That's why open source products such as KDE have copied all their ideas off Microsoft and Apple. They have neither the money (R & D) nor the capitalist need to be better to incentivize innovation.
Two points here, if I may:
1 - Is there a better UI than the point and click? I haven't seen one. Maybe someone else can explain why the windowing system has been in vouge for 20+ years.
2 - Please don't confuse "innovation" with "market driven". Throughout the history of technology, the best innovations came when there was just the desire to invent, not the desire to please customers. Cases in point: the telephone, the car, the PC (I'll bet ya lunch that IBM didn't think that there would be *that* big a market in the PC when it was first developed). Microsoft (like most companies that need the customer) are market driven. They deliver what the market wants, no more, no less. Innovation appears when the company doesn't care about what the customers think (like the Linux division at IBM), or when the programmer is just doing it for the love of the game, so to speak.
I am not worried that there isn't code available today, that I can greedly download and use. This is about consistant open source development of a PIM suite that can compete on a level footing with Palm and Windows CE. This is about the availablity of programmers that are willing to dedicate their time toward a PIM suite that well designed and easy to use, instead of a kernel driver.
I have to tell you, I don't want to spend my time on PIM suites. I would rather do low level work. If it comes between writing an dummy proof IMAP client and fixing the AI on Freeciv, Freeciv wins in a heart beat. I think that most open source programmers are like me.
Don't get me wrong, the Agenda distribution is good and I hope it expands throughout the open source world. But remember that the Agenda is a hardware company. Their money doesn't come from the software, it comes from the hardware, so they can afford to develop and freely distribute applications that will sell their hardware, but only to the point where it will still be worth the expense. And their support for the software will wavier as the support for the Agenda waivers. When the Agenda has run the course, those apps will dissapear. Thats because the Agenda floks are not in the PIM market, they are in the hardware market.
Fortunately, they have released those apps to the open source market, so maybe we can get a team to grab them and run with the ball. However, my inital point still stands. Who will continue to improve and develop the Agenda PIM if the company decides to go another route? Will they be able to get enough open source programmers to handle it, or will it slide because of lack of interest?
My company, Century Software, (shameless self plug), has been working for many months to bring Linux and the graphics engine Microwindows to the Ipaq platform (www.microwindows.org). Amid the kernel tweeking (thanks to the fine folks at www.handhelds.org, and basic graphics apps (load monitor, clock, keyboard, scribble, etc...), we have also tried to create some PIM apps (e-mail, etc...), and I have developed a few observations.
1) - Kernel work is sexy, designing PIM suites is not. A majority of the members of the open source community are willing to do kernel and driver work on their spare time, but precious few are willing to make a datebook without compensation.
2) - Thus, it falls more to companies that are able to pay engineers to work on PIM applications. However, these days engineers are expensive, and the companies are unwilling to pay an engineer 40 bucks an hour, and then turn around and give the suites away. Thats has nothing to do with open source or code sharing, thats just business.
3) - Because of this, the only other solution would be for the companies to try to sell the PIM suites (either on a royalty basis to corporations, or directly to the consumer). And then they come right up against Palm, Microsoft, and the other big giants that have more organized marketing networks and market share.
The solution? You got me! Many kudos and $$ to the company that figures it out first. Until then, at least I can still play Doom on my Ipaq!!!
But hasn't MIPS been doing something like this for a while now?
Lemme see, a open standards based processor that can be individually implemented by the individual companies, many of whom are willing to release the very details specifications of how their processor works?
Because isn't that what we want? I'm no electrical engineer, I don't understand how the implementation goes, but as long as it supports a common set, and I can get precise documentation on how to bring the board up, thats pretty much all I care about.
What befuddles me is that the MIPS processor, (which is so well documented, easy to use, and widely available from companies that don't have a monopoly) has fallen so far behind the others, both in Linux kernel implementation and its wide range of usage. Any opinions as to why?
Thats exactly right! Thats because our product has a certain uniformity to it -- The code is bounded by standards and it looks the same around the world, and in the end it is just zeros and ones. It is handled and displayed by a machine, that is also bounded by standards, so as long as the same machine is used, it will look the same around the world.
Generally, programmers care more that quality code is delivered on time instead of who actually wrote it. I don't think there is any other industry in the world that can deliver that kind of uniform acceptance.
Of course, thats just in the raw writing of code. When you hit the people side of things, everything breaks down. You might be an excellent programmer, but your boss might be racist and resist you from getting raises. Or your customers might be racist and not buy your products.
So its not racism in the tech world we're talking about, it's racism in the real world.
Actually, I would say thats not true for several reasons. Of the major four sports in the US (basketball, football, baseball and hockey) most of the people that control the teams at a higher level are white from the owners all the way down to the coaches.
So while the mix of races in the players themselves is closer to equal (except, as you mentioned, in hockey), the people who control the purse strings and run the show are almost exclusively white, and I'm sure this has lead to more racism than is apparent to outsiders.
Most sectors of business realize this and only patent something that came about through their hard work and research, not just anything that hasn't yet been patented in the field
(especially if it's common practice!).
Yeah, well tell that to Unisys, because they made more than a couple of bucks from scared ISPs over the GIF patent. All these companies are looking for a little cash cow in their older years, when sales are down and the managers need to rase cash for a bonus or two.
ring, ring.. hello hotteens.com? Yeah, this is EBay. I noticed that you have a gallery of neked pics. As you know, we have a patent on galleries. Yeah, thats right. And we're going to take you to court unless you pay us $100,000 and introduce us to hot teen numbers 3, 4 and 7).
Quite frankly, most of them have been hot air. One or two have actually managed to demo a product. None of them seem to have actually produced anything yet though!
Uhh... don't look now, but I think half a dozen companies and groups have Linux running on a handheld device. Oh, wait.... you mean applications, huh? You know, correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that Linux was an operating system.... hmmm... I can see where you got confused, with the whole Microsoft mess, since all of their applications are so nicely tied in with the OS.
Designers are attempted to apply a desktop solution to an embeded problem. That never works!
Unix didn't really start out as a desktop solution, did it? But it sure scaled nicely, well enough to cause everyone to forget where it originally came from.
Linux may scale well upwords, but it doesn't scale well downwards
Right.... I hate these modular operating systems. Its such a pain in the ass to cut out uneeded modules.
It seems embeded Linux so far is a total no go.
Once again, you're correct. www.handhelds.org only gets 10 or 20 thousand hits a day, anyway. Plus, they don't have Quake running on it yet. You call that an operating system? What a bunch of slackers...
Obsolete implies that something new completely replaced it (ie, a 1.2 gHz replaces a 500 mHz machine). As long the Linux version in question is able to support the hardware, you will be able to run the operating system and most software that comes out after. Thats because Linux builds on top of itself with each new release. There are major architecture changes, but those happen over a period of years, not months.
By obsolete, you must mean a competing operating system with a year attached to it. You know, the one that changes architecture so often that you need to repurchase your $500 dollar office suites every few years, otherwise they will no longer run....
The short answer is, yes. On the next release of the Century Software Ipaq distro (embedded.censoft.com), we will have IRChat, which allows two Ipaqs to chat and transfer files via the IR (thats being shown at Comdex right now).
And of course, since IRDA is standards based, it follows that the Ipaq will talk to all IRDA capable machines (printers, Palms, etc, etc...).
PS: Many kudos to the good folks at www.handhelds.org for their fine work on the IRDA stuff. Give yourselves a pat on the back, eh?
Good points, good points. It does seem that most of the Linux community is concerned with the kernel, but then again, thats the most sexy part, right? Personally, I would much rather work on the kernel / graphical engine / backend work then try to do the applications. But thats because I struggle when designing the user interface. Its a lot easier for me to cop out and use a printf or two instead of arranging widgets on the screen.
So the question is, where are the applications folks? Where are the companies (and more importantly, the $$$) concerned with applications?
Its all good and well to complain that the Linux community doesn't have much in the way of real work, but for everybody that works all day and then hacks all night, where is the real satisfaction? Is it in the long and drawn out (but nessesary) process of designing applications, or is it better just to slam out a kernel driver before the Simpsons? For good applications, corporations need to invest time and money into producing good products. They need to attract those app designers from Windows and Palm and put them to work. Those that have (Netscape, Sun, etc..) have come out with some quality open projects that I use daily.
Thats not to say that quality apps aren't coming from your weekend programmers (balsa, some Gnome Apps), but these projects don't hold the sex appeal and oppertunity that the kernel provide.
Apparently, I am an horrible nerd, and I ought to be put to death. I have gone against my generation and my passion and *gasp* voted for some names that had a picture of a elephant and/or a donkey next to it. I should clean out my desk right now, I have no right being a young and hip computer professional.
Well, at least thats the attitude here. What we have here is a gaggle of young americans voting in their first or second election that seem to believe that they have solved all the problems with democracy. Hell, how many of you were even alive the last time Ralph Nader did something? Raise your hands if you have ever even seen a Corvair.
Being a typical greedy human being, I have feelings for all the birds and bees and spotted owls in the world, but the person I am really worried about is me, and my family and close friends come in a close second. Idealism is nice, but I would rather take care of myself. Thats why I am still buying CDs and DVDs at at great rate. I know that the MPAA and RIAA is evil, but fuck em, I want to get the unrated version of American Pie, you know what I'm talkin' about?
So, yeah, it would be nice to vote against campaign contributions, and PACs and all the bullshit, but on the other hand, I want results. I want the people I want on the supreme court, I want the right tax cuts (or raises, I don't mind paying taxes, we are still one of the least taxed nations on earth), and I want bills going through that support me. These are things that a third party cannot deliver for me. For now...
So you like the Green Party? Jesse Ventura give you the thrills? Start small. Jump on out there and make sure that your third party of choice has filled the ballot. Have em running for city council and the school board. Then move on to your utility posts, your treasurers and auditors. Next, you can pull off a attorney general and maybe even a governor or two. And so on.
Third parties won't be an infuence until they have equal face time on the ballot with the Reps and Demos. Then you will start to see some action. Eight years ago, the reform party got 19%, not just because of Ross Perot, but also because they had cannidates on thousands of important and not so important ballots all over the country. Thats what gets results. Maybe people will take ol' Ralph more seriously if he had two or three senators behind him.
I am not anti third-party, but I am a realist. Until somebody tries to challege the mainstream parties on every level, there will be no parity, and all of the young, hip and smart people will continue to bitch. Get out there, get your boys on the ballot and vote, dammit.
At my beloved alma matter the University of Utah (go Utes!), M$ gave a ton of cash and some new computers to the CS department, resulting in a mandatory NT programming class ( worst class ever... ). I guess that ensures that everyone gets exposed to NT, and maybe someone will like it (uhhh.... yeah.... go with that chief.. ). At least now Linux can compete for student eyeballs.
Even if it is one distro, at least we have the oppertunity to expose students to Linux and get them used to configuring and building systems. If nothing else, "forcing" them to use Linux looks good on the ol' resume. Also, Red Hat has a lot of interest in embedded systems, so that might mean that there will be some more emphasis toward programming for small platforms, and not just a 128 MB dual processor SPARC. My point being, it gives competition to M$ and it gives a change of pace to the SPARC dominated university world.
Then again, what CS majors are not already using linux????
The issue is giving implicit authority to anyone using your computer to use your credit card, regardless of whether you get it at your doorstep or not. Your kid could order a hundred different books (these days you would probably be excited if he did that, but thats another topic all together). The point is, do you want the potential for your credit card to be used without your express written consent>
Me personally, I don't want to give anyone that privilage, even though I live alone and my box is nailed down tight (plus, I gave my cat his own credit card so he doesn't have to use mine).
In the beginning, geeks were the ones designing and programming the back end of e-commerce sites, and we all are instantly distrustful of things like this. So even if the idea of 1 click was obvious, it was ignored. But then marketeers got ahold of the design process, and since 1-click == less safety but 1-click == more sales, they wen't with the more sales ignoring the safety. Its like the guy who keeps his password written on a post in his desk drawer. Ease of use wins over safety every day of the week and twice on pay day.
For me, a better solution would be something alongs the lines of the E-wallet that Mastercard is pushing. It still has some work to be done, but I think it has potential.
This is what I have from Bazillon in SLC. I'm paying 50 a month for 144(plus they give me 400 minutes of long distance). Its not great, but its always on, and thats the best I can get.
Up at my old fraternity house by the University of Utah, all the lines are already fiber, so they can get some great speeds, but because of the demand US Worst (now QWorst) would only give them a 144 line. So we called up Bazillon, and they gave em 1.3 MB. Its amazing how bad the local phone service sucks when it comes to DSL.
Ok, but what is politics anyway? Is it government? Of course not. Is it democracy? Nope. Its the business of people running for public office. And it is true that politics have changed.
Now, that doesn't mean that politics are dead (berift of life, kicked the bucket, fucking snuffed it..:) ), but thats only because politics, like all entertainment, is worth big money.
In the past, we got all of our government news through the politicians. Back when newspapers carried weeks old news from the other coast, and global events transpired over months and not seconds, we needed our government leaders to tell us what was going on. There were no columnists, no ways for us to discover the facts for ourselves. All we knew about the south in 1860 is that they were pissed. How did we know? Henry Clay was throwing a daily temper tantrum in the capitol building. The Kaiser needed his ass kicked? We found out, because our president (damn it, I forgot which one...) told us. There were no front line reports on CNN. We know because our government officials told us. Usually they were biased, and sometimes they were flat out wrong, but we had no way of knowing.
But now, the president is usually the last to know. Thanks to our billions of news sources (many thanks to the internet), we get the facts first. So when our leaders stand up and try and give us the age old story, we already know the facts, and all we see is their bullshit. But its still great TV, and thats why we watch.
So, yeah, technology has advanced, and politics have moved into petty bickering and pissing contests. But its not because computers are faster and cheaper and easier. The number one thing we have gotten from technology is a super advanced, cutting edge, top of the line bullshit detector, and mine is beeping like crazy.
I'm glad someone else noticed that. Isn't that funny? I guess the only way for us nerds to get a date is to start a dating service dot com, and then put outselves up for sale...
I really think this has potential. Lets start
http://date-a-geek.com, the internet's #1 place to find lots of dot com execs and high powered programmers that need a date!
Your catagories are:
Executive, Ugly Executive, PERL Programmer, kernel hacker, and if you are really desperate (and not picky) Win32 programmer.
Maybe VA Linux will host the site.... whadda say, Taco... looking for a date?
I'm not physic, but I'll bet your response (if you get one at all), will include the words
"And the horse you rode in on...."
Just ignore 'em all. Much like the financial community, the old way of doing business is quickly running out, and they're not adapting fast enough. These guys have failed to realize that we don't need them any more. I can interact, listen to and pay the artists directly without the middle man. This is all a last gasp effort to keep from losing out.
I hope that over the next 5 years, more and more artists start to recognize this trend, and we will start having more choices available to us, but there are a couple of hurdles left to overcome.
We have the music format, we have the inital rudimentary players (but it can get better, you gotta admit). Now we need an easy way to get to the music and pay for it (I know, there are solutions right now, but they are disjoint and confusing to non geeks and artists alike), and we need a easier payment system (giving credit cards to every 11 year old who wants the new Brittney Spears is not the answer).
Ok, so you are replacing a highly tuned routing platform into a very expensive linux box... did you just have a couple of Cisco boxes laying around doing nothing???
So, yeah, this is possible, and with a little bit of thinking, you could probably get it to route a couple of packets. But face it, the Linux networking stack isn't exactly designed for high speed routing. Portions of the kernel would an ideal lower level operating system, but it would have to be extensively rewritten to skew towards optimizing every single packet coming in the system, and as long as the software is the one handling routing, then you will always be struggling with it.
What would be better is is someone used linux to run a router that uses more hardware than software to route (Riverstone / Enterasys, or Foundry or something similar). Then, you could have a fairly standard Linux kernel running administration and configuration. That would be more ideal than trying to rewrite the stack to handle fast path switching and routing.
What we're trying to say here is that the government is acting as a central clearinghouse for collecting royalties that would be otherwise be paid directly to the corporation?
If I was a manufaturer, I think it would be easier to cut one check to the government than having to pay a multitude of different corporations individually. I mean, lets face it, the government is more efficent at collecting money than any corporation you can name.
But thats only if the royalties in question would be collected anyway. If the government is inventing new "royalties" (or taxes if you prefer), and then giving them to the corporations, thats bullshit.
But part of playing the game with M$ or Sony or whatever is royalties. If I was in a position that I would have to pay, I would rather use a efficent and centeralized entity to pay them.
True, this was a short blurb in a "rumor" column on some random web page. And there is no doubt that it is based on some ex-employee's rambling. But my opinion is that there is always some truth to these things just based on the fact people can actually believe something like this, and not laugh the columnist right out of the building.
Just ask a movie star or two. If they said that Mel Gibson or Harrison Ford (two upstanding responsible older familiy men) were seen snorting cocaine whilst having sex with a teenage prostitute, would we believe it? Of course not. Why??? Because we *know* that these guys don't do that kind of thing. We would require massive amounts of proof before we would believe it.
But you all know that there are celebs out there (insert your favorite name here), that we would believe anything the grapevine spit out, because those people have proved their "worth", so to speak.
My point?????? These M$ "rumors" are believable simply because we know that Microsoft is capable of doing something like this. Do we really need a federal investigation (even though one probably started...)???? Of course not. We take the rumors at face value, becuase thats what the M$ reputation has taught us.
See? It is comments like that that makes me proud to be a nerd -- I love to laugh uncontrollably at jokes that 99% of the rest of the world wouldn't get.
I think a lot of people are jealous of the engineers at IBM (I know I am), because they get to sit around and get paid huge amounts of money just to screw around and try new stuff. If only the rest of us could be as lucky...
I can just imagine the staff meetings: Engineer 1: Did you taste the coffee this morning? It was horrible... Engineer 2: Yeah, maybe we should throw Linux on the coffee maker and see if that helps Manager: Sounds good to me. Do it. And if you get it to make a mocha, I'll give you a bonus.
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That's why open source products such as KDE have copied all their ideas off Microsoft and Apple. They have neither the money (R & D) nor the capitalist need to be better to incentivize innovation.
Two points here, if I may:
1 - Is there a better UI than the point and click? I haven't seen one. Maybe someone else can explain why the windowing system has been in vouge for 20+ years.
2 - Please don't confuse "innovation" with "market driven". Throughout the history of technology, the best innovations came when there was just the desire to invent, not the desire to please customers. Cases in point: the telephone, the car, the PC (I'll bet ya lunch that IBM didn't think that there would be *that* big a market in the PC when it was first developed). Microsoft (like most companies that need the customer) are market driven. They deliver what the market wants, no more, no less. Innovation appears when the company doesn't care about what the customers think (like the Linux division at IBM), or when the programmer is just doing it for the love of the game, so to speak.
I am not worried that there isn't code available today, that I can greedly download and use. This is about consistant open source development of a PIM suite that can compete on a level footing with Palm and Windows CE. This is about the availablity of programmers that are willing to dedicate their time toward a PIM suite that well designed and easy to use, instead of a kernel driver.
I have to tell you, I don't want to spend my time on PIM suites. I would rather do low level work. If it comes between writing an dummy proof IMAP client and fixing the AI on Freeciv, Freeciv wins in a heart beat. I think that most open source programmers are like me.
Don't get me wrong, the Agenda distribution is good and I hope it expands throughout the open source world. But remember that the Agenda is a hardware company. Their money doesn't come from the software, it comes from the hardware, so they can afford to develop and freely distribute applications that will sell their hardware, but only to the point where it will still be worth the expense. And their support for the software will wavier as the support for the Agenda waivers. When the Agenda has run the course, those apps will dissapear. Thats because the Agenda floks are not in the PIM market, they are in the hardware market.
Fortunately, they have released those apps to the open source market, so maybe we can get a team to grab them and run with the ball. However, my inital point still stands. Who will continue to improve and develop the Agenda PIM if the company decides to go another route? Will they be able to get enough open source programmers to handle it, or will it slide because of lack of interest?
My company, Century Software, (shameless self plug), has been working for many months to bring Linux and the graphics engine Microwindows to the Ipaq platform (www.microwindows.org). Amid the kernel tweeking (thanks to the fine folks at www.handhelds.org, and basic graphics apps (load monitor, clock, keyboard, scribble, etc...), we have also tried to create some PIM apps (e-mail, etc...), and I have developed a few observations.
1) - Kernel work is sexy, designing PIM suites is not. A majority of the members of the open source community are willing to do kernel and driver work on their spare time, but precious few are willing to make a datebook without compensation.
2) - Thus, it falls more to companies that are able to pay engineers to work on PIM applications. However, these days engineers are expensive, and the companies are unwilling to pay an engineer 40 bucks an hour, and then turn around and give the suites away. Thats has nothing to do with open source or code sharing, thats just business.
3) - Because of this, the only other solution would be for the companies to try to sell the PIM suites (either on a royalty basis to corporations, or directly to the consumer). And then they come right up against Palm, Microsoft, and the other big giants that have more organized marketing networks and market share.
The solution? You got me! Many kudos and $$ to the company that figures it out first. Until then, at least I can still play Doom on my Ipaq!!!
But hasn't MIPS been doing something like this for a while now?
Lemme see, a open standards based processor that can be individually implemented by the individual companies, many of whom are willing to release the very details specifications of how their processor works?
Because isn't that what we want? I'm no electrical engineer, I don't understand how the implementation goes, but as long as it supports a common set, and I can get precise documentation on how to bring the board up, thats pretty much all I care about.
What befuddles me is that the MIPS processor, (which is so well documented, easy to use, and widely available from companies that don't have a monopoly) has fallen so far behind the others, both in Linux kernel implementation and its wide range of usage. Any opinions as to why?
Thats exactly right! Thats because our product has a certain uniformity to it -- The code is bounded by standards and it looks the same around the world, and in the end it is just zeros and ones. It is handled and displayed by a machine, that is also bounded by standards, so as long as the same machine is used, it will look the same around the world.
Generally, programmers care more that quality code is delivered on time instead of who actually wrote it. I don't think there is any other industry in the world that can deliver that kind of uniform acceptance.
Of course, thats just in the raw writing of code. When you hit the people side of things, everything breaks down. You might be an excellent programmer, but your boss might be racist and resist you from getting raises. Or your customers might be racist and not buy your products.
So its not racism in the tech world we're talking about, it's racism in the real world.
Actually, I would say thats not true for several reasons. Of the major four sports in the US (basketball, football, baseball and hockey) most of the people that control the teams at a higher level are white from the owners all the way down to the coaches.
So while the mix of races in the players themselves is closer to equal (except, as you mentioned, in hockey), the people who control the purse strings and run the show are almost exclusively white, and I'm sure this has lead to more racism than is apparent to outsiders.
Most sectors of business realize this and only patent something that came about through their hard work and research, not just anything that hasn't yet been patented in the field (especially if it's common practice!).
Yeah, well tell that to Unisys, because they made more than a couple of bucks from scared ISPs over the GIF patent. All these companies are looking for a little cash cow in their older years, when sales are down and the managers need to rase cash for a bonus or two.
ring, ring.. hello hotteens.com? Yeah, this is EBay. I noticed that you have a gallery of neked pics. As you know, we have a patent on galleries. Yeah, thats right. And we're going to take you to court unless you pay us $100,000 and introduce us to hot teen numbers 3, 4 and 7).
And they funny thing is: That will actually work.
Quite frankly, most of them have been hot air. One or two have actually managed to demo a product. None of them seem to have actually produced anything yet though!
Uhh... don't look now, but I think half a dozen companies and groups have Linux running on a handheld device. Oh, wait.... you mean applications, huh? You know, correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that Linux was an operating system.... hmmm... I can see where you got confused, with the whole Microsoft mess, since all of their applications are so nicely tied in with the OS.
Designers are attempted to apply a desktop solution to an embeded problem. That never works!
Unix didn't really start out as a desktop solution, did it? But it sure scaled nicely, well enough to cause everyone to forget where it originally came from.
Linux may scale well upwords, but it doesn't scale well downwards
Right.... I hate these modular operating systems. Its such a pain in the ass to cut out uneeded modules.
It seems embeded Linux so far is a total no go. Once again, you're correct. www.handhelds.org only gets 10 or 20 thousand hits a day, anyway. Plus, they don't have Quake running on it yet. You call that an operating system? What a bunch of slackers...
Obsolete is the wrong choice of words there.
Obsolete implies that something new completely replaced it (ie, a 1.2 gHz replaces a 500 mHz machine). As long the Linux version in question is able to support the hardware, you will be able to run the operating system and most software that comes out after. Thats because Linux builds on top of itself with each new release. There are major architecture changes, but those happen over a period of years, not months.
By obsolete, you must mean a competing operating system with a year attached to it. You know, the one that changes architecture so often that you need to repurchase your $500 dollar office suites every few years, otherwise they will no longer run....
The short answer is, yes. On the next release of the Century Software Ipaq distro (embedded.censoft.com), we will have IRChat, which allows two Ipaqs to chat and transfer files via the IR (thats being shown at Comdex right now).
And of course, since IRDA is standards based, it follows that the Ipaq will talk to all IRDA capable machines (printers, Palms, etc, etc...).
PS: Many kudos to the good folks at www.handhelds.org for their fine work on the IRDA stuff. Give yourselves a pat on the back, eh?
Good points, good points. It does seem that most of the Linux community is concerned with the kernel, but then again, thats the most sexy part, right? Personally, I would much rather work on the kernel / graphical engine / backend work then try to do the applications. But thats because I struggle when designing the user interface. Its a lot easier for me to cop out and use a printf or two instead of arranging widgets on the screen.
So the question is, where are the applications folks? Where are the companies (and more importantly, the $$$) concerned with applications?
Its all good and well to complain that the Linux community doesn't have much in the way of real work, but for everybody that works all day and then hacks all night, where is the real satisfaction? Is it in the long and drawn out (but nessesary) process of designing applications, or is it better just to slam out a kernel driver before the Simpsons? For good applications, corporations need to invest time and money into producing good products. They need to attract those app designers from Windows and Palm and put them to work. Those that have (Netscape, Sun, etc..) have come out with some quality open projects that I use daily.
Thats not to say that quality apps aren't coming from your weekend programmers (balsa, some Gnome Apps), but these projects don't hold the sex appeal and oppertunity that the kernel provide.
Oh man, I've waited years to finally be an authority on a Slashdot article... wait a sec, let me bask in the glory..... Ok, I'm over it.
Here are some URLS for those who want to know more about Microwindows and the stuff running specifically on the Ipaq:
www.microwindows.org (Microwindows source and home page)
embedded.censoft.com (Century software home page)
Apparently, I am an horrible nerd, and I ought to be put to death. I have gone against my generation and my passion and *gasp* voted for some names that had a picture of a elephant and/or a donkey next to it. I should clean out my desk right now, I have no right being a young and hip computer professional.
Well, at least thats the attitude here. What we have here is a gaggle of young americans voting in their first or second election that seem to believe that they have solved all the problems with democracy. Hell, how many of you were even alive the last time Ralph Nader did something? Raise your hands if you have ever even seen a Corvair.
Being a typical greedy human being, I have feelings for all the birds and bees and spotted owls in the world, but the person I am really worried about is me, and my family and close friends come in a close second. Idealism is nice, but I would rather take care of myself. Thats why I am still buying CDs and DVDs at at great rate. I know that the MPAA and RIAA is evil, but fuck em, I want to get the unrated version of American Pie, you know what I'm talkin' about?
So, yeah, it would be nice to vote against campaign contributions, and PACs and all the bullshit, but on the other hand, I want results. I want the people I want on the supreme court, I want the right tax cuts (or raises, I don't mind paying taxes, we are still one of the least taxed nations on earth), and I want bills going through that support me. These are things that a third party cannot deliver for me. For now...
So you like the Green Party? Jesse Ventura give you the thrills? Start small. Jump on out there and make sure that your third party of choice has filled the ballot. Have em running for city council and the school board. Then move on to your utility posts, your treasurers and auditors. Next, you can pull off a attorney general and maybe even a governor or two. And so on.
Third parties won't be an infuence until they have equal face time on the ballot with the Reps and Demos. Then you will start to see some action. Eight years ago, the reform party got 19%, not just because of Ross Perot, but also because they had cannidates on thousands of important and not so important ballots all over the country. Thats what gets results. Maybe people will take ol' Ralph more seriously if he had two or three senators behind him.
I am not anti third-party, but I am a realist. Until somebody tries to challege the mainstream parties on every level, there will be no parity, and all of the young, hip and smart people will continue to bitch. Get out there, get your boys on the ballot and vote, dammit.
At my beloved alma matter the University of Utah (go Utes!), M$ gave a ton of cash and some new computers to the CS department, resulting in a mandatory NT programming class ( worst class ever... ). I guess that ensures that everyone gets exposed to NT, and maybe someone will like it (uhhh.... yeah.... go with that chief.. ). At least now Linux can compete for student eyeballs.
Even if it is one distro, at least we have the oppertunity to expose students to Linux and get them used to configuring and building systems. If nothing else, "forcing" them to use Linux looks good on the ol' resume. Also, Red Hat has a lot of interest in embedded systems, so that might mean that there will be some more emphasis toward programming for small platforms, and not just a 128 MB dual processor SPARC. My point being, it gives competition to M$ and it gives a change of pace to the SPARC dominated university world.
Then again, what CS majors are not already using linux????
Not only did they buy the rights, they already ran some ads asking for applicants.
Check it out here
Of course, they played during the Olympic closing ceremonies, so not that means that only about 6 people saw them (including me), but still....
The issue is giving implicit authority to anyone using your computer to use your credit card, regardless of whether you get it at your doorstep or not. Your kid could order a hundred different books (these days you would probably be excited if he did that, but thats another topic all together). The point is, do you want the potential for your credit card to be used without your express written consent>
Me personally, I don't want to give anyone that privilage, even though I live alone and my box is nailed down tight (plus, I gave my cat his own credit card so he doesn't have to use mine).
In the beginning, geeks were the ones designing and programming the back end of e-commerce sites, and we all are instantly distrustful of things like this. So even if the idea of 1 click was obvious, it was ignored. But then marketeers got ahold of the design process, and since 1-click == less safety but 1-click == more sales, they wen't with the more sales ignoring the safety. Its like the guy who keeps his password written on a post in his desk drawer. Ease of use wins over safety every day of the week and twice on pay day.
For me, a better solution would be something alongs the lines of the E-wallet that Mastercard is pushing. It still has some work to be done, but I think it has potential.
This is what I have from Bazillon in SLC. I'm paying 50 a month for 144(plus they give me 400 minutes of long distance). Its not great, but its always on, and thats the best I can get.
Up at my old fraternity house by the University of Utah, all the lines are already fiber, so they can get some great speeds, but because of the demand US Worst (now QWorst) would only give them a 144 line. So we called up Bazillon, and they gave em 1.3 MB. Its amazing how bad the local phone service sucks when it comes to DSL.
Ok, but what is politics anyway? Is it government? Of course not. Is it democracy? Nope. Its the business of people running for public office. And it is true that politics have changed.
:) ), but thats only because politics, like all entertainment, is worth big money.
Now, that doesn't mean that politics are dead (berift of life, kicked the bucket, fucking snuffed it..
In the past, we got all of our government news through the politicians. Back when newspapers carried weeks old news from the other coast, and global events transpired over months and not seconds, we needed our government leaders to tell us what was going on. There were no columnists, no ways for us to discover the facts for ourselves. All we knew about the south in 1860 is that they were pissed. How did we know? Henry Clay was throwing a daily temper tantrum in the capitol building. The Kaiser needed his ass kicked? We found out, because our president (damn it, I forgot which one...) told us. There were no front line reports on CNN. We know because our government officials told us. Usually they were biased, and sometimes they were flat out wrong, but we had no way of knowing.
But now, the president is usually the last to know. Thanks to our billions of news sources (many thanks to the internet), we get the facts first. So when our leaders stand up and try and give us the age old story, we already know the facts, and all we see is their bullshit. But its still great TV, and thats why we watch.
So, yeah, technology has advanced, and politics have moved into petty bickering and pissing contests. But its not because computers are faster and cheaper and easier. The number one thing we have gotten from technology is a super advanced, cutting edge, top of the line bullshit detector, and mine is beeping like crazy.
I'm glad someone else noticed that. Isn't that funny? I guess the only way for us nerds to get a date is to start a dating service dot com, and then put outselves up for sale...
I really think this has potential. Lets start http://date-a-geek.com, the internet's #1 place to find lots of dot com execs and high powered programmers that need a date!
Your catagories are: Executive, Ugly Executive, PERL Programmer, kernel hacker, and if you are really desperate (and not picky) Win32 programmer.
Maybe VA Linux will host the site.... whadda say, Taco... looking for a date?
I'm not physic, but I'll bet your response (if you get one at all), will include the words
"And the horse you rode in on...."
Just ignore 'em all. Much like the financial community, the old way of doing business is quickly running out, and they're not adapting fast enough. These guys have failed to realize that we don't need them any more. I can interact, listen to and pay the artists directly without the middle man. This is all a last gasp effort to keep from losing out.
I hope that over the next 5 years, more and more artists start to recognize this trend, and we will start having more choices available to us, but there are a couple of hurdles left to overcome.
We have the music format, we have the inital rudimentary players (but it can get better, you gotta admit). Now we need an easy way to get to the music and pay for it (I know, there are solutions right now, but they are disjoint and confusing to non geeks and artists alike), and we need a easier payment system (giving credit cards to every 11 year old who wants the new Brittney Spears is not the answer).
Ok, so you are replacing a highly tuned routing platform into a very expensive linux box... did you just have a couple of Cisco boxes laying around doing nothing???
So, yeah, this is possible, and with a little bit of thinking, you could probably get it to route a couple of packets. But face it, the Linux networking stack isn't exactly designed for high speed routing. Portions of the kernel would an ideal lower level operating system, but it would have to be extensively rewritten to skew towards optimizing every single packet coming in the system, and as long as the software is the one handling routing, then you will always be struggling with it.
What would be better is is someone used linux to run a router that uses more hardware than software to route (Riverstone / Enterasys, or Foundry or something similar). Then, you could have a fairly standard Linux kernel running administration and configuration. That would be more ideal than trying to rewrite the stack to handle fast path switching and routing.
What we're trying to say here is that the government is acting as a central clearinghouse for collecting royalties that would be otherwise be paid directly to the corporation?
If I was a manufaturer, I think it would be easier to cut one check to the government than having to pay a multitude of different corporations individually. I mean, lets face it, the government is more efficent at collecting money than any corporation you can name.
But thats only if the royalties in question would be collected anyway. If the government is inventing new "royalties" (or taxes if you prefer), and then giving them to the corporations, thats bullshit.
But part of playing the game with M$ or Sony or whatever is royalties. If I was in a position that I would have to pay, I would rather use a efficent and centeralized entity to pay them.
True, this was a short blurb in a "rumor" column on some random web page. And there is no doubt that it is based on some ex-employee's rambling. But my opinion is that there is always some truth to these things just based on the fact people can actually believe something like this, and not laugh the columnist right out of the building.
Just ask a movie star or two. If they said that Mel Gibson or Harrison Ford (two upstanding responsible older familiy men) were seen snorting cocaine whilst having sex with a teenage prostitute, would we believe it? Of course not. Why??? Because we *know* that these guys don't do that kind of thing. We would require massive amounts of proof before we would believe it.
But you all know that there are celebs out there (insert your favorite name here), that we would believe anything the grapevine spit out, because those people have proved their "worth", so to speak.
My point?????? These M$ "rumors" are believable simply because we know that Microsoft is capable of doing something like this. Do we really need a federal investigation (even though one probably started...)???? Of course not. We take the rumors at face value, becuase thats what the M$ reputation has taught us.
See? It is comments like that that makes me proud to be a nerd -- I love to laugh uncontrollably at jokes that 99% of the rest of the world wouldn't get.
Thank you sulli. You rock!
I think a lot of people are jealous of the engineers at IBM (I know I am), because they get to sit around and get paid huge amounts of money just to screw around and try new stuff. If only the rest of us could be as lucky...
I can just imagine the staff meetings:
Engineer 1: Did you taste the coffee this morning? It was horrible...
Engineer 2: Yeah, maybe we should throw Linux on the coffee maker and see if that helps
Manager: Sounds good to me. Do it. And if you get it to make a mocha, I'll give you a bonus.