These days, you need a domain name to get anyone to visit your page at all, then some sort of dynamic/interactive element, and it just costs too much to be supported by advertising. The web went downhill when rainbow dividers and webcams of coffee makers, soda machines, and aquaria got boring, if you ask me.
Now that I'm adjusted to this way of surfing, what happens if all the big websites start going down because they can't afford to pay the bills? What the hell am I going to do at work all day?
WHAT IN THE HELL is 20 year old information good for? IMNSHO, the most interesting work was likely happening while REAGAN was in office, not Jimmy Carter. What did the NSA know about Iran-Contra? What part did King George I play in it before he became president? Inquiring minds (and agencies) want to know...
Pennicillin had a big splash effect -- when it was known that someone was sick, it clearly made them better.
Computer assistance is harder to notice -- with computers, doctors are able to give faster and better diagnoses and catch problems before they are otherwise apparent. To me, that is every bit as revolutionary.
C is less OO (I'll leave the issue of GNOME alone), C++ is more OO, but none of the three could be called "fully" OO.
While I wouldn't use a language like ActionScript for a production application, it's still pretty cool to find anything like it in an application of its nature. It's pretty cool to do the bulk of your work in an external text editor instead of some contrived, dumbed down "builder" interface.
If piracy were a completely black and white issue, I think that software companies would only ask for money out of users that make money with their tools. There are definitely some gray areas, however, so most manufacturers take the public stance that ALL piracy is wrong, then choose to enforce it selectively.
Many companies have ultimately gotten the money from software that I have "stolen" from them. The skills I gained using those tools have been the basis of my career.
I won't go into the subject of OSS because that's a completely different ball of wax... it means different ways of making money which may or may not pan out. As much as we fight the notion, money is STILL important.
Slashdot doesn't link to The Register too often... (six times in 2000, compared with 210 times for CNET, 167 times for ZDNet.com and... 30 times for ZDNET.co.uk). But that's a policy, not an oversight.
Perhaps you have never submitted an article from El Reg -- it takes half the time to have an article linking to them rejected than any other. When they have a scoop, you won't see the story posted on/. until (ZD/C)Net get around to their own article...
(which appears to be in the/. submissions killfile, but that's a different story)
Anyway, The Register (the site that also broke the story) has posted a very good FAQ on the subject:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/2/15718.html (for the goat sex paranoid)
No, but you can be found guilty of a breaking the laws of logic. The link may be here, but you don't want a link, you want the page! The page is there. You can get to it by clicking this, but that seems just a bit too obvious.
Someday, we will get over our fascination with HTML. A link is meant to be a convenience, not some clever way to hide the URL! OTOH, if we hadn't done it that way, we probably would be tricked by links to goat sex quite a bit more often...
Sure, ActionScript isn't the most OO language in the world, but it does handle many of the OO concepts, e.g. encapsulation and inheritance. It is not too difficult to create fairly complex objects, and with XML, it's VERY easy.
SWF is akin to PDF -- it's (generally) a derivative of another format, in this case the Macromedia Flash APPLICATION format (FLA). Like PDF, SWF is pretty much a play/read-only format, band it is difficult to extract data out of it and put it into an editable file.
OT:
I have noticed that the folks on/. have been very hostile lately, and not just the "trolls". If you (and many others) insist on being that way, try not to stick your foot in your mouth -- it will sound much better that way.
Weight is a relative measurement. In orbit, the satellite *weighs* as much as 650L of water in the same orbit -- almost nothing. Both would have the same *mass* of 650 kilos on Earth and in orbit.
Relative to other objects in space, it isn't very big, either. Not that I would disagree that the thing is tiny on a human scale...
IMO, XML is CSV in disguise. We both know that disguises come in all sizes and shapes. Well, that was kind of a reach to say that I know where your nick comes from... it might be slighly more useful, but it's significantly more overbuilt.
The company I work for has been providing computer based instruction for decades, if you count its years as a wing of the once mighty Control Data Corporation. They have been profitable for the better part of its existence, so I don't see them going away too quickly. Presently, we make money in two ways -- content licensing and support contracts.
We have have an extensive library of web based curricula coming online this quarter (some via Flash, some via Citrix). We plan to make money by selling the various content and services on a subscription plan. They keep exact dollar figures hidden from non salespeople, but I can tell you that the cost is fairly high -- then again, it's reasonable compared to the annual cost of teachers, materials, and textbooks. I suspect that we could cover the majority of what the e-school handles, if not more (we DO have decades' worth of content), and if the school did fail, we would pick up some of the pieces.
E-schools are limited. I would be concerned with the breadth and the depth of its content. We have everything from basic science to second year physics, but can only cover two of the 3R's -- reading (vocabulary, skills, etc.) and 'rithmetic (from basic math to calculus) are easy, but writing is a serious PITA. We have licensed some supposed writing IP, but I'm skeptical. Brick and mortar schools aren't going away...
One parser treats entities one way, another handles them differently (if at all). Some of them hate whitespace. The "\n\t" (using escape characters, mind you) in "[application]\n\t[window]" is NOT a text node, I'm sorry. How else is the document supposed to be readable, though? [?xml version="1.0"] is NOT the firstChild of an XML document, either. Have I mentioned how much of a pain in the ass it is to make a DTD?
Before we jump on the XML bandwagon, I think some things need to get cleared up. Those answers may be out there, but they definitely haven't gotten to everyone writing and using the parsers.
(yes, I know about the tags, but I don't want to spend all night writing in HTML, previewing to figure out how/. will mangle it, then fixing it).
I should also add three dirty words to that comment -- marketing, marketing, marketing. Brand recognition is really important, and a cute name always helps. Yahoo! is obvious, and SuSE has a certain ring to it (sort of like a girl's name), too. Red Hat isn't bad, either, but names like Yggdrasil, Caldera, Corel, etc. just don't cut it.
If you don't believe me, my (software) company's year end conference took place last week, and I sat in on the bulk of the presentation. One presentation was the results of some market research we had done, comparing my software company's recognition with target demographics in several categories against four other companies, including a dummy company that had a cute, semidescriptive name. That control company NEVER ranked last in any of the categories of research, including name recognition and quality of product.
I know we all hate them, but the Marketing department really is responsible for whether your next check is from the payroll or the unemployment office...
Kylix is still moving forward -- Corel's merger with Borland, err, Inprise, err Borland never happened, mostly because Corel didn't have the cash. http://www.inprise.com/kylix/
I remember finding an FTP site, digging around in messy directories hoping to find the MP3 I was looking for...
With Napster, I can actually find MP3's of music I actually like and regularly listen to (punk/progressive rock), not the ABBA and 80's pop tunes I'd download and play just to get them out of my head.
It's not about capabilities -- it's about making things accessible to the less tech savvy.
Well, I would have to say yes if you used the house only once a year and had to rebuild it each time. Fortunately, homes last quite a bit longer than holidays.
Excessive as it may be, 16 phone lines have _some_ practical value.
Christmas decoration, OTOH, does nothing for anybody. We need to draw the line on our pandering to children and simpletons at some point.
Christmas lights themselves are wasteful and pollute the night sky. Christmas trees are generally produced in a ecologically sound fashion, but they also cause hundreds of fires, poison pets, and lead to household messes. Nonspontaneous gift giving isn't a particularly sound idea either -- WTF are you supposed to do with all that wasted giftwrap and those unwanted items? In the dumpster they go.
Besides, if I wanted to celebrate a fictitious character's birthday, I wouldn't choose one that was born on one of the darkest days of the year...
Slashdot Mirror
Now that I'm adjusted to this way of surfing, what happens if all the big websites start going down because they can't afford to pay the bills? What the hell am I going to do at work all day?
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Computer assistance is harder to notice -- with computers, doctors are able to give faster and better diagnoses and catch problems before they are otherwise apparent. To me, that is every bit as revolutionary.
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While I wouldn't use a language like ActionScript for a production application, it's still pretty cool to find anything like it in an application of its nature. It's pretty cool to do the bulk of your work in an external text editor instead of some contrived, dumbed down "builder" interface.
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Many companies have ultimately gotten the money from software that I have "stolen" from them. The skills I gained using those tools have been the basis of my career.
I won't go into the subject of OSS because that's a completely different ball of wax... it means different ways of making money which may or may not pan out. As much as we fight the notion, money is STILL important.
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Perhaps you have never submitted an article from El Reg -- it takes half the time to have an article linking to them rejected than any other. When they have a scoop, you won't see the story posted on /. until (ZD/C)Net get around to their own article...
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Anyway, The Register (the site that also broke the story) has posted a very good FAQ on the subject:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/2/15718.html
(for the goat sex paranoid)
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Someday, we will get over our fascination with HTML. A link is meant to be a convenience, not some clever way to hide the URL! OTOH, if we hadn't done it that way, we probably would be tricked by links to goat sex quite a bit more often...
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OT:
I have noticed that the folks on
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Weight is a relative measurement. In orbit, the satellite *weighs* as much as 650L of water in the same orbit -- almost nothing. Both would have the same *mass* of 650 kilos on Earth and in orbit.
Relative to other objects in space, it isn't very big, either. Not that I would disagree that the thing is tiny on a human scale...
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We have have an extensive library of web based curricula coming online this quarter (some via Flash, some via Citrix). We plan to make money by selling the various content and services on a subscription plan. They keep exact dollar figures hidden from non salespeople, but I can tell you that the cost is fairly high -- then again, it's reasonable compared to the annual cost of teachers, materials, and textbooks. I suspect that we could cover the majority of what the e-school handles, if not more (we DO have decades' worth of content), and if the school did fail, we would pick up some of the pieces.
E-schools are limited. I would be concerned with the breadth and the depth of its content. We have everything from basic science to second year physics, but can only cover two of the 3R's -- reading (vocabulary, skills, etc.) and 'rithmetic (from basic math to calculus) are easy, but writing is a serious PITA. We have licensed some supposed writing IP, but I'm skeptical. Brick and mortar schools aren't going away...
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Before we jump on the XML bandwagon, I think some things need to get cleared up. Those answers may be out there, but they definitely haven't gotten to everyone writing and using the parsers.
(yes, I know about the tags, but I don't want to spend all night writing in HTML, previewing to figure out how
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If you don't believe me, my (software) company's year end conference took place last week, and I sat in on the bulk of the presentation. One presentation was the results of some market research we had done, comparing my software company's recognition with target demographics in several categories against four other companies, including a dummy company that had a cute, semidescriptive name. That control company NEVER ranked last in any of the categories of research, including name recognition and quality of product.
I know we all hate them, but the Marketing department really is responsible for whether your next check is from the payroll or the unemployment office...
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This isn't necessarily a Bad Thing© -- I think it is a demonstration of the fact that Linux is a unique market that is neither like traditional UNIX or personal computer (MS, Mac). Like a dot-com, it takes clever management, niche appeal, value added services, and more than a little bit of luck to be successful. AFAIK, Yahoo! is the only dot com turning a profit. If it is about being the first (or close to it), Yggdrasil and Slackware would be king, but it appears that SuSE is the only company that makes money with Linux.
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http://www.inprise.com/kylix/
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With Napster, I can actually find MP3's of music I actually like and regularly listen to (punk/progressive rock), not the ABBA and 80's pop tunes I'd download and play just to get them out of my head.
It's not about capabilities -- it's about making things accessible to the less tech savvy.
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Christmas decoration, OTOH, does nothing for anybody. We need to draw the line on our pandering to children and simpletons at some point.
Christmas lights themselves are wasteful and pollute the night sky. Christmas trees are generally produced in a ecologically sound fashion, but they also cause hundreds of fires, poison pets, and lead to household messes. Nonspontaneous gift giving isn't a particularly sound idea either -- WTF are you supposed to do with all that wasted giftwrap and those unwanted items? In the dumpster they go.
Besides, if I wanted to celebrate a fictitious character's birthday, I wouldn't choose one that was born on one of the darkest days of the year...
(well crafted troll, BTW)
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2. Yes, that was the case in Windows 3.1
3. You can move EVERY OTHER application.
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