It may sound cheap to you. But consider this: A laser need not necessarily put out much power to fuse even metal, if the metal powder is already close to melting point to begin with. An existing prototyping system uses this approach to create customized metal objects.
I'm not so dimissive. I think podcasting, even in it's current state, is cool. Just think how good it will be when some good content sources come on line. Personally, I find it a great antidote to a long commute. I've even considered developing my own podcasts teaching Perl, although I must admit it's pretty challenging thinking up useful content considering podcasts are all audio.
Think about it. A new category of startup: The Open Source Startup Model. As any self-respecting Slashdot denizen, I naturally haven't read the article. Others mentioned that 10 million spread among 6-8 startups would not be enough to fully fund a startup. I agree, but if I was running such a fund, I don't think I'd want all of the startup funding coming from one primary source anyway. The OSS teams I'd want to finance would be those that already had something going, i.e. some software already in place. Then I'd want to at least see a plan for filling in the "Step 2: ?????". Why finance something that already exists? Because you don't want to start with a just a concept that may or may not work. Also, you already have a potential customer base (just have to figure out a way to not piss them off).
What would be the advantage of an OSS startup? It's a great way to leverage goodwill--people like OSS software and its developers. Also, OSS usually contribues to the greater good of society.
What existing projects would be good candidates for this? I'd like to hear from others on this. My votes would be for 1. Mambo--PHP Web Content Management. 2. Nagios--enterprise system monitoring and alerting software.
I don't think I'd be willing to fund, say, PHP or MySQL because they are too mature to benefit from $1-2 M, plus MySQL already is an established enterprise.
It's kind of lame to say "we should do this" and not give a timeframe. Given today's technology, this is not a trivial thing to do as we've recently seen in the DARPA challenge.
Hey, Firefox can't go swimming, because the flames will go out.
Ah, now I get the joke on this link: "Should we lower Mitchell, our fearless president, into an erupting volcano?" It's a parody of the Opera Atlantic swim, Firefox style!
"Gay rights" often means different things to different people. Many people say that since "one man can marry one woman" regardless of whether they are gay or straight, and also that "no two men can marry" whether they are gay or straight, then their rights are already equal. Gays asking for men to marry men and women to marry women are asking for "additional" things, not equal things.
That's easy to solve: Make it illegal for a gay person to marry a person of the opposite sex and make it illegal for a straight person to marry a person of the same sex. Then everyone is treated basically equally AND nobody is forced into a potentially unhappy relationship.
How about using the rack as the CPU for running the Darpa Challenge. That plus some good programming and a little luck should allow it to travel autonomously for more than 8 frickin miles, eh?
The approach I've used is go to IRC groups that specialize in TV-related bittorents. Grab the shows I want to watch and burn them to CD. I was suprised to find out a while back that my consumer-oriented DVD player hooked up to my TV could recognize CDs. So simply by burning the program in the appropriate format, I could plop it in the DVD player in the living room and watch a fairly decent quality show.
So Tivo wants to start competing with KnoppMyth? Trouble is, KnoppMyth is free! Also, I don't know about Tivo, but Myth also allows you to record two shows at once if you have multiple tuner cards in your computer.
As a loyal slashdot reader, I didn't go anywhere near the article, nevertheless, I feel that for a PPU to be successful in the marketplace, it would need to have a certain level of flexibility. Not only would things like local gravity, scale, real-time vs slo-mo need to be taken into account and be modifiable, but also, you'd need to be able to allow the developer to bend/break the rules at will to account for magic, powerups, etc.
Most Slashdotters may well disdain Flash, but I really like the ability to integrate Flash with web services. The Flash provides an interface unatainable in regular HTML + javascript and it will run in many environments, including Linux.
What would I like to see next? Flash compile directly to Java Applet!
This might seem obvious, but having IBM endorse Linux (by money infusions and advertising) really helps the OS community spread the software into mainstream business. My supervisor is so old-school and tends to favor MS products, but with this kind of support from IBM, I can now at least get a couple of Linux servers up and running without complaints and my supervisor can see the reliability that exceeds Windows in these instances first-hand.
...is Portland becoming the center for Open Source development in the US?
Hmmm, that would be kind of fitting, actually. And just a short-day's drive from Redmond too.
I guess, however, it's not like the GOD (Good Old Days) where you could quit your job at Microsoft one day and start working for an Open Source employer the next. The job market is such now that it's much more picky. (Unless you are working in Java which tends to be OS color-blind)
I'll second.mpeg4. Although it's newer, I think the majority of users out there can play it. The quality is good but I think the best thing is that it really compresses well.
I'm talking about the scenario where package a uses icons from package b, so you go ahead and install package b but package b has a dependancy chain, etc. Yes, strickty speaking you would need all that to install the original package, but what if you had the opportunity to substitute the icons with something else?
I don't think that dependencies are handled very well in apt-get, rpm, etc. All too often, by installing one 100K package, you wind up installing 1GB of dependencies. As far as I can tell, there's no alternative except for the override in rpm. I think the next generation installer is going to present a graphic dependency map showing you why the dependencies might be needed and let you determine which ones you are going to install.
My boss uses a robot for performing Robotic-Assisted Laparoscopic Prostatectomies. I've got an 8 minute video at www.DrSlawin.com so you can see how they place the ports--they screw the robotic manipulators right to the anesthetised patient's abdominal wall. Then the doc sits down at the console and operates away.
Slashdot Mirror
It may sound cheap to you. But consider this:
A laser need not necessarily put out much power to fuse even metal, if the metal powder is already close to melting point to begin with. An existing prototyping system uses this approach to create customized metal objects.
BTM
I've got a better open source self-replicating robot: Herpes virus.
BTM
I'm not so dimissive. I think podcasting, even in it's current state, is cool. Just think how good it will be when some good content sources come on line. Personally, I find it a great antidote to a long commute. I've even considered developing my own podcasts teaching Perl, although I must admit it's pretty challenging thinking up useful content considering podcasts are all audio.
Think about it. A new category of startup: The Open Source Startup Model. As any self-respecting Slashdot denizen, I naturally haven't read the article. Others mentioned that 10 million spread among 6-8 startups would not be enough to fully fund a startup. I agree, but if I was running such a fund, I don't think I'd want all of the startup funding coming from one primary source anyway. The OSS teams I'd want to finance would be those that already had something going, i.e. some software already in place. Then I'd want to at least see a plan for filling in the "Step 2: ?????". Why finance something that already exists? Because you don't want to start with a just a concept that may or may not work. Also, you already have a potential customer base (just have to figure out a way to not piss them off).
What would be the advantage of an OSS startup? It's a great way to leverage goodwill--people like OSS software and its developers. Also, OSS usually contribues to the greater good of society.
What existing projects would be good candidates for this? I'd like to hear from others on this. My votes would be for 1. Mambo--PHP Web Content Management. 2. Nagios--enterprise system monitoring and alerting software.
I don't think I'd be willing to fund, say, PHP or MySQL because they are too mature to benefit from $1-2 M, plus MySQL already is an established enterprise.
BTM
It's kind of lame to say "we should do this" and not give a timeframe. Given today's technology, this is not a trivial thing to do as we've recently seen in the DARPA challenge.
BTM
Wow, $30? That's some kind of deal!
Hey, Firefox can't go swimming, because the flames will go out.
Ah, now I get the joke on this link:
"Should we lower Mitchell, our fearless president, into an erupting volcano?"
It's a parody of the Opera Atlantic swim, Firefox style!
BTM
"Gay rights" often means different things to different people. Many people say that since "one man can marry one woman" regardless of whether they are gay or straight, and also that "no two men can marry" whether they are gay or straight, then their rights are already equal. Gays asking for men to marry men and women to marry women are asking for "additional" things, not equal things.
That's easy to solve: Make it illegal for a gay person to marry a person of the opposite sex and make it illegal for a straight person to marry a person of the same sex. Then everyone is treated basically equally AND nobody is forced into a potentially unhappy relationship.
Huh? Phpedia? I believe it's Lehrdorphia.
BTM
How about using the rack as the CPU for running the Darpa Challenge. That plus some good programming and a little luck should allow it to travel autonomously for more than 8 frickin miles, eh?
BTM
The approach I've used is go to IRC groups that specialize in TV-related bittorents. Grab the shows I want to watch and burn them to CD. I was suprised to find out a while back that my consumer-oriented DVD player hooked up to my TV could recognize CDs. So simply by burning the program in the appropriate format, I could plop it in the DVD player in the living room and watch a fairly decent quality show.
So Tivo wants to start competing with KnoppMyth? Trouble is, KnoppMyth is free! Also, I don't know about Tivo, but Myth also allows you to record two shows at once if you have multiple tuner cards in your computer.
BTM
As a loyal slashdot reader, I didn't go anywhere near the article, nevertheless, I feel that for a PPU to be successful in the marketplace, it would need to have a certain level of flexibility. Not only would things like local gravity, scale, real-time vs slo-mo need to be taken into account and be modifiable, but also, you'd need to be able to allow the developer to bend/break the rules at will to account for magic, powerups, etc.
BTM
Most Slashdotters may well disdain Flash, but I really like the ability to integrate Flash with web services. The Flash provides an interface unatainable in regular HTML + javascript and it will run in many environments, including Linux.
What would I like to see next? Flash compile directly to Java Applet!
BTM
This might seem obvious, but having IBM endorse Linux (by money infusions and advertising) really helps the OS community spread the software into mainstream business. My supervisor is so old-school and tends to favor MS products, but with this kind of support from IBM, I can now at least get a couple of Linux servers up and running without complaints and my supervisor can see the reliability that exceeds Windows in these instances first-hand.
BTM
Isn't that how they make dioxins?
vi! Emacs is crap!
BTM
Yep, column 7 is the start of FORTRAN code, column 1 for comments and 2-6 for numeric labels and column 80 is the end of the line.
...is Portland becoming the center for Open Source development in the US?
Hmmm, that would be kind of fitting, actually. And just a short-day's drive from Redmond too.
I guess, however, it's not like the GOD (Good Old Days) where you could quit your job at Microsoft one day and start working for an Open Source employer the next. The job market is such now that it's much more picky. (Unless you are working in Java which tends to be OS color-blind)
BTM
I'll second .mpeg4. Although it's newer, I think the majority of users out there can play it. The quality is good but I think the best thing is that it really compresses well.
BTM
So, in Star Trek, whenever they transported someone, was there someone charged with the task of killing the body left behind?
"I'm sorry sir, but you just transported down to the planet surface and it's my job to kill you."
I guess they had to do this in order to keep costs down.
BTM
I'm talking about the scenario where package a uses icons from package b, so you go ahead and install package b but package b has a dependancy chain, etc. Yes, strickty speaking you would need all that to install the original package, but what if you had the opportunity to substitute the icons with something else?
BTM
I don't think that dependencies are handled very well in apt-get, rpm, etc. All too often, by installing one 100K package, you wind up installing 1GB of dependencies. As far as I can tell, there's no alternative except for the override in rpm. I think the next generation installer is going to present a graphic dependency map showing you why the dependencies might be needed and let you determine which ones you are going to install.
BTM
You're new here, aren't you? This sort of critical thinking just makes other Slashdotters testy and irritable.
BTM
My boss uses a robot for performing Robotic-Assisted Laparoscopic Prostatectomies. I've got an 8 minute video at www.DrSlawin.com so you can see how they place the ports--they screw the robotic manipulators right to the anesthetised patient's abdominal wall. Then the doc sits down at the console and operates away.
BTM