Wow! It's worse than I was thinking. In Australia you are force to go to the poles? Why them? Why can't you choose to go to the danes or brits or, I don't know, the taiwanese? What is it about the poles that makes them the people to see?
How do you distinguish this on the internet? It is not clear that they are restricting this rule ONLY to websites that publish something on a site hosted in Australia.
They could claim, under their stupid law, that if I place a website at my USWest account, and Aussies look at it, and it contains a statement in it that Justice John Hedigan is a pedophile and drinks from straws placed up his boy-toy-child-lover's ass, then he can (attempt) to sue me because he viewed the site from his pedophile haven (his house) in Australia.
The internet recognizes no borders. If I post something on my personal server, it is viewable worldwide. Does this mean I published worldwide and should be subject to the various laws across the world where it is viewed?
If the law specifies that a person being sued for defamation must do so on a local Australian-hosting site, then it is more reasonable but this doesn't appear to be the case.
Among Athlons, higher MHz DOES mean faster than lower MHz. Among P4s, higher MHz DOES mean faster than lower MHz. Among PPCs, higher MHz does mean faster than lower MHz. It only becomes more or less meaningless when comparing one design with another. Then you need benchmarks that have meaning for what YOU will be using the system for.
Hyperbole in naming isn't going to do squat for this either. I suppose they should just name them by the year and quarter they were fabricated. Athlon 2001-02, Athlon 2001-04. PRESUMABLY the 04 would be faster than the 02 - smaller process, faster clockrate.
I know! Base it on Spec. Athlon SpecINT500 SpecFP1000! Athlon SpecINT900 SpecFP1200! Or...how about basing the name on the time it takes to render soapbubbles in povray at 1024x768 res. Or base it on how fast it completes a Setiathome packet.
Hmmm, nope the last two would stick you with FP performance under restricted conditions. I know, the framerate in quake II timedemo WITHOUT hardware acceleration. How many FPS it will produce when rendering is entirely up to the CPU at 640x480.
They all suck but they would be better than some dumbass hyperbolic names like
"Athlon Screamer" or "Athlon Ungodlyfast" or the "Athlon SuperSUPERFast".
You can't win this this sort of strategy either. Say they name their next Athlon the "Athlon 2500". Ooooh! Big number, MUST be fast and the spec numbers beat a P4 2gig. Intel simply releases their next chip as the P4-3500 against the next Athlon 3000, with absolutely no connection to the clockrate (which is, say, 2.5 gig).
People see the 3000 number vs the 3500 number. The 3500 MUST be better and faster than the 3000. Buy the P4 -3500 instead of the Athlon-3000. Again, the numbers screw you over.
People see Mandrake 8.0 vs RedHat 7.0 or 7.1 and think that Mandrake MUST be well ahead of RedHat when, in fact, they are roughly equivalent. Would Joe Blow prefer to buy SuSE 6.5 or Mandrake 8.1? Hmmm...8.1 of course, its almost 2 more than SuSE! It's more updated by 2!
I fare better (in theory). I have an IBM Thinkpad with a Celery 333. cat/proc/cpuinfo tells me it is running at 365.818. Something tells me that this isn't really much of an accurate measure. Might get you an idea of the ballpark but not an accurate figure (so dump the 3 significant figures!).
Justice John Hedigan is a pederast. He is also well known for his having sex parties involving goats. He is quite flexible and can suck his own dick. He prefers little boys to men or women.
Here ya go. Justice John Hedigan is an ASSHOLE moron. He sucks donkey dick and licks dog butt. Australians are all wife-beaters, pedophiles, criminals, and idiots.
Hopefully I have just defamed about everyone in Australia in addition to the shitface, turd-lapping Justice John Hedigan. Sue me. C'mon. I want to say "fuck you" loud and clear and then defame you again for good measure.
Re:kiss several hundred thousand goodbye adobe
on
Sklyarov Indicted
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· Score: 1
No, but then are you for banning gnutella? Freenet? LimeWire? ANYTHING like that? They are P2P file sharing apps that can be used for good, productivity purposes. Most use it to trade in music, porn, warez, etc.
The tool is agnostic. The tool doesn't give a rat's ass what you use it for. It has no intention. To practice your FAIR USE you MUST have a tool that will permit you to make copies, etc. Since the content providers do not provide this capability, yet spout off about being for fair use in the same breath, you have to have access to tools that permit you your FAIR USE rights. It doesn't matter that the tool can be used for good or ill.
I don't care for guns. Guns are for pussies who can't use their hands and feet properly (and guns are there to compensate for short dicks) but that is beside the point. You are clearly implying that you are strongly for banning guns. Why? Because though the gun is agnostic and has no inherent intent, it can be used for ill. MOST of the time it is used for illegal activity. We therefore MUST be logically consistent. If the gun CAN be used by its owner/user for ill, no matter that it can be used properly, guns must be banned. Software, ANY software that CAN be used for ill must also be banned, not just copying/duplication software. Ping must be banned, email must be banned (it can be used for spamming, mail-bombing, harrassment, etc).
The law is unconstitutional. The law is stupid because it goes after people regardless of their intent or activities beyond writing PARTICULAR types of code that can allow for fair use (or illegal copying).
Re:kiss several hundred thousand goodbye adobe
on
Sklyarov Indicted
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· Score: 1
Pardon me but the entire law is UNCONSTITUTIONAL! It is a crap law. If you buy a book, it is YOURS to do with what you want. You can read it, pass it on to a friend or MANY friends and they can read it. You can burn the book, xerox pages, remove pages, write on it, whatever.
Fair use essentially means that the publisher CANNOT prevent you from making an archive copy/backup copy(or copies). That is your solid right. They are full of shit because they will talk out one side of their mouth saying "sure, we support this as your fair use rights" while out the other side they call for the banning of the MEANS TO PRACTICE YOUR FAIR USE RIGHTS. You cannot be for archiving/backup copying, which REQUIRES the tool that Sklyarov and Co produced since those shitty e-books don't have the capability built into their software and at the same time supporting the unConstitutional ban on the coders.
You buy the e-book or paperback or hardcover book and you OWN it lock, stock, and barrel. Period.
That's it. I cancelled my order. Fuck em. You get to spend 20 minutes trying to download a mere 150 to 200kbytes of an 8 meg file before the fucking yahoo server drops you and you have to reconnect and try again for another 20 minutes and 150k. Piss off.
Order cancelled. I will gladly wait for the kde equivalent FOR FREE and from a fast server and multiple mirrors.
I bought it and have been struggling to download that bastard for 2 goddamn hours. I have a fat pipe but the yahoo.shit.server upon which the file resides is a PIG! The download makes it about 1 meg or so, then craps out and dies. Select download again and repeat ad infinitum.
I'm THIS close to saying "fuck it!" and "Give me my money back". Get the damn thing OFF YAHOO. THEY SUCK!! THEY'RE SLOW. THEY'RE IDIOTS!
If you wish to sell something for download, put it where IT CAN BE DOWNLOADED! Put it on an proper server so wget can be used (I tried it and it wont work on this goddamn moronic yahoo system). FIX IT OR QUIT SELLING IT FOR DOWNLOAD!
&$$!#!@#$ and the horse you codeweaver clowns rode in on!
Since Apple is going with MacOS X, which is essentially a *BSD, ANYTHING that can be done on a BSD can be done on linux. There is nothing magic about BSD in the form of MacOS X that makes it magically better at professional digital production other than the commercial software sold for that purpose. This isn't the older, TOTALLY propriatory MacOS now, this is unix which is sooooo frickin' close to linux and every other unix that it can no longer claim, in myth or reality, any special place as a particularly good media production platform.
Jobs could very well feel threatened by linux and want to prevent it from getting a foothold in the media development arena (yet - it is inevitable that it will get there) before the new MacOS X systems can fully move in and replace the old MacOS systems. He is merely pulling a Bill Gates here...he just doesn't have as much oomph to do more damage because the Mac is still such a niche player.
Suppose an OEM wants to sell dual boot machines, but is afraid of Microsoft's wrath. What's to stop them from selling a computer with Windows-only pre-installed at time of sale, and offering to install BeOS afterwards for a nominal charge?
The "nominal charge".
Duffus know-nothing already coughed up $1200 for the system. Why spend an extra $50 or $100 (what would likely be the charge rather than the cost of the software) on something you never heard of? Huh? BeOS? What's that? I know nothing and don't WANT to know anything. I just want my AOL or snotmail account."
A preloaded BeOS (or linux, *BSD, etc) ALONGSIDE of Windoze, with NO perceptable added cost or effort to the end-users would work. Curiousity would drive many, if not MOST, to at least try the new/different os on their system.
M$ doesn't own the hardware in any way, shape, or form. They do not dictate hardware specs or capabilities. The hardware doesn't give a crap what it runs so M$ has no place in trying to control this.
Re:How about improving design rather than speed?
on
Pentium IV Hits 2 Ghz
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· Score: 1
When I next buy a laptop, I may seriously consider a Mac - so long as it is running MacOS X. I will then promptly install Yellow Dog Linux on it as well. Nice systems, OS X and Yellow Dog on a long-running PPC laptop.
Desktop? Not bloody likely. I roll my own systems from box, power supply, mobo, CPU, on up. No "one size fits all" solutions for me. Not from a PC vendor, not from Apple.
I wouldn't say that linux people get mean about BeOS because it was the only thing that could challenge it. MacOS X sits in a situation similar to what you state but I don't see linux people being "mean" about it.
I was watching BeOS for a while (actually, since the BeBox) and was close to buying the 5.0 release but then...the bottom dropped out. I'm glad I didn't buy it. I was orphaned by IBM with OS/2, I am in no hurry to be orphaned again. MacOS X wont ever get orphaned. Linux will never be orphaned (it truly can't).
BeOS was impressive with the multimedia stuff I saw on it but it lacked driver support and software. If it could have held out a bit longer, gotten a few more apps, it may have gotten over the energy barrier for a nice chemical reaction but...didn't happen. It was quenched and is fading out.
Too bad too. It was easily about the best multimedia tool I have seen. If it had actually been placed on Dells and Compacs it may have gone somewhere other than the ignoble PDA, fer evolution's sake.
Name ONE innovation that derives from Microsoft. C'mon. Name. One. You cannot because there is literally NO innovation coming from Microsoft. Never did, never will.
ALL the "innovation" in Microsoft products came from others outside Microsoft. They have NEVER come up with something new and innovative. They steal and copy or outright buy the innovations of OTHERS but no such thing actually comes from within Microsoft.
I never used BeOS, I'm a linux guy. I was watching it, waiting for more applications, etc. I did see it in action on an Air Force computer once. Amazing. It could do with graphics what no other computer or os I've ever seen could do (including Macs). It could run, for instance, multiple mov files, each on a different face of a 3d opengl spinning cube, without dropping a frame. It could do multimedia VERY well. It could handle as many cpus as you wanted it to without a bunch of dicking around with hardware settings - and it didn't even need SMP-enabled cpus to do it (recall that the original BeBox was a dual PPC 603 box - 603s were NOT designed for SMP).
Windows doesn't come remotely close the multimedia capabilities of BeOS. MacOS comes close but doesn't/didn't reach it. Linux? Certainly no better at this than windoze. This was something that BeOS was specifically designed to do and do VERY well.
I have been shutting down more lately due to power costs and wanting to do my part to conserve energy. In any case, I am more interested in the laptop end of things. Virtually no one leaves a laptop up and running all the time.
It is a pain-in-the-ass chore to bootup my laptop every day. Wait and wait for the whole bootup process to finish so I can do something with it. I'd say laptops/mobiles would benefit more from an instant-on kind of setup rather than desktop systems. Also, I'd like to dedicate all the battery power to productive work on the laptop, not wasting any juice on bootup and shutdown.
This is basic game theory. It wouldn't work as a trusted service because there IS an incentive for cheating. Cheaters gain while those who play by the rules get screwed over. You CAN'T trust your neighbors.
It doesn't matter if you trust your real, physical neighbors. All it takes are a few roamers - those people from outside your known circle coming in and taking advantage by downloading lots and lots of files. They gain, you and your trusted neigbhors lose. According to game theory, defectors (cheats) will gain BIG amongst a solid group of cooperators.
With the free wireless net deal, same thing. You may well trust those people around you generally but there will be cheats among them (the larger the group served, the more likely this is) and there is always the outsider - someone who cruises around tapping into wireless networks to do what they want, damn the spirit of the system, damn the other users, to hell with you, the guy providing the pipe.
If this sort of 802.11 network stuff gets too extensive, you can bet your ass that the pay system will go from flat fee to per byte. The telcos WILL seek to maintain/increase their profits and minimize their costs. At that point, you as the pipe provider, lose ALL incentive for providing the pipe to the freeloaders. A few "defectors", downloading mp3s, porn movies, etc, screws you over, using up lots and lots of bandwidth at a direct cost to you. Maybe, if the level of defection isn't too high, you can make out OK with a donation system to help cover costs. You take advantage of the few who will be willing to donate some of their money to you for the free service
Overall, I think the whole thing is kinda cool, however. If I ended up in a rather remote location lacking fast internet connectivity, I would definitely consider setting myself up as a local ISP/DSL provider ala the "role your own DSL" article listed yesterday. But I'd drop it faster than a hot turd as soon as the cost to me went from a flat fee to a per byte type of system - if I also was running into a defector problem: a few heavy bandwidth hogs driving my operating cost above what I was willing to give up or able to recoup via donation.
With *nix, you can't just block their MAC. I can change my MAC with a few keystrokes. It really is trivial. I think you'd be better off if you could cut their connection upon detection of undesireable traffic, though how would one do this? Also, wouldn't you, the connection owner be potentially held liable? The way it seems to work right now, SUSPICION or mere complaint of traffic in warez/copyrighted software could get you cut out by your ISP.
Interesting problem, though. Someone downloads kiddie porn using your connection, someone tracks this download to your IP but there is no sign on any of your hardware of this crap because it is actually on some perv's laptop. You STILL get to enjoy having your system confiscated and picked apart while law enforcement tries (and fails) to find the offending crap on your disks.
I suppose you would have to setup a (pain in the ass) proxy through which the freebee users would have to go through.
What I'd like to see is an EPROM to contain a kernel. Any kernel. A generic 8 megabyte EPROM that will hold the linux kernel (or, if you are stupid, a doze kernel) and various modules so that you can very quickly bring up your system instead of waiting for this daemon, that daemon, etc.
Sure, some of this stuff would still have to take place outside the EPROM, delaying powerup-to-input time but it could be minimized by sticking as much as the user wants (and can fit) into the EPROM. It should be generic so that it can hold doze, linux, sunos, freebsd, whatever you want as your primary os.
My system remains much the same from boot to boot so I wouldn't need to constantly reprogram the EPROM to fit with my latest change. There could be a simple utility like a BIOS upgrader app to handle the EPROM programming. Make it so that it isn't absolutely required so that if something goes wrong with the EPROM you can still boot off you harddrive - which you would need anyway if you use a bootloader and want to bootup another os periodically.
What is it that prevents this sort of thing? Design mobos with a new chipslot for the kernel EPROM and design the chip to contain enough mem to hold any one of the os kernels that are generally used (or likely to be used). If there is a lot of leftover space, perhaps you could fit another kernel and supporting modules into it until it is full allowing for a very fast dual boot setup.
Oooo-ahhh! 2 gig clockrate! A billion watts power consumption! How about improving design so that power consumption goes down significantly rather than just the minor power use reductions we've seen that only PARTIALLY offset the increase in consumption due to higher clockrate?
I used to run my computer 24/7 but with higher power costs and the evils that go with higher power consumption (pollution), I now shutdown my system for about half the week. If power consumption/energy efficiency were more a target rather than clockrate, laptop batteries would last longer, power consumption and heat production would be lessened.
I'd like to see a headline from Intel (and AMD for that matter) stating "10 Watt power consumption reduction in 1 gig chip!".
Go for it. LGPL is cool - and would make it more likely - sooner - for commercial drivers to become available for AtheOS. As time passed, open driver ports from linux/bsd could come up to start filling out those available.
Nifty-looking gui...I guess I'll personally wait for cdrom support and more video support before I play with it (I have an ATI Radeon so would be stuck with vesa 2.0). It is certainly something to keep my eye on.
Slashdot Mirror
Wow! It's worse than I was thinking. In Australia you are force to go to the poles? Why them? Why can't you choose to go to the danes or brits or, I don't know, the taiwanese? What is it about the poles that makes them the people to see?
Hey! Just thought I'd help you out, end your endless search.
I am the Übermensch.
How do you distinguish this on the internet? It is not clear that they are restricting this rule ONLY to websites that publish something on a site hosted in Australia.
They could claim, under their stupid law, that if I place a website at my USWest account, and Aussies look at it, and it contains a statement in it that Justice John Hedigan is a pedophile and drinks from straws placed up his boy-toy-child-lover's ass, then he can (attempt) to sue me because he viewed the site from his pedophile haven (his house) in Australia.
The internet recognizes no borders. If I post something on my personal server, it is viewable worldwide. Does this mean I published worldwide and should be subject to the various laws across the world where it is viewed?
If the law specifies that a person being sued for defamation must do so on a local Australian-hosting site, then it is more reasonable but this doesn't appear to be the case.
Among Athlons, higher MHz DOES mean faster than lower MHz. Among P4s, higher MHz DOES mean faster than lower MHz. Among PPCs, higher MHz does mean faster than lower MHz. It only becomes more or less meaningless when comparing one design with another. Then you need benchmarks that have meaning for what YOU will be using the system for.
Hyperbole in naming isn't going to do squat for this either. I suppose they should just name them by the year and quarter they were fabricated. Athlon 2001-02, Athlon 2001-04. PRESUMABLY the 04 would be faster than the 02 - smaller process, faster clockrate.
I know! Base it on Spec. Athlon SpecINT500 SpecFP1000! Athlon SpecINT900 SpecFP1200! Or...how about basing the name on the time it takes to render soapbubbles in povray at 1024x768 res. Or base it on how fast it completes a Setiathome packet.
Hmmm, nope the last two would stick you with FP performance under restricted conditions. I know, the framerate in quake II timedemo WITHOUT hardware acceleration. How many FPS it will produce when rendering is entirely up to the CPU at 640x480.
They all suck but they would be better than some dumbass hyperbolic names like
"Athlon Screamer" or "Athlon Ungodlyfast" or the "Athlon SuperSUPERFast".
You can't win this this sort of strategy either. Say they name their next Athlon the "Athlon 2500". Ooooh! Big number, MUST be fast and the spec numbers beat a P4 2gig. Intel simply releases their next chip as the P4-3500 against the next Athlon 3000, with absolutely no connection to the clockrate (which is, say, 2.5 gig).
People see the 3000 number vs the 3500 number. The 3500 MUST be better and faster than the 3000. Buy the P4 -3500 instead of the Athlon-3000. Again, the numbers screw you over.
People see Mandrake 8.0 vs RedHat 7.0 or 7.1 and think that Mandrake MUST be well ahead of RedHat when, in fact, they are roughly equivalent. Would Joe Blow prefer to buy SuSE 6.5 or Mandrake 8.1? Hmmm...8.1 of course, its almost 2 more than SuSE! It's more updated by 2!
Garbage, of course.
I fare better (in theory). I have an IBM Thinkpad with a Celery 333. cat /proc/cpuinfo tells me it is running at 365.818. Something tells me that this isn't really much of an accurate measure. Might get you an idea of the ballpark but not an accurate figure (so dump the 3 significant figures!).
Justice John Hedigan is a pederast. He is also well known for his having sex parties involving goats. He is quite flexible and can suck his own dick. He prefers little boys to men or women.
So...sue me.
Here ya go. Justice John Hedigan is an ASSHOLE moron. He sucks donkey dick and licks dog butt. Australians are all wife-beaters, pedophiles, criminals, and idiots.
Hopefully I have just defamed about everyone in Australia in addition to the shitface, turd-lapping Justice John Hedigan. Sue me. C'mon. I want to say "fuck you" loud and clear and then defame you again for good measure.
No, but then are you for banning gnutella? Freenet? LimeWire? ANYTHING like that? They are P2P file sharing apps that can be used for good, productivity purposes. Most use it to trade in music, porn, warez, etc.
The tool is agnostic. The tool doesn't give a rat's ass what you use it for. It has no intention. To practice your FAIR USE you MUST have a tool that will permit you to make copies, etc. Since the content providers do not provide this capability, yet spout off about being for fair use in the same breath, you have to have access to tools that permit you your FAIR USE rights. It doesn't matter that the tool can be used for good or ill.
I don't care for guns. Guns are for pussies who can't use their hands and feet properly (and guns are there to compensate for short dicks) but that is beside the point. You are clearly implying that you are strongly for banning guns. Why? Because though the gun is agnostic and has no inherent intent, it can be used for ill. MOST of the time it is used for illegal activity. We therefore MUST be logically consistent. If the gun CAN be used by its owner/user for ill, no matter that it can be used properly, guns must be banned. Software, ANY software that CAN be used for ill must also be banned, not just copying/duplication software. Ping must be banned, email must be banned (it can be used for spamming, mail-bombing, harrassment, etc).
The law is unconstitutional. The law is stupid because it goes after people regardless of their intent or activities beyond writing PARTICULAR types of code that can allow for fair use (or illegal copying).
Pardon me but the entire law is UNCONSTITUTIONAL! It is a crap law. If you buy a book, it is YOURS to do with what you want. You can read it, pass it on to a friend or MANY friends and they can read it. You can burn the book, xerox pages, remove pages, write on it, whatever.
Fair use essentially means that the publisher CANNOT prevent you from making an archive copy/backup copy(or copies). That is your solid right. They are full of shit because they will talk out one side of their mouth saying "sure, we support this as your fair use rights" while out the other side they call for the banning of the MEANS TO PRACTICE YOUR FAIR USE RIGHTS. You cannot be for archiving/backup copying, which REQUIRES the tool that Sklyarov and Co produced since those shitty e-books don't have the capability built into their software and at the same time supporting the unConstitutional ban on the coders.
You buy the e-book or paperback or hardcover book and you OWN it lock, stock, and barrel. Period.
That's it. I cancelled my order. Fuck em. You get to spend 20 minutes trying to download a mere 150 to 200kbytes of an 8 meg file before the fucking yahoo server drops you and you have to reconnect and try again for another 20 minutes and 150k. Piss off.
Order cancelled. I will gladly wait for the kde equivalent FOR FREE and from a fast server and multiple mirrors.
I bought it and have been struggling to download that bastard for 2 goddamn hours. I have a fat pipe but the yahoo.shit.server upon which the file resides is a PIG! The download makes it about 1 meg or so, then craps out and dies. Select download again and repeat ad infinitum.
I'm THIS close to saying "fuck it!" and "Give me my money back". Get the damn thing OFF YAHOO. THEY SUCK!! THEY'RE SLOW. THEY'RE IDIOTS!
If you wish to sell something for download, put it where IT CAN BE DOWNLOADED! Put it on an proper server so wget can be used (I tried it and it wont work on this goddamn moronic yahoo system). FIX IT OR QUIT SELLING IT FOR DOWNLOAD!
&$$!#!@#$ and the horse you codeweaver clowns rode in on!
Since Apple is going with MacOS X, which is essentially a *BSD, ANYTHING that can be done on a BSD can be done on linux. There is nothing magic about BSD in the form of MacOS X that makes it magically better at professional digital production other than the commercial software sold for that purpose. This isn't the older, TOTALLY propriatory MacOS now, this is unix which is sooooo frickin' close to linux and every other unix that it can no longer claim, in myth or reality, any special place as a particularly good media production platform.
Jobs could very well feel threatened by linux and want to prevent it from getting a foothold in the media development arena (yet - it is inevitable that it will get there) before the new MacOS X systems can fully move in and replace the old MacOS systems. He is merely pulling a Bill Gates here...he just doesn't have as much oomph to do more damage because the Mac is still such a niche player.
Suppose an OEM wants to sell dual boot machines, but is afraid of Microsoft's wrath. What's to stop them from selling a computer with Windows-only pre-installed at time of sale, and offering to install BeOS afterwards for a nominal charge?
The "nominal charge".
Duffus know-nothing already coughed up $1200 for the system. Why spend an extra $50 or $100 (what would likely be the charge rather than the cost of the software) on something you never heard of? Huh? BeOS? What's that? I know nothing and don't WANT to know anything. I just want my AOL or snotmail account."
A preloaded BeOS (or linux, *BSD, etc) ALONGSIDE of Windoze, with NO perceptable added cost or effort to the end-users would work. Curiousity would drive many, if not MOST, to at least try the new/different os on their system.
M$ doesn't own the hardware in any way, shape, or form. They do not dictate hardware specs or capabilities. The hardware doesn't give a crap what it runs so M$ has no place in trying to control this.
When I next buy a laptop, I may seriously consider a Mac - so long as it is running MacOS X. I will then promptly install Yellow Dog Linux on it as well. Nice systems, OS X and Yellow Dog on a long-running PPC laptop.
Desktop? Not bloody likely. I roll my own systems from box, power supply, mobo, CPU, on up. No "one size fits all" solutions for me. Not from a PC vendor, not from Apple.
I wouldn't say that linux people get mean about BeOS because it was the only thing that could challenge it. MacOS X sits in a situation similar to what you state but I don't see linux people being "mean" about it.
I was watching BeOS for a while (actually, since the BeBox) and was close to buying the 5.0 release but then...the bottom dropped out. I'm glad I didn't buy it. I was orphaned by IBM with OS/2, I am in no hurry to be orphaned again. MacOS X wont ever get orphaned. Linux will never be orphaned (it truly can't).
BeOS was impressive with the multimedia stuff I saw on it but it lacked driver support and software. If it could have held out a bit longer, gotten a few more apps, it may have gotten over the energy barrier for a nice chemical reaction but...didn't happen. It was quenched and is fading out.
Too bad too. It was easily about the best multimedia tool I have seen. If it had actually been placed on Dells and Compacs it may have gone somewhere other than the ignoble PDA, fer evolution's sake.
PDAs? I'll NEVER own a frickin PDA.
Name ONE innovation that derives from Microsoft. C'mon. Name. One. You cannot because there is literally NO innovation coming from Microsoft. Never did, never will.
ALL the "innovation" in Microsoft products came from others outside Microsoft. They have NEVER come up with something new and innovative. They steal and copy or outright buy the innovations of OTHERS but no such thing actually comes from within Microsoft.
I never used BeOS, I'm a linux guy. I was watching it, waiting for more applications, etc. I did see it in action on an Air Force computer once. Amazing. It could do with graphics what no other computer or os I've ever seen could do (including Macs). It could run, for instance, multiple mov files, each on a different face of a 3d opengl spinning cube, without dropping a frame. It could do multimedia VERY well. It could handle as many cpus as you wanted it to without a bunch of dicking around with hardware settings - and it didn't even need SMP-enabled cpus to do it (recall that the original BeBox was a dual PPC 603 box - 603s were NOT designed for SMP).
Windows doesn't come remotely close the multimedia capabilities of BeOS. MacOS comes close but doesn't/didn't reach it. Linux? Certainly no better at this than windoze. This was something that BeOS was specifically designed to do and do VERY well.
I have been shutting down more lately due to power costs and wanting to do my part to conserve energy. In any case, I am more interested in the laptop end of things. Virtually no one leaves a laptop up and running all the time.
It is a pain-in-the-ass chore to bootup my laptop every day. Wait and wait for the whole bootup process to finish so I can do something with it. I'd say laptops/mobiles would benefit more from an instant-on kind of setup rather than desktop systems. Also, I'd like to dedicate all the battery power to productive work on the laptop, not wasting any juice on bootup and shutdown.
This is basic game theory. It wouldn't work as a trusted service because there IS an incentive for cheating. Cheaters gain while those who play by the rules get screwed over. You CAN'T trust your neighbors.
It doesn't matter if you trust your real, physical neighbors. All it takes are a few roamers - those people from outside your known circle coming in and taking advantage by downloading lots and lots of files. They gain, you and your trusted neigbhors lose. According to game theory, defectors (cheats) will gain BIG amongst a solid group of cooperators.
With the free wireless net deal, same thing. You may well trust those people around you generally but there will be cheats among them (the larger the group served, the more likely this is) and there is always the outsider - someone who cruises around tapping into wireless networks to do what they want, damn the spirit of the system, damn the other users, to hell with you, the guy providing the pipe.
If this sort of 802.11 network stuff gets too extensive, you can bet your ass that the pay system will go from flat fee to per byte. The telcos WILL seek to maintain/increase their profits and minimize their costs. At that point, you as the pipe provider, lose ALL incentive for providing the pipe to the freeloaders. A few "defectors", downloading mp3s, porn movies, etc, screws you over, using up lots and lots of bandwidth at a direct cost to you. Maybe, if the level of defection isn't too high, you can make out OK with a donation system to help cover costs. You take advantage of the few who will be willing to donate some of their money to you for the free service
Overall, I think the whole thing is kinda cool, however. If I ended up in a rather remote location lacking fast internet connectivity, I would definitely consider setting myself up as a local ISP/DSL provider ala the "role your own DSL" article listed yesterday. But I'd drop it faster than a hot turd as soon as the cost to me went from a flat fee to a per byte type of system - if I also was running into a defector problem: a few heavy bandwidth hogs driving my operating cost above what I was willing to give up or able to recoup via donation.
With *nix, you can't just block their MAC. I can change my MAC with a few keystrokes. It really is trivial. I think you'd be better off if you could cut their connection upon detection of undesireable traffic, though how would one do this? Also, wouldn't you, the connection owner be potentially held liable? The way it seems to work right now, SUSPICION or mere complaint of traffic in warez/copyrighted software could get you cut out by your ISP.
Interesting problem, though. Someone downloads kiddie porn using your connection, someone tracks this download to your IP but there is no sign on any of your hardware of this crap because it is actually on some perv's laptop. You STILL get to enjoy having your system confiscated and picked apart while law enforcement tries (and fails) to find the offending crap on your disks.
I suppose you would have to setup a (pain in the ass) proxy through which the freebee users would have to go through.
What I'd like to see is an EPROM to contain a kernel. Any kernel. A generic 8 megabyte EPROM that will hold the linux kernel (or, if you are stupid, a doze kernel) and various modules so that you can very quickly bring up your system instead of waiting for this daemon, that daemon, etc.
Sure, some of this stuff would still have to take place outside the EPROM, delaying powerup-to-input time but it could be minimized by sticking as much as the user wants (and can fit) into the EPROM. It should be generic so that it can hold doze, linux, sunos, freebsd, whatever you want as your primary os.
My system remains much the same from boot to boot so I wouldn't need to constantly reprogram the EPROM to fit with my latest change. There could be a simple utility like a BIOS upgrader app to handle the EPROM programming. Make it so that it isn't absolutely required so that if something goes wrong with the EPROM you can still boot off you harddrive - which you would need anyway if you use a bootloader and want to bootup another os periodically.
What is it that prevents this sort of thing? Design mobos with a new chipslot for the kernel EPROM and design the chip to contain enough mem to hold any one of the os kernels that are generally used (or likely to be used). If there is a lot of leftover space, perhaps you could fit another kernel and supporting modules into it until it is full allowing for a very fast dual boot setup.
Oooo-ahhh! 2 gig clockrate! A billion watts power consumption! How about improving design so that power consumption goes down significantly rather than just the minor power use reductions we've seen that only PARTIALLY offset the increase in consumption due to higher clockrate?
I used to run my computer 24/7 but with higher power costs and the evils that go with higher power consumption (pollution), I now shutdown my system for about half the week. If power consumption/energy efficiency were more a target rather than clockrate, laptop batteries would last longer, power consumption and heat production would be lessened.
I'd like to see a headline from Intel (and AMD for that matter) stating "10 Watt power consumption reduction in 1 gig chip!".
Go for it. LGPL is cool - and would make it more likely - sooner - for commercial drivers to become available for AtheOS. As time passed, open driver ports from linux/bsd could come up to start filling out those available.
Nifty-looking gui...I guess I'll personally wait for cdrom support and more video support before I play with it (I have an ATI Radeon so would be stuck with vesa 2.0). It is certainly something to keep my eye on.