It is interresting how the hearts of all the techno-loving, junk-food-n-plastic eating hackers all feels sad for an animal. Perheaps not as strange, an OS has done it. But, to be honest, there are a lot of spiecis suffering from unlawfull chasing and from environmental destroying garbage. Please, everyone, try to help all of them, not just the one lyckily selected as the logo for Linux. They do have the same right to a good life filled with gras and baths (Or what the speiece in question values), as you have to one filled with cool hardware and free software!
What you missed, is that programmers are not a kind of engineers (well, some of them may be), but a kind of artists. What really makes the difference is that an engineer calculates, while an artists imaginates, and then builds. Most programmers I know off, does not draw any class diagrams, does not use the mathematical proofs, but imagines how their software will work, and start painting with text. Its a bit like writing a haiku - restricted, but free.
Anyway, a license more similar to GPL/LGPL for content would be nice. And a question - if I do GPL my website, is that legal? I do provide the source for it, so that shouldn't be the problem. And if that is okay, is a textfile okay? For that type of "program", there is no source. Would that render GPL unusable? Perheaps this is suitable for an Ask Slashdot?
An eycandy may of course be both beatifull and fast at the same kind. And it doesn't have to be overbloated with graphics. The only requerement is that it improves look a lot (And perheaps does not improve functionality that much, but that's not a requerement). Gdm and Kdm are such enhancements to Xdm - not much new functionality but a lot improved look.
Why couldn't they have produced a CPU unit that had some sort of bus, to which you could attach additional 'i/o units', each controling three input (sensors) and three output lines (motors)? That way, the basic unitwould not cost much more, but the expansion would be cheaper and easier... The märklin digital model train control-center implements this really good.
I think that the posts should be reversed, with the newest at top, as default. That would render the "Must comment first to be at the top"-attitude unsucessfull...
Nope, I don't. But IMHO, that stage is best performed with a) a mailinglist/IRC or (better) b) a big whiteboard... OK, I might be a bit narrowminded and detail-centered little techie - but hey, it's I who am to _implement_ what the management comes up with...
The problem, I think, is who developed the methodologies. IMHO, a bugzilla (modified to have fields for file revision numbers) and good CVS comments are what makes software producing an engineering. Science, it will never be, because CS is about discovering how to build things, and build the correctly, not how to make people build things correctly (however, that's another science).
Why do all marketers and programmers screw up with the version numbers? The first tends to jump from 1.0 to 2000 in just one version, while the latter seems to like endless sub-versions a'la Linux 2.2.0-pre30-ac5... I think i't all about what the swedish word "lagom" means - not too much, not too less, not extreme in any direction, not even extreme in not being extreme. Why can not everyone settle for versions that are just integer numbers that increments by one for each new version? The numbers does not matter anyway - they only serve to enable us to see which of two versions is the newest. How much newer or cooler it is can not by any means be read out of those numbers! Anyway, I've described another version naming system here. It describes a system that provides information about who is responsible for which version, and backward compatibility. If you wish to comment on it, drop me an e-mail!
The biggest problem for a newbie who used to windows, is not how the system works, but how the documentation "works". In the windows world, there is no such thing as a man-page or info-page or HOWTO that describes the overall concepts but help pages that describes how to answer a specific dialog. This is why windows users tend not to learn the concepts but the diteails, and then have problems when faced to new implementations. This hast to be explained to the newbie, or he/she will be very disapointed by the manuals, and keep asking silly questions. This is rarely done, and that's from where a lot of the Stupid Newbie That Should Be LARTed - attitude stems. Some people tend to show all the coolness of the shell at the first time, like if, for, while, background jobs, variables, etc. Do NOT do that, except from if the newbie is used to DOS.BAT-files or programming. Instaed, show the user the shell, say that he/she only has to type the name of a program and press enter, and it will start. Perheaps tell them about the trailing & that enables them to continue using the shell while the program is running. But only if you are in X (If so, show them an example with some X-program, with and without the &). As a general rule - do not show any of all the cool bells and wistles - it will only confuse the newbie. Do not select a cool window managare with a cool theme. Select an easy to use one, with a dairly simple theme, like fvwm2 with the standard config, or e with the standard config. By the same reason, do not show them Emacs at the first time. Tell them it does exists, and is very powerfull but a little bit complex. tell them to try to understund how to use the other tools first. You may show them some basic editor like gEdit, and some text processor like Lyx.
I do. I have a 12" TV, and a 21" monitor. Guess which one I use to whatch movies? By the way, 21", fixed sync, monitors are really cheap. My second hand one costed about 600 swedish crowns (1kr = 1/8 euro, I think)... A new "normal" 21" monitor costs about 8000 crowns. And of course, I can not afford a 21" TV!
At least, I am unable to reach that site. The MSFT site is reachable, however. And quite fun. The picture of the server rack looked just like any other server rack, except there was a MS BackOffice logo in the middle...
That comment was sure worth a load of "funny"-points, not just one as for now... If you have moderator acces, please give it some, because I don't have such access for now...
This is the second time I read trends here at/.. This time, it is the set of projects that atempts security by obscurity: First Napster, then DVD, and now John Carmack's ideas. This is never a good solution - someone will dissassemble the closed source program some time and implement a cheat. It's only a matter of time. The problem with Quake is that the client is smart. It is not just steered by the server, but acting by itself. If it was dumb, it would have been easy - there would be no way to cheat since you don't have access to the server. I don't have any solution right now, but there surely is one. An open-source one.
Note that what is fixed on a fixed sync monitor is the vertical and horizontal sync, i.e. the time it takes to draw one line, and to draw a screen (And therefore the number of lines is fixed). The time to draw one pixel is not fixed. This means that you may change the horizontal but not vertical resolution (Altough, you may still use DoubleScan). Also not that you should check your monitor manual for sync frequency ranges or values (Depending on if it's a multi-sync) before you create any modelines. Using too high frquences, or just the wrong ones may damage your monitor (But in reality such damage is very rare, and I've never experienced it, altough I've been doing things quite wrong a lot of times (When I didn't have any manual for the monitor))!
Sorry for not putting this into the main text, but I was in a hurry...
And it is totally impossible to use for configuring fixed sync monitors.
What I really would like is an extended Monitor database (There is one in the XF86Config dist, but it's too small), so that I would just type in the name of my monitor and be done.
It is strange that the Xfree86 manual is that bad at describing how modelines works. It even uses the word "magic"! In fact, the SVGATextMode docs are quite good at describing, by example, how they work. The description is in the file creating_textmodes_from_scratch.HOWTO in the SVGATextMode dist. In fact, modelines aren't as hard as people likes to say. I'l try to explain them roughtly (Please read the SVGATextMode doc before creating any modelines, though, while I won't cover all aspects): A modeline consists of five parts - name, dot pitch, horizontal values, vertical values and optional parameters. The name is a name to assign the modeline to be able to refere to it later on (In the screen section, for instance). The dot pitch is the number of pixels to draw each second, in Mhz (Note that you should check the abilities of your graphics card before setting this value). Each of the vertical and horizontal part has the same format. They consists of bfour values each - the size of the visible area, the sync start and end and the size of the total area. A monitor needs some extra "black" space at the end of each line and at the end of the screen. The visible area, plus this "margin" forms the total area. For most monitors, the unviewable area should be about 25% of the visible area horizontally, and about 5% of the visible area vertically. The sync is a signal sent after each completed line, and after each completed screen, in order for the monitor to start drawing pixels at the same moment as the graphics card starts sending pixels. Note that the start and end of the sync is stated in pixels, not microseconds (Remember that we know the number of pixels per second). This may crate the somewhat obscure situation of sync start and ends being fragments of pixels (i.g. 800.25). For most monitors, this signal is to be emitted just after the visible area. The vertical sync should be just a few lines for most monitors. The horizontal sync should be about 2 microseconds in with, or for really low-frequency monitors, somewhat longer (3ms). The start of the syncs is what centers your visible area on the monitor. You may experiment with adding or subtracting some microseconds to them after calculating them, to center the image nicely. Note that the start of the sync may _never_ be before the end of the visible are as well as the end of it may _never_ end after the end of the total area! As a last not, there is one parameter to add at the end of the modeline that I'l describe: DoubleScan. It forces the graphics card to draw each line twice. This will reduce the the resolution to the half vertically. This is to any use mostly when you need some low resolution (For displaying MPEG videos, for instance) on a fixed sync monitor.
Some things are illegal. Some things are illegal while a large portion of the population thinks they should be. Some things are illegal while a small group of well informed persons thinks they should be. Some things are illegal while a small group of uneducated bastards thinks they should be. Which of the reasons do you prefere?
But still, until it is illegal to talk about changing the law, it is better to shange the law than to break it.
Why? Because, now the censors have an ultimate argument -- "Just look at what they've done. Those are the evil 'hackers', and we must protect our children from them!".
Do never give politicians such arguments for free! You will allways regret it.
Why do they appologise, while they haven't corrected the problem yet? I run Netscape 4.5 on a RedHat 6.0 system, and was unallowed to enter their site right now. It told me I needed to run a PC (I do. But not with MS Windows)... So what reason do they have to appologise, and what reason do we have to accept their appologise? None.
Why ask the religious leaders? Why would those people be morew important or morally correct than others? Perheaps the scientists are religious? And of course, they are perheaps not going to ask anyone not schristian? Religion should never control science. That approach has been _proven_ to be bad (The earth is flat). If they need advice whetever to implement this, they should ask people from as many and as diversed groups as possible. And not ask the leaders of the groups, but the members.
Would you ask Bill Gates whetever to implement Linux?:)
Slashdot Mirror
It is interresting how the hearts of all the techno-loving, junk-food-n-plastic eating hackers all feels sad for an animal. Perheaps not as strange, an OS has done it. But, to be honest, there are a lot of spiecis suffering from unlawfull chasing and from environmental destroying garbage. Please, everyone, try to help all of them, not just the one lyckily selected as the logo for Linux. They do have the same right to a good life filled with gras and baths (Or what the speiece in question values), as you have to one filled with cool hardware and free software!
What you missed, is that programmers are not a kind of engineers (well, some of them may be), but a kind of artists. What really makes the difference is that an engineer calculates, while an artists imaginates, and then builds. Most programmers I know off, does not draw any class diagrams, does not use the mathematical proofs, but imagines how their software will work, and start painting with text. Its a bit like writing a haiku - restricted, but free.
Anyway, a license more similar to GPL/LGPL for content would be nice. And a question - if I do GPL my website, is that legal? I do provide the source for it, so that shouldn't be the problem. And if that is okay, is a textfile okay? For that type of "program", there is no source. Would that render GPL unusable? Perheaps this is suitable for an Ask Slashdot?
There allready is a license for open content. Check out www.opencontent.org.
Sorry to say, but I do love my graphical front-end to init for Linux, Aurora (Check out its homepage). So I'l have to nominate it...
An eycandy may of course be both beatifull and fast at the same kind. And it doesn't have to be overbloated with graphics. The only requerement is that it improves look a lot (And perheaps does not improve functionality that much, but that's not a requerement). Gdm and Kdm are such enhancements to Xdm - not much new functionality but a lot improved look.
...so I'l vote for ed. The One True Editor.
:)
/Do a s/(emacs)|(vi)/ed/ on the rest of the discussion, and you do the world a favor
Why couldn't they have produced a CPU unit that had some sort of bus, to which you could attach additional 'i/o units', each controling three input (sensors) and three output lines (motors)? That way, the basic unitwould not cost much more, but the expansion would be cheaper and easier... The märklin digital model train control-center implements this really good.
That should be the default, and no one would run for first post anymore...
I think that the posts should be reversed, with the newest at top, as default. That would render the "Must comment first to be at the top"-attitude unsucessfull...
Nope, I don't. But IMHO, that stage is best performed with a) a mailinglist/IRC or (better) b) a big whiteboard... OK, I might be a bit narrowminded and detail-centered little techie - but hey, it's I who am to _implement_ what the management comes up with...
The problem, I think, is who developed the methodologies. IMHO, a bugzilla (modified to have fields for file revision numbers) and good CVS comments are what makes software producing an engineering. Science, it will never be, because CS is about discovering how to build things, and build the correctly, not how to make people build things correctly (however, that's another science).
No, he's correct, too. Linux is allways at two versions at the same time - one developement and one stable.
Why do all marketers and programmers screw up with the version numbers? The first tends to jump from 1.0 to 2000 in just one version, while the latter seems to like endless sub-versions a'la Linux 2.2.0-pre30-ac5...
I think i't all about what the swedish word "lagom" means - not too much, not too less, not extreme in any direction, not even extreme in not being extreme.
Why can not everyone settle for versions that are just integer numbers that increments by one for each new version? The numbers does not matter anyway - they only serve to enable us to see which of two versions is the newest. How much newer or cooler it is can not by any means be read out of those numbers!
Anyway, I've described another version naming system here. It describes a system that provides information about who is responsible for which version, and backward compatibility. If you wish to comment on it, drop me an e-mail!
The biggest problem for a newbie who used to windows, is not how the system works, but how the documentation "works". In the windows world, there is no such thing as a man-page or info-page or HOWTO that describes the overall concepts but help pages that describes how to answer a specific dialog. This is why windows users tend not to learn the concepts but the diteails, and then have problems when faced to new implementations. .BAT-files or programming. Instaed, show the user the shell, say that he/she only has to type the name of a program and press enter, and it will start. Perheaps tell them about the trailing & that enables them to continue using the shell while the program is running. But only if you are in X (If so, show them an example with some X-program, with and without the &).
This hast to be explained to the newbie, or he/she will be very disapointed by the manuals, and keep asking silly questions. This is rarely done, and that's from where a lot of the Stupid Newbie That Should Be LARTed - attitude stems.
Some people tend to show all the coolness of the shell at the first time, like if, for, while, background jobs, variables, etc. Do NOT do that, except from if the newbie is used to DOS
As a general rule - do not show any of all the cool bells and wistles - it will only confuse the newbie. Do not select a cool window managare with a cool theme. Select an easy to use one, with a dairly simple theme, like fvwm2 with the standard config, or e with the standard config. By the same reason, do not show them Emacs at the first time. Tell them it does exists, and is very powerfull but a little bit complex. tell them to try to understund how to use the other tools first. You may show them some basic editor like gEdit, and some text processor like Lyx.
I do. I have a 12" TV, and a 21" monitor. Guess which one I use to whatch movies? By the way, 21", fixed sync, monitors are really cheap. My second hand one costed about 600 swedish crowns (1kr = 1/8 euro, I think)... A new "normal" 21" monitor costs about 8000 crowns. And of course, I can not afford a 21" TV!
At least, I am unable to reach that site. The MSFT site is reachable, however. And quite fun. The picture of the server rack looked just like any other server rack, except there was a MS BackOffice logo in the middle...
That comment was sure worth a load of "funny"-points, not just one as for now... If you have moderator acces, please give it some, because I don't have such access for now...
This is the second time I read trends here at /.. This time, it is the set of projects that atempts security by obscurity: First Napster, then DVD, and now John Carmack's ideas. This is never a good solution - someone will dissassemble the closed source program some time and implement a cheat. It's only a matter of time.
The problem with Quake is that the client is smart. It is not just steered by the server, but acting by itself. If it was dumb, it would have been easy - there would be no way to cheat since you don't have access to the server.
I don't have any solution right now, but there surely is one. An open-source one.
Note that what is fixed on a fixed sync monitor is the vertical and horizontal sync, i.e. the time it takes to draw one line, and to draw a screen (And therefore the number of lines is fixed). The time to draw one pixel is not fixed. This means that you may change the horizontal but not vertical resolution (Altough, you may still use DoubleScan).
Also not that you should check your monitor manual for sync frequency ranges or values (Depending on if it's a multi-sync) before you create any modelines. Using too high frquences, or just the wrong ones may damage your monitor (But in reality such damage is very rare, and I've never experienced it, altough I've been doing things quite wrong a lot of times (When I didn't have any manual for the monitor))!
Sorry for not putting this into the main text, but I was in a hurry...
And it is totally impossible to use for configuring fixed sync monitors.
What I really would like is an extended Monitor database (There is one in the XF86Config dist, but it's too small), so that I would just type in the name of my monitor and be done.
It is strange that the Xfree86 manual is that bad at describing how modelines works. It even uses the word "magic"! In fact, the SVGATextMode docs are quite good at describing, by example, how they work. The description is in the file creating_textmodes_from_scratch.HOWTO in the SVGATextMode dist.
In fact, modelines aren't as hard as people likes to say. I'l try to explain them roughtly (Please read the SVGATextMode doc before creating any modelines, though, while I won't cover all aspects):
A modeline consists of five parts - name, dot pitch, horizontal values, vertical values and optional parameters. The name is a name to assign the modeline to be able to refere to it later on (In the screen section, for instance). The dot pitch is the number of pixels to draw each second, in Mhz (Note that you should check the abilities of your graphics card before setting this value). Each of the vertical and horizontal part has the same format. They consists of bfour values each - the size of the visible area, the sync start and end and the size of the total area.
A monitor needs some extra "black" space at the end of each line and at the end of the screen. The visible area, plus this "margin" forms the total area. For most monitors, the unviewable area should be about 25% of the visible area horizontally, and about 5% of the visible area vertically.
The sync is a signal sent after each completed line, and after each completed screen, in order for the monitor to start drawing pixels at the same moment as the graphics card starts sending pixels.
Note that the start and end of the sync is stated in pixels, not microseconds (Remember that we know the number of pixels per second). This may crate the somewhat obscure situation of sync start and ends being fragments of pixels (i.g. 800.25).
For most monitors, this signal is to be emitted just after the visible area. The vertical sync should be just a few lines for most monitors. The horizontal sync should be about 2 microseconds in with, or for really low-frequency monitors, somewhat longer (3ms).
The start of the syncs is what centers your visible area on the monitor. You may experiment with adding or subtracting some microseconds to them after calculating them, to center the image nicely.
Note that the start of the sync may _never_ be before the end of the visible are as well as the end of it may _never_ end after the end of the total area!
As a last not, there is one parameter to add at the end of the modeline that I'l describe: DoubleScan. It forces the graphics card to draw each line twice. This will reduce the the resolution to the half vertically. This is to any use mostly when you need some low resolution (For displaying MPEG videos, for instance) on a fixed sync monitor.
Some things are illegal. Some things are illegal while a large portion of the population thinks they should be. Some things are illegal while a small group of well informed persons thinks they should be. Some things are illegal while a small group of uneducated bastards thinks they should be. Which of the reasons do you prefere?
But still, until it is illegal to talk about changing the law, it is better to shange the law than to break it.
Why? Because, now the censors have an ultimate argument -- "Just look at what they've done. Those are the evil 'hackers', and we must protect our children from them!".
Do never give politicians such arguments for free! You will allways regret it.
Why do they appologise, while they haven't corrected the problem yet? I run Netscape 4.5 on a RedHat 6.0 system, and was unallowed to enter their site right now. It told me I needed to run a PC (I do. But not with MS Windows)... So what reason do they have to appologise, and what reason do we have to accept their appologise? None.
Why ask the religious leaders? Why would those people be morew important or morally correct than others? Perheaps the scientists are religious? And of course, they are perheaps not going to ask anyone not schristian? Religion should never control science. That approach has been _proven_ to be bad (The earth is flat). If they need advice whetever to implement this, they should ask people from as many and as diversed groups as possible. And not ask the leaders of the groups, but the members.
:)
Would you ask Bill Gates whetever to implement Linux?