in a box and sell it at Best Buy today? (source on the CD and so forth) Is there a market for that? What would my motivation be as a customer to spend even $10 on something I could get for free? Or what value could I add to something GPLed that is worth paying for by an end user? Support? Customization? More services are the only thing I can come up with easily.
Here in Cincinnati they are saying there will be billions of them - 500 per square meter. That's fairly unusal if you ask me. See this article for what they are predicting here. Should be interesting.
Definitely not - it's not at all gory or anything like that when lions eat in Zoo Tycoon. I've played Zoo Tycoon with my 5 year old and I'd say it's completely G-Rated, and it's entertaining to boot.
> My god, it would be sublime! Comcast, AT&T, Charter, Cox (and any other big cable companies) charge $$$$ for upload speeds over 128kbps
FWIW, here (in Cincinnati) our DSL is 3M down, and 768kbs up. (See this for details. Funny thing is, last week it was 768/384. I'm not complaining.
I've had DSL since 1998. I believe we had one of the earlier successful, widespread DSL rollouts. (Before that I will say that there WAS a big void in broadband - ISDN was never a real option here.)
Note that over the weekend Cincinnati Bell jumped residential broadband from 768kbs downstream to 3Mbit, without a rate increase! This is the second time they've significantly increased the bandwidth with no change in rates - the first time was just before the RoadRunner rollout. Long live competition!
Not all cats want to belong to a "pack". Getting another cat could make your cat more unhappy (particularly if it's more than a couple of years old and has been living along that whole time.) I'd recommend this book to all cat owners. It addresses many aspects of cats, including their psychology and physical health, how to properly train them, etc. (And how to introduce new cats into your home without traumatizing your existing cat.) ObDisclaimer: It's been a long time since I've had a cat.
kontributions to the open source kommunity?
Ooy, I'm getting old! I played this on the C64 of course, not the Amiga.
A simple arcade-like game I played on the Amiga. You had to float around on various levels of a spaceship, taking control of increasingly more powerful robots. It was one of those games that was really simple, but had excellent gameplay and you became addicted quickly...
My understanding is that when you switch an Athlon64 or Opteron into 64bit mode, that you suddenly get access to more general purpose registers than the x86 normally has. So the compiler can generate more efficient code in 64bit mode, making use of the extra registers and so forth. I don't know if this makes a difference in real world apps or not though.
> stuff that doesn't make sense gets passed as law...because corporations LOBBY for it.
;-))
> (not to mention throw around campaign contribution money)
And if you don't like it, you're unAmerican and unpatriotic, so shut 'yer yap!
(Just kidding of course
My Rockport leather walking shoes with rubber soles set off metal detectors at airports every time. As a matter of fact, when I read the question I thought "they want Rockports minus the metal detector problem."
Having said that, the Rockports are easy to take on and off and put through the scanner (I take them right off any more, even if they don't ask) and are by far the best shoes I've ever worn on a daily basis...
Is it a blog about the people that Tom has met in his social network? If it's about computer networks, he's got a lot to learn since his site is now inaccessible ;-)
It's saying 75% of _Internet_ traffic is not HTTP, as far as I can tell. Back in the old days most Internet traffic was SMTP, NNTP, and FTP. I'm not too surprised if SMTP still is a large part of Internet traffic.
The summary makes it sound like 75% of port 80 connections aren't from web browsers, which would be weird IMHO. (On the other hand, there are lots and lots of web crawlers/spiders out there, so I could believe this stat too, at least for an "average" site.)
> I have yet to encounter someone who NEEDS one of these yet. A lot want one but no one has a need yet.
;-))
Define "need" - does anyone need a computer at all? (Perhaps their pacemaker is run via bluetooth or something
I just bought a Brother HL-5040. linuxprinting.org gives it a "works perfectly" rating, it's fast, it's quiet, it has expandable memory using a standard SDRAM DIMM... The toner is cheaper than Samsung's if you use the extended capacity cartridges.
I searched for "OfficeMax coupons" on google and found a $30 off rebate deal + free shipping from a local store, and it cost me less than $200 after rebates. So far it's all good - just a satisifed customer, as they say.
Here was my favorite (this might be the C64 version, I upgraded at some point).
:-)
10 x = int(rand(1)*65536)
20 y = int(rand(1)*255)
30 poke x, y
40 goto 10
The best was when the running program would overwrite itself with some random syntax error and crash. Or when the sound would get wedged on making a horrible noise. Or the screen would "melt" for eternity
Of course, this was the program of choice for KMart and other places where they had machines on public display!
Eventually I upgraded the old vic with 16k (thanks to the grandparents), and an extended basic cartridge. (I could only use one at a time though!) The extended basic cartridge allowed killer hires graphics kind of like hires mode on an Apple II. I figured out how to draw circles and stuff and thought I was pretty clever.
As other people have mentioned, once I got the C64 I pretty much only used one command:
load "*",8,1
(Insert messages about "The Bandit"...) Those were the days! Although to some degree Linux has brought back the fun for me, I definitely have fun scripting and programming on my Linux machines. (Before you reply 'get a life', I'm married and have kids and do have a life, thanks very much!)
Enough rambling for one evening!
> And then run xterm side-by-side with both of them? :-P
Have you tried KDE 3.1.x? Even with 3.0, I could not switch from xterm to konsole, partially because it felt too slow. But with 3.1.x, I'm a konsole user now... (I had been using xterm since 1990 or so prior to that.)
> Dont you just love it when someone says a general concluding statement and dosnt even try half of the offering?
Almost as much as AC replies to my posts!
> Here is where that other half comes in. Ever try Evolution?
Nope, not really. I don't use Outlook either, so I wouldn't be able to determine if Evolution was equivalent or not. Does Evolution integrate well with Exchange?
> on my RH8(!!) it works without any problems for 99% of the devices. usb sticks, memory card readers, webcams, all seem to work great.
I've had mixed experiences here. I've had some devices (mice, printers) work fine out of the box. Others (webcams, scanners) have taken some effort but eventually I was able to make them work - usually after compiling beta drivers or whatever. I've got one digital camera that I have yet to see work in linux, but it's been a year or so since I've tried.
> Do you work in an office?
.doc and PowerPoint, when it's required for electronic submission or whatever. (I'm just a satisfied customer, no affiliation.)
.doc files although it's still not 100%. The spreadsheet works great for me but I have not tried to do any real complex stuff with it.
Yes, but it's small and all engineers. All but one of us do use Linux on the desktop. I use CrossOver to deal with "real"
> Office workers use one or two applications all day long, every day.
> Everything else is a waste of space. Open sources vaunted "choice" is completely beside the point for them.
Actually, that was my point. For doing word processing, generating memos and so forth, OpenOffice is pretty much there. 1.1 has decent import of
KDE is close enough to Windoze for most people to acclimate, IMHO. Mozilla works well enough as a browser to replace IE for most apps. (CrossOver deals with IE well enough for the 1% that don't work for me.) I like Konqueror but it has too many rendering issues for me to use for real.
Some offices do thrive on Lotus Notes, although I think there's a native port to Linux from IBM. Others have lots of custom VB thingies, too.
> As for attaching a "randpm USB thing" to the boss's hardware...well, you must
> think that office workers can bring toys from home.
I don't think people can bring in random stuff, that's why I said it's a problem for grandma and grandpa but not your average secretary. Or are you saying people DO bring in their own stuff?
I have to say that if Linux isn't ready for the Desktop, that it is VERY close with KDE 3.x and OpenOffice. I can't speak for Gnome, I haven't used it in a long time.
For office environments, I think Linux is pretty much there. The only real missing thing IMHO is the expectation that you can plug in random USB things and that they'll work. This is probably a problem for grandma and grandpa, but I don't think it's a problem for your average corporate secretary.
I suppose Outlook calendars are another issue...
I'd love to try one, but there's no way that I'd pay $1200 for one.
Maybe one could build a similar machine with one of these guys.
Of course, it is an x86. I have yet to see a low cost motherboard in any form factor that was not an x86 (or an incredibly outdated, I suppose you could get a cheap Mac 68k mobo on ebay or something.) The C3 is cheap and has amazing performance/Watt. Given its addition to the x86 landscape I guess I'm not too concerned about finding a cheaper ARM or PowerPC solution.
> Actually, my experience with older Ultra Sparcs (1, 2, etc...) is that they are MUCH faster under linux than under Solaris.
My point actually wasn't about speed; it's just that there is nothing interesting (to me) about running Linux on Sparc. It would be mostly like running Linux on a slow x86, but without the benefit of things like acroread or flash.
On the other hand, running Solaris on sparc hardware would at least be a different experience...
I've run across several free Sparcs, including an Ultra 2 that a friend's company was throwing away. It looks as though I can download Solaris for it for free now too! I thought about running Linux on it, but I'm not sure what the point would be since it would be slower than the x86s I've got around.
Don't forget IBM's JFS, it's in 2.4 AFAIK, and the last time that there were benchmarks linked from slashdot, it actually seemed the best overall, even over the highly anticipated reiser4.