Mot users do not care about source code. You guys are so geeked out, you think everyone wants source. Most people don't even know where to plug in a mouse.
Two years ago I didn't care about source code either. Now that I have some experience with what the availability of source code implies, I have a very different attitude.
A large scale change in perception will take time. But I think that it is going to happen.
While the use of BSD to get to a closed source version of the code for this application may be convenient for the hardware manufacturer, I would think that users may in fact be attracted to the idea of having the source code available for the equipment they are purchasing.
When I first started using Linux I was attracted to it because it offered and incredible value - where else could I get an unlimited server and development system chock full of tools for $21.95? I had no interest or intention of ever messing with the underlying code. Now that I have been a Linux user for a while I have come to appreciate the sheer power of total control.
If I was running this project, I would make code available to my customers, whatever license I chose.
The reason I buy a magazine is to either be entertained, or to learn something. Computer magazines are generally bought for the latter reason. Most computer magazines being sold to day are just advertising tarted up with 'content' designed to work up enthusiasm for the stuff being advertised.
Right now the only computer magazine I subscribe to is the Perl Journal. Computer magazines with real content like the Prel Journal are what I would be attracted to.
Personally I just don't see that there will be any mass computer magazines three years from now. Everyone is putting their advertising money on to the internet. Stacks of dead trees have to be a very inefficient way of delivering advertising to an audience that is wired.
I used to have a subscription to Computer Shopper when it was at it's peak. Had to stop because it actually broke my mailbox. Nowadays it's 1/4 the size and I never buy it - the Internet has everything you could want.
If 125 top level scientist can't help US then what a couple of spies can do for Chinese rocket program!
I have no doubt that the Chinese space program is being fueled by Russian technology to a far greater extent than US technology and I never said otherwise. Pictures of the capsule resemble Soyuz, the bundled configuration of boosters is a classical Russian design (and may be why they never went to the moon), and the landing site are all characteristics of Russian technology.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes them to overcome the booster problem for their moon shot.
Re:Nobel Prizes won by North Americans since WWII
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China Enters Space
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Oh, I agree that there are always ways to improve the educational system in every country. The US has some real problems with schools in economically disadvantaged areas.
However I think that the educational system in the US is much better than the impression you might get by reading the newpaper.
It is true that if you examine the average score on a standardized test given in the US, and compare it to that achieved by students in, say France you get a result that is not impressive. What people DON'T see reported by the press is what the distribution of scores is, or what the reuslts of tests of things other than regurgitated facts.
In the US the distribution is broad - students who have special ability are generally given more opportunity in the US. The result is that the US test scores for the upper percentiles are in fact as good as if not better than any in the world.
Another aspect rarely reported is that tests that measure things OTHER than the retention of factual knowledge (say problem solving ability or creative writing skills) paint a very different picture. These sorts of tests show an American education as being on average as good as if not better than any in the world.
Another factor with education in the US that is unusual compared to other nations is the number of people who go on to post secondary education. We have a very strong system of trade schools, community colleges and so on. The result is that over 50% of Americans receive some sort of post secondary degree, 80% some form of post high school education. These are by far the best numbers in the world. Because of this we don't have the same problem that the British and French do with some exam determining your ultimate role in life.
One of the mysteries that the newspapers don't answer when writing about the educational system in the US is how American workers have the highest productivity in the world if their education is so crummy.
And by the way, the stories of Einstein being a poor student are myth. He was no more a poor student than George Washington was an arborist. Einstein actually earned high marks in both primary and secondary school.
The best biography on Einstein I have seen is "Subtle is The Lord" by Abraham Pais. It's a good read, especially if you have some math and physics in your background. And it dispels some myths, too.
But because the US has the budget publicly and privately, of course many of the top-line people from elsewhere (including Canada) will move to the US to follow the opportunity.
I find it amazing that people just refuse to grant the American institutions that attract highly talented people from all over the world the credit they deserve.
The Statue of Liberty is there for a historical reason. The institutions that led to it's construction are still operating. Highly talented individuals who come to the US to pursue their work are given better opportunities than anywhere else. This includes the opportunity to win Nobel Prizes.
This is not a flaw in the US system.
I sure hope someone doesn't point to Linus and Tove and suggest they've somehow "sold out" their Finnish roots.
I hope not too. But it is no accident that Linus is living and working in the US. I recently read that he is also working on a US citizenship.
The engineering talent came primarily from Nazi Germany
Not hardly. There were and are tens of thousands of engineers in the US space program. The number of Nazis brought over from Peenemunde numbers about 125. To say they built the US space program is nonsense. von Braun did help a lot on booster design, but congressional mistrust of the ex-Nazis also made it hard to get funding for the idea of manned space flight. It is also true the Russian booster design was ahead of von Braun's work.
There were a lot of other flight technology programs going on in the US at that time, independent of the German rocket scientists. The breaking of the sound barrier by Chuck Yaeger is an example. These also made strong contributions to the US space program, culmanating with test flights by the astronauts in the X-15.
Europeans like to think they contributed the lion share in the development of space flight, but they seem to forget it was Robert Goddard who designed and flew the first real rockets.
The Soviet Union was in deep economic difficulty long before the political collapse; in fact the economic problems were what caused Gorbachev to lead the collapse.
We also have the horrible example of what has been happening in North Korea compared to the much better situation in South Korea - a quite interesting comparison because of the shared history and culture of these people.
While Allende certainly was not in power very long, the damage that was occurring was very obvious, and was very much the immediate cause for the military coup. There is no way that Pinocet would have had the support needed by the Chilean middle class if Allende's economic program was working - the democratic institiutions in Chile are too strong. I have a relative in Chile who went through a lot of personal suffering because basic medicines became unavailble during Allende's regime.
Given that, the socialist economies of the eastern bloc performed amazing things in light of the ongoing hostility of the US
Have you ever visited an Eastern Block country? Let me tell you, their economies have totally stagnated or gone backwards since WWII. A large percentage of the population doesn't even have running water for crying out loud. If there are any economic miracles there, they are damn well hidden. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain it is in fact many of the East European countries that are undergoing an economic renaissance.
I don't know much about the situation in Venezuala as I have not spent much time in that country.
One mistake Americans make is considering Latin America as a homgeneous entity - it is not, and in fact the traditions, economies and ways of life vary more than you might guess.
I do have a pretty good idea what is happening in Chile. As you may or may not know Chile has probably the stongest democratic traditions in South America, and probably the largest middle class as well (per capita basis). The middle class in Chile has been doing quite well thank you during the recent strong economic growth in South America.
Really? A few ex-Nazi rocket scientists captured from Peenemunde do not a manned space program make. It takes many billions of dollars plus a large industrial infrastructure and engineering talent in depth to put together a real manned space program. To come out with the statement that Europeans built the US Space program is flat out nonsense and shows a level of bigotry and idiocy almost beyond comprehension.
If all it took were a couple of scientists, well I would expect that we would see some European flags on the moon, and space shuttles taking off from Sweden. Last time I looked there were none.
and that they [China] will use it mainly for peaceful purposes
Since when has the Chinese government shown this level of enlightenment?
It's scary to see so many americans here who haven't got a clue - isn't Slashdot supposed to be a community of _intelligent_ people?
Intelligent people realize that any effort the size of the US Space Program is not the result of the contribution of a small number of individuals.
It is also scary to see Europeans with supposedly such a cosmopolitan world view stereotyping Americans as clueless. Well, here is a clue regarding American technical prowess: Over 80% of Nobel Prizes awarded since WWII have gone to people working in North America.
Re:The humans rights violations are irksome
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China Enters Space
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In the two nominally communist superpowers, we have countries which went from being relatively backwards little stumble-bums of history, to world-class superpowers, in the space of a few decade
This doesn't exactly stand up to close scrutiny. The nations that kept on with Communism are back to bankrupt stumblebum status, and the one that is now shooting off rockets has adopted free market principles.
A real tragedy of communism is that it has never been attempted in a country with a genuine democratic tradition.
Take a close look at the Allende regime in Chile. This was a real try at Communism in a country with a real democratic tradition. It turned into an economic disaster ending up a with military coup. Just what any democratic nation needs. Fortunately for Chile's sake they are back to a democracy (and a strong economy) again.
It seems to me that China could buy all the rocket technology it needs to put a man in orbit from the former Soviet Union. Maybe they'll cut a deal for MIR, too.
Don't know about Europe, Japan, etc. but after the Toshiba 3 axis NC flap who knows?
As far as I can tell the concept of 'secret technology' is an oxymoron. A fellow I know by the name of Ari Phillips published a working design for an A-bomb when he was a teenager - based on declassified documents he found in various libraries. Created quite a stir, it did.
Can't put the worms back in the can oh no!
Hey, let's put export controls on strong crypto! That will stop the drug runners, commie pinkos, Democrats, tax cheats, the Michigan Militia, Posse Comitatus and all those heathens terrorists from sending coded transmissions!
On the other hand, the fact that an anti-Microsoft company like IBM is already committed to Win2K Pro on the desktop says a lot about how big Win2K Pro is going to be on corporate desktops.
I have no doubt that Win2K is going to be huge on desktops. What other choice is there but Windows? Windows really is a monopoly as far as desktop client OS's is concerned. Exactly what alternatives does IBM have?
if he sticks with Win98 clients instead of going to Win2k Pro, he really ought to have his head examined
If you read the article, you will see that IBM, like many businesses never deployed W98. They are doing their first OS update in 5 or so years.
The interesting comments were that IBM is not deploying W2K servers, that they are not justifying the changeover on a TCO basis (Microsoft keeps blowing that horn in their sales literature), they are not switching all of their desktops over to W2K, and so on. This is very different from the impression that the original poster was trying to make with his "W2K all around" at IBM posting.
Oracle is the real enemy and is causing most ERP vendors to suffer. It's about time the open source community does more to fight the real enemy--Oracle.
PostgreSQL is a very serious open source SQL database project that is making a lot of good progress. Over time it is becoming a very capable product.
If the ERP vendors are suffering due to Oracle, they should put some money into PostgresSQL development.
IBM to role out Win2k Company Wide From the we-are-bigots department
Did you even read the article? Here are some quotes:
Although IBM plans to deploy several copies of Win2K Pro as its standard internal desktop, the company won't place Win2K Pro on every desktop.
IBM will not perform an extensive internal deployment of Win2K Server. According to Sullivan, IBM is primarily using its servers, not PC servers. IBM relies on large, clustered servers, like RISC System 3000s and doesn't plan to do much domain reorganization.
Like a lot of customers, we decided to wait and not get [NT] 4.0,
When IBM was deciding on a desktop OS, the company didn't use total cost of ownership (TCO) extensively as a determining factor.
TCO was not necessarily a major factor for us. To achieve a lot of Win2K Professional's benefits, you need Win2K Server," said Sullivan. Because IBM is not using Win2K Server, it wouldn't see those benefits.
This is actually quite interesting, and not particularly good for Microsoft. IBM is NOT using Win2K server, and many of the benefits(sic) of Win2K Pro are tied to the use of Microsoft's server. So if you decide that the srever is not your cup of tea, it suggests that TCO may not justify upgrading to Win2KPro on your desktop.
If this is the best the Win NT zealots can come up with, well, I am not impressed.
One thing that is good is that the miniseries format is far more suitable for a novel of this scope than is a film. There have been several miniseries based on novels that have worked out very well, the ones that immediately stick in my mind are 'I, Claudius', based on the novels by Robert Graves, and of course the magnificent 'Smiley's People' starring Sir Alec Guiness, based on the John LeCarre novel of the same name.
I know it is a bit much to expect that Dune will be done at the same level (I think that these two miniseries are the best things ever shown on television) - I am especially concerned that three two hour segments is not enough. But it could easily be better than the movie.
By the way, I first read Dune in the original form published in the old large format Analog magazine when I was in my late teens. The Dune illustrations in Analog by John Schoenherr are still by far the best IMHO. Analog of that era was generally awesome, too.
Re:2/2/2000 won't be an even day...
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Happy Odd Day!
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Twit - by even he means not odd. 2/2/2000 is the next day with no odd digits in the date.
Red Hat won't be "forced" by shareholders to switch over to developing proprietary variants of Linux, GNU, etc. for two reasons I can think of:
A third reason is that Redhat has only sold about 10% of the company stock on the open market. The same people who founded RedHat still own the vast majority of RedHat stock.
I was quite startled by this book. I thought prior Gibson novels got a little sloppy in the writing and plot. Lots of great ideas, interesting characters but far too much was crammed into the book detracting from the appreciation of language and individuals. This book is in a completely different style. This is a work of real precision writing - exact use of the language to communicate. In my opinion this was easily the best written book Gibson has done to date, and a finely polished gem. The only other science fiction author I have seen write on this level is Ursula LeGuin. Bravo!
If this is true then I am waiting for Star Trek-like devices: 'portable submillimeter wormhole generator' and 'personal parallel universe transmitter' to appear on the market.
Better not start using these just yet. We wouldn't want Windows 98 to contaminate other universes. Wait 'till AFTER the antitrust thing is done.
First of all, architecturally, there's no basis for this argument. Nothing about the Macintosh makes it better "for graphics". Even from a software perspective, the industry standard editors/composers (like Photoshop and Illustrator) are available on *multiple* platforms. And when it comes to 3D graphics, I'd just as soon have an Irix or NT system.
Originally the Mac was better suited. Postscript came first on the Mac. Pagemaker and so on too.
Architecturally Altivec IS superior to what is available on other systems for Photoshop applications.
A big problem with these other systems now is simply software maturity. Mac postscript print drivers are far more reliable at generating.ps files that don't choke commercial RIPs. While Photoshop is available on a variety of systems, many of the plug ins and helper applications are Mac only. Colorsync is far more well integrated on the Mac than any other available color matching system. There are Mac specific networking platforms optimized for transporting large graphics files. If you go to a print shop they often charge extra or even refuse to take non-Mac generated files.
While you may like the idea of SGI or NT for one reason or another, they are just not practical for a graphics professional.
If your goal is to write a simple, compiled program without the overhead of a GUI interface, it can be very hard to do on a Mac.
I strongly disagree with your statements; my experience is exactly the opposite.
Every Mac compiler I have ever used has a standard C library that will support a simple terminal style interface. I did a port of unarj to the Mac that consisted in 1). Fixing the bugs in the unarj code some broken Microsoft compiler was passing and 2). Inserting three statements consisting of ifdefs and an include.
If you want a Mac style interface all you need to use is something like TransSkel. Well optimized without the overhead of a GUI builder and the idiotic overhead these impose. Just plug in your code to the appropriate slots and you have a nice combination of speed and visual appeal.
I have a PhD in another engineering field (chemical) from a well-known university, and am getting tired of the lack of opportunities and shrinking R&D organizations in the industry I work in, even though I've been pretty successful overall. I've done a lot of hacking, running small networks and so on, sold some software as shareware etc. but don't have any formal CS coursework to point even though many of my ChE course required some programming. I would like to change fields even though I know for the first few years I would probably take a pay cut. My own field is just rehashing 20-30 year old technologies, and you can see the field drying up. What would/. folks recommend that I do? I've looked at CS curricula, and from what I see it looks like I've got more of the maths, numerical analysis, etc. in my background than any MS CS graduate would have (My PhD minor was in math, which gives me an equivalent to a MS in Math) - what I don't have are the formal software engineering methods. Would certifications help? Or are there crossover training programs that would be useful?
Didn't the Apple II have some software/hardware that could read a text file in the late 70's? Ask Sam or some such? I know the original Mac of 1984 was able to read a text file.
I used to recommend Macs to people with vision imparement in the mid 80's because of their ability to enlarge fonts and do local screen magnification, something that was tough to do under MS-DOS.
Accessability feature are an area that Linux is very weak at.
After a successful IPO on Wednesday where ALG stock released at an initial IPO price of $9 rocketed to a closing price of $357, resulting in a corporate valuation of $76 billion dollars trading was halted after company representatives revealed the following facts:
1). A stock option plan has left the company with outstanding obligations averaging 10 shares per employee, or 7.6x10^15 shares. This means the company debt exceeds the number of electrons in the sidereal universe.
2). Several class action lawsuits have been filed by various organizations. These are:
A) Friends of the Earth has sued based on the large number of lakes eutrophied by blue-green algea in the northeastern parts of the US.
B) The Sierra Club has sued ALG for environmental pollution resulting from release of various and sundry toxins into the environment including a variety of heptaoxins and cytotoxins.
C). Several species of archea have joined a class action suit for misappropriation of native lands and traditional food resources. Prior to the wanton atmospherical conversion by poisonous oxygen as a result of environmentally neglectful use of photosynthesis, archeabacterial were free to live and roam over the entire face of the earth. Now we are confined to small areas such as undersea volcano vents and hot springs. Never in the history of the planet has genocide, species extinction and ethnic cleansing been conducted on such a scale. Compensation claimed is total reconversion of the Earth's atmosphere a methane base.
D). The US EPA has sued the blue-green algae for massive amounts of oil pollution during the Proterozoic Era. The US EPA claims that it is well known that large ancient oil deposits were formed during that period of time, and we anticipate being able to prove that the amounts of oil formed far exceed those formed in more recent geological periods. The common conception that most oil was formed in recent geologic epochs is just a urban myth.
E.) The NAACA (National Association for the Advancement of Colored Algae) has sued for discrimination. A representative stated "the use of the perjorative term 'blue green algae' is not acceptable to members of the cyanobacteria family that are red or pink pigmented. We are tired of being ignored for our contribution to the earth's atmosphere, and being persecuted under names like the 'red tide'. This discrimination must stop, and politically incorrect names like blue-green algae are not to be tolerated!
Slashdot Mirror
Mot users do not care about source code. You guys are so geeked out, you think everyone wants source. Most people don't even know where to plug in a mouse.
Two years ago I didn't care about source code either. Now that I have some experience with what the availability of source code implies, I have a very different attitude.
A large scale change in perception will take time. But I think that it is going to happen.
While the use of BSD to get to a closed source version of the code for this application may be convenient for the hardware manufacturer, I would think that users may in fact be attracted to the idea of having the source code available for the equipment they are purchasing.
When I first started using Linux I was attracted to it because it offered and incredible value - where else could I get an unlimited server and development system chock full of tools for $21.95? I had no interest or intention of ever messing with the underlying code. Now that I have been a Linux user for a while I have come to appreciate the sheer power of total control.
If I was running this project, I would make code available to my customers, whatever license I chose.
The reason I buy a magazine is to either be entertained, or to learn something. Computer magazines are generally bought for the latter reason. Most computer magazines being sold to day are just advertising tarted up with 'content' designed to work up enthusiasm for the stuff being advertised.
Right now the only computer magazine I subscribe to is the Perl Journal. Computer magazines with real content like the Prel Journal are what I would be attracted to.
Personally I just don't see that there will be any mass computer magazines three years from now. Everyone is putting their advertising money on to the internet. Stacks of dead trees have to be a very inefficient way of delivering advertising to an audience that is wired.
I used to have a subscription to Computer Shopper when it was at it's peak. Had to stop because it actually broke my mailbox. Nowadays it's 1/4 the size and I never buy it - the Internet has everything you could want.
If 125 top level scientist can't help US then what a couple of spies can do for Chinese rocket program!
I have no doubt that the Chinese space program is being fueled by Russian technology to a far greater extent than US technology and I never said otherwise. Pictures of the capsule resemble Soyuz, the bundled configuration of boosters is a classical Russian design (and may be why they never went to the moon), and the landing site are all characteristics of Russian technology.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes them to overcome the booster problem for their moon shot.
Oh, I agree that there are always ways to improve the educational system in every country. The US has some real problems with schools in economically disadvantaged areas.
However I think that the educational system in the US is much better than the impression you might get by reading the newpaper.
It is true that if you examine the average score on a standardized test given in the US, and compare it to that achieved by students in, say France you get a result that is not impressive. What people DON'T see reported by the press is what the distribution of scores is, or what the reuslts of tests of things other than regurgitated facts.
In the US the distribution is broad - students who have special ability are generally given more opportunity in the US. The result is that the US test scores for the upper percentiles are in fact as good as if not better than any in the world.
Another aspect rarely reported is that tests that measure things OTHER than the retention of factual knowledge (say problem solving ability or creative writing skills) paint a very different picture. These sorts of tests show an American education as being on average as good as if not better than any in the world.
Another factor with education in the US that is unusual compared to other nations is the number of people who go on to post secondary education. We have a very strong system of trade schools, community colleges and so on. The result is that over 50% of Americans receive some sort of post secondary degree, 80% some form of post high school education. These are by far the best numbers in the world. Because of this we don't have the same problem that the British and French do with some exam determining your ultimate role in life.
One of the mysteries that the newspapers don't answer when writing about the educational system in the US is how American workers have the highest productivity in the world if their education is so crummy.
And by the way, the stories of Einstein being a poor student are myth. He was no more a poor student than George Washington was an arborist. Einstein actually earned high marks in both primary and secondary school.
The best biography on Einstein I have seen is "Subtle is The Lord" by Abraham Pais. It's a good read, especially if you have some math and physics in your background. And it dispels some myths, too.
But because the US has the budget publicly and privately, of course many of the top-line people from elsewhere (including Canada) will move to the US to follow the opportunity.
I find it amazing that people just refuse to grant the American institutions that attract highly talented people from all over the world the credit they deserve.
The Statue of Liberty is there for a historical reason. The institutions that led to it's construction are still operating. Highly talented individuals who come to the US to pursue their work are given better opportunities than anywhere else. This includes the opportunity to win Nobel Prizes.
This is not a flaw in the US system.
I sure hope someone doesn't point to Linus and Tove and suggest they've somehow "sold out" their Finnish roots.
I hope not too. But it is no accident that Linus is living and working in the US. I recently read that he is also working on a US citizenship.
The engineering talent came primarily from Nazi Germany
Not hardly. There were and are tens of thousands of engineers in the US space program. The number of Nazis brought over from Peenemunde numbers about 125. To say they built the US space program is nonsense. von Braun did help a lot on booster design, but congressional mistrust of the ex-Nazis also made it hard to get funding for the idea of manned space flight. It is also true the Russian booster design was ahead of von Braun's work.
There were a lot of other flight technology programs going on in the US at that time, independent of the German rocket scientists. The breaking of the sound barrier by Chuck Yaeger is an example. These also made strong contributions to the US space program, culmanating with test flights by the astronauts in the X-15.
Europeans like to think they contributed the lion share in the development of space flight, but they seem to forget it was Robert Goddard who designed and flew the first real rockets.
The Soviet Union was in deep economic difficulty long before the political collapse; in fact the economic problems were what caused Gorbachev to lead the collapse.
We also have the horrible example of what has been happening in North Korea compared to the much better situation in South Korea - a quite interesting comparison because of the shared history and culture of these people.
While Allende certainly was not in power very long, the damage that was occurring was very obvious, and was very much the immediate cause for the military coup. There is no way that Pinocet would have had the support needed by the Chilean middle class if Allende's economic program was working - the democratic institiutions in Chile are too strong. I have a relative in Chile who went through a lot of personal suffering because basic medicines became unavailble during Allende's regime.
Given that, the socialist economies of the eastern bloc performed amazing things in light of the ongoing hostility of the US
Have you ever visited an Eastern Block country? Let me tell you, their economies have totally stagnated or gone backwards since WWII. A large percentage of the population doesn't even have running water for crying out loud. If there are any economic miracles there, they are damn well hidden. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain it is in fact many of the East European countries that are undergoing an economic renaissance.
I don't know much about the situation in Venezuala as I have not spent much time in that country.
One mistake Americans make is considering Latin America as a homgeneous entity - it is not, and in fact the traditions, economies and ways of life vary more than you might guess.
I do have a pretty good idea what is happening in Chile. As you may or may not know Chile has probably the stongest democratic traditions in South America, and probably the largest middle class as well (per capita basis). The middle class in Chile has been doing quite well thank you during the recent strong economic growth in South America.
Insightful? more like flamebait.
US space program was built by europeans
Really? A few ex-Nazi rocket scientists captured from Peenemunde do not a manned space program make. It takes many billions of dollars plus a large industrial infrastructure and engineering talent in depth to put together a real manned space program. To come out with the statement that Europeans built the US Space program is flat out nonsense and shows a level of bigotry and idiocy almost beyond comprehension.
If all it took were a couple of scientists, well I would expect that we would see some European flags on the moon, and space shuttles taking off from Sweden. Last time I looked there were none.
and that they [China] will use it mainly for peaceful purposes
Since when has the Chinese government shown this level of enlightenment?
It's scary to see so many americans here who haven't got a clue - isn't Slashdot supposed to be a community of _intelligent_ people?
Intelligent people realize that any effort the size of the US Space Program is not the result of the contribution of a small number of individuals.
It is also scary to see Europeans with supposedly such a cosmopolitan world view stereotyping Americans as clueless. Well, here is a clue regarding American technical prowess: Over 80% of Nobel Prizes awarded since WWII have gone to people working in North America.
In the two nominally communist superpowers, we have countries which went from being relatively backwards little stumble-bums of history, to world-class superpowers, in the space of a few decade
This doesn't exactly stand up to close scrutiny. The nations that kept on with Communism are back to bankrupt stumblebum status, and the one that is now shooting off rockets has adopted free market principles.
A real tragedy of communism is that it has never been attempted in a country with a genuine democratic tradition.
Take a close look at the Allende regime in Chile. This was a real try at Communism in a country with a real democratic tradition. It turned into an economic disaster ending up a with military coup. Just what any democratic nation needs. Fortunately for Chile's sake they are back to a democracy (and a strong economy) again.
It seems to me that China could buy all the rocket technology it needs to put a man in orbit from the former Soviet Union. Maybe they'll cut a deal for MIR, too.
Don't know about Europe, Japan, etc. but after the Toshiba 3 axis NC flap who knows?
As far as I can tell the concept of 'secret technology' is an oxymoron. A fellow I know by the name of Ari Phillips published a working design for an A-bomb when he was a teenager - based on declassified documents he found in various libraries. Created quite a stir, it did.
Can't put the worms back in the can oh no!
Hey, let's put export controls on strong crypto! That will stop the drug runners, commie pinkos, Democrats, tax cheats, the Michigan Militia, Posse Comitatus and all those heathens terrorists from sending coded transmissions!
Yeah, right.
On the other hand, the fact that an anti-Microsoft company like IBM is already committed to Win2K Pro on the desktop says a lot about how big Win2K Pro is going to be on corporate desktops.
I have no doubt that Win2K is going to be huge on desktops. What other choice is there but Windows? Windows really is a monopoly as far as desktop client OS's is concerned. Exactly what alternatives does IBM have?
if he sticks with Win98 clients instead of going to Win2k Pro, he really ought to have his head examined
If you read the article, you will see that IBM, like many businesses never deployed W98. They are doing their first OS update in 5 or so years.
The interesting comments were that IBM is not deploying W2K servers, that they are not justifying the changeover on a TCO basis (Microsoft keeps blowing that horn in their sales literature), they are not switching all of their desktops over to W2K, and so on. This is very different from the impression that the original poster was trying to make with his "W2K all around" at IBM posting.
Oracle is the real enemy and is causing most ERP vendors to suffer. It's about time the open source community does more to fight the real enemy--Oracle.
PostgreSQL is a very serious open source SQL database project that is making a lot of good progress. Over time it is becoming a very capable product.
If the ERP vendors are suffering due to Oracle, they should put some money into PostgresSQL development.
IBM to role out Win2k Company Wide From the we-are-bigots department
Did you even read the article? Here are some quotes:
Although IBM plans to deploy several copies of Win2K Pro as its standard internal desktop, the company won't place Win2K Pro on every desktop.
IBM will not perform an extensive internal deployment of Win2K Server. According to Sullivan, IBM is primarily using its servers, not PC servers. IBM relies on large, clustered servers, like RISC System 3000s and doesn't plan to do much domain reorganization.
Like a lot of customers, we decided to wait and not get [NT] 4.0,
When IBM was deciding on a desktop OS, the company didn't use total cost of ownership (TCO) extensively as a determining factor.
TCO was not necessarily a major factor for us. To achieve a lot of Win2K Professional's benefits, you need Win2K Server," said Sullivan. Because IBM is not using Win2K Server, it wouldn't see those benefits.
This is actually quite interesting, and not particularly good for Microsoft. IBM is NOT using Win2K server, and many of the benefits(sic) of Win2K Pro are tied to the use of Microsoft's server. So if you decide that the srever is not your cup of tea, it suggests that TCO may not justify upgrading to Win2KPro on your desktop.
If this is the best the Win NT zealots can come up with, well, I am not impressed.
One thing that is good is that the miniseries format is far more suitable for a novel of this scope than is a film. There have been several miniseries based on novels that have worked out very well, the ones that immediately stick in my mind are 'I, Claudius', based on the novels by Robert Graves, and of course the magnificent 'Smiley's People' starring Sir Alec Guiness, based on the John LeCarre novel of the same name.
I know it is a bit much to expect that Dune will be done at the same level (I think that these two miniseries are the best things ever shown on television) - I am especially concerned that three two hour segments is not enough. But it could easily be better than the movie.
By the way, I first read Dune in the original form published in the old large format Analog magazine when I was in my late teens. The Dune illustrations in Analog by John Schoenherr are still by far the best IMHO. Analog of that era was generally awesome, too.
Twit - by even he means not odd. 2/2/2000 is the next day with no odd digits in the date.
Red Hat won't be "forced" by shareholders to switch over to developing proprietary variants of Linux, GNU, etc. for two reasons I can think of:
A third reason is that Redhat has only sold about 10% of the company stock on the open market. The same people who founded RedHat still own the vast majority of RedHat stock.
I was quite startled by this book. I thought prior Gibson novels got a little sloppy in the writing and plot. Lots of great ideas, interesting characters but far too much was crammed into the book detracting from the appreciation of language and individuals. This book is in a completely different style. This is a work of real precision writing - exact use of the language to communicate. In my opinion this was easily the best written book Gibson has done to date, and a finely polished gem. The only other science fiction author I have seen write on this level is Ursula LeGuin. Bravo!
If this is true then I am waiting for Star Trek-like devices: 'portable submillimeter wormhole generator' and 'personal parallel universe transmitter' to appear on the market.
Better not start using these just yet. We wouldn't want Windows 98 to contaminate other universes. Wait 'till AFTER the antitrust thing is done.
First of all, architecturally, there's no basis for this argument. Nothing about the Macintosh makes it better "for graphics". Even from a software perspective, the industry standard editors/composers (like Photoshop and Illustrator) are available on *multiple* platforms. And when it comes to 3D graphics, I'd just as soon have an Irix or NT system.
.ps files that don't choke commercial RIPs. While Photoshop is available on a variety of systems, many of the plug ins and helper applications are Mac only. Colorsync is far more well integrated on the Mac than any other available color matching system. There are Mac specific networking platforms optimized for transporting large graphics files. If you go to a print shop they often charge extra or even refuse to take non-Mac generated files.
Originally the Mac was better suited. Postscript came first on the Mac. Pagemaker and so on too.
Architecturally Altivec IS superior to what is available on other systems for Photoshop applications.
A big problem with these other systems now is simply software maturity. Mac postscript print drivers are far more reliable at generating
While you may like the idea of SGI or NT for one reason or another, they are just not practical for a graphics professional.
If your goal is to write a simple, compiled program without the overhead of a GUI interface, it can be very hard to do on a Mac.
I strongly disagree with your statements; my experience is exactly the opposite.
Every Mac compiler I have ever used has a standard C library that will support a simple terminal style interface. I did a port of unarj to the Mac that consisted in 1). Fixing the bugs in the unarj code some broken Microsoft compiler was passing and 2). Inserting three statements consisting of ifdefs and an include.
If you want a Mac style interface all you need to use is something like TransSkel. Well optimized without the overhead of a GUI builder and the idiotic overhead these impose. Just plug in your code to the appropriate slots and you have a nice combination of speed and visual appeal.
The obvious thing would be a nice iso image for burning as a boot cd. Much more room for rescue utils than on a stupid obsolete useless floppy.
I have a PhD in another engineering field (chemical) from a well-known university, and am getting tired of the lack of opportunities and shrinking R&D organizations in the industry I work in, even though I've been pretty successful overall. I've done a lot of hacking, running small networks and so on, sold some software as shareware etc. but don't have any formal CS coursework to point even though many of my ChE course required some programming. I would like to change fields even though I know for the first few years I would probably take a pay cut. My own field is just rehashing 20-30 year old technologies, and you can see the field drying up. What would /. folks recommend that I do? I've looked at CS curricula, and from what I see it looks like I've got more of the maths, numerical analysis, etc. in my background than any MS CS graduate would have (My PhD minor was in math, which gives me an equivalent to a MS in Math) - what I don't have are the formal software engineering methods. Would certifications help? Or are there crossover training programs that would be useful?
Didn't the Apple II have some software/hardware that could read a text file in the late 70's? Ask Sam or some such? I know the original Mac of 1984 was able to read a text file.
I used to recommend Macs to people with vision imparement in the mid 80's because of their ability to enlarge fonts and do local screen magnification, something that was tough to do under MS-DOS.
Accessability feature are an area that Linux is very weak at.
After a successful IPO on Wednesday where ALG stock released at an initial IPO price of $9 rocketed to a closing price of $357, resulting in a corporate valuation of $76 billion dollars trading was halted after company representatives revealed the following facts:
1). A stock option plan has left the company with outstanding obligations averaging 10 shares per employee, or 7.6x10^15 shares. This means the company debt exceeds the number of electrons in the sidereal universe.
2). Several class action lawsuits have been filed by various organizations. These are:
A) Friends of the Earth has sued based on the large number of lakes eutrophied by blue-green algea in the northeastern parts of the US.
B) The Sierra Club has sued ALG for environmental pollution resulting from release of various and sundry toxins into the environment including a variety of heptaoxins and cytotoxins.
C). Several species of archea have joined a class action suit for misappropriation of native lands and traditional food resources. Prior to the wanton atmospherical conversion by poisonous oxygen as a result of environmentally neglectful use of photosynthesis, archeabacterial were free to live and roam over the entire face of the earth. Now we are confined to small areas such as undersea volcano vents and hot springs. Never in the history of the planet has genocide, species extinction and ethnic cleansing been conducted on such a scale. Compensation claimed is total reconversion of the Earth's atmosphere a methane base.
D). The US EPA has sued the blue-green algae for massive amounts of oil pollution during the Proterozoic Era. The US EPA claims that it is well known that large ancient oil deposits were formed during that period of time, and we anticipate being able to prove that the amounts of oil formed far exceed those formed in more recent geological periods. The common conception that most oil was formed in recent geologic epochs is just a urban myth.
E.) The NAACA (National Association for the Advancement of Colored Algae) has sued for discrimination. A representative stated "the use of the perjorative term 'blue green algae' is not acceptable to members of the cyanobacteria family that are red or pink pigmented. We are tired of being ignored for our contribution to the earth's atmosphere, and being persecuted under names like the 'red tide'. This discrimination must stop, and politically incorrect names like blue-green algae are not to be tolerated!