...just last month, and enjoyed it thoroughly. I agree completely with Heany and Tolkein: This is a story! And a damned fine one that lies at the core of Western fantasy literature.
My 12yo daughter is reading Heany's book now... I highly recommend it!
Thylacines were not hunted as food; they were deliberately exterminated by European immigrants because Thylacines killed domestic sheep.
For more information on Thylacines, check out this article by the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service.
It wouldn't hurt the Slashdot editors to show a little maturity by researching their flippant comments before making bogus statements.
Trying some professional journalism would do wonders for Slashdot's credibility.
I did read the revision history, and my statements still stand. The document is based on false assumptions, poor knowledge of C++, and an inattention to detail.
That given, I wonder why the Mozilla folk didn't simply stick to C and be done with it. Why use C++ at all if you won't use so many of its features?
The Mozilla "C++ portability guide" is long out-od-date, having been written in early 1998 before the C++ Standard was even official. The Mozilla document makes many uneducated assertions that would lead to poor programming practices.
Any article that suggest the use of macros over templates is clearly no written by anyone who has worked with C++ in the last couple of years.
I've been writing, publishing and preaching portable C++ for more than a decade, and I have substantial code bases that compile and run, with MINIMAL conditional compilation, on multiple platforms (hardware and software). What the Mozilla document advocates isn't portable C++, because they threw out almost everything that *is* C++.
Deriding Microsoft won't be particularly productive, and we haven't much to gain by simply assuming business and government will "get it" and buy Linux. If we want to compete successfully with the Beast of Redmond, we need something more than a cute logo and Slashdot rhetoric.
The importance of the subject memo is in telling us how Microsoft plans to compete with Linux. Microsoft is competing against IBM and Red Hat; those companies are pushing Linux beyond its geekish roots, into board rooms and server farms. We can preach technical superiority and reliability until we're blue in the face, but it is old-fashioned marketing, the art of the deal, that will break Microsoft's monopoly.
When we have squabbles over VMs, when we fight over trivial license issues, when we let the religion of Linux get in the way of rationality -- that's when Microsoft will strike, like a shark devouring a wounded penguin.
There's a certain petty smugness in the Linux community, a sense of superiority that stems more from a hatred of Microsoft than from our real technical achievements. If Linux is to succeed beyond its current niche, the community must grow up, maturing in both attitude and strategy.
Otherwise, we're just a flock of penguins, waiting for the shark.
...I wrote up a short "First Look" regarding the "noncommercial" (i.e., no-cost) versions of Intel's C++ and Fortran 95 compilers for Linux. I look at licensing, too, and have Intel's comments posted as well.
I've used Slackware off-and-on for a couple of years; it's one of three distros I've installed on a regular basis. Right now, though, I'm trending toward two distros: Debian and Mandrake.
I use different distros for different purposes. My laptop, for instance, has a Mandrake 8.1 install, because I didn't want to spend lots of time making exotic hardware working with Debian or Slackware. Mandrake installed perfectly the first time, enabling all the laptop's devices without even a hiccup.
My servers and cluster, however, run Debian-testing, because I can install a simple, tight, focused Linux for Beowulf or web hosting. I don't need KDE or X or any exotic drivers on my cluster nodes; I do need a reliable and concise install. Mandrake is too "fluffy" for my cluster...;)
As it stands now, Slackware is fading from my systems because it doesn't give me anything I can't get from Mandrake or Debian. If Slackware is going to survive, it needs to provide a unique value not found in other distros.
I've been on RR for a year-and-a-half now, and they've never supported any of my operating systems (Linux and Win2K). Of course, the only tech support I've asked for involved a dead line, and that has nothing to do with my OS.
RR support is designed for people slightly more savvy than your average AOL user; they expect questions about setting up DHCP, or changing the browser's homepage. Frankly, anyone running Win2K, XP, or Linux should be smart enough not to need hand-holding by RR's staff.
...I'm dammed offended by the crass commercialism that surrounds the Sept 11 attacks. From Ford telling us to buy cars as a patriotic duty to people selling "commemorative" items on late night TV, it's just sick.
But then, given the strength of the rampant capitalism in the U.S., I'm not surprised by such greed. I'm just disappointed that certain selfish people are living down to my expectations...
Diversity is the engine of evolution; ergo, a sign of a healthy Linux is multiple distributions meeting different needs. Natural selection will weed out the weak, while the survivors will settle into niches both great and small.
Right now, everybody and their dog seems to have a Linux distro... just check out DistroWatch for the states of 36 different distros around the planet.
If Progeny's niche had merit, another distro will come along and fill the void. If it had no merit (and I don't know, not having used it), then its passing allows energy to flow to stronger distros.
You've played one of the most despised characters in the history of science fiction; do you have any advice for Jar Jar as to how he should handle the rancor of obnoxious fans?
BTW, congrats on moving beyond Wesley and having what looks like an interesting career. In the end, you've done better than some other cast members of ST:TNG! At least you're not narrating alien autopsy videos...;)
... I never expect a "real" response to anything I send my CongressCritters.
Back in my days as a radical right-wing leftist, I wrote dozens and dozens of letters to government officials, ranging from Bill Clinton to Bruce Babbitt (Sec. of the Interior) on a variety of social justice and environmental issues. Real letters, neatly presented, correct grammar, polite, all that stuff -- and what did I receive in response?
From Mr. Clinton's office, I received a very consistent set of form letters signed by a staffer, usually thanking me for expressing support for the President. Of course, they were replying to a letter wherein I'd strongly declared my lack of faith in his leadership. Clearly, they never actually read what I sent -- or if they read it, they didn't want to respond to my actual words.
Back then, I was in Colorado (damn, I miss it), and the best responders were Sen. Ben Campbell (who helped me with some DOI FOIAs), and US Rep. Scott McInnis. Other CongressCritters and the Executive Branch sent form letters that often had nothing to do with the subject of my letter! I'd write about nationalizing the workforce, and "Clinton" would thank me for support NAFTA (which, in its current form, I don't support!)
Ugh. Very disheartening. Which is one reason I stopped lobbying as an individual. Too much work writing a letter for no discernable affect.
Note that the automotive industry has struggled to make batteries and fuel cells crash-safe. When airlines panic about nail clippers, they're likely to reject anyone boarding a plane with a gas-powered device.
While SuSE does have some good things going for it, whether or not it "deserves" to survive is a matter of natural selection in the marketplace. It might be the best damned Linux distro ever -- but if people don't buy it, it will go the way of other "deserving" but unsuccessful products.
Perhaps SuSE can persevere by gaining a rabid following that doggedly and vehemently defends "their" distribution in fora like Slashdot... zealotry can be a potent force for survival.
Me? I'm a distro agnostic; I've bought SuSE, and Red Hat, and Mandrake, and I've downloaded Debian, Slackware, and Mandrake (yes, again) for various projects. And that may be part of SuSE's problem: all distros have their good and bad points, but there isn't much in the way of overwhelming distinction.
For my stuff, I prefer Debian, Slackware, and Mandrake, depending on circumstances. Your mileage may vary -- and SuSE needs to get better mileage if it wants to be here in five years.
I get one or two messages a month from professors who've found some of my code in their student's work. I also hear from various students who want to download code from my books -- hoary and ancient as some of my C++ texts may be!;) You'd think they could at least type in the code from the printed book...;}
Then there are the obvious students on the newsgroups, who ask questions that obviously came from their homework assignments...
Yup, yup... I figure I've unintentionally helped thousands of students pass their classes in the last decade. I don't see much way to avoid it; given the size of the Open Source / Free Software community, and the number of lines of code available from all sources (freshmeat.net, anyone?) for download, it doesn't surprise me that many college grads can't actually code when they get into the working world.
Many of them grow up to be developers in software companies, where they continue to succeed by "borrowing" or "reworking" publicly-available code. Or do people here really think that commercial companies don't quietly steal Open/Free source?;)
Frankly, I'd be less concerned about peaks at other student's code than I would about the overall ethical climate. It isn't much of a stretch to go from downloading MP3s to taking Free/Open code for use in schoolwork or workwork... after all, how can it be "stealing" when "information wants to be free?"
Okay: Everyone raise your hand who is willing to die for their right to use crypto. I mean really die -- or even suffer serious bodily harm -- standing up for your rights?
Whenever I see these topics come up, they're always accompanied by one-line comments "They'll only get my gpg when they pry it from my cold dead fingers!" Come on now -- would you let them kill you rather than give up your crypto?
You find out what people truly, honestly believe, deep in their hearts and souls, when they're faced with the raw reality of standing firm against inimidation and violence. Looking down the barrel of a gun is a damned good test of one's convictions...
...my decision to stop using the GPL for any of my own code; I've relicensed everything under a libpng/zlib-style agreement, thus distancing myself from the extreme opinions of GPL's adherents.
Knowledge doesn't want to be free -- knowledge has no desires of any kind. It is certain people who want knowledge to be free. I'm one of those people; where I differ from the GPL is in my definition of "freedom".
Freedom is a lack of obligation; the GPL does not define "freedom", it forces obligations on people, and uses the very Copyright they despise as a tool for control. Mod me down if you will, but I have just as much right to my opinion as they do to theirs.
I have respect for Mr. Stallman's goals, but not his tactics. He and I share many beliefs when it comes to freedom -- on the issue of GPL, though, I beg to differ.
In many ways, GPL's adherents remind me of an obnoxious slogan I once saw on a hat: "If you love something, set it free; if it doesn't come back, hunt it down and kill it." Sorry, RMS, I just don't hold with that kind of thinking.
The GPL is about power, not freedom; buy into the GPL myth, and you're just exchanging one master (Mr. Gates) for another (Mr. Stallman).
...when what would really be nice is a commodity, non-Apple PPC motherboard? By the Gods, I'd like to have have a dual G5 MB in my next workstation.
Is it just market forces that keep Asus, Tyan, and ABit from producing a PPC MB? I suppose a standard BIOS is lacking (other than Apples)... surely someone could come up with a non-Apple hardware solution, though.
...to kill innocent people anonymously. A coward skulks about, refusing to take responsibility for their actions. These fools disn't have the courage to face real soldiers in real combat... no, they killed unarmed civilians at their workplace.
All terrorists are cowards, be they working for the Earth Liberation Front or Bin Ladan.
This has *nothing* to do with religion
on
Our New Pearl Harbor
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Suicide is a violation of Islamic law as defined by the Koran. These terrorists are not representative of Islam. As Tom Clancy put it on CNN just now -- they *are* fools.
Do you realize what kind of hell on Earth you are advocating when you ignorantly lump people into illogical categories? Such limited "thinking" is the root of sectarian violence around the world, people being murdered simply because they are atached to an artificial label: Protestant or Catholic, Jew or Arab, Black or White.
Those of you who declare "jihad" on all of Islam -- you are no better than the animals who murdered the innocent this morning. Go crawl back in your hole, while the rest of us look for light at the end of the tunnel...
Slashdot Mirror
...wins my vote!
My 12yo daughter is reading Heany's book now... I highly recommend it!
And yes, my hobbit-like wife is well aware of my elf fetish. I'm a dwrf, she's a hobbit, and our kids are dwobbits.
You can't tell we're into this sort of thing, can you?
For those of us who aren't into anime (FF 10) or first-person shooters... ;)
Kohan: Ahriman's Gift , the most original and entertaining RTS this year.
Wizardry 8 , if you like party-based, heavy-combat, first-person RPGs.
Stronghold , a terrific "castle simulator" built by some of the folks who created the Caesar/Pharoah series.
Thylacines were not hunted as food; they were deliberately exterminated by European immigrants because Thylacines killed domestic sheep.
For more information on Thylacines, check out this article by the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service.
It wouldn't hurt the Slashdot editors to show a little maturity by researching their flippant comments before making bogus statements. Trying some professional journalism would do wonders for Slashdot's credibility.
I did read the revision history, and my statements still stand. The document is based on false assumptions, poor knowledge of C++, and an inattention to detail.
That given, I wonder why the Mozilla folk didn't simply stick to C and be done with it. Why use C++ at all if you won't use so many of its features?
The Mozilla "C++ portability guide" is long out-od-date, having been written in early 1998 before the C++ Standard was even official. The Mozilla document makes many uneducated assertions that would lead to poor programming practices.
Any article that suggest the use of macros over templates is clearly no written by anyone who has worked with C++ in the last couple of years.I've been writing, publishing and preaching portable C++ for more than a decade, and I have substantial code bases that compile and run, with MINIMAL conditional compilation, on multiple platforms (hardware and software). What the Mozilla document advocates isn't portable C++, because they threw out almost everything that *is* C++.
How will the Linux community respond?
Deriding Microsoft won't be particularly productive, and we haven't much to gain by simply assuming business and government will "get it" and buy Linux. If we want to compete successfully with the Beast of Redmond, we need something more than a cute logo and Slashdot rhetoric.
The importance of the subject memo is in telling us how Microsoft plans to compete with Linux. Microsoft is competing against IBM and Red Hat; those companies are pushing Linux beyond its geekish roots, into board rooms and server farms. We can preach technical superiority and reliability until we're blue in the face, but it is old-fashioned marketing, the art of the deal, that will break Microsoft's monopoly.
When we have squabbles over VMs, when we fight over trivial license issues, when we let the religion of Linux get in the way of rationality -- that's when Microsoft will strike, like a shark devouring a wounded penguin.
There's a certain petty smugness in the Linux community, a sense of superiority that stems more from a hatred of Microsoft than from our real technical achievements. If Linux is to succeed beyond its current niche, the community must grow up, maturing in both attitude and strategy.
Otherwise, we're just a flock of penguins, waiting for the shark.
You can also look at some rudimentary benchmarks comparing gcc 3.0.1 and Intel C++ 5.0.
Why, oh why doesn't the moderator god give me moderator points when a really good post like this comes up?
Too bad the guy posted as an AC...
I've used Slackware off-and-on for a couple of years; it's one of three distros I've installed on a regular basis. Right now, though, I'm trending toward two distros: Debian and Mandrake.
I use different distros for different purposes. My laptop, for instance, has a Mandrake 8.1 install, because I didn't want to spend lots of time making exotic hardware working with Debian or Slackware. Mandrake installed perfectly the first time, enabling all the laptop's devices without even a hiccup.
My servers and cluster, however, run Debian-testing, because I can install a simple, tight, focused Linux for Beowulf or web hosting. I don't need KDE or X or any exotic drivers on my cluster nodes; I do need a reliable and concise install. Mandrake is too "fluffy" for my cluster... ;)
As it stands now, Slackware is fading from my systems because it doesn't give me anything I can't get from Mandrake or Debian. If Slackware is going to survive, it needs to provide a unique value not found in other distros.
I've been on RR for a year-and-a-half now, and they've never supported any of my operating systems (Linux and Win2K). Of course, the only tech support I've asked for involved a dead line, and that has nothing to do with my OS.
RR support is designed for people slightly more savvy than your average AOL user; they expect questions about setting up DHCP, or changing the browser's homepage. Frankly, anyone running Win2K, XP, or Linux should be smart enough not to need hand-holding by RR's staff.
But then, given the strength of the rampant capitalism in the U.S., I'm not surprised by such greed. I'm just disappointed that certain selfish people are living down to my expectations...
Diversity is the engine of evolution; ergo, a sign of a healthy Linux is multiple distributions meeting different needs. Natural selection will weed out the weak, while the survivors will settle into niches both great and small.
Right now, everybody and their dog seems to have a Linux distro... just check out DistroWatch for the states of 36 different distros around the planet.
If Progeny's niche had merit, another distro will come along and fill the void. If it had no merit (and I don't know, not having used it), then its passing allows energy to flow to stronger distros.
Boy, that sounds New-Agey! ;)
You've played one of the most despised characters in the history of science fiction; do you have any advice for Jar Jar as to how he should handle the rancor of obnoxious fans?
BTW, congrats on moving beyond Wesley and having what looks like an interesting career. In the end, you've done better than some other cast members of ST:TNG! At least you're not narrating alien autopsy videos... ;)
Back in my days as a radical right-wing leftist, I wrote dozens and dozens of letters to government officials, ranging from Bill Clinton to Bruce Babbitt (Sec. of the Interior) on a variety of social justice and environmental issues. Real letters, neatly presented, correct grammar, polite, all that stuff -- and what did I receive in response?
From Mr. Clinton's office, I received a very consistent set of form letters signed by a staffer, usually thanking me for expressing support for the President. Of course, they were replying to a letter wherein I'd strongly declared my lack of faith in his leadership. Clearly, they never actually read what I sent -- or if they read it, they didn't want to respond to my actual words.
Back then, I was in Colorado (damn, I miss it), and the best responders were Sen. Ben Campbell (who helped me with some DOI FOIAs), and US Rep. Scott McInnis. Other CongressCritters and the Executive Branch sent form letters that often had nothing to do with the subject of my letter! I'd write about nationalizing the workforce, and "Clinton" would thank me for support NAFTA (which, in its current form, I don't support!)
Ugh. Very disheartening. Which is one reason I stopped lobbying as an individual. Too much work writing a letter for no discernable affect.
Note that the automotive industry has struggled to make batteries and fuel cells crash-safe. When airlines panic about nail clippers, they're likely to reject anyone boarding a plane with a gas-powered device.
While SuSE does have some good things going for it, whether or not it "deserves" to survive is a matter of natural selection in the marketplace. It might be the best damned Linux distro ever -- but if people don't buy it, it will go the way of other "deserving" but unsuccessful products.
Perhaps SuSE can persevere by gaining a rabid following that doggedly and vehemently defends "their" distribution in fora like Slashdot... zealotry can be a potent force for survival.
Me? I'm a distro agnostic; I've bought SuSE, and Red Hat, and Mandrake, and I've downloaded Debian, Slackware, and Mandrake (yes, again) for various projects. And that may be part of SuSE's problem: all distros have their good and bad points, but there isn't much in the way of overwhelming distinction.
For my stuff, I prefer Debian, Slackware, and Mandrake, depending on circumstances. Your mileage may vary -- and SuSE needs to get better mileage if it wants to be here in five years.
I get one or two messages a month from professors who've found some of my code in their student's work. I also hear from various students who want to download code from my books -- hoary and ancient as some of my C++ texts may be! ;) You'd think they could at least type in the code from the printed book... ;}
Then there are the obvious students on the newsgroups, who ask questions that obviously came from their homework assignments...
Yup, yup... I figure I've unintentionally helped thousands of students pass their classes in the last decade. I don't see much way to avoid it; given the size of the Open Source / Free Software community, and the number of lines of code available from all sources (freshmeat.net, anyone?) for download, it doesn't surprise me that many college grads can't actually code when they get into the working world.
Many of them grow up to be developers in software companies, where they continue to succeed by "borrowing" or "reworking" publicly-available code. Or do people here really think that commercial companies don't quietly steal Open/Free source? ;)
Frankly, I'd be less concerned about peaks at other student's code than I would about the overall ethical climate. It isn't much of a stretch to go from downloading MP3s to taking Free/Open code for use in schoolwork or workwork... after all, how can it be "stealing" when "information wants to be free?"
Okay: Everyone raise your hand who is willing to die for their right to use crypto. I mean really die -- or even suffer serious bodily harm -- standing up for your rights?
Whenever I see these topics come up, they're always accompanied by one-line comments "They'll only get my gpg when they pry it from my cold dead fingers!" Come on now -- would you let them kill you rather than give up your crypto?
You find out what people truly, honestly believe, deep in their hearts and souls, when they're faced with the raw reality of standing firm against inimidation and violence. Looking down the barrel of a gun is a damned good test of one's convictions...
The Boy Scouts of America; man, they're nasty when they want to be...
Knowledge doesn't want to be free -- knowledge has no desires of any kind. It is certain people who want knowledge to be free. I'm one of those people; where I differ from the GPL is in my definition of "freedom".
Freedom is a lack of obligation; the GPL does not define "freedom", it forces obligations on people, and uses the very Copyright they despise as a tool for control. Mod me down if you will, but I have just as much right to my opinion as they do to theirs.
I have respect for Mr. Stallman's goals, but not his tactics. He and I share many beliefs when it comes to freedom -- on the issue of GPL, though, I beg to differ.
In many ways, GPL's adherents remind me of an obnoxious slogan I once saw on a hat: "If you love something, set it free; if it doesn't come back, hunt it down and kill it." Sorry, RMS, I just don't hold with that kind of thinking.
The GPL is about power, not freedom; buy into the GPL myth, and you're just exchanging one master (Mr. Gates) for another (Mr. Stallman).
Is it just market forces that keep Asus, Tyan, and ABit from producing a PPC MB? I suppose a standard BIOS is lacking (other than Apples)... surely someone could come up with a non-Apple hardware solution, though.
...to kill innocent people anonymously. A coward skulks about, refusing to take responsibility for their actions. These fools disn't have the courage to face real soldiers in real combat... no, they killed unarmed civilians at their workplace.
All terrorists are cowards, be they working for the Earth Liberation Front or Bin Ladan.
Suicide is a violation of Islamic law as defined by the Koran. These terrorists are not representative of Islam. As Tom Clancy put it on CNN just now -- they *are* fools.
Do you realize what kind of hell on Earth you are advocating when you ignorantly lump people into illogical categories? Such limited "thinking" is the root of sectarian violence around the world, people being murdered simply because they are atached to an artificial label: Protestant or Catholic, Jew or Arab, Black or White.
Those of you who declare "jihad" on all of Islam -- you are no better than the animals who murdered the innocent this morning. Go crawl back in your hole, while the rest of us look for light at the end of the tunnel...