As a freshman I wrote, compiled, and debugged my programs using gcc on my Linux box. Logging in from the lab. The TA saw what I was doing and said, "Hey, that's cool."
People used to look at the Gnu tools and say "nice, but hobbyists can't write a whole OS". Now they say the same things about RDBMSs, and they will be proved just as wrong.
They already have. Did you check that Slashdot story about how PostgreSQL trounced Interbase, MySQL, and two unnamed commercial RDBMSs? How much you wanna bet that one of the unnamed databases is one of the default systems deployed in Corporate America?
Everybody knows that Alpha outperforms x86 and PPC for heavy duty stuff. True, the platform looks similar but the chip architecture is different and each chip is suited to different applications. Linux gives them all something in common. Linux may have been Alpha's salvation now that NT on Alpha is kaput.
This article pacifies the Mac zealots
on
Is UNIX An OS?
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· Score: 1
To Mac zealots, if it isn't Macintosh, it isn't an OS. I think this article amounts to a bone thrown out to the Mac bigots who fear the encroachment of Unix geekdom on their pristine little environment.
Why not go both ways? I got a Yamaha SCSI CD-RW drive and don't regret it at all. My two HDD's are still IDE and I'll likely be buying more IDE's in the future. SCSI is currently a racket; expect prices to come down as demand increases. With CD burners becoming popular add-ins, demand will increase.
Oh, and buy Adaptec.:) Good, low-end to midrange SCSI controllers at reasonable prices.
Well, see, here's the thing about Dragonball Z. It's CRAP. It's poorly written, poorly animated, like a big animated WWF match in space. And dubbing only makes it worse. There are far better examples of anime that you could start with, like Escaflowne or Nadesico. I got into anime from Robotech as a kid, because I liked how the individual episodes were woven into a long story line. (Heroes actually *died* in Robotech.) This is anime's big appeal: it avoids pandering to its audience and offers brilliant stories and beautiful artwork to the discerning viewer. There's a lot of crap too, like DBZ and Nurse Angel Ririka but you shouldn't judge all anime on series like those.
Take a small, Palm-like device and retrofit it with FPGA's that can be reprogrammed to turn it into a cell phone, pager, Web browser, e-mail terminal, GPS navigation system, shortwave radio, etc. etc.
Of course the thing will be as thick as a Subway sandwich and wouldn't fit in your pocket anymore but hey, we've got convergence of nearly every electronic device imaginable!
If I'm to understand correctly, Microsoft of all companies is trying this with Office@K. Maybe we will at long last have universally readable Word docs. Don't hold your breath, though.
Wow, you sound like an old hand at this! Virtually every CPU has microcode. It's just not as accessible now as it was in the old days because it's stored in ROM located on the CPU itself. Apparently some recent x86 chipsets have the ability to slightly patch the CPU's mcirocode, thus adding or removing functionality. I don't know the details of that, however.
In three-space I have actually met two or three true, dyed-in-the-wool hard-core females of the geek species, who can hack C++ with the best of 'em. Hot ones, too. It's an interesting reaction when a member of the tribe finds a female of his own kind out amongst the mundanes. Like female mechanics, however, female hackers are a rare treat. I believe it's because women are on average less interested in cars, computers, and other such techno-toys than men are. They tend not to be fascinated by things but by people. Again, on average. Your mileage may vary.
Guess it all fits into that psychological interplay between men and women. The most I'll ever hope for is someone who's sufficiently fascinated with one particular person, i.e., me. *sigh*
A company will only sell a powerful console for $200 if they can expect that the specs for the thing will be kept completely closed and proprietary, and that they will make a killing in licensing fees to developers. It's how the game console business works.
Outfits such as Walnut Creek have been distributing source code for use in Borland for years. If Borland had such a big beef with it they'd have done something about it by now.
Borland's big problem is with certain libraries (OWL, etc.) which were distributed in source and binary form with Borland C++. They're basically giving you free rein to link their libraries into binary-only software, but not to distribute the sources of those libraries along with their software.
Microsoft has been silent on the Wine issue, probably because it cannot run native-built Windows applications acceptably without a lot of tweaking. As soon as Microsoft Office on the Linux desktop via Wine becomes feasible, watch Microsoft bust out the attack lawyers and execute its Super Litigation Combo Death Move.
They have been silently aggressing against things like Wine, too, by breaking API compatibility and licensing software for Windows only in the EULA (except it's phrased as "only the operating system for which it was written" or somesuch).
... But all the *good* Dreamcast games run right on top of Sega's bios. WinCE (or, as I like to call it, Windows Mini-ME) sucks on PDA's, it sucks on Dreamcast, it sucks everywhere.
If someone would pick up ECOS or EROS and write some OpenGL/Mesa driver code for it, that would simply rock.
Mesa has not officially been certified as an implementation of OpenGL (which is expensive). However, it's close enough that SGI links to it on its official OpenGL page (http://www.opengl.org) as a viable open-source OpenGL solution.
Before the l33t Mac and Amiga zealots were around My father had a TRS-80 Model 16 computer from Tandy when I was a kid. The Model 16, released in 1982, was based around a 4-MHz Z80 (which was faster than the Z80-based models I, III, and IV) and a 6-MHz 68000 chip. It was the playstation 2 of its day: more powerful than most any desktop computer (it could even become a XENIX workstation) and fully back-compatible with the Model II. A great but largely unsung machine. 68k forever!:)
Carmack really feels that way about shrink-wrap licenses? That sure explains a lot. Remember this? "Thank you for playing DOOM. Remember, if you didn't pay for this copy, you are going directly to hell."
Saying a computer is just an appliance is a bit like saying a cat is just a beast, like a dog or iguana. Spend enough time around computers and cats, and you'll see that there's a bit more to them than that. (Maybe that is why, according to the Jargon File, "it is widely grokked that cats have the hacker nature.")
That said, regardless of your feelings on the iMac's design, it is in no way, shape, or form, the exclusive result of Apple's "innovation". They coupled the simple, one-piece form factor of IBM's PS/1 with the "melted-jellybean" design seen so faddishly often in cars and other devices nowadays. A great marketing move, in true Jobsian fashion, but for Apple to claim some sort of exclusive rights to it is ludicrous. Elements specific to the iMac's design might be trademarked, as is the little Apple logo or Nike swoosh, for example, but for them to sue anyone making a colorful clear-case computer is about as ridiculous as one-click patents.
...adults having sex with children is OK, but sitting down to a Q3 or UT fragfest is a Bad Thing that will surely corrupt your mind!
This is the same group that a few months ago, released a study saying that child molestation doesn't necessarily harm the child, and that we should really start calling it adult/child sex to avoid implicating our own, closed-minded moral system.
I'm sorry, but the shrink community doesn't carry a whole lot of credibility, to me.
Galaxy High! YES! I saw, like, one episode of that. It was kind of like "The Jetsons" meets "The Breakfast Club". Hey, remember Beverly Hills Teens? That show rocked because unlike its spiritual successor (90210) it didn't pretend to take itself seriously.
If you know of a geek site in the Netherlands then send it in, they might accept it. But since Slashdot is an American site with American owners, who don't pretend to cater to a global audience, please don't complain if you find a uniquely American-centric story.
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As a freshman I wrote, compiled, and debugged my programs using gcc on my Linux box. Logging in from the lab. The TA saw what I was doing and said, "Hey, that's cool."
He was imitating Jeff K. Couldn't you tell that? :)
They already have. Did you check that Slashdot story about how PostgreSQL trounced Interbase, MySQL, and two unnamed commercial RDBMSs? How much you wanna bet that one of the unnamed databases is one of the default systems deployed in Corporate America?
Everybody knows that Alpha outperforms x86 and PPC for heavy duty stuff. True, the platform looks similar but the chip architecture is different and each chip is suited to different applications. Linux gives them all something in common. Linux may have been Alpha's salvation now that NT on Alpha is kaput.
To Mac zealots, if it isn't Macintosh, it isn't an OS. I think this article amounts to a bone thrown out to the Mac bigots who fear the encroachment of Unix geekdom on their pristine little environment.
Why not go both ways? I got a Yamaha SCSI CD-RW drive and don't regret it at all. My two HDD's are still IDE and I'll likely be buying more IDE's in the future. SCSI is currently a racket; expect prices to come down as demand increases. With CD burners becoming popular add-ins, demand will increase. Oh, and buy Adaptec. :) Good, low-end to midrange SCSI controllers at reasonable prices.
Well, see, here's the thing about Dragonball Z. It's CRAP. It's poorly written, poorly animated, like a big animated WWF match in space. And dubbing only makes it worse. There are far better examples of anime that you could start with, like Escaflowne or Nadesico. I got into anime from Robotech as a kid, because I liked how the individual episodes were woven into a long story line. (Heroes actually *died* in Robotech.) This is anime's big appeal: it avoids pandering to its audience and offers brilliant stories and beautiful artwork to the discerning viewer. There's a lot of crap too, like DBZ and Nurse Angel Ririka but you shouldn't judge all anime on series like those.
Take a small, Palm-like device and retrofit it with FPGA's that can be reprogrammed to turn it into a cell phone, pager, Web browser, e-mail terminal, GPS navigation system, shortwave radio, etc. etc. Of course the thing will be as thick as a Subway sandwich and wouldn't fit in your pocket anymore but hey, we've got convergence of nearly every electronic device imaginable!
Yeah, I guess that would make it an implementation of the Xtreme Markup Language? :)
If I'm to understand correctly, Microsoft of all companies is trying this with Office@K. Maybe we will at long last have universally readable Word docs. Don't hold your breath, though.
Wow, you sound like an old hand at this! Virtually every CPU has microcode. It's just not as accessible now as it was in the old days because it's stored in ROM located on the CPU itself. Apparently some recent x86 chipsets have the ability to slightly patch the CPU's mcirocode, thus adding or removing functionality. I don't know the details of that, however.
Of course, insurance against Ritz crackers carries a much higher premium than Wheat Thins or reg'lar ol' saltines.
:)
Hey... this puts a new spin on the name of Premium(tm) brand saltines!
In three-space I have actually met two or three true, dyed-in-the-wool hard-core females of the geek species, who can hack C++ with the best of 'em. Hot ones, too. It's an interesting reaction when a member of the tribe finds a female of his own kind out amongst the mundanes. Like female mechanics, however, female hackers are a rare treat. I believe it's because women are on average less interested in cars, computers, and other such techno-toys than men are. They tend not to be fascinated by things but by people. Again, on average. Your mileage may vary.
Guess it all fits into that psychological interplay between men and women. The most I'll ever hope for is someone who's sufficiently fascinated with one particular person, i.e., me. *sigh*
A company will only sell a powerful console for $200 if they can expect that the specs for the thing will be kept completely closed and proprietary, and that they will make a killing in licensing fees to developers. It's how the game console business works.
Outfits such as Walnut Creek have been distributing source code for use in Borland for years. If Borland had such a big beef with it they'd have done something about it by now.
Borland's big problem is with certain libraries (OWL, etc.) which were distributed in source and binary form with Borland C++. They're basically giving you free rein to link their libraries into binary-only software, but not to distribute the sources of those libraries along with their software.
Microsoft has been silent on the Wine issue, probably because it cannot run native-built Windows applications acceptably without a lot of tweaking. As soon as Microsoft Office on the Linux desktop via Wine becomes feasible, watch Microsoft bust out the attack lawyers and execute its Super Litigation Combo Death Move.
They have been silently aggressing against things like Wine, too, by breaking API compatibility and licensing software for Windows only in the EULA (except it's phrased as "only the operating system for which it was written" or somesuch).
... But all the *good* Dreamcast games run right on top of Sega's bios. WinCE (or, as I like to call it, Windows Mini-ME) sucks on PDA's, it sucks on Dreamcast, it sucks everywhere.
If someone would pick up ECOS or EROS and write some OpenGL/Mesa driver code for it, that would simply rock.
Mesa has not officially been certified as an implementation of OpenGL (which is expensive). However, it's close enough that SGI links to it on its official OpenGL page (http://www.opengl.org) as a viable open-source OpenGL solution.
Before the l33t Mac and Amiga zealots were around My father had a TRS-80 Model 16 computer from Tandy when I was a kid. The Model 16, released in 1982, was based around a 4-MHz Z80 (which was faster than the Z80-based models I, III, and IV) and a 6-MHz 68000 chip. It was the playstation 2 of its day: more powerful than most any desktop computer (it could even become a XENIX workstation) and fully back-compatible with the Model II. A great but largely unsung machine. 68k forever! :)
Exactly. We share and they hoard. We get warm fuzzy feelings about our sharing.... and they get lots and lots of money.
Carmack really feels that way about shrink-wrap licenses? That sure explains a lot. Remember this? "Thank you for playing DOOM. Remember, if you didn't pay for this copy, you are going directly to hell."
Saying a computer is just an appliance is a bit like saying a cat is just a beast, like a dog or iguana. Spend enough time around computers and cats, and you'll see that there's a bit more to them than that. (Maybe that is why, according to the Jargon File, "it is widely grokked that cats have the hacker nature.")
That said, regardless of your feelings on the iMac's design, it is in no way, shape, or form, the exclusive result of Apple's "innovation". They coupled the simple, one-piece form factor of IBM's PS/1 with the "melted-jellybean" design seen so faddishly often in cars and other devices nowadays. A great marketing move, in true Jobsian fashion, but for Apple to claim some sort of exclusive rights to it is ludicrous. Elements specific to the iMac's design might be trademarked, as is the little Apple logo or Nike swoosh, for example, but for them to sue anyone making a colorful clear-case computer is about as ridiculous as one-click patents.
...adults having sex with children is OK, but sitting down to a Q3 or UT fragfest is a Bad Thing that will surely corrupt your mind!
This is the same group that a few months ago, released a study saying that child molestation doesn't necessarily harm the child, and that we should really start calling it adult/child sex to avoid implicating our own, closed-minded moral system.
I'm sorry, but the shrink community doesn't carry a whole lot of credibility, to me.
Galaxy High! YES! I saw, like, one episode of that. It was kind of like "The Jetsons" meets "The Breakfast Club". Hey, remember Beverly Hills Teens? That show rocked because unlike its spiritual successor (90210) it didn't pretend to take itself seriously.
If you know of a geek site in the Netherlands then send it in, they might accept it. But since Slashdot is an American site with American owners, who don't pretend to cater to a global audience, please don't complain if you find a uniquely American-centric story.