The SVO approach is interesting but not very practical.
The processing of oil into biodiesel actually adds little to the cost: Biodiesel from waste oil is pretty cheap and the difference in price compares well to the $800 dollars you spend on adding the SVO contraption to your car.
Also, the SVO device makes the car a bit heavier, and energy must be expended to keep the oil hot. This method adds complexity and fuss to each car/driver.
Biodoesel is simple: you pump it in and start it up. With BioD, the fuss is centralized at the processing facility and handled in a decent economy of scale.
...because it's the truth. Anyone who thinks we entered the Gulf 'War' for humanitarian reasons has their head in the sand. The USA does go to war for economic interests and it's about time we stopped kidding ourselves.
I was once a tech at headquarters for a sizable multinational corp. (over 400 systems in those offices, mostly executive and admin). We had a couple dozen Macs that were serviced seperately by an outside contractor.
Although the Macs were use constantly, we never even met one of the Mac techs! And I was there for almost 2 years. We simply never needed any Mac repairs.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this particular MS CLI specification is very bad indeed.
Since ECMA CLI (on Linux) will be a subset of MS CLR (on Windows), a 'ratchet' of sorts encouraging migration away from Linux is setup. MS-oriented developers and others moving to VS.NET will want to use the full range of features available in the IDE; They are not going to split hairs as to what is or isn't CLI/Linux compatible while they are coding. They will say "I want the REAL.net" and that will be the end of it.
I can't imagine that this will do anything but marr Linux's reputation as a server platform.
... unless you've never been struck by how 'sub-optimal' Linux is when crashing programs disappear out from under your nose with no warning.
Linux reports the problem to disk (not that a core dump is useful), but not to me. Which means in a typical Linux configuration, the user is rated as less important than the disk drive.
I'm sure the disk drive appreciates the attention and eagerly awaits new projects like LinuxBIOS, which hopefully have the same machine-before-user priorities as the OS.
This is one example of why I would sooner run PALM OS on my PC than Linux.
"Many who have studied Turing's life believe that this book [turing.org.uk] by Hodges is the definitive work of a man who was arguably a casualty of his lifestyle."
It would be closer to the truth to say that Alan Turing was a victim of YOUR 'lifestyle'.
I had a lot of enthusiasm for a Linux desktop back in say, 1997. When we saw these new desktop environments arrive I thought: "Yes, this will nail it for Linux".
More like the nail in the coffin. These desktop developers are SO concerned about usability that they've given us years now of themes, window transparencies, font anti-aliasing, and more themes-- all announced and revisited with baited breath.
Now, the next time an app (or a service) crashes on your Linux system, ask yourself what a novice user would do. Are they going to brilliantly infer that the sudden and unexplained disappearance of their program signifies a crash, then go looking for the core dump file?
The Linux desktop crowd are little more than hot-doggers trying to show off to each other. They don't care about usability or this kind of deficiency would have been addressed long ago. This lack of concern is a malady that starts at the core (the kernel) and seems to infect anyone who touches it. Coders suddenly become end-user-stupid when they acclimmate to Linux; After all, if they are to get help anywhere in the Linux social strata, they must drop any assumptions which imply minimum GUI usability-- or get jeers and snickers instead of answers.
Think for a minute about machine and software interfaces and the importance the Linux kernel attaches to them. Now think about where user interface standards lie in the Linux priority sceheme-- there is no basic GUI toolkit or widget set to speak of, and the only real graphical accomodation is meant for installers.
It is not enough to be a bridge between programs and hardware. Your goal from square-one must be to act as a bridge between users and hardware. Linux fails as a desktop system for this reason; It is geared toward programmers or at best (in the most carefully assembled of the graphical distributions) power-users.
Access "SQL" is designed for use with the MS JET database engine. This is a funky implementation of SQL which has many non-standard extensions and worse lack of support for a bunch of real SQL functionality.
You will be working with a subset of SQL that will not be very satisfactory.
(In case you're wondering, yes I've been there w/ Access/Oracle... We had to abandon it).
Just don't do it. Tell your boss Access is only good as a front-end to small-time Jet databases... The ODBC access is provisional for odd tasks only.
..for better standards support in IE. Let us not forget that. Let us also not forget what a dog IE4 was (the browser that 'beat' Netscape through tying to a monopoly OS).
Besides, the latest pre-release of Netscape 6 is just as stable as IE 5.5 on my systems and IE (and Office, etc.) will ALWAYS be faster on Windows systems. Microsoft has seen to that.
Even if IE is 20% faster (although it isn't), it's not THAT much better. The performance margin is not large enough to justify the brain-washing that goes with it.
I didn't even realize that that word had a negative connotation. The point is that it shouldn't have mattered, the use of a word, when not meant to personally injure someone, is totally harmless. If you knew me personally, you'd know that I am one of the most anal people you'll meet about treating people fairly.
Do I have to point out the self-centeredness of this attitude? (I suppose, this being Slashdot, I do.) This is just the kind of insistence on ignoring history and refusing a simple apology that gives us "geeks" a bad name.
Let me give you a concrete example: There are two ways joke can work. First, say your friend makes a Mexican (Indian, Polish, whatever) joke (assume you are said ethnicity) If he says it as a joke, and it is genuinely funny, then you laugh. When somebody says it to purposely make you feel bad, then its bad and you get angry at them.
Here's my example: I've known people who "joke" all the time, even when others say it makes them uncomfortable, because they are sadistic or have an alterior motive. So much for the Slashdot-101 response on human behavior.
These people aren't your close buddies and they don't tell you what is appropriate WASP-male terminology, so I would suggest in mixed company you avoid the Archie-Bunkerism and show some respect.
I can't remember his name, but he did a couple of specials about different groups and how "the most easily offended are the ones making the rules."
Well that should tell you something about people who belong to a majority that completely mowed-down everyone else with their rules. When the disenfranchised demand control over their own self-image, guess who panics? "They're making rules!"
OS as a touchstone and a bridge
on
Is UNIX An OS?
·
· Score: 1
An OS should act as a bridge and a standard between A) The User, B) The Programmer, and C) The Hardware.
Unix really only focuses on B & C. I often ask myself why Unix types are obsessed with machine-machine interfaces, yet pretend that user-machine interfaces are of little consequence.
Like TCP/IP, something like X (or something more streamlined) should have been brought into these kernels long ago, along with minimum standards for GUI/Shell behavior. And it should have all been settled by about 1992 (if you recall, this was the era of the PC industry's "Multimedia PC" standards bodies).
Notice that Windows and Mac developers feel compelled to follow user interface guidelines just as hardware OEMs tend to follow standards for machine interfaces. Also notice that these developers can still break the rules when they feel they must (although, fortunately, this is the exception).
The Unix kernel developers felt they were above issues of minimum user interface standards whilst they preyed at the altar of APIs and hardware interfaces. Blech! Throw these bums out!!!
The ZX-81's were manufactured in the UK and shipped here for a limited time. But due to the high failure rate, Sinclair had to take up with Timex to raise the quality to an acceptable level.
Thus was born the Timex-Sinlair venture and the TS-1000.
Of course even Chinese, having pictograms, is clearer than Perl.
I suspect that Billions of years from now when our computers finally succumb to universal heat-death, Perl syntax will remain the only one still thermodynamically permissible.
Underneath that Java interface, this things could well be running Epoc32, since Sony recently liscensed it from Symbian to power various portable devices.
Personally, I think the hardware needs more storage per disk to be truly neat. I remember reading about an MD2 format that could store over 600MB per minidisc, but it never seemed to materialize. The current MD format stores roughly what a 128MB flash card would (raw storage capacity).
My Psion 5mx is running Opera 4 beta as I speak (HTML 4, DHTML, Java) and fast for a palmtop. Wireless is not built in to this unit (you have to connect through a data-capable cellphone using the IR port, or using the travel-modem option) but several Ericsson and Nokia phone producs are based on this OS (Epoc) and you will see some of these gadgets appear soon with Opera built-in (in fact, Psion has licensed Opera) not just from these companies but also Motorolla and Sony. Consider also that you will be carrying a cell-phone anyway, so it makes sense to base your connectivity off your cell-phone (in the case of the 5mx) or carry a web-integrated cell-phone.
IMO, everything else is half-baked and under-powered. See Psion's website.
Until recently (having switched to programming) I was a technician assigned to the CEO of a large telecom outfit.
One day, he satisfied his desire for a new toy and bought a color Casio WinCE unit. We were lucky to get 4 hours out of it. That was not good enough for going into a long meting after a plane ride.
I just recieved my new 5mx the day of the PocketPC announcement.:) Yes, I think this is not-invented-in-US syndrome, but who cares? My Psion is standards-compliant, and will even run Opera 4.0. As for pen-operation, I don't think so. They all seem to have keyboards. Graffiti-like software is available for them, however.
Slashdot Mirror
The SVO approach is interesting but not very practical.
The processing of oil into biodiesel actually adds little to the cost: Biodiesel from waste oil is pretty cheap and the difference in price compares well to the $800 dollars you spend on adding the SVO contraption to your car.
Also, the SVO device makes the car a bit heavier, and energy must be expended to keep the oil hot. This method adds complexity and fuss to each car/driver.
Biodoesel is simple: you pump it in and start it up. With BioD, the fuss is centralized at the processing facility and handled in a decent economy of scale.
New processing tech. with a solid catalyst will make BioD even cheaper.
One thing is true for both fuel types: Your vehicle becomes Solar-Powered!
Or did they have someone else in mind when referring to threats and attacks on infrastructure?
(forgot to mention)
For the pure software features and power, the price difference is worth it.
Only drawback is size.
* Tried, 32-bit, multitasking OS (Symbian EPOC)
* Java
* Opera
Libranet home page
This Debian distro seems to be growing rapidly in popularity. Good installer and thoroughly equipped with GUI-based administration tools.
The only complaint I have is that the CD does not boot with a SCSI-capable kernel.
...dang.
S.O.A.
Blowback
CIA in Guatemala
Interview
...aside from the 'usual' crashing.
I was once a tech at headquarters for a sizable multinational corp. (over 400 systems in those offices, mostly executive and admin). We had a couple dozen Macs that were serviced seperately by an outside contractor.
Although the Macs were use constantly, we never even met one of the Mac techs! And I was there for almost 2 years. We simply never needed any Mac repairs.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this particular MS CLI specification is very bad indeed.
.NET will want to use the full range of features available in the IDE; They are not going to split hairs as to what is or isn't CLI/Linux compatible while they are coding. They will say "I want the REAL .net" and that will be the end of it.
Since ECMA CLI (on Linux) will be a subset of MS CLR (on Windows), a 'ratchet' of sorts encouraging migration away from Linux is setup. MS-oriented developers and others moving to VS
I can't imagine that this will do anything but marr Linux's reputation as a server platform.
... unless you've never been struck by how 'sub-optimal' Linux is when crashing programs disappear out from under your nose with no warning.
Linux reports the problem to disk (not that a core dump is useful), but not to me. Which means in a typical Linux configuration, the user is rated as less important than the disk drive.
I'm sure the disk drive appreciates the attention and eagerly awaits new projects like LinuxBIOS, which hopefully have the same machine-before-user priorities as the OS.
This is one example of why I would sooner run PALM OS on my PC than Linux.
It would be closer to the truth to say that Alan Turing was a victim of YOUR 'lifestyle'.
More like the nail in the coffin. These desktop developers are SO concerned about usability that they've given us years now of themes, window transparencies, font anti-aliasing, and more themes-- all announced and revisited with baited breath.
Now, the next time an app (or a service) crashes on your Linux system, ask yourself what a novice user would do. Are they going to brilliantly infer that the sudden and unexplained disappearance of their program signifies a crash, then go looking for the core dump file?
The Linux desktop crowd are little more than hot-doggers trying to show off to each other. They don't care about usability or this kind of deficiency would have been addressed long ago. This lack of concern is a malady that starts at the core (the kernel) and seems to infect anyone who touches it. Coders suddenly become end-user-stupid when they acclimmate to Linux; After all, if they are to get help anywhere in the Linux social strata, they must drop any assumptions which imply minimum GUI usability-- or get jeers and snickers instead of answers.
Think for a minute about machine and software interfaces and the importance the Linux kernel attaches to them. Now think about where user interface standards lie in the Linux priority sceheme-- there is no basic GUI toolkit or widget set to speak of, and the only real graphical accomodation is meant for installers.
It is not enough to be a bridge between programs and hardware. Your goal from square-one must be to act as a bridge between users and hardware. Linux fails as a desktop system for this reason; It is geared toward programmers or at best (in the most carefully assembled of the graphical distributions) power-users.
You will be working with a subset of SQL that will not be very satisfactory.
(In case you're wondering, yes I've been there w/ Access/Oracle... We had to abandon it).
Just don't do it. Tell your boss Access is only good as a front-end to small-time Jet databases... The ODBC access is provisional for odd tasks only.
..that all-time classic Electric Dreams!
..for better standards support in IE. Let us not forget that. Let us also not forget what a dog IE4 was (the browser that 'beat' Netscape through tying to a monopoly OS).
Besides, the latest pre-release of Netscape 6 is just as stable as IE 5.5 on my systems and IE (and Office, etc.) will ALWAYS be faster on Windows systems. Microsoft has seen to that.
Even if IE is 20% faster (although it isn't), it's not THAT much better. The performance margin is not large enough to justify the brain-washing that goes with it.
These people aren't your close buddies and they don't tell you what is appropriate WASP-male terminology, so I would suggest in mixed company you avoid the Archie-Bunkerism and show some respect.
Well that should tell you something about people who belong to a majority that completely mowed-down everyone else with their rules. When the disenfranchised demand control over their own self-image, guess who panics? "They're making rules!"Unix really only focuses on B & C. I often ask myself why Unix types are obsessed with machine-machine interfaces, yet pretend that user-machine interfaces are of little consequence.
Like TCP/IP, something like X (or something more streamlined) should have been brought into these kernels long ago, along with minimum standards for GUI/Shell behavior. And it should have all been settled by about 1992 (if you recall, this was the era of the PC industry's "Multimedia PC" standards bodies).
Notice that Windows and Mac developers feel compelled to follow user interface guidelines just as hardware OEMs tend to follow standards for machine interfaces. Also notice that these developers can still break the rules when they feel they must (although, fortunately, this is the exception).
The Unix kernel developers felt they were above issues of minimum user interface standards whilst they preyed at the altar of APIs and hardware interfaces. Blech! Throw these bums out!!!
* His support of school vouchers, which allows public money to be directed toward religious institutions.
* His instatement of an official Jesus Day
The ZX-81's were manufactured in the UK and shipped here for a limited time. But due to the high failure rate, Sinclair had to take up with Timex to raise the quality to an acceptable level. Thus was born the Timex-Sinlair venture and the TS-1000.
Of course even Chinese, having pictograms, is clearer than Perl. I suspect that Billions of years from now when our computers finally succumb to universal heat-death, Perl syntax will remain the only one still thermodynamically permissible.
Personally, I think the hardware needs more storage per disk to be truly neat. I remember reading about an MD2 format that could store over 600MB per minidisc, but it never seemed to materialize. The current MD format stores roughly what a 128MB flash card would (raw storage capacity).
IMO, the distribution-specific stuff (RHCE) just isn't that valuable to programmers, and I can appreciate that LPI won't waste my time with that.
My Psion 5mx is running Opera 4 beta as I speak (HTML 4, DHTML, Java) and fast for a palmtop. Wireless is not built in to this unit (you have to connect through a data-capable cellphone using the IR port, or using the travel-modem option) but several Ericsson and Nokia phone producs are based on this OS (Epoc) and you will see some of these gadgets appear soon with Opera built-in (in fact, Psion has licensed Opera) not just from these companies but also Motorolla and Sony. Consider also that you will be carrying a cell-phone anyway, so it makes sense to base your connectivity off your cell-phone (in the case of the 5mx) or carry a web-integrated cell-phone.
IMO, everything else is half-baked and under-powered. See Psion's website.
Until recently (having switched to programming) I was a technician assigned to the CEO of a large telecom outfit.
One day, he satisfied his desire for a new toy and bought a color Casio WinCE unit. We were lucky to get 4 hours out of it. That was not good enough for going into a long meting after a plane ride.
I just recieved my new 5mx the day of the PocketPC announcement. :) Yes, I think this is not-invented-in-US syndrome, but who cares? My Psion is standards-compliant, and will even run Opera 4.0. As for pen-operation, I don't think so. They all seem to have keyboards. Graffiti-like software is available for them, however.