hehe, maybe one day we'll see HAL-15 hypercomputers (check out starbridgesystems.com) running Quake on their custom FPGA video accelerators.:)
The only thing I don't like is that the vertex shader language is a spec that's essentially dictated by Microsoft. That means that when it comes to these l33t new extensions there's only one standard and that is DirectX 8. Yeah, it'll be supported as an afterthought in OpenGL, in a proprietary extension that's different from card to card. Then again, if it weren't for Carmack, and possibly the independent popularity of Linux among SGI users, OpenGL would have been dead and buried, folded into DX7 (remember Fahrenheit?) so I could be lamenting a standard that's doomed anyway. Shame though; OpenGL had a nice clean API whereas DirectX is a mess.
Unfortunately, with customers lacking even the ability to see the source code, the reality is that software companies have come to rely on marketing strategies to make people think their software is better instead of actually making their software better. That is how the industry works today, and as usual, Microsoft is one of the prime establishers of this model.
You are right, though, in that it has the potential to totally negate the business model of selling shrink-wrapped software. It will not prevent businesses from making money, only force them to change their methods of making money to something which just might be a little more honest. Corporations don't have a right to exist, let alone make money in a particular fashion. Microsoft apparently believes otherwise, hence this FUD tactic. Smart people within the giant corporations will recognize the BS for what it is, and will exert considerable influence over what goes on in the software industry, in the coming years.
Re:People only use Mozilla to spite MS...
on
Mozilla 0.9 Out
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· Score: 1
I use Mutt. It's fast (GUI? Who needs a GUI?) and it's totally immune to E-mail trojans.
Moz 0.9 is rock solid. The recent nightlies are iffy, but getting there. One thing that's in the nightlies is a much-needed improvement to the "Modern" theme; it's now a much sleeker gray color with cooler looking buttons.:) I have a feeling we'll all be in for a real treat once 1.0 hits the net.
Kinda reminds me of Cranky Kong. "We didn't have no games made on one of them SGI workthingys. We had a 2-frame walk and were happy with what we got, dagnabbit!"
Good point; I propose we call it the "Dragonball Principle". Dragonball Z has a lot of conventions of this type: One group of characters is named after vegetables (Kakarott, Vegeta, Raditz, et al.); another after musical instruments; and another after types of underwear. It's all illustratively obvious (to an English speaker) and deliberately done.
Similarly, if we find a man named Balthazar in a novel and later on meet his two buddies Melchior and Gaspar, then we're more likely to flag it as a biblical reference; if the Balthazar is isolated it could more likely be that the author pulled it out of a baby book or telephone book. Sometimes the opposite happens: Fahrenheit 451, a novel about a society without books, has two characters named Montag (a paper manufacturer) and Faber (a pencil manufacturer). Bradbury swears it off as a coincidence! But how do we know for sure...?
Who cares? I watched the whole trilogy in a sitting a couple of years back. I thought, "I don't remember the films being this hokey!" But I didn't care, I loved them anyway, because they were fun movies. When viewed from that perspective, even Jar Jar is much easier to take.
Maybe this is where DivX:) comes in. Of course, the Mac and Windows worlds have already standardized on Sorenson, and in the digital video business, those are the only worlds that count. Apple is not likely to switch codecs anytime soon, especially not to one that already has a reputation for being associated with l33t m0v13 p1r4t3z.
I do love LISP as an applications language because when you get right down to application programming, LISP makes it a literal snap.
Actually I prefer Scheme myself... RMS was right; Scheme is probably the best RAD tool there is.:)
If Marxism is to exist at all, then it would have to be imposed from above. Marxism is not viable in a free society. Marx was right, however, in one thing: that pure capitalism is equally doomed. America is not a purely capitalist society, though it has become more so, and the capitalists try to convince you that it is to justify their greed. "It's capitalism; that's what makes America great!" BS. What makes America great is the concept of individual political/social/economic liberty, and that's something I think all humans can appreciate to some extent.
I think we have a lot more reason to worry about certain American capitalists than the Chinese communists; especially given how fond the former are of exploiting the latter.
I don't think freedom is a "Western value". I don't think it's a uniquely American value. If you want to talk about Western values being a bad thing, consider China adopting Marxism/Leninism in the first place...
Re:Sun does not respect nor fully support Linux
on
Sun Launches JXTA
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· Score: 1
uhhhhh, didn't you notice those two guys are both VPs of marketing?:)
IBM has marketroids just like everybody else (even VA Linux/OSDN/Slashdot). We don't take any of their spewage at face value when it comes to facts.
You forgot Article 29 which reads in part: "These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations."
Essentially the UN's "rights" do not apply if the UN itself doesn't agree with your exercise thereof. As the flap with WIPO shows, the UN is essentially in the pockets of the big corporations, too; in fact, wasn't the DMCA passed in order to bring the US in line with WIPO recommendations?
The UN isn't interested in protecting the rights you mentioned. Therefore, according to the Declaration, you don't have them.
I suggest you find a different authoritative source for what constitutes a right. I recommend the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the historic applications of the Constitution and the laws. Can anyone give me a good historic source (Federalist papers, perhaps?) of the spirit of the Constitution w.r.t. copyrights? The Constitution is very vague about copyright but we are guaranteed freedom of speech (and not just "freedom of opinion").
There's a difference. Japan may have been our economic rival during the eighties, but not since WWII have they considered us their enemy. China DOES consider the US its enemy, and has the nukes pointed at us to back it up, thanks in no small part to Mr. Clinton.
It has been proven many times that open source/free software is not communism. It is also true, though many people are ignorant of or choose to ignore this fact, that the American economy is not one of pure capitalism. We have what is known as free enterprise, which basically means that any economic model (within the bounds of the law) is feasible. The Amish, for instance, have their own community with an economic model that's entirely different from the rape-and-pillage capitalism of Corporate America. If this country were truly capitalistic, they would have no place here. A nation that has room for both Amish farmers and corporate tycoons also has room for free-software hackers.
I don't think it's payback in the strictly economical sense; not like "since we gave you X, you owe us Y." More like, "Since we gave you X in an open manner, it behoves you to voluntarily release Y under open terms as well, as a friendly exchange." If it really was what you feared, then there would be attack lawyers all over the place.
DirectX is crap. A bloated, hacked-together mess of shortcuts, just like a lot of Microsoft's stuff. The signs were evident to me even when I played with DirectDraw 1.0. The main reason why the X-Box will succeed is because it is from Microsoft, which is notorious for its sell-ice-to-Eskimos marketing prowess.
That SIG of yours reminds me of Major Payne: "The Little Engine that Could's mission was to carry a nuclear payload behind enemy lines... Not even when Charlie boarded the train and killed the conductor... did that stop the Little Engine that Could? Hell no! He just kept chuggin' right along... Chugga-chugga, chugga-chugga, chugga-chugga... Toot, toot!"
When I say "high-end reliable computing" I should have said, "high-end, reliable x86 computing". Of course some were fortunate enough to do their CAD on expensive Unix workstations...
Slashdot Mirror
hehe, maybe one day we'll see HAL-15 hypercomputers (check out starbridgesystems.com) running Quake on their custom FPGA video accelerators. :)
The only thing I don't like is that the vertex shader language is a spec that's essentially dictated by Microsoft. That means that when it comes to these l33t new extensions there's only one standard and that is DirectX 8. Yeah, it'll be supported as an afterthought in OpenGL, in a proprietary extension that's different from card to card. Then again, if it weren't for Carmack, and possibly the independent popularity of Linux among SGI users, OpenGL would have been dead and buried, folded into DX7 (remember Fahrenheit?) so I could be lamenting a standard that's doomed anyway. Shame though; OpenGL had a nice clean API whereas DirectX is a mess.
You are right, though, in that it has the potential to totally negate the business model of selling shrink-wrapped software. It will not prevent businesses from making money, only force them to change their methods of making money to something which just might be a little more honest. Corporations don't have a right to exist, let alone make money in a particular fashion. Microsoft apparently believes otherwise, hence this FUD tactic. Smart people within the giant corporations will recognize the BS for what it is, and will exert considerable influence over what goes on in the software industry, in the coming years.
I use Mutt. It's fast (GUI? Who needs a GUI?) and it's totally immune to E-mail trojans.
Moz 0.9 is rock solid. The recent nightlies are iffy, but getting there. One thing that's in the nightlies is a much-needed improvement to the "Modern" theme; it's now a much sleeker gray color with cooler looking buttons. :) I have a feeling we'll all be in for a real treat once 1.0 hits the net.
Kinda reminds me of Cranky Kong. "We didn't have no games made on one of them SGI workthingys. We had a 2-frame walk and were happy with what we got, dagnabbit!"
Similarly, if we find a man named Balthazar in a novel and later on meet his two buddies Melchior and Gaspar, then we're more likely to flag it as a biblical reference; if the Balthazar is isolated it could more likely be that the author pulled it out of a baby book or telephone book. Sometimes the opposite happens: Fahrenheit 451, a novel about a society without books, has two characters named Montag (a paper manufacturer) and Faber (a pencil manufacturer). Bradbury swears it off as a coincidence! But how do we know for sure...?
Who cares? I watched the whole trilogy in a sitting a couple of years back. I thought, "I don't remember the films being this hokey!" But I didn't care, I loved them anyway, because they were fun movies. When viewed from that perspective, even Jar Jar is much easier to take.
"Dearth" means lack. To indicate overabundance you have a variety of words at your disposal; I recommend "glut". :)
Maybe this is where DivX:) comes in. Of course, the Mac and Windows worlds have already standardized on Sorenson, and in the digital video business, those are the only worlds that count. Apple is not likely to switch codecs anytime soon, especially not to one that already has a reputation for being associated with l33t m0v13 p1r4t3z.
I do love LISP as an applications language because when you get right down to application programming, LISP makes it a literal snap. Actually I prefer Scheme myself... RMS was right; Scheme is probably the best RAD tool there is. :)
If Marxism is to exist at all, then it would have to be imposed from above. Marxism is not viable in a free society. Marx was right, however, in one thing: that pure capitalism is equally doomed. America is not a purely capitalist society, though it has become more so, and the capitalists try to convince you that it is to justify their greed. "It's capitalism; that's what makes America great!" BS. What makes America great is the concept of individual political/social/economic liberty, and that's something I think all humans can appreciate to some extent.
I think we have a lot more reason to worry about certain American capitalists than the Chinese communists; especially given how fond the former are of exploiting the latter.
I don't think freedom is a "Western value". I don't think it's a uniquely American value. If you want to talk about Western values being a bad thing, consider China adopting Marxism/Leninism in the first place...
uhhhhh, didn't you notice those two guys are both VPs of marketing? :)
IBM has marketroids just like everybody else (even VA Linux/OSDN/Slashdot). We don't take any of their spewage at face value when it comes to facts.
You forgot Article 29 which reads in part: "These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations."
Essentially the UN's "rights" do not apply if the UN itself doesn't agree with your exercise thereof. As the flap with WIPO shows, the UN is essentially in the pockets of the big corporations, too; in fact, wasn't the DMCA passed in order to bring the US in line with WIPO recommendations?
The UN isn't interested in protecting the rights you mentioned. Therefore, according to the Declaration, you don't have them.
I suggest you find a different authoritative source for what constitutes a right. I recommend the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the historic applications of the Constitution and the laws. Can anyone give me a good historic source (Federalist papers, perhaps?) of the spirit of the Constitution w.r.t. copyrights? The Constitution is very vague about copyright but we are guaranteed freedom of speech (and not just "freedom of opinion").
The DEA seizes more than drugs. Your cash, car, house, boat, computer, whatever, is all fair game if it's suspected of being connected with drugs.
Swarming through the generations like lokusts...
Hey, all China did was "Move MiG, for great justice!!" (sorry, couldn't resist...)
There's a difference. Japan may have been our economic rival during the eighties, but not since WWII have they considered us their enemy. China DOES consider the US its enemy, and has the nukes pointed at us to back it up, thanks in no small part to Mr. Clinton.
It has been proven many times that open source/free software is not communism. It is also true, though many people are ignorant of or choose to ignore this fact, that the American economy is not one of pure capitalism. We have what is known as free enterprise, which basically means that any economic model (within the bounds of the law) is feasible. The Amish, for instance, have their own community with an economic model that's entirely different from the rape-and-pillage capitalism of Corporate America. If this country were truly capitalistic, they would have no place here. A nation that has room for both Amish farmers and corporate tycoons also has room for free-software hackers.
I don't think it's payback in the strictly economical sense; not like "since we gave you X, you owe us Y." More like, "Since we gave you X in an open manner, it behoves you to voluntarily release Y under open terms as well, as a friendly exchange." If it really was what you feared, then there would be attack lawyers all over the place.
DirectX is crap. A bloated, hacked-together mess of shortcuts, just like a lot of Microsoft's stuff. The signs were evident to me even when I played with DirectDraw 1.0. The main reason why the X-Box will succeed is because it is from Microsoft, which is notorious for its sell-ice-to-Eskimos marketing prowess.
That SIG of yours reminds me of Major Payne: "The Little Engine that Could's mission was to carry a nuclear payload behind enemy lines... Not even when Charlie boarded the train and killed the conductor... did that stop the Little Engine that Could? Hell no! He just kept chuggin' right along... Chugga-chugga, chugga-chugga, chugga-chugga... Toot, toot!"
BSA is the new software police that Microsoft and friends formed after the SPA denounced Microsoft's monopolistic practices.
He meant "hear hear" as in "Hurrah, I strongly agree with what you're saying."
:)
When I say "high-end reliable computing" I should have said, "high-end, reliable x86 computing". Of course some were fortunate enough to do their CAD on expensive Unix workstations...