XEmacs is my preferred editor for Java source files, which is probably the case for others who have a lineage of UNIX C/C++ programming and are used to its indentation scheme. If you combine XEmacs Java mode and Ant, it's pretty easy to manage even large (>1000 source file) projects. This also means that other people with just Ant can easily recompile your code.
Re:Prophesy Revisited?
on
The Media in 2014
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· Score: 2, Interesting
"The medium is the message" also indicates literally that the communication medium through which information is sent affects how we interpret it. The information is filtered differently NOT only because, for example, we think print media is more trustworthy than electronic media. Because we cognitively use different processes to listen to the radio and watch TV, we interpret the SAME message differently. JFK won the first televised presidential election, but Nixon won the same debate among radio listeners (though of course demographic probably had an effect too).
By their very nature, media change how we communicate (notice how most people write e-mail letters like they are talking rather than like snail mail letters?) and interpret information, so paper video displays and Google's fictious, omni-media GRID will change how we think and interface with others. The death of the New York Times in this story is indicative of the transformation (for better or worse) of ourselves due to the new media. When Guttenburg invented the movable-type printing press, it cause fundamental change in the dissemination of information and hence society. The question is not what would people choose to view on Google GRID/EPIC (the video's author is probably right), but how will it change how we think and interact?
Project Looking Glass builds its windows, etc. within the framework of the Java3D Scenegraph API, therefore it actually does have real 3D coordinates. The navigation interactions that they have built into the desktop don't allow you to move it, but there's nothing stopping you from displaying the desktop in stereo and programming in new behaviours that move the windows any way you want. Especially since the source code is available
The second feature you are talking about is more specifically XSLT. The T is the transformation part. There are other parts of XSL like XSL Formatting Objects for layout, etc..
A Web site I run contains over 1 terabyte of non-redundant scientific data, mostly text, all accessible directly through hyperlinks, no Deep-Web searches required. I really doubt that our site comprises as much as 0.5% of the non-redundant, shallow Web even.
These are probably "pundits", not "experts" making such claims. Maybe I too can add "pundit" to my business card and portray my subjective opinion as fact on a variety of subjects!
I have found that the vast majority of Web sites will work with Firefox, even if they say they only support IE. The real obstacle is usually when the site uses Javascript or some server side HTTP header reading to redirect you a "Download IE" page.
My wife daily uses a major Web site which does this. This turned her off Firefox. If you install the UserAgent plugin and tell Firefox to report itself as IE, the site works completely fine.
UserAgent should really be part of Firefox by default, because of the prevelance of such sites, until Web designers smarten up.
Don't tell me China wouldn't try if they didn't have the opportunity.
Is there not some irony here? Treaties like this are made precisely to avoid such a justification for militarization. You can either try to get everyone to agree, or try to beat everyone to the punch. The later is easier (and costs more), but the former is more rewarding.
I work with (pro-democracy) Russians and Ukrainians, and they find it strange that Reagan is put on such a high pedestal for causing the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Russian people made the Soviet Bloc collapse, not a U.S. invasion. Of course Reagan had a role in it, but the government lying to them about Chernobyl, the widespread adoption of telecommunications such as fax as an alternative to gov't press, Hungary removing its border restrictions with Austria, just to name a few were internal catalysts for change. They didn't say "Oh crap! Reagan's gonna kill us more than the old presidents, lets overthrow the government before it's too late!" Not completely my opinion, but just sharing another point of view...
Unless there is an separately calculated image for both eyes, and a head tracking unit, it will not appear like an object is "virtually in front of you". Without these two things, you simply have a 2D overlay on your regular vision. The separate images are required to make your eyes focus at a particular distance, the head tracking so that when you walk rightward, the object goes leftward, etc.. Perhaps the technology is there, but not described in the article...
Perhaps he's refering to a "rouge" in Canadian Football. A rouge is a play where team A gets 1 point for tackling team B's player in his own end zone if team A kicked it there (field goal attempt or not).
Kodak is team A, scoring points on offense even though they aren't on the ball. Sun is team B, getting smacked down in their own end zone just trying to defend themselves.
Okay, I'll stop, too much sports analogy for us geeks:-)
Most of the posts regarding this licensing have been from the developers' perspective, but perhaps we should look at this from the users' perspective.
Something like 90% of the public recognizes the Java name (way more than recognize Sun). It's therefore extremely valuable. People recognize Java as meaning either "works on the Web", or more enlightened "app runs on all kinds of computers and maybe my cell phone".
If I make a vitual machine call FooCoffeeBar, I am going to be taking advantage of the years of powerful Java branding (i.e. "public recognition") to tell non-developers that this code runs in lots of places by calling it "Java Compatible". If I didn't care about end-users, I'd used a phrase like "I can't believe it's not J*v*", since developers are smart enough to figure it out.;-)
Running the canonical test suite is the only way to make sure this brand doesn't get diluted. A naive user who buys a Java-enabled cell-phone (or a Mac desktop, whatever) that can't run Java apps properly will likely be put off all Java (including products from other vendors and brands using the "Java compatible" branding).
Remember, it was the Open Source Community that has been clamouring for Java to be opened up mostly because of redistribution issues. Does this licensing scheme, which protects the end-user base, not accomplish anything developers need (since you can redistribute under any license you want if it passed the test suite)?
With regards to Sun randomly changing the API or VM, creating havoc developers down the road, please see the Java Community Process.
I'd definitely agree with the statement that the speed comparison with IA32 depends a lot on what you are doing. And how the program was compiled.
It can be tough to properly compare run times between Linux x86 and Solaris Sparc. If you have the fortune of having the Sun C compiler on hand (people doing these comparisons generally use gcc across the board), you can often beat the pants off of gcc compiled code for Sparc. As an example from personal experience on a Sparc UltraIII 850MHz, a gcc compiled version of the NCBI's BLAST program with standard gcc optimization flags takes on average 2 minutes 5 seconds to run, using 95% of CPU. The Sun C compiler with generic optimizations for Sparc III creates code that runs in 1:08 on average, using 87% of CPU. That's almost a 50% change in run time using the same source code, on the same machine!
I'm not trying to say Sparcs are faster or slower than x86 for any particular app, but that you have to take speed comparisons with a grain of salt.
You do not need a smartcard to log into a SunRay. By default ZeroAdmin authentication policy is used, which allows any card to access any station. You can give some or all users smartcards to enable "HotDesking", as Sun calls it.
I've been using a smart card every day for close to 3 years. It hasn't had any problems yet. For pricing you'd have to ask Sun, or buy directly from Schlumberger (the supported smart card comes from them). You can find out more about the smart card aspect of SunRays in the following whitepaper:
http://wwws.sun.com/sunray/whitepapers/sunray1.s ma rtcards.wp.pdf
Specifically regarding library setups there are a few key points that make the SunRay stand out. A few of these points have been mentioned, a few have not.
1. They don't make any noise at all (no fan or disk), which is nice for a library.
2. Generally, you don't need to lock them down, because there isn't a black market for hot SunRays (though this might change with a Linux version of the server available)
3. By far the best feature, as mentioned before, is the smartcard. We exclusively use SunRays at work, and I can go over to another person's desk and plug in my card to show them what I'm doing, etc. A user could move about the library and not have to keep their jacket on a chair to call dibs for a computer. This makes more terminals available at any given time.
4. You will save money on electricity with the SunRays. They produce little heat, and if the power goes out, as long as the server has a UPS, all the terminals will come back right where they left off. This means you could turn off the breakers for the computer circuits after hours.
5. We haven't had any audio issues, because we're doing all of the processing on the server, not farming it out to other machines. And the headphone jack is right in the front (along with the mic, the only plugs in the front), so it's easy for users to plug in headphones so as not to cause a disturbance for the other library users.
6. The SunRay itself takes up almost no room, so you don't need to buy fancy desks with a sling for the tower, or resort to sitting a tower on the floor, where users get their feet into them. Just sit the SunRay on the desktop next to the monitor (3"w x 11"d x 12"h on my desktop).
7. Although I have not used this part of the server software, there are many options for anonymous login, registered login, max time, etc. so you can design and enforce an access policy easily.
Slashdot Mirror
XEmacs is my preferred editor for Java source files, which is probably the case for others who have a lineage of UNIX C/C++ programming and are used to its indentation scheme. If you combine XEmacs Java mode and Ant, it's pretty easy to manage even large (>1000 source file) projects. This also means that other people with just Ant can easily recompile your code.
"The medium is the message" also indicates literally that the communication medium through which information is sent affects how we interpret it. The information is filtered differently NOT only because, for example, we think print media is more trustworthy than electronic media. Because we cognitively use different processes to listen to the radio and watch TV, we interpret the SAME message differently. JFK won the first televised presidential election, but Nixon won the same debate among radio listeners (though of course demographic probably had an effect too).
By their very nature, media change how we communicate (notice how most people write e-mail letters like they are talking rather than like snail mail letters?) and interpret information, so paper video displays and Google's fictious, omni-media GRID will change how we think and interface with others. The death of the New York Times in this story is indicative of the transformation (for better or worse) of ourselves due to the new media. When Guttenburg invented the movable-type printing press, it cause fundamental change in the dissemination of information and hence society. The question is not what would people choose to view on Google GRID/EPIC (the video's author is probably right), but how will it change how we think and interact?
Project Looking Glass builds its windows, etc. within the framework of the Java3D Scenegraph API, therefore it actually does have real 3D coordinates. The navigation interactions that they have built into the desktop don't allow you to move it, but there's nothing stopping you from displaying the desktop in stereo and programming in new behaviours that move the windows any way you want. Especially since the source code is available
The second feature you are talking about is more specifically XSLT. The T is the transformation part. There are other parts of XSL like XSL Formatting Objects for layout, etc..
The fourth estate is traditional journalism.
There is in fact a show on CBC in Canada called "The Fifth Estate". I guess the bloggers will have to be demoted to the Sixth Estate.
Copy it for me too! I'll send you a Chromium Dioxide tape. My Walkman has a special setting for it...
A Web site I run contains over 1 terabyte of non-redundant scientific data, mostly text, all accessible directly through hyperlinks, no Deep-Web searches required. I really doubt that our site comprises as much as 0.5% of the non-redundant, shallow Web even.
These are probably "pundits", not "experts" making such claims. Maybe I too can add "pundit" to my business card and portray my subjective opinion as fact on a variety of subjects!
I have found that the vast majority of Web sites will work with Firefox, even if they say they only support IE. The real obstacle is usually when the site uses Javascript or some server side HTTP header reading to redirect you a "Download IE" page.
My wife daily uses a major Web site which does this. This turned her off Firefox. If you install the UserAgent plugin and tell Firefox to report itself as IE, the site works completely fine.
UserAgent should really be part of Firefox by default, because of the prevelance of such sites, until Web designers smarten up.
Don't tell me China wouldn't try if they didn't have the opportunity.
Is there not some irony here? Treaties like this are made precisely to avoid such a justification for militarization. You can either try to get everyone to agree, or try to beat everyone to the punch. The later is easier (and costs more), but the former is more rewarding.
I work with (pro-democracy) Russians and Ukrainians, and they find it strange that Reagan is put on such a high pedestal for causing the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Russian people made the Soviet Bloc collapse, not a U.S. invasion. Of course Reagan had a role in it, but the government lying to them about Chernobyl, the widespread adoption of telecommunications such as fax as an alternative to gov't press, Hungary removing its border restrictions with Austria, just to name a few were internal catalysts for change. They didn't say "Oh crap! Reagan's gonna kill us more than the old presidents, lets overthrow the government before it's too late!" Not completely my opinion, but just sharing another point of view...
Unless there is an separately calculated image for both eyes, and a head tracking unit, it will not appear like an object is "virtually in front of you". Without these two things, you simply have a 2D overlay on your regular vision. The separate images are required to make your eyes focus at a particular distance, the head tracking so that when you walk rightward, the object goes leftward, etc.. Perhaps the technology is there, but not described in the article...
Perhaps because "Standard Oil was once owned by a half-eaten breakfast..."
Perhaps he's refering to a "rouge" in Canadian Football. A rouge is a play where team A gets 1 point for tackling team B's player in his own end zone if team A kicked it there (field goal attempt or not).
:-)
Kodak is team A, scoring points on offense even though they aren't on the ball. Sun is team B, getting smacked down in their own end zone just trying to defend themselves.
Okay, I'll stop, too much sports analogy for us geeks
Most of the posts regarding this licensing have been from the developers' perspective, but perhaps we should look at this from the users' perspective.
;-)
Something like 90% of the public recognizes the Java name (way more than recognize Sun). It's therefore extremely valuable. People recognize Java as meaning either "works on the Web", or more enlightened "app runs on all kinds of computers and maybe my cell phone".
If I make a vitual machine call FooCoffeeBar, I am going to be taking advantage of the years of powerful Java branding (i.e. "public recognition") to tell non-developers that this code runs in lots of places by calling it "Java Compatible". If I didn't care about end-users, I'd used a phrase like "I can't believe it's not J*v*", since developers are smart enough to figure it out.
Running the canonical test suite is the only way to make sure this brand doesn't get diluted. A naive user who buys a Java-enabled cell-phone (or a Mac desktop, whatever) that can't run Java apps properly will likely be put off all Java (including products from other vendors and brands using the "Java compatible" branding).
Remember, it was the Open Source Community that has been clamouring for Java to be opened up mostly because of redistribution issues. Does this licensing scheme, which protects the end-user base, not accomplish anything developers need (since you can redistribute under any license you want if it passed the test suite)?
With regards to Sun randomly changing the API or VM, creating havoc developers down the road, please see the Java Community Process.
I'd definitely agree with the statement that the speed comparison with IA32 depends a lot on what you are doing. And how the program was compiled.
It can be tough to properly compare run times between Linux x86 and Solaris Sparc. If you have the fortune of having the Sun C compiler on hand (people doing these comparisons generally use gcc across the board), you can often beat the pants off of gcc compiled code for Sparc. As an example from personal experience on a Sparc UltraIII 850MHz, a gcc compiled version of the NCBI's BLAST program with standard gcc optimization flags takes on average 2 minutes 5 seconds to run, using 95% of CPU. The Sun C compiler with generic optimizations for Sparc III creates code that runs in 1:08 on average, using 87% of CPU. That's almost a 50% change in run time using the same source code, on the same machine!
I'm not trying to say Sparcs are faster or slower than x86 for any particular app, but that you have to take speed comparisons with a grain of salt.
You do not need a smartcard to log into a SunRay. By default ZeroAdmin authentication policy is used, which allows any card to access any station. You can give some or all users smartcards to enable "HotDesking", as Sun calls it.
s ma rtcards.wp.pdf
I've been using a smart card every day for close to 3 years. It hasn't had any problems yet. For pricing you'd have to ask Sun, or buy directly from Schlumberger (the supported smart card comes from them). You can find out more about the smart card aspect of SunRays in the following whitepaper:
http://wwws.sun.com/sunray/whitepapers/sunray1.
Specifically regarding library setups there are a few key points that make the SunRay stand out. A few of these points have been mentioned, a few have not.
1. They don't make any noise at all (no fan or disk), which is nice for a library.
2. Generally, you don't need to lock them down, because there isn't a black market for hot SunRays (though this might change with a Linux version of the server available)
3. By far the best feature, as mentioned before, is the smartcard. We exclusively use SunRays at work, and I can go over to another person's desk and plug in my card to show them what I'm doing, etc. A user could move about the library and not have to keep their jacket on a chair to call dibs for a computer. This makes more terminals available at any given time.
4. You will save money on electricity with the SunRays. They produce little heat, and if the power goes out, as long as the server has a UPS, all the terminals will come back right where they left off. This means you could turn off the breakers for the computer circuits after hours.
5. We haven't had any audio issues, because we're doing all of the processing on the server, not farming it out to other machines. And the headphone jack is right in the front (along with the mic, the only plugs in the front), so it's easy for users to plug in headphones so as not to cause a disturbance for the other library users.
6. The SunRay itself takes up almost no room, so you don't need to buy fancy desks with a sling for the tower, or resort to sitting a tower on the floor, where users get their feet into them. Just sit the SunRay on the desktop next to the monitor (3"w x 11"d x 12"h on my desktop).
7. Although I have not used this part of the server software, there are many options for anonymous login, registered login, max time, etc. so you can design and enforce an access policy easily.