I own just about every cool software tool that I know of, except a current version of one of the major symbolic capable math packages (Mathematica or Maple).
Many years ago I bought a "Standard" (no FP support) version of Mathematica 2 for the Mac (around $700 then I think). Every year or so it occurs to me that it would be nice occasionally to have a current version of Mathematica. But each time I am repulsed by Wolfram's incredible ego, draconian licensing, and exorbitant pricing.
They won't give me any discount on a new version for having owned an old version, and if I want to install the software on more than one of my own personal systems, then I basically have to buy multiple copies of it, plus deal with their annoying password based hardware copy protection.
What Mathematica needs is for someone like Bill Gates to buy out Wolfram and turn the thing into a $200 program with an ordinary license and no idiotic copy protection!
I recently tried to investigate Maple as an alternative, but they won't even return my email messages asking how much the !@#$% product costs!
Grumble, grumble.
Actually, for puttering around with Math at all but the most advanced levels, nothing beats MathCad (preferably MathCad Pro 2K, but that's like $800 now:-( A really fun program to use too. Unfortunately it's Windows only at the moment.
Oh how utterly depressing. Crusoe appears to just be a low power x86 compatible chip. Just what we need. Another implementation of one of the most brain dead, cruft infested, computer architectures of all time, and one which Intel is already planning to phase out.
This isn't anything interesting at all. It will be totally invisible to end users. Sigh. They think low power x86 chips will change the world? Ok, so maybe my laptop will run for 24 hours, which would be nice, but Intel could announce the same kind of technology tomorrow and these guys will be out of business so fast it will make your head spin.
Groan.
Ok, so maybe we can do some fun things with the underlying VLIW hardware, but so far they sound like they don't care about anything by x86 compatability.
While I think Bruce's ethics are probably much better than the people he's complaining about, I have noticed a marked increase over the last year or so in the degree to which Bruce's writings sound like advertisements.:-(
By the way- heard about the new killer app for these things? There is supposed to be a price-comparison webclipping application - while in a store, just enter the product's UPC number and you'll get a list of competitive prices from other stores.
Cool. Finally a general use for the Symbol version of the Palm III that has the barcode scanner built in. "Gee, I'd love to buy this from you, but (*bleep*)(pause) I see I can get it online for $x. How about you meet that price? No? Ok. (tap)(tap) I just ordered it and it will be delivered tomorrow morning. Thanks anyway. How about one of these? (*bleep*)..."
This would be especially fun at certain stores where the sales people are all obnoxious twits who work on commission (Guitar Center comes to mind:-)
I've used Ricochet's wireless service with Linux with no problems. The ppp config is pretty simple with nothing special required. I just have it connect at boot up time and stay connected since Ricochet has no airtime charges.
If you're located in an area with Ricochet coverage, then it's a fabulous deal. It's the only IP connectivity I use from home since it's as fast as a modem, doesn't require a phone line, and I can keep it connected all the time.
Ricochet is certainly in the running for the most cool geek service available.
G.
P.S. For a new geek toy that/. so far doesn't deem worthy of a news item, see www.onhandpc.com
I believe patents used to be for 17 years in the U.S, but were recently extended to 20 years to match the international standard. Apparently all non-expired patents got the benefit of the extra three years, because if you look in Applied Cryptography there is a table showing that RSA and DH should have *already* expired. So we would have had these patents already if not for the fact that they were just about to expire when the patent term got extended and thus got a free three year extension.
Patents are an interesting topic, because they are designed only partially to be for the benefit of the person getting the patent. They are also designed to reduce the number of "secret" technological developments and *increase* access to new developments. A person applying for a patent must disclose *all* of the technical details of the invention they wish to patent, and these details become public when the patent is granted. Also the term of the patent is for a fixed, non-extendable term, and at the expiration of that term the patent moves into the public domain.
Unfortunately the 20 year term is a bit long in my opinion in these days of "Internet time".
If you take 100 users and tell them to set up a challenge like this, and in more cases the Linux box ends up getting cracked and the NT box does not, then Linux "system" is clearly less secure, regardless of whether it is the Kernel, a subsystem, an add-on package, the documentation, the ease of use, or the user's own idiocy that results in the break.
These days systems like Linux and NT are so absurdly complex that you can't talk about the security of "the operating system" in isolation.
And before you label me a MS troll, let me say that I think both NT and Linux are really lousy operating systems. They are like the left and right extremes of the political spectrum. On one hand you have the totalitarian Microsoft OS ("You *will* use it the way we tell you to") and on the other you have Linux (i.e. Unix) where everyone can have everything any way that they like, and as a result nobody can agree on what the functionality should be for any component that's higher up the evolutionary ladder than a Lego Brick.
Unfortunately most of you reading this will have grown up knowing only these two extremes, and probably have never seen an operating system that is really there to help you get the job done quickly and efficiently. Unfortunately most of these elegant and effective OS products have all but died out today because of all the foaming, heat-seeking, lusers drooling over the latest trend they read in Computerworld.
One day there *will* come a Great Operating System(tm), but it's not going to be Windows (and Microsoft probably won't write it), and it isn't going to be Linux, and it isn't BeOS, and it isn't MacOS, or any of the other current options, so as you wipe the spittle from your mouth after your latest/. Linux/NT flamewar, pause and reflect for a moment that maybe there might possibly be a beter way...
That this is probably illegal as it amounts to hiring people to do work without paying them. It depends on the state they are in, etc. In California you'd never get away with this:-)
If they don't actually pay at least minimum wage for the duration of the "contest", they probably can't claim ownership of what the contestants produce, especially if they plan to release them as part of a commercial product.
In many states it's hard to give up your rights to this kind of thing, so even if they have the "contestants" sign away their lives on some contract, there may be laws that override any such contract provisions, and provide fertile ground for any number of lawsuits.
All they did was grow a mass of bladder cells in the lab, then sew them together in the shape of a complete organ. When they did the transplant, they left the complex bits of the old organ in place (the input and output ports, so to speak), so all they really did was replace old bladder wall with new tissue.
A bit far from a lung or liver being grown as a complete organ.
Of course there are *lots* of places where this could be life saving technology. Even if we can't get a new liver for our glorious leader yet, we might be able to replace some of the worn out cells in the old one.
Slashdot Mirror
I own just about every cool software tool that I know of, except a current version of one of the major symbolic capable math packages (Mathematica or Maple).
:-( A really fun program to use too. Unfortunately it's Windows only at the moment.
Many years ago I bought a "Standard" (no FP support) version of Mathematica 2 for the Mac (around $700 then I think). Every year or so it occurs to me that it would be nice occasionally to have a current version of Mathematica. But each time I am repulsed by Wolfram's incredible ego, draconian licensing, and exorbitant pricing.
They won't give me any discount on a new version for having owned an old version, and if I want to install the software on more than one of my own personal systems, then I basically have to buy multiple copies of it, plus deal with their annoying password based hardware copy protection.
What Mathematica needs is for someone like Bill Gates to buy out Wolfram and turn the thing into a $200 program with an ordinary license and no idiotic copy protection!
I recently tried to investigate Maple as an alternative, but they won't even return my email messages asking how much the !@#$% product costs!
Grumble, grumble.
Actually, for puttering around with Math at all but the most advanced levels, nothing beats MathCad (preferably MathCad Pro 2K, but that's like $800 now
G.
This isn't anything interesting at all. It will be totally invisible to end users. Sigh. They think low power x86 chips will change the world? Ok, so maybe my laptop will run for 24 hours, which would be nice, but Intel could announce the same kind of technology tomorrow and these guys will be out of business so fast it will make your head spin.
Groan.
Ok, so maybe we can do some fun things with the underlying VLIW hardware, but so far they sound like they don't care about anything by x86 compatability.
G.
G.
Cool. Finally a general use for the Symbol version of the Palm III that has the barcode scanner built in. "Gee, I'd love to buy this from you, but (*bleep*)(pause) I see I can get it online for $x. How about you meet that price? No? Ok. (tap)(tap) I just ordered it and it will be delivered tomorrow morning. Thanks anyway. How about one of these? (*bleep*)..."
This would be especially fun at certain stores where the sales people are all obnoxious twits who work on commission (Guitar Center comes to mind :-)
G.
I believe the current Ricochet network is supposed to track up to at least 50MPH. This may improve when R2 comes out, but I don't know that for sure.
G.
I've used Ricochet's wireless service with Linux with no problems. The ppp config is pretty simple with nothing special required. I just have it connect at boot up time and stay connected since Ricochet has no airtime charges.
/. so far doesn't deem worthy of a news item, see www.onhandpc.com
If you're located in an area with Ricochet coverage, then it's a fabulous deal. It's the only IP connectivity I use from home since it's as fast as a modem, doesn't require a phone line, and I can keep it connected all the time.
Ricochet is certainly in the running for the most cool geek service available.
G.
P.S. For a new geek toy that
"What's on television then?"
"Looks like a penguin."
I believe patents used to be for 17 years in the U.S, but were recently extended to 20 years to match the international standard. Apparently all non-expired patents got the benefit of the extra three years, because if you look in Applied Cryptography there is a table showing that RSA and DH should have *already* expired. So we would have had these patents already if not for the fact that they were just about to expire when the patent term got extended and thus got a free three year extension.
Patents are an interesting topic, because they are designed only partially to be for the benefit of the person getting the patent. They are also designed to reduce the number of "secret" technological developments and *increase* access to new developments. A person applying for a patent must disclose *all* of the technical details of the invention they wish to patent, and these details become public when the patent is granted. Also the term of the patent is for a fixed, non-extendable term, and at the expiration of that term the patent moves into the public domain.
Unfortunately the 20 year term is a bit long in my opinion in these days of "Internet time".
Of course, IANAL.
G.
"and this is obviously not an OS test."
/. Linux/NT flamewar, pause and reflect for a moment that maybe there might possibly be a beter way...
If you take 100 users and tell them to set up a challenge like this, and in more cases the Linux box ends up getting cracked and the NT box does not, then Linux "system" is clearly less secure, regardless of whether it is the Kernel, a subsystem, an add-on package, the documentation, the ease of use, or the user's own idiocy that results in the break.
These days systems like Linux and NT are so absurdly complex that you can't talk about the
security of "the operating system" in isolation.
And before you label me a MS troll, let me say that I think both NT and Linux are really lousy operating systems. They are like the left and right extremes of the political spectrum. On one hand you have the totalitarian Microsoft OS ("You *will* use it the way we tell you to") and on the other you have Linux (i.e. Unix) where everyone can have everything any way that they like, and as a result nobody can agree on what the functionality should be for any component that's higher up the evolutionary ladder than a Lego Brick.
Unfortunately most of you reading this will have grown up knowing only these two extremes, and probably have never seen an operating system that is really there to help you get the job done quickly and efficiently. Unfortunately most of these elegant and effective OS products have all but died out today because of all the foaming, heat-seeking, lusers drooling over the latest trend they read in Computerworld.
One day there *will* come a Great Operating System(tm), but it's not going to be Windows (and Microsoft probably won't write it), and it isn't going to be Linux, and it isn't BeOS, and it isn't MacOS, or any of the other current options, so as you wipe the spittle from your mouth after your latest
G.
IANAL, but it seems to me...
:-)
That this is probably illegal as it amounts to hiring people to do work without paying them. It depends on the state they are in, etc. In California you'd never get away with this
If they don't actually pay at least minimum wage for the duration of the "contest", they probably can't claim ownership of what the contestants produce, especially if they plan to release them as part of a commercial product.
In many states it's hard to give up your rights to this kind of thing, so even if they have the "contestants" sign away their lives on some contract, there may be laws that override any such contract provisions, and provide fertile ground for any number of lawsuits.
G.
A bit far from a lung or liver being grown as a complete organ.
Of course there are *lots* of places where this could be life saving technology. Even if we can't get a new liver for our glorious leader yet, we might be able to replace some of the worn out cells in the old one.
G.