They don't outright ban free/open source software, but they make you jump thru hoops to use it. Products like SQLite will sell you this one for a nice fee.
Back when I was consulting for newspapers, a rough calculation showed that the price of the newspaper times the number of copies printed daily did not even cover the cost of the raw paper. If I went to the news department, old worn office furniture, crowed working conditions, people sharing desks. In the Ad department, leather chairs all around, many private offices, up to date office furniture and nice wooden desks.
IMHO what killed newspapers is not that people are getting news online, but the fact that more and more people are shopping online.
C++ will continue to be used in very few specialized applications, but it popularity will decline. Like FORTRAN or COBOL, it will live on. Not like some languages that died a well deserved death (anybody remember APL?)
I do believe that most people who learned C++ did not do so in an academic environment. It was more on the job training. When I interview a candidate, one question is "How do you rate yourself as a C++ programmer on a scale of 1 to 10?" It is amazing how many of them in the 8-10 range cannot explain the difference between a reference and a pointer, and how you initialize a reference in a class. Or what mutable means, or what templates are, or even what the three key elements of object oriented programing. C++ is a very (too?) rich language. I think many of the features will become less and less used and atrophy like our appendixes. Eventually C++ will be come the next FORTRAN.
BTW I've worked with C++ since 1992, but not any more. I can be 5 times more productive in C#. I actually dread having to go back into C++ code to fix a problem. 90% of the code that was done in C++ can now be done in C#.
"Terrorist - a person who terrorizes or frightens others." http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=terrorist. Looking at all the FUD from the TSA, Homeland Security, and the Airlines. I think the terrorists have accomplished exactly what they want - cause as much disruption in America's (and other countries) as possible.
Yes, it is a nasty disease, a friend of mines 25 year old son was recently diagnosed with it. And a very gifted pianist I know has had it for several years. I have a lot of sympathy and compassion for anyone with this terrible disease. But that said, there are two simple rules...
1. Don't share needles if you are a drug user. 2. Sexual contact - use a condom.
If everybody followed these simple, common sense rules, there would be no HIV/AID epidemic.
I have a Cingular 8125 phone/PC. I got one voice mail and one text message telling me I needed to upgrade. I downloaded and installed the latest ActiveSync and the patch and installed both as per the instructions. Lo and behold, Sunday morning, the time on my phone jumped ahead 2 (two!) hours! I think the Sunday http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20070311 Userfriendly's cartoon got it right.
Sounds like ripe targets for virus attacks
on
iPods at War
·
· Score: 2
If the solders are picking up "cheap" cd's/dvd's, what are the chances they are also picking up "cheap" software? Wouldn't this software be a good way for the enemy to deliver viruses? Are command/control systems isolated enough from the solders personal electronics to prevent virus infections?
To quote; "If you look closely at Sun's announcement, you will see that it accurately represents these facts." If fact, RMS seems to be saying that Sun says what it is doing, but people didn't read the announcement. (That sounds like 98% on the/. community;)
First of all - I've used Linux since early 90's Redhat/Cygwin back then. Up until last year I had at least one, and up to 5 systems running Linux - Mandrake, Debian, etc. I am not a novice. I upgraded my dual AMD system and had a devil of a time getting the system to power off when I shut down, but I got it to work. Upgraded later, had the same problem. But this time I could not get the system to power off no matter what I did. This was the final straw. If something as simple as powering off requires futzing with bios/boot scripts, etc. what is the average Joe blow going to do? I am now happily running windows with Open Office, GNU GIMP, Avast anti-virus, apache, and postgres - and powering off the system on shutdown just works.
Leaving the music download issue aside, who is profiting from counterfit goods? Is it drug dealers? Terrorists? Plain old criminals? In any case, I have no sympathy for any of them. I'm behind the government on this one.
"Richardson said the subscriptions will allow MSN to better find and thwart spammers because the company will have a record of credit card and other identifiable information on account holders."
Do we think spammers are ethical enough to not use fake/stolen ID's and creditcards?
I am assuming the RFID will contain the same info as the current barcode. The 10 character IATA bag tag. and source/intermediate/destination airport. So baggage will be handled by new and existing systems. This code has a very short life. The data is usually deleted from the airlines database within a couple of days of the bag arriving at it's final destination. A some point the 10 digit IATA code is reused.
Having worked in this industry, reading the current tag is a big pain. If you get an 80% accuracy rate consistantly - you are doing good. Usually he bag goes thru a scanner tunnel, with up to six laser raster scanners attempting to find and read the label. Any errors and the bag goes to a manual station where some low paid & bored baggage handler manually enters the next destinaion info. RFID has got to be better.
A few years ago, during a Memorial Day weekend, I needed cash so I went down to my local bank's ATM - it didn't work. I went to another bank, willing to pay the service charges, I got some cryptic error message. Come to find out, at 4:00 pm on the Friday before the weekend, my bank rolled a a new verstion of the ATM software to both the ATM's and the host! I offered my services as a computer consultant to help them plan future upgrades.
I worked with 25 of those systems at various times in my life, including one he did not mention - Sun OS (pre Solaris). I could also start adding Mandrake Linux, Debian GNU/XFree/Perl/Apache/Samba/.../Linux, SUSE Linux.... Anybody have a reliable count of how many Linux dstro's are out there?
Slashdot Mirror
I take the next exit to avoid this monster.
Check out the story here
Microsoft announced Silverlight 5. Scheduled bata release it 1st half 2011. Announcement here.
At least I thought it did.
They don't outright ban free/open source software, but they make you jump thru hoops to use it. Products like SQLite will sell you this one for a nice fee.
The previous story
Identity Theft Is Usually an Unsophisticated Crime
Back when I was consulting for newspapers, a rough calculation showed that the price of the newspaper times the number of copies printed daily did not even cover the cost of the raw paper. If I went to the news department, old worn office furniture, crowed working conditions, people sharing desks. In the Ad department, leather chairs all around, many private offices, up to date office furniture and nice wooden desks.
IMHO what killed newspapers is not that people are getting news online, but the fact that more and more people are shopping online.
C++ will continue to be used in very few specialized applications, but it popularity will decline. Like FORTRAN or COBOL, it will live on. Not like some languages that died a well deserved death (anybody remember APL?)
I do believe that most people who learned C++ did not do so in an academic environment. It was more on the job training. When I interview a candidate, one question is "How do you rate yourself as a C++ programmer on a scale of 1 to 10?" It is amazing how many of them in the 8-10 range cannot explain the difference between a reference and a pointer, and how you initialize a reference in a class. Or what mutable means, or what templates are, or even what the three key elements of object oriented programing. C++ is a very (too?) rich language. I think many of the features will become less and less used and atrophy like our appendixes. Eventually C++ will be come the next FORTRAN.
BTW I've worked with C++ since 1992, but not any more. I can be 5 times more productive in C#. I actually dread having to go back into C++ code to fix a problem. 90% of the code that was done in C++ can now be done in C#.
"Terrorist - a person who terrorizes or frightens others." http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=terrorist . Looking at all the FUD from the TSA, Homeland Security, and the Airlines. I think the terrorists have accomplished exactly what they want - cause as much disruption in America's (and other countries) as possible.
Yes, it is a nasty disease, a friend of mines 25 year old son was recently diagnosed with it. And a very gifted pianist I know has had it for several years. I have a lot of sympathy and compassion for anyone with this terrible disease. But that said, there are two simple rules...
1. Don't share needles if you are a drug user.
2. Sexual contact - use a condom.
If everybody followed these simple, common sense rules, there would be no HIV/AID epidemic.
I have a Cingular 8125 phone/PC. I got one voice mail and one text message telling me I needed to upgrade. I downloaded and installed the latest ActiveSync and the patch and installed both as per the instructions. Lo and behold, Sunday morning, the time on my phone jumped ahead 2 (two!) hours!
I think the Sunday http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20070311 Userfriendly's cartoon got it right.
If the solders are picking up "cheap" cd's/dvd's, what are the chances they are also picking up "cheap" software? Wouldn't this software be a good way for the enemy to deliver viruses? Are command/control systems isolated enough from the solders personal electronics to prevent virus infections?
No, we're north of Canada :)
To quote; "If you look closely at Sun's announcement, you will see that it accurately represents these facts." If fact, RMS seems to be saying that Sun says what it is doing, but people didn't read the announcement. (That sounds like 98% on the /. community ;)
First of all - I've used Linux since early 90's Redhat/Cygwin back then. Up until last year I had at least one, and up to 5 systems running Linux - Mandrake, Debian, etc. I am not a novice. I upgraded my dual AMD system and had a devil of a time getting the system to power off when I shut down, but I got it to work. Upgraded later, had the same problem. But this time I could not get the system to power off no matter what I did. This was the final straw. If something as simple as powering off requires futzing with bios/boot scripts, etc. what is the average Joe blow going to do? I am now happily running windows with Open Office, GNU GIMP, Avast anti-virus, apache, and postgres - and powering off the system on shutdown just works.
Leaving the music download issue aside, who is profiting from counterfit goods? Is it drug dealers? Terrorists? Plain old criminals? In any case, I have no sympathy for any of them. I'm behind the government on this one.
"Richardson said the subscriptions will allow MSN to better find and thwart spammers because the company will have a record of credit card and other identifiable information on account holders."
Do we think spammers are ethical enough to not use fake/stolen ID's and creditcards?
I am assuming the RFID will contain the same info as the current barcode. The 10 character IATA bag tag. and source/intermediate/destination airport. So baggage will be handled by new and existing systems. This code has a very short life. The data is usually deleted from the airlines database within a couple of days of the bag arriving at it's final destination. A some point the 10 digit IATA code is reused.
Having worked in this industry, reading the current tag is a big pain. If you get an 80% accuracy rate consistantly - you are doing good. Usually he bag goes thru a scanner tunnel, with up to six laser raster scanners attempting to find and read the label. Any errors and the bag goes to a manual station where some low paid & bored baggage handler manually enters the next destinaion info. RFID has got to be better.
A few years ago, during a Memorial Day weekend, I needed cash so I went down to my local bank's ATM - it didn't work. I went to another bank, willing to pay the service charges, I got some cryptic error message. Come to find out, at 4:00 pm on the Friday before the weekend, my bank rolled a a new verstion of the ATM software to both the ATM's and the host! I offered my services as a
computer consultant to help them plan future upgrades.
Hey, at least you have a fricking job. The company I was doing work for had a massive layoff. The worst job I had is NO JOB!!!
Yea, I'll miss Dr. Fraiser, I think she was hotter than Sam.
What's even worse, they choose this over buying the rights to and producing Firefly.
Does not compute, overload overload, cannot shut down AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
I worked with 25 of those systems at various times in my life, including one he did not mention - Sun OS (pre Solaris). I could also start adding Mandrake Linux, Debian GNU/XFree/Perl/Apache/Samba/.../Linux, SUSE Linux.... Anybody have a reliable count of how many Linux dstro's are out there?