I quite agree that these are Very Good Things.... the problem is, what will happen to them if they fail to do either?
NOTHING.
So they have some more restrictions... that they can ignore. You'll pardon me if I don't hold my breath waiting for the MS_secret_01.dll to be emailed to me. Oh, unless I pay $1,000 / year to get them, since only.Net developers will be counted as "software developers (hey, it's what I'd do if I were an evil corporation).
Moreover, I think this is an incentive to drive out freeware and open-source developers. Who's going to spend $250/$1500 on something that's not going to make them a penny in return? The big benefit to this for MS is that fw/o-s often provides functionality that they would rather not let you have, or that they would rather charge you for (my fav. current example is Virtual Network Computing 3.3.3r7, which -- for free -- does everything that PCAnywhere does).
Yah know what though? It's going to KILL them in the web market. They think I'm going to include the web-based version of.Net calendar on my little site? Think again. JSP is still free, and ColdFusion ain't so much. I don't care how many dorks still use FrontPage, they're going to drop it like a hot potato when they realize they have to cough up for using widget X.
Would that more coders/hacktavists/1337 h@X0rs were so informed, and so capable of forming a cogent argument that Joe Q. Public might actually understand. Congrats for a piece of good software, and BRAVO for an excellent posistion paper.
I can only hope that someone in the mainstream media picks up on this aspect... in a perfect world, the NY Times would publish it as an Op-Ed column.
The real advantage of this is that it blends in. Sure, using an old box is fine, from a purely technical p.o.v., but it's not aesthetically pleasing. Plus, I'm definitely not qualified to set up a remote control for a random linux box. I won't be lining up for one either, but that's only because I have a machine in my living room. My parents, on the other hand, have about 5 computers in their house, on 3 different floors, and already have an excellent stereo system (CD, Phono, tape, radio) in their living room with speakers ranging all around the 1st floor -- this would be a perfect Xmas gift for them, allowing them to utilize existing structure in a very pretty way.
Does anyone know what the minimum scale that this gizmo can produce is? They've got some pictures of a fully-functional wrench (WOW!) on the Stratasys web site, which would imply that there's some fairly fine control (for the spinny groove things). I just ask since one of the coolest things I can imaging is a box like this spitting out a fully-functional (mechanical) watch. And of course, taking that to the most ridiculous extreme, having a box that could spit out a computer - in the form of Babbage's Difference Engine.;-)
? I'm making very good money doing quick hacks to push out websites, but it's not very project oriented as much as it's become 'throw in pre-written, pre-used functions'
Is this necessarily a hack? I could easily understand how it could be boring (as noted in a post above), but I was under the impression that being able to re-use your code across multiple projects was a Good Thing (tm) -- in order to get them out the door faster, among other benefits. Just because it's a new client shouldn't mean that you should have to re-invent the wheel.
"Because it's there." Or, the geek version of it, perhaps, "Because we can."
Which is obviously no different from the views of commercial developers. The turning point isn't why such energy is put into it, it's why you give it away. And that should be self evident: in an increasingly, hideously commercialized society, developers are forced every day to work with things that don't work right, cost exorbitant amounts of money, and make you forego many of what should otherwise be your usage rights at the behest of whoever's selling said thing. Why give it away? To counterbalance the lunacy of current sales policy. Why put so much effort in? No-one likes working with junk.
Re:Welcome to the Post-Internet Age
on
Rhythms Flatlines
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Perhaps you mean "one less company --> more monopolistic power for the Baby Bells." They don't have to worry about remaining solvent, despite (as pointed out above) the ongoing (and insufficiently punitive) fines they face for not opening their networks.
I think the problem is that these super-long story lines make great reading in archived form... that is, when they're all strung together. When reading the old Bloom County collections (I never read the dailies), I used to get pissed if a storyline was less than a week long. Part of what Groth is whining about -- the short attention span of readers -- is part and parcel of the one-a-day thing. You're right... things do seem dull when you get them in dribs and drabs. I just wish Groth would try releasing some of his in a daily format, and see how well it does.....
Ok, you have a point -- 2 points. The current storyline is so-so, maybe even sub-par. But "Kitten" and "Bug/Witch/Robot" were brilliant and beautifully excecuted. Even wonders like Bloom County and Calvin & Hobbes had their off weeks.
As for Keenspot, you're right... they're growing increasingly well-known, etc. And that's not a bad thing: lots of their strips are great, and they've gained mass noteriety (not least for their Keenspace program) in a way Fleen and Big Panda never really did.
Once again, Sluggy Freelance has been passed over in an online article/discussion about comics. It has everything that Salon is bringing up as salient points: long story arcs (not quite as long as the mentioned College Roomies from Hell, but they do intersect and elements from previous arcs come back in later ones), micro-payments, the ability for the artist to make the majority of his money off of it (witness the actual bound books available through Plan 9 Publishing, as well as the assorted "goodies" you can buy), and solid artwork (those who've read Gaiman's Sandman may notice some influence in the often-hauntingly-beautiful The Bug, the Witch, and the Robot story arc may see some similarities)...
Why does it seem that Sluggy has become an online-comics pariah these days? User Friendly gets bashed for being too pro-geek (or whatever), which may or may not be a valid criticism. But Sluggy is just getting forgotten? What gives?
Re:notoriously buggy?
on
Netscape 6.1
·
· Score: 3, Funny
Well, they do kinda have a point, especially if you buy into the "browser wars" buzzword. By this point, if you're on a Windows box -- which most people are, especially those who read MSNBC for their "news" -- the odds are that you're using IE. I use a Windows box, and, honestly, I like IE... and I was one of the most die-hard against it, until it went to version 5.0 (SP1) while Netscape was still wasting away in version 4.x.
The point that he's trying to make is that by now, unless you have a major grudge against M$ (not that anyone on/. has such a thing) or have a Linux box (same difference?;-)you've probably caved and gone with IE now. So loyalists are all that are left.
I personally think that these fine gentlemen have, by virtue of their effusive apology, proved themselves to be well and truly sorry, and that we should all forgive them their minor trespasses. Who's with me?
... for pointing something that should get hyped in every dealing that anyone sympathetic to Sklyarov's plight has with anyone else: that this was legal under Russian law.
Seriously, the fact that he's a Russian (read "commie") coder (read "hacker") can, and may, get played against him in the press to no end, so it's nice just to see those little words, "legal in Russia," that should humble the cretins who pushed this misguided law.
Regarding #2, I think the point is that they can't balk like that... the RIAA doesn't own all the rights, the artists do. So the artists would be the ones that would have to go into talks with Napster (or whoever)? That might be nice: get them a fair cut for once, since they're dealing more directly.
The only thing I could see crippling this is the increating frequency of "work for hire"-style contracts, where the artist has no rights to his work whatsoever... but even so, I think the ultimate point would be that the artist would get a bigger piece of the pie. Might even be able to wield the gov't mandate like a club to get really really good percentages of online music.
This got modded up? That's like me saying "Regular expression? What the hell's that? I'm not a Perl h4X0r...." Ugh. Anyway:
Content comes from where it always comes from: people writing it in XML, or writing it in Word docs & having it converted to XML
Where does it get stored? Any ol' file system will do.
Where does the presentation come from? It's XML -- who cares? XSL, or the Xerxes Java parser on top of some HTML templates (as in Dynamo)... the Tomcat Struts engine handles XML nicely. It's XML. Just content. No presentation. That's the point.
Where does that get stored? In your html docs directory. (these are all based on my experiences with teh ATG Dynamo engine... anyone who's worked with WebSphere or something else may have a diff't answer)
As to where the engine gets stored, i'm not sure I can say... probabaly a personal preference thing. Yes, I can understand if buzzwords get you down, but don't go asking questions that anyone who's had experience working with XML-based content can answer as if they were mysteries that had puzzled the sages.
Expect the prices of "officially released" episodes of your favorite shows to jump.
Oh, wait, since everything's coming out on DVD now, it will, anyway.
Oh, wait, since these same IP-down-your-throat goons are going to be collaborating with electronics corps anyhoo, we can forget about recordable media at all.
Oh, wait, this is actually legal & justified under the DMCA.
Chris asserts that Clear Channel is drivig people away from radio.... while that seems to make good horse sense, and I would love to have it be true (I can't stand Clear Channel for a number of reasons, some aethetic, some political... here's Salon's articles on why should should too), does anyone have any numbers to back that up?
Slashdot Mirror
Yes. I am (in the face of my girlfriend's wrath, no less).
But I'm a random crackpot, so, hey.
And no, I don't know anyone else boycotting anything.
Since when is a 1.2 GHz machine "low-end"? :)
Seems targeted exactly at me 'n' my PII 233....
Also, keep a watch on Fatchuck's Corrupt CD list to tell you what batches to avoid and who to contact.
I've made my call to the Federal Trade Commission. Have you?
... all the more reason to use the open-sourced version... remember?
I notice that limewire.org still advertises 1.7 as the most recent version.
I quite agree that these are Very Good Things.... the problem is, what will happen to them if they fail to do either?
NOTHING.
So they have some more restrictions... that they can ignore. You'll pardon me if I don't hold my breath waiting for the MS_secret_01.dll to be emailed to me. Oh, unless I pay $1,000 / year to get them, since only .Net developers will be counted as "software developers (hey, it's what I'd do if I were an evil corporation).
I'm going to go somewhere and cry now.
JavaScript required. The browser that you are using does not support JavaScript, or you may have disabled JavaScript.
[...snipped..]
Are you using a browser that doesn't support JavaScript?
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If you have JavaScript disabled, you must enable JavaScript to sign in. Instructions are listed below.
it then gives instructions for how to turn JS on for IE, and then...
Other browsers
To see if your browser supports JavaScript, and for detailed instructions about how to enable this feature, see the online Help for your browser.
And YES... I DO browse with JavaScript turned on.
Moreover, I think this is an incentive to drive out freeware and open-source developers. Who's going to spend $250/$1500 on something that's not going to make them a penny in return? The big benefit to this for MS is that fw/o-s often provides functionality that they would rather not let you have, or that they would rather charge you for (my fav. current example is Virtual Network Computing 3.3.3r7, which -- for free -- does everything that PCAnywhere does).
.Net calendar on my little site? Think again. JSP is still free, and ColdFusion ain't so much. I don't care how many dorks still use FrontPage, they're going to drop it like a hot potato when they realize they have to cough up for using widget X.
Yah know what though? It's going to KILL them in the web market. They think I'm going to include the web-based version of
Would that more coders/hacktavists/1337 h@X0rs were so informed, and so capable of forming a cogent argument that Joe Q. Public might actually understand. Congrats for a piece of good software, and BRAVO for an excellent posistion paper.
I can only hope that someone in the mainstream media picks up on this aspect... in a perfect world, the NY Times would publish it as an Op-Ed column.
The real advantage of this is that it blends in. Sure, using an old box is fine, from a purely technical p.o.v., but it's not aesthetically pleasing. Plus, I'm definitely not qualified to set up a remote control for a random linux box. I won't be lining up for one either, but that's only because I have a machine in my living room. My parents, on the other hand, have about 5 computers in their house, on 3 different floors, and already have an excellent stereo system (CD, Phono, tape, radio) in their living room with speakers ranging all around the 1st floor -- this would be a perfect Xmas gift for them, allowing them to utilize existing structure in a very pretty way.
Does anyone know what the minimum scale that this gizmo can produce is? They've got some pictures of a fully-functional wrench (WOW!) on the Stratasys web site, which would imply that there's some fairly fine control (for the spinny groove things). I just ask since one of the coolest things I can imaging is a box like this spitting out a fully-functional (mechanical) watch. And of course, taking that to the most ridiculous extreme, having a box that could spit out a computer - in the form of Babbage's Difference Engine. ;-)
? I'm making very good money doing quick hacks to push out websites, but it's not very project oriented as much as it's become 'throw in pre-written, pre-used functions'
Is this necessarily a hack? I could easily understand how it could be boring (as noted in a post above), but I was under the impression that being able to re-use your code across multiple projects was a Good Thing (tm) -- in order to get them out the door faster, among other benefits. Just because it's a new client shouldn't mean that you should have to re-invent the wheel.
"Because it's there." Or, the geek version of it, perhaps, "Because we can."
Which is obviously no different from the views of commercial developers. The turning point isn't why such energy is put into it, it's why you give it away. And that should be self evident: in an increasingly, hideously commercialized society, developers are forced every day to work with things that don't work right, cost exorbitant amounts of money, and make you forego many of what should otherwise be your usage rights at the behest of whoever's selling said thing. Why give it away? To counterbalance the lunacy of current sales policy. Why put so much effort in? No-one likes working with junk.
Perhaps you mean "one less company --> more monopolistic power for the Baby Bells." They don't have to worry about remaining solvent, despite (as pointed out above) the ongoing (and insufficiently punitive) fines they face for not opening their networks.
:-(
Ya just can't ignore stuff like that
I think the problem is that these super-long story lines make great reading in archived form... that is, when they're all strung together. When reading the old Bloom County collections (I never read the dailies), I used to get pissed if a storyline was less than a week long. Part of what Groth is whining about -- the short attention span of readers -- is part and parcel of the one-a-day thing. You're right... things do seem dull when you get them in dribs and drabs. I just wish Groth would try releasing some of his in a daily format, and see how well it does.....
Apparently, PNG is the new trendy format for online comics.
;-)
Finally, a trend I can get behind!
Ok, you have a point -- 2 points. The current storyline is so-so, maybe even sub-par. But "Kitten" and "Bug/Witch/Robot" were brilliant and beautifully excecuted. Even wonders like Bloom County and Calvin & Hobbes had their off weeks.
As for Keenspot, you're right... they're growing increasingly well-known, etc. And that's not a bad thing: lots of their strips are great, and they've gained mass noteriety (not least for their Keenspace program) in a way Fleen and Big Panda never really did.
Once again, Sluggy Freelance has been passed over in an online article/discussion about comics. It has everything that Salon is bringing up as salient points: long story arcs (not quite as long as the mentioned College Roomies from Hell, but they do intersect and elements from previous arcs come back in later ones), micro-payments, the ability for the artist to make the majority of his money off of it (witness the actual bound books available through Plan 9 Publishing, as well as the assorted "goodies" you can buy), and solid artwork (those who've read Gaiman's Sandman may notice some influence in the often-hauntingly-beautiful The Bug, the Witch, and the Robot story arc may see some similarities)...
Why does it seem that Sluggy has become an online-comics pariah these days? User Friendly gets bashed for being too pro-geek (or whatever), which may or may not be a valid criticism. But Sluggy is just getting forgotten? What gives?
Well, they do kinda have a point, especially if you buy into the "browser wars" buzzword. By this point, if you're on a Windows box -- which most people are, especially those who read MSNBC for their "news" -- the odds are that you're using IE. I use a Windows box, and, honestly, I like IE... and I was one of the most die-hard against it, until it went to version 5.0 (SP1) while Netscape was still wasting away in version 4.x.
/. has such a thing) or have a Linux box (same difference? ;-)you've probably caved and gone with IE now. So loyalists are all that are left.
The point that he's trying to make is that by now, unless you have a major grudge against M$ (not that anyone on
I personally think that these fine gentlemen have, by virtue of their effusive apology, proved themselves to be well and truly sorry, and that we should all forgive them their minor trespasses. Who's with me?
-Kevin Richard... I mean, uh Ben. That's it. Ben.
... for pointing something that should get hyped in every dealing that anyone sympathetic to Sklyarov's plight has with anyone else: that this was legal under Russian law.
Seriously, the fact that he's a Russian (read "commie") coder (read "hacker") can, and may, get played against him in the press to no end, so it's nice just to see those little words, "legal in Russia," that should humble the cretins who pushed this misguided law.
"Ah, for the freedoms of Mother Russia..." *sigh*
Regarding #2, I think the point is that they can't balk like that... the RIAA doesn't own all the rights, the artists do. So the artists would be the ones that would have to go into talks with Napster (or whoever)? That might be nice: get them a fair cut for once, since they're dealing more directly.
The only thing I could see crippling this is the increating frequency of "work for hire"-style contracts, where the artist has no rights to his work whatsoever... but even so, I think the ultimate point would be that the artist would get a bigger piece of the pie. Might even be able to wield the gov't mandate like a club to get really really good percentages of online music.
- Content comes from where it always comes from: people writing it in XML, or writing it in Word docs & having it converted to XML
- Where does it get stored? Any ol' file system will do.
- Where does the presentation come from? It's XML -- who cares? XSL, or the Xerxes Java parser on top of some HTML templates (as in Dynamo)... the Tomcat Struts engine handles XML nicely. It's XML. Just content. No presentation. That's the point.
- Where does that get stored? In your html docs directory. (these are all based on my experiences with teh ATG Dynamo engine... anyone who's worked with WebSphere or something else may have a diff't answer)
As to where the engine gets stored, i'm not sure I can say... probabaly a personal preference thing. Yes, I can understand if buzzwords get you down, but don't go asking questions that anyone who's had experience working with XML-based content can answer as if they were mysteries that had puzzled the sages.Expect the prices of "officially released" episodes of your favorite shows to jump.
Oh, wait, since everything's coming out on DVD now, it will, anyway.
Oh, wait, since these same IP-down-your-throat goons are going to be collaborating with electronics corps anyhoo, we can forget about recordable media at all.
Oh, wait, this is actually legal & justified under the DMCA.
*sigh*
Chris asserts that Clear Channel is drivig people away from radio.... while that seems to make good horse sense, and I would love to have it be true (I can't stand Clear Channel for a number of reasons, some aethetic, some political... here's Salon's articles on why should should too), does anyone have any numbers to back that up?
Well, now that Sega no longer supports it, might as well use it for SOMEthing....
(As everyone knows, old video game platforms are to be shunned like lepers. If anyone ever found out I still had my old Genesis.... Oh, $#(@!!)