What I'd love to have is a tear-off touchscreen with a wireless connection back to the laptop i just removed the screen from. I like my small laptop (TFT)LCD an order of magnitude better than my top-notch 19", especially because you can lie on the couch and have it on your lap (this is ergonomically superior to sitting in an office;-)), but often the keyboard+computer is just useless stuff and the screen shouldn't be fixed in landscape mode. So tear it off, put the rest of the laptop somewhere else, and continue reading with just the screen.
Incidentally, I read a lot more with Acrobat reader since I found out how to switch off this (@*%?$ font-smoothing...
It's obvious that you never worked with VMS, The Operating Slashdot Would Be Running On If Unix Weren't Around[TM]. You can put a VMS cluster behind a single IP address and then just throw machines at the cluster at will. On another cluster, you have a single logical Oracle or Rdb database instance and do the same - scale by throwing machines at that cluster. IMVHO, it's way superior to what the Unix guys provide at the moment (said the guy who had a VMS cluster running in his attic for years:-)).
I do remember, though, that a number of features from VMS clusters were implemented by special hardware: multi-hosted hard drives (DSSI) that could participate as a voting member of the cluster, boxes with cluster-wide shared memory, etcetera. I'm interested to see how they work around that (I assume they restrict themselves to software).
Indeed. Matt more-or-less suggests that we changed SGMLtools from Linuxdoc to Docbook just because we are a bunch of guys preoccupied with tools, but in reality Linuxdoc-SGML scaled extremely bad, with no support for inclusion of HOWTO's into anthologies, etcetera. Furthermore, authors were (naturally) pushing the Linuxdoc to its limits, making predictable conversion harder and harder.
That's why the SGMLtools project moved to DocBook: to make sure that whatever authors provide can be used to the max, now and in the future. Not because we liked to ditch SGMLtools v1 and start again from scratch.
The fact that FreeBSD, Gnome, and a host of other docware-projects are all moving to DocBook proves our point. Personally, I think it is unfair to authors to let them submit documentation in suboptimal formats, because their effort will not be used as widely as is possible - to make sure this happens is the responsibility of the LDP managers and the toolsmiths.
Having said that, we badly need more DocBook documentation (although an (open source) book will appear RSN - see www.docbook.org) and boilerplate material. And programmers that make sure that whatever the authors provide, it is rendered in the best quality possible in the most important backend formats (HTML, PDF, ASCII, Info, man and RTF).
I'm currently developing an enterprise 'rent-an-app' product, and I think the model makes sense for various reasons:
It better matches the cost of making and supporting software. Buying a shrink-wrapped app lets you pay for the (relatively cheap) creation of the software, while renting software smears out your money over the (relatively expensive) maintenance period. It will keep your software supplier honest, otherwise you go shop somewhere else.
It better matches existing business models, like with cars - you don't need to maintain your own car, you pay someone else to do this. The same should go for the computer in your house. However, a PC configuration is too complex so we off-load the complexity to another site. You buy a PC and rent the functionality as services (really, who cares about software?).
Not needing Gigs of RAM and drivespace to store stupid binaries also makes your computer cheaper or lets you spend your money on things that count, like 3D accellerators, surround sound cards, and that 18" TFT screen.
Coupled with data vaulting (storing your data securily at, say, your bank) it provides for full location independence. I'd love to sit behind a screen anywhere on the world and be able to log on to the very same environment I use at home, or at the office.
Be fair: playing sysadmin (installing software, making backups) sucks. I'd be happy if a trusted party could take this off my hands.
It could also kill Microsoft's current policy of creating junkware: it becomes extremely easy to test alternative applications (just click somewhere and it starts up)...
I did the same check (but then for my name:), and even though AllTheWeb returns 2.5 times the hits that Google returns, there's a slight difference: Google puts my homepage firmly on spot #1, whereas AllTheWeb (probably by coincidence) has it at number eight between a mass of irrelevant mailing list archive links.
I'll stick with Google - it has this uncanny ability of putting what you want behind the "I'm feeling lucky" button...
You're maybe not saving license cost, but a) it has been shown that you need 5 NT admins against 1 Unix admin (given the same amount of server boxes - a Unix admin will do the diskless workstations for free), and b) running NT on servers will probably do the same thing to Total Cost of Ownership as running Windows on clients does: it goes up through the roof.
Re:Kaffe never ran as well as Blackdown ( for me .
on
Java-Clone Announced
·
· Score: 1
I'd love to work to get a free one, but probably with many others I was so dumb to sign a source license to the JVM. I'm tainted and people like me touching free efforts could seriously jeopardize their codebase.
The lesson: don't agree to the "Sun Community" Source License for the JVM. Probably don't agree to same for Jini as well. It's not open source and exposure to Sun's source code is likely to disqualify for helping out in great (and probably fun) projects like Japhar and GNU classpath.
Sun's control of Java was predicated on the idea that nobody else was smart enough to write their own.
Sun knew very well that people were going to make their own VM's, they're a big company but therefore not automatically completely stupid. In fact, I think they hoped for it because you can make an environment like this only a success when there are multiple implementations, and everyone can roll their own stuff.
That's the main reason why they threw so many lawyers at it - to make sure that Java becomes a success while at the same time allowing Sun to make money from it (through logo licensing, compatibility testing, etcetera).
C'mon, let's not blame it all to spam. Most of the time when I leave a group, it is because traffic is simply too high. With xxx million users, groups like "35mm photography" explode, with or without spam. Sadly enough, often there aren't any sensible subdivisions possible so you end up with one million people all talking in the same place. That's killing Usenet, not spammers.
I've noticed that the server isn't 100% reliable, too. So I run seti@home at nice 15, and distributed.net at nice 19 - in that way, when seti is not there I can at least keep my CPU's on temperature:-)
Slashdot Mirror
Gee, if they were shopping for a good OO language,
why didn't they just choose to reimplement the
whole damn thing in Python?
Incidentally, I read a lot more with Acrobat reader since I found out how to switch off this (@*%?$ font-smoothing...
The Operating Slashdot Would Be Running On
If Unix Weren't Around[TM]. You can put a
VMS cluster behind a single IP address and then
just throw machines at the cluster at will. On another cluster, you have a single logical Oracle or Rdb database instance and do the same - scale by throwing machines at that cluster. IMVHO, it's way superior to what the Unix guys provide at the moment (said the guy who had a VMS cluster running in his attic for years
I do remember, though, that a number of features from VMS clusters were implemented by special hardware: multi-hosted hard drives (DSSI) that could participate as a voting member of the cluster, boxes with cluster-wide shared memory, etcetera. I'm interested to see how they work around that (I assume they restrict themselves to software).
Remember the '80s? Let's just reinstate Fidonet and UUCP networks. They won't be able to beat *that*.
Indeed. Matt more-or-less suggests that we changed
SGMLtools from Linuxdoc to Docbook just because
we are a bunch of guys preoccupied with tools, but
in reality Linuxdoc-SGML scaled extremely bad,
with no support for inclusion of HOWTO's into
anthologies, etcetera. Furthermore, authors were
(naturally) pushing the Linuxdoc to its limits,
making predictable conversion harder and harder.
That's why the SGMLtools project moved to DocBook: to make sure that whatever authors provide can be
used to the max, now and in the future. Not because we liked to ditch SGMLtools v1 and start
again from scratch.
The fact that FreeBSD, Gnome, and a host of other
docware-projects are all moving to DocBook proves
our point. Personally, I think it is unfair to
authors to let them submit documentation in suboptimal formats, because their effort will not be used as widely as is possible - to make sure this happens is the responsibility of the LDP managers and the toolsmiths.
Having said that, we badly need more DocBook documentation (although an (open source) book will appear RSN - see www.docbook.org) and boilerplate material. And programmers that make sure that whatever the authors provide, it is rendered in the best quality possible in the most important backend formats (HTML, PDF, ASCII, Info, man and
RTF).
(I'm the author of SGMLtools v2, BTW)
- It better matches the cost of making and supporting software. Buying a shrink-wrapped app lets you pay for the (relatively cheap) creation of the software, while renting software smears out your money over the (relatively expensive) maintenance period. It will keep your software supplier honest, otherwise you go shop somewhere else.
- It better matches existing business models, like with cars - you don't need to maintain your own car, you pay someone else to do this. The same should go for the computer in your house. However, a PC configuration is too complex so we off-load the complexity to another site. You buy a PC and rent the functionality as services (really, who cares about software?).
- Not needing Gigs of RAM and drivespace to store stupid binaries also makes your computer cheaper or lets you spend your money on things that count, like 3D accellerators, surround sound cards, and that 18" TFT screen.
- Coupled with data vaulting (storing your data securily at, say, your bank) it provides for full location independence. I'd love to sit behind a screen anywhere on the world and be able to log on to the very same environment I use at home, or at the office.
- Be fair: playing sysadmin (installing software, making backups) sucks. I'd be happy if a trusted party could take this off my hands.
It could also kill Microsoft's current policy of creating junkware: it becomes extremely easy to test alternative applications (just click somewhere and it starts up)...I did the same check (but then for my name :), and
even though AllTheWeb returns 2.5 times the hits
that Google returns, there's a slight difference:
Google puts my homepage firmly on spot #1, whereas
AllTheWeb (probably by coincidence) has it at
number eight between a mass of irrelevant
mailing list archive links.
I'll stick with Google - it has this uncanny
ability of putting what you want behind the
"I'm feeling lucky" button...
You're maybe not saving license cost, but a) it has been shown that you need 5 NT admins against 1 Unix admin (given the same amount of server boxes - a Unix admin will do the diskless workstations for free), and b) running NT on servers will probably do the same thing to Total Cost of Ownership as running Windows on clients does: it goes up through the roof.
with many others I was so dumb to sign a source license to the JVM. I'm tainted and people like me touching free efforts could seriously jeopardize their codebase.
The lesson: don't agree to the "Sun Community" Source License for the JVM. Probably don't agree to same for Jini as well. It's not open source and exposure to Sun's source code is likely to disqualify for helping out in great (and probably fun) projects like Japhar and GNU classpath.
(disclaimer: IANAL).
to write their own.
Sun knew very well that people were going to make their own VM's, they're a big company but therefore not automatically completely stupid. In fact, I think they hoped for it because you can make an environment like this only a success when there are multiple implementations, and everyone can roll their own stuff.
That's the main reason why they threw so many lawyers at it - to make sure that Java becomes a success while at the same time allowing Sun to make money from it (through logo licensing, compatibility testing, etcetera).
C'mon, let's not blame it all to spam. Most of the
time when I leave a group, it is because traffic
is simply too high. With xxx million users, groups
like "35mm photography" explode, with or without
spam. Sadly enough, often there aren't any sensible subdivisions possible so you end up
with one million people all talking in the same place. That's killing Usenet, not spammers.
I've noticed that the server isn't 100% reliable, too. So I run seti@home at nice 15, and distributed.net at nice 19 - in that way, when seti is not there I can at least keep my CPU's :-)
on temperature