Would they? How do you figure that one? I think that in theory, if everything ran under a single JVM, most of the disadvantages of Java wouldn't be an issue. A big one is JVM startup and loading time for all the base classes that everything uses. Another is the fact that Java does its own internal memory management and tends to grab a big chunk of memory from the OS and never release it, even if the Java program destroys the objects. It won't allocate more memory from the OS if it can re-use it for other Java objects, but since it never shrinks the heap nothing else can use that memory and it ends up getting swapped out and/or increasing memory pressure.
i.e. the biggest problem with Java is that it doesn't play well with other (native) processes..NET has the same problem, which is why MS is pushing for more and more applications to use it (so they can share the overhead and won't seem so bloated).
Heck, I've played both WoW and EVE in Wine under FreeBSD. Only problem I had with either is that the galaxy map doesn't work properly in some modes in EVE. I'd like to play WoW in FreeBSD, but have never been able to get it to work. It always complains saying I don't have dual TMU support (I have a GeForce 7900 GTX which most definitely does). Everything I've been able to find suggests an nvidia driver issue and trying a different version, but I've tried multiple versions with no success and everything else works fine...
I believe the WoW patcher uses a bittorrent model, as well. Not just a bittorrent model, it uses the standard bittorrent protocol. The downloader even complains it can't contact the tracker if your internet connection is down. Ummm, a friend told me that.:P
See the WP for a list of a few things (including WoW updates) that use BitTorrent.
Hmm, I'll have to take a look. It was still in "beta" status last time I checked. I wonder if they've improved the database schema any. I knew it had to be pretty badly designed when I performed a simple operation such as synchronizing with the Windows Update servers or approving a batch of updates and the sqlservr.exe process would be pegged at 100% CPU for what (in a sanely designed schema anyway) should be a simple INSERT or UPDATE statement.
It's possible to extract the individual patches from WSUS, but it's not very easy to do so, since they're all named as some big long hash value that has nothing to do with the KB number of the patch. So it's very difficult to figure out which ones are even for your OS version / architecture, much less which ones you need.
Watch M$ come up with their own tool that does the same thing as Autopatcher and watch them find a way to turn it into a revenue stream. They have one, it's called WSUS. It's a "free" download that lets you set up your own mirror for automatic updates. The only problem is that it's so big and bloated (IIS, SQL server, AJAX-ish web page for management) that you pretty much need dedicated hardware (and Windows Server license, ca-ching!) to get any decent performance out of it.
I have noticed at least one hotfix that's not normally publicly available, but was included with autopatcher. You know, the ones where you go to the KB article and it describes the exact symptoms you're seeing, and when you scroll down to download the patch it says something like:
"We don't think this is a major problem, and people who are having it are obviously too dumb to realize that it's somehow their own fault. Therefore, in order to get this patch, you'll have to call our support line where we will bill you outrageous fees in order to tell you whether you really need the patch or not."
Fortunately, the one I was looking for just happened to be included with autopatcher somehow, so I extracted the file and sure enough it fixed the problem.
Oddly enough, my handheld GPS unit (which doesn't even have an option to set the clock -- it always gets it from the GPS signal), doesn't auto-change timezones either. You'd think it would be trivial, since it knows my location, and already has maps of everywhere, but you still have to change it manually in the settings.
Cingular. It's been 2-3 years since I first noticed it -- since then I don't really pay much attention to my cell phone clock. I think it was a CDMA network, but I'm not 100% sure. I had a GSM phone after that which was often wrong, but it was a crappy phone and I suspect it wasn't syncing properly.
Now I'm on AT&T/EDGE and it seems to be accurate so far as I can tell.
Just because the clocks are tightly synchronized together, doesn't mean that the base time they're synchronizing to is correct. A Cesium clock will get you very accurate relative time, not absolute time...
Well, maybe I'll just have to give him a watch that syncs wirelessly with ntp for Christmas this year. Seems like a huge waste of effort to require wireless networking and ntp to sync the time, when clocks that sync using shortwave or GPS radio signals are cheap, reliable, and readily available.
You have NNTP, the broadcast atomic clock information, and the cell-phone network, all of which provide exquisitly accurate time to everyone. NTP, definitely. Radio-based clocks, sure. GPS time signal, absolutely. But the cell network? I'd never in a million years call that exquisitely accurate. Sometimes I wouldn't even call it reasonably accurate.
I don't know where they get their time from, but when I look at a cell phone (with network time sync enabled) and it's more than a minute off, I know not to trust it as a reliable time source.
Sounds like an easy way to prevent anyone from disproving the "hypothesis". I think that's why it's a theory and not a proven fact. What we actually know about the nature of the universe is still very little in the grand scheme of things.
I was mistaken in my previous post. The recent guess at universe size (78 billion ly diameter) is actually less than the Hubble Limit (46.5 billion ly radius), which is the maximum observable universe given the speed of light and rate of expansion of the universe. The calculation itself has something to do with the observed red-shift of the farthest galaxies that we can see, but the math is way over my head.
How do you think "Open Office" came to get that name in the first place? From the same place that MS got their equally generically-named "Microsoft Office" product from - the place that people go to work.
Two objects going in opposite directions (i.e. not on a collision course) would eventually collide. That clearly doesn't seem to be the case in this space, does it? Space is so vast that even if this has happened we may just have not noticed it. Though given the best guess of the size (minimum 78 billion light years) and age (13.7 billion years) of the universe, even taking spatial expansion into account, something traveling at the speed of light couldn't have made it all the way "around" even once.
This suggests that the universe could be expanding at or faster than the speed of light. It would be physically impossible for anything to have made it all the way around and back again. This has been suggested as a way to explain why everything seems to be redshifted and even accelerating (the bigger space is, the more relative distance seems to grow as it expands). This theory also opens up the idea that there may be parts of the universe we can't ever travel to, or even see through conventional means.
It could be finite, but unbounded. Think of the surface of a sphere with 2D beings living on it. If they walk far enough, they'll eventually end up back where they started. There's no center point of the surface. There is a center of the sphere, but it doesn't exist in the same dimension as the residents of the surface.
I personally think that the universe is shaped like a giant doughnut. Mmmmmmm, cosmilicious.
Getting what you want passed by getting it attached to a must-pass bill is a favorite tactic.
This only works because all politicians are spineless and won't vote against a "must pass" bill on principle. I bet if some critical spending bills got voted down / vetoed by the president for having unrelated riders, this practice would become a lot less common.
Slashdot Mirror
i.e. the biggest problem with Java is that it doesn't play well with other (native) processes.
Heh, figures that right after I complain about it I end up figuring out the problem and it works now :)
It was pilot error and it's extremely unlikely that anyone else will run into something similar.
See the WP for a list of a few things (including WoW updates) that use BitTorrent.
if ( drunk ) {
goto JAIL;
} else {
collect(200);
}
You must first blow into this tube before your Slashdot post is accepted.
Processing... Processing... Done! (31 errors ignored)
Sorry, your blood alcohol is over the limit for Slashdot first-posting. Please try again later.
Well, Linux has LAMP, which is sort of a framework but not really. MySQL sucks though, so I tend to go with BSD+PostgreSQL+whatever.
Hmm, I'll have to take a look. It was still in "beta" status last time I checked. I wonder if they've improved the database schema any. I knew it had to be pretty badly designed when I performed a simple operation such as synchronizing with the Windows Update servers or approving a batch of updates and the sqlservr.exe process would be pegged at 100% CPU for what (in a sanely designed schema anyway) should be a simple INSERT or UPDATE statement.
Captain O'Hagan: I swear to God I'm going to pistol whip the next guy who says, "Shenanigans."
Mac: (yells) Hey Farva, what's the name of that restaurant you like with all the goofy shit on the walls and the mozzarella sticks?
Farva: (pokes head in) You mean Shenanigans?
It's possible to extract the individual patches from WSUS, but it's not very easy to do so, since they're all named as some big long hash value that has nothing to do with the KB number of the patch. So it's very difficult to figure out which ones are even for your OS version / architecture, much less which ones you need.
Oddly enough, my handheld GPS unit (which doesn't even have an option to set the clock -- it always gets it from the GPS signal), doesn't auto-change timezones either. You'd think it would be trivial, since it knows my location, and already has maps of everywhere, but you still have to change it manually in the settings.
Funny how that article blames Zenith, considering I had a Zenith TV with teletext support. Never did see anybody broadcasting anything on it though.
Cingular. It's been 2-3 years since I first noticed it -- since then I don't really pay much attention to my cell phone clock. I think it was a CDMA network, but I'm not 100% sure. I had a GSM phone after that which was often wrong, but it was a crappy phone and I suspect it wasn't syncing properly.
Now I'm on AT&T/EDGE and it seems to be accurate so far as I can tell.
Just because the clocks are tightly synchronized together, doesn't mean that the base time they're synchronizing to is correct. A Cesium clock will get you very accurate relative time, not absolute time...
Sundial.
I don't know where they get their time from, but when I look at a cell phone (with network time sync enabled) and it's more than a minute off, I know not to trust it as a reliable time source.
I was mistaken in my previous post. The recent guess at universe size (78 billion ly diameter) is actually less than the Hubble Limit (46.5 billion ly radius), which is the maximum observable universe given the speed of light and rate of expansion of the universe. The calculation itself has something to do with the observed red-shift of the farthest galaxies that we can see, but the math is way over my head.
This suggests that the universe could be expanding at or faster than the speed of light. It would be physically impossible for anything to have made it all the way around and back again. This has been suggested as a way to explain why everything seems to be redshifted and even accelerating (the bigger space is, the more relative distance seems to grow as it expands). This theory also opens up the idea that there may be parts of the universe we can't ever travel to, or even see through conventional means.
It could be finite, but unbounded. Think of the surface of a sphere with 2D beings living on it. If they walk far enough, they'll eventually end up back where they started. There's no center point of the surface. There is a center of the sphere, but it doesn't exist in the same dimension as the residents of the surface.
I personally think that the universe is shaped like a giant doughnut. Mmmmmmm, cosmilicious.
Getting what you want passed by getting it attached to a must-pass bill is a favorite tactic.
This only works because all politicians are spineless and won't vote against a "must pass" bill on principle. I bet if some critical spending bills got voted down / vetoed by the president for having unrelated riders, this practice would become a lot less common.
Which was destroyed by, oh wait, a US citizen.