What is the currently unsolved problem to which these are the solution?
As an aside, my desktop screen is too cluttered in Gnome/KDE already - what's a tiny handheld screen going to be like with huge technicolour icons and stuff littered all over it?
Funny, 10 years ago a processor which burnt 20W was an absurd idea. 10W chips powered desktops and workstations. Now we're considering putting them in _laptops_? Has battery technology advanced that far? I find this all rather wierd considering TI's embedded DSP chips (perfectly usable as ordinary CPUs now, and you get the graphics for free too...), and ARMs CPUs which drain less than 1W.
Hey, I want moderation points so I can upmod your reply. You have hit the nail on the head. I am perhaps too techno-centric. (must be my techno-trousers!)
An offensive T-Shirt is illegal if it breaks decency laws. If it is decided that mere source code is illegal, then its propogation via T-shirt print is, sadly, as illegal. There's nothing special about T-Shirts, they're merely another medium.
FatPhil
Re:Who is SuSE aimed at? Everyone!
on
SuSE 7.0
·
· Score: 1
The rc.config scheme is abyssmal. It's the NT registry in ASCII format. One change in one section causes every configuration file to be recreated. Equivalently, don't try editing config files directly, they'll probably get overwritten next time you change your default window manager, or your IP address or your NIS domain, or anything. I paid good money for SuSE. I should have spent it on beer instead.
Back on the original topic: SuSE are playing version number wars. They're not interested in the product, they're interested in the marketing. To me that spells d-o-n-t---t-o-u-c-h.
FatPhil (User of Slackware, then RedHat, then SuSE, and now Debian)
SPRI/BAS (Scott Polar Research Institute & British Antarctic Survey) have been simulating the Martian environment with a view to people living on Mars for ages. I should know - I designed the logo for their 'Mars Mission' publicity day!
But as a fellow cynic myself, I believe they're often right. Mozilla always was a product with very little market. There are too many 'yet-another-...' products, I fear Mozilla was one. FatPhil
Erk. Gotta disagree a teeny tiny bit, sorry. Firstly, IANAConstitutionalL, nor an American - however, I've spent many a long evening learning about historical cases in US constitutional law, particularly those concerning freedoms like the ones in discussion here. (Roe vs. Wade? 2 ways to cross a river!:-) )
I think that the First Amendment is ideal include these issues. Here's my logic: - The code is an implementation of an algorithm. - The algorithm is a set of instructions to perform a particular task - The algorithm could equally have been described in human language. - That discussion would be covered by the 1st Amendment.
So, if it is protected in one form, then there's no point in saying it's not protected in all forms. Free Speech, even for Computers!
or more succinctly - The First Amendment can/could be broader than it was first created to be.
Mark Thomas (an English commedian known for enjoying arguing politicians into impossibly tight corners, and also for his sometimes less than legal stunts) has been ranting about Menwith Hill and Echelon for _years_. I find it hard to believe that this is kind of thing is news to people. I believe that Mark Thomas has found some air-space over Menwith Hill which he can fly a hot-air balloon over. All he's looking for now is sponsers to buy a custom made hot-air ballon, and then a flight in it over the UK HQ of Echelon. Unless I'm mistaken. Phil
The issue is not about copying DVDs. That's the scare that the MPAA have propogated in order to sway opinions their way. Disobedience therefore does not mean copying DVDs - that is playing straight into the MPAA's hands. There'll be a huge "I told you so" from them if we do that - _and they'll (for once) be right_. It's an issue of the personal freedom to process information which you have legitimately taken posession of. I want to sit right down and write code which scans "Stairway to Heaven" for backwards spoken messages. Is that my right? Can I distribute the formant analysis code which removes background music when voice processing. I certainly hope I can. I'm sure even Peter Grant would have agreed with me on that... FatPhil
Possibly a brave stance to make. Thank you for being so honest and for putting your name to it. In some ways I do agree with parts of your stance.
However, I do disagree that we all (ought to) abide by a set of laws, which are effectively to be held absolute until repealed by due process. Basically because _we_, internationally, as a global community of well informed (better informed than many of the people who are involved with the judgement making, I'd wager) thinkers are covered by many different, admittedly widely overlapping, laws. They aren't really absolute after all. I'm glad I live in a reasonably forward thinking country in this regard (translation - I agree with all of the laws of which I am aware)
FatPhil
Hmm, who say something along the lines of "Immoral laws _must_ be broken"?
When laws are evidently bogus, whatever is made illegal does not disappear, it merely becomes underground. Yes, the system is broken. Maybe it can be fixed; if not it can be bypassed instead. Vainly hoping for the right outcome still though. I will 'vote with my wallet' on this issue, boycotting is my middle name. FatPhil
Space is 3 dimensional. Apart from the geosynchronous part, that is. That makes all space junk (like those satelite phone thingies) far less dense that you'd first fear.
They were talking about John Travolta's movie career being over 10 years ago, honest. By heck what a come-back!
Re:Do Holywood sheep dream of electric movies?
on
End Of Fox Animation
·
· Score: 1
Everything is marketing oriented now. The best big-budget 'hollywood' mega-buck hype-tastic marketing cross-licensed toy/soudtrack/macdonalds-meal production I've ever seen is in every way inferior to my twentieth favourite 'arty' movie. And in the world of marketing is very fickle. Don't read anything into the success or failure of a single film, it's simply a die-roll now. Phil
Re:A Better Written article on Why X-Windows is Ba
on
X Windows Must Die!
·
· Score: 1
/me yells FUD!
The author makes assertions and pseudo-quotes without a citation, postfixing quips like "We kid you not" as if that makes us more likely to accept them as true.
Other flights of fancy, exagerations, and general pettiness include things like: - Microsoft Windows owes more to Pascal than to hand coded Assembler. - Ranting about the terms client and server. The X model uses the terms correctly, the client program asks the server to perform graphical tasks. - Things claimed to be improvements do not exist on the competing windowing systems either. (e.g. the extensible server model) - Ranting about individual _bugs_ in specific pieces of software on single proprietory operating systems which come with X. (e.g. the DBX bomb) - He doesn't like some of the best features of X (e.g. the ability for the client to select which server it wishes to display via, and the ability for servers to reject such requests.) ... I could go on, but as I'm only a third of the way through the article, I think this post may become too long.
Am I partisan? Yeah, I avoid X windows most of the time, I have 6 virtual text-mode consoles, and that is plenty for me for 90% of the things I do. The other 10% of the things? No more than one or two force me to go into M$ Windows. The rest is X.
Hmmmm, if X is so slow, why do some programs run quicker under Wine emulation and X than they did under M$ Windows? (e.g. 'proth.exe', try it, see I'm not BS-ing)
Windows is not intel specific. Windows NT was demonstrated running on Axp before x86. There are even other architectures which it runs on. Look at and on your installation CD, they're listed there. On the topic of Emulators - Fx32 absolutely rocks, well done the coders at Digital.
Federal Crime? What Federation? Congress? You don't what to know how I interpret that word... United States? America? Oh That would be the United States of Mexico then?
Wake up and work out there's a big world out there.
Before it is delivered? It's not even been posted yet when the guys in our outgoing post room get their hands on it!
Between whom is the 'delivery unopened' contract? Between the company that pays the prepaid postage, and the postal delivery company. I don't enter into the bargain at all.
I have breaks during the day and I have my own mobile phone. Out of principle, I avoid using the company telephone. Yes they can be international calls, yes it costs me money. And it's not a privacy issue, I'm just happier that way.
The company where I work has been known to open outgoing (postage paid) envelopes to verify that the contents were work related. Personal use of company resources is not a technology issue.
Depends if you know what the result would be. If you know the result would show you're secure, don't freak. If you know the result would show you're insecure, freak. Not at what _they_ are doing, but what you are knowingly leaving open. If you don't know the result, you have no right to care.
Not always - this data was by default made public by the distribution of the operating system used at the site. Smurf amplifiers being a good example of something no sane sysadmin would enable by choice.
Slashdot Mirror
What is the currently unsolved problem to which these are the solution?
As an aside, my desktop screen is too cluttered in Gnome/KDE already - what's a tiny handheld screen going to be like with huge technicolour icons and stuff littered all over it?
FatPhil
What I learnt at university is that when you're desperate, you'll jump into bed with anyone.
The more 'strategic deals' signed, the worse I think it makes the company look.
So are slackware/suse making redhat desperate, or are nokia/moto making ericsson desperate.
(I may work for one of the companies mentioned in this post, so I'll shut up now.)
FatPhil
Funny, 10 years ago a processor which burnt 20W was an absurd idea. 10W chips powered desktops and workstations. Now we're considering putting them in _laptops_?
Has battery technology advanced that far?
I find this all rather wierd considering TI's embedded DSP chips (perfectly usable as ordinary CPUs now, and you get the graphics for free too...), and ARMs CPUs which drain less than 1W.
Hey, I want moderation points so I can upmod your reply. You have hit the nail on the head. I am perhaps too techno-centric. (must be my techno-trousers!)
FatPhil
An offensive T-Shirt is illegal if it breaks decency laws.
If it is decided that mere source code is illegal, then its propogation via T-shirt print is, sadly, as illegal.
There's nothing special about T-Shirts, they're merely another medium.
FatPhil
The rc.config scheme is abyssmal. It's the NT registry in ASCII format. One change in one section causes every configuration file to be recreated. Equivalently, don't try editing config files directly, they'll probably get overwritten next time you change your default window manager, or your IP address or your NIS domain, or anything.
I paid good money for SuSE. I should have spent it on beer instead.
Back on the original topic:
SuSE are playing version number wars. They're not interested in the product, they're interested in the marketing.
To me that spells d-o-n-t---t-o-u-c-h.
FatPhil
(User of Slackware, then RedHat, then SuSE, and now Debian)
SPRI/BAS (Scott Polar Research Institute & British Antarctic Survey) have been simulating the Martian environment with a view to people living on Mars for ages. I should know - I designed the logo for their 'Mars Mission' publicity day!
FatPhil
But as a fellow cynic myself, I believe they're often right. Mozilla always was a product with very little market. There are too many 'yet-another-...' products, I fear Mozilla was one. FatPhil
I'm colour[0]-blind[1]. Am I stuffed?
FatPhil
[0] And stuck in the Pre-Noahian Era
[1] Red-Green Anomolous Dichromat, to be specific
Erk. Gotta disagree a teeny tiny bit, sorry. :-) )
Firstly, IANAConstitutionalL, nor an American - however, I've spent many a long evening learning about historical cases in US constitutional law, particularly those concerning freedoms like the ones in discussion here.
(Roe vs. Wade? 2 ways to cross a river!
I think that the First Amendment is ideal include these issues.
Here's my logic:
- The code is an implementation of an algorithm.
- The algorithm is a set of instructions to perform a particular task
- The algorithm could equally have been described in human language.
- That discussion would be covered by the 1st Amendment.
So, if it is protected in one form, then there's no point in saying it's not protected in all forms. Free Speech, even for Computers!
or more succinctly -
The First Amendment can/could be broader than it was first created to be.
Mark Thomas (an English commedian known for enjoying arguing politicians into impossibly tight corners, and also for his sometimes less than legal stunts) has been ranting about Menwith Hill and Echelon for _years_. I find it hard to believe that this is kind of thing is news to people. I believe that Mark Thomas has found some air-space over Menwith Hill which he can fly a hot-air balloon over. All he's looking for now is sponsers to buy a custom made hot-air ballon, and then a flight in it over the UK HQ of Echelon. Unless I'm mistaken. Phil
The issue is not about copying DVDs. That's the scare that the MPAA have propogated in order to sway opinions their way. Disobedience therefore does not mean copying DVDs - that is playing straight into the MPAA's hands. There'll be a huge "I told you so" from them if we do that - _and they'll (for once) be right_. It's an issue of the personal freedom to process information which you have legitimately taken posession of. I want to sit right down and write code which scans "Stairway to Heaven" for backwards spoken messages. Is that my right? Can I distribute the formant analysis code which removes background music when voice processing. I certainly hope I can. I'm sure even Peter Grant would have agreed with me on that... FatPhil
Possibly a brave stance to make. Thank you for being so honest and for putting your name to it. In some ways I do agree with parts of your stance.
However, I do disagree that we all (ought to) abide by a set of laws, which are effectively to be held absolute until repealed by due process.
Basically because _we_, internationally, as a global community of well informed (better informed than many of the people who are involved with the judgement making, I'd wager) thinkers are covered by many different, admittedly widely overlapping, laws. They aren't really absolute after all. I'm glad I live in a reasonably forward thinking country in this regard (translation - I agree with all of the laws of which I am aware)
FatPhil
Hmm, who say something along the lines of "Immoral laws _must_ be broken"?
When laws are evidently bogus, whatever is made illegal does not disappear, it merely becomes underground. Yes, the system is broken. Maybe it can be fixed; if not it can be bypassed instead. Vainly hoping for the right outcome still though. I will 'vote with my wallet' on this issue, boycotting is my middle name. FatPhil
Space is 3 dimensional. Apart from the geosynchronous part, that is. That makes all space junk (like those satelite phone thingies) far less dense that you'd first fear.
They were talking about John Travolta's movie career being over 10 years ago, honest. By heck what a come-back!
Everything is marketing oriented now. The best big-budget 'hollywood' mega-buck hype-tastic marketing cross-licensed toy/soudtrack/macdonalds-meal production I've ever seen is in every way inferior to my twentieth favourite 'arty' movie. And in the world of marketing is very fickle. Don't read anything into the success or failure of a single film, it's simply a die-roll now. Phil
/me yells FUD!
The author makes assertions and pseudo-quotes without a citation, postfixing quips like "We kid you not" as if that makes us more likely to accept them as true.
Other flights of fancy, exagerations, and general pettiness include things like:
- Microsoft Windows owes more to Pascal than to hand coded Assembler.
- Ranting about the terms client and server. The X model uses the terms correctly, the client program asks the server to perform graphical tasks.
- Things claimed to be improvements do not exist on the competing windowing systems either. (e.g. the extensible server model)
- Ranting about individual _bugs_ in specific pieces of software on single proprietory operating systems which come with X. (e.g. the DBX bomb)
- He doesn't like some of the best features of X (e.g. the ability for the client to select which server it wishes to display via, and the ability for servers to reject such requests.)
...
I could go on, but as I'm only a third of the way through the article, I think this post may become too long.
Am I partisan?
Yeah, I avoid X windows most of the time, I have 6 virtual text-mode consoles, and that is plenty for me for 90% of the things I do. The other 10% of the things? No more than one or two force me to go into M$ Windows. The rest is X.
Hmmmm, if X is so slow, why do some programs run quicker under Wine emulation and X than they did under M$ Windows? (e.g. 'proth.exe', try it, see I'm not BS-ing)
FatPhil
Windows is not intel specific.
Windows NT was demonstrated running on Axp before x86. There are even other architectures which it runs on. Look at and on your installation CD, they're listed there.
On the topic of Emulators - Fx32 absolutely rocks, well done the coders at Digital.
The IP stack is useful for managing the downloading of .mp3 files from your home onto your in-car jukebox.
Federal Crime? What Federation? Congress? You don't what to know how I interpret that word...
United States? America?
Oh That would be the United States of Mexico then?
Wake up and work out there's a big world out there.
Before it is delivered? It's not even been posted yet when the guys in our outgoing post room get their hands on it!
Between whom is the 'delivery unopened' contract?
Between the company that pays the prepaid postage, and the postal delivery company. I don't enter into the bargain at all.
I have breaks during the day and I have my own mobile phone. Out of principle, I avoid using the company telephone. Yes they can be international calls, yes it costs me money.
And it's not a privacy issue, I'm just happier that way.
FatPhil
The company where I work has been known to open outgoing (postage paid) envelopes to verify that the contents were work related.
Personal use of company resources is not a technology issue.
>
Depends if you know what the result would be.
If you know the result would show you're secure, don't freak.
If you know the result would show you're insecure, freak. Not at what _they_ are doing, but what you are knowingly leaving open.
If you don't know the result, you have no right to care.
Not always - this data was by default made public by the distribution of the operating system used at the site. Smurf amplifiers being a good example of something no sane sysadmin would enable by choice.