> And this is the reason why I think CLI will succeed, despite me > not liking MS: it will be widespread, users won't have to install > it since it already comes with your Windows.
Learn from the example of Java. The biggest problem with deploying Java applications and applets is that there is no good JVM available on client machines. The situation with.NET is no better -- in fact, it is worse. While (due to usoft's illegal monopoly brigandage) 99% of all computers sold going forward will run Windows XP and hence have a.NET runtime, computer sales are slow, and the number of Win95, Win98, NT4 and W2K installations out there is probably growing just as fast as XP (almost all illegal), and is much bigger to begin with -- vast, even. As a result, you can't deploy an app or a control over the net without incurring an enormous start-up overhead to download the.NET runtime. It's a non-starter.
It will be many, many years before.NET is reliably available on Windows machines, and in the meantime, a *modern* JVM will be shipping with Windows (and in Windows Update), so that.NET is in no better condition than the JVM.
Frankly, even the 800 lb. gorilla isn't going to be able to push.NET hard enough to make it appealling as a platform for general deployment for a long, long time. Now for an enterprise that has foolishly cast all of its eggs into the Microsoft basket, and paid licenses or XP everywhere (or administratively enforced the installation of.NET on all the 9x/NT/2000 desktops and laptops in the organization),.NET may be an appealling platform -- but I would much prefer to avoid vendor lock-in and use a standard JVM, personally. Especially when the servers run J2EE, so there is in-house Java development expertise anyhow...
> Tintin is also racist, but I am talking about Asterix and Obelix.
Heck, all of them Frenchies are racists.
Re:Looks as if MS has succeded.
on
Xbox Linux Cluster
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
On the contrary!
While an XBox is not competetive with a PC as a compute node or as a desktop system, it is much superior to a PC as a dedicated appliance, providing a network service, because it occupies less space and consumes less power. That's what I use mine for. And I pay $150.00 each for refurbs, not the $328 fullkit that the author of the referenced article pays.
By having different network services on different dedicated boxes, I gain uptime. When I need to frob the web server, the file server remains stable. When I need to upgrade the fileserver, my wife can still read her mail.
Some MPlayer developers have complained about the distribution of crippled versions of MPlayer by the Debian project. This is a reasonable complaint, since it is the MPlayer developers who get a lot of the resulting complaints. It seems likely that MPlayer will not be distributed by Debian in the future, not because they are prohibited by the MPlayer developers, although certainly one would expect Debian to respect their wishes that no crippled binaries should be distributed as a matter of courtesy, but because MPlayer's licensing issues are sufficiently complex and obscure that no real consensus admitting it in Debian is likely to emerge.
This reminds me of sage advice found in a park service guide for tourists under the heading of "what to do if attacked by a bear [or an 800 lb. gorilla]", where the writer(s) advised that one should "go limp, and roll into a fatal position".
Seriously, Sun is quite clearly and seriously a hardware company. They write software to sell the hardware that runs it. In the process, they do attempt to milk the software for every possible dime, but even if it were impossible to charge for Solaris, or TeamWare, or SunCluster, they would still produce it. Hardware without software is not a high margin business. There's no confusion or lack of direction involved here.
Since SunSoft and JavaSoft are independent P &L centers, they do have independent motivations and goals, relative to SMI, which can give a schizophrenic view to the outside observer. But you can rest assured that the board is quite fully aware that Sun is a hardware company.
Although there are some serious problems with some of the Java standard libraries (I think especially of java.net.Socket et filia), the abundance of high-quality library support for Java really does make a compelling case. The cryptography libs are cool, the XML support is great, and if you need to fertilize your mushrooms, there's composting.
Lots of good Java apps exist, but there aren't any general use killer apps done in pure Java, not because of any deficiency in the platform, but because such apps are rare and focussed and generally don't care about cross-platform or rapid development. The IDEs are large-scale apps, for example, but are hardly general-use (NetBeans, JBuilder, Eclipse).
There are tradeoffs to be made in developing a GUI app in Java. If you can work within the performance boundaries of Swing, it gives you the best x-platform results. If sluggish response on low-end client machines is unacceptable, you need to look elsewhere. SWT is excellent in every regard, except one: It only runs on major platforms (posix-alike, windows, and OSX, to my knowledge).
If you don't care about x-plat, Java is still a great choice, using gcj native compilation, with an SWT GUI, but you should also look at Kylix/Delphi.
I also have lousy wifi inside my house. Not quite so bad when using a dlink dwl-650+ with it's proprietary coding as using an orinoco card, but still nothing like what I've seen in office environments. Your faraday cage comment caught my attention, because my house has steel siding. I wonder if the walls are some sort of resonant cavity, creating feedback interference.
And when you link your 10 million line program with my 10 million line program, we've got a 20 million line program. This idea of an inherent limit to the complexity of programs using current methods is pure larksvomit, and if Jaron Lanier sells it, he's a snake oil hawker.
One is a game & proxy server, one is a mail & web server, one is a file server, and one is for backup. The one behind the TV is for PVR, but I'm not using it yet; I need more hack time.
Factoring out services is good. My wife doesn't get all whiny on me when I have to take down the webserver for a few hours because she can't get her mail. Since the power consumption is lower, I feel fewer heartaches about leaving things on all the time.
Maybe I'll put up a page about it in time for the next XBox article.
My mother used to sew core memories for Unisys. Believe me, the production cost would be much much higher per bit, although not per gram.
Continuing to cut through the crap, note that of those chemicals that are not recovered, most are not limited resources. For that matter, fuel per se is not a limited resource, although fossil fuels [sic] may very well be.
The use of flag words to shock people regarding HF and arsine is crap. What actually gets emitted into the environment? Some flouride salts, perhaps resold for flouridating your water?
The real environmental costs were not addressed by the synopsis of the study. Hopefully the study itself was more thoroughgoing. The real environmental cost is the noxious emissions produced, and I'd bet dollars to donuts that it's 90% or more the result of electrical generation.
I rather hope they do employ children to type them up, because it's a lot better to type up documents and eat than to die. However, Malaysia would be a bit of a waste. India is good tho.
Copyright infringement? How can I be infringing on someone's right to copy when I'm just using the device I paid for in the manner I see fit? I mean, it's my own property. I'm not distributing copies of anything. Where is the copyright infringement?
Remove the chip. Is that easy? You have to tell me.
But really, I can't imagine buying an X-Box to play games. It's a fraction of the machine my laptop is. As a PVR or a webserver it makes perfect sense, however.
You have to write separate control sequences for every terminal, and woebetide you if you forget a flush(stdout) at the crucial moment. ncurses is the true xplat gui grail.
Would it really have been so hard to type "wxWindows dialog editor" into google before parading your unmentionables on slashdot? 1,550 hits, but I think "I'm feeling lucky" would have sufficed in this case.
Java too has native compilers. If you're too cheap to buy one, get gcj. It works. SWT compiles well with gcj on almost any platform that is remotely interesting.
There is an OSX SWT port. Also, to say "Linux" is misleading. SWT works quite well on Solaris and *BSD, and I would expect it to work similarly well on most X11-posixish platforms.
Slashdot Mirror
The intelligence of the slashdot readership is ridiculed
by the moderation of my comment. Irony is wasted on the
moronic.
> And this is the reason why I think CLI will succeed, despite me
.NET .NET runtime, .NET runtime. It's a non-starter.
.NET is reliably available .NET
.NET hard enough to make it appealling as a platform .NET on all the .NET
> not liking MS: it will be widespread, users won't have to install
> it since it already comes with your Windows.
Learn from the example of Java. The biggest problem with
deploying Java applications and applets is that there is no
good JVM available on client machines. The situation with
is no better -- in fact, it is worse. While (due to usoft's
illegal monopoly brigandage) 99% of all computers sold going
forward will run Windows XP and hence have a
computer sales are slow, and the number of Win95, Win98,
NT4 and W2K installations out there is probably growing just
as fast as XP (almost all illegal), and is much bigger to begin
with -- vast, even. As a result, you can't deploy an app or
a control over the net without incurring an enormous start-up
overhead to download the
It will be many, many years before
on Windows machines, and in the meantime, a *modern* JVM will
be shipping with Windows (and in Windows Update), so that
is in no better condition than the JVM.
Frankly, even the 800 lb. gorilla isn't going to be able to
push
for general deployment for a long, long time. Now for an
enterprise that has foolishly cast all of its eggs into the
Microsoft basket, and paid licenses or XP everywhere (or
administratively enforced the installation of
9x/NT/2000 desktops and laptops in the organization),
may be an appealling platform -- but I would much prefer to
avoid vendor lock-in and use a standard JVM, personally.
Especially when the servers run J2EE, so there is in-house
Java development expertise anyhow...
> Tintin is also racist, but I am talking about Asterix and Obelix.
Heck, all of them Frenchies are racists.
On the contrary!
While an XBox is not competetive with a PC as a compute node
or as a desktop system, it is much superior to a PC as a
dedicated appliance, providing a network service, because
it occupies less space and consumes less power. That's what
I use mine for. And I pay $150.00 each for refurbs, not the
$328 fullkit that the author of the referenced article pays.
By having different network services on different dedicated
boxes, I gain uptime. When I need to frob the web server,
the file server remains stable. When I need to upgrade the
fileserver, my wife can still read her mail.
Some MPlayer developers have complained about the distribution
of crippled versions of MPlayer by the Debian project. This is
a reasonable complaint, since it is the MPlayer developers who
get a lot of the resulting complaints. It seems likely that
MPlayer will not be distributed by Debian in the future, not
because they are prohibited by the MPlayer developers, although
certainly one would expect Debian to respect their wishes that
no crippled binaries should be distributed as a matter of
courtesy, but because MPlayer's licensing issues are sufficiently
complex and obscure that no real consensus admitting it in
Debian is likely to emerge.
Perhaps she's thinking of replacing her hubbi with a switchi.
It's easy to do with some electrical tape and a pair of dykes.
This reminds me of sage advice found in a park service
guide for tourists under the heading of "what to do if
attacked by a bear [or an 800 lb. gorilla]", where the
writer(s) advised that one should "go limp, and roll into
a fatal position".
Seriously, Sun is quite clearly and seriously a hardware
company. They write software to sell the hardware that
runs it. In the process, they do attempt to milk the
software for every possible dime, but even if it were
impossible to charge for Solaris, or TeamWare, or SunCluster,
they would still produce it. Hardware without software is
not a high margin business. There's no confusion or lack
of direction involved here.
Since SunSoft and JavaSoft are independent P &L centers,
they do have independent motivations and goals, relative
to SMI, which can give a schizophrenic view to the outside
observer. But you can rest assured that the board is quite
fully aware that Sun is a hardware company.
Although there are some serious problems with some of the
Java standard libraries (I think especially of java.net.Socket
et filia), the abundance of high-quality library support
for Java really does make a compelling case. The cryptography
libs are cool, the XML support is great, and if you need
to fertilize your mushrooms, there's composting.
Lots of good Java apps exist, but there aren't any general
use killer apps done in pure Java, not because of any deficiency
in the platform, but because such apps are rare and focussed
and generally don't care about cross-platform or rapid
development. The IDEs are large-scale apps, for example, but
are hardly general-use (NetBeans, JBuilder, Eclipse).
There are tradeoffs to be made in developing a GUI app in Java.
If you can work within the performance boundaries of Swing, it
gives you the best x-platform results. If sluggish response
on low-end client machines is unacceptable, you need to look
elsewhere. SWT is excellent in every regard, except one:
It only runs on major platforms (posix-alike, windows, and OSX,
to my knowledge).
If you don't care about x-plat, Java is still a great choice,
using gcj native compilation, with an SWT GUI, but you should
also look at Kylix/Delphi.
I also have lousy wifi inside my house. Not quite so bad
when using a dlink dwl-650+ with it's proprietary coding as
using an orinoco card, but still nothing like what I've seen
in office environments. Your faraday cage comment caught
my attention, because my house has steel siding. I wonder
if the walls are some sort of resonant cavity, creating
feedback interference.
And when you link your 10 million line program with my
:|
10 million line program, we've got a 20 million line program.
This idea of an inherent limit to the complexity of
programs using current methods is pure larksvomit, and
if Jaron Lanier sells it, he's a snake oil hawker.
This is Jack's total lack of surprise ->
Well, I've already got the lap, so what do I need an XBox for?
PVR and servers, that's what.
Besides, with the lap, I can play on planes -- which is when
my most serious downtime occurs.
If your mobile phone could do everything your desktop could do,
why would you want the desktop?
One is a game & proxy server, one is a mail & web server,
one is a file server, and one is for backup. The one behind
the TV is for PVR, but I'm not using it yet; I need more hack
time.
Factoring out services is good. My wife doesn't get all whiny
on me when I have to take down the webserver for a few hours
because she can't get her mail. Since the power consumption
is lower, I feel fewer heartaches about leaving things on
all the time.
Maybe I'll put up a page about it in time for the next XBox
article.
My mother used to sew core memories for Unisys. Believe me,
the production cost would be much much higher per bit, although
not per gram.
Continuing to cut through the crap, note that of those chemicals
that are not recovered, most are not limited resources. For that
matter, fuel per se is not a limited resource, although fossil
fuels [sic] may very well be.
The use of flag words to shock people regarding HF and arsine
is crap. What actually gets emitted into the environment?
Some flouride salts, perhaps resold for flouridating your water?
The real environmental costs were not addressed by the
synopsis of the study. Hopefully the study itself was more
thoroughgoing. The real environmental cost is the noxious
emissions produced, and I'd bet dollars to donuts that it's
90% or more the result of electrical generation.
I rather hope they do employ children to type them up, because
it's a lot better to type up documents and eat than to die.
However, Malaysia would be a bit of a waste. India is good tho.
Copyright infringement? How can I be infringing on someone's
right to copy when I'm just using the device I paid for in the
manner I see fit? I mean, it's my own property. I'm not
distributing copies of anything. Where is the copyright
infringement?
Don't let the pigs rape the language.
"on IRC" is like saying "on TV". On freenode, undernet, 263, ....
what? What server network hosts the channel to which you refer?
It is precisely because it makes a great little dedicated box :)
that I have 4 dedicated X-Boxes in my closet and one behind
my TV.
Remove the chip. Is that easy? You have to tell me.
But really, I can't imagine buying an X-Box to play games.
It's a fraction of the machine my laptop is. As a
PVR or a webserver it makes perfect sense, however.
I do prefer being a smart ass to being a dumb ass,
I freely admit.
You have to write separate control sequences for every
terminal, and woebetide you if you forget a flush(stdout)
at the crucial moment. ncurses is the true xplat gui grail.
Would it really have been so hard to type "wxWindows dialog
editor" into google before parading your unmentionables on
slashdot? 1,550 hits, but I think "I'm feeling lucky"
would have sufficed in this case.
There's this great new thing called *threads*. You may
have heard about it. It's a useful thing to know about
if you're writing GUI code.
Java too has native compilers. If you're too cheap to
buy one, get gcj. It works. SWT compiles well with gcj
on almost any platform that is remotely interesting.
There is an OSX SWT port. Also, to say "Linux" is misleading.
SWT works quite well on Solaris and *BSD, and I would expect
it to work similarly well on most X11-posixish platforms.