Let us not forget that almost every framework you "should use" started out as a framework that "shouldn't be written." Only after enough people changed their mind, did the original author(s) become visionaries instead of "people who reinvented the wheel." I find that the tendency to "don't write that, it's already been written!" has been greatly blown out of proportion and people are allergic to actual software engineering. In other words, if they do more than extend / implement a predefined interface or glorified configuration on a single class instance... like heaven forbid they define an interface, base class, or object model with multiple things that derive it, then by god, they've gone too far! There is a time and place for frameworks, and realizing that the time and place isn't "every freak'n time" is just as important as not constantly reinventing the wheel.
I've never had an issue distinguishing search results from ads/sponsored results on any search engine. How about we crack down on commercials that try to pass themselves off as a news segment to get grandma's precious retirement money.
Don't confuse "pc gamer" with "power user." I hear a lot of people call themselves power users, but the real truth is their only "power" is their ability to constantly upgrade their pc every 3 months to play the latest game. I know this all too well being a seasoned software engineer that used to host huge 100+ person rented facility lan parties on a regular basis. Macbooks are extremely popular with developers and actual power users in a plethora of professions from graphics design, server development (c, c++, java), publishing, mobile development, etc. I hear this analogy from many games who think themselves hackers.
I'm not even remotely qualified to comment on this, but I seem to remember light being affected by gravity and thus the mass around it, where as neutrinos are virtually unaffected by normal matter. What this says to me is the neutrinos are showing us what the actual speed limit of the universe is compared to what we think it should be as an observer sitting on a giant ball of gravity rich mass. Basically, in space, they go the same speed, which is why the neutrinos and photons from a distant stellar event show up here at the same time, but on earth, the results might be slightly different.
My gut tells me that this will end up shoring up special relativity and perhaps adding a new understanding of our universe without shattering everything as so many are saying.
Some of you are really missing the point and calling this a troll / flamebait. The article has some very good points. It's not the linux desktop itself that is dead, it's the dream of being a major player like OSX or Windows is dead. Linux never WAS a major player, and its opportunities to become such have passed, or at least appear to have for the time being.
I gave up on a linux desktop a long time ago. I fought the good fight. I was there for FVWM, FVWM2, Afterstep, WindowMaker, Blackbox, Original Gnome and Original KDE, Gnome with Nautilus, KDE2, and KDE3. I was there for Netscape navigator gold, dosemu, wine, communicator, star office, openoffice, openoffice.org, mozilla, firefox, thunderbird, gcalc, gimp. Now I use my favorite apps from linux on windows or mac.
Why? Because I simply don't have time to futz with my desktop anymore. I'm an adult. I have a wife that needs attention. I have a house that needs attention. I have a son that needs attention. I have a full time job that takes most of my time. I have one, perhaps two hobbies that get any remaining time and screwing with my desktop to try and make it work at least sorta as good as OSX or windows is literally the very last thing I would ever do with my time now days. I suspect that there are others in this boat. I really never realized how much time I wasted on my *desktop* until I just started using XP or OSX -- oh, you mean I'm done -- awesome, now I can go do something I really care about.
...stopping reading the blurb on slashdot last week about the new position based system being secure because the people who previously said it wasn't secure changed their mind and said it was provably secure and then proceeded to use the words "cannot easily" to justify it being secure. Now, this week I see a commercial system that has been cracked because some how thresholds of likely hood were once again used. Anyone else see a trend?
While our state capital isn't the baddest of the bunch, it certainly is more than 'a town in kansas'. Article summary makes it sound like some random tiny 200 person town with one gas station and more banjos than computers, a dur.
Perhaps we need to think less about how they implemented the hardware faults to prove the concept and how an attacker may, in the future, implement the faults. There are technologies like strong EMP that we know disrupt electronic devices. Perhaps something with strong em/rf fields could aid in this. Perhaps somebody just takes up residence next door and plugs in a device that adds precision loads to the power distribution system that both buildings use. We've all seen the lights dim or go bright when a transformer pops down the street. There are many attack vectors for causing faults like this yet to be discovered too. There are already devices that cause computer based slot machines to pay out or alter the odds supposedly.
Unfortunately, they go up like a road flare when damaged, overcharged, or overdischarged (generally they just puff up, but extreme over discharge or charge will cause them to go off). A good short will do it too.
Cost and the fact that lipos are entrenched now with chargers everywhere. Classic first to market issues - the first product kind of sucks but gets an install base and the later ones have trouble making it in.
But that's for RC. What about phones and laptops? The switch from nicd to nimh to li wasn't that hard for them. They make new models all the time with whatever charger and battery they want. It's not like they are focusing on backwards compatibility with laptop batteries or have to contend with people saying "well, I've got 5 of these dell nimh batteries for this old laptop, I won't buy this new laptop with 5 times my old laptop's battery life because I'd be wasting these old nimh batteries" -- every laptop I've ever had basically had a totally new battery profile and if they changed chemistry on me I wouldn't care one bit.
Because it's not AC -- it's DC. There's already voltage stepping in the ESC that provides a lower (6 volts) voltage DC to the radio, servo, etc, but at a much lower current requirement. The drive motors operate, at times, at 120 amps @ 7.2 volts or more, especially in the larger classes such as 1/8 electric. We're talking 800 - 2000 watts. Good luck:)
In the rc car world, the two major types of batteries in use are lipo (lithium polymer) and nimh. Nimh has less energy density, self discharge, and requires some rest after discharge still to retain full capacity when charged. I run nimh due to reasons I won't go into, but I have my eye on lifepo4, or lithium iron phosphate. They are not only more robust than traditional li cells, they go off in much the same fashion as the batteries mentioned in the article. The disadvantage to them, and why they aren't 'the thing' in rc cars is that they have a voltage disadvantage. Given the strict regulation of motors in spec class racing, a voltage disadvantage is a huge issue. In other applications, where you could pick whatever voltage and number of cells to use, these batteries are awesome. In rc, their voltage makes you pick arranging them in series at a voltage level that is a disadvantage or adding another cell and making yourself have a huge advantage -- ie, their acceptance isn't based on technical merit but existing standards in racing.
Generally speaking, FOX is the one who likes to take stories and spin them in the worst possible light to forward their own agenda. I can see now that SLASHDOT does the same thing. How on earth do you equate Microsoft following the rules of the GPL as something bad? How on earth did we get here? Seriously -- there's now going to be a lack of trust?! Are you kidding me? Because they provided a prettified PR statement to go with it? This says *nothing* about their stance on linux -- it says something about their integrity as a company that obeys software licenses. We now have definitive proof that Microsoft at least works within and respects the GPL, but somehow today is a day of mistrust?
Simply amazing. I can only imagine what the folks at MS are thinking right now who see this article. I bet their not thinking "gee, that went well -- let's do it again!"
This like shooting the publishers clearing house folks on your door step when they bring you the big check -- "Thanks, but get the heck off mah properta!"
BF required me to upgrade my PC when it came out. When I finally got it working decently, I found that the 'revolutionary large maps' and 'revolutionary ability to control vehicles' was no more revolutionary that tribes outside of it's 'many years newer' pc requirements... not to mention its graphics and game play were pretty much sub-par compared to tribes.
Upgrading PC hardware to move from playing something 2d sprite like DOOM to something 3d polygon like QUAKE is perfectly acceptable. Upgrading PC hardware to move from simplistic 3d polygons and textures like QUAKE to something with far more complicated polygons, 3d effects, better textures, revolutionary environment, and new game play like BIOSHOCK is also perfectly acceptable. When games come out, and the only outwardly noticeable difference from everything else on the market is the title's name, yet it requires massive hardware upgrades, then that is failure, and that market deserves to die.
I don't know about dead, but it should be.
on
Is the Gaming PC Dead?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Game titles shouldn't drive hardware requirements. Outside of Portal, something I can play on my xbox 360, and I don't have to upgrade every 6 months to continue to play new titles, I haven't seen anything new from game makers other than new requirements for my machine to somehow be better to play the same dumb first person shooter remakes. Oh, need I mention that now days you even need a pretty kick'n system to play what amounts to MUDS? Yes, please die. While you're at it, make mouse and keyboard style FPS navigation a standard and supported option on consoles -- the claw is not acceptable. That would be gaming Utopia: A supported console that worked for a few years and continued to play the latest titles while also offering a control system that leveraged something other than my fine motor control abilities of the digits that spend 8 hours a day inaccurately whopping the damned space bar.
What am I missing here? How does distributing a GPL program that the sources is freely available for violate the GPL? Is there a concern that they have modified GS in some way and not contributed the changes to GS back to the community? It sounds like people are just wigging out because somebody making money distributed a GPL application in a perfectly legal way. If the issue is that GS has been modified (which I can't tell if it is or not), has anyone inquired to diebold to see if the source to the changed version of GS is available at no additional cost to those who acquire the voting machines? I believe that is the real question here.
----------------
1 MR. MASCHIO: That's okay. We would just like -- we
2 think it's appropriate for her to say, yes, I did this or, no,
3 I did not do this under oath.
4 The other thing is that --
5 THE COURT: First of all, you didn't file a verified
6 complaint, and she doesn't have to file a verified answer. So
7 she doesn't have to do anything under oath.
8 MR. MASCHIO: Well, okay. -------------
If I went back in time with my old 266 laptop and spoke leet speak... I'd get all the compu-hotties.
This should keep unwanted people off your system
on
Blank Keyboard
·
· Score: 1
For those of you who have people who come over and use your computer instead of spending time with the rest of the group... this keyboard is for you. That should drive them nuts!
I think it's obvious that we will get prosthetic bodies long before prosthetic brains. After all, we know how most of the body works, the brain on the other hand, is still mostly a mystery.
A few concrete examples:
Arm go bye bye.
Get prosthetic arm with elbow, wrist, and hand rotation and close action TODAY.
Leg go bye bye
Get prosthetic leg that runners use who have lost legs.
Half of brain go bye bye.
Go lay down, that's your option.
WHAT WHAT WHAT? I don't agree with this at all. Turning off the engine 'part of the way' -- what the heck is that... it's either running or not. IF it's running, you have power brakes and steering. If it's not running, you don't. It's a boolean operation here. Also, if you do turn it off, don't turn it off without first taking it out of gear or else you're going to slow down pretty quick;). Other than that, losing power steering and brakes at highway speeds will NOT make you lose control. At highway speeds, you do not need power steering at all. Power steering only really helps you at low speeds when turning the tires is hard. Same with the brakes. How often do you have to STOMP on the brakes to slow down on the highway. The brakes aren't going to be as effective, that's really it... just push a bit harder and your fine, it's not like they go out.
Just two weeks ago, my RSX thew it's drain plug, spraying oil all over the road and my exhaust (making large quantities of smoke) when I was going about 40. I thank my dealer for the experneice, they're the ones who changed the oil last. I pushed on the clutch and turned the key one position back to kill the engine instantly (this saved the engine). I then coasted to a turn in and turned in with a *bit* more effort on the wheel since I was slowing down... note that this was turning 90 degrees, you don't have to do this on the highway... all you have to do is pull over (barely changing direction). I then stopped too with my non power brakes. Oddly enough, I didn't fly into anything or blow up.
Another interesting tid bit about power steering at highway speeds. It turns out that my RSX cuts power assist at highway speeds by quite a bit to give you a more 'connected feel' to the road instead of the 'tap the wheel and fly in another direction' feel that some cars have. It's a feature that acura/honda markets! They obviously understand that you need much less power assist at highway speeds so it's not just me that thinks like this.
Slashdot Mirror
Let us not forget that almost every framework you "should use" started out as a framework that "shouldn't be written." Only after enough people changed their mind, did the original author(s) become visionaries instead of "people who reinvented the wheel." I find that the tendency to "don't write that, it's already been written!" has been greatly blown out of proportion and people are allergic to actual software engineering. In other words, if they do more than extend / implement a predefined interface or glorified configuration on a single class instance... like heaven forbid they define an interface, base class, or object model with multiple things that derive it, then by god, they've gone too far! There is a time and place for frameworks, and realizing that the time and place isn't "every freak'n time" is just as important as not constantly reinventing the wheel.
I've never had an issue distinguishing search results from ads/sponsored results on any search engine. How about we crack down on commercials that try to pass themselves off as a news segment to get grandma's precious retirement money.
About 50/50 at my current company. It's not like I've done a survey though.
Don't confuse "pc gamer" with "power user." I hear a lot of people call themselves power users, but the real truth is their only "power" is their ability to constantly upgrade their pc every 3 months to play the latest game. I know this all too well being a seasoned software engineer that used to host huge 100+ person rented facility lan parties on a regular basis. Macbooks are extremely popular with developers and actual power users in a plethora of professions from graphics design, server development (c, c++, java), publishing, mobile development, etc. I hear this analogy from many games who think themselves hackers.
I'm not even remotely qualified to comment on this, but I seem to remember light being affected by gravity and thus the mass around it, where as neutrinos are virtually unaffected by normal matter. What this says to me is the neutrinos are showing us what the actual speed limit of the universe is compared to what we think it should be as an observer sitting on a giant ball of gravity rich mass. Basically, in space, they go the same speed, which is why the neutrinos and photons from a distant stellar event show up here at the same time, but on earth, the results might be slightly different.
My gut tells me that this will end up shoring up special relativity and perhaps adding a new understanding of our universe without shattering everything as so many are saying.
Some of you are really missing the point and calling this a troll / flamebait. The article has some very good points. It's not the linux desktop itself that is dead, it's the dream of being a major player like OSX or Windows is dead. Linux never WAS a major player, and its opportunities to become such have passed, or at least appear to have for the time being.
I gave up on a linux desktop a long time ago. I fought the good fight. I was there for FVWM, FVWM2, Afterstep, WindowMaker, Blackbox, Original Gnome and Original KDE, Gnome with Nautilus, KDE2, and KDE3. I was there for Netscape navigator gold, dosemu, wine, communicator, star office, openoffice, openoffice.org, mozilla, firefox, thunderbird, gcalc, gimp. Now I use my favorite apps from linux on windows or mac.
Why? Because I simply don't have time to futz with my desktop anymore. I'm an adult. I have a wife that needs attention. I have a house that needs attention. I have a son that needs attention. I have a full time job that takes most of my time. I have one, perhaps two hobbies that get any remaining time and screwing with my desktop to try and make it work at least sorta as good as OSX or windows is literally the very last thing I would ever do with my time now days. I suspect that there are others in this boat. I really never realized how much time I wasted on my *desktop* until I just started using XP or OSX -- oh, you mean I'm done -- awesome, now I can go do something I really care about.
...stopping reading the blurb on slashdot last week about the new position based system being secure because the people who previously said it wasn't secure changed their mind and said it was provably secure and then proceeded to use the words "cannot easily" to justify it being secure. Now, this week I see a commercial system that has been cracked because some how thresholds of likely hood were once again used. Anyone else see a trend?
while walking home from school after teacher implements zero tolerance policy and confiscates condition-regulating candy.
I suppose it would take something terrible like the hypothetical situation above to put tolerance back into the system.
While our state capital isn't the baddest of the bunch, it certainly is more than 'a town in kansas'. Article summary makes it sound like some random tiny 200 person town with one gas station and more banjos than computers, a dur.
Perhaps we need to think less about how they implemented the hardware faults to prove the concept and how an attacker may, in the future, implement the faults. There are technologies like strong EMP that we know disrupt electronic devices. Perhaps something with strong em/rf fields could aid in this. Perhaps somebody just takes up residence next door and plugs in a device that adds precision loads to the power distribution system that both buildings use. We've all seen the lights dim or go bright when a transformer pops down the street. There are many attack vectors for causing faults like this yet to be discovered too. There are already devices that cause computer based slot machines to pay out or alter the odds supposedly.
Unfortunately, they go up like a road flare when damaged, overcharged, or overdischarged (generally they just puff up, but extreme over discharge or charge will cause them to go off). A good short will do it too.
Cost and the fact that lipos are entrenched now with chargers everywhere. Classic first to market issues - the first product kind of sucks but gets an install base and the later ones have trouble making it in.
But that's for RC. What about phones and laptops? The switch from nicd to nimh to li wasn't that hard for them. They make new models all the time with whatever charger and battery they want. It's not like they are focusing on backwards compatibility with laptop batteries or have to contend with people saying "well, I've got 5 of these dell nimh batteries for this old laptop, I won't buy this new laptop with 5 times my old laptop's battery life because I'd be wasting these old nimh batteries" -- every laptop I've ever had basically had a totally new battery profile and if they changed chemistry on me I wouldn't care one bit.
Because it's not AC -- it's DC. There's already voltage stepping in the ESC that provides a lower (6 volts) voltage DC to the radio, servo, etc, but at a much lower current requirement. The drive motors operate, at times, at 120 amps @ 7.2 volts or more, especially in the larger classes such as 1/8 electric. We're talking 800 - 2000 watts. Good luck :)
In the rc car world, the two major types of batteries in use are lipo (lithium polymer) and nimh. Nimh has less energy density, self discharge, and requires some rest after discharge still to retain full capacity when charged. I run nimh due to reasons I won't go into, but I have my eye on lifepo4, or lithium iron phosphate. They are not only more robust than traditional li cells, they go off in much the same fashion as the batteries mentioned in the article. The disadvantage to them, and why they aren't 'the thing' in rc cars is that they have a voltage disadvantage. Given the strict regulation of motors in spec class racing, a voltage disadvantage is a huge issue. In other applications, where you could pick whatever voltage and number of cells to use, these batteries are awesome. In rc, their voltage makes you pick arranging them in series at a voltage level that is a disadvantage or adding another cell and making yourself have a huge advantage -- ie, their acceptance isn't based on technical merit but existing standards in racing.
Generally speaking, FOX is the one who likes to take stories and spin them in the worst possible light to forward their own agenda. I can see now that SLASHDOT does the same thing. How on earth do you equate Microsoft following the rules of the GPL as something bad? How on earth did we get here? Seriously -- there's now going to be a lack of trust?! Are you kidding me? Because they provided a prettified PR statement to go with it? This says *nothing* about their stance on linux -- it says something about their integrity as a company that obeys software licenses. We now have definitive proof that Microsoft at least works within and respects the GPL, but somehow today is a day of mistrust?
Simply amazing. I can only imagine what the folks at MS are thinking right now who see this article. I bet their not thinking "gee, that went well -- let's do it again!"
This like shooting the publishers clearing house folks on your door step when they bring you the big check -- "Thanks, but get the heck off mah properta!"
Game FEATURES and PLAYABILITY.
Here's an example: Battlefield 1942.
BF required me to upgrade my PC when it came out. When I finally got it working decently, I found that the 'revolutionary large maps' and 'revolutionary ability to control vehicles' was no more revolutionary that tribes outside of it's 'many years newer' pc requirements... not to mention its graphics and game play were pretty much sub-par compared to tribes.
Upgrading PC hardware to move from playing something 2d sprite like DOOM to something 3d polygon like QUAKE is perfectly acceptable. Upgrading PC hardware to move from simplistic 3d polygons and textures like QUAKE to something with far more complicated polygons, 3d effects, better textures, revolutionary environment, and new game play like BIOSHOCK is also perfectly acceptable. When games come out, and the only outwardly noticeable difference from everything else on the market is the title's name, yet it requires massive hardware upgrades, then that is failure, and that market deserves to die.
Game titles shouldn't drive hardware requirements. Outside of Portal, something I can play on my xbox 360, and I don't have to upgrade every 6 months to continue to play new titles, I haven't seen anything new from game makers other than new requirements for my machine to somehow be better to play the same dumb first person shooter remakes. Oh, need I mention that now days you even need a pretty kick'n system to play what amounts to MUDS? Yes, please die. While you're at it, make mouse and keyboard style FPS navigation a standard and supported option on consoles -- the claw is not acceptable. That would be gaming Utopia: A supported console that worked for a few years and continued to play the latest titles while also offering a control system that leveraged something other than my fine motor control abilities of the digits that spend 8 hours a day inaccurately whopping the damned space bar.
What am I missing here? How does distributing a GPL program that the sources is freely available for violate the GPL? Is there a concern that they have modified GS in some way and not contributed the changes to GS back to the community? It sounds like people are just wigging out because somebody making money distributed a GPL application in a perfectly legal way. If the issue is that GS has been modified (which I can't tell if it is or not), has anyone inquired to diebold to see if the source to the changed version of GS is available at no additional cost to those who acquire the voting machines? I believe that is the real question here.
Sounds like a lot of jumping to conclusions here.
----------------
1 MR. MASCHIO: That's okay. We would just like -- we
2 think it's appropriate for her to say, yes, I did this or, no,
3 I did not do this under oath.
4 The other thing is that --
5 THE COURT: First of all, you didn't file a verified
6 complaint, and she doesn't have to file a verified answer. So
7 she doesn't have to do anything under oath.
8 MR. MASCHIO: Well, okay.
-------------
own3d
If I went back in time with my old 266 laptop and spoke leet speak... I'd get all the compu-hotties.
For those of you who have people who come over and use your computer instead of spending time with the rest of the group... this keyboard is for you. That should drive them nuts!
I think it's obvious that we will get prosthetic bodies long before prosthetic brains. After all, we know how most of the body works, the brain on the other hand, is still mostly a mystery.
A few concrete examples:
Arm go bye bye.
Get prosthetic arm with elbow, wrist, and hand rotation and close action TODAY.
Leg go bye bye
Get prosthetic leg that runners use who have lost legs.
Half of brain go bye bye.
Go lay down, that's your option.
I have ssh on my phone.
WHAT WHAT WHAT? I don't agree with this at all. Turning off the engine 'part of the way' -- what the heck is that... it's either running or not. IF it's running, you have power brakes and steering. If it's not running, you don't. It's a boolean operation here. Also, if you do turn it off, don't turn it off without first taking it out of gear or else you're going to slow down pretty quick ;). Other than that, losing power steering and brakes at highway speeds will NOT make you lose control. At highway speeds, you do not need power steering at all. Power steering only really helps you at low speeds when turning the tires is hard. Same with the brakes. How often do you have to STOMP on the brakes to slow down on the highway. The brakes aren't going to be as effective, that's really it... just push a bit harder and your fine, it's not like they go out.
Just two weeks ago, my RSX thew it's drain plug, spraying oil all over the road and my exhaust (making large quantities of smoke) when I was going about 40. I thank my dealer for the experneice, they're the ones who changed the oil last. I pushed on the clutch and turned the key one position back to kill the engine instantly (this saved the engine). I then coasted to a turn in and turned in with a *bit* more effort on the wheel since I was slowing down... note that this was turning 90 degrees, you don't have to do this on the highway... all you have to do is pull over (barely changing direction). I then stopped too with my non power brakes. Oddly enough, I didn't fly into anything or blow up.
Another interesting tid bit about power steering at highway speeds. It turns out that my RSX cuts power assist at highway speeds by quite a bit to give you a more 'connected feel' to the road instead of the 'tap the wheel and fly in another direction' feel that some cars have. It's a feature that acura/honda markets! They obviously understand that you need much less power assist at highway speeds so it's not just me that thinks like this.
Mkay...
At least that was MY first thought when I saw this story.