No, not mindlessly. Reviving NeWS would re-open all kinds of opportunities that X11 has closed the door on, because the NeWS rendering model is not based on pixels and the NeWS API is abstract. Open Source NeWS would open the door for things like an efficient OpenGL-based display server that would operate efficiently over a network but with the kind of low latency in the user interface that only local window systems can get today.
Having the existing NeWS code base there as a starting point would provide for a collection of familiar and well-implemented and debugged tools right out of the gate. A successful Open Source project needs to get past the point where it's useful enough for people to be able to work with it and on it, and given the head-start X11 has... well, look how well Berlin took off.
Maybe NeWS wouldn't serve as the kind of JATO unit for a new generation of display servers that I envision, but after watching so many excellent alternatives fail for want of that kind of booster, I don't think the idea of reviving the NeWS code base is "mindless" at all.
Depending on how much tech they licensed from Adobe (the thing did use Display Postscript)
NeWS significantly predated Display Postscript. DPS was introduced as a *reaction to* NeWS. From the Postscript FAQ:
What is NeWS?
NeWS is Sun Microsystems PostScript-based window system for the Sun
Workstation. NeWS was a project within Sun (started around 1985) to
create a window system to supplant SunView (a very successful
kernel-based window system). NeWS is a client-server model window
system (like X) but among many of NeWS novel features was the use
of PostScript as the language to describe the appearance of objects
on the screen. NeWS has many features in common with Display
PostScript, but NeWS predates Adobe Display PostScript and was
neither connected with Adobe Display PostScript nor endorsed by
Adobe. NeWS is not an Adobe product, nor is it a Sun/Adobe joint
venture.
Sun later adopted Display Postscript under X11 to replace XNews, but since Display Postscript didn't perform any user interaction in the server it suffered from all the latency issues of X11.
NeWS died because nobody was writing applications for it. Making it open source wouldn't have changed that.
The main reason people were writing software for X11 rather than NeWS, particularly as network latency became more and more of a bottleneck for X11 (and all kinds of workarounds failed to solve the problem), was that X11 was open source. That was trotted out over and over again: X11 worked everywhere, even on platforms other than UNIX. Yes, X11 sucked, but it was what you used, because it wasn't tied to a single manufacturer.
I mean, the RIAA only go after ISPs to get the *identity* of violators. This is like the RIAA suing TWC and SWB to recover the money from file sharers.
Open Source it, while maintaining the best implementation, so that NeWS could compete with X11 on a level playing field while driving people who wanted the hottest graphical workstations to Sun instead of SGI.
Why was there even an attempt to implement a data store on the CPU that isn't accessible to the OS? Once any such repository is compromised, it's impractical to access and repair, so why not get out of the frigging way and just provide an API to access it.
This is the equivalent of the RIAA asking to get all of the advertising revenue generated by all torrent tracking sites
Wish the RIAA would actually try this, instead of trying to stop copyright violations by beating up on a few weaker members of the herd in the hope it scares the bulls.
Is microwave power beaming actually more efficient than simply orbiting a mirror and putting the collectors on the ground?
The energy density of the microwave beam in these schemes is typically around 250-300W/m2 which is less than solar insolation (1kW/m2 at the equator). The microwave receiver might be more efficient than a similarly sized solar array on the ground, but for a given area of "collector" in orbit a mirror would be lighter, and therefore cheaper, and would divert a higher percentage of the incoming energy earthwards.
The peak power density at the center of the beam at it intersects the rectenna is on the order of 300 watts per square meter (W/m2) or 30 miliwatts per square centimeter (mW/cm2).
Studies have shown that at 25mW/cm2, some birds exhibit behaviors suggesting they might be able to detect microwave radiation. If true, some migratory birds, flying above the rectenna, might suffer disruption of their flying paths.
This is from a NASA study of the safety of space-based solar power. I believe the original studies were done in the '70s because I recall almost identical wording from a glossy NASA coffee-table book on space colonies I picked up at the Smithsonian in 1978.
That's not "death ray" levels. Planes are probably OK, but it could be a problem for birds.
Another point that occurs to me: solar insolation at the equator is around 1kW/m2. The tests mentioned above are 25% of that level. I suspect that the birds were becoming uncomfortably warm.
Re:Scared after seeing what happened to Berkeley D
on
Oracle Buys Sun
·
· Score: 1
Open Source In Name Only not only hinders an application's progress and development, but it's not really sustainable. Why give out something for free, call it Open Source, but not seek help from the community?
Yeh, I wonder about this. Oh, there's a bunch of different levels of commitment between open-repositories and closed-with-code-drops, and there's at least sum benefit from the open source over most of the spectrum... but if they really accept NO patches or other contributions (is that really true) what's the point? Is it just marketing? Or are they effectively holding off a fork of The Last Good Bits by tossing prophylactic tarballs over the wall?
not to mention that some movies I have no intention of seeing a second time.
That's one reason for the screwed up licensing, I guess. Unlike books and music and video games movies don't have much "replay value".
But it's a reason, not an excuse. If the layers of bad contracts slathered on corruption and piracy lead them to leave money on the table, they need to do something about the screwed up contracts.
Calling this a "model rocket" brings up images of kids in an open field clipping leads to chicken-bone igniters.
OK, this is a "model" because its shell is a scale model of a Saturn V, but calling it a "model rocket" is like calling "stock" styled drag racers "model cars" just because they have a fiberglass model of a street car bolted to their frame.
Without an incentive to publish, it doesn't matter whether spammers solve captchas or not, their code and algorithms are a trade secret that provides them a commercial advantage against other spammers. I was hoping the article would address this problem, but it seems to simply assume that captcha breaking algorithms will be published in the JACM or something out of the goodness of the spammer's hearts.
This fellow estimated that most people on the $77 a month plan Netflix watch no more than 3-4 movies a month instead of the 22 they could theoretically manage.
If they "bought" (ok, rented them until Apple gets tired of supporting the authorization servers) them on iTunes you could afford five movies a month for that.
No, the question is, "is that safe or not". For music, or anything else where there's no active content, it's safe. Where it's something you're downloading that you're going to run with full local user privileges (or reduced privileges, or anything but a stateless hard sandbox) it's not.
The sales tax argument is "You bought a $100 item, incurring $5 in sales tax which you never paid -- we just lost $5."
No, it's "You bought a $100 item in another state, where the sales tax is only 3.5%, and even though the sale didn't happen in our state we want you to pay the difference as if it did".
There's no difference between this and setting up customs posts and enacting import duties on state boundaries. That's what enforcement of this kind of law involves, whether you're talking about physical or virtual border crossings. There's a reason that kind of nonsense was relegated to the Federal government when the US was founded, and it's EXACTLY why it's being opposed now.
You don't need to be root to run a botnet node. There's plenty of places to hide an exploit... and security is like sex... once you're penetrated you're ****ed.
So internal firewalls like root/Administrator accounts are nice, but not getting penetrated in the first place is the best prevention. Trying to keep malware that's already running contained? That's a sucker game.
Apple finally made "Open Safe Files After Downloading" default to off, but if you upgraded Safari, make sure that that's off. Install a dedicated FTP client and stop using Finder as the handler for FTP: URLs.
And for god's sake... don't install pirated software. Back before Microsoft made the "Good Times" virus real with "ActiveX", the number one mechanism for virus transmission was people who trusted software downloads, or were otherwise "social engineered" into running malware voluntarily. And that's a mechanism that ALWAYS works. No matter what the OS does.
But I've been reading ebooks for almost a decade on my Palm, Visor, Jornada, and Clie. I looked at the Kindle because my wife was interested in it (she didn't want to read ebooks on a Visor, Jornada, or iPaq I offered her at various points), but if Amazon is going to lock the books she buys if she pisses Amazon off... I think I'll see if she likes the new version of Mobibook Reader again.
Slashdot Mirror
don't mindlessly revive it.
No, not mindlessly. Reviving NeWS would re-open all kinds of opportunities that X11 has closed the door on, because the NeWS rendering model is not based on pixels and the NeWS API is abstract. Open Source NeWS would open the door for things like an efficient OpenGL-based display server that would operate efficiently over a network but with the kind of low latency in the user interface that only local window systems can get today.
Having the existing NeWS code base there as a starting point would provide for a collection of familiar and well-implemented and debugged tools right out of the gate. A successful Open Source project needs to get past the point where it's useful enough for people to be able to work with it and on it, and given the head-start X11 has... well, look how well Berlin took off.
Maybe NeWS wouldn't serve as the kind of JATO unit for a new generation of display servers that I envision, but after watching so many excellent alternatives fail for want of that kind of booster, I don't think the idea of reviving the NeWS code base is "mindless" at all.
Depending on how much tech they licensed from Adobe (the thing did use Display Postscript)
NeWS significantly predated Display Postscript. DPS was introduced as a *reaction to* NeWS. From the Postscript FAQ:
Sun later adopted Display Postscript under X11 to replace XNews, but since Display Postscript didn't perform any user interaction in the server it suffered from all the latency issues of X11.
NeWS died because nobody was writing applications for it. Making it open source wouldn't have changed that.
The main reason people were writing software for X11 rather than NeWS, particularly as network latency became more and more of a bottleneck for X11 (and all kinds of workarounds failed to solve the problem), was that X11 was open source. That was trotted out over and over again: X11 worked everywhere, even on platforms other than UNIX. Yes, X11 sucked, but it was what you used, because it wasn't tied to a single manufacturer.
SL is filled with advertisement from actual companies
It is?
I mean, the RIAA only go after ISPs to get the *identity* of violators. This is like the RIAA suing TWC and SWB to recover the money from file sharers.
What were they supposed to do with NeWS
Open Source it, while maintaining the best implementation, so that NeWS could compete with X11 on a level playing field while driving people who wanted the hottest graphical workstations to Sun instead of SGI.
Best thing Sun ever did, and they killed it rather than letting it grow.
You made subspace cry! I'm calling Continuum Protective Services!
Leopard is less "slick" in many ways than Tiger or Panther, which were less lubricious than Jaguar and Puma.
Don't forget the armed guards.
They were pretty cool the first time I visited a customer who took security THAT seriously.
Why was there even an attempt to implement a data store on the CPU that isn't accessible to the OS? Once any such repository is compromised, it's impractical to access and repair, so why not get out of the frigging way and just provide an API to access it.
Yes, I'm looking at you, TPM.
The people who own an open source application are the people who are at any point in time putting in the effort of maintaining it.
This is the equivalent of the RIAA asking to get all of the advertising revenue generated by all torrent tracking sites
Wish the RIAA would actually try this, instead of trying to stop copyright violations by beating up on a few weaker members of the herd in the hope it scares the bulls.
Oops. You just sued one of your major sources of traffic.
If the search engines start retaliating that just increases the damages they have to pay.
Or maybe Physorg will start attributing their content properly including links to the original stories.
Is microwave power beaming actually more efficient than simply orbiting a mirror and putting the collectors on the ground?
The energy density of the microwave beam in these schemes is typically around 250-300W/m2 which is less than solar insolation (1kW/m2 at the equator). The microwave receiver might be more efficient than a similarly sized solar array on the ground, but for a given area of "collector" in orbit a mirror would be lighter, and therefore cheaper, and would divert a higher percentage of the incoming energy earthwards.
This is from a NASA study of the safety of space-based solar power. I believe the original studies were done in the '70s because I recall almost identical wording from a glossy NASA coffee-table book on space colonies I picked up at the Smithsonian in 1978.
That's not "death ray" levels. Planes are probably OK, but it could be a problem for birds.
Another point that occurs to me: solar insolation at the equator is around 1kW/m2. The tests mentioned above are 25% of that level. I suspect that the birds were becoming uncomfortably warm.
Open Source In Name Only not only hinders an application's progress and development, but it's not really sustainable. Why give out something for free, call it Open Source, but not seek help from the community?
Yeh, I wonder about this. Oh, there's a bunch of different levels of commitment between open-repositories and closed-with-code-drops, and there's at least sum benefit from the open source over most of the spectrum... but if they really accept NO patches or other contributions (is that really true) what's the point? Is it just marketing? Or are they effectively holding off a fork of The Last Good Bits by tossing prophylactic tarballs over the wall?
Ah, OK, that's a much better deal.
not to mention that some movies I have no intention of seeing a second time.
That's one reason for the screwed up licensing, I guess. Unlike books and music and video games movies don't have much "replay value".
But it's a reason, not an excuse. If the layers of bad contracts slathered on corruption and piracy lead them to leave money on the table, they need to do something about the screwed up contracts.
Calling this a "model rocket" brings up images of kids in an open field clipping leads to chicken-bone igniters.
OK, this is a "model" because its shell is a scale model of a Saturn V, but calling it a "model rocket" is like calling "stock" styled drag racers "model cars" just because they have a fiberglass model of a street car bolted to their frame.
Without an incentive to publish, it doesn't matter whether spammers solve captchas or not, their code and algorithms are a trade secret that provides them a commercial advantage against other spammers. I was hoping the article would address this problem, but it seems to simply assume that captcha breaking algorithms will be published in the JACM or something out of the goodness of the spammer's hearts.
This fellow estimated that most people on the $77 a month plan Netflix watch no more than 3-4 movies a month instead of the 22 they could theoretically manage.
If they "bought" (ok, rented them until Apple gets tired of supporting the authorization servers) them on iTunes you could afford five movies a month for that.
What are you saving by renting for a month?
The question is, first, is that right or wrong?
No, the question is, "is that safe or not". For music, or anything else where there's no active content, it's safe. Where it's something you're downloading that you're going to run with full local user privileges (or reduced privileges, or anything but a stateless hard sandbox) it's not.
The sales tax argument is "You bought a $100 item, incurring $5 in sales tax which you never paid -- we just lost $5."
No, it's "You bought a $100 item in another state, where the sales tax is only 3.5%, and even though the sale didn't happen in our state we want you to pay the difference as if it did".
There's no difference between this and setting up customs posts and enacting import duties on state boundaries. That's what enforcement of this kind of law involves, whether you're talking about physical or virtual border crossings. There's a reason that kind of nonsense was relegated to the Federal government when the US was founded, and it's EXACTLY why it's being opposed now.
You don't need to be root to run a botnet node. There's plenty of places to hide an exploit... and security is like sex... once you're penetrated you're ****ed.
So internal firewalls like root/Administrator accounts are nice, but not getting penetrated in the first place is the best prevention. Trying to keep malware that's already running contained? That's a sucker game.
Apple finally made "Open Safe Files After Downloading" default to off, but if you upgraded Safari, make sure that that's off. Install a dedicated FTP client and stop using Finder as the handler for FTP: URLs.
And for god's sake... don't install pirated software. Back before Microsoft made the "Good Times" virus real with "ActiveX", the number one mechanism for virus transmission was people who trusted software downloads, or were otherwise "social engineered" into running malware voluntarily. And that's a mechanism that ALWAYS works. No matter what the OS does.
But I've been reading ebooks for almost a decade on my Palm, Visor, Jornada, and Clie. I looked at the Kindle because my wife was interested in it (she didn't want to read ebooks on a Visor, Jornada, or iPaq I offered her at various points), but if Amazon is going to lock the books she buys if she pisses Amazon off... I think I'll see if she likes the new version of Mobibook Reader again.