I suspect you are trolling but I am going to reply anyway...
Internet Explorer is not free just like Mozilla is. Show me the source code for IE - you can't because it's not free. (Speech v Beer) For a definition of free software see the Free Software Foundation website at http://www.fsf.org
Winzip is not a Microsoft application.
The hundreds of gigabytes(?) of free programs he had were probably not written by Microsoft. Are you sure you don't mean megabytes. Do you know how big a gigabyte is?
As for your last paragraph - it speaks for itself. Microsoft are not in the business of giving power to people, they are in the business of making money. To them that means taking power away from users.
There are some things in the books that suggest Prattchet has read Adam's works. For example if you look into Death's eyes you can see infinity - and it looks blue.
Ransom Love is a PHB and not a techie - he doesn't deserve our respect. What have Caledra ever done to contribute to Linux anyway? Do they actually employ any linux people?
The distros that matter at the moment are Redhat, Mandrake, SuSE and Debian. Everything Redhat and Mandrake relaase is GPL, same for Debian.
Caledra used to be the "easy to use" linux distro. Now that's Mandrake. Then they had the e-desktop or some other such nonsense where they stuck a huge propriatory GUI on top of Linux.
They seem to be targetting PHB's and presenting the worst side of Linux, and now they are lending some credit to Microsoft's idiotic ramblings
Curl up and die Caledra - the Linux community don't need you.
We need all those Telephone Sanitizers. When you're thinking how meaningless and boring your own job is, nothing puts it back into perspective faster than watching a telephone sanitizer at work
I challenge you to find one Piers Anthony book where a female character (human, centaur, whatever) is not described by the size (or at least existence) of her breasts at least once in the book
I loved Colonization and Railroad Tycoon (and Transport Tycoon) when I still had a dos partition. I've tried to play them using DOSEMU but the setup is so damn complicated and I've given up getting it to work. Has anyone else had any success getting their old dos games working in Linux?
Software Engineering is not about coding style - its about the software processes and mangement.
Capturing the requirements correctly - a very rare and valuable skill
Designing the whole system
Managing your production team (Designers, coders, artists, the lot)
Testing properly and efficiently
Testing properly and efficiently(sic)
Sure there are formal methods like VDM that have methods for generating code from specification but its not always the best way to do it (imho).
Software Engineering is not concerned with coding style. But you should comment your code and you should use OOP where appropriate. Oh and we've been told that GOTO's are evil but I still use them when I occasionally get my BBC Micro out out of the cupboard. (I don't use goto's anywhere else though).
XP is an excellent methodology for software production. It works! It does make software better. We need to get the message out to the industry so any discussion at all esp. on a high profile forum like Slashdot is necessary.
I have personal experience of XP at university (MEng Software Eng, Sheffield Uni, UK) where we are using it in all our group based projects this year.
The strategy of test-plan first, test everything, test often works so that every time you sit down to code you know:
exactly what you are coding (which test(s) are you aiming to pass?)
exactly when this particular coding session is finished (when the tests are passed)
what not to write code for (yes it could be done another (better?) way but don't do it now. If its important then put it on the todo list)
Also after every coding session you can see that you have acheived something. Every day the list of failed tests is shorter. We found that the secret is to have two test lists. One is the original test list (written before coding of this module started) the other is the list of all the tests that you have thought of while coding. Both lists are equally important but they should be run seperately. That way you can see the original test list go down as the software improves. Also the second list can be considered as the "things to do when the first list is dealt with", that way your short term objectives are clear.
Its all about managing yourself. Knowing what to code and what not to code. It works, I've tried it and I would never go back.
>But 50 billion Watts? Imagine if we could
>directly harness some of that energy!
You mean in the same way that we harness solar power? - by putting a couple of dozen solar power plants in the world and still using archaiac coal, gas and oil power in the majority of the world.
I agree - very good idea. Seperate the media from the IP.
Only probelem is: how do you prove that you own the IP?
The record companies may require you to send in a
registration card, then guess what! Only RIAA authorised outlets with access to
the database that tells them which IP's you own will be able
to sell you replacement CD's so small record shops
suddenly have no business. Wouldn't this make second hand
record shops dodgy as you would have to sign away your IP rights as well as the media
just my 0.02 gbp
that would be neat! the corps could get your IP address from gnutella but they would never beable to find your computer to confiscate it. ("Metallica Confiscated My Arse") ("I have Metallica MP3's Coming Out Of My Arse"). Assuming of course that the computer was located in....(right?)
Also you could add a couple of 8 gig solid state hard drives (maybe in your thighs) or even better make a neural connection to your brain and use that useless 80% as long term storage. No need for that crappy 1cm^2 screen - just hook the computer up to your optical nerve. Include a generator that uses kinetic enrgy and body heat to power it with and whatever you do - don't install windows. Imagine waking up in the morning and seeing "Safe Mode" at each corner of your view. Ugh
This would be so cool - fully gargoyled into the Metaverse and no-onein the real world would know from looking at you (as long as you're not waving a wakazi about in Tesco's).
A big cheer for those guys working on Netverse. Hurry up guys.:) and for those of you who have no idea what I am gibbering about - read Snow Crash by Neal Stevenson - a must read for all hackers.
I took the plunge earlier this year and decided that I was going to use Linux to write my dissertation (I had it installed for a while but never used it as all my apps were in Win98). I grabbed two copies of star office and loved the way I could operate it in exactly the same way either side of the dual boot. It took me a while to figure out how to do a few things but I soon figured it out. Now (2 months later) I hardly boot windows. I found SO under linux was much more stable than MS Word under Win 98. SO under Win 98 was more stable than Word but not as stable as SO Linux. Overall I was very impressed - the only feature missing from star office is a grammar checker. I had absolutlely no problems formatting paragraphs - and I really loved the crop dialogue for embedding images. MS Office 90 quid? Star Office free / or $1.99 from cheapbytes if you're on a 56k modem
There's a better way to protest against Mattel, instead of a DOS attack, we should post all our old Barbie dolls[1] back to thier main office - I don't have any but there must be a lot of people out there who do. Just my 2/100's
Each one accompanied by a note explaining 1) why the doll is being returned and 2) that we will not be buying any more mattal products
They may be able to ignore letters - but they can't ignore 1 thousand+ parcels
Oh - and another point - IANAL but would it be possible for a company to sue Mattel if Cyber-Patrol illegitimatly blocked their site. I don't know what grounds there would be for a case - maybe they could sue the libraries instead.
I've already used my 2 cents - here's a fluff-encrusted peppermint
Slashdot Mirror
Would you like to back that up?
QT is now free - Trolltech released it under a free licence after much whining from RMS and crew. And KOffice itsself is GPL.
Freenet is a perfect delivery system for the starwars DivX.. Local caching will reduce the bandwidth requirements
Damn it! Why can't I have mod points today?
(Score:5 Funny)
I suspect you are trolling but I am going to reply anyway...
Internet Explorer is not free just like Mozilla is. Show me the source code for IE - you can't because it's not free. (Speech v Beer) For a definition of free software see the Free Software Foundation website at http://www.fsf.org
Winzip is not a Microsoft application.
The hundreds of gigabytes(?) of free programs he had were probably not written by Microsoft. Are you sure you don't mean megabytes. Do you know how big a gigabyte is?
As for your last paragraph - it speaks for itself. Microsoft are not in the business of giving power to people, they are in the business of making money. To them that means taking power away from users.
There are some things in the books that suggest Prattchet has read Adam's works. For example if you look into Death's eyes you can see infinity - and it looks blue.
wrong!
my car is a she, so are (almost) all boats, it doesn't imply that my car is female,
although it can be a bitch to start in the cold
Ransom Love is a PHB and not a techie - he doesn't deserve our respect. What have Caledra ever done to contribute to Linux anyway? Do they actually employ any linux people?
The distros that matter at the moment are Redhat, Mandrake, SuSE and Debian. Everything Redhat and Mandrake relaase is GPL, same for Debian.
Caledra used to be the "easy to use" linux distro. Now that's Mandrake. Then they had the e-desktop or some other such nonsense where they stuck a huge propriatory GUI on top of Linux.
They seem to be targetting PHB's and presenting the worst side of Linux, and now they are lending some credit to Microsoft's idiotic ramblings
Curl up and die Caledra - the Linux community don't need you.
Noooo!
We need all those Telephone Sanitizers. When you're thinking how meaningless and boring your own job is, nothing puts it back into perspective faster than watching a telephone sanitizer at work
Rephrased without changing semantics: "You forget the DeCSS as a problem is mainly a USofA legal issue, developed countries see things differently."
I challenge you to find one Piers Anthony book where a female character (human, centaur, whatever) is not described by the size (or at least existence) of her breasts at least once in the book
the man is an obsessed pervert
I loved Colonization and Railroad Tycoon (and Transport Tycoon) when I still had a dos partition. I've tried to play them using DOSEMU but the setup is so damn complicated and I've given up getting it to work. Has anyone else had any success getting their old dos games working in Linux?
Moderators - This is exactly what XP is all about
Please mod this guy up!
Software Engineering is not about coding style - its about the software processes and mangement.
Sure there are formal methods like VDM that have methods for generating code from specification but its not always the best way to do it (imho).
Software Engineering is not concerned with coding style. But you should comment your code and you should use OOP where appropriate. Oh and we've been told that GOTO's are evil but I still use them when I occasionally get my BBC Micro out out of the cupboard. (I don't use goto's anywhere else though).
XP is an excellent methodology for software production. It works! It does make software better. We need to get the message out to the industry so any discussion at all esp. on a high profile forum like Slashdot is necessary.
I have personal experience of XP at university (MEng Software Eng, Sheffield Uni, UK) where we are using it in all our group based projects this year.
The strategy of test-plan first, test everything, test often works so that every time you sit down to code you know:
Also after every coding session you can see that you have acheived something. Every day the list of failed tests is shorter. We found that the secret is to have two test lists. One is the original test list (written before coding of this module started) the other is the list of all the tests that you have thought of while coding. Both lists are equally important but they should be run seperately. That way you can see the original test list go down as the software improves. Also the second list can be considered as the "things to do when the first list is dealt with", that way your short term objectives are clear.
Its all about managing yourself. Knowing what to code and what not to code. It works, I've tried it and I would never go back.
>But 50 billion Watts? Imagine if we could
>directly harness some of that energy!
You mean in the same way that we harness solar power? - by putting a couple of dozen solar power plants in the world and still using archaiac coal, gas and oil power in the majority of the world.
I agree - very good idea. Seperate the media from the IP. Only probelem is: how do you prove that you own the IP? The record companies may require you to send in a registration card, then guess what! Only RIAA authorised outlets with access to the database that tells them which IP's you own will be able to sell you replacement CD's so small record shops suddenly have no business. Wouldn't this make second hand record shops dodgy as you would have to sign away your IP rights as well as the media just my 0.02 gbp
Hmm, Compatable as in, you may have to spend several days just to make changes to the code so that the damn thing will work again.
Believe me, I've just taken on a customer who wants a database upgrading from 97 to 2000 and its a nightmare.
s/there/they\'re/
When you correct someone else you shouldn't need to be meta-corrected.
Also you could add a couple of 8 gig solid state hard drives (maybe in your thighs) or even better make a neural connection to your brain and use that useless 80% as long term storage. No need for that crappy 1cm^2 screen - just hook the computer up to your optical nerve. Include a generator that uses kinetic enrgy and body heat to power it with and whatever you do - don't install windows. Imagine waking up in the morning and seeing "Safe Mode" at each corner of your view. Ugh
This would be so cool - fully gargoyled into the Metaverse and no-onein the real world would know from looking at you (as long as you're not waving a wakazi about in Tesco's).
A big cheer for those guys working on Netverse. Hurry up guys. :) and for those of you who have no idea what I am gibbering about - read Snow Crash by Neal Stevenson - a must read for all hackers.
I took the plunge earlier this year and decided that I was going to use Linux to write my dissertation (I had it installed for a while but never used it as all my apps were in Win98). I grabbed two copies of star office and loved the way I could operate it in exactly the same way either side of the dual boot. It took me a while to figure out how to do a few things but I soon figured it out. Now (2 months later) I hardly boot windows. I found SO under linux was much more stable than MS Word under Win 98. SO under Win 98 was more stable than Word but not as stable as SO Linux. Overall I was very impressed - the only feature missing from star office is a grammar checker. I had absolutlely no problems formatting paragraphs - and I really loved the crop dialogue for embedding images. MS Office 90 quid? Star Office free / or $1.99 from cheapbytes if you're on a 56k modem
>I can see a version of the ILOVEYOU virus that
:)
>spreads its self by yelling to all of the other >computers in the room!
This is funny please mod it up
Each one accompanied by a note explaining 1) why the doll is being returned and 2) that we will not be buying any more mattal products
They may be able to ignore letters - but they can't ignore 1 thousand+ parcels
Oh - and another point - IANAL but would it be possible for a company to sue Mattel if Cyber-Patrol illegitimatly blocked their site. I don't know what grounds there would be for a case - maybe they could sue the libraries instead.
I've already used my 2 cents - here's a fluff-encrusted peppermint