> If the WINE people had spent the > last 4 years writing a replacement > for office, it would be done by now. Maybe they not only expected to have the original one running "as is" (for compatibility purposes, for example).. BTW, if they had done this, there would still be a need for application/data interchange between Linux/Windows. Whatever your advice on Windows should be, you won't convince Windows users to come to the Linux/BSD,etc. World if you don't offer them a way to execute any of the application they are used to. However crappy or excellent. --
It is quite strange to see ID's addiction to trilogies:
Commander Keen 1 to 3 (Invasion of the Vorticons)
Commander Keen 4 to 6 (Goodbye Galaxy)
Quake 1 to 3
Doom 1, 2, Ultimate and Final... and soon 3...
When is "Wolfenstein 3D 3" due? By the way, I don't consider Doom as their only revolutionary game. Keen (Episodes 4 to 6) is my ID's all time favorite. It had a huge playability and was also full of innovations: Secret levels, multi-2D engine, and lots of facilities like game saving, etc. It ran perfectly on 286 computers and I whish its source code were given to the Open Source community. Concerning its playability, I remember the first time I played the "Satan's dark delight" in Quake. jumping on flying lifts really made me dream of a Keen 3D one day. This one would be a hit for sure... And ID would stop being associated to Bloody/Black/Frightening software. But we'll have to cope with Doom 3 before we can expect to smile at the Dope Fish once again. --
Sounds strange. I just got a Palm last week end and, thanks to "Giraffe", I learnt Graffiti in ten minutes. IMHO this is the best way to have text data entered in a computer, with, maybe, voice recognition (question: how do you indent text comfortably using a voice recognition programm?). The given URL does't lead to any valuable reason to type using only ONE finger. If you take the device in your hand and intend to type something, you'll need your other hand or you will type slowly and you won't find it comfortable. If you use your second hand, then, you won't be limited by one finger, except if you're one-fingered (or if you use your nose). So, instead of elaborating such gadgets that only a few one-fingered people could enjoy, why don't they start reflecting on really innovative input peripherals ? --
Could it be possible that this would be compatible with some Playstation CD proprietary format... ? In this case then I believe some kidZ would buy it to copy PSX games... Provided it appears to be affordable enough. --
It's a pity we don't have not only some pictures but also some ideas of the way it is supposed to work:
How much gas refills do these shoes require per... hmmm say... kilometer ?
If I understood properly, these shoes allow their wearer to just walk the same way but make his steps longer.
What if he wants to climb stairs down ?
Won't he just be thrown in the air ?
How is precision stepping handled ?
(a typical French expression in this case is "Adorable mais si on danse?" - "Lovely, but what about dancing?")
Walking with one kg of shoe per feet can also not be as natural as the guy tries to describe it... Especially if you happen to be out of gas in a country that is known for its penuries...
Some of you might have heard about Andy's Software Wars Map where we could have a nice global vision of the software alliances around Microsoft's domination. I guess if Andy's aware of this good new, then we'll have some others arrows on the map. --
But this also depends on what you actually expect from such a city. The ones above are just ones where you can easily and cheaply get connected, either at home or in a cyber-cafe. In Paris, in March/April, there is also lots of Internet-related-attractions/activities like in "la Villette" (also known as "La Cité des Sciences"). --
Wasn't the "nuclear explosion" supposed to be an example of the machine's abilities ? I believe some other good things could benefit from this machine : like weather forecasts, etc... --
ARM processors use around the tenth of the power that a PPC require. If a PPC burns less than a Pentium, it still burns a lot compared to these. Please check on the ARM website for the actual specs of these processors, maybe it'll look like science-fiction to you. --
If you remove a "non-vital" unit, you can cancel the operation with ESC and thus this is not a BSOD as it does not imply reboot or the failover solution that mvanhorn told us about. --
I understand you are disappointed by the fact that Simtec web site is under reconstruction, thus only consisting of 3 HTML pages. We (The Acorn Users Community) have been knowing them for a long time and previously remarked them (e. g. for cooking a multiprocessor board in Acorn's RiscPCs along with coding the multithreading module required by RiscOS to benefit from it). Concerning the price, there is quite a big difference between a hand-made board like the CATS and an industrially produced Taiwanese board supposed to be replaced in 6 months because of obsolescence. BTW, would you use such an OEM board in an industrial device ? The CATS can also be used for this because of its low radio-electric emission level and its low-power requirements. It is thus the long-term investment that typical Acorn users are looking for to replace their old 10 year-old ARChimedes. Here you also pay for the opportunity to work troublelessly and silently (no fan required) with a reliable (Strong)ARM processor. --
You could open the box while it is swapping and just take the hard disk power ribbon off. Of course there are lots of derivate ways to cause a major failure, except unpluging the screen as you then wouldn't be able to see if it becomes blue.;-) "Good" Luck. --
I even heard about developments of PCI boards consisting of 32 StrongARM CPU. Given a 1MIPS/Hz performance, just imagine yourself with a virtual 5-6GHz per board! ARM are also known for having the best puissance/consummation ratio. They indeed hardly burn even a single Watt each. --
Did you clean your glasses ?;-) I wrote ARM: A, for Advanced, R, for Risc, and M for Machines.
The ARM is the world best sold microprocessor. There might be one in your handy as there might be at least one in your PC (and one in your Psion). A typical ARM processor burn less than a Watt. The ARM/Digital hybrid, the StrongARM (now belonging to Intel), burns a little more. I'd really like Slashdot open a section about these as, you'll see on their webpages that they really developped major computing products and technologies since they were funded by Element 14, formerly known as Acorn Computers. The ARM processor is the simplest processor ever, maybe with the F-21 CPU. Coding it is a pleasure, I think most former/current ARChimedes will agree with me. --
PowerPC processors are not well known for their sobriety. Most people willing to add these boards to their servers should seriously think about upgrading their power supplies too, especially if they also use RAID disks or whatever. BTW, multi-processor, (Strong)ARM-based boards are also being worked upon by companies such as Simtec ; given the average power needs of an ARM processor and the low FPU based needs of a server, this is an interesting alternative (though I am not sure these are out yet). --
> Sorry, but they are not loaded on demand Pardon me for being obscure. I was considering the whole !Prog directory as an entity which !run file handles the so-called "demand".
> This feature is not exclusive to RISC OS. Maybe but this is so elegantly done, there.:-)
> You have to [...] We don't consider the same entity here: Your "You" is the programmer or integrator or whatever you want to mean. I meant the user, the 6-year old kid dealing with his ARChimedes. He shouldn't bother about the RMEnsure command.
But isn't this taking us a bit far from the original topic (Technological inflation)? --
...we get non-technical people buzzwording about so-called futuristic things and one year after their names are just good to appear in some Nerd edition of the Trivial Pursuit (R)(TM)(C)(!)... --
> Is that greatly different from being > handled by a shared library, libjpeg? in RiscOS, displaying a 50kB JPEG file only takes 50Kb in memory (plus a few kilobytes of real-time decompression code which is so fast it doesn't burn much CPU time).
> Isn't that the same as shared libraries? The idea should be the same, not the implementation which is very dynamical and compact.
Also, RiscOS modules reside in memory and don't usually occupy much space (xxKB for the biggest). They are loaded on demand and can also be dynamically replaced or updated as the system is able to distinguish between several available versions. If Mozilla happened to be ported on RiscOS by people aware of its specificities, then it probably would occupy ten times less disk space as its Linux cousin. --
What is the interest of porting a software to a dedicated platform if you don't attempt to benefit from some of its special features ? It's like whenever Stalin decided to manufacture only 43-sized shoes as it was the average Russian's size. If Mozilla wants to become a standard it has to be a viable alternative for each of its target platforms users.
(BTW 6M0 is one-hour via modem so you're right : it isn't biug but it is looooooooong. especially when RiscOS got me used to xxKB downloads;-) --
It is not that bad to be willing to reduce burocracy by allowing people to just have to identify themselves using one ASCII string.
I however wonder how the distribution will be as there will be a need to be sure that no "man-in-the-middle" could just "hi-jack" people's identities for malicious uses... --
If, because of DoubleClick, you have your name or whatever else collected while buying some stuff on compusa, cdnow, amazon or disney then you could also sue the latter for exposing you in such a manner to indiscrete eyes.
Concerning the users that don't know how to protect themselves, they could either change for a new provider or just stop browsing the web so that Nerds can rule it like in the Good'ole times when the Internet wasa library, not a supermaket nor a sex shop. (Remember the Platinum Ribbon Campaign ?) Tschüess! --
I don't really like Netscape nor Explorer as these are obese pieces of software that carry in themselves all the patches required to overcome any operating system lacunas.
Whenever a system is well done and integrated an application developper should only focus on features more than these disguised OS patches. For example, on RiscOS, JPEG decompression is handled by the system and performed during the display refresh so that the memory needs are even lower. Most system routines are stored in software modules that can be accessed from whichever program, even BASIC script.
Concerning Mozilla, it is a shame that a Free Software Team is working on such a big thing instead of choosing to re-design it a more clever way.
BTW, here in Europe downloading dozens of Megabytes is a bit expensive, you know? So, let's keep things small. --
Slashdot Mirror
> If the WINE people had spent the
> last 4 years writing a replacement
> for office, it would be done by now.
Maybe they not only expected to have the original one running "as is" (for compatibility purposes, for example)..
BTW, if they had done this, there would still be a need for application/data interchange between Linux/Windows.
Whatever your advice on Windows should be, you won't convince Windows users to come to the Linux/BSD,etc. World if you don't offer them a way to execute any of the application they are used to. However crappy or excellent.
--
- Commander Keen 1 to 3 (Invasion of the Vorticons)
- Commander Keen 4 to 6 (Goodbye Galaxy)
- Quake 1 to 3
- Doom 1, 2, Ultimate and Final... and soon 3...
When is "Wolfenstein 3D 3" due?By the way, I don't consider Doom as their only revolutionary game.
Keen (Episodes 4 to 6) is my ID's all time favorite.
It had a huge playability and was also full of innovations: Secret levels, multi-2D engine, and lots of facilities like game saving, etc. It ran perfectly on 286 computers and I whish its source code were given to the Open Source community.
Concerning its playability, I remember the first time I played the "Satan's dark delight" in Quake.
jumping on flying lifts really made me dream of a Keen 3D one day. This one would be a hit for sure... And ID would stop being associated to Bloody/Black/Frightening software.
But we'll have to cope with Doom 3 before we can expect to smile at the Dope Fish once again.
--
Sounds strange.
I just got a Palm last week end and, thanks to "Giraffe", I learnt Graffiti in ten minutes.
IMHO this is the best way to have text data entered in a computer, with, maybe, voice recognition (question: how do you indent text comfortably using a voice recognition programm?).
The given URL does't lead to any valuable reason to type using only ONE finger.
If you take the device in your hand and intend to type something, you'll need your other hand or you will type slowly and you won't find it comfortable.
If you use your second hand, then, you won't be limited by one finger, except if you're one-fingered (or if you use your nose). So, instead of elaborating such gadgets that only a few one-fingered people could enjoy, why don't they start reflecting on really innovative input peripherals ?
--
Seen that ? ;-)
ftp> get sun2.tar
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for 'sun2.tar' (1720320 bytes).
No comments...
--
Could it be possible that this would be compatible with some Playstation CD proprietary format... ?
In this case then I believe some kidZ would buy it to copy PSX games... Provided it appears to be affordable enough.
--
- What if he wants to climb stairs down ?
- Won't he just be thrown in the air ?
- How is precision stepping handled ?
(a typical French expression in this case is "Adorable mais si on danse?" - "Lovely, but what about dancing?")Especially if you happen to be out of gas in a country that is known for its penuries...
--
Some of you might have heard about Andy's Software Wars Map where we could have a nice global vision of the software alliances around Microsoft's domination.
I guess if Andy's aware of this good new, then we'll have some others arrows on the map.
--
- Tokyo
- Geneva
- Amsterdam
But this also depends on what you actually expect from such a city.The ones above are just ones where you can easily and cheaply get connected, either at home or in a cyber-cafe.
In Paris, in March/April, there is also lots of Internet-related-attractions/activities like in "la Villette" (also known as "La Cité des Sciences").
--
Wasn't the "nuclear explosion" supposed to be an example of the machine's abilities ?
I believe some other good things could benefit from this machine : like weather forecasts, etc...
--
ARM processors use around the tenth of the power that a PPC require.
If a PPC burns less than a Pentium, it still burns a lot compared to these.
Please check on the ARM website for the actual specs of these processors, maybe it'll look like science-fiction to you.
--
If you remove a "non-vital" unit, you can cancel the operation with ESC and thus this is not a BSOD as it does not imply reboot or the failover solution that mvanhorn told us about.
--
I understand you are disappointed by the fact that Simtec web site is under reconstruction, thus only consisting of 3 HTML pages.
We (The Acorn Users Community) have been knowing them for a long time and previously remarked them (e. g. for cooking a multiprocessor board in Acorn's RiscPCs along with coding the multithreading module required by RiscOS to benefit from it).
Concerning the price, there is quite a big difference between a hand-made board like the CATS and an industrially produced Taiwanese board supposed to be replaced in 6 months because of obsolescence.
BTW, would you use such an OEM board in an industrial device ? The CATS can also be used for this because of its low radio-electric emission level and its low-power requirements. It is thus the long-term investment that typical Acorn users are looking for to replace their old 10 year-old ARChimedes.
Here you also pay for the opportunity to work troublelessly and silently (no fan required) with a reliable (Strong)ARM processor.
--
You could open the box while it is swapping and just take the hard disk power ribbon off. ;-)
Of course there are lots of derivate ways to cause a major failure, except unpluging the screen as you then wouldn't be able to see if it becomes blue.
"Good" Luck.
--
I even heard about developments of PCI boards consisting of 32 StrongARM CPU.
Given a 1MIPS/Hz performance, just imagine yourself with a virtual 5-6GHz per board!
ARM are also known for having the best puissance/consummation ratio.
They indeed hardly burn even a single Watt each.
--
I suggest they just close AltaVista too... ;-)
Just try: +metallica +MP3 +warez
Oops, with this link they could close Slashdot, now
--
Did you clean your glasses ? ;-) :
I wrote ARM
A, for Advanced,
R, for Risc,
and M for Machines.
The ARM is the world best sold microprocessor.
There might be one in your handy as there might be at least one in your PC (and one in your Psion).
A typical ARM processor burn less than a Watt.
The ARM/Digital hybrid, the StrongARM (now belonging to Intel), burns a little more.
I'd really like Slashdot open a section about these as, you'll see on their webpages that they really developped major computing products and technologies since they were funded by Element 14, formerly known as Acorn Computers.
The ARM processor is the simplest processor ever, maybe with the F-21 CPU. Coding it is a pleasure, I think most former/current ARChimedes will agree with me.
--
PowerPC processors are not well known for their sobriety. Most people willing to add these boards to their servers should seriously think about upgrading their power supplies too, especially if they also use RAID disks or whatever.
BTW, multi-processor, (Strong)ARM-based boards are also being worked upon by companies such as Simtec ; given the average power needs of an ARM processor and the low FPU based needs of a server, this is an interesting alternative (though I am not sure these are out yet).
--
> Sorry, but they are not loaded on demand
:-)
Pardon me for being obscure.
I was considering the whole !Prog directory as an entity which !run file handles the so-called "demand".
> This feature is not exclusive to RISC OS.
Maybe but this is so elegantly done, there.
> You have to [...]
We don't consider the same entity here:
Your "You" is the programmer or integrator or whatever you want to mean.
I meant the user, the 6-year old kid dealing with his ARChimedes. He shouldn't bother about the RMEnsure command.
But isn't this taking us a bit far from the original topic (Technological inflation)?
--
- We discuss about a way to give anybody a way to securely exchange information in an electronic way.
- These exchanges include the vote.
- The best systems are the ones using a private/public key system.
- These systems are well known to allow one to identify himself as well as encrypting his data.
- Voting should be anonymous
How can we guarantee that people will still be able to vote anonymously if they use such a system ?Of course, we could also deal with the validity of vote if done in a manneer as comfortable as answering Slashdot's polls...
--
...we get non-technical people buzzwording about so-called futuristic things and one year after their names are just good to appear in some Nerd edition of the Trivial Pursuit (R)(TM)(C)(!)...
--
> Is that greatly different from being
> handled by a shared library, libjpeg?
in RiscOS, displaying a 50kB JPEG file only takes 50Kb in memory (plus a few kilobytes of real-time decompression code which is so fast it doesn't burn much CPU time).
> Isn't that the same as shared libraries?
The idea should be the same, not the implementation which is very dynamical and compact.
Also, RiscOS modules reside in memory and don't usually occupy much space (xxKB for the biggest). They are loaded on demand and can also be dynamically replaced or updated as the system is able to distinguish between several available versions.
If Mozilla happened to be ported on RiscOS by people aware of its specificities, then it probably would occupy ten times less disk space as its Linux cousin.
--
What is the interest of porting a software to a dedicated platform if you don't attempt to benefit from some of its special features ?
;-)
It's like whenever Stalin decided to manufacture only 43-sized shoes as it was the average Russian's size.
If Mozilla wants to become a standard it has to be a viable alternative for each of its target platforms users.
(BTW 6M0 is one-hour via modem so you're right : it isn't biug but it is looooooooong. especially when RiscOS got me used to xxKB downloads
--
It is not that bad to be willing to reduce burocracy by allowing people to just have to identify themselves using one ASCII string.
I however wonder how the distribution will be as there will be a need to be sure that no "man-in-the-middle" could just "hi-jack" people's identities for malicious uses...
--
If, because of DoubleClick, you have your name or whatever else collected while buying some stuff on compusa, cdnow, amazon or disney then you could also sue the latter for exposing you in such a manner to indiscrete eyes.
Concerning the users that don't know how to protect themselves, they could either change for a new provider or just stop browsing the web so that Nerds can rule it like in the Good'ole times when the Internet wasa library, not a supermaket nor a sex shop. (Remember the Platinum Ribbon Campaign ?)
Tschüess!
--
I don't really like Netscape nor Explorer as these are obese pieces of software that carry in themselves all the patches required to overcome any operating system lacunas.
Whenever a system is well done and integrated an application developper should only focus on features more than these disguised OS patches.
For example, on RiscOS, JPEG decompression is handled by the system and performed during the display refresh so that the memory needs are even lower. Most system routines are stored in software modules that can be accessed from whichever program, even BASIC script.
Concerning Mozilla, it is a shame that a Free Software Team is working on such a big thing instead of choosing to re-design it a more clever way.
BTW, here in Europe downloading dozens of Megabytes is a bit expensive, you know?
So, let's keep things small.
--