That's just a problem of not having new windows get keyboard focus. Most WM's (not sure about Gnome) have had the ability to turn that off for quite awhile, and the ones that care about security have it set like that by default.
That said, on my XP SP2 machine, new windows get the keyboard focus.
Bear in mind that if you're expecting this to be part of any distribution right now, you're going to be disappointed. The way this stuff works is that the package maintainer (in this case, the Gnome guys) releases it to the world. After that, the various distribution maintainers incorporate it into their distributions. So, expect to see this in the next major revision of the Linux distro you choose to use.
The Live CD will let you try it, but I don't know how complete a distribution it comes with.
I find that gamers are much better at independent thought and analysis, and are, in general, much more creative than non-gamers. (This is not a 100% correlation. Indeed, many gamers are complete weenies. However, a former employer hired several people out of my gaming group and was specifically asking me for more of them, because they were engineers, programmers and technicians who could come up with more inventive solutions, so it does hold some water). Anyway, this is often contrary to military and security needs.
Aside from kernel updates, I've never had to reboot Ubuntu. And, when the kernel update happens, you're not forced to reboot. Of course, you can't use the new kernel until you do, but still.
This depends - getting an MBA works if what you want is to be management. On the other hand, if you want to be a real engineer for the rest of your life, it may not be the right way to go. You might overqualify yourself out of a job.
I'm kind of in the same boat, but my thought is to work for 10 years or so, then go back and get a fast track masters/Ph.D and then teach.
File extensions: Right, because determining what I file is by extension is SO much better than using the magic number (ala file). One of the most annoying things about windows is when people rename something, hose the extension, then can't open it anymore.
Ugly UI Mine looks like OSX too, except that it has a sticky button because I have multiple desktops and it allows me to windowshade things. What does this make? A pretty and usable UI. Oh, and referencing the original article - the fact that "real programmers don't care about fancy GUI's" is just silly. I get a lot more done with windowshading + multiple desktops. I have 37 emacs windows opening and a little terminal in the corner for typing "make". Much better than that damable MDI interface on Visual Studio.
You're not alone - I find windows much more difficult to install. Compare and contrast: Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog): 1.) Go through Ubuntu installer 2.) Reboot 3.) It finishes 4.) Login 5.) apt-get update 6.) apt-get dist-upgrade 7.) apt-get istall a huge list of apps not in the default system, but that I've made a list of and just have to copy/paste 8.) Use system.
Windows XP: 0.) Make sure you're behind a firewall so you don't get compromised before you patch the system. 1.) Go through Widows Installer 2.) Reboot 3.) It finishes 4.) Login 5.) Run widows update 6.) Reboot 7.) Repeat steps 5 and 6 until no updates remain. 8.) Install your applications, one at a time, off their original installation media, using a whole bunch of different installers and interfaces. Oh, and you'll probably have to reboot once for each three apps you install.
Now, which is easier? (And I didn't even get into the driver update hell that is Windows).
If you had another job lined up, no. If you didn't but have some money in savings, no dependants, probably not. If you have kids and no money, then it probably was a little too impulsive. Of course, if other working adults within your household are both able and willing to take up the slack, then it's probably not so bad.
I left my company recently, but only resigned after accepting another position.
However, this is predicated upon the fact that the system defined NULL is 0 (because typically, if whatever you're trying to do fails, the pointer you supplied would be set to NULL, which does not have to be 0).
The problem is that there is nothing that says that NULL must be 0. Potentially, one could define NULL to be something else - like -1. Therefore, one should always use if(ptr == NULL).
I have no idea if these are available for your platform, (I'm on Linux) but I'm partial to xfrisk and cgoban/gnugo (cgoban is the board, gnugo is the AI). xfrisk is a Risk thing, and cgoban is Go.
Makes me want to work on Direct Neural Interfaces. Cyberjacks out of Stephenson novels and such...
- By that logic, we should ban automobiles because they are responsible for so many deaths. - Switzerland and Canada have similar gun ownership, but far fewer firearm-related deaths; why? Maybe it's the Cowboy attitude that we have, rather than ready access to firearms? - Removing firearms from law-abiding citizens implies that citizens are guilty of something having never committed a crime. (We don't trust that you won't do something, so we're going to take care of you and take this away). This violates some basic precepts of a free society in general (you have to actually do something wrong before being punished for it) and American society in general. - Then, there's the larger societal issue of an armed populous being vital to fight foreign invasion or domestic coups.
I've started playing Mercenaries. It's basically GTA in a warzone where the civilians are smart enough to run away when things start blowing up. Plus, you get penalized for killing them. So, you run around stealing tanks and using them to kill enemy soldiers. Last night I took out a whole North Korean artillery base (also known as "C4 is fun to play with").
I find it a much more ethically sound game than the GTA series.
True Crime: Streets of LA was a similar "GTA style, but more ethical" game.
I think the meta-argument here is that we keep children as "children" for far too long. Throughout history, "children" made life and death decisions quite frequently (Farragut was given his first command at age 12). Indeed, it wasn't uncommon for 14-16 year old "kids" to be fighting in wars. By pushing off adulthood, we've bred a culture of "lost adolescence"; kids in the 14-18 year range who want to take responsibility and control their lives and yet are not allowed to - they want to be adult.
I bought my mom a Mac and now that I've only been using Windows for work (and even then, only as a development platform) I can (legitimately) claim that I don't know how to fix broken Windows machines anymore (that's why my company has IT people). So, everyone is basically SOL. On the other hand, if you want to use a Linux or OSX machine....
However, SCO has argued that the GPL is invalid because US copyright law supercedes contractual agreements; namely that US copyright law says "one copy only" which takes precedence over "as many copies as you like", unless you are the copyright holder; which means you can make as many copies as you want.
Aside from the lack of legal and historical basis for this position, it also means that they may not distribute GPL-ed software, because they cannot make more than 1 copy, since they do not hold the copyright on the software they are selling.
Also, this would affect all other "freely redistribute" licenses, I would think.
Of course, the whole argument is full of shit anyway, but that's beside the point.
We had a momentary brownout down here in Wakefield, Rhode Island, USA (about 1 mile from URI). Enough to make the UPS's beep, put the power stayed on. And here, I thought it was just the bad power in our office building.
1.) I have difficulty paying for a lossy compression Codec. If I was going to try to replace CD's, requisite to that plan would have to be that the quality is very good. Something like zipp-ed.wav or FLAC encoded files.
http://flac.sourceforge.net/
You at least need to have the choice of a high quality format for audiophiles out there.
2.) Format would have to be portable/convertable to whatever other formats needed (such as FLAC -> MP3 so people can use it on portable players). DRM lockups will not get business.
However, given 1 & 2, and #3 which is I like the music (you need short samples, BTW) I would buy music from you.
Mine worked OOB on RH9 (2.4.20 + X 4.30) If you want to change kernel version, you have to grab the kernel modules for XFree86 4.3.0 from dri.sourceforge.net and install them. I just replaced the ones in/drivers/char/drm (just a cp all the.h and.c files over) and merged the two makefiles. This works for kernels in other distros too..
Look at what we see: broken nVidia drivers, broken ATI drivers.
Let us suppose, just for a minute, that ALL DRIVERS SUCK.
They are all broken, in some way or another. All companies push stuff that isn't ready out the door, especially "stuff that can be fixed in software".
I look at it this way - I would rather have an honestly broken, open-source driver with a public buglist, than a closed "oh, it's ready to ship" driver that you can get no help on at all.
At least then I can work on it in my spare time, to try and get it to play nicely.
I just bought a Radeon 9800. Why? Because I think that when you take away nVidia's driver cheats, ATI has the superior hardware. Can I use it right now? Nope. But, I have a spare box with an AGP slot, source code for the R200's, and some free time. Maybe I can get it up and running and help out a bit. The kernel stuff should already work fine, considering that the ATI drivers don't require a kernel patch to work.
So, in short - all software sucks; open OS's just give me the ability to make it suck less, and that's why I prefer them.
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That's just a problem of not having new windows get keyboard focus. Most WM's (not sure about Gnome) have had the ability to turn that off for quite awhile, and the ones that care about security have it set like that by default.
That said, on my XP SP2 machine, new windows get the keyboard focus.
Hmmm.. Most people I've talked to hate them both and install something else (XFce, WindowMaker, Fluxbox, IceWM, Enlightenment, etc.)
Bear in mind that if you're expecting this to be part of any distribution right now, you're going to be disappointed. The way this stuff works is that the package maintainer (in this case, the Gnome guys) releases it to the world. After that, the various distribution maintainers incorporate it into their distributions. So, expect to see this in the next major revision of the Linux distro you choose to use.
The Live CD will let you try it, but I don't know how complete a distribution it comes with.
Sorry, I got him first with my +1 to hit master crafted Barett M82A1...
I find that gamers are much better at independent thought and analysis, and are, in general, much more creative than non-gamers. (This is not a 100% correlation. Indeed, many gamers are complete weenies. However, a former employer hired several people out of my gaming group and was specifically asking me for more of them, because they were engineers, programmers and technicians who could come up with more inventive solutions, so it does hold some water). Anyway, this is often contrary to military and security needs.
Where's my *&#%%!$@ cyberware dammit!?! I didn't spend my college years playing Shadowrun for nothing.
Aside from kernel updates, I've never had to reboot Ubuntu. And, when the kernel update happens, you're not forced to reboot. Of course, you can't use the new kernel until you do, but still.
Have you actually used Ubuntu, Mr. AC?
This depends - getting an MBA works if what you want is to be management. On the other hand, if you want to be a real engineer for the rest of your life, it may not be the right way to go. You might overqualify yourself out of a job.
I'm kind of in the same boat, but my thought is to work for 10 years or so, then go back and get a fast track masters/Ph.D and then teach.
But, we'll see.
Building on this:
File extensions: Right, because determining what I file is by extension is SO much better than using the magic number (ala file). One of the most annoying things about windows is when people rename something, hose the extension, then can't open it anymore.
Ugly UI Mine looks like OSX too, except that it has a sticky button because I have multiple desktops and it allows me to windowshade things. What does this make? A pretty and usable UI. Oh, and referencing the original article - the fact that "real programmers don't care about fancy GUI's" is just silly. I get a lot more done with windowshading + multiple desktops. I have 37 emacs windows opening and a little terminal in the corner for typing "make". Much better than that damable MDI interface on Visual Studio.
You're not alone - I find windows much more difficult to install. Compare and contrast:
Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog):
1.) Go through Ubuntu installer
2.) Reboot
3.) It finishes
4.) Login
5.) apt-get update
6.) apt-get dist-upgrade
7.) apt-get istall a huge list of apps not in the default system, but that I've made a list of and just have to copy/paste
8.) Use system.
Windows XP:
0.) Make sure you're behind a firewall so you don't get compromised before you patch the system.
1.) Go through Widows Installer
2.) Reboot
3.) It finishes
4.) Login
5.) Run widows update
6.) Reboot
7.) Repeat steps 5 and 6 until no updates remain.
8.) Install your applications, one at a time, off their original installation media, using a whole bunch of different installers and interfaces. Oh, and you'll probably have to reboot once for each three apps you install.
Now, which is easier? (And I didn't even get into the driver update hell that is Windows).
If you had another job lined up, no. If you didn't but have some money in savings, no dependants, probably not. If you have kids and no money, then it probably was a little too impulsive. Of course, if other working adults within your household are both able and willing to take up the slack, then it's probably not so bad.
I left my company recently, but only resigned after accepting another position.
However, this is predicated upon the fact that the system defined NULL is 0 (because typically, if whatever you're trying to do fails, the pointer you supplied would be set to NULL, which does not have to be 0).
if(!ptr) is equivalent to if(ptr == 0)
The problem is that there is nothing that says that NULL must be 0. Potentially, one could define NULL to be something else - like -1. Therefore, one should always use if(ptr == NULL).
Or read the comments.
I have no idea if these are available for your platform, (I'm on Linux) but I'm partial to xfrisk and cgoban/gnugo (cgoban is the board, gnugo is the AI). xfrisk is a Risk thing, and cgoban is Go.
Makes me want to work on Direct Neural Interfaces. Cyberjacks out of Stephenson novels and such...
Good luck!
Have a look at dar (should handle 1-3, and 5) with par2 to get 4.
Actually, even without par2, dar will be able to get all the files except the ones in regions with bad data, IIRC.
- By that logic, we should ban automobiles because they are responsible for so many deaths.
- Switzerland and Canada have similar gun ownership, but far fewer firearm-related deaths; why? Maybe it's the Cowboy attitude that we have, rather than ready access to firearms?
- Removing firearms from law-abiding citizens implies that citizens are guilty of something having never committed a crime. (We don't trust that you won't do something, so we're going to take care of you and take this away). This violates some basic precepts of a free society in general (you have to actually do something wrong before being punished for it) and American society in general.
- Then, there's the larger societal issue of an armed populous being vital to fight foreign invasion or domestic coups.
I've started playing Mercenaries. It's basically GTA in a warzone where the civilians are smart enough to run away when things start blowing up. Plus, you get penalized for killing them. So, you run around stealing tanks and using them to kill enemy soldiers. Last night I took out a whole North Korean artillery base (also known as "C4 is fun to play with").
I find it a much more ethically sound game than the GTA series.
True Crime: Streets of LA was a similar "GTA style, but more ethical" game.
I think the meta-argument here is that we keep children as "children" for far too long. Throughout history, "children" made life and death decisions quite frequently (Farragut was given his first command at age 12). Indeed, it wasn't uncommon for 14-16 year old "kids" to be fighting in wars. By pushing off adulthood, we've bred a culture of "lost adolescence"; kids in the 14-18 year range who want to take responsibility and control their lives and yet are not allowed to - they want to be adult.
I bought my mom a Mac and now that I've only been using Windows for work (and even then, only as a development platform) I can (legitimately) claim that I don't know how to fix broken Windows machines anymore (that's why my company has IT people). So, everyone is basically SOL. On the other hand, if you want to use a Linux or OSX machine....
I just simply cannot help them - I know nothing about Windows anymore, so I can't help.
However, SCO has argued that the GPL is invalid because US copyright law supercedes contractual agreements; namely that US copyright law says "one copy only" which takes precedence over "as many copies as you like", unless you are the copyright holder; which means you can make as many copies as you want.
Aside from the lack of legal and historical basis for this position, it also means that they may not distribute GPL-ed software, because they cannot make more than 1 copy, since they do not hold the copyright on the software they are selling.
Also, this would affect all other "freely redistribute" licenses, I would think.
Of course, the whole argument is full of shit anyway, but that's beside the point.
We had a momentary brownout down here in Wakefield, Rhode Island, USA (about 1 mile from URI). Enough to make the UPS's beep, put the power stayed on. And here, I thought it was just the bad power in our office building.
1.) I have difficulty paying for a lossy compression Codec. If I was going to try to replace CD's, requisite to that plan would have to be that the quality is very good. Something like zipp-ed .wav or FLAC encoded files.
.02.
http://flac.sourceforge.net/
You at least need to have the choice of a high quality format for audiophiles out there.
2.) Format would have to be portable/convertable to whatever other formats needed (such as FLAC -> MP3 so people can use it on portable players). DRM lockups will not get business.
However, given 1 & 2, and #3 which is I like the music (you need short samples, BTW) I would buy music from you.
My.
Mine worked OOB on RH9 (2.4.20 + X 4.30) If you want to change kernel version, you have to grab the kernel modules for XFree86 4.3.0 from dri.sourceforge.net and install them. I just replaced the ones in /drivers/char/drm (just a cp all the .h and .c files over) and merged the two makefiles. This works for kernels in other distros too..
Look at what we see: broken nVidia drivers, broken ATI drivers.
Let us suppose, just for a minute, that ALL DRIVERS SUCK.
They are all broken, in some way or another. All companies push stuff that isn't ready out the door, especially "stuff that can be fixed in software".
I look at it this way - I would rather have an honestly broken, open-source driver with a public buglist, than a closed "oh, it's ready to ship" driver that you can get no help on at all.
At least then I can work on it in my spare time, to try and get it to play nicely.
I just bought a Radeon 9800. Why? Because I think that when you take away nVidia's driver cheats, ATI has the superior hardware. Can I use it right now? Nope. But, I have a spare box with an AGP slot, source code for the R200's, and some free time. Maybe I can get it up and running and help out a bit. The kernel stuff should already work fine, considering that the ATI drivers don't require a kernel patch to work.
So, in short - all software sucks; open OS's just give me the ability to make it suck less, and that's why I prefer them.