According to Brendan Eich earlier this year, natively supporting this drawing format in XHTML documents is a priority and should be accelerated.
Firefox can already be built with the SVG option enabled. It does a good job at displaying static SVG right now. With Cairo rendering support taking shape, there will be a solid stable multiplatform rendering engine for it, readily available. And it is not a huge addition to the footprint.
Why not make SVG support a default part of the development build starting now? That way it will be properly stress-tested and debugged before the next release.
During design and testing, Murphy is your best friend. Before the baby chick leaves the nest, you want everything that can possibly go wrong, to do so. You can address each of the failures encountered, and then move on to new opportunities for error. This is a mysterious process called "learning," which definitely has its good points.
NASA does test everything. He didn't mention in the article, but I would be almost certain that the accelerometers were tested, and passed the tests; but that the tests themselves were improper.
All of you should be horsewhipped, speaking so badly about such a wonderful soul. Gary Kildall was a true man of the people, and we were fortunate to have had him here for that brief period. He was that kindly professor, that smarter brother, that guy who was always there to lend a hand.
I met Gary Kildall once, and was lucky enough to get a handshake from him, and a Hello.
It was not that he was a bad businessman. It was that he was never about money. He truly believed in sharing his ideas with the people. He was the true populist. He thought that the purpose of his inventions were to aid in the advancement of humanity. I mean that literally, not as rhetoric; some people are actually altruistic by nature.
It is an indictment of us all, that we equate money and power with success. We claim to rise above that, yet the comments here demonstrate the hypocracy of that thought.
We have never had such a hero on our side. Apparently, we do not deserve one.
I have never heard of these projects or
products before this. I contribute to
several open source projects, and I believe
in Open Source, the GPL, and in the value
of altruism. So maybe I can try to be fair
when I say that this just sounds wrong.
Although the contractor's legal standing in this
matter likely tilts in his favor, his behaviour
in the matter does not pass the smell test.
If the guy was paid to design and write code
for Mr. Connelly, he should give it to Mr.
Connelly. Any subsequent use of it, or the
ideas, should be done with Mr. Connelly's
permission. If Mr. Connelly has
responsibilities with respect to the GPL,
give him the opportunity to fulfill them.
Come on. Let's lose this "gimme" hacker's
mentality, and take the moral high ground.
Let's do things because they are the right
thing to do. I would like to think that
the Open Source world is populated by
gentlemen.
I find it hard to believe that this was not mentioned. Well, maybe I can believe it, as the authors of the list seem to have limited knowledge of the genre.
But Things to Come (or otherwise called The Shape of things to Come ) was so incredibly advanced for its time. The special effects are awesome, and the story, though thick with science and sociology, is very entertaining.
And let's not forget Transatlantic Tunnel (1935) , also known as The Tunnel. This has a lot of prewar propaganda, but is still an excellent story.
I love films like these, which were produced just before the burst of 20th century technology occurred. SciFi was so full of anticipation of the future and its bright promise.
I also love seeing the anticipation of technology and knowledge with which we are accustomed today. It doesn't bother me when they get the prediction wrong. And I do not see their predictions as old fashioned or silly at all; they were just as valid as are our anticipations of the events which will happen in the near future.
One of my favorite things in old SciFi movies, is when the Earth is depicted from above, when nobody on Earth knew what that looked like. It is usually depicted as more brownish than it really is, with fewer clouds. I have seen no movies pre-1960 that come close to the "blue marble" we are so familiar with today.
The standards group itself cannot state that the use of the specification will remain free from litigation, or lacks the courage to do so. How is the world to regard such a specification as anything other than critically suspect?.
Check the site yourself, and try to find any pledge from them that the specifications for JPEG or JPEG2000 are safe to use.
It should be noted by detractors of C, that Mr. Ritchie himself does not think that his brainchild is perfect. This discussion contains a "Critique" section where he analyzes the strengths and failures of the language. At the end, he summarizes the language thusly:
"C is quirky, flawed, and an enormous success."
...to which I certainly agree. It is fraught with
numerous failings, yet C gets the job done, and carpets the computer world.
I think this kind of pure science is the best type of endeavor with which the NSF can involve itself. Understanding the basic nature of the universe, and extending Einsteinian physics is an exciting thing.
That said, looking at the LIGO facility , it seems like somewhat of a harsh scar on the Louisiana forest. Could they not have been a little 'greener' in their construction of the site? One of their daily secondary missions, after all, is educating students.
The posting says "National Academy of Sciences," implying that the august body as a whole produced and endorses this report. In actuality, it was produced by a committee of Academy members, the Committee on the Assessment of Options for Extending the Life of the Hubble Space Telescope. So it was unlikely that it would have arrived at any other conclusion.
I think the Hubble should be saved, too. It is by far the optical device with the best 'seeing'. NASA and the scientific community have already labored long, and spent a fortune running the program. It has produced wonderful results. This is in spite of its checkered history: what kind of dolt would send this priceless piece of hardware into space untested?
However, I suspect that the Hubble people are not acting altruistically. They are not thinking 'what can WE do to improve space-based astronomy.' It is more like: 'I want more funding. Screw the rest of you guys.'
Probably the most well-known example of overdriven tube amps. The wonderful fuzz on the guitars came from their overdriven Vox amps.
But, on the positive side of LOUDER IS BETTER, once we get all of the waveforms totally clipped, then we can switch from hi-fi Class A amplifiers, to no-fi Class C amps, and save a lot of electricity.
Green noise!
Remember Aerostats?
on
Broadband Blimps
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Remember the drug-interdiction floating
aerostats
that are/were lined up along the US/Mexico border? These would make an awesome set of communications relays. I would not be surprised if they carried transponders or repeaters for just that purpose, even if only to communicate with each other.
Remember that a ballistic curve is not a parabola, but one end of a highly eccentric ellipse. He did fly an orbit of a kind. It is just one that does not clear the surface of the Earth at all points.
Hollywood seems to have latched onto Mr Dick's style of science fiction with a death grip. Is this at the expense of all of the other authors? Once Hollywood finds something popular, it leaches the revenue source of every bit of value, until it is blanched and tasteless, like an old teabag. I love his stories, but to be truthful, I am starting to bore of this constant stream of Future Angst.
And that travesty of one of the canons of science fiction, "I, Robot," does not count! Heh.
What about "Foundation," or the Dragonrider series, "Rama," Larry Niven, or Phillip Jose Farmer? So much rich variety is being ignored.
Is Mandrake doing a RedHat move, and including a CVS build of a compiler that hasn't been released yet, or is this just a statement that 3.4.1 is the "target" version that will be in the next Mandrake release?
The father of one of my friends needed Linux installed. When I was done, I found out that he was a lawyer who owned a liquor store. One cancels the other out, I guess. Anyway, I was amply rewarded.
After several years, this replacement for the wireless part of PCMCIA has been so much nicer and reliable. I was thinking for certain that even if it is not part of the standard distro, the kernel could be compiled to support it, and it would be on Disk 4 as an option. Supplying it this way would at least obviate the need for kernel source install/configure/build.
With its single button, it was necessary for Apple to implement this. Holding the button down for a second or so pulls up an option menu, much like a right-click on other machines. Netscape on Mac was an excellent example. I would guess that it goes back at least to '94 or so.
As more kernels (esp 2.6) and distributions migrate to wlan-ng as their wireless architecture, people's headaches will slowly begin to disappear.
Anyone who has struggled with the current pcmcia interface will find the new stuff much easier to use. In addition, it exposes wireless-specific functionality in its API, which helps writing client software for it. So wireless utility programs should be a lot more common. There will be no reason that the user should not be provided nice GUIs for WLAN setup.
Programmers make software to suit their own purposes. Maybe it is for a specific task at work, maybe it is for altruism. But there is no moral imperative to only write code for the benefit of humanity.
There are many, many tasks out there that are "orphans" in the software world. Much like Orphan Drugs, there is not enough of a demand for large organizations to support them. So personally writing code to support a specific function is the only way to get it done. Why require that a developer with a specific need modify his design to support tasks that he does not need? Why not, rather, expect the larger projects to support his problem? Because they will not!
I have had several apps on the web available free for download for years. It is a lucky happenstance that the specific problem I was solving is the same that other programmers have. Thus there is a little bit of code on the Net to help whoever needs it. But I would not have written that code at all, were it not for my own task.
I think that there is a "gimme" attitude on the Net, where people expect software to be provided for them for free. And sometimes they resent that their wants are not always fulfilled. I have heard, several times, the argument: "If your software does not give me [YOUR FEATURE HERE] then I refuse to use it." Oh dear, I am so shattered.
There is a need for all types of projects, big and small, wide or narrow.
Slashdot Mirror
Firefox can already be built with the SVG option enabled. It does a good job at displaying static SVG right now. With Cairo rendering support taking shape, there will be a solid stable multiplatform rendering engine for it, readily available. And it is not a huge addition to the footprint.
Why not make SVG support a default part of the development build starting now? That way it will be properly stress-tested and debugged before the next release.
We should apply for a research grant.
I would hope that the new category would shunt off non-scientific articles like this. Why hasn't it been used for the last few days?
NASA does test everything. He didn't mention in the article, but I would be almost certain that the accelerometers were tested, and passed the tests; but that the tests themselves were improper.
I met Gary Kildall once, and was lucky enough to get a handshake from him, and a Hello.
It was not that he was a bad businessman. It was that he was never about money. He truly believed in sharing his ideas with the people. He was the true populist. He thought that the purpose of his inventions were to aid in the advancement of humanity. I mean that literally, not as rhetoric; some people are actually altruistic by nature.
It is an indictment of us all, that we equate money and power with success. We claim to rise above that, yet the comments here demonstrate the hypocracy of that thought.
We have never had such a hero on our side. Apparently, we do not deserve one.
Although the contractor's legal standing in this matter likely tilts in his favor, his behaviour in the matter does not pass the smell test.
If the guy was paid to design and write code for Mr. Connelly, he should give it to Mr. Connelly. Any subsequent use of it, or the ideas, should be done with Mr. Connelly's permission. If Mr. Connelly has responsibilities with respect to the GPL, give him the opportunity to fulfill them.
Come on. Let's lose this "gimme" hacker's mentality, and take the moral high ground. Let's do things because they are the right thing to do. I would like to think that the Open Source world is populated by gentlemen.
But Things to Come (or otherwise called The Shape of things to Come ) was so incredibly advanced for its time. The special effects are awesome, and the story, though thick with science and sociology, is very entertaining.
And let's not forget Transatlantic Tunnel (1935) , also known as The Tunnel. This has a lot of prewar propaganda, but is still an excellent story.
I love films like these, which were produced just before the burst of 20th century technology occurred. SciFi was so full of anticipation of the future and its bright promise.
I also love seeing the anticipation of technology and knowledge with which we are accustomed today. It doesn't bother me when they get the prediction wrong. And I do not see their predictions as old fashioned or silly at all; they were just as valid as are our anticipations of the events which will happen in the near future.
One of my favorite things in old SciFi movies, is when the Earth is depicted from above, when nobody on Earth knew what that looked like. It is usually depicted as more brownish than it really is, with fewer clouds. I have seen no movies pre-1960 that come close to the "blue marble" we are so familiar with today.
If the Internet survives, then you can use the freeze-dried strawberries for dacquiris and margaritas.
Check the site yourself, and try to find any pledge from them that the specifications for JPEG or JPEG2000 are safe to use.
I could never even consider watching Dr Who, or endure a single episode, without those beloved evil vacuum cleaners.
It should be noted by detractors of C, that Mr. Ritchie himself does not think that his brainchild is perfect. This discussion contains a "Critique" section where he analyzes the strengths and failures of the language. At the end, he summarizes the language thusly: "C is quirky, flawed, and an enormous success."
That said, looking at the LIGO facility , it seems like somewhat of a harsh scar on the Louisiana forest. Could they not have been a little 'greener' in their construction of the site? One of their daily secondary missions, after all, is educating students.
I think the Hubble should be saved, too. It is by far the optical device with the best 'seeing'. NASA and the scientific community have already labored long, and spent a fortune running the program. It has produced wonderful results. This is in spite of its checkered history: what kind of dolt would send this priceless piece of hardware into space untested?
However, I suspect that the Hubble people are not acting altruistically. They are not thinking 'what can WE do to improve space-based astronomy.' It is more like: 'I want more funding. Screw the rest of you guys.'
But, on the positive side of LOUDER IS BETTER, once we get all of the waveforms totally clipped, then we can switch from hi-fi Class A amplifiers, to no-fi Class C amps, and save a lot of electricity.
Green noise!
Imagine 802.16 on one of these things.
Remember that a ballistic curve is not a parabola, but one end of a highly eccentric ellipse. He did fly an orbit of a kind. It is just one that does not clear the surface of the Earth at all points.
And that travesty of one of the canons of science fiction, "I, Robot," does not count! Heh.
What about "Foundation," or the Dragonrider series, "Rama," Larry Niven, or Phillip Jose Farmer? So much rich variety is being ignored.
Remember the one where he gets fed up with technology, and murders his house?
GCC is still 3.4.0.
GCC 3.4.1 is targeted for June 15.
Maybe storing each layer as an invisible node that the user can't alter, might do it.
There are a lot of features that the developers want to provide (multiple pages, scripting, whiteboard), but just haven't brought into fruition yet.
Be patient. Or better yet, contribute. There is room for all at the table.
The father of one of my friends needed Linux installed. When I was done, I found out that he was a lawyer who owned a liquor store. One cancels the other out, I guess. Anyway, I was amply rewarded.
Why would the nice Fedora people leave it out?
With its single button, it was necessary for Apple to implement this. Holding the button down for a second or so pulls up an option menu, much like a right-click on other machines. Netscape on Mac was an excellent example. I would guess that it goes back at least to '94 or so.
Anyone who has struggled with the current pcmcia interface will find the new stuff much easier to use. In addition, it exposes wireless-specific functionality in its API, which helps writing client software for it. So wireless utility programs should be a lot more common. There will be no reason that the user should not be provided nice GUIs for WLAN setup.
There are many, many tasks out there that are "orphans" in the software world. Much like Orphan Drugs, there is not enough of a demand for large organizations to support them. So personally writing code to support a specific function is the only way to get it done. Why require that a developer with a specific need modify his design to support tasks that he does not need? Why not, rather, expect the larger projects to support his problem? Because they will not!
I have had several apps on the web available free for download for years. It is a lucky happenstance that the specific problem I was solving is the same that other programmers have. Thus there is a little bit of code on the Net to help whoever needs it. But I would not have written that code at all, were it not for my own task.
I think that there is a "gimme" attitude on the Net, where people expect software to be provided for them for free. And sometimes they resent that their wants are not always fulfilled. I have heard, several times, the argument: "If your software does not give me [YOUR FEATURE HERE] then I refuse to use it." Oh dear, I am so shattered.
There is a need for all types of projects, big and small, wide or narrow.