Thats evidently the way our company thinks also. We need to spend $1500 and 3 weeks per license for compilers because we are not allowed to download free compilers from the 'net.
If its free, it can't nearly be as good as something you could pay copious amounts of $$$ for. Productivity be damned, we want to waste money.
If the company managers/CEOs/and government officials were in charge from the beginning, I'm surprised we ever climbed down from that first tree.
Don't forget to add simulation. We have a ton of SGI boxes doing everything from being workstations, to powerhouses that run full-sized flight simulators. SGI boxes pretty much kick.
People who use Back Orifice or rootkits are NOT hackers or crackers. They are lame-ass script kiddies who wouldn't know what hacking/cracking really implies.
Back in the mid-late 80s while playing with code, I was considered hacking. When I was seeing if a system could be broken into, it was considered hacking. People who break copy protection off software crack it. That's always been the distinction for as long as I remember it.
I think this whole hacking/cracking thing is wacked. You don't crack sites, you hack into sites. You don't hack passwords, you crack passwords. There is a subtle distinction between what you are doing, how you are doing it, and whether you are a hacker or a cracker. Personally, I feel that crackers are more detremental (sp?) to society, and generally have a worse image (well deserved). Hackers, depending on the group you are talking to could either be a derogatory or complimentary term.
In our AstroPhysics class (taught by a guy with a Nobel Prize) we had a real lengthy discussion about terraforming Mars. Basically, Mars is spinning too fast and is too far (or maybe close, I don't remember exactly) to the sun for it to actually be able to hold water vapor. Mars needs to be warmed up (or cooled down, its been 2 years since the class) and slowed down before an atmosphere with water vapor can exist.
The weight isn't the only problem, how about reliability of the launch vehicles? What is the Titan IV's record, 1 successful launch and 3 shanked? The Delta IV isn't much better. I'm not sure that I would want nuclear waste being released into the lower atmosphere because of a launch vehicle explosion.
I work in a combat simulations group, and every sim has FORTRAN at its core, either for the entire structure except for UI, or at least for the aerodynamic sections of code. I don't think that FORTRAN will ever be done away with, there is too much heritage with it out there. Modern Aerospace Engineering Degrees require FORTRAN (at least mine did), but C/C++ are all electives for the CS majors.
We are planning on porting one of the sims from IRIX to linux, but thats been planned for awhile. I'll just have to see what happens...
I happen to love StarOffice. I haven't used KOffice yet, but am kind of interested in looking at the spreadsheet. It's going to be nice to be able to add the functions you want to use, rather than having to divide a problem up into 20 steps like with EXCEL.
I'm damn glad that MSOffice isn't available for Linux. I absolutely hate software that is targeted at people so stupid that it tries to think for me and gets everything wrong. I need to use Office 97 at work, and it constantly tries to change my style and numbering, it its always wrong. After using Word97 at work and school for a couple of years, I'm still looking for the button marked "Quit thinking for me and let me get my work done without your interference."
Here comes Snow Crash. Where do I sign up? I wanna be there on opening day. =)
Focusing on something that close to your eye isnt a problem when its transparent. The way the goggles or HMDs work in attack/recon helicopters is that the glasses make it look like the symbology is superimposed over the real world. there is no conscious switching focal points (that i was ever aware of). Its really nifty and not nearly as hard as people think.
Ok, the only thing I can say about that last paragraph is that I know what I meant to say, but I don't know if anybody will be able to read what I meant:P
Gotta love Slackware...
on
Red Hat 6.0
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· Score: 1
Its easy enough to upgrade without having to wait for somebody to package stuff in a RPM for you:)
I use Slackware and will forever, as far as I can tell. I was really surprised when they said that RedHat and Independence were the two biggest distributions. I knew RedHat was, but I think I only heard of Independence once, quite a while ago.
I don't believe that setting up a linux box is any harder than setting up a Winblows box. I still have problems getting Win98 to see our whole network at home, but our Linux systems (mine is Slack and my roomie uses SUSE... *sheesh* foreigners;)) see the whole network without even blinking. And they took less time to set up and configure. It was working and nfs mounting disks from the server in about 20 mins, while Win98 took like 38mins (according to the clock that they use that can't tell time) just to install (and that was after trying to get Windows to recognize my cdrom thats been discontinued for over an hour), and about 30 mins to configure.
The real problem seems to be in people's perception of Linux. "Oh no!!! They said Linux, a Unix clone. That's supposed to be real hard to setup so I won't even try." Install-fests are a good idea to let people who want to try Linux see how easy it actually is to set up.
Crackers don't make money, Hackers need new name
on
"Hackers" are Dumb
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· Score: 1
This has got to be one of the stupidest reports that CNN has ever run. We found out that basing metrics on the LOC produced sloppy, inefficient code. Today, I removed 8 lines of code and replaced it with 2 that do the same job. Does that make me lazy? Its unreasonable to use the LOC as a measure for productivity. I can get rid of all of the include files and subroutines and functions that I call repeatedly and throw that code into my simulation. That would EASILY increase the LOC by a factor of at least 10. Would all that redundancy be better? I mean, after all, at least CNN wouldn't think that I'm lazy, or "fat and happy."
Maybe a better article would be on the press reporting on things that they have no clue about, so they sound really really ignorant when they write an article. Who knows?
This is a crock. I just installed win98 on my machine (it keeps the karma good with the game gods). The hoops I had to jump through were unbelievable. First, I have an old HP4020i CD. There aren't even win98 drivers for it. I had to go to the Advansys homepage and follow thier directions on how to edit the boot disk to get win98 to recognize the drive. That done, installation continued. It continued until the machine rebooted itself. First thing was that it wiped out my MBR. Ok, have to reinstall LILO, no big deal. Then it tried to load the drivers off of the cd that it couldnt read because the drivers for the cd are on the cd. Thats pure brillance.
I had to reboot into Linux, (reinstalled LILO while I was there) and copied the cd to the hard drive. These guys are telling people that Linux doesnt support obscure device drivers? Thats insane. I can grab advansys.i and the drivers are already in the kernel.
FUD pisses me off. The problem is that people trust the FUD throwers. There needs to be a forum where newbies or those interested can go and read the truth. ZDNet and others get a lot of exposure to the uninitiated that those who refute the pages don't. That needs to change.
Why does the article start of by saying that Linux needs support for this, this, and this? The part that confuses me is USB support. Why would there need to be USB support on anything to make it a game platform? I thought USB was a flop, and basically worthless. Maybe I was wrong...
I use to work in the graphics lab at school. The year I was the head monitor (not really any user contact, purely software/managerial type stuff) was the first year they had NT installed. We were having so many problems with it that the head of PC IT spent about 3 hours per day for a week straight on the help line with MS. They finally said "We have experienced that problem too, but if you re-install the service pack 3 about once/month it should aleviate the problem." I had to waste one Saturday afternoon a month reinstalling NT (we already had the scripts set up for it, so I figured it'd be easier than just the SP3--maybe I was wrong). The prof who talked the lab into going NT was not happy with his decision at all.
After wasting the time to read this article, I wanted to go back to/. Now the stupid slate.com site pops up in Netscapes' word completion woobie in the Location Box. I use to just have to type sl to get to/. Microsoft is trying to exert its influence everywhere:P
Can somebody tell me how to get that slate.com off my Netscape list?
I have to agree. The first time I installed Linux (back in the 1.0 days), I knew very little about PCs. I grew up with an Apple, and had very little exposure to a PC till I went to college. There I got really sick really quick of Win 3.1 crashing. So I saw Matt Welsh's Installation Guide, printed it out, and read it a few times. After convincing myself that it wasn't too tough, I downloaded Slackware and took off. I think that if you have any desire to learn at all, and can read English (although its probably translated into other languages by now), Linux is incredibly easy to install. Nowhere have I ever seen a comprehensive manual on how to install any MS product. Thanks Matt!!!
This article made me laugh. Why would anybody get a Microsoft programmer to write a (supposedly) unbiased article? That would be like a vegetarian writing an article on the health benefits of beef. Anyway, my favorite quote of the article is: "You can add a graphical interface known as Xwindows, which looks amazingly like Windows, complete with a Start button."
Now, I'm certainly not an expert on computer history, but wasn't X around before (or at least soon after) MacOs?
Alls I can say is that if I ever get cool enough to carry a pager or cell phone (much less both) then somebody needs to shoot me. If I am away from my computer/phones at home, its probably because I don't want to be bothered. Whats really irratating is people who take cell phones and pagers on camping trips. I don't know, maybe I'm just doing my best not to be a "sheeple."
Alls I can say is that if I ever get cool enough to carry a pager or cell phone (much less both) than somebody needs to shoot me. If I am away from my computer/phones at home, its probably because I don't want to be bothered. Whats really irratating is people who take cell phones and pagers on camping trips. I don't know, maybe I'm just doing my best not to be a "sheeple."
Being a part of the Linux movement is kind of like belonging to a club. Each member has his own ideas who should be accepted into it. There is A LOT of arrogance associated with it, just like any fraternity or sorority. I was like that when I started using Linux (a LONG time ago). However, I feel that I grew out of the arrogance stage. Now, when people ask for help, I am happy to help. The more helpful people are to the newbies, the happier the newbies will be with Linux. If people are happy with it, they are a hell of a lot more apt to show it off to others, creating a snowball effect. That LAME guy has a point, but its nothing to worry about. Its the frustrations of somebody who hasn't had somebody show him the intricacies of the club yet (and from the tone of his post, never will).
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Thats evidently the way our company thinks also. We need to spend $1500 and 3 weeks per license for compilers because we are not allowed to download free compilers from the 'net.
If its free, it can't nearly be as good as something you could pay copious amounts of $$$ for. Productivity be damned, we want to waste money.
If the company managers/CEOs/and government officials were in charge from the beginning, I'm surprised we ever climbed down from that first tree.
Don't forget to add simulation. We have a ton of SGI boxes doing everything from being workstations, to powerhouses that run full-sized flight simulators. SGI boxes pretty much kick.
People who use Back Orifice or rootkits are NOT hackers or crackers. They are lame-ass script kiddies who wouldn't know what hacking/cracking really implies.
Back in the mid-late 80s while playing with code, I was considered hacking. When I was seeing if a system could be broken into, it was considered hacking. People who break copy protection off software crack it. That's always been the distinction for as long as I remember it.
I think this whole hacking/cracking thing is wacked. You don't crack sites, you hack into sites. You don't hack passwords, you crack passwords. There is a subtle distinction between what you are doing, how you are doing it, and whether you are a hacker or a cracker. Personally, I feel that crackers are more detremental (sp?) to society, and generally have a worse image (well deserved). Hackers, depending on the group you are talking to could either be a derogatory or complimentary term.
That is my favorite quote in the whole article. This proves that journalists don't have a real clue about what is going on.
"They need to know what's important, what's true and what's useful."
Does that mean that they are going to start learning what's true and useful, because overall, I don't think its been happening to date.
In our AstroPhysics class (taught by a guy with a Nobel Prize) we had a real lengthy discussion about terraforming Mars. Basically, Mars is spinning too fast and is too far (or maybe close, I don't remember exactly) to the sun for it to actually be able to hold water vapor. Mars needs to be warmed up (or cooled down, its been 2 years since the class) and slowed down before an atmosphere with water vapor can exist.
The weight isn't the only problem, how about reliability of the launch vehicles? What is the Titan IV's record, 1 successful launch and 3 shanked? The Delta IV isn't much better. I'm not sure that I would want nuclear waste being released into the lower atmosphere because of a launch vehicle explosion.
Just a thought.
I work in a combat simulations group, and every sim has FORTRAN at its core, either for the entire structure except for UI, or at least for the aerodynamic sections of code. I don't think that FORTRAN will ever be done away with, there is too much heritage with it out there. Modern Aerospace Engineering Degrees require FORTRAN (at least mine did), but C/C++ are all electives for the CS majors.
We are planning on porting one of the sims from IRIX to linux, but thats been planned for awhile. I'll just have to see what happens...
No kidding. I'm stuck trying to decide if this makes life more interesting/entertaining or just downright scary.
I happen to love StarOffice. I haven't used KOffice yet, but am kind of interested in looking at the spreadsheet. It's going to be nice to be able to add the functions you want to use, rather than having to divide a problem up into 20 steps like with EXCEL.
I'm damn glad that MSOffice isn't available for Linux. I absolutely hate software that is targeted at people so stupid that it tries to think for me and gets everything wrong. I need to use Office 97 at work, and it constantly tries to change my style and numbering, it its always wrong. After using Word97 at work and school for a couple of years, I'm still looking for the button marked "Quit thinking for me and let me get my work done without your interference."
Here comes Snow Crash. Where do I sign up? I wanna be there on opening day. =)
:P
Focusing on something that close to your eye isnt a problem when its transparent. The way the goggles or HMDs work in attack/recon helicopters is that the glasses make it look like the symbology is superimposed over the real world. there is no conscious switching focal points (that i was ever aware of). Its really nifty and not nearly as hard as people think.
Ok, the only thing I can say about that last paragraph is that I know what I meant to say, but I don't know if anybody will be able to read what I meant
Its easy enough to upgrade without having to wait for somebody to package stuff in a RPM for you :)
I use Slackware and will forever, as far as I can tell. I was really surprised when they said that RedHat and Independence were the two biggest distributions. I knew RedHat was, but I think I only heard of Independence once, quite a while ago.
;)) see the whole network without even blinking. And they took less time to set up and configure. It was working and nfs mounting disks from the server in about 20 mins, while Win98 took like 38mins (according to the clock that they use that can't tell time) just to install (and that was after trying to get Windows to recognize my cdrom thats been discontinued for over an hour), and about 30 mins to configure.
I don't believe that setting up a linux box is any harder than setting up a Winblows box. I still have problems getting Win98 to see our whole network at home, but our Linux systems (mine is Slack and my roomie uses SUSE... *sheesh* foreigners
The real problem seems to be in people's perception of Linux. "Oh no!!! They said Linux, a Unix clone. That's supposed to be real hard to setup so I won't even try." Install-fests are a good idea to let people who want to try Linux see how easy it actually is to set up.
I personally like the term "CodeSlinger"
This has got to be one of the stupidest reports that CNN has ever run. We found out that basing metrics on the LOC produced sloppy, inefficient code. Today, I removed 8 lines of code and replaced it with 2 that do the same job. Does that make me lazy? Its unreasonable to use the LOC as a measure for productivity. I can get rid of all of the include files and subroutines and functions that I call repeatedly and throw that code into my simulation. That would EASILY increase the LOC by a factor of at least 10. Would all that redundancy be better? I mean, after all, at least CNN wouldn't think that I'm lazy, or "fat and happy."
Maybe a better article would be on the press reporting on things that they have no clue about, so they sound really really ignorant when they write an article. Who knows?
This is a crock. I just installed win98 on my machine (it keeps the karma good with the game gods). The hoops I had to jump through were unbelievable. First, I have an old HP4020i CD. There aren't even win98 drivers for it. I had to go to the Advansys homepage and follow thier directions on how to edit the boot disk to get win98 to recognize the drive. That done, installation continued. It continued until the machine rebooted itself. First thing was that it wiped out my MBR. Ok, have to reinstall LILO, no big deal. Then it tried to load the drivers off of the cd that it couldnt read because the drivers for the cd are on the cd. Thats pure brillance.
I had to reboot into Linux, (reinstalled LILO while I was there) and copied the cd to the hard drive. These guys are telling people that Linux doesnt support obscure device drivers? Thats insane. I can grab advansys.i and the drivers are already in the kernel.
FUD pisses me off. The problem is that people trust the FUD throwers. There needs to be a forum where newbies or those interested can go and read the truth. ZDNet and others get a lot of exposure to the uninitiated that those who refute the pages don't. That needs to change.
Wow, I'm really rambling. I'll shutup now.
Why does the article start of by saying that Linux needs support for this, this, and this? The part that confuses me is USB support. Why would there need to be USB support on anything to make it a game platform? I thought USB was a flop, and basically worthless. Maybe I was wrong...
I use to work in the graphics lab at school. The year I was the head monitor (not really any user contact, purely software/managerial type stuff) was the first year they had NT installed. We were having so many problems with it that the head of PC IT spent about 3 hours per day for a week straight on the help line with MS. They finally said "We have experienced that problem too, but if you re-install the service pack 3 about once/month it should aleviate the problem." I had to waste one Saturday afternoon a month reinstalling NT (we already had the scripts set up for it, so I figured it'd be easier than just the SP3--maybe I was wrong). The prof who talked the lab into going NT was not happy with his decision at all.
After wasting the time to read this article, I wanted to go back to /. Now the stupid slate.com site pops up in Netscapes' word completion woobie in the Location Box. I use to just have to type sl to get to /. Microsoft is trying to exert its influence everywhere :P
Can somebody tell me how to get that slate.com off my Netscape list?
I have to agree. The first time I installed Linux (back in the 1.0 days), I knew very little about PCs. I grew up with an Apple, and had very little exposure to a PC till I went to college. There I got really sick really quick of Win 3.1 crashing. So I saw Matt Welsh's Installation Guide, printed it out, and read it a few times. After convincing myself that it wasn't too tough, I downloaded Slackware and took off. I think that if you have any desire to learn at all, and can read English (although its probably translated into other languages by now), Linux is incredibly easy to install. Nowhere have I ever seen a comprehensive manual on how to install any MS product. Thanks Matt!!!
This article made me laugh. Why would anybody get a Microsoft programmer to write a (supposedly) unbiased article? That would be like a vegetarian writing an article on the health benefits of beef. Anyway, my favorite quote of the article is:
"You can add a graphical interface known as Xwindows, which looks amazingly like Windows, complete with a Start button."
Now, I'm certainly not an expert on computer history, but wasn't X around before (or at least soon after) MacOs?
Sorry about the repost. I guess I dont know the difference between "Submit" and "Preview" yet...
Alls I can say is that if I ever get cool enough to carry a pager or cell phone (much less both) then somebody needs to shoot me. If I am away from my computer/phones at home, its probably because I don't want to be bothered. Whats really irratating is people who take cell phones and pagers on camping trips. I don't know, maybe I'm just doing my best not to be a "sheeple."
Alls I can say is that if I ever get cool enough to carry a pager or cell phone (much less both) than somebody needs to shoot me. If I am away from my computer/phones at home, its probably because I don't want to be bothered. Whats really irratating is people who take cell phones and pagers on camping trips. I don't know, maybe I'm just doing my best not to be a "sheeple."
Being a part of the Linux movement is kind of like belonging to a club. Each member has his own ideas who should be accepted into it. There is A LOT of arrogance associated with it, just like any fraternity or sorority. I was like that when I started using Linux (a LONG time ago). However, I feel that I grew out of the arrogance stage. Now, when people ask for help, I am happy to help. The more helpful people are to the newbies, the happier the newbies will be with Linux. If people are happy with it, they are a hell of a lot more apt to show it off to others, creating a snowball effect. That LAME guy has a point, but its nothing to worry about. Its the frustrations of somebody who hasn't had somebody show him the intricacies of the club yet (and from the tone of his post, never will).