Minimsing the window causes Windows to reclaim RAM, yes, but if that RAM's actually still in use then when you restore the window it'll just claim it back again (or if it's actively in use (eg by a thread) it'll claim it back immediately)
Besides which, that only frees physical RAM, it doesn't touch the overall VM usage.
Well, that pretty much proves his point - I remember the original story, but not the retraction, and I actually have an interest in such things.
I for one support these guys waiting until they were sure of their data before going public; that's the way it's supposed to work. Before making claims, make sure your data support them...
If you put your pictures up on your http site even if you don't publish the link anywhere you're giving your consent for people to connect and look at your pictures. Not just your consent... your hardware, which is your stand-in online, is actively doing it.
Minor quibble - there's nothing active about it. The server sits there passively waiting for requests to serve. It doesn't actively seek out clients.
Your cell phone for example is a very similar device. You drive around, it gets a good connection to a nearby tower, and you make your call.
You don't get extra permission to use that tower, you assume because your phone says its ok that its ok.
Actually I assume that it's ok for me to connect and use the tower because I pay Orange £25 a month for 'phone service and they've not informed me of any towers I can't use or areas that I can't use my 'phone in.
Fair's fair - every time there's a Windows-related article, the Linux zealots pipe up and try to convince us all that we'd all be so much better off running Linux.
Look, the article is about how easy to use this particular distro is, and how it runs many Windows apps. The OP says that while that may be true, it doesn't run the apps he wants to run (games), so it's not for him. How is that not a valid comment? (Other than that it doesn't pander to your particular prejudices, that is)
That's pretty much exactly what I was thinking. No-one can seriously argue that Linux gaming holds a candle to Windows gaming. Yes, as the pedants will point out, a number of great games have been ported, and more still work (or mostly work) under Wine or Transgaming.
Well, that number is a tiny fraction of the number available for Windows. That's not a bad thing (unless gaming is your thing), it's just the way it is. To mod down someone pointing out that, for them, it's a show stopper is just asinine.
And if not outright outlaw Linux, at least make sure only generic whitebox motherboards from Taiwan run it.
Wrong way round, I suspect - everything will be able to run Linux, but those machines running Linux won't be able to run the code required to access the protected content.
MS et al can only force this sort of thing through with the backing of the media companies and their lobbying, and the media companies don't give two shits about Linux. Hell, you may even see Linux versions of the apps and neessary supporting code (closed source, of course). The media companies won't want to miss out on the potential revenue if the OS gets a large enough install base.
Apple already doesn't treat customers like scum the way Microsoft does
Care to give an example of how MS is treating us like scum? Maybe I'm just used to being mistreated, but I really can't work out what you're talking about here.
You pay just as much or more in the end trying to secure a Windows machine properly.
Excuse me? Both my firewall and my av software were free.
And I don't see Apple hacking its OS so thirdparty stuff won't run; the only case I've heard of where they did that was to disable Menu Extras, but I've never had an issue with that.
Sure - "DOS ain't done til Lotus don't run". Got any recent examples of MS doing this? (Third party stuff being broken by the new security measures in XP SP2 doesn't count, as it shouldn't have been working in the first place)
You can also uninstall anything you want to remove -- don't like Apple's browser? You can remove it and select a different default. And so on.
True, I can't uninstall IE or WMP, etc - but equally I don't have to use them if I don't want to. Sure, they take up disk space, but I have a 60GB drive, they use a tiny fraction of that. In the consumer arena, I've not seen a drive smaller than about 40GB on sale for a long time (discounting the ~37GB Raptor, but that's only barely a consumer drive)
Most people think that Apple, much like Google, can do no harm and people won't revolt or get angry over extensive use of restrictive technology.
Actually, I would hazard a guess that most people think nothing of the sort. Sure, most people here think that, but the slashdot readership is a small fraction of the total computer using public, and most people simply don't think about that sort of thing.
Regarding IBM, it's because they (currently) support Linux and so can do no wrong in the eyes of most slashbots. They all conveniently forget that IBM supports Linux and open source only because it suits their needs to do so - were that to change, their support would vanish. They also all conveniently forget that not that long ago Big Blue were the Big Evil.
No, absolutely not. They consider that sex other than for the purposes of procreation is a sin - a devout Catholic is not allowed to have sex except if trying to have kids. No contraception, no masturbation even, nothing.
Firstly what happens if the provably best algorithm is patented?
Well, in my opinion algorithms shouldn't be patentable, as the implementation is covered by copyright. In this situation, however, I suggest that you find another algorithm that is good enough and use that instead. It's not like there's any shortage of them...
I do take your point ("if everything's patented, you're shafted"), but I simply don't think that's a likely problem.
Sued by who, on what grounds? We're not talking about the Open Group taking a Windows install disk, running off a few thousand copies and stamping "UNIX(tm)" on the CDs. We're talking about them officially announcing that "MS Windows has passed our suite of compliance tests and can now be considered a full UNIX(tm) system".
A perfect example is log4j. That whole package is riddled with design pattern stuff where a simple PrintStream with a loglevel member would have been perfect for 9/10 apps.
Well, that's as may be, but log4j has been my company's official logging framework for the last couple of years, and in that time all we've ever had to do with it is:
1) create a static instance of a Logger in each class that needs to log stuff 2) call the appropriate logging method to output log lines (eg logger.debug(), logger.info(), etc)
So while I'm not saying that it isn't some huge mass of over-engineered code, you most certainly don't have to *use* it in that way.
Why on earth would you do that? I appreciate that you're just providing an example of how over-use of patterns can screw code up, but if someone on my team wrote code like that then they'd be rewriting it the moment I saw it.
As with all things, you can take pattern usage too far. Doing so is not unique to patterns, and as in other situations, is the mark of a bad programmer. Bad programmers are going to be bad whatever tools you give them.
And google actually wrote the search engine highlighting at least. You see. Google innovated, they invented new ways of doing things (obvious or not) and wanted to eeek as much of an edge from their efforts as possible (and counter Microsofts course of action).
Are you seriously suggesting that google invented highlighting of matching terms in search results?
It's a soundbite. It's meant to be short, snappy and to the point, not necessarily legally accurate.
If the case goes to court with these people charged with theft, then you will have reason to complain, but that's unlikely (because they'd be aquited, at least on that charge)
If they kept merging mainline changes into their internal codeset during that year of secret development, it would no longer have a year's worth of changes in it, it would only have enhancements
Well, that really depends on what they were working on. Entirely new functionality is still entirely new functionality whether you've applied other changes to other parts of the distro or not.
Also, if I was going to do this, I'd pick on a single distro and essentially fork it. How many releases does the averge distro make in a year? One? That's not a huge difference, and the biggest difference between distro releases is usually the kernel, KDE and gnome versions plus some distro-specific tools which are often not GPLed anyway (and so useless to me in this hypothetical situation).
I've not seen very many phishing mails, but most of those that I have seen have indeed had dedicated domains, generally chosen to be similar to that of the site being impersonated.
Actually, at that many downloads, it's safe to assume that a lot of "normal" people are using it too, in which case compact probably isn't one of the key reasons anymore.
Slashdot Mirror
Minimsing the window causes Windows to reclaim RAM, yes, but if that RAM's actually still in use then when you restore the window it'll just claim it back again (or if it's actively in use (eg by a thread) it'll claim it back immediately)
Besides which, that only frees physical RAM, it doesn't touch the overall VM usage.
Well, that pretty much proves his point - I remember the original story, but not the retraction, and I actually have an interest in such things.
I for one support these guys waiting until they were sure of their data before going public; that's the way it's supposed to work. Before making claims, make sure your data support them...
If you put your pictures up on your http site even if you don't publish the link anywhere you're giving your consent for people to connect and look at your pictures. Not just your consent... your hardware, which is your stand-in online, is actively doing it.
Minor quibble - there's nothing active about it. The server sits there passively waiting for requests to serve. It doesn't actively seek out clients.
Your cell phone for example is a very similar device. You drive around, it gets a good connection to a nearby tower, and you make your call.
You don't get extra permission to use that tower, you assume because your phone says its ok that its ok.
Actually I assume that it's ok for me to connect and use the tower because I pay Orange £25 a month for 'phone service and they've not informed me of any towers I can't use or areas that I can't use my 'phone in.
Firefox garbage collects? I can't say that I've ever seen it release ram once it's been allocated it, even after closing tabs.
Fair's fair - every time there's a Windows-related article, the Linux zealots pipe up and try to convince us all that we'd all be so much better off running Linux.
Look, the article is about how easy to use this particular distro is, and how it runs many Windows apps. The OP says that while that may be true, it doesn't run the apps he wants to run (games), so it's not for him. How is that not a valid comment? (Other than that it doesn't pander to your particular prejudices, that is)
That's pretty much exactly what I was thinking. No-one can seriously argue that Linux gaming holds a candle to Windows gaming. Yes, as the pedants will point out, a number of great games have been ported, and more still work (or mostly work) under Wine or Transgaming.
Well, that number is a tiny fraction of the number available for Windows. That's not a bad thing (unless gaming is your thing), it's just the way it is. To mod down someone pointing out that, for them, it's a show stopper is just asinine.
And if not outright outlaw Linux, at least make sure only generic whitebox motherboards from Taiwan run it.
Wrong way round, I suspect - everything will be able to run Linux, but those machines running Linux won't be able to run the code required to access the protected content.
MS et al can only force this sort of thing through with the backing of the media companies and their lobbying, and the media companies don't give two shits about Linux. Hell, you may even see Linux versions of the apps and neessary supporting code (closed source, of course). The media companies won't want to miss out on the potential revenue if the OS gets a large enough install base.
Apple already doesn't treat customers like scum the way Microsoft does
Care to give an example of how MS is treating us like scum? Maybe I'm just used to being mistreated, but I really can't work out what you're talking about here.
You pay just as much or more in the end trying to secure a Windows machine properly.
Excuse me? Both my firewall and my av software were free.
And I don't see Apple hacking its OS so thirdparty stuff won't run; the only case I've heard of where they did that was to disable Menu Extras, but I've never had an issue with that.
Sure - "DOS ain't done til Lotus don't run". Got any recent examples of MS doing this? (Third party stuff being broken by the new security measures in XP SP2 doesn't count, as it shouldn't have been working in the first place)
You can also uninstall anything you want to remove -- don't like Apple's browser? You can remove it and select a different default. And so on.
True, I can't uninstall IE or WMP, etc - but equally I don't have to use them if I don't want to. Sure, they take up disk space, but I have a 60GB drive, they use a tiny fraction of that. In the consumer arena, I've not seen a drive smaller than about 40GB on sale for a long time (discounting the ~37GB Raptor, but that's only barely a consumer drive)
Most people think that Apple, much like Google, can do no harm and people won't revolt or get angry over extensive use of restrictive technology.
Actually, I would hazard a guess that most people think nothing of the sort. Sure, most people here think that, but the slashdot readership is a small fraction of the total computer using public, and most people simply don't think about that sort of thing.
Regarding IBM, it's because they (currently) support Linux and so can do no wrong in the eyes of most slashbots. They all conveniently forget that IBM supports Linux and open source only because it suits their needs to do so - were that to change, their support would vanish. They also all conveniently forget that not that long ago Big Blue were the Big Evil.
No, absolutely not. They consider that sex other than for the purposes of procreation is a sin - a devout Catholic is not allowed to have sex except if trying to have kids. No contraception, no masturbation even, nothing.
Firstly what happens if the provably best algorithm is patented?
Well, in my opinion algorithms shouldn't be patentable, as the implementation is covered by copyright. In this situation, however, I suggest that you find another algorithm that is good enough and use that instead. It's not like there's any shortage of them...
I do take your point ("if everything's patented, you're shafted"), but I simply don't think that's a likely problem.
Sued by who, on what grounds? We're not talking about the Open Group taking a Windows install disk, running off a few thousand copies and stamping "UNIX(tm)" on the CDs. We're talking about them officially announcing that "MS Windows has passed our suite of compliance tests and can now be considered a full UNIX(tm) system".
Who would (or could) sue them for that?
A perfect example is log4j. That whole package is riddled with design pattern stuff where a simple PrintStream with a loglevel member would have been perfect for 9/10 apps.
Well, that's as may be, but log4j has been my company's official logging framework for the last couple of years, and in that time all we've ever had to do with it is:
1) create a static instance of a Logger in each class that needs to log stuff
2) call the appropriate logging method to output log lines (eg logger.debug(), logger.info(), etc)
So while I'm not saying that it isn't some huge mass of over-engineered code, you most certainly don't have to *use* it in that way.
Why on earth would you do that? I appreciate that you're just providing an example of how over-use of patterns can screw code up, but if someone on my team wrote code like that then they'd be rewriting it the moment I saw it.
As with all things, you can take pattern usage too far. Doing so is not unique to patterns, and as in other situations, is the mark of a bad programmer. Bad programmers are going to be bad whatever tools you give them.
COMPAQ, MAKERS OF THE CRAPPIEST COMPUTERS SINCE PACKARD BELL
While I'd agree that Compaq makes some awful computers, my gf's Packard Bell is ok - good performance, silent, okay styling.
Admittedly, both the motherboard and the hard drive died after about 18 months...
A good carpenter has lots of tools and uses the most suitable tool(s) for each task.
Yes, that's exactly what he does - he does not use "as many as possible". Sometimes, a single tool will suffice, sometimes several are called for.
So it is with programming; blindly using as many languages and technologies as possible is as foolish as knowing only one.
And google actually wrote the search engine highlighting at least. You see. Google innovated, they invented new ways of doing things (obvious or not) and wanted to eeek as much of an edge from their efforts as possible (and counter Microsofts course of action).
Are you seriously suggesting that google invented highlighting of matching terms in search results?
It's a soundbite. It's meant to be short, snappy and to the point, not necessarily legally accurate.
If the case goes to court with these people charged with theft, then you will have reason to complain, but that's unlikely (because they'd be aquited, at least on that charge)
If they kept merging mainline changes into their internal codeset during that year of secret development, it would no longer have a year's worth of changes in it, it would only have enhancements
Well, that really depends on what they were working on. Entirely new functionality is still entirely new functionality whether you've applied other changes to other parts of the distro or not.
Also, if I was going to do this, I'd pick on a single distro and essentially fork it. How many releases does the averge distro make in a year? One? That's not a huge difference, and the biggest difference between distro releases is usually the kernel, KDE and gnome versions plus some distro-specific tools which are often not GPLed anyway (and so useless to me in this hypothetical situation).
Since when do phishers set up dedicated domains?
I've not seen very many phishing mails, but most of those that I have seen have indeed had dedicated domains, generally chosen to be similar to that of the site being impersonated.
Actually, at that many downloads, it's safe to assume that a lot of "normal" people are using it too, in which case compact probably isn't one of the key reasons anymore.
In what way is the iTunes DRM draconian in nature? You can even burn the songs to CD.