So, let's accept that both spellings are correct, and not get our panties in an uproaur over this.
It's a good thing to relax about these issues in everyday speech/writing, but compilers aren't usually willing to chill out on such matters! With current programming languages, it's clear a decision has to be made one way, the other way, or a third way.
Did someone say Flava Flav? A piss-weak compromise is always the best solution, so either "Flava" or "Flav" would do. (And then, in a show of unity, we can all continue coding in the middle of the Atlantic).
I like to use Gnome and KDE because they are visually appealling, feel nice etc.
But my biggest gripe is the lack of good old text-bsed config files. I know those files are there somewhere, but it's almost impossible to work out how GUI-configured options map to those files. I would like to see a separate file for each cluster of prefences, e.g. keyboard shortcut file, virtual desktop file, etc.
The problem is everytime I upgrade OS, I have to set things up again, e.g. set up my virtual desktop dimensions. And it often works in a slightly different way for each new version. The config files, even if I could find them, will probably change format too.
So keep the GUI tools for changing preferences. But back them by a meaningful collection of config files.
The situation right now is no better than Windows, ie. you're forced to waste copious effort for every upgrade because there's no way to save your preferences.
Many people accuse me of being 'combative' because of this.
It's sad that many people don't realise a reasoned argument is an excellent way to evolve a consensus. This kind of argument is what makes forums like slashdot great. OTOH a person who hasn't figured that out yet may not have much to contribute anyway.
There's a good phrase to use here: "Devil's Advocate". Its mere mention lends credibility to your approach by reminding people that this kind of arguementative style is common enough to be described by a well-knonwn phrase. People are often willing to let down their guard if you say something like "I can see where you're coming from, but just to play devil's advocate..."
BTW Saying this kind of thing is unfortunately just the type of thing that some extroverts have trouble with, because they feel its hould be bleeding obvious and the diplomacy is a waste of time. All true, but only in your world.
You just have to make it more expensive to hack a single camera than it is to buy a real camera.
We're on slashdot --- it's worth spending your life savings just to get the proprietary camera working as a normal $100 camera. Or getting it to play OGG files, or running linux, or...
This makes it sound like a bad thing... "India is pushing ahead and leaving the USA behind". Actually, it is a fine idea to debate the merits before taking a big risk on the key process in democracy.
I'm surprised India is doing this... electronic voting has not been trialled on anything remotely this big. AFAIK no city/state/province has run an all-electronic election, let alone an entire country. Great initiative, plenty for everyone to learn from, but seems just a bit dangerous.
BTW Does this mean the end of election night coverage? (End of day, sorry you lose,hasta la vista)
Caffeine doesn't have that effect on me, but still I never take it. I could see why some people take it to hit a deadline, but most people drink coffee every day. What's the point of delaying sleepiness everey day? At best, it will buy you 2 hours on the first day, and after that you've only time-shifted your day. Sadly, that might be what some people want: get to work, work hard and alert, then go home in a doze.
In reality, caffeine every day is likely to make you more tired overall. IANAD but it doesn't take one to see that daily caffeine can't be good.
Yup. Or upload at the nearest McDonalds. If companies like McDonalds, carPC, etc. get their acts together, push for some common protocols, there's a lot of opportunities.
That's interesting, but Japanaese "pan" is written in Katakana, indicating it's a loan word. The other four languages are all latin-based, so not surprising that it's the same for them. Remember, bread is not traditional Japanese cuisine.
Hate to be pedantic, but I think it's Oracle who wants to takeover:-)... whether they do depends on what happens when the SEC steps in, intervenes, launches a review...
Through the 90s I watched my IT friends getting laid off No offence to your friends, but what kind of IT people got laid off in the 90s? They couldn't afford a copy of "Learn to program HTML in 24 hours"?
if you have the source, you can do *anything* concievable with it.
There are many great arguments for open source, but I don't think this is one of them.
Witness Netscpae's open source ploy circa 1998. At the time, commentators called it a master stroke for them to launch the Mozilla project, a swift attack on the increasingly popular IE browaser, because there was no way Microsoft could reciprocate.
Well, Microsoft retaliated. They hit Netscape not by releasing IE source, but by releasing an IE control (ie customisable GUI widget). Soon enough, ISPs were releasing their own browsers which were really IE with some make-up. Vendors were producing web-like applications by building on IE components. New browsers like Neoplanet turned up, which were just add-ons to IE.
Changing others' source code is difficult, error-prone, and leads to branching/merging issues. A customised, well-documented, framework that lets you *use* finished components can be far more flexible. And the code does not need to be open to achieve that.
In any event, a lot of patents *do* reference other patents.
What most people (read "dogmatic patent bashers") don't realise is that many companies regularly trade patent licenses. They often develop patents so as to trade with each other. This can lead to some ugly scenarios, such as building a barrier whereby Company A requires 10 innovations, but Company B has control of one of them.
So it can be still be ugly, but can also encourage an idea market. The moral is don't fall for the misconception that patents are just about MegaCorp crunching FreshStartup.
It's not surprising that Gosling supports it... Sun has already done a great service by releasing all the source to their APIs.
Although, as anyone who's eyeballed the source will know, they have also demonstrated why a clean-room, scrutinised, open-source rewrite of any Sun code might not be *ahem* such a bad thing.
Java may be able to run on hundreds of millions of desktops, but unfortunately it's very complicated and time-consuming for an end-user to download and run a Java app in the same way that they could download and run an executable. Schwartz makes a good point about the MS risk, but there is also the possibility that more open-source involvement will lead to a higher quality platform within the popular operating systems.
To take Java to the next stage, ie mass consumer usage, Sun needs to do all in its power to promote ease-of-install. Java Web Start just hasn't had that impact, to date. Open-source projects may help a lot.
SWT is a viable alternative to Swing which is compiled natively. It's not official Sun, but it is open-source and part of the Eclipse project, which is backed by IBM, Borland, and others.
Slashdot Mirror
Did you know there are places outside of america?
The website is still broadcast in America --- that means certain laws may still apply.
Pioneer 2: We forgot to name the big patch of desert up north.
Pioneer 1: Erm...how about North Australia?
Pioneer 2: No, we only reserve creative names for states. It's not a state.
Pioneer 1: Okay, anyway it's beer o'clock now. I'm sure we'll think of a fitting name later on.
So, let's accept that both spellings are correct, and not get our panties in an uproaur over this.
It's a good thing to relax about these issues in everyday speech/writing, but compilers aren't usually willing to chill out on such matters! With current programming languages, it's clear a decision has to be made one way, the other way, or a third way.
Did someone say Flava Flav? A piss-weak compromise is always the best solution, so either "Flava" or "Flav" would do. (And then, in a show of unity, we can all continue coding in the middle of the Atlantic).
I like to use Gnome and KDE because they are visually appealling, feel nice etc.
But my biggest gripe is the lack of good old text-bsed config files. I know those files are there somewhere, but it's almost impossible to work out how GUI-configured options map to those files. I would like to see a separate file for each cluster of prefences, e.g. keyboard shortcut file, virtual desktop file, etc.
The problem is everytime I upgrade OS, I have to set things up again, e.g. set up my virtual desktop dimensions. And it often works in a slightly different way for each new version. The config files, even if I could find them, will probably change format too.
So keep the GUI tools for changing preferences. But back them by a meaningful collection of config files.
The situation right now is no better than Windows, ie. you're forced to waste copious effort for every upgrade because there's no way to save your preferences.
Many people accuse me of being 'combative' because of this.
..."
It's sad that many people don't realise a reasoned argument is an excellent way to evolve a consensus. This kind of argument is what makes forums like slashdot great. OTOH a person who hasn't figured that out yet may not have much to contribute anyway.
There's a good phrase to use here: "Devil's Advocate". Its mere mention lends credibility to your approach by reminding people that this kind of arguementative style is common enough to be described by a well-knonwn phrase. People are often willing to let down their guard if you say something like "I can see where you're coming from, but just to play devil's advocate
BTW Saying this kind of thing is unfortunately just the type of thing that some extroverts have trouble with, because they feel its hould be bleeding obvious and the diplomacy is a waste of time. All true, but only in your world.
It's quite common to have a disposable cam on each table at weddings, now they'll be digital and the guests will go home with the photos on CD.
You just have to make it more expensive to hack a single camera than it is to buy a real camera.
...
We're on slashdot --- it's worth spending your life savings just to get the proprietary camera working as a normal $100 camera. Or getting it to play OGG files, or running linux, or
Good idea --- though you might want to be a bit more subtle than the names above :-)
("oops i left my login details in my personal links page")
This article gives me great ideas for a website:
/dev/tty blog - Everything I typed today /dev/stdout blog - Everything I saw today
* bash.history blog - Everything I ran today
*
*
COMING SOON: Welcome to My Bank Account Details, Favourite Passwords I Enjoy Using
While the U.S. debates the merits of e-voting
... "India is pushing ahead and leaving the USA behind". Actually, it is a fine idea to debate the merits before taking a big risk on the key process in democracy.
... electronic voting has not been trialled on anything remotely this big. AFAIK no city/state/province has run an all-electronic election, let alone an entire country. Great initiative, plenty for everyone to learn from, but seems just a bit dangerous.
This makes it sound like a bad thing
I'm surprised India is doing this
BTW Does this mean the end of election night coverage?
(End of day, sorry you lose,hasta la vista)
Caffeine doesn't have that effect on me, but still I never take it. I could see why some people take it to hit a deadline, but most people drink coffee every day. What's the point of delaying sleepiness everey day? At best, it will buy you 2 hours on the first day, and after that you've only time-shifted your day. Sadly, that might be what some people want: get to work, work hard and alert, then go home in a doze.
In reality, caffeine every day is likely to make you more tired overall. IANAD but it doesn't take one to see that daily caffeine can't be good.
Yup. Or upload at the nearest McDonalds. If companies like McDonalds, carPC, etc. get their acts together, push for some common protocols, there's a lot of opportunities.
This is a P2P idea, so why not combine this with a P2P network.
2000 MP3s per organ, hearts and private parts are gonna cost you Phantom Menace: Director's Cut six months before release.
That's interesting, but Japanaese "pan" is written in Katakana, indicating it's a loan word. The other four languages are all latin-based, so not surprising that it's the same for them. Remember, bread is not traditional Japanese cuisine.
Linux on a tablet --- there goes the only reason I decided not to get a tablet PC.
the SEC is about to takeover
:-) ... whether they do depends on what happens when the SEC steps in, intervenes, launches a review ...
Hate to be pedantic, but I think it's Oracle who wants to takeover
Through the 90s I watched my IT friends getting laid off
No offence to your friends, but what kind of IT people got laid off in the 90s? They couldn't afford a copy of "Learn to program HTML in 24 hours"?
if you have the source, you can do *anything* concievable with it.
There are many great arguments for open source, but I don't think this is one of them.
Witness Netscpae's open source ploy circa 1998. At the time, commentators called it a master stroke for them to launch the Mozilla project, a swift attack on the increasingly popular IE browaser, because there was no way Microsoft could reciprocate.
Well, Microsoft retaliated. They hit Netscape not by releasing IE source, but by releasing an IE control (ie customisable GUI widget). Soon enough, ISPs were releasing their own browsers which were really IE with some make-up. Vendors were producing web-like applications by building on IE components. New browsers like Neoplanet turned up, which were just add-ons to IE.
Changing others' source code is difficult, error-prone, and leads to branching/merging issues. A customised, well-documented, framework that lets you *use* finished components can be far more flexible. And the code does not need to be open to achieve that.
In any event, a lot of patents *do* reference other patents.
What most people (read "dogmatic patent bashers") don't realise is that many companies regularly trade patent licenses. They often develop patents so as to trade with each other. This can lead to some ugly scenarios, such as building a barrier whereby Company A requires 10 innovations, but Company B has control of one of them.
So it can be still be ugly, but can also encourage an idea market. The moral is don't fall for the misconception that patents are just about MegaCorp crunching FreshStartup.
It's not surprising that Gosling supports it ... Sun has already done a great service by releasing all the source to their APIs.
Although, as anyone who's eyeballed the source will know, they have also demonstrated why a clean-room, scrutinised, open-source rewrite of any Sun code might not be *ahem* such a bad thing.
Java may be able to run on hundreds of millions of desktops, but unfortunately it's very complicated and time-consuming for an end-user to download and run a Java app in the same way that they could download and run an executable. Schwartz makes a good point about the MS risk, but there is also the possibility that more open-source involvement will lead to a higher quality platform within the popular operating systems.
To take Java to the next stage, ie mass consumer usage, Sun needs to do all in its power to promote ease-of-install. Java Web Start just hasn't had that impact, to date. Open-source projects may help a lot.
SWT is a viable alternative to Swing which is compiled natively. It's not official Sun, but it is open-source and part of the Eclipse project, which is backed by IBM, Borland, and others.
SWT Article
The Eclipse IDE is built on SWT, hence a different package for each OS.
Here's a free tip --- don't post your site to slashdot.
Congratulations - you passed this one.
Anyway the answer to all your prayers is obviously BitTorrent.
I can see the benefit of this over a full linux install. Especially for Windows users. But...
It'd be nice if you could easily install Knoppix on your hard drive via Windows or Linux, so that it automatically adds option onto your boot manager.
This will become important as more of these specialised distros come out. No-one wants to look for CDs when their hard drive holds 100GB.