You've never used a mail client that supports threading?!
The main thing that I bemoan having been effectively forced to switch to Outbreak at work is the lack of support for email threading. Previously, *every* client I have *ever* used for any amount of time has supported it, in the 9 or so years that I've had a mail account.
To my mind, not supporting threading simply disqualifies a program from being a serious mail client, no matter what other features it may support. (There are others, too, such as support for multiple accounts, and some sort of filtering mechanism)
People had bad enough trouble confusing Java and Javascript
That's Netscape's fault though, not Sun's. If you really want to blame Sun, blame them for not preventing Netscape from using the name, assuming that they ever could have done.
"In the next version, we promise we'll fix all the library crap! And the performance issues! And..."
Go on then, I'll bite - give me some examples of "all the library crap", and some real-world examples of performance sucking on a modern computer system (eg a 2GHz+ proc and half a gig or so of RAM - hell, if *I* have a system like that, it's distinctly mediocre...)
Because that will take time, and replacing enough noisy vehicles with quieter ones will take a very long time, and in the meantime everyone affected will continue to suffer growing noise levels.
This way, the governments help the citizenry in the short term, while others (academia and/or r&d depts of companies) can deal with the longer term. This work is complementary to that one - neither can replace the other.
Unless, of course, your job involves 3d graphics. Kinda sucks to be in that position doesn't it? Forced to not use Linux because companies are scared to release closed-source drivers because of the potential backlash from thousands of screaming slashdotters...
Most drivers simply push data to the right place and fiddle with registers in the right way. There is nothing the competitor wouldn't have already thought off.
Well, given that most drivers are colsed-source, especially those for complex hardware like graphics cards, I'd love to know how you know that.
Even if you work writing closed-source drivers, I challenge your assertion that *most* of them are simple, as you won't have seen the vast majority.
More than that, last I heard NVidia was under NDA from one or more third parties concerning some of the code in their drivers. They simply can't release it, as it essentially isn't theirs to release.
but if you want to get hardware acceleration on another architecture, you're on your own.
And if you wanted hardware accel on one of the currently-supported platforms, but Nvidia didn't release any drivers at all, you'd still be on your own.
I understand where you're coming from, but I'm firmly in the "I just want my expensive hardware to work properly" camp.
SO, if the project manager is an architect, yes he is more advanced than the coder.
That's true, but "architect" and "project manager" are different jobs. You may have one person performing both roles, but they're different skill sets, with only a little overlap.
An architect designs the application/project/whatever, at least on a code level, and quite possibly including hardware, network details, etc. A project manager, managers the project - liasing with clients, helping gather requirements, ensuring team members are fully-booked but not over-booked with work, keeping an eye on the deadline and financials, etc. So yeah, some overlap - an architect will need to talk to the client to find out their requirements, etc, but may well not be concerned with making sure that all the programmers have enough to do.
Like I said, the two roles may be being performed by the same person, but there's no reason to suppose that that's the case. I've never actually worked with a technical project manager, let alone one who could do an architect's job. (Conversely, I would make a mediocre project manager, at least at the moment)
Yes, I realise that - hence my comments about it not needing to be that way. It doesn't really matter, though, as the demo is unplayable on hardware that they consider to be "sub-standard". As you say, it could have been for any reason, and I didn't mean to imply that it was DX9's fault, as it most certainly isn't.
It is, however, an example of a DX9 app that does not degrade gracefully. It isn't DX9's fault, but that won't matter to the guy trying to play it (who, of course, will anyway blame the game, not DX9)
DX9 is backwards compatible with even my lowly NV25 and MX cards... Its just like in the days of MMX vs NON MMX. IF you had MMX it ran faster, if you didn't it never wouldn't work for you.. just would be slower.
Now, in general you are correct - however, the Deus Ex 2 demo refused to run on my girlfriend's PC because it lacked support for pixel shaders (v1.1, iirc). That machine has the latest DX installed, but only has a GeForce 4 MX. My machine, with a Ti 200, runs the demo fine.
Perhaps it doesn't have to be that way, and I realise that it's only a demo, but that's the way it is at the moment.
Also, specifically addressing your MMX comment - I seem to remember Unreal refusing to run on my PC at the time, which had a Cyrix PR166 (with no MMX support), precisely because of the lack of MMX support.
who don't know, and don't care, how the domain is setup, or how our print server is administered
I'm a Java programmer, doing back-end code for websites. Why should I care about how you've set up your domain, or how you admin the printers? My code isn't going anywhere near them.
Now, assuming that by "cluster" you mean "group of related machines that run the application, with load balancing, hot fail-over, etc", then yeah, I care, and I know how ours work too. But the printers? Give me a break. As long as they work when I need them, that's all I need to know - and keeping them that way is someone else's job. I'm not belittling it in the slightest - no printer, no signed contracts, no work. It's just none of my concern.
I have pretty good (short range) eyesight, and I have trouble reading that. Surely it's against some anti-discrimination law or other? Anyone with poor eyesight would be unable to make that out, and if that's the only opportunity you have to read the terms before purchasing, it's at least immoral, if not illegal.
Re:$299 is financed at 21.7% APR
on
AOL's $299 PC
·
· Score: 1
I would.
This time last year, I bought my girlfriend a PC on a finance deal. It gave us a year's interest free credit period, if we paid it off in full during that year. If not, then back-dated interest charges of around 20% kicked in, as well as the usual monthly payments.
Damn right I paid that sucker off before the due date!
For that sort of amount ($299 or ~200GBP), where I could just about spring for it all at once, that sort of a deal would be good to spread the cost across a pay day. That is, buy the thing a little before you get paid, and only take half the hit from each pay packet.
why not also go after the firearms industry, because people get shot by guns?
Because the firearms industry is (relatively) huge, has lots of money, generates a lot of tax revenue, and has a few volunteer groups campaigning against it. In contrast, file-sharing tech is (relatively) tiny, has next to no money, is used by people to avoid paying for stuff and therefore generating tax revenue*, and has large, multinational groups with lots of money campaigning against it. Logic doesn't come into it, money does.
* Yes, I know, it has legitmate uses too, but they don't generate any tax revenue either
That sounds more like a DNS hijacking than a break in, though - that could have happened to your ISP's DNS servers, and almost certainly didn't involve anything owned or maintained by MS.
Also what happens if you upgrade to longhorn 2010 do you lose access to those files. it is a standard microsoft tatic.
Yeah, I lost all my files each and every time I upgraded Windows or Word... </sarcasm>
If that was the case, then no-one would upgrade, would they? What generally happens is that new versions of Office default to saving documents in the latest version of the format (of course!), which is not always readable by previous versions. Thus, those who have not upgraded need to, or have hassles opening documents authored by those who have.
My software upgrade causing you problems, giving you another reason to upgrade, is a good thing for MS, as it encourages sales. My software upgrade giving me problems is a bad thing, as it discourages them.
Everyone I knows hate it due to the fact that one has to call Microsoft Support every once in a while.
My girlfriend's PC has been running a (pre-installed) copy of XP Home for a little over a year now, and we've not had to call MS Support once. My PC has been running XP Pro since January, and despite futzing around with hardware, I've not had to call MS Support either, although I did have to reactive it once. That was fine, though - I did it electronically with no hassles at all.
I don't know how he's going to get around this from home (obviously he can send it using our uni mail server when he's at work).
Plenty of possibilities:
1) stagger sending - send 15 every 10 minutes. A real pain, but it'll work, unless they lower the limit again 2) have an alias set up on the uni mail server, that expands to all the relevant users, and send a single mail to it 3) have a mailing list set up on the uni mail server, and send a single mail to it 4) set up a modem on a machine in his office, and dial in to that rather than use the ISP
And that's just off the top of my head having just got up. Don't get me wrong, for people in his situation, the email limit is going to be a pain, but it's hardly insurmountable.
Not to detract from your point (I'm sure you had one in there somewhere), but you do realise that the vast majority of (non-Aboriginal) Australians are descended from the guards and other staff, not the convicts, don't you? Convict life expectancy wasn't terribly high, while the staff were (naturally) looked after quite well.
That's even ignoring the fact that everyone involved is long since dead... "people entirely by convicts" indeed. Oh for mod-points.
So instead of stealing the password the intruder has to take the extraordinary step of stealing the key.
Which, of course, is a file, located on a disk or similar medium somewhere - you can't just guess it or sniff a network for it. Furthermore, even when you have the key, you still need the passphrase.
because you have a hard time enforcing things like password expiration (just how long can someone use that stolen key to get into your system?)
Well, you could always have an entry in root's crontab to delete a user's ssh keys every so often, forcing them to generate new ones. Of course, they wouldn't be able to login (via ssh) until they did so, so it's not exactly the same. The key-killing script could generate a new key-pair, PGP-encrypt a copy and mail them to a known email address. That way you'd have to compromise the user's email *and* PGP keys to get their ssh keys, which is starting to look like a lot of work.
Don't forget that security is all about making doing something more effort than it's worth - no security is perfect, and very little is impossible, given sufficient resources and skill.
Sure, you can live without entertainment - but your life will be that little bit less worth living.
Not that entertainment is unique to TV, or that what TV provides is necessarily all that good - Hell, I hardly even watch it. But don't be so quick to dismiss it.
Linus has said he does not consider loading of binary modules into the linux kernel to be a licence violation
Which is just as well, as there's no way it can be. The GPL covers redistribution of code, not use. Specifically, if you do not agree to the GPL, you still have permission to use and modify the code, you're just not allowed to redistribute it.
The GPL cannot prevent me from loading binary-only drivers. It *may* be able to prevent me from distributing binary-only drivers, but that's a different question, and not what Linus was talking about.
Slashdot Mirror
You've never used a mail client that supports threading?!
The main thing that I bemoan having been effectively forced to switch to Outbreak at work is the lack of support for email threading. Previously, *every* client I have *ever* used for any amount of time has supported it, in the 9 or so years that I've had a mail account.
To my mind, not supporting threading simply disqualifies a program from being a serious mail client, no matter what other features it may support. (There are others, too, such as support for multiple accounts, and some sort of filtering mechanism)
People had bad enough trouble confusing Java and Javascript
That's Netscape's fault though, not Sun's. If you really want to blame Sun, blame them for not preventing Netscape from using the name, assuming that they ever could have done.
"In the next version, we promise we'll fix all the library crap! And the performance issues! And ..."
Go on then, I'll bite - give me some examples of "all the library crap", and some real-world examples of performance sucking on a modern computer system (eg a 2GHz+ proc and half a gig or so of RAM - hell, if *I* have a system like that, it's distinctly mediocre...)
Because that will take time, and replacing enough noisy vehicles with quieter ones will take a very long time, and in the meantime everyone affected will continue to suffer growing noise levels.
This way, the governments help the citizenry in the short term, while others (academia and/or r&d depts of companies) can deal with the longer term. This work is complementary to that one - neither can replace the other.
you don't need 3d performance.
Unless, of course, your job involves 3d graphics. Kinda sucks to be in that position doesn't it? Forced to not use Linux because companies are scared to release closed-source drivers because of the potential backlash from thousands of screaming slashdotters...
Most drivers simply push data to the right place and fiddle with registers in the right way. There is nothing the competitor wouldn't have already thought off.
Well, given that most drivers are colsed-source, especially those for complex hardware like graphics cards, I'd love to know how you know that.
Even if you work writing closed-source drivers, I challenge your assertion that *most* of them are simple, as you won't have seen the vast majority.
More than that, last I heard NVidia was under NDA from one or more third parties concerning some of the code in their drivers. They simply can't release it, as it essentially isn't theirs to release.
but if you want to get hardware acceleration on another architecture, you're on your own.
And if you wanted hardware accel on one of the currently-supported platforms, but Nvidia didn't release any drivers at all, you'd still be on your own.
I understand where you're coming from, but I'm firmly in the "I just want my expensive hardware to work properly" camp.
SO, if the project manager is an architect, yes he is more advanced than the coder.
That's true, but "architect" and "project manager" are different jobs. You may have one person performing both roles, but they're different skill sets, with only a little overlap.
An architect designs the application/project/whatever, at least on a code level, and quite possibly including hardware, network details, etc. A project manager, managers the project - liasing with clients, helping gather requirements, ensuring team members are fully-booked but not over-booked with work, keeping an eye on the deadline and financials, etc. So yeah, some overlap - an architect will need to talk to the client to find out their requirements, etc, but may well not be concerned with making sure that all the programmers have enough to do.
Like I said, the two roles may be being performed by the same person, but there's no reason to suppose that that's the case. I've never actually worked with a technical project manager, let alone one who could do an architect's job. (Conversely, I would make a mediocre project manager, at least at the moment)
'92? Bullshit.
I have the CD in front of me as I type - it is marked as being copyright 1998.
I know - IHBT, IHL, IWNHAND.
Yes, I realise that - hence my comments about it not needing to be that way. It doesn't really matter, though, as the demo is unplayable on hardware that they consider to be "sub-standard". As you say, it could have been for any reason, and I didn't mean to imply that it was DX9's fault, as it most certainly isn't.
It is, however, an example of a DX9 app that does not degrade gracefully. It isn't DX9's fault, but that won't matter to the guy trying to play it (who, of course, will anyway blame the game, not DX9)
DX9 is backwards compatible with even my lowly NV25 and MX cards... Its just like in the days of MMX vs NON MMX. IF you had MMX it ran faster, if you didn't it never wouldn't work for you.. just would be slower.
Now, in general you are correct - however, the Deus Ex 2 demo refused to run on my girlfriend's PC because it lacked support for pixel shaders (v1.1, iirc). That machine has the latest DX installed, but only has a GeForce 4 MX. My machine, with a Ti 200, runs the demo fine.
Perhaps it doesn't have to be that way, and I realise that it's only a demo, but that's the way it is at the moment.
Also, specifically addressing your MMX comment - I seem to remember Unreal refusing to run on my PC at the time, which had a Cyrix PR166 (with no MMX support), precisely because of the lack of MMX support.
who don't know, and don't care, how the domain is setup, or how our print server is administered
I'm a Java programmer, doing back-end code for websites. Why should I care about how you've set up your domain, or how you admin the printers? My code isn't going anywhere near them.
Now, assuming that by "cluster" you mean "group of related machines that run the application, with load balancing, hot fail-over, etc", then yeah, I care, and I know how ours work too. But the printers? Give me a break. As long as they work when I need them, that's all I need to know - and keeping them that way is someone else's job. I'm not belittling it in the slightest - no printer, no signed contracts, no work. It's just none of my concern.
I have pretty good (short range) eyesight, and I have trouble reading that. Surely it's against some anti-discrimination law or other? Anyone with poor eyesight would be unable to make that out, and if that's the only opportunity you have to read the terms before purchasing, it's at least immoral, if not illegal.
I would.
This time last year, I bought my girlfriend a PC on a finance deal. It gave us a year's interest free credit period, if we paid it off in full during that year. If not, then back-dated interest charges of around 20% kicked in, as well as the usual monthly payments.
Damn right I paid that sucker off before the due date!
For that sort of amount ($299 or ~200GBP), where I could just about spring for it all at once, that sort of a deal would be good to spread the cost across a pay day. That is, buy the thing a little before you get paid, and only take half the hit from each pay packet.
why not also go after the firearms industry, because people get shot by guns?
Because the firearms industry is (relatively) huge, has lots of money, generates a lot of tax revenue, and has a few volunteer groups campaigning against it. In contrast, file-sharing tech is (relatively) tiny, has next to no money, is used by people to avoid paying for stuff and therefore generating tax revenue*, and has large, multinational groups with lots of money campaigning against it. Logic doesn't come into it, money does.
* Yes, I know, it has legitmate uses too, but they don't generate any tax revenue either
That sounds more like a DNS hijacking than a break in, though - that could have happened to your ISP's DNS servers, and almost certainly didn't involve anything owned or maintained by MS.
Also what happens if you upgrade to longhorn 2010 do you lose access to those files. it is a standard microsoft tatic.
Yeah, I lost all my files each and every time I upgraded Windows or Word... </sarcasm>
If that was the case, then no-one would upgrade, would they? What generally happens is that new versions of Office default to saving documents in the latest version of the format (of course!), which is not always readable by previous versions. Thus, those who have not upgraded need to, or have hassles opening documents authored by those who have.
My software upgrade causing you problems, giving you another reason to upgrade, is a good thing for MS, as it encourages sales. My software upgrade giving me problems is a bad thing, as it discourages them.
Everyone I knows hate it due to the fact that one has to call Microsoft Support every once in a while.
My girlfriend's PC has been running a (pre-installed) copy of XP Home for a little over a year now, and we've not had to call MS Support once. My PC has been running XP Pro since January, and despite futzing around with hardware, I've not had to call MS Support either, although I did have to reactive it once. That was fine, though - I did it electronically with no hassles at all.
Think of all the good you can do with this money from vaccination to health care to teaching.
Even if your figure is correct, that's almost entirely corporate money, not public - none of it would be spent on anything like that.
I don't know how he's going to get around this from home (obviously he can send it using our uni mail server when he's at work).
Plenty of possibilities:
1) stagger sending - send 15 every 10 minutes. A real pain, but it'll work, unless they lower the limit again
2) have an alias set up on the uni mail server, that expands to all the relevant users, and send a single mail to it
3) have a mailing list set up on the uni mail server, and send a single mail to it
4) set up a modem on a machine in his office, and dial in to that rather than use the ISP
And that's just off the top of my head having just got up. Don't get me wrong, for people in his situation, the email limit is going to be a pain, but it's hardly insurmountable.
a continent entirely peopled by convicts
Not to detract from your point (I'm sure you had one in there somewhere), but you do realise that the vast majority of (non-Aboriginal) Australians are descended from the guards and other staff, not the convicts, don't you? Convict life expectancy wasn't terribly high, while the staff were (naturally) looked after quite well.
That's even ignoring the fact that everyone involved is long since dead... "people entirely by convicts" indeed. Oh for mod-points.
So instead of stealing the password the intruder has to take the extraordinary step of stealing the key.
Which, of course, is a file, located on a disk or similar medium somewhere - you can't just guess it or sniff a network for it. Furthermore, even when you have the key, you still need the passphrase.
because you have a hard time enforcing things like password expiration (just how long can someone use that stolen key to get into your system?)
Well, you could always have an entry in root's crontab to delete a user's ssh keys every so often, forcing them to generate new ones. Of course, they wouldn't be able to login (via ssh) until they did so, so it's not exactly the same. The key-killing script could generate a new key-pair, PGP-encrypt a copy and mail them to a known email address. That way you'd have to compromise the user's email *and* PGP keys to get their ssh keys, which is starting to look like a lot of work.
Don't forget that security is all about making doing something more effort than it's worth - no security is perfect, and very little is impossible, given sufficient resources and skill.
One word: entertainment.
Sure, you can live without entertainment - but your life will be that little bit less worth living.
Not that entertainment is unique to TV, or that what TV provides is necessarily all that good - Hell, I hardly even watch it. But don't be so quick to dismiss it.
Linus has said he does not consider loading of binary modules into the linux kernel to be a licence violation
Which is just as well, as there's no way it can be. The GPL covers redistribution of code, not use. Specifically, if you do not agree to the GPL, you still have permission to use and modify the code, you're just not allowed to redistribute it.
The GPL cannot prevent me from loading binary-only drivers. It *may* be able to prevent me from distributing binary-only drivers, but that's a different question, and not what Linus was talking about.