Hmm. I figured stream burns were worse because steam simply can acheive higher temperature than water can.
Because water will heat up to 100 degrees, and then turn into gas, and THEN get even hotter than 100 degrees. And things hotter than 100 degrees lead to pretty nasty burns.
No, I think that you need to stop setting your threshold to -1 if you don't want to see stuff like that.
Just because there are some asshole ACs out there doesn't justify disabling all AC access. Even the IP/domain limit could be detrimental to the freedom of commentary here.
What do I see when I bump my threshold to -1? Yes, there are asshole ACs. But the thing that I really see is that Moderators are useful and NECESSARY on slashdot.
Its like the rockman said. "You see what you want to see. And you hear what you want to hear."
I missed it...are you saying that the PC's configuration is *better* than the iMac's?
That PC: 1. has no network card
2. has 2 GB *less* hard drive space (although before I read your specs I was under the impression that the iMac had 4 GB of Hard Drive space, not 6...)
3. has 128 KB L2 cache, compared to the iMac's 512 KB (and for those of you who don't realize, this makes a *HUGE* difference. I don't care what processor speed you claim, if you're wasting all your time on memory traffic, you're toast.)
I'll admit, the PC does have 8 MB of video RAM, while the iMac only has 2 MB. And its hard to compare the monitor specs (the PC's is larger, but I don't know much about the quality of either one). But I wouldn't say that the iMac "does not compare"
You've posted a remarkable amount of commentary on this article. However, I have to wonder, do you know the definition of the word "Troll" ?
It doesn't take much effort to compare the rantings of Skelcher@hotmail.com to the text of the homepage of a Professor Skelcher (a Google search reveals a number of links regarding him) and realize "Gee, these two don't really match up."
I'm inclined to agree with the post that you replied to, and assert that Skelcher@hotmail.com is someone attempting to impersonate the real "Professor Skelcher", perhaps in the hopes that people on ZDNet (or even Slashdot) would see the post,' get angry enough to search for the Professor online, and flood his university account (for which, wisely, no one has posted the address here yet, though it is easy to find).
So perhaps you should sit back and consider how much time you're wasting arguing with some lame-ass guy who doesn't care about politics *or* software but instead merely intends to screw over Prof. Skelcher.
This is one of the longest Trolls I've seen in a while. Perhaps I'll send email to Skelcher@hotmail.com congratulating the author for a remarkably simple way to aggravate everyone on Slashdot.
Also I find myself agreeing with a number of the comments on this page. *SOMETHING* should be done to change the default score on the comments. Bruce's idea of self-imposed moderation is nice, but requires too much action on the part of the user. I prefer the other idea of seperating "reputation" from "commentValue", and allowing the viewers to sort the comments according to either (OR, better yet, allow the user to type in their own evaluation function, like
rating = 2*commentValue + reputation
Whaddya think?
finally, re: the restriction on commenting and moderating in the same article, I'd fear that the moderators would stop *Moderating*, not commenting. Is there any known abuse of the system with friends pumping up each others comments?
Perhaps we could even allow the user to parameterize this, with an option like
- Ignore moderation from commentors.
That way all moderators can moderate freely, but they know that abusing the system won't always work. And, of course, Rob's alignment function will automatically have this Ignore function turned on.
You say that people use software that has features that they can use, and therefore, since money drives innovation, commerical software will win out over free software.
First of all, what's stopping a user of a free software product from *PAYING* the developer to add a feature that she wants?
Nothing, except knowing what feature that it is that she wants (which is actually pretty difficult when its something truly new and innovative. But in that case, I feel that a group of free software developers is just as likely to happen upon a "neat" innovation as a group of commercial ones).
While some people feel that development should be purely to "scratch an itch", I personally see nothing wrong for asking for a fee to add a particular feature for a particular customer that wants that feature.
The emphasis here is on the act of developing that feature in the code base...I personally think that the developer should subsequently include it in all distributions free of charge, since it takes no effort to include the feature, only to add it.
(And of course, the GPL pratically ensures that any sane developer will include the added feature, since even if they did charge for "adding" it to other releases, there's nothing to stop the original customer who requested the feature from giving their source with the change away)
There's no inherent reason that commercial software should be more likely than free software to blaze the path of customer usefulness, and in fact in many cases it hasn't. Don't believe me? Then why is Linux gaining marketshare... it isn't *all* media hype.
The movement is just starting to get a lot of media attention...everything we consider to be "common sense" rules of economics may be changing in the next few years. We'll see.
Java has done more than just sell books in the Market. Since you bothered to reply to the previous comment, I'll assume that you are making a serious statement and not just trolling.
The fact is that Java is a language that has gained a lot of support in both the commerical and academic software communities. Want proof of this? Check out how many papers in the ACM are being published based around Java as a developmental language.
Its not hard to make a case for languages other than Java; Scheme is more elegant, C gives more low-level control, and so on for Perl, Eiffel, etc. All except BASIC, which has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. C;)
> The reason is simple. People are paid to do it, > and impelment evry feature (not just about > 70%-90% of them), even if they don't feel like > it. They are also paid to provide > adequate documentation about it. Therefore, it > more usable to the "naive" user. They can't just > go to they're bosses and say "I don't feel like > it".
Sorry dude, but in my experience most of the documentation I've gotten in my commerical software packages has been pretty crummy.
Oh, when you pay an independent consulting firm to develop custom made software, *then* you have some control over how the company handles things like Testing Strategies and Documentation.
But for the shrinkwrapped stuff on the shelves of CompUSA, the documentation is dumbed-down and next to useless for anything real.
In general, I've found better, more up-to-date and thorough documentation with Free Software Projects than with Commercial Distributions.
Now wait here, I actually applaud schools that acknowledge students who manage to make it to the top of their localized heaps...
She got a 500 on the SAT? So WHAT? She might be just really really bad at test taking, but be great at untimed problem solving. Or maybe she isn't getting a proper education to prepare her for the SAT at her high school. Or maybe she was hungover when she took the SAT.
Whatever the reason, the fact is that she *is* an acheiver. You don't get to the top of your high school class without expending effort, whether it be in kissing ass or in studying textbooks.
Either way, she is the top of her class, and that shows some sort of determination. So hopefully that determination can be used in college for her to make up for how poor her high school was (because she most likely will be miles behinds her peers once she gets to college).
Just a note: Java is just as useful a language as C (or C++, or Pascal) for illustrating data structures.
Linked lists, Hashtables, Sparse Graphs, etc... some are provided for you in the standard API, but that's no reason to not try to implement your own versions.
The reason that your class was so different in Java versus in C was not the language you used, but the style of teaching.
In my opinion, data structures and algorithms should be taught and illustrated in a manner that is not coupled to a specific programming language...like in CLR. Pictures are worth a thousand words, and Pseudocode cashes in at about a hundred...
You see, that's where you continue to miss the point of all of these comments; college *isn't* about learning the newest computer language that's hot shit.
Its about learning the ideas behind the languages, about learning general problem solving techniques, the scientific method, etc.
If you're passing up learning about order-of-growth analysis or system design techniques just because the school in question doesn't teach you Python, you're not getting it.
Slashdot Mirror
Hmm. I figured stream burns were worse because steam simply can acheive higher temperature than water can.
Because water will heat up to 100 degrees, and then turn into gas, and THEN get even hotter than 100 degrees. And things hotter than 100 degrees lead to pretty nasty burns.
Felix
No, I think that you need to stop setting your threshold to -1 if you don't want to see stuff like that.
Just because there are some asshole ACs out there doesn't justify disabling all AC access. Even the IP/domain limit could be detrimental to the freedom of commentary here.
What do I see when I bump my threshold to -1? Yes, there are asshole ACs. But the thing that I really see is that Moderators are useful and NECESSARY on slashdot.
Its like the rockman said. "You see what you want to see. And you hear what you want to hear."
Felix
I read in a lot of the above comments that people were wondering if this allows for a GPL'ed version of Java to be developed.
I just thought I'd inform you guys that there are GPL'ed versions of both the Java Virtual Machine and the Java Class Library in development.
The Classpath website has more information.
Felix
Ummm....
I missed it...are you saying that the PC's configuration is *better* than the iMac's?
That PC:
1. has no network card
2. has 2 GB *less* hard drive space (although before I read your specs I was under the impression that the iMac had 4 GB of Hard Drive space, not 6...)
3. has 128 KB L2 cache, compared to the iMac's 512 KB (and for those of you who don't realize, this makes a *HUGE* difference. I don't care what processor speed you claim, if you're wasting all your time on memory traffic, you're toast.)
I'll admit, the PC does have 8 MB of video RAM, while the iMac only has 2 MB. And its hard to compare the monitor specs (the PC's is larger, but I don't know much about the quality of either one). But I wouldn't say that the iMac "does not compare"
-Felix
Ellis-
You've posted a remarkable amount of commentary on this article. However, I have to wonder, do you know the definition of the word "Troll" ?
It doesn't take much effort to compare the rantings of Skelcher@hotmail.com to the text of the homepage of a Professor Skelcher (a Google search reveals a number of links regarding him) and realize "Gee, these two don't really match up."
I'm inclined to agree with the post that you replied to, and assert that Skelcher@hotmail.com is someone attempting to impersonate the real "Professor Skelcher", perhaps in the hopes that people on ZDNet (or even Slashdot) would see the post,' get angry enough to search for the Professor online, and flood his university account (for which, wisely, no one has posted the address here yet, though it is easy to find).
So perhaps you should sit back and consider how much time you're wasting arguing with some lame-ass guy who doesn't care about politics *or* software but instead merely intends to screw over Prof. Skelcher.
This is one of the longest Trolls I've seen in a while. Perhaps I'll send email to Skelcher@hotmail.com congratulating the author for a remarkably simple way to aggravate everyone on Slashdot.
-Felix
This actually is an active
area of research: automated
extraction of an implicit
design from program source
code...
The only tool I know of is
Womble, and its purely proof
of concept, and it only works
on Java Bytecode, but hey, its
a start.
Womble
-Felix
Yeah I'd like to know mine as well.
Also I find myself agreeing with a number of the
comments on this page. *SOMETHING* should be done
to change the default score on the comments.
Bruce's idea of self-imposed moderation is nice,
but requires too much action on the part of the
user. I prefer the other idea of seperating
"reputation" from "commentValue", and allowing the
viewers to sort the comments according to either
(OR, better yet, allow the user to type in their
own evaluation function, like
rating = 2*commentValue + reputation
Whaddya think?
finally, re: the restriction on commenting and
moderating in the same article, I'd fear that the
moderators would stop *Moderating*, not
commenting. Is there any known abuse of the
system with friends pumping up each others
comments?
Perhaps we could even allow the user to
parameterize this, with an option like
- Ignore moderation from commentors.
That way all moderators can moderate freely, but
they know that abusing the system won't always
work. And, of course, Rob's alignment function
will automatically have this Ignore function
turned on.
-Felix Klock
You say that people use software that has features
that they can use, and therefore, since money
drives innovation, commerical software will win
out over free software.
First of all, what's stopping a user of a free
software product from *PAYING* the developer to
add a feature that she wants?
Nothing, except knowing what feature that it is
that she wants (which is actually pretty difficult
when its something truly new and innovative. But
in that case, I feel that a group of free software
developers is just as likely to happen upon a
"neat" innovation as a group of commercial ones).
While some people feel that development should be
purely to "scratch an itch", I personally see
nothing wrong for asking for a fee to add a
particular feature for a particular customer that
wants that feature.
The emphasis here is on the act of developing that
feature in the code base...I personally think that
the developer should subsequently include it in
all distributions free of charge, since it takes
no effort to include the feature, only to add it.
(And of course, the GPL pratically ensures that
any sane developer will include the added feature,
since even if they did charge for "adding" it to
other releases, there's nothing to stop the
original customer who requested the feature from
giving their source with the change away)
There's no inherent reason that commercial
software should be more likely than free software
to blaze the path of customer usefulness, and
in fact in many cases it hasn't. Don't believe
me? Then why is Linux gaining marketshare...
it isn't *all* media hype.
The movement is just starting to get a lot of
media attention...everything we consider to be
"common sense" rules of economics may be changing
in the next few years. We'll see.
-Felix Klock
Cassius-
Java has done more than just sell books
in the Market. Since you bothered to
reply to the previous comment, I'll
assume that you are making a serious
statement and not just trolling.
The fact is that Java is a language that
has gained a lot of support in both the
commerical and academic software
communities. Want proof of this? Check
out how many papers in the ACM are being
published based around Java as a
developmental language.
Its not hard to make a case for languages
other than Java; Scheme is more elegant,
C gives more low-level control, and so
on for Perl, Eiffel, etc. All except
BASIC, which has no redeeming qualities
whatsoever. C;)
> The reason is simple. People are paid to do it,
> and impelment evry feature (not just about
> 70%-90% of them), even if they don't feel like
> it. They are also paid to provide
> adequate documentation about it. Therefore, it
> more usable to the "naive" user. They can't just
> go to they're bosses and say "I don't feel like
> it".
Sorry dude, but in my experience most of the
documentation I've gotten in my commerical
software packages has been pretty crummy.
Oh, when you pay an independent consulting
firm to develop custom made software, *then*
you have some control over how the company
handles things like Testing Strategies and
Documentation.
But for the shrinkwrapped stuff on the
shelves of CompUSA, the documentation is
dumbed-down and next to useless for anything
real.
In general, I've found better, more up-to-date
and thorough documentation with Free Software
Projects than with Commercial Distributions.
So Rob. when are you going to make Slashdot
Themeable?
I'm just dying to throw the Metal L&F on
this puppy.
C;)
Now wait here, I actually
applaud schools that acknowledge
students who manage to make it
to the top of their localized
heaps...
She got a 500 on the SAT? So WHAT?
She might be just really really bad
at test taking, but be great at untimed
problem solving. Or maybe she isn't
getting a proper education to prepare
her for the SAT at her high school.
Or maybe she was hungover when she
took the SAT.
Whatever the reason, the fact is that
she *is* an acheiver. You don't get to
the top of your high school class without
expending effort, whether it be in kissing
ass or in studying textbooks.
Either way, she is the top of her class,
and that shows some sort of determination.
So hopefully that determination can be used
in college for her to make up for how poor
her high school was (because she most likely
will be miles behinds her peers once she
gets to college).
Just a note: Java is just as useful a
language as C (or C++, or Pascal) for
illustrating data structures.
Linked lists, Hashtables, Sparse Graphs, etc...
some are provided for you in the
standard API, but that's no reason to not
try to implement your own versions.
The reason that your class was so different
in Java versus in C was not the language you
used, but the style of teaching.
In my opinion, data structures and
algorithms should be taught and illustrated in
a manner that is not coupled to a specific
programming language...like in CLR. Pictures
are worth a thousand words, and Pseudocode
cashes in at about a hundred...
one word:
Beowulf
*duck*
But your spelling and grammer *ARE* still pretty bad regardless.
so do us all a favor and don't assume that you're a better representative of the linux community
You see, that's where you continue to
miss the point of all of these comments;
college *isn't* about learning the
newest computer language that's
hot shit.
Its about learning the ideas behind
the languages, about learning general
problem solving techniques, the
scientific method, etc.
If you're passing up learning about
order-of-growth analysis or
system design techniques just because
the school in question doesn't teach
you Python, you're not getting it.