IIRC, Apache was an outgrowth of NCSA httpd, which was the first HTTP server in widespread use. I don't recall what kind of licensing the original httpd server used, but I think it was similar in principle to modern Open Source licenses. At any rate, the program and source code were pretty freely available. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong...
If nothing else, the presence of shield generators would make a ground attack "necessary and unavoidable." Don't forget that the purpose of the ground battles on both Hoth and Endor was to destroy shield generators and make an air or space attack possible.
All the books I've seen set before A New Hope are about the adventures of characters like Han Solo and Lando Calrissian. Nothing about the rise of the Emperor, or the Clone Wars, or how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. There is a package I've seen in stores with an Anakin Skywalker figure and book, but that came out within the last year; anybody know more about this?
I got my "poster" about a month ago. Very small; can't remember off hand whether it was letter-sized or double that. At any rate, it looked like very amateurish fan art for the first movie.
D'oh! You're right, I was getting VB, which has the "on error goto" syntax, confused with VBScript, which only has the "on error resume" statement. I apologize on that particular count. However, without getting into the problems of the "goto" statement, I still prefer Java's exception handling for passing additional error data in a fairly standard way.
I believe the usage of "cyber-" referring to computers comes from Norbert Weiner's 1948 paper "Cybernetics" on automatic control systems. According to WWWebster, the Greek kybernan means "govern" in the sense of controlling or steering. In addition, I seem to remember an anecdote that someone suggested the word "Cybernetics" to Weiner as a nonsense word that he could make to mean whatever he wanted.
Also written before Gibson had so much as learned how to use a word processor. There may have been an interview where he said he didn't want to know how computers worked, so that reality wouldn't get in the way of his creativity.
My father was an old Sperry Univac (yes, from before Sperry, long before Unisys) Field Engineer who worked on secure government computers. He told me about one machine which was powered by a generator, which in turn was belt-driven from an electric motor. Why the Rube Goldberg power supply? So that the computer would not produce any fluctuations in power draw that could be detected through the power grid. Mind you, this was back before solid-state computers, so this might have been a reasonable concern. Dad tells great punch card stories!:-)
As much as i hate to admit it, I do a bit of VB programming. I am currently in the process of learning Java, in the hope that it will serve some of my light programming needs better than VB. Admittedly, I'm still running 5.0, so I suppose some major changes may have been incorporated into version 6.0; maybe you can tell me if they have.
So, has VB added decent networking capabilities since 5.0? I'd be surprised if Microsoft has provided anything better than the poorly documented, unreliable ActiveX controls that came with 5.0.
How about error handling? Is there any way to trap and handle errors other than continuing execution until you feel like checking error numbers? I'd feel much safer around a nuclear reactor controlled by a language with exception handling.
Every now and then, I'm amused to hear someone refer to Visual Basic as an object oriented language. I suppose aggregation could be considered a crude form of inheritance, but does VB have anything remotely like polymorphism?
I'm not going to go into platform independence in any detail, because the very words make Microsoft supporters curl up and whimper. Java may not have reached the goal of platform independence, but at least it considers it a goal.
Finally, I suppose that with the way you write and spell, you need a programming environment that will complete function names and check syntax on the fly. The more literate among us prefer the ability to choose tools to meet our needs.
P.S. I'm sorry, that last bit was a cheap shot, and I'm better than that.
P.P.S. No, on second thought, I'm not better than that.
From what I've been able to tell, VB does compile to real code, as of VB5. However, this VB executable still requires a big honkin' library DLL. Sort of like MFC, only you can't possibly link the libraries statically.
I'd think that if they want to become a sort of general Linux portal, they'd provide easy access to what I would consider essential Linux resources. The Linux Documentation Project comes immediately to mind, although other Linux FAQ's and sites would also be nice. Ghod knows there's enough room for some extra links in the sidebars.
Sousa. John Philip Sousa. Wrote marching-band music, such as the "Liberty Bell March", which you might know better as the theme music for "Monty Python's Flying Circus".
This is referring to the Win32 version of the GIMP.
There is some filter format (Filter Factory, maybe?) that can be converted both to Photoshop and GIMP filters. Seems like I read something to this effect a while back.
As a Windows/Paint Shop Pro user (Linux user as well, so don't start), I'd say that most of the filters I've used (BladePro, Kai, Alien Skin, etc.) have looked extremely Win32 intensive.
Still, this post got me to take another look at the GIMP web page, and I was overjoyed to see that someone has apparently written a PSP import/export filter. Time for me to take a closer look at the GIMP!
The way I read the article, this "mountainous terrain" is created by the vibrations of the plexiglass, rather than the plexiglass being manufactured with a rough surface. Also, I doubt that vibrations "invisible to the human eye" could possibly do the kind of damage you're talking about.
Yes, IT professionals should base their OS decisions on technical merit rather than popularity. Unfortunately, they usually don't; after all, how do you think they got into the Windows NT mess in the first place?
So, Mexico is going to put Linux in its schools, while I suspect U.S. schools are likely to continue teaching Windows. So, Mexican students will be learning general principles of how computers work (which can be applied to GUI-based systems as well as the command line). U.S. students are likely to be learning how to use specialized applications, using specific commands and procedures which may not apply to other programs, or even future versions of the same application. I'm looking forward to seeing how the next generations of students turn out.
So, you aren't doing anything "wrong" with your computer. Does it bother you that Intel assumes you are? According to David Aucsmith of Intel, "The actual user of the PC -- someone who can do anything they want -- is the enemy." If you choose to do business with a company with such open contempt for its customers, go ahead.
Remember that really nasty virus last year, which could reprogram the flash BIOS on some machines? I'm guessing that the same principle could apply to the ID switch in the BIOS. If a programmer really wants to turn on the ID without the user's permission, there'll probably always be a way.
The real problem with proxy servers is how they choke on some completely innocent pages with funky URL's. Ours chokes on lots of DejaNews links because they have "SEX" in the URL. Ruman numeral 30 ("XXX") can cause problems. But the worst are sites which used some sort of Universally Unique ID to do session tracking; they can produce odd combinations of characters that sometimes trigger the block.
WTF is the new "It's Funny" icon supposed to be? I see a bunch of yellow squiggles on a blue-black background. Someone has shrunk the bloody thing well past the limits of readability.
I may be using the term incorrectly, but I take it to mean having different levels of transparency. The GIF format only has simple transparency: either you can see through the GIF completely or not at all for a given pixel. The PNG format has 256 different levels, ranging from fully transparent to fully opaque. The intermediate levels would be nice for blending an image with the background. For example, the background of a web page would show partially through a shadow in another image. Most web design books show examples of a graphic with a drop shadow designed for one color that looks awful on a background of another color. Alpha transparency would reduce that problem dramatically. Unfortunately, I believe that all browsers which currently support PNG graphics convert the alpha values to simple transparency, and rarely very well.
Slashdot Mirror
So nice to hear from someone who's never been a newbie...
IIRC, Apache was an outgrowth of NCSA httpd, which was the first HTTP server in widespread use. I don't recall what kind of licensing the original httpd server used, but I think it was similar in principle to modern Open Source licenses. At any rate, the program and source code were pretty freely available. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong...
Any thought about open-sourcing it? :)
What, like having a link to the source code as the third item from the top in the left sidebar of every page? Naaah. It'll never happen.
So, has anyone heard of this "Zope" application server before? Sounds interesting, but does anyone out there actually use it?
If nothing else, the presence of shield generators would make a ground attack "necessary and unavoidable." Don't forget that the purpose of the ground battles on both Hoth and Endor was to destroy shield generators and make an air or space attack possible.
All the books I've seen set before A New Hope are about the adventures of characters like Han Solo and Lando Calrissian. Nothing about the rise of the Emperor, or the Clone Wars, or how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. There is a package I've seen in stores with an Anakin Skywalker figure and book, but that came out within the last year; anybody know more about this?
I got my "poster" about a month ago. Very small; can't remember off hand whether it was letter-sized or double that. At any rate, it looked like very amateurish fan art for the first movie.
D'oh! You're right, I was getting VB, which has the "on error goto" syntax, confused with VBScript, which only has the "on error resume" statement. I apologize on that particular count. However, without getting into the problems of the "goto" statement, I still prefer Java's exception handling for passing additional error data in a fairly standard way.
I believe the usage of "cyber-" referring to computers comes from Norbert Weiner's 1948 paper "Cybernetics" on automatic control systems. According to WWWebster, the Greek kybernan means "govern" in the sense of controlling or steering. In addition, I seem to remember an anecdote that someone suggested the word "Cybernetics" to Weiner as a nonsense word that he could make to mean whatever he wanted.
Also written before Gibson had so much as learned how to use a word processor. There may have been an interview where he said he didn't want to know how computers worked, so that reality wouldn't get in the way of his creativity.
My father was an old Sperry Univac (yes, from before Sperry, long before Unisys) Field Engineer who worked on secure government computers. He told me about one machine which was powered by a generator, which in turn was belt-driven from an electric motor. Why the Rube Goldberg power supply? So that the computer would not produce any fluctuations in power draw that could be detected through the power grid. Mind you, this was back before solid-state computers, so this might have been a reasonable concern. Dad tells great punch card stories! :-)
As much as i hate to admit it, I do a bit of VB programming. I am currently in the process of learning Java, in the hope that it will serve some of my light programming needs better than VB. Admittedly, I'm still running 5.0, so I suppose some major changes may have been incorporated into version 6.0; maybe you can tell me if they have.
So, has VB added decent networking capabilities since 5.0? I'd be surprised if Microsoft has provided anything better than the poorly documented, unreliable ActiveX controls that came with 5.0.
How about error handling? Is there any way to trap and handle errors other than continuing execution until you feel like checking error numbers? I'd feel much safer around a nuclear reactor controlled by a language with exception handling.
Every now and then, I'm amused to hear someone refer to Visual Basic as an object oriented language. I suppose aggregation could be considered a crude form of inheritance, but does VB have anything remotely like polymorphism?
I'm not going to go into platform independence in any detail, because the very words make Microsoft supporters curl up and whimper. Java may not have reached the goal of platform independence, but at least it considers it a goal.
Finally, I suppose that with the way you write and spell, you need a programming environment that will complete function names and check syntax on the fly. The more literate among us prefer the ability to choose tools to meet our needs.
P.S. I'm sorry, that last bit was a cheap shot, and I'm better than that.
P.P.S. No, on second thought, I'm not better than that.
From what I've been able to tell, VB does compile to real code, as of VB5. However, this VB executable still requires a big honkin' library DLL. Sort of like MFC, only you can't possibly link the libraries statically.
I'd think that if they want to become a sort of general Linux portal, they'd provide easy access to what I would consider essential Linux resources. The Linux Documentation Project comes immediately to mind, although other Linux FAQ's and sites would also be nice. Ghod knows there's enough room for some extra links in the sidebars.
Sousa. John Philip Sousa. Wrote marching-band music, such as the "Liberty Bell March", which you might know better as the theme music for "Monty Python's Flying Circus".
- This is referring to the Win32 version of the GIMP.
- There is some filter format (Filter Factory, maybe?) that can be converted both to Photoshop and GIMP filters. Seems like I read something to this effect a while back.
As a Windows/Paint Shop Pro user (Linux user as well, so don't start), I'd say that most of the filters I've used (BladePro, Kai, Alien Skin, etc.) have looked extremely Win32 intensive. Still, this post got me to take another look at the GIMP web page, and I was overjoyed to see that someone has apparently written a PSP import/export filter. Time for me to take a closer look at the GIMP!The way I read the article, this "mountainous terrain" is created by the vibrations of the plexiglass, rather than the plexiglass being manufactured with a rough surface. Also, I doubt that vibrations "invisible to the human eye" could possibly do the kind of damage you're talking about.
Which seems to imply that it should be a kernel compilation option, n'est ce pas?
Yes, IT professionals should base their OS decisions on technical merit rather than popularity. Unfortunately, they usually don't; after all, how do you think they got into the Windows NT mess in the first place?
So, Mexico is going to put Linux in its schools, while I suspect U.S. schools are likely to continue teaching Windows. So, Mexican students will be learning general principles of how computers work (which can be applied to GUI-based systems as well as the command line). U.S. students are likely to be learning how to use specialized applications, using specific commands and procedures which may not apply to other programs, or even future versions of the same application. I'm looking forward to seeing how the next generations of students turn out.
So, you aren't doing anything "wrong" with your computer. Does it bother you that Intel assumes you are? According to David Aucsmith of Intel, "The actual user of the PC -- someone who can do anything they want -- is the enemy." If you choose to do business with a company with such open contempt for its customers, go ahead.
Remember that really nasty virus last year, which could reprogram the flash BIOS on some machines? I'm guessing that the same principle could apply to the ID switch in the BIOS. If a programmer really wants to turn on the ID without the user's permission, there'll probably always be a way.
The real problem with proxy servers is how they choke on some completely innocent pages with funky URL's. Ours chokes on lots of DejaNews links because they have "SEX" in the URL. Ruman numeral 30 ("XXX") can cause problems. But the worst are sites which used some sort of Universally Unique ID to do session tracking; they can produce odd combinations of characters that sometimes trigger the block.
WTF is the new "It's Funny" icon supposed to be? I see a bunch of yellow squiggles on a blue-black background. Someone has shrunk the bloody thing well past the limits of readability.
I may be using the term incorrectly, but I take it to mean having different levels of transparency. The GIF format only has simple transparency: either you can see through the GIF completely or not at all for a given pixel. The PNG format has 256 different levels, ranging from fully transparent to fully opaque. The intermediate levels would be nice for blending an image with the background. For example, the background of a web page would show partially through a shadow in another image. Most web design books show examples of a graphic with a drop shadow designed for one color that looks awful on a background of another color. Alpha transparency would reduce that problem dramatically. Unfortunately, I believe that all browsers which currently support PNG graphics convert the alpha values to simple transparency, and rarely very well.