IP lawyers... worry that Intellectual Ventures is less interested in changing the world with big ideas, and more focused on becoming an über patent troll
90% of IP lawyers are patent trolls. They just don't like being out-trolled.
I heard for years that 24-bit color was "better than the human eye could discern"
It is. Just about.
yet 32-bit color video cards are commonplace nowadays.
32bit colour is just 24bit colour with an 8bit alpha channel. Not visible. Only useful to software internally. Saying you have a screen in a 32bit mode is meaningless.
What about 48 bit? 64 bit? 128 bit?
Already here and being used. In fact sometimes formats are used where it's 32bit per channel per pixel. Or even 64bit. Sometimes even 128bit. Where is it used? The creative industry. When you're actually manipulating and adjusting colours, 8bit per channel per pixel becomes inadequate very quickly. But for consumers (people just viewing things) it's more or less fine.
I hear what you're saying, but it's likely that this fun project that you choose to work on will be the most used piece of code you ever write in your career.
Install a bunch of those kensington keylock cables. Maybe keep the spare keys behind the counter. The owner keeps the key in their pocket - only the owner can unlock & walk away with the laptop.
enabling the next generation of web-enabled applications running on a low-cost, open source platform.
Unless it's running on gcj, kaffe, sablevm or the likes, then it's not really an open source platform, is it? And potentially not low-cost in the future.
They really should work out a system like Apple is using, where the first user account is automatically in the wheel group and can sudo, but is otherwise a normal user account, with the root account disabled entirely.
Root account disabled entirely??? It must be secure!
Ever realised that it just means there's one fewer password to crack to get root access? And people are likely to use weaker passwords for just a 'user' account.
"Hey! I need to use a webbrowser! How do I get into this machine?"
"Oh, the password's......"
Bam. They've got full access.
First thing I do on an ubuntu system is rip the sudo system out.
Heck, if it gets trashed, I'll use the opportunity to upgrade my OS.
You're making a big assumption that you'll be able to tell when your OS gets trashed.
Fancy being a drone for a script kiddie for the next two years? And that script kiddie having access to all you do on that machine for that time? Want to be a spam relay? Want to be a kiddy porn proxy?
While that's true, the net effect of the GPL is to drive the cost of software down to zero.
Rubbish. It drives the cost of software down to its value. Like everything should be in a free market. i.e. not using tricks like vendor lockin to artificially reduce developer efficiency, inflate prices and encourace incumbancy.
I warn you that if you use autopackage, you will sooner or later run into severe dependency problems and probably hose your system. Or at least create an unmaintainable system. Use the supplied package management system ( apt / ubuntu updater ), not one that just ignores the complexities of package management.
I feel very sorry for novice users who get lured in by the premise and familiarity of autopackage and other installshield-like programs and end up having to reinstall.
...even though I no longer work at Microsoft, I don't want them to know who I am or where I work now...
...I wish Apple would start making cell phones. The UI would be the best; if they sold them, I'd buy one right now......they don't have anything that competes with an Apple product that is as good as the Apple product. I'm sure an Apple cell phone would be that way, too.
OS X was designed to make the best operating system possible for users.
Heh. Bullshit. Apple Computer Inc. are a company*. Companies exist solely to expand and create profit for their shareholders and employees. If you believe anything else, you're suffering a nasty bout of fanboy syndrome.
*And at that a company who lock down their platform to only run on mandated machines.
The problems lie in GNOME and KDE using far too much memory
I'm curious as to what you're basing this on. The most obvious methods of measuring apps' 'memory usage' on linux are completely wrong and give a very false figure, because they account for memory which is shared by several processes. The gtk+ libs for instance will get counted many times on a gnome system, when they're all (mostly) using the same area of memory.
Even the amount of 'free' memory on a linux system is misleading, because linux doesn't like to see memory being wasted and hence fills 'free' memory with disk buffers.
So how are they using 'way too much' memory? Are you getting oomkiller problems? Is your machine going into swap after loading minesweeper?
I use Windows XP in my HP Pavillion ZV5000 with 1024 MB of ram and I runs really good, including the Ati 9100 igp the Wifi and the modem. Oh! and the buttons to increase or decrease the volume......I have not been able to make all those things work with ANY Linux installation out of the box.
How long did you have to spend getting all the drivers for the hardware in your windows machine? And how many reboots did you have to go through?
So it looks like windows didn't work out of the box either.
Why do my posts get modded down when I quote a conservative in my sig? Liberal bias? On Slashdot? Nah!
Because they think the quote is retarded?
Because on/. you're speaking to the whole world*, which on the whole finds the U.S.'s concepts of 'liberal' and 'conservative' absolutely hilarious. A 'liberal' U.S. politician would be considered very conservative in most other political systems?
We're not talking about filesystems. If we were I can remember choosing my ext2 block size anything between 1k and 4k about six years ago. Apple is easily predated here.
Lossy encoding is always a compromise. It's completely qualitative. By improving one area you will usually degrade other areas. The art is choosing where the optimum point in the compromise lies.
That's not the case with the ACID test. It's all based around adhering to a published standard. Any pages which break because of changes made to pass ACID are broken because they are invalid HTML/CSS. Alternatively it's due to coding errors made by the programmers when trying to fix the problems.
Yes. Proper package management is one of the most complex things in modern software if done wrong. Never compound it all by making a package cocktail.
Besides, it's not the package format that makes compatibility. That's trivial. It's the underlying tree of software, where everything is put and how that is difficult. By advocating a single, compatible 'format', what you're actually advocating is a single distribution. Which would be stupid and unworkable for reasons I won't go into here.
So there you go kids - never stray from your vendor's repository unless you really really need to. And then only if you know what you're doing.
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The MIPS is just an ISA. The implementation of it could be great, it could suck.
Just as both the athlon and the P4 both speak the x86 ISA, but show very different performances clock for clock.
Have you looked at phpip or ipspace yet?
90% of IP lawyers are patent trolls. They just don't like being out-trolled.
It is. Just about.
32bit colour is just 24bit colour with an 8bit alpha channel. Not visible. Only useful to software internally. Saying you have a screen in a 32bit mode is meaningless.
Already here and being used. In fact sometimes formats are used where it's 32bit per channel per pixel. Or even 64bit. Sometimes even 128bit. Where is it used? The creative industry. When you're actually manipulating and adjusting colours, 8bit per channel per pixel becomes inadequate very quickly. But for consumers (people just viewing things) it's more or less fine.
Same stuff you find down at the flea market.
Not for me, buddy.
Maybe wanting them to stay in one piece rather than wanting to show off at starbucks?
You've just described Nomachine NX.
http://www.nomachine.com/
I hear what you're saying, but it's likely that this fun project that you choose to work on will be the most used piece of code you ever write in your career.
But look out, it's even more proprietary and has far more lock-in potential.
Install a bunch of those kensington keylock cables. Maybe keep the spare keys behind the counter. The owner keeps the key in their pocket - only the owner can unlock & walk away with the laptop.
Wow. Advanced.
Have been doing this with a shell script for years.
Unless it's running on gcj, kaffe, sablevm or the likes, then it's not really an open source platform, is it? And potentially not low-cost in the future.
Root account disabled entirely??? It must be secure!
Ever realised that it just means there's one fewer password to crack to get root access? And people are likely to use weaker passwords for just a 'user' account.
"Hey! I need to use a webbrowser! How do I get into this machine?"
"Oh, the password's
Bam. They've got full access.
First thing I do on an ubuntu system is rip the sudo system out.
You're making a big assumption that you'll be able to tell when your OS gets trashed.
Fancy being a drone for a script kiddie for the next two years? And that script kiddie having access to all you do on that machine for that time? Want to be a spam relay? Want to be a kiddy porn proxy?
Rubbish. It drives the cost of software down to its value. Like everything should be in a free market. i.e. not using tricks like vendor lockin to artificially reduce developer efficiency, inflate prices and encourace incumbancy.
I warn you that if you use autopackage, you will sooner or later run into severe dependency problems and probably hose your system. Or at least create an unmaintainable system. Use the supplied package management system ( apt / ubuntu updater ), not one that just ignores the complexities of package management.
I feel very sorry for novice users who get lured in by the premise and familiarity of autopackage and other installshield-like programs and end up having to reinstall.
Do you work for Apple by any chance?
Heh. Bullshit. Apple Computer Inc. are a company*. Companies exist solely to expand and create profit for their shareholders and employees. If you believe anything else, you're suffering a nasty bout of fanboy syndrome.
*And at that a company who lock down their platform to only run on mandated machines.
I'm curious as to what you're basing this on. The most obvious methods of measuring apps' 'memory usage' on linux are completely wrong and give a very false figure, because they account for memory which is shared by several processes. The gtk+ libs for instance will get counted many times on a gnome system, when they're all (mostly) using the same area of memory.
Even the amount of 'free' memory on a linux system is misleading, because linux doesn't like to see memory being wasted and hence fills 'free' memory with disk buffers.
So how are they using 'way too much' memory? Are you getting oomkiller problems? Is your machine going into swap after loading minesweeper?
How long did you have to spend getting all the drivers for the hardware in your windows machine? And how many reboots did you have to go through?
So it looks like windows didn't work out of the box either.
Lack of a single vision is FOSS's greatest asset.
'Consistant' visions are inflexible, usually shortsighted, and subject to blinkered egos (which is often the death of a project).
Because they think the quote is retarded?
Because on
Conservative bias? In the U.S.? Nah!
* Not just your little insular paranoia-fest.
We're not talking about filesystems. If we were I can remember choosing my ext2 block size anything between 1k and 4k about six years ago. Apple is easily predated here.
That's not really a comparabale situation.
Lossy encoding is always a compromise. It's completely qualitative. By improving one area you will usually degrade other areas. The art is choosing where the optimum point in the compromise lies.
That's not the case with the ACID test. It's all based around adhering to a published standard. Any pages which break because of changes made to pass ACID are broken because they are invalid HTML/CSS. Alternatively it's due to coding errors made by the programmers when trying to fix the problems.
Yes. Proper package management is one of the most complex things in modern software if done wrong. Never compound it all by making a package cocktail.
Besides, it's not the package format that makes compatibility. That's trivial. It's the underlying tree of software, where everything is put and how that is difficult. By advocating a single, compatible 'format', what you're actually advocating is a single distribution. Which would be stupid and unworkable for reasons I won't go into here.
So there you go kids - never stray from your vendor's repository unless you really really need to. And then only if you know what you're doing.