Well, as they claimed it, it's true that customers
don't care (most of them don't) about the OS in
the appliance, as long as it works the way it's
supposed to.
So, if the Cobalt box is running just fine on
Linux, or if the customers don't even care whether
it's Linux or anything else, why bother spending
money and efforts porting Solaris to MIPS just to
be able to run on the Cobalt box? Since Sun can't
market it better just because the OS in there is
Solaris (as they said, customers don't care), so
I'm wondering with this idea of replacing the OS.
Sun should send this person to relearn
"Marketing 101".
Ok, the US government has been bullying around the
world saying that they are the defensor of freedom
and democracy.
How about a real democracy at home?
Since this Carnivore thing is going to have a long
term effect on all Americans, and all other countries' population as well, isn't it fair to submit
the question to the whole population for a
referendum?
And let's see whether we want it or not. I don't
like the idea that some FBI guys decide for me.
that the NSA is sending one of their own out there
to send a message to all governments in the world that they should not resist the american government's intrusion into their internal affairs.
Resistance is futile, we have backdoors to get into your backyard, so why bother?
Books publishing and software publishing are not
exactly the same paradigm, so it's hard to apply
the open source software paradigm to the book publishing.
However, books cover a broader topics, in the sense that some are purely technical, and some are purely artistic. For those technical books, if the contributing authors can agree on the "development format" and "publishing format", open source software paradigm may apply.
For artistic publication, it may not work that well. If I'm a poet and am trying to publish a
collection of my poems, I certainly do not want
anyone to mess around. I won't even accept any
errata report. Who are the reader to tell me that
it was an error? I intentionally wrote that way,
so get out.
On a side note, personally, I would take the
electronic copy any time there is one.
Someone declared, on the pocketlinux mailing list, that he wants to develop a micro-reader (ebook reader) with book contents in
XML format. If the project is done right, we may have an open-source ebook reader soon.
The other day, I was getting bored and would like to scan the sky in the evening, so I thought maybe I should get a telescope. I went to Fry's and saw some big ones with price tag in the 1000's and I thought that was expensive.
And now you people just told me a price tag of one
mil is "dirt cheap".
Gee, I thought I have been living on planet Earth....
Well, this sounds more like a strategy to create
buzzes for their up-coming IPO than anything. The
press release does not tell anything, but just threw in a catchy statement like that so that everyone talks about it.
We all know the marketing strategy before an IPO:
Create partnership/alliance, make press release. There should be at least two per months,
and at least one per week 3 months before the IPO, to keep up the momentum.
Drop little information to some unsuspecting
journalist to get a coverage. Preferably one coverage per week, to keep up the momentum.
Drop a little other information to yet other
journalist to get another coverage, so that the journalists compete among themselves. This creates
an atmosphere that the company is really hot, and is on something really big, that's why every journalist is trying to get the scoop. A way to generate buzz and keep up the momentum.
CEO, VP,... accept interviews, alternating among the high ranking officers in the company, to
give interest to different groups of people: investment analyst, investors, developers,... And
these interviews should happen every week six months before the IPO, to keep up the momentum.
Make a press release even if nothing happens, just to keep the steam up.
Make more press releases, and drop in a few bombs to get noticed. To keep up the momentum.
Everything is about to generate buzzes and keep up
the momentum.
So, are you ready to buy machines with Crusoe chip, and throw in your money to invest in the
company?
Before we actually start to flame him, maybe we
should all read the article first.
I'm not saying whatever he says is all true. But he got some interesting points there.
The 'real' bazaar model in software engineering would not really work. Do you actually think that it would really work, among all the chaos that would result from such a model? Someone, or some trusting entity, will have to put an order to the
chaos at the end.
However, there's probably something that Connel failed to point out. The open source model (flat cathedral) eliminate a lot of efficiency out of the traditional "pyramid" model, where a lot of decisions are made by idiot management types who have no technical skills. What results from that is poor quality softwares, coz those management types (most of them) don't know what they are talking about but insist that certain features be in the system or certain architecture be designed in a certain way.
The open source model is centrally controled by capable and smart people who are themselves contributors to the project, not just people who wander around in the office with note book and claim to be project manager. And the final decision on what will go in the source database take into consideration a lot of opinions, suggestions, debates from all participants. As a matter of fact, open source projects that do not do this are loosing contributors, e.g. x86BSD,
just like the traditional model that do not allow any say from contributors does not prosper well.
Archie was developed at McGill University,
in Montreal, Canada.
You can contact the Department of Computer
Science for more information. It certainly
was developed before 1991, I know that as
I graduated from there.
It could have been more innovative and safer to
operate if NASA came up with a laser gun that
shrinks the space debris to a size smaller enough
that they become harmless...
First, it's a PR event to infuse (maybe) new blood
and new dynamic into the management and direction
of the company.
Isn't it time for change? Come on, frankly, if you
are an investor in the company, that is....
Second, Cowpland can now start something new and
bitch at M$ again, without having to respond to
all those investors inquiry whether it's a nice thing
to do that can add value to the company and to
the investors' pocket.
Well, I thought this is knew to everyone in the
corporate world, because I've seen this in quite
a few companies I worked for in the past.
In some places, people had to pay for 3 copies:
One from the pc manufacturer, one with applicatons
(mostly office stuff) bundled, and for the
developers, another one with development tools
(the Visual Studio etc) bundled. It's because
they have different license contracts for
different types of users.
And since those idiots marketing and sales
people keep on sending email in M$Word
format (why the hell you need to send
a 200K document if you just want to email
10 lines of text?), developers claim they
have to use the office suite as well.
And so they ended up paying for 3 copies
of that... what do you call it again?
Whenever I mentioned Unix/Linux, I keep on hearing that Linux is just another remake of the 70's technology, and Microsoft is the real innovator, blah blah blah... But meanwhile, how come I keep on seeing people or company who 'borrow' from that old technology? Sounds weird.
Montreal is a nice city to live in, if you don't mind some politics about 'official' language and signs, and things like that.
The city is very diversed and cosmopolitan. You can find all kinds of good foods in the same city. There's a China town, a Little Italy, a Greek town, French Quarter, irish pubs, english bistro, morrocan restos, vietnamese cafes,..... City night life is just fine, althgough it's not a 24-hour city.
Public transport is really good. I lived there for 10 years in the suburb, studying and working in downtown, never had a car and never needed one. Pollution is not too bad, since a lot of can live without having cars, and government encourages people to use public transport by subsidizing the cost. You can get a monthly pass for CND$50 (when I was there 3 yrs ago), and that's valid for the bus and metro (the subway). You can board as many times as you want, going in any direction you want. No limit to the 'kilometrage' (or mileage, gee, I still don't know how to convert from metric to the awkward english system!), valid from beginning to the end of month.
Universities are good. There are four universities and a lot of colleges. Two french language universities and two english language ones. They are among the best in the country and very good compared to universities around the world too. I graduated from a french-language college and then from McGill University (an english language university). Most people speak more than one language, and at the english language universities, some professors even allow you to do your assignments and write your essays in french, if you think your english writing skill is not good enough to express yourself. If you only speak english, no problem. You can always get around and find a job, actually, there are a lot of companies where people only speak english (I have worked for one like that). Some big companies even send you to learn french, paid for by the companies. That's a nice perk to have.
Universities are really 'open'. I love to go and sit in classes, those classes that have nothing to do with computer science, things like economics, literature, philosophy, and thinks like that. I tried to do that twice at Santa Clara University, and I got kicked out, I was told I didn't pay for it. Gosh, in the US, you gotta pay for your willingness to learn.....
Living cost is low. We had a 3-bedroom apartment, with a huge living room and a nice kitchen (big enough to hold parties of 50-60 people no problem, and we did a lot!), for about CND$550 (now convert that to US$, and compare that to any city in the world). Since you don't need cars, that saves you tons of money on insurance cost, car repairs, fuel, parking,..... And if you are in IT and hi-tech, you can earn very good income and live quite comfortably.
Ok, taxes are a little bit high. However, social benefits, medicare, education, and a tons of other stuffs are hugely subsidized by your tax money. Actually, I have never complained about paying taxes in Canada, it is a nice country to live, and I have seen what the tax money has achieved, and I'm always willing to pay it. Now, in the SV, I'm paying about the same amount of taxes to all levels of government, and I have received nothing, no services, no benefits, absolute nothing. As a simple example, two years ago, in Sunnyvale, California, I need to have a piece of paper notarized. So naturally, as I always did in Canada, I went to the city hall, because this is one the services that governments provided to citizens, unless of course, you need very fancy and complicated services, then you need to pay for it. The Sunnyvale city hall people had never heard of it. I asked what did they do to the tax money I paid, and I was told that is none of my business.
Security is one of the nicest thing you can have. When I got married, we had a few friends from the US attending our wedding. A couple with two kids stayed with their cousin, who also have kids. The little Montrealeses wanted to bring their american cousins to play in the park in the evening, at about 8pm. The american parents were screaming no, no no, not at this hour. The canadian kids were surprised, what's wrong going to play in the park? And this couple come from Madison, Wisconsin, one of the safest places in the US.
Weather could be a problem though, but it could also be a good thing. You have real four seasons. So if you like outdoor sports, that's really good. In summer, you have summer sports, in winter you have winter sports.
Cultural events are my favorites. The international jazz festival (one of the biggest in the world, sometimes you can listen to the biggest names, like BB King, Buddy Guy, play live). The international film festival, where you can see movies from around the world, films that you'll never see otherwise. I usually bought a booklet of 50 tickets (because you get discount this way) and share them with my friends. I usually watched 10 to 15 movies each festival, because that's about the amount of time I could allocate in the 10-day period. Then the international food festival, the irish festivals, the french, the english, the chinese (there are a lots, like mid-autumn festivals, chinese new year with ice cultures, summer festivals....), the vietnames, the italians, the greeks, the arabics,.....
There are a lot of green places, nice parks. You got a moutain (Mont Royal, hence Montreal) in the middle of the City, and it's open to the public. The mountain is really beautiful in fall. Try imagine that, if you can. Then, there's a huge botanical garden, with a japanese garden and a chinese garden in it. The chinese garden is of Ming dynasty style, very beautiful, and is one the largest gardens of such kind outside China and Taiwan. In winter, there's an ice culture festival, by chinese artists from Harbin (in the North-east of China). It's best seen in the evening, with the beautiful lights.
And there are tons of outdoor activities you can do. Ski, camping, moutain climbing, whale watching cruise, water rafting, water rapid cascading, sky diving,... all within reach, in 2 to 3 hours driving.
All in all, the best city I've found I have lived in so far. And don't forget smoked meat sandwich, I mean, the real one. You can't get this kind of good stuff in the US. At least, haven't found it yet.
Yeah, as if Linux users need to reboot the machine 5 times a day or something like that.... When was the last time I booted up my Linux box? Can't remember. That being said, it's good thing. Probably now I don't need to care about the limited HD size permitted just because I have an old BIOS. I can blow the whole thing away, and get Linux in there. Am I too ahead of the project?
Dear Librarian of Congress, First of all, let me wish you good luck and hope that you'll hold on to your bud and your privileges as Librarian of Congress while you can, but sooner or later, the entire collection of LoC will be digitized, with or without you. That being said, it is true that the feeling of touching the book, turning pages, while you are reading, is pleasant. But the main reason for reading is to acquire knowledge, so it doesn't matter whether you read it by turning pages or by scrolling down the screen. The reason for reading is not to go to the LoC in bus load so that you stupid jerk can feel the importance of your "stature". And then, reading is being lonely by definition. Have you seen a bunch of people reading out loud together, "as a community", in the LoC? Is it allowed anyways? Finally, just a reminder. We are in the 21st century now, Mr. Librarian of Congress, in case you haven't turned the page of your calendar yet. And things are different too. Remember you used to able to get a movie ticket, a pop corn and a soda for only 5 cents? You know what, now you get sound and color too. So adapt yourself to the new world. my 2Bits
By the government or by contract, regulations are not necessarily bad. The question is not whether to have regulations or not, but what is the appropriate level of regulatons on all things human. The balance is difficult, but not impossible to achieve. Laws, regulations, customs, habits are not fixed in time, they change (and have to!) over the course of human history. People who shout out loud that government should stay away seem to forget that it was the laws and regulations by government in the first place that have given them what they (and we all) have today, as human society. Extreme capitalists in the previous centuries had enslaved the prolitariat, and that is changed only after the intervention (i.e. labor laws!!!) of the government. We all benefited from that. The freedom that you and I have to tell the government to stay away is guaranteed by the constitution. The constitution is law and regulation, don't forget that. Everything human needs regulation, including/.. The balance to have it such that the weakest can't be exploited (ah well, not openly exploited anyways) and oppressed, and that it is fair to everyone. That's the main purpose of laws and regulations, let's not lose that from sight.
Slashdot Mirror
Darn, now I have to redraw my schema....
So, if the Cobalt box is running just fine on Linux, or if the customers don't even care whether it's Linux or anything else, why bother spending money and efforts porting Solaris to MIPS just to be able to run on the Cobalt box? Since Sun can't market it better just because the OS in there is Solaris (as they said, customers don't care), so I'm wondering with this idea of replacing the OS.
Sun should send this person to relearn "Marketing 101".
How about a real democracy at home?
Since this Carnivore thing is going to have a long term effect on all Americans, and all other countries' population as well, isn't it fair to submit the question to the whole population for a referendum?
And let's see whether we want it or not. I don't like the idea that some FBI guys decide for me.
Resistance is futile, we have backdoors to get into your backyard, so why bother?
However, books cover a broader topics, in the sense that some are purely technical, and some are purely artistic. For those technical books, if the contributing authors can agree on the "development format" and "publishing format", open source software paradigm may apply.
For artistic publication, it may not work that well. If I'm a poet and am trying to publish a collection of my poems, I certainly do not want anyone to mess around. I won't even accept any errata report. Who are the reader to tell me that it was an error? I intentionally wrote that way, so get out.
On a side note, personally, I would take the electronic copy any time there is one. Someone declared, on the pocketlinux mailing list, that he wants to develop a micro-reader (ebook reader) with book contents in XML format. If the project is done right, we may have an open-source ebook reader soon.
And now you people just told me a price tag of one mil is "dirt cheap".
Gee, I thought I have been living on planet Earth....
We all know the marketing strategy before an IPO:
Everything is about to generate buzzes and keep up the momentum.
So, are you ready to buy machines with Crusoe chip, and throw in your money to invest in the company?
No? How come?
Before we actually start to flame him, maybe we should all read the article first.
I'm not saying whatever he says is all true. But he got some interesting points there.
The 'real' bazaar model in software engineering would not really work. Do you actually think that it would really work, among all the chaos that would result from such a model? Someone, or some trusting entity, will have to put an order to the chaos at the end.
However, there's probably something that Connel failed to point out. The open source model (flat cathedral) eliminate a lot of efficiency out of the traditional "pyramid" model, where a lot of decisions are made by idiot management types who have no technical skills. What results from that is poor quality softwares, coz those management types (most of them) don't know what they are talking about but insist that certain features be in the system or certain architecture be designed in a certain way.
The open source model is centrally controled by capable and smart people who are themselves contributors to the project, not just people who wander around in the office with note book and claim to be project manager. And the final decision on what will go in the source database take into consideration a lot of opinions, suggestions, debates from all participants. As a matter of fact, open source projects that do not do this are loosing contributors, e.g. x86BSD, just like the traditional model that do not allow any say from contributors does not prosper well.
At the current rate that computers get obsolete, the machine I bought last year, would qualify too.
You can contact the Department of Computer Science for more information. It certainly was developed before 1991, I know that as I graduated from there.
It could have been more innovative and safer to operate if NASA came up with a laser gun that shrinks the space debris to a size smaller enough that they become harmless...
First, it's a PR event to infuse (maybe) new blood and new dynamic into the management and direction of the company.
Isn't it time for change? Come on, frankly, if you are an investor in the company, that is....
Second, Cowpland can now start something new and bitch at M$ again, without having to respond to all those investors inquiry whether it's a nice thing to do that can add value to the company and to the investors' pocket.
Wonder how Novell could complement Big Blue to justify a buy-out....
In some places, people had to pay for 3 copies: One from the pc manufacturer, one with applicatons (mostly office stuff) bundled, and for the developers, another one with development tools (the Visual Studio etc) bundled. It's because they have different license contracts for different types of users.
And since those idiots marketing and sales people keep on sending email in M$Word format (why the hell you need to send a 200K document if you just want to email 10 lines of text?), developers claim they have to use the office suite as well.
And so they ended up paying for 3 copies of that ... what do you call it again?
Next time, if you are to announce something like that, would you please first mirror the document/ site/pictures before you post the news?
You save the target site from /.-ted, save us tons of frustration too.
Not all sites can handle this kind of tsunami.
Whenever I mentioned Unix/Linux, I keep on hearing that Linux is just another remake of the 70's technology, and Microsoft is the real innovator, blah blah blah... But meanwhile, how come I keep on seeing people or company who 'borrow' from that old technology? Sounds weird.
Montreal is a nice city to live in, if you don't mind some politics about 'official' language and signs, and things like that.
The city is very diversed and cosmopolitan. You can find all kinds of good foods in the same city. There's a China town, a Little Italy, a Greek town, French Quarter, irish pubs, english bistro, morrocan restos, vietnamese cafes, ..... City night life is just fine, althgough it's not a 24-hour city.
Public transport is really good. I lived there for 10 years in the suburb, studying and working in downtown, never had a car and never needed one. Pollution is not too bad, since a lot of can live without having cars, and government encourages people to use public transport by subsidizing the cost. You can get a monthly pass for CND$50 (when I was there 3 yrs ago), and that's valid for the bus and metro (the subway). You can board as many times as you want, going in any direction you want. No limit to the 'kilometrage' (or mileage, gee, I still don't know how to convert from metric to the awkward english system!), valid from beginning to the end of month.
Universities are good. There are four universities and a lot of colleges. Two french language universities and two english language ones. They are among the best in the country and very good compared to universities around the world too. I graduated from a french-language college and then from McGill University (an english language university). Most people speak more than one language, and at the english language universities, some professors even allow you to do your assignments and write your essays in french, if you think your english writing skill is not good enough to express yourself. If you only speak english, no problem. You can always get around and find a job, actually, there are a lot of companies where people only speak english (I have worked for one like that). Some big companies even send you to learn french, paid for by the companies. That's a nice perk to have.
Universities are really 'open'. I love to go and sit in classes, those classes that have nothing to do with computer science, things like economics, literature, philosophy, and thinks like that. I tried to do that twice at Santa Clara University, and I got kicked out, I was told I didn't pay for it. Gosh, in the US, you gotta pay for your willingness to learn.....
Living cost is low. We had a 3-bedroom apartment, with a huge living room and a nice kitchen (big enough to hold parties of 50-60 people no problem, and we did a lot!), for about CND$550 (now convert that to US$, and compare that to any city in the world). Since you don't need cars, that saves you tons of money on insurance cost, car repairs, fuel, parking, ..... And if you are in IT and hi-tech, you can earn very good income and live quite comfortably.
Ok, taxes are a little bit high. However, social benefits, medicare, education, and a tons of other stuffs are hugely subsidized by your tax money. Actually, I have never complained about paying taxes in Canada, it is a nice country to live, and I have seen what the tax money has achieved, and I'm always willing to pay it. Now, in the SV, I'm paying about the same amount of taxes to all levels of government, and I have received nothing, no services, no benefits, absolute nothing. As a simple example, two years ago, in Sunnyvale, California, I need to have a piece of paper notarized. So naturally, as I always did in Canada, I went to the city hall, because this is one the services that governments provided to citizens, unless of course, you need very fancy and complicated services, then you need to pay for it. The Sunnyvale city hall people had never heard of it. I asked what did they do to the tax money I paid, and I was told that is none of my business.
Security is one of the nicest thing you can have. When I got married, we had a few friends from the US attending our wedding. A couple with two kids stayed with their cousin, who also have kids. The little Montrealeses wanted to bring their american cousins to play in the park in the evening, at about 8pm. The american parents were screaming no, no no, not at this hour. The canadian kids were surprised, what's wrong going to play in the park? And this couple come from Madison, Wisconsin, one of the safest places in the US.
Weather could be a problem though, but it could also be a good thing. You have real four seasons. So if you like outdoor sports, that's really good. In summer, you have summer sports, in winter you have winter sports.
Cultural events are my favorites. The international jazz festival (one of the biggest in the world, sometimes you can listen to the biggest names, like BB King, Buddy Guy, play live). The international film festival, where you can see movies from around the world, films that you'll never see otherwise. I usually bought a booklet of 50 tickets (because you get discount this way) and share them with my friends. I usually watched 10 to 15 movies each festival, because that's about the amount of time I could allocate in the 10-day period. Then the international food festival, the irish festivals, the french, the english, the chinese (there are a lots, like mid-autumn festivals, chinese new year with ice cultures, summer festivals....), the vietnames, the italians, the greeks, the arabics, .....
There are a lot of green places, nice parks. You got a moutain (Mont Royal, hence Montreal) in the middle of the City, and it's open to the public. The mountain is really beautiful in fall. Try imagine that, if you can. Then, there's a huge botanical garden, with a japanese garden and a chinese garden in it. The chinese garden is of Ming dynasty style, very beautiful, and is one the largest gardens of such kind outside China and Taiwan. In winter, there's an ice culture festival, by chinese artists from Harbin (in the North-east of China). It's best seen in the evening, with the beautiful lights.
And there are tons of outdoor activities you can do. Ski, camping, moutain climbing, whale watching cruise, water rafting, water rapid cascading, sky diving, ... all within reach, in 2 to 3 hours driving.
All in all, the best city I've found I have lived in so far. And don't forget smoked meat sandwich, I mean, the real one. You can't get this kind of good stuff in the US. At least, haven't found it yet.
Yeah, as if Linux users need to reboot the machine 5 times a day or something like that.... When was the last time I booted up my Linux box? Can't remember. That being said, it's good thing. Probably now I don't need to care about the limited HD size permitted just because I have an old BIOS. I can blow the whole thing away, and get Linux in there. Am I too ahead of the project?
Tux O Mighty Lord, ...
Slashdot that Old Redmond Gates,
And Smash the Windows
What a bunch of bozos.
Maybe I should sell my parcel in Silicon Valley and invest in Mars real-estate before it goes up like in SV.
Anyone knows how much it costs per acre over there?
Dear Librarian of Congress, First of all, let me wish you good luck and hope that you'll hold on to your bud and your privileges as Librarian of Congress while you can, but sooner or later, the entire collection of LoC will be digitized, with or without you. That being said, it is true that the feeling of touching the book, turning pages, while you are reading, is pleasant. But the main reason for reading is to acquire knowledge, so it doesn't matter whether you read it by turning pages or by scrolling down the screen. The reason for reading is not to go to the LoC in bus load so that you stupid jerk can feel the importance of your "stature". And then, reading is being lonely by definition. Have you seen a bunch of people reading out loud together, "as a community", in the LoC? Is it allowed anyways? Finally, just a reminder. We are in the 21st century now, Mr. Librarian of Congress, in case you haven't turned the page of your calendar yet. And things are different too. Remember you used to able to get a movie ticket, a pop corn and a soda for only 5 cents? You know what, now you get sound and color too. So adapt yourself to the new world. my 2Bits
By the government or by contract, regulations are not necessarily bad. The question is not whether to have regulations or not, but what is the appropriate level of regulatons on all things human. The balance is difficult, but not impossible to achieve. Laws, regulations, customs, habits are not fixed in time, they change (and have to!) over the course of human history. People who shout out loud that government should stay away seem to forget that it was the laws and regulations by government in the first place that have given them what they (and we all) have today, as human society. Extreme capitalists in the previous centuries had enslaved the prolitariat, and that is changed only after the intervention (i.e. labor laws!!!) of the government. We all benefited from that. The freedom that you and I have to tell the government to stay away is guaranteed by the constitution. The constitution is law and regulation, don't forget that. Everything human needs regulation, including /.. The balance to have it such that the weakest can't be exploited (ah well, not openly exploited anyways) and oppressed, and that it is fair to everyone. That's the main purpose of laws and regulations, let's not lose that from sight.