You do find Z80 cores inside several mobile phones that are still sold today. Most vendors are now switching to ARM or other (more recent) processors, but there are still many Z80-based phones out on the market.
The core of the processor is usually integrated in a chip that contains other systems as well, but this is still the good old Z80.
I still have my Sinclair ZX Spectrum (sold as Timex in the US). Ah, the good old times... I remember programming this thing in assembler (most of it assembled by hand, of course - the Zeus assembler was too slow to load) and counting the clock cycles to make some nice animations on the TV screen.
Here is a good example of how alpha-blending can improve your productivity: just look as this old screenshot from a few months ago, showing GTK+ running on DirectFB. Aren't you glad that you can see all these windows at the same time? Think about how much desktop space you have saved by stacking them up. ;-)
Well, not really.. After all, bugs are being fixed all the time, resulting in a constant net reduction in the bug-count.
Minor correction... You probably wanted to write: "After all, bugs are being fixed all the time, resulting in a constant net increase in the bug-count." ;-)
99 bugs in the code,
99 little bugs...
Knock one down, and test it again,
101 little bugs in the code...
(sung to the tune of 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall)
It's sad to see that the author didn't touch on any of the possible downsides to his approach
Very good points. Especially the last one about the battery life. Because in the end, even
if the providers would not charge anything for the
transmission of SMS, there would still be a power
cost for the user: the battery power is still a
scarce resource. This is not a big problem if
each phone is only relaying a couple of messages
per hour, but the battery would be quickly drained
if the phone had to relay dozens of messages per
minute.
There is another minor technical detail that was neglected by the author of the article: the example included in the article uses an XML-like
syntax for the message, including some routing
information. This is very inefficient and in many
cases the message would not fit in a single SMS (currently, SMS is limited to 160 characters per
message). The messages could of course be
compressed, but the overhead would still be very
big in comparison with the size of the payload that can be transmitted. There should be some way
to optimize the compression of the routing information, but that is not trivial.
If its open source, all they need to do is re-compile with out the back door!
And as soon as the NSA or FBI or any other agency starts seeing encrypted messages that have no backdoor, the sender and receiver are immediately identified as potential criminals. Since they would be among the few who would use these illegal encryption techniques, the men in black suit can pay them a visit and arrest them (or do something worse to them).
As others have pointed out, steganography is not a good solution either. Most of these information hiding techniques can be detected. It is not trivial, but possible.
Don't forget the previous article on Slashdot titled "Arcade Games Officially Over The Hill". It contains several interesting comments too. For example, this one mentions that the introduction of the option to pay to continue killed the arcades.
Most (but not all) Open Source and Free Software programmers are writing code for fun, or for various other reasons that are not directly business-related.
But some of them are employed by RedHat, SuSE, Mandrake and other distributions, or by companies like VA Linux or Ximian and they do care for the business side of things. They are the ones who make sure that all pieces of the GNU/Linux/X puzzle fit together and that all applications can be used by the "average user".
...the real problem was that it was a great idea without a market.
Bluetooth does have a market. Remember that the technology was invented by Ericsson for GSM mobile phones and other devices, and then adopted and adapted by other vendors (Nokia, Intel, IBM, 3Com and others) who defined the standard together.
The original idea was to replace the cables or infrared connections between the mobile phone and the laptop or PDA. The cables are annoying because you have to connect them, they get in the way, and you have to make sure that you do not break them. The infrared connections require a line-of-sight and this is easy to break if you cannot let the devices rest on a stable surface. One of the goals of Bluetooth is to let you hold a PDA in your hand, keep the mobile phone in your pocket, and then connect to the Internet. Other possible uses include a wireless earphone, display, mouse or keyboard (I have used one of these, based on infrared, and I was loosing characters all the time because of the line-of-sight constraints).
If you keep in mind that Bluetooth is designed to replace the cables that connect several small devices and that it is not designed to replace a WLAN, then it makes sense to have a range of 10m.
I am using several laptops, PDAs and mobile phones for my work. I hate cables and infrared connections that break all the time. I hope that it will not take too long to get Bluetooth support in all devices that I am using. From my point of view, there is a market for Bluetooth.
The statement about the DOOM file format being "more or less officially documented" is mentioned in several books and web sites that attempt to (re-)write the history of 3D games, but this is wrong. When DOOM was released, the WAD file format was not documented at all. It is only with the release of DOOM II that we got two useful pieces of information from John Carmack: a list of new LINEDEF types used in Doom II, and the source code for the BSP compiler in Objective-C. Several people (including myself) had decoded the WAD file format and written their own BSP compilers in the meantime, but the release of id's code allowed the developers of DOOM editors to compare different algorithms and to improve their editors.
I was a contributor to the "Unofficial Doom Specs" and the main author of DEU (Doom Editing Utilities). From December 1993 to April/May 1994, I spent a large amount of time reverse-engineering the WAD file format until I got the first working editor. To the credit of id Software, I must add that several things changed after the release of DOOM II: the unofficial level editors that were initially frowned upon (maybe not by John Carmack, but at least by Jay Wilbur, the biz guy) were allowed and even encouraged.
When Quake was released (first the QTest1 demo, then the full game), the same things happened, but a bit faster: initially, no information was released about the PAK file format, so I cooperated with Olivier Montannuy and others to write the "Unofficial Quake Specs". But soon after the game was released, John Carmack provided more information about the game, which allowed several good editors to be developed in a relatively short time. The usage of Quake-C allowed a lot of modifications without having to modify the executable, so that was another nice move.
The idea for "True Names" came from an exchange he had one day in the late 1970's while using an early form of instant messaging called Talk.
Is it just me, or did anyone else pause for a second after reading that sentence? As far as I remember, most of the operating systems that had access to the Internet had some form of a "talk" program. This includes all UNIX-like operating systems that I tried, such as Ultrix, SunOS, Solaris, HP-UX, A/UX, AIX and now Linux, but also
some IBM 3090 mainframes (although these were batch-processing machines, there was also a way to talk to other users).
The term "instant messaging" was coined much later: only a few years ago, when Windows started to invade all desktops and AOL started promoting its AIM. Seeing "talk" defined as "an early form of instant messaging" just looks... strange to me.
It's free software, open source. So long as the industry uses the wrong metrics, asks the wrong questions, they'll continue to underestimate the number of Open Source OS boxen out there.
You have the technical point of view. They have the business point of view. From a technical point of view, their metrics are wrong. But from a business point of view, they are not that bad. If they want to estimate the market share in number of copies sold, not in number of copies used then they are right.
You must measure something correctly to be able to make correct decisions. In modern accounting, pollution has no cost, only trying to stop pollution has a cost. So a CEO will try to increase pollution, not decrease it.
Again, you have a technical point of view. The best business decision may be very different from the best technical decision. Often, a manager will have to choose a solution that is not optimal from a technical point of view, but is good for the company because it minimizes the risks or because it is considered better by the shareholders or board of directors or whoever decides the future of the company and the future of this particular manager. Note that it does not mean that the solution is better, only that the shareholders perceive it as being better.
Re:how much stuff with this break?
on
GCC 3.0 Released
·
· Score: 4
[...] the big question is "how much stuff is this going to break?
Not much, hopefully.
The only major thing that can affect the binary
packages is the new C++ ABI. But for plain C programs, there should be no big difference. Most of the Linux programs and libraries are written in C and should not be affected significantly. This could be a problem for Qt and KDE packages, though.
If the GIMP people want to increase their market share they need to fix the UI
Market share? Who is interested in market share? The GIMP developers are writing free software. We want the GIMP to be a useful tool that serves the needs of those who contribute to its development, and hopefully also serves the needs of many others. But market share is not a goal in itself.
That being said, the user interface needs to be improved and the developers are aware of this. Some parts of it have already been re-written in the current 1.3 branch and you will get a slightly better look in the Win32 version as soon as the Gimp and other GTK+ applications are converted to GTK+ 2.0.
If I find it bad as a computer guy, you can't bet your bottom dollar that graphic artists are going to hate it.
There are some graphic artists who contribute to the development of the GIMP and make constructive suggestions about how the interface can be improved. Although this may surprise you, some of these artists are happy with the current UI. It can of course be improved, but you should not assume that it is not good for experienced artists just because you do not like it.
Once the UI has been fixed, then documentation needs to be re-written so that it's not orientated towards computer geeks.
This may sound like a cliché, but the best way to improve it is to contribute... If you do not have programming skills to improve the UI, you could help by writing a better documentation. If the documentation has too much of a "geek style", this is probably because those who contributed to it so far (most of them are not native english speakers) did not have enough time to improve the style. Please contribute if you have some spare time, as this would benefit everybody.
By the way, I assume that you know about the good books and tutorials about the GIMP. Some of these are suitable for non-technical users. One book that is often recommended is "Grokking the GIMP" by Carey Bunks and published by New Riders. The whole book is available online at http://gimp-savvy.com/.
To many people, it won't matter whether it's free, or whether it supports the same features of a commercial product from Adobe that is far more polished.
Maybe. But then again, to many people, it does matter that the GIMP is free software. It does matter that the GIMP has far better scripting abilities than other products (other features like color separation and support for different color spaces are planned for the next version). Some people are happy with Photoshop or other proprietary products... Well, then let them use the product they like. Once again, this is not about market share. This is about making a useful program (that is suitable for those who are interested in free software).
I was also about to post a link to the report from Jupiter Media Metrix, but I am glad to see that someone else has done the same research. After a bit of URL-wrestling (removing some junk and user-tracking stuff), the direct link to
the report is: http://www.jup.com/company/pressrelease.jsp?doc=pr 010604.
Indeed, the most interesting part of this report (not mentioned in the article) is that AOL Time Warner gets almost one third of the total time spent online, mostly through e-mail and instant messaging. All other companies get less than 8% each. Outside the top 10, they get less than 0.5%.
This report measures the time spent looking at or using the web sites or applications (e-mail, messaging,...) but does not say anything about the number of "clicks", number of advertisements seen, or total traffic. The time spent reading or composing e-mail messages should not be counted in the same way as the time spent looking at some web sites, because the user is focused on different things. Also, if two thirds of the time spent on AOL Time Warner comes from communication services, I expect that Microsoft gets a fair share of time from its MSN Hotmail service, but the report does not provide any details about this.
Let's take this from another point of view (suggested by an AC in another comment): if I am only allowed to "use" the source code for compiling it and running it but not using it in another project, then why does the license say that I should give credit "to the original author and its contributors?" This only makes sense if I am allowed to use this source code in some other project and re-distribute it.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted
provided that this notice is preserved and due credit is given
to the original author and the contributors.
Now the author claims that the license said
that "redistribution" and "use" were allowed, but
not "modifications" and he has added a statement
clarifying that, claiming that it had always been
that way:
Yes, this means that derivitive or modified works are not permitted
without the author's prior consent
But this does not make sense to me:
this addition does change the meaning of the
license. Allowing "use in source [...] form" should
imply that I am free to use the (unmodified)
source code in any project, thereby creating a
"derivative work".
The debate over "modified works" is another
problem. Indeed, the original license did not
explicitely allow any modification to the source
code, only its use. However, the license did not
specify what is meant by "use in source form",
especially what happens if you only take a small
part of the source code and use it in some other
project. Or if you use most of the original
source code (without any modifications), and use it
in a new project that contains only one new file
that happens to be compatible with an old file in
the original IPF code and provides some new
features.
I do not know what a judge would think about
someone who says "you can use my source code" as if it meant "look, but don't touch." Most programmers would think that "use" means "use whatever part of this code in any project, including modified versions."
Here is a quote from the the last page of the article:
"One really exciting possibility is that, since all the system logs are stored, this
information can also be provided to music labels and other companies involved in the
music business," adds Grison. "Imagine a bar with 200 people able to rate music in real
time or the information provided by a million home users -- that's pure gold for the
music industry!" (emphasis added)
Am I the only one who thinks that something may
be wrong if some "companies involved in the music business" can see at any time what I am currently listening to (in my living room), or what I have been listening to during the year?
I do not know how much information is stored in
these "system logs", but even the simple fact of
knowing that I am currently listening to some music or not (even without knowing what it is) can
be a risk. More exactly, allowing strangers to know that I have not been listening to anything in the last week although I was previously using this service regularly could mean that I am not at home for a while. This could be an open invitation to some burglars... And all this without even knowing what I am listening to. But I assume that the logs store this information as well, which could be interesting for many companies... but not in a way that I am confortable with.
Correction: the Internet makes it easier for people to view, buy and trade porn stuff without being seen by others. But this alone does not corrupt people.
(Some) people want to view and buy adult stuff (from erotica to hardcore porn, depending on who they are). The Internet makes it easier for them because they can do that confortably from home without being opressed by others. So what? The sex industry is one of the largest businesses in the USA. The Internet does not corrupt people, it only reveals the current level of hypocrisy.
Another interesting thing is that the layout of the MRAM cells is relatively simple (like a grid) and the chip does not need any refresh circuitry. Therefore, MRAM could scale up very well and exceed the capacity of the biggest DRAM chips.
There are many technological hurdles ahead (read: many years until the price goes down), but the magnetic RAM may even compete with the magnetic disks that we use today. This would blur the line between the mass storage (hard disk) and the main memory (RAM). Think about a computer that has only one type of storage: it's just "the memory" and you do not have to care about the difference between files on a disk and data loaded in RAM.
In a several years, the only interesting difference could be between the "local storage" (MRAM, used for everything) and the "remote storage" (stuff accessed over the Internet). And even this line is already a bit blurry.
These messages mean that your display is not
calibrated (no color-correction matrices have been loaded). If you get these messages before loading any profile (e.g. with xcmsdb sample2.dcc), then this means that your X server starts without any specific color characterization data for your device, but it does not mean anything regarding whether or not it supports this feature.
If you get these messages from xcmsdb -queryafter loading one of the example files such as sample2.dcc, then it is likely that your X server does not support color calibration. You should upgrade to a more recent version, if available... If you are using a commerical server that you cannot upgrade easily, then you should report this problem to your vendor.
For example, when I start a new X session (server: Sun OpenWindows 3.6) and I run xcmsdb -query, I get a message telling me that there is no XDCCC_LINEAR_RGB_MATRICES property, but there is already a XDCCC_LINEAR_RGB_CORRECTION property, containing RGB conversion tables for the visuals of the display. Some other servers (XFree86 3.3.6) start without any color characterization profile.
After running xcmsdb -remove on any display (regardless of the version of the X server), then I get the messages: Could not find property XDCCC_LINEAR_RGB_MATRICES Could not find property XDCCC_LINEAR_RGB_CORRECTION
because the profile has been removed.
When I run xcmsdb sample2.dcc followed by xcmsdb -query, then I get something like this (long tables snipped):
When last I used suse (5.x or so), it seemed strongly kde based. That is, like corel, all the admin stuff reminded me of WinDOS. Is this still true?
Indeed, SuSE is strongly KDE based. But you can install other desktop environments or window managers too. The latest release (7.0) has a very nice graphical installation with Yast2, which will let you go from nothing (PC without OS) to a fully working KDE environment in only a few mouse clicks. It is easy to use, it detects and configures a wide range of hardware automatically, and it is even rather robust. It also works for updates/upgrades too.
However, if you do not want to run KDE and you do not want to install it at all, then SuSE gets in your way. It is possible to install SuSE 7.0 without KDE (if you are short on disk space, or for political/philosophical reasons), but it is not trivial. The easiest way to do this is to use the older (text-based but still menu-driven) Yast1 installation tool, pick one of the standard configurations that is suitable for you, then manually unselect the KDE packages. It will complain that some packages are missing from the base system (y2base and yast2) and it will report an unsatisified dependency (lxuser, the basic user setup for X, requires kbase from KDE) but everything will work fine anyway so these dependencies on KDE are not really necessary. It is a bit annoying that you can never let Yast select packages automatically (otherwise it will select the ones mentionened above, find that they depend on more KDE pieces, and in the end install most of KDE) but it is doable.
By the way, if you do not install KDE because you prefer GNOME, then you have to be careful: even if you select the "GNOME system" instead of the "KDE system" during installation, it will still install parts of KDE and it will not start the GNOME environment automatically when you boot. I found that it is usually much easier to select an installation without any desktop environment, and to install Helix Gnome from Helix Code, which has better packages than the old ones included with SuSE.
That being said, if you do install KDE, you will find that the admin tools are decent. They do not allow you to do everything, but the basic configuration options are there. Also, the graphical configuration tools do not prevent you from using command-line tools if you like them, or editing the configuration files by hand if you know what you are doing. The files that are automatically generated or modified by some tools contain some comments explaining that you should modify/etc/rc.config instead. This works quite well.
The new crop of us fools see moderation as tools to find the interesting points that lie in the sea of
noise. Upon finding an interesting point, I personally drill down to read its responses at -1. That means I lose all the original, interesting posts that
weren't responses to someone else? Certainly. I am assuming that the great majority of unmodded good posts were some impassioned response to
someone else. Not perfect, but moderation is a tool to find as much good information as possible, as a computer is a tool to filter through noise to find
the waveform underneath.
Of course, I also use the moderation system because this is better than having no filtering at all, given the current traffic (FYI, I browse at +2 and I expand some of the comments that could be interesting, that's how I saw yours).
However, Signal11 was pointing out several flaws of this system: the most annoying one is that it encourages people to think and behave like sheep. Any comment that criticizes Microsoft and claims that Linux or open source software will solve most problems is almost guaranteed to get moderated up. On the other hand, an insightful comment that praises commercial software has a much lower chance of being moderated up. Also, the moderation is often done on the first 100 or so comments, and the following ones are ignored unless they are attached to a comment that is already moderated up.
Think about how Slashdot would be with the following changes (I am not suggesting that all of them should be implemented, but this is some food for thought):
No comments could be posted in the first hour after the article is published. This would give people more time to read the article and think before they post, instead of being encouraged to say something before someone else does it.
The threshold for getting a +1 bonus would not be based on the total number of Karma points, but on the Karma divided by the number of comments posted (maybe with an exponent lower than 1). It would then be better to post some interesting comments than to post as many comments as possible.
Karma points could expire after a few weeks, so you could not accumulate them and keep your +1 bonus when posting.
Give a +1 bonus to the users who are certified (this requires a certification system like the one used on Advogato or one based on digital signatures). This would encourage accountability.
Each registered used could set up a filter that would give a permanent +1 (or -1) to some users, so that their comments would appear more (or less) frequently. This would only be a local filter and would have no influence on what the other users are reading.
The system could encourage moderators to look at all comments, not only the ones that already appear near the top of the page.
Anyway, as you wrote, Slashdot is a system with entertaining flaws. There will always be some way to abuse it...
This/. story and the corresponding CNN article contain some vague or incorrect statements...
The Nasdaq.com web site was vulnerable, not the whole Nasdaq computer system. This is still a major risk as many investors rely on that web site for their online transaction, but hacking the web site is not the same thing as changing the stock values at the source.
The hacker states that he has not used the July 17 exploit that is mentioned on BugTraq. Maybe he used the same security hole with a different exploit, maybe not. I suspect that he has just written his own version of the exploit for the same bug, but it is hard to know.
The hacker did not release enough information about the security hole, so I would not call him a "white hat" because he could still use his exploit against other sites if they are vulnerable. So I would only call him "half-ethical".
(off-topic) Everyone should read this and this and think about how/. has evolved since the introduction of the moderation system. I tend to agree with Signal11 (not for everything and not for some of his past actions, but he is mostly right in his description of the Slashdot problems).
Slashdot Mirror
You do find Z80 cores inside several mobile phones that are still sold today. Most vendors are now switching to ARM or other (more recent) processors, but there are still many Z80-based phones out on the market.
The core of the processor is usually integrated in a chip that contains other systems as well, but this is still the good old Z80.
I still have my Sinclair ZX Spectrum (sold as Timex in the US). Ah, the good old times... I remember programming this thing in assembler (most of it assembled by hand, of course - the Zeus assembler was too slow to load) and counting the clock cycles to make some nice animations on the TV screen.
Apparently, yes... The only vote he received is his own.
Ballot 114:
From:Rhett Creighton <rhett@mit.edu>
Member:rhett@mit.edu
Token:1d95bd7ab3b22c3d8610f91487064af0
Voted for 8 candidates:
RHETT CREIGHTON
MIGUEL DE ICAZA
NAT FRIEDMAN
TELSA GWYNNE
FEDERICO MENA-QUINTERO
HAVOC PENNINGTON
ARIEL RIOS
RICHARD STALLMAN
This was taken from the preliminary results available from http://foundation.gnome.org/elections/2001-prelim- results.txt.
Here is a good example of how alpha-blending can improve your productivity: just look as this old screenshot from a few months ago, showing GTK+ running on DirectFB. Aren't you glad that you can see all these windows at the same time? Think about how much desktop space you have saved by stacking them up. ;-)
Minor correction... You probably wanted to write: "After all, bugs are being fixed all the time, resulting in a constant net increase in the bug-count." ;-)
99 bugs in the code,
99 little bugs...
Knock one down, and test it again,
101 little bugs in the code...
(sung to the tune of 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall)
Very good points. Especially the last one about the battery life. Because in the end, even if the providers would not charge anything for the transmission of SMS, there would still be a power cost for the user: the battery power is still a scarce resource. This is not a big problem if each phone is only relaying a couple of messages per hour, but the battery would be quickly drained if the phone had to relay dozens of messages per minute.
There is another minor technical detail that was neglected by the author of the article: the example included in the article uses an XML-like syntax for the message, including some routing information. This is very inefficient and in many cases the message would not fit in a single SMS (currently, SMS is limited to 160 characters per message). The messages could of course be compressed, but the overhead would still be very big in comparison with the size of the payload that can be transmitted. There should be some way to optimize the compression of the routing information, but that is not trivial.
And as soon as the NSA or FBI or any other agency starts seeing encrypted messages that have no backdoor, the sender and receiver are immediately identified as potential criminals. Since they would be among the few who would use these illegal encryption techniques, the men in black suit can pay them a visit and arrest them (or do something worse to them).
As others have pointed out, steganography is not a good solution either. Most of these information hiding techniques can be detected. It is not trivial, but possible.
Don't forget the previous article on Slashdot titled "Arcade Games Officially Over The Hill". It contains several interesting comments too. For example, this one mentions that the introduction of the option to pay to continue killed the arcades.
Most (but not all) Open Source and Free Software programmers are writing code for fun, or for various other reasons that are not directly business-related.
But some of them are employed by RedHat, SuSE, Mandrake and other distributions, or by companies like VA Linux or Ximian and they do care for the business side of things. They are the ones who make sure that all pieces of the GNU/Linux/X puzzle fit together and that all applications can be used by the "average user".
Bluetooth does have a market. Remember that the technology was invented by Ericsson for GSM mobile phones and other devices, and then adopted and adapted by other vendors (Nokia, Intel, IBM, 3Com and others) who defined the standard together.
The original idea was to replace the cables or infrared connections between the mobile phone and the laptop or PDA. The cables are annoying because you have to connect them, they get in the way, and you have to make sure that you do not break them. The infrared connections require a line-of-sight and this is easy to break if you cannot let the devices rest on a stable surface. One of the goals of Bluetooth is to let you hold a PDA in your hand, keep the mobile phone in your pocket, and then connect to the Internet. Other possible uses include a wireless earphone, display, mouse or keyboard (I have used one of these, based on infrared, and I was loosing characters all the time because of the line-of-sight constraints).
If you keep in mind that Bluetooth is designed to replace the cables that connect several small devices and that it is not designed to replace a WLAN, then it makes sense to have a range of 10m.
I am using several laptops, PDAs and mobile phones for my work. I hate cables and infrared connections that break all the time. I hope that it will not take too long to get Bluetooth support in all devices that I am using. From my point of view, there is a market for Bluetooth.
The statement about the DOOM file format being "more or less officially documented" is mentioned in several books and web sites that attempt to (re-)write the history of 3D games, but this is wrong. When DOOM was released, the WAD file format was not documented at all. It is only with the release of DOOM II that we got two useful pieces of information from John Carmack: a list of new LINEDEF types used in Doom II, and the source code for the BSP compiler in Objective-C. Several people (including myself) had decoded the WAD file format and written their own BSP compilers in the meantime, but the release of id's code allowed the developers of DOOM editors to compare different algorithms and to improve their editors.
I was a contributor to the "Unofficial Doom Specs" and the main author of DEU (Doom Editing Utilities). From December 1993 to April/May 1994, I spent a large amount of time reverse-engineering the WAD file format until I got the first working editor. To the credit of id Software, I must add that several things changed after the release of DOOM II: the unofficial level editors that were initially frowned upon (maybe not by John Carmack, but at least by Jay Wilbur, the biz guy) were allowed and even encouraged.
When Quake was released (first the QTest1 demo, then the full game), the same things happened, but a bit faster: initially, no information was released about the PAK file format, so I cooperated with Olivier Montannuy and others to write the "Unofficial Quake Specs". But soon after the game was released, John Carmack provided more information about the game, which allowed several good editors to be developed in a relatively short time. The usage of Quake-C allowed a lot of modifications without having to modify the executable, so that was another nice move.
Quote from the article:
Is it just me, or did anyone else pause for a second after reading that sentence? As far as I remember, most of the operating systems that had access to the Internet had some form of a "talk" program. This includes all UNIX-like operating systems that I tried, such as Ultrix, SunOS, Solaris, HP-UX, A/UX, AIX and now Linux, but also some IBM 3090 mainframes (although these were batch-processing machines, there was also a way to talk to other users).
The term "instant messaging" was coined much later: only a few years ago, when Windows started to invade all desktops and AOL started promoting its AIM. Seeing "talk" defined as "an early form of instant messaging" just looks... strange to me.
You have the technical point of view. They have the business point of view. From a technical point of view, their metrics are wrong. But from a business point of view, they are not that bad. If they want to estimate the market share in number of copies sold, not in number of copies used then they are right.
Again, you have a technical point of view. The best business decision may be very different from the best technical decision. Often, a manager will have to choose a solution that is not optimal from a technical point of view, but is good for the company because it minimizes the risks or because it is considered better by the shareholders or board of directors or whoever decides the future of the company and the future of this particular manager. Note that it does not mean that the solution is better, only that the shareholders perceive it as being better.
Not much, hopefully.
The only major thing that can affect the binary packages is the new C++ ABI. But for plain C programs, there should be no big difference. Most of the Linux programs and libraries are written in C and should not be affected significantly. This could be a problem for Qt and KDE packages, though.
See also the list of caveats on the GCC web site.
Market share? Who is interested in market share? The GIMP developers are writing free software. We want the GIMP to be a useful tool that serves the needs of those who contribute to its development, and hopefully also serves the needs of many others. But market share is not a goal in itself.
That being said, the user interface needs to be improved and the developers are aware of this. Some parts of it have already been re-written in the current 1.3 branch and you will get a slightly better look in the Win32 version as soon as the Gimp and other GTK+ applications are converted to GTK+ 2.0.
There are some graphic artists who contribute to the development of the GIMP and make constructive suggestions about how the interface can be improved. Although this may surprise you, some of these artists are happy with the current UI. It can of course be improved, but you should not assume that it is not good for experienced artists just because you do not like it.
If you want to have an idea of the improvements that have already been suggested for the UI and other parts of the GIMP, you can have a look at the list of suggested enhancements or the list of all bug reports about the user interface.
This may sound like a cliché, but the best way to improve it is to contribute... If you do not have programming skills to improve the UI, you could help by writing a better documentation. If the documentation has too much of a "geek style", this is probably because those who contributed to it so far (most of them are not native english speakers) did not have enough time to improve the style. Please contribute if you have some spare time, as this would benefit everybody.
By the way, I assume that you know about the good books and tutorials about the GIMP. Some of these are suitable for non-technical users. One book that is often recommended is "Grokking the GIMP" by Carey Bunks and published by New Riders. The whole book is available online at http://gimp-savvy.com/.
Maybe. But then again, to many people, it does matter that the GIMP is free software. It does matter that the GIMP has far better scripting abilities than other products (other features like color separation and support for different color spaces are planned for the next version). Some people are happy with Photoshop or other proprietary products... Well, then let them use the product they like. Once again, this is not about market share. This is about making a useful program (that is suitable for those who are interested in free software).
I was also about to post a link to the report from Jupiter Media Metrix, but I am glad to see that someone else has done the same research. After a bit of URL-wrestling (removing some junk and user-tracking stuff), the direct link to the report is:r 010604.
http://www.jup.com/company/pressrelease.jsp?doc=p
Indeed, the most interesting part of this report (not mentioned in the article) is that AOL Time Warner gets almost one third of the total time spent online, mostly through e-mail and instant messaging. All other companies get less than 8% each. Outside the top 10, they get less than 0.5%.
This report measures the time spent looking at or using the web sites or applications (e-mail, messaging, ...) but does not say anything about the number of "clicks", number of advertisements seen, or total traffic. The time spent reading or composing e-mail messages should not be counted in the same way as the time spent looking at some web sites, because the user is focused on different things. Also, if two thirds of the time spent on AOL Time Warner comes from communication services, I expect that Microsoft gets a fair share of time from its MSN Hotmail service, but the report does not provide any details about this.
Let's take this from another point of view (suggested by an AC in another comment): if I am only allowed to "use" the source code for compiling it and running it but not using it in another project, then why does the license say that I should give credit "to the original author and its contributors?" This only makes sense if I am allowed to use this source code in some other project and re-distribute it.
Minor correction (probably a typo): the link to Advogato should point to www.advogato.org. The direct link to the article is correct.
The previous license says (emphasis mine):
Now the author claims that the license said that "redistribution" and "use" were allowed, but not "modifications" and he has added a statement clarifying that, claiming that it had always been that way:
But this does not make sense to me: this addition does change the meaning of the license. Allowing "use in source [...] form" should imply that I am free to use the (unmodified) source code in any project, thereby creating a "derivative work".
The debate over "modified works" is another problem. Indeed, the original license did not explicitely allow any modification to the source code, only its use. However, the license did not specify what is meant by "use in source form", especially what happens if you only take a small part of the source code and use it in some other project. Or if you use most of the original source code (without any modifications), and use it in a new project that contains only one new file that happens to be compatible with an old file in the original IPF code and provides some new features.
I do not know what a judge would think about someone who says "you can use my source code" as if it meant "look, but don't touch." Most programmers would think that "use" means "use whatever part of this code in any project, including modified versions."
Here is a quote from the the last page of the article:
Am I the only one who thinks that something may be wrong if some "companies involved in the music business" can see at any time what I am currently listening to (in my living room), or what I have been listening to during the year?
I do not know how much information is stored in these "system logs", but even the simple fact of knowing that I am currently listening to some music or not (even without knowing what it is) can be a risk. More exactly, allowing strangers to know that I have not been listening to anything in the last week although I was previously using this service regularly could mean that I am not at home for a while. This could be an open invitation to some burglars... And all this without even knowing what I am listening to. But I assume that the logs store this information as well, which could be interesting for many companies... but not in a way that I am confortable with.
Correction: the Internet makes it easier for people to view, buy and trade porn stuff without being seen by others. But this alone does not corrupt people.
(Some) people want to view and buy adult stuff (from erotica to hardcore porn, depending on who they are). The Internet makes it easier for them because they can do that confortably from home without being opressed by others. So what? The sex industry is one of the largest businesses in the USA. The Internet does not corrupt people, it only reveals the current level of hypocrisy.
Another interesting thing is that the layout of the MRAM cells is relatively simple (like a grid) and the chip does not need any refresh circuitry. Therefore, MRAM could scale up very well and exceed the capacity of the biggest DRAM chips.
There are many technological hurdles ahead (read: many years until the price goes down), but the magnetic RAM may even compete with the magnetic disks that we use today. This would blur the line between the mass storage (hard disk) and the main memory (RAM). Think about a computer that has only one type of storage: it's just "the memory" and you do not have to care about the difference between files on a disk and data loaded in RAM.
In a several years, the only interesting difference could be between the "local storage" (MRAM, used for everything) and the "remote storage" (stuff accessed over the Internet). And even this line is already a bit blurry.
These messages mean that your display is not calibrated (no color-correction matrices have been loaded). If you get these messages before loading any profile (e.g. with xcmsdb sample2.dcc), then this means that your X server starts without any specific color characterization data for your device, but it does not mean anything regarding whether or not it supports this feature.
If you get these messages from xcmsdb -query after loading one of the example files such as sample2.dcc, then it is likely that your X server does not support color calibration. You should upgrade to a more recent version, if available... If you are using a commerical server that you cannot upgrade easily, then you should report this problem to your vendor.
For example, when I start a new X session (server: Sun OpenWindows 3.6) and I run xcmsdb -query, I get a message telling me that there is no XDCCC_LINEAR_RGB_MATRICES property, but there is already a XDCCC_LINEAR_RGB_CORRECTION property, containing RGB conversion tables for the visuals of the display. Some other servers (XFree86 3.3.6) start without any color characterization profile.
After running xcmsdb -remove on any display (regardless of the version of the X server), then I get the messages:
Could not find property XDCCC_LINEAR_RGB_MATRICES
Could not find property XDCCC_LINEAR_RGB_CORRECTION
because the profile has been removed.
When I run xcmsdb sample2.dcc followed by xcmsdb -query, then I get something like this (long tables snipped):
Querying property XDCCC_LINEAR_RGB_CORRECTION
If you get something similar, then your server is working fine. If you still get an error, then you should complain to your vendor.
Indeed, SuSE is strongly KDE based. But you can install other desktop environments or window managers too. The latest release (7.0) has a very nice graphical installation with Yast2, which will let you go from nothing (PC without OS) to a fully working KDE environment in only a few mouse clicks. It is easy to use, it detects and configures a wide range of hardware automatically, and it is even rather robust. It also works for updates/upgrades too.
However, if you do not want to run KDE and you do not want to install it at all, then SuSE gets in your way. It is possible to install SuSE 7.0 without KDE (if you are short on disk space, or for political/philosophical reasons), but it is not trivial. The easiest way to do this is to use the older (text-based but still menu-driven) Yast1 installation tool, pick one of the standard configurations that is suitable for you, then manually unselect the KDE packages. It will complain that some packages are missing from the base system (y2base and yast2) and it will report an unsatisified dependency (lxuser, the basic user setup for X, requires kbase from KDE) but everything will work fine anyway so these dependencies on KDE are not really necessary. It is a bit annoying that you can never let Yast select packages automatically (otherwise it will select the ones mentionened above, find that they depend on more KDE pieces, and in the end install most of KDE) but it is doable.
By the way, if you do not install KDE because you prefer GNOME, then you have to be careful: even if you select the "GNOME system" instead of the "KDE system" during installation, it will still install parts of KDE and it will not start the GNOME environment automatically when you boot. I found that it is usually much easier to select an installation without any desktop environment, and to install Helix Gnome from Helix Code, which has better packages than the old ones included with SuSE.
That being said, if you do install KDE, you will find that the admin tools are decent. They do not allow you to do everything, but the basic configuration options are there. Also, the graphical configuration tools do not prevent you from using command-line tools if you like them, or editing the configuration files by hand if you know what you are doing. The files that are automatically generated or modified by some tools contain some comments explaining that you should modify /etc/rc.config instead. This works quite well.
You wrote:
Of course, I also use the moderation system because this is better than having no filtering at all, given the current traffic (FYI, I browse at +2 and I expand some of the comments that could be interesting, that's how I saw yours).
However, Signal11 was pointing out several flaws of this system: the most annoying one is that it encourages people to think and behave like sheep. Any comment that criticizes Microsoft and claims that Linux or open source software will solve most problems is almost guaranteed to get moderated up. On the other hand, an insightful comment that praises commercial software has a much lower chance of being moderated up. Also, the moderation is often done on the first 100 or so comments, and the following ones are ignored unless they are attached to a comment that is already moderated up.
Think about how Slashdot would be with the following changes (I am not suggesting that all of them should be implemented, but this is some food for thought):
Anyway, as you wrote, Slashdot is a system with entertaining flaws. There will always be some way to abuse it...
This /. story and the corresponding CNN article contain some vague or incorrect statements...