The analogy to the Hulk is flawed. The Hulk is not scifi... it is comic book fantasy. It may have some aspects of scifi, but the primary genre is comic book. Hell, I wish that there was a new genre, sci-fantasy, to encompass things like Star Trek, too (Geordions), so that we could more easily define fluffiness like ST compared to more serious SciFi like most of the good books out there. The "Science Fiction" genre is just too broadly defined to be of use anymore.
Hell, I've got 20GB just of Ogg Vorbis files ripped from just 1/2 of my CDs. I'll fill 40GB with music before I get done. And I know that ripping music is not some geek-only process.
Add to that 10 or so GB of source materials for graphics and presentations, 5 or so GB of presentations and 5GB or so for a full install of 2 modern OSes and I've eaten up 60GB without trying hard.
And without pr0n for that matter:)
Modern backup solutions just do not cover that for a reasonable cost for home or SMB users.
So I installed this latest alpha on a RH9 box. Got "gtkhack" working and fixed the (null) font issue. When "gtkhack" loads I get the radar and can play, but my dungeon is not graphical. In other words I get the GTK app (broken numlock keys and all) but I see myself as an "@" sign and not graphically.
Well, first off you could randomize it so the newbie gets the article -first- 1/4 of the time. Secondly, how would the newbie even know about it unless someone walked by and said "seen that/. article?" and then it is an opp to socialize by saying "no, show me".
Given the sharp decline, this highlights another way that/. could help alleviate/.ing of sites: stagger the time that a certain client gets informed of a new article.
1) RSS feeds would get the update -last- or in some form of randomness.
2) Anonymous (no cookie) clients get the same treatment
3) People logged in get the article sooner but are also stretched out. An example:
a) If your UID is in the 25% of the oldest active users you get the article as soon as it is published (after going out to subscribers, who always get it first, another very mild reason to subscribe especially if you like to FP)
b) If your UID is in the 26-50% of the oldest active users you get the article 30 minutes after it is published.
c) If your UID is in the 51%-75% you get it 1 hour after it is published
d) If your UID is in the last block you get it 90 minutes after publishing.
e) If you are pulling from RSS or anonymously you get it 120 minutes after publishing.
This also gives a little treat to the folks who have been around the longest while not removing the benfit of subscribing.
Another example could work like the above but randomly change which order each block of UIDs will get the article (with RSS and Anon getting it last) if you wanted to not show preferrence to older users.
Increments could be adjusted... 2 hours for full distribution is going to be friendlier to the/.ed sites, but 1 hour total would probably still be effective.
The only people this would affect negatively are FPers, SPAMboarders and people who have a cow-orker walk by and go "hey d00d, seen that new article yet?". No one else would probably even be aware of it unless they find it from another site that found it on/.
This is great news... except... damn I hated Avon (not hated as in "boy that Avon guy is bad" but hated as in "Dang I can't stand Paul Darrow's acting").
And as you mention, there is a choice to use AOL. If your parents aren't getting your messages, call them and tell them to switch. If they want to get your messages more than they want the ease of AOL, they'll switch.
As far as I can see, nothing is stopping an AOL user from making use of one of the many webmail services. If none of the webmail services will pass messages from you, makes me wonder why.
Besides, you have choice, too. If everyone is filtering your messages then you can look into using a different place to send your mail from.
I don't know if you've ever had an AOL account (I got stuck with one for work for a long time) but the signal-to-noise there is so bad I'm amazed anyone can use it for email anymore. I would get 100 messages that were SPAM for every 1 that was useful.
If you want to receive the junk, don't use one of those services, but I fail to see how someone else choosing -to- is a problem.
Your analogy is flawed. I have a choice to use AOL|Hotmail|MSN|spamassasin|etc and I pay for the connection to download, view, respond and delete my email (not to mention the time it takes out of my day). I don't have a choice whether or not to use the USPO and it takes FAR less of my time to sort out my real mail than it does email.
If SPAM could somehow be filtered out at the router level, then I would agree with your USPO analogy and would be throwing an utter FIT. But it isn't possible (is that a web page or a webmail, is that IMAP, is that secure IMAP, is that POP3, is that email tunnelled over SSH... no way).
Until there is legislation with -teeth- and a way for the little guy to prosecute you are not going to see many people agree with you about server side filtering.
There is very little chance of that based on the way they are using the sticks. No drilling or cutting means the pole remains very stable. Sure, if you use it for extreme biking you're going to have problems, but otherwise it should remain quite solid.
Add to that the possibility of very simple reinforcement by wrapping it at key points with a strong thread and/or laminating it with reinforcements and I doubt it would break under normal usage.
Even if it did, you would see signs of wear before it happened. What causes catastrophic failure of bamboo is usually force being applied on bamboo that has been cut into the grain and/or had holes cut into it.
Of course, that doesn't stop it from being fugly... I would definitely be getting out some paint!
Personally speaking, and I've been telecommuting for 4 years in various jobs now, telecommuting is -more- expensive. Seriously... I pay extra to heat/cool my house (especially with all the extra computing running), I have to be my own janitor and repair person (which is hitting me hard right now since I have a roof leak that threatens my desk area that I might otherwise have just done a quick patch over if this were still a rec/wreck room), I am my own little sysadmin now (often including paying for my own upgrades).
True, my employer pays for a decent network connection and a spare phone, but often times they pay for those items for non-telecommuters as long as they occasionally work from home.
Are there advantages? Yep. Do I want to have to drive into the office regularly? Nope. But am I willing to get paid less when I end up paying more out of pocket? Nope.
Most employers are into it -purely- to save money, both for the items I mentioned above as well as building leasing. Plus I think it makes it easier for them to lay folks off when they have to.
It is a good trade off, but it is already enough of one that I don't think telecommuters should be expected to take less money unless the employer gives significant benefits in return.
I still don't see roaming. There needs to be a final monolithic version (ie, not Firebird/Thunderbird) that supports roaming. That way companies who are still stuck on Netscape 4.79 for its roaming capabilities can migrate to a newer engine.
Off-topic but... Reminds me of a model rocket I launched once. Darned ejection charge didn't fire. It flew straight up... and up... and I was watching it from below going "wow". Then my brain clicked and said "it is getting bigger, MOVE". About 1/2 a second later it buried itself about 6" into the ground exactly where I was standing. I looked at the other camp counselor who was with me, she was dumbfounded, and we quietely herded the children (who were behind and under a protective barrier) off to the next activity. Always good to know that anyone can come close to winning a Darwin if they give themselves half a chance.
Re:Before all the flamers get in.
on
Qt On DirectFB
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Ya know... most people here "get it". It doesn't change the issue of applications. It is going to be harder to get the (li|u)n(u|i)x world to switch off of X than it is to get the Windows world to switch to Linux.
Switching from Windows to Linux still provides you with probably 95% application parity (MS Office -> OpenOffice, etc). Switching from X to DFB is probably going to be along the lines of 20% application parity.
It isn't that everyone loves X (although many do), it is that DFB is not currently a viable alternative for folks who need ready-made applications.
They claim that some of their code made its way into the Linux Kernel, so now they're packaging the entire kernel, making it only available in bianry form and selling it?!?
Umm, no... they are selling a binary -license- for UnixWare, which covers the copyrighted code in the Linux kernel. They are not redistributing a binary version of the kernel, only a license that covers what they are claiming is infringing code. You still get the kernel from your distribution of choice and/or from kernel.org.
They are not selling the kernel, they are just selling you a license to use the kernel. The copyright validity and order of introduction into the kernel still hasn't been proven or disproven. Therefore there is no GPL test at this point.
If the code is proven to belong to SCO it may very well break the GPL-ness of the kernel until such time as all possible derivatives have been removed and even then there will be problems. If the code in the kernel is proven to be untainted, then there will be no GPL test (but there will be a lot of pissed off licensees). The only way this could be a GPL test would be for the code in UnixWare to be proven to have come from Linux... a LONG shot for sure but if so it would cause at least part of UnixWare to be GPLed. Extremely doubtful.
In all, this article makes little or no sense, cites only one reference, gives no source for the statistic, and stretches many facts in the sole reference, to the point where it makes little/no sense. The very fact that this crap could be MENTIONED on Slashdot really makes me question the integrity of this news source./. is no more of a news source than is Daily Rotten.
If you see a news bite that sounds interesting, go read it... don't rely on the tidbit you see here to BE the news... it is just a hook to take you to something interesting.
Once you've read it, then come to the message boards to get other peoples' opinions and rant about the people who didn't read the article.
Seriously, using/. as canonical makes about as much sense as considering Headline News to be as in-depth as CNN.com... just not happening.
> If they went to violet lasers...it also wouldn't change the picture > quality of the DVD's that exist now.
I understand that... and it further explains my point that waiting for a violet laser if you are wanting to watch movies is not going to make a bit of difference.
> You have to realise that if they used HD resolutions with DVD, they > would be more artifacts since they would have the same datarate per > frame, but with a higher res, which would require more loss.
Not true if the HD DVD format uses faster hardware... maybe I miss your point, but I've been assuming that violet lasers not only store much more data, but can read that data much faster. In which case, especially if any new DVD format also moved to a more modern codec than MPEG II, would result in a picture with far fewer artifacts.
Consider yourself corrected... Digital Innovations (makers of the Neruos) and Xiph.org have a working beta called Positron that allows you to synchronize your Neuros to Linux (and not limited to Linux necessarily, it uses Python and should be portable). From beta reports on the forums Positron is working nicely and should be out of beta soon.
However, this/. article was about -dedicated- Ogg Vorbis hardware and the Neuros uses a multipurpose CPU. It makes the Neuros more flexible but the dedicated chip would be cheaper. Both have their places.
Take a look at the movies that are coming out. They are not going back to the common denominator. The government guy movie is quite impressive, facial animations -and- resolution. It also gives a good contrast to the tech 5 years ago by showing the old version in the first shots.
Seriously... you're talking about pre-recorded DVDs, right? Even if all the companies offered violet lasers today, it wouldn't change how many of the original DVD players are out there.
It will be YEARS before you see DVD movies move off of the current standard. There is no reason for the movie industry to alienate the current adopters. They will not be releasing movies (much less re-releasing existing DVDs) until the proportion of violet laser players in use is larger than the install base of older players.
The only way around this is to make violet laser DVDs backwards compatible and that doesn't seem feasible to me.
I'm not against the technology, I would love to see HD DVDs become standard, but it isn't realistic to base your adoption on the new technology. The only place violet lasers are going to make a difference in the near future is for data storage.
BTW, I would guess you were watching on a fairly cheap DVD player. There is some low level color distortion (not nearly as much as on DirecTV streams though) in the MPEG encoding, but better DVD players can prevent most artifacts. I waited to buy my player until the new Faroudja chipset was available about 18 months ago and I couldn't be happier with the picture quality. You can get better than that, but the Faroudja based players are reasonably priced with great quality.
* Many of the companies that rely on options don't pay dividends.
* Forcing one to quit to sell stock is -not- an incentive to stay.
* Most option plans have a vestment schedule that means that the person with the options can take anywhere from 3-5 years to be able to buy those shares.
* Furthermore, if you immediately sell stock you bought you take a larger tax penalty than if you hold on to it.
Those last 2 bullets are what companies use to keep employees locked in with options. Very rarely will a company grant options that can be immediately turned around. I know in the case of the company I work for I vest a grant over a 4 year period. Once per month I get 1/48th of the grant vested.
That is true in the middle to low end of alot of companies, which is as it should be... if you value a genious developer more than his semi-competent group manager then put the options where they are due. Of course, this is decided at the director level, which means directors probably get 2-5x the shares of the people below them in the lower ranks.
However, at the executive level things escalate. I doubt that genious developer sees 5% of the shares offered to anyone at the VP level and maybe.1% of the options that the CEO would see.
The number of shares given -in total- to the middle and low ranks of a company are often less than the shares given to a few people at the top.
So from a macro point of view there is a definite correlation to the number of shares given. At the detailed view of the lower ranks (anyone below Director) the correlation is less common.
Slashdot Mirror
The analogy to the Hulk is flawed. The Hulk is not scifi ... it is comic book fantasy. It may have some aspects of scifi, but the primary genre is comic book. Hell, I wish that there was a new genre, sci-fantasy, to encompass things like Star Trek, too (Geordions), so that we could more easily define fluffiness like ST compared to more serious SciFi like most of the good books out there. The "Science Fiction" genre is just too broadly defined to be of use anymore.
Hell, I've got 20GB just of Ogg Vorbis files ripped from just 1/2 of my CDs. I'll fill 40GB with music before I get done. And I know that ripping music is not some geek-only process.
:)
Add to that 10 or so GB of source materials for graphics and presentations, 5 or so GB of presentations and 5GB or so for a full install of 2 modern OSes and I've eaten up 60GB without trying hard.
And without pr0n for that matter
Modern backup solutions just do not cover that for a reasonable cost for home or SMB users.
Until the next one figures out to use the RFC.
That's not a long-term answer.
Hmmm ... this brings up some COOL case mod ideas :)
So I installed this latest alpha on a RH9 box. Got "gtkhack" working and fixed the (null) font issue. When "gtkhack" loads I get the radar and can play, but my dungeon is not graphical. In other words I get the GTK app (broken numlock keys and all) but I see myself as an "@" sign and not graphically.
Anyone know how to fix this?
Well, first off you could randomize it so the newbie gets the article -first- 1/4 of the time. Secondly, how would the newbie even know about it unless someone walked by and said "seen that /. article?" and then it is an opp to socialize by saying "no, show me".
Given the sharp decline, this highlights another way that /. could help alleviate /.ing of sites: stagger the time that a certain client gets informed of a new article.
... 2 hours for full distribution is going to be friendlier to the /.ed sites, but 1 hour total would probably still be effective.
/.
1) RSS feeds would get the update -last- or in some form of randomness.
2) Anonymous (no cookie) clients get the same treatment
3) People logged in get the article sooner but are also stretched out. An example:
a) If your UID is in the 25% of the oldest active users you get the article as soon as it is published (after going out to subscribers, who always get it first, another very mild reason to subscribe especially if you like to FP)
b) If your UID is in the 26-50% of the oldest active users you get the article 30 minutes after it is published.
c) If your UID is in the 51%-75% you get it 1 hour after it is published
d) If your UID is in the last block you get it 90 minutes after publishing.
e) If you are pulling from RSS or anonymously you get it 120 minutes after publishing.
This also gives a little treat to the folks who have been around the longest while not removing the benfit of subscribing.
Another example could work like the above but randomly change which order each block of UIDs will get the article (with RSS and Anon getting it last) if you wanted to not show preferrence to older users.
Increments could be adjusted
The only people this would affect negatively are FPers, SPAMboarders and people who have a cow-orker walk by and go "hey d00d, seen that new article yet?". No one else would probably even be aware of it unless they find it from another site that found it on
This is great news ... except ... damn I hated Avon (not hated as in "boy that Avon guy is bad" but hated as in "Dang I can't stand Paul Darrow's acting").
And as you mention, there is a choice to use AOL. If your parents aren't getting your messages, call them and tell them to switch. If they want to get your messages more than they want the ease of AOL, they'll switch.
As far as I can see, nothing is stopping an AOL user from making use of one of the many webmail services. If none of the webmail services will pass messages from you, makes me wonder why.
Besides, you have choice, too. If everyone is filtering your messages then you can look into using a different place to send your mail from.
I don't know if you've ever had an AOL account (I got stuck with one for work for a long time) but the signal-to-noise there is so bad I'm amazed anyone can use it for email anymore. I would get 100 messages that were SPAM for every 1 that was useful.
and SPAM is WORSE, WORSE, WORSE!
... no way).
If you want to receive the junk, don't use one of those services, but I fail to see how someone else choosing -to- is a problem.
Your analogy is flawed. I have a choice to use AOL|Hotmail|MSN|spamassasin|etc and I pay for the connection to download, view, respond and delete my email (not to mention the time it takes out of my day). I don't have a choice whether or not to use the USPO and it takes FAR less of my time to sort out my real mail than it does email.
If SPAM could somehow be filtered out at the router level, then I would agree with your USPO analogy and would be throwing an utter FIT. But it isn't possible (is that a web page or a webmail, is that IMAP, is that secure IMAP, is that POP3, is that email tunnelled over SSH
Until there is legislation with -teeth- and a way for the little guy to prosecute you are not going to see many people agree with you about server side filtering.
There is very little chance of that based on the way they are using the sticks. No drilling or cutting means the pole remains very stable. Sure, if you use it for extreme biking you're going to have problems, but otherwise it should remain quite solid.
... I would definitely be getting out some paint!
Add to that the possibility of very simple reinforcement by wrapping it at key points with a strong thread and/or laminating it with reinforcements and I doubt it would break under normal usage.
Even if it did, you would see signs of wear before it happened. What causes catastrophic failure of bamboo is usually force being applied on bamboo that has been cut into the grain and/or had holes cut into it.
Of course, that doesn't stop it from being fugly
Personally speaking, and I've been telecommuting for 4 years in various jobs now, telecommuting is -more- expensive. Seriously ... I pay extra to heat/cool my house (especially with all the extra computing running), I have to be my own janitor and repair person (which is hitting me hard right now since I have a roof leak that threatens my desk area that I might otherwise have just done a quick patch over if this were still a rec/wreck room), I am my own little sysadmin now (often including paying for my own upgrades).
True, my employer pays for a decent network connection and a spare phone, but often times they pay for those items for non-telecommuters as long as they occasionally work from home.
Are there advantages? Yep. Do I want to have to drive into the office regularly? Nope. But am I willing to get paid less when I end up paying more out of pocket? Nope.
Most employers are into it -purely- to save money, both for the items I mentioned above as well as building leasing. Plus I think it makes it easier for them to lay folks off when they have to.
It is a good trade off, but it is already enough of one that I don't think telecommuters should be expected to take less money unless the employer gives significant benefits in return.
I still don't see roaming. There needs to be a final monolithic version (ie, not Firebird/Thunderbird) that supports roaming. That way companies who are still stuck on Netscape 4.79 for its roaming capabilities can migrate to a newer engine.
Off-topic but ... Reminds me of a model rocket I launched once. Darned ejection charge didn't fire. It flew straight up ... and up ... and I was watching it from below going "wow". Then my brain clicked and said "it is getting bigger, MOVE". About 1/2 a second later it buried itself about 6" into the ground exactly where I was standing. I looked at the other camp counselor who was with me, she was dumbfounded, and we quietely herded the children (who were behind and under a protective barrier) off to the next activity. Always good to know that anyone can come close to winning a Darwin if they give themselves half a chance.
They just needed to soften us up for yet another story about running out of IP addresses.
Ya know ... most people here "get it". It doesn't change the issue of applications. It is going to be harder to get the (li|u)n(u|i)x world to switch off of X than it is to get the Windows world to switch to Linux.
Switching from Windows to Linux still provides you with probably 95% application parity (MS Office -> OpenOffice, etc). Switching from X to DFB is probably going to be along the lines of 20% application parity.
It isn't that everyone loves X (although many do), it is that DFB is not currently a viable alternative for folks who need ready-made applications.
They claim that some of their code made its way into the Linux Kernel, so now they're packaging the entire kernel, making it only available in bianry form and selling it?!?
Umm, no ... they are selling a binary -license- for UnixWare, which covers the copyrighted code in the Linux kernel. They are not redistributing a binary version of the kernel, only a license that covers what they are claiming is infringing code. You still get the kernel from your distribution of choice and/or from kernel.org.
They are not selling the kernel, they are just selling you a license to use the kernel. The copyright validity and order of introduction into the kernel still hasn't been proven or disproven. Therefore there is no GPL test at this point.
If the code is proven to belong to SCO it may very well break the GPL-ness of the kernel until such time as all possible derivatives have been removed and even then there will be problems. If the code in the kernel is proven to be untainted, then there will be no GPL test (but there will be a lot of pissed off licensees). The only way this could be a GPL test would be for the code in UnixWare to be proven to have come from Linux ... a LONG shot for sure but if so it would cause at least part of UnixWare to be GPLed. Extremely doubtful.
tag so the first bit is run-on and should really be 2 paragraphs.
In all, this article makes little or no sense, cites only one reference, gives no source for the statistic, and stretches many facts in the sole reference, to the point where it makes little/no sense. The very fact that this crap could be MENTIONED on Slashdot really makes me question the integrity of this news source. /. is no more of a news source than is Daily Rotten.
... don't rely on the tidbit you see here to BE the news ... it is just a hook to take you to something interesting.
/. as canonical makes about as much sense as considering Headline News to be as in-depth as CNN.com ... just not happening.
If you see a news bite that sounds interesting, go read it
Once you've read it, then come to the message boards to get other peoples' opinions and rant about the people who didn't read the article.
Seriously, using
> If they went to violet lasers...it also wouldn't change the picture
... and it further explains my point that waiting for a violet laser if you are wanting to watch movies is not going to make a bit of difference.
... maybe I miss your point, but I've been assuming that violet lasers not only store much more data, but can read that data much faster. In which case, especially if any new DVD format also moved to a more modern codec than MPEG II, would result in a picture with far fewer artifacts.
> quality of the DVD's that exist now.
I understand that
> You have to realise that if they used HD resolutions with DVD, they
> would be more artifacts since they would have the same datarate per
> frame, but with a higher res, which would require more loss.
Not true if the HD DVD format uses faster hardware
Consider yourself corrected ... Digital Innovations (makers of the Neruos) and Xiph.org have a working beta called Positron that allows you to synchronize your Neuros to Linux (and not limited to Linux necessarily, it uses Python and should be portable). From beta reports on the forums Positron is working nicely and should be out of beta soon.
/. article was about -dedicated- Ogg Vorbis hardware and the Neuros uses a multipurpose CPU. It makes the Neuros more flexible but the dedicated chip would be cheaper. Both have their places.
However, this
Take a look at the movies that are coming out. They are not going back to the common denominator. The government guy movie is quite impressive, facial animations -and- resolution. It also gives a good contrast to the tech 5 years ago by showing the old version in the first shots.
Seriously ... you're talking about pre-recorded DVDs, right? Even if all the companies offered violet lasers today, it wouldn't change how many of the original DVD players are out there.
It will be YEARS before you see DVD movies move off of the current standard. There is no reason for the movie industry to alienate the current adopters. They will not be releasing movies (much less re-releasing existing DVDs) until the proportion of violet laser players in use is larger than the install base of older players.
The only way around this is to make violet laser DVDs backwards compatible and that doesn't seem feasible to me.
I'm not against the technology, I would love to see HD DVDs become standard, but it isn't realistic to base your adoption on the new technology. The only place violet lasers are going to make a difference in the near future is for data storage.
BTW, I would guess you were watching on a fairly cheap DVD player. There is some low level color distortion (not nearly as much as on DirecTV streams though) in the MPEG encoding, but better DVD players can prevent most artifacts. I waited to buy my player until the new Faroudja chipset was available about 18 months ago and I couldn't be happier with the picture quality. You can get better than that, but the Faroudja based players are reasonably priced with great quality.
* Many of the companies that rely on options don't pay dividends.
* Forcing one to quit to sell stock is -not- an incentive to stay.
* Most option plans have a vestment schedule that means that the person with the options can take anywhere from 3-5 years to be able to buy those shares.
* Furthermore, if you immediately sell stock you bought you take a larger tax penalty than if you hold on to it.
Those last 2 bullets are what companies use to keep employees locked in with options. Very rarely will a company grant options that can be immediately turned around. I know in the case of the company I work for I vest a grant over a 4 year period. Once per month I get 1/48th of the grant vested.
That is true in the middle to low end of alot of companies, which is as it should be ... if you value a genious developer more than his semi-competent group manager then put the options where they are due. Of course, this is decided at the director level, which means directors probably get 2-5x the shares of the people below them in the lower ranks.
.1% of the options that the CEO would see.
However, at the executive level things escalate. I doubt that genious developer sees 5% of the shares offered to anyone at the VP level and maybe
The number of shares given -in total- to the middle and low ranks of a company are often less than the shares given to a few people at the top.
So from a macro point of view there is a definite correlation to the number of shares given. At the detailed view of the lower ranks (anyone below Director) the correlation is less common.