"Any platform," huh? Well, that was never true anyway, and it didn't last very long. Oh well, with the release of GIMP 2.0, Adobe will probably go bankrupt within the next week or so, so what difference does it make anyway...
I believe he's making a big mistake. As an open sourced tool, I believe that some amazing solutions would show up for Java that will probably never appear with it being closed source.
Look at perl for example. Do you think it would be where it is today if it were closed source? It would probably be some hack that about 2 guys use. But no, it's on the standard distribution of just about any UNIX-like OS out there, and many websites use mod perl with Apache to get some great results (including/.)...
Imagine where Java would be if it were open sourced. I think that most desktop software could even be developed for Java and run the same on any platform. No more Microsoft monopoly. You could buy a program and run it on OS X, Linux, Windows, or whatever. How? By being open sourced, it would probably become so efficient and powerful that nobody would want to waste their time natively compiling stuff for this system or that.
I hate to say this in this forum because I know that a lot of readers here are liberals, but some are so far left that they can't see straight anymore, so hopefully they'll read this differing conservative viewpoint and reconsider their position. After all, liberals like to advocate being tolerant of others' opinions, yet many tend to be quite intolerant when anyone disagrees with them. Ok, here goes:
In a report by the AeA, they contend that American schools don't teach enough math and science anymore.
In my opinion, schools have been placing too much emphasis on liberal social issues. For example, children are being taught gay issues on school time that could instead be spent teaching them how to succeed in life. (I won't say whether or not I am gay. It's none of your business.) I simply think that this subject is completely off topic in the academic environment.
Schools need to get their act together. English class (or whatever language is spoken in your part of the world) should be about spelling, grammar, punctuation, proper use of a dictionary, etc. Currently, English class is an excuse to read and write about liberal social issues.
The way math is taught should be overhauled, because too many students are turned off from it and grow up barely able to balance a checkbook. In fact, basic accounting, a subject that could be considered math, should probably be taught, because children are increasingly growing up very irresponsible financially, and getting into a lot of debt before they get their first "real" job.
Sciences should also be a focus. Physics, chemistry, biology, space sciences, geology, and many other sciences should be taught. Keep kids in school for an additional hour if you need to. It'll keep them off of drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, sex, and other problems.
An area that is currently lacking in public schools is business classes. You don't have to teach anything complicated. Just basic people skills, how to believe in yourself, how to get results. This will go extremely far in most children's futures.
And MOST IMPORTANTLY, schools should offer art classes, auto shop, printing shop, wood shop, metal shop, sewing, acting, music, computer programming, sports, drama, computer animation, and any other "elective" that someone could dream of. (This is not an exhaustive list, only the first items that came to my mind.) And the BEST equipment and instructions, and plenty of time, should be provided for students. These are the subjects that let kids' imaginations grow. These are the subjects that get students interested in school and keep them interested in the boring academic crap. All you need to tell a kid who is an animation fanatic is that "all those other classes are what make you really good at animation." Even if they have to cut funding to the aforementioned boring stuff, and have 80 students in each English class, the auto shop should be better than Jesse James' wildest dreams. And *everyone*, not just property owners, should pay equally for educational taxes. The burden on property owners will be less, thereby causing rental prices to drop, while the revenue for schools will climb.
Billions upon billions of dollars are allocated for the currently useless schools, and the administrators probably jack most of it. This money should be used for constructive purposes. If you disagree, then wait until Mexico gets its act together and people start sneaking the other way across the border.
The liberals amongst you are probably horrified at this point.
I have an idea relating to LinuxBIOS that stems from a job I work sometimes involving industrial machines and their archaic control systems. Some of these computers require a technician to turn them on because of a complex procedure that must be carried out, including the typing in, by hand, of the first few assembly instructions to be executed, which tell the computer to read some software from some weird ROM, which then tells the computer to load the "real" operating software from something over RS-232. For this reason (among others), these machines are never turned off, except in a power outtage, which is a nightmare for machine shop owners. And it could all have been avoided by designing the computer a little differently, placing the OS itself in the ROM, and making the computer load it automatically on powerup.
I see this exactly the way I see modern operating systems boot up. The BIOS goes to some place and reads 512 bytes. Those bytes load up a "real" bootloader. That bootloader loads up some darn thing, which loads up the kernel, which loads up a bunch of device drivers and other software, and after a minute of grinding the disk, you have a system waiting for input. Why all this fuss?
My idea, then, is that instead of having an operating system kernel on your hard drive, it and its bootloader should reside in a really friggen powerful BIOS chip. By powerful I mean that there should be a LOT of flash space and the BIOS itself should be a relatively powerful microprocessor. The software is started immediately upon the powerup of the computer. The BIOS Flash then looks like the root partition; it is mounted just like the hard drives and other devices are. All device drivers are present in the kernel, anyway, and since the BIOS is designed for the computer (by the factory) or configured (by a hacker who puts together his own system), there is nothing to detect or load. Furthermore, all software that starts at startup has a complete image "frozen" in the BIOS Flash, and is copied directly into RAM during the initial stages of startup. Therefore, if you have X, and an entire desktop environment, the entire computer goes from OFF to running X and your desktop software, and whatever else you want for that matter, in almost no time at all. Your monitor would probably take longer to warm up then it would take for your desktop to be ready for input.
This sounds a lot like un-suspending a computer that is in suspend mode, and yes, in effect, it's just like that. You have your system running the way you want it to start up, then you "freeze" it a la VMWare, put it in the BIOS Flash, and when you turn on the computer, the BIOS copies the image directly into RAM, with perhaps a few routines here and there that initialize hardware upon powerup, or set a few values throughout RAM, like time-sensitive things and whatnot... No matter how fast MS makes their OS load, it'll never come close to this kind of performance.
Take it a step further, and each user could have almost an entire operating system setup, as if the computer has multiple personalities from the bootloader up. The BIOS has some routine that lets you log in, and accordingly, selects the image that will get loaded. In this respect, you could completely power down the computer, and come back a week later, turn it on, and immediately it will return to where it was.
This will probably be the case in 10 years or so. (Hey, in the 90's we went from the 386 SX to the Pentium 3. Who knows what the hell will happen by 2015 or so.)
Hotmail and Yahoo! both run on FreeBSD. It must mean the BSD's are dying...
Disclaimer: I run FreeBSD. I know Hotmail no longer runs on FreeBSD. But it runs on Windows, which is probably just a BSD fork with added bugs, vulnerabilities, and security holes. (I haven't used Windows in a few years though, so don't take my word for the BSD clone thing.)
This is some incredibly exciting news! I am over there, downloading this right now, as I write, in another window. First, I'm going to install it on my Linux tower, and then, I'll take it to work and put it on all those poor computers that have to execute that software from Brand "X" (er, Brand "XP").
The most awesome application I can think of for these drives is "live" CD's of Linux, *BSDs, etc.
In fact, with so much storage, perhaps it will become possible to partition these discs and put several Linux distributions and *BSDs, running essentially the same application software, to allow people to compare and contrast them without actually installing anything.
Oh yeah, and the rumors of this technology have kept me waiting for months to buy a DVD burner.
Funny how not two hours ago, in the story that appeared just before this one, I posted a long post about how car enthusiasts and computer geeks are very similar.
It's funny... My friends and I are into both cars and computers. I'm thinking of one friend in particular who has the fastest car in the crowd... he is also the only one among us who likes to overclock his stuff. It all started a few years ago when he had a motherboard that allowed him to set the speed with some jumper settings. He said, "Hmmm... This CPU is only supposed to go up to X mhz" (I think it was, like, 233 or something) "but let's put it on 300 and see what happens." Apparently, it worked fine, so he's been pushing his computers ever since.
Funny thing about reliability vs. performance, too: Among our group of friends, he has had the most hard drive disasters, and has also had the most transmissions break in his car (physically break--as in a loud BAM!!! from power-shifting too much). Both are mechanical systems... I wonder if there is any correlation.
On the other hand, there are programmers who don't know a screwdriver from an impact wrench, and there is the story I recently read about how new cars' computer codes frustrate mechanics. Most of these guys are purely mechanically inclined. I think there is a serious need for people in each of these two industries to familiarize themselves with the other.
"As you can see, we've had our eye on you for some time now, Mr. Anderson. It seems that you've been living
three lives. In one, you're Thomas A. Anderson... The second life is lived in computers, where you go by the hacker alias Neo... The third life is lived at drag races and car shows, where you are known as Smoked Chevy and have made every moving violation we have a law for."
I admittedly haven't read the article (yet), but I'd like to include a few reasons of my own that programming stinks. As you might guess, I am a programmer.
My friends and I compare a lot of computer things to car things. Most likely, we do that because we are enthusiasts of both. Fast cars and fast software are very similar in many respects.
A little background information on cars is necessary to gain the full effect of my argument about programming. Although the next three paragraphs may seem unnecessary at first glance, I assure you that I am a careful writer and that you should read them.
Car enthusiasts fall into quite a few categories. For example, people who restore classic Mopar or Chevy cars enjoy making everything look like "mint" condition. Usually, every part of the car is so spotless and beautiful that you could eat off the engine. On the other end of the classic car spectrum, there are those who will tub out the entire car and concentrate only on performance features. These cars may not look like much, but they'll break your neck if you push the gas too hard. And of course, there is an entire spectrum of prefenences between these two ideals.
In most of these categories, the hard core enthusiasts like to do the ENTIRE job themselves. They won't let anyone else touch their cars. The wanna be's will usually contract out nearly everything, because they want the glamor of showing up at car shows and showing off their machine, but can't hold a screwdriver and don't know the difference between a 6-point wrench and an Allen wrench. And of course, there is an entire spectrum of car knowledge, experience, and do-it-yourself levels in between these two extremes.
Somewhere in the middle of the two extremes are people like my friends and I. We do a lot of work ourselves, but when it's a complex or high-risk job, or if we don't feel like doing it because it's boring and time consuming, we'll have a professional do it. There are auto mechanics who do pretty much any job. And there are mechanics who specialize in a specific area. For example, I have my radiator guy, my transmission guy, my engine rebuilding guy, my chrome plating guy, my carpet guy, my headliner guy, and the list goes on and on. I use each specific person for the job he excels at because I understand thoroughly what I am about to explain.
Programmers are a lot like the car enthusiasts that I am and whom I describe above. Some prefer to do EVERYTHING, like that guy who wrote 386BSD and wouldn't insert other peoples' code improvements. (The project got forked and now you've got the *BSDs, and that guy is no longer involved as far as I know.) Some prefer to concentrate only on a specific area of software, such as graphics, numerical algorithms, kernel schedulers, assembly optimizations, databases, text processing, and the list goes on and on forever. Even an area such as graphics can break down into a plethora of categories, such as charting software, user interfaces, etc.
The biggest reason that software sucks, in my opinion, is the very same reason that the automotive repair industry sucks. I wouldn't be surprised if programmers are just as hated as car mechanics. The programmer's boss is just like the old lady who takes her car to the mechanic. Neither knows anything about the job at hand. The only thing they know is that it costs them big and the results suck.
For the programmer's boss, the software contains bugs, is difficult and confusing for the customer to use, and takes much too long to develop, so the market window closes, the project goes over budget, and maybe higher management cancels the project altogether.
For the little old lady, the car broke down. The mechanic wants to fix it properly. But doing so will take weeks (believe me). The symptoms are caused by one or more problems, which require several new parts and quite a lot of labor to repair. The parts may be hard to find. The old ones may need to be rebuilt. And generally, people don't like renting a car for t
Funny thing. I click on the "Read More" link for this story, and the huge ad that appears directly under it is for...Google!!! Is that irony, or does/. use some algorithm for displaying related ads inside stories, for users who would be more likely to click on those ads?
Anyway, here's what I was going to post... Can this CPA add up 2 and 2? If there is libelous information on the Internet, and he wishes to pursue litigation, then he should go after the persons responsible for the information. Google is only an index, making the information on the Internet easily available for access. Without Google (and perhaps without similar search engines), it would be all but impossible to find anything useful on the Internet.
In fact, I think the aforementioned CPA should THANK Google for making it possible for him to FIND the offending information, so that he can take action against whomever he should take action. Without Google, the alleged libel might have been posted all over the Internet and our friend the CPA would never have been any the wiser.
I further think there is no basis in law for suing an index for pointing to information. On the contrary, I think this was tested in court quite a few times (in all those trials against linking to pages within a site) and it was decided that you can link to whatever the heck you want to link to.
Therefore, I think this CPA is making a stupid decision, and I believe the case will get dismissed. I hope Google countersues for legal fees. And wins.
Oh yeah, and did I mention I'm a Supreme Court Justice? Yeah, the Supreme Court of Bullshit.
At this point, perhaps Apple should concentrate a little *less* on innovation and concentrate a LOT *more* on selling. There are many, many, many people out there who are sick of Windows, sick of PCs, sick of all the garbage that you have to put up with, who would switch in a minute if Apple would put a little more effort into marketing.
And if they insist on innovating, why not release Mac OS X for the PC platform? Sure, it might totally fuck sales of their hardware, which graphic artists and musicians would undoubtedly continue to buy anyway, but many people would gladly use Mac OS X on the PC because it is clearly, obviously, and in every other way TOTALLY better than that shit that Microsoft makes.
Oh yeah, and one other thing... Since OS X is based on BSD, and both Apple and BSD are obviously dying (and have been for the past, what, 20 years?), what does that say about Linux? Probably that Linux is the suxx0rz because emacs is too complicated.
In other news, Microsoft today announced plans to acquire the government of the United States. By leveraging innovative technologies, content providers streamline compelling enterprise solutions.
A Microsoft spokenperson commented, "By controlling what is arguably the most powerful government in the world, Microsoft will be able to better control the rights of consumers in regards to the company's valuable intellectual property."
The first change to be made, according to Chairman and now Chief World Domination Officer Bill Gates, is to rename the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) to MRS (Microsoft Revenue Service). From now on, all tax dollars will go directly into Bill Gates' checking account.
Microsoft's acquisitions last week of the RIAA, MPAA, SCO, and the Equifax credit reporting bureau have empowered the company to supply the best operating system since Windows XP, enabling the multinational corporations next on Microsoft's acquisition list to gain a higher return on lawsuits against their own customers.
Microsoft stock climbed 90 points after the announcement.
Do you have any old cell phones around? Ones you've replaced with newer models? Take one of those old phones, remove the electronics inside, and place a device inside that would play back the sound of a phone's ringer. Make it ring approximately every 30 seconds, and make it *L*O*U*D*
Tell management that you will continue to make this noise until (1) They reverse the stupid policy, or (2) They fire you.
Upon getting fired, go stand in the unemployment line, and continue getting paid by your company for the next 12 months.
It's a good thing I heard about this today, because I was planning on removing those old decrepid antennas I have on my roof this weekend. Now, I'm going to keep them. Forever.
I think a federal law should be passed mandating that every single person have such a device installed on their vocal chords, which would capture and transmit ALL of their subvocal sounds to a central government computer, which would analyse the sounds and alert law enforcement officials to any suspicious activity which might take place at some future time. The device would also include a GPS receiver, and would transmit the person's location to the same system. Upon receipt of notification of possible contingent suspicious activity, law enforcement officials would detain the person in question and charge that person with a special class of felony not subject to the laws of due process. Conviction is automatic and the subject is immediately sentenced to death row.
Yes, I think this would be a good system for making the entire planet a safe and happy place to live, where nobody is ever in fear of anything that might even resemble something even remotely doubleplusungood.
In other news, NASA today announced that a pebble the size of, well, a pebble, will be passing within 1,000,000,000 billion miles of the Earth today. This pebble does not put Earth in danger, NASA spokespersons said.
(Later, while NASA continued to track this pebble, a rock six times the size of the sun came by and hit the Earth head-on. The entire planet became completely smashed up and is now a minor blemish of dirt on the face of the big rock. Oh well.)
Microsoft should be forced to release ALL source code and documentation for EVERY product they released during the company's existance under the GPL. They should be forced to give all their assets to the Free Software Foundation. Microsoft should be forced to shut down. And Bill Gates should be forced to give Linus Torvalds all of his personal assets, and work for Linus as a janitor. And pigs should be forced to grow wings and fly.
Without power, the air filtration systems are inoperable. Without power, decontamination procedures break down. Without power, the seals in the pressurized airlock doors start to deflate...
No doubt, they work on government funding, and lots of it. So they can afford a Level 4 air filtration system. So they can afford decontamination procedures. So they can afford pressurized airlock doors...
BUT THEY CANNOT AFFORD A GASOLINE OPERATED POWER GENERATOR?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Apple Computer today announced its new 1024-qubit microprocessor architecture technology. Named the G9, Apple's new processor core boasts powerful new technologies which will inspire even the most demanding users.
(Poster's note: MIT has released benchmarks showing that a single G9 processor can process more data faster the entire GridPP2 Linux cluster.)
In other news, Intel today announced a new addition to its x86 family of microprocessors, the GNU/Pentium 7. At its core lies an integrated computer powered by Apple's new G9 processor, running a variant of Yellow Dog Linux and a modified version of Bochs, which executes Intel's traditional IA-128 instruction set entirely by emulation. This innovative new technology allows Intel to cut development and fabrication costs, while leveraging the free software community to provide a working processor core at virtually no cost to Intel.
In an interview, Bill Gates was asked whether he was concerned that every installation of Windows GQ will actually run by emulation under Linux. He didn't answer because he did not understand the word, "Concerned."
Slashdot Mirror
"Any platform," huh? Well, that was never true anyway, and it didn't last very long. Oh well, with the release of GIMP 2.0, Adobe will probably go bankrupt within the next week or so, so what difference does it make anyway...
Look at perl for example. Do you think it would be where it is today if it were closed source? It would probably be some hack that about 2 guys use. But no, it's on the standard distribution of just about any UNIX-like OS out there, and many websites use mod perl with Apache to get some great results (including /.)...
Imagine where Java would be if it were open sourced. I think that most desktop software could even be developed for Java and run the same on any platform. No more Microsoft monopoly. You could buy a program and run it on OS X, Linux, Windows, or whatever. How? By being open sourced, it would probably become so efficient and powerful that nobody would want to waste their time natively compiling stuff for this system or that.
Yeah man, he's making a big mistake.
In a report by the AeA, they contend that American schools don't teach enough math and science anymore.
In my opinion, schools have been placing too much emphasis on liberal social issues. For example, children are being taught gay issues on school time that could instead be spent teaching them how to succeed in life. (I won't say whether or not I am gay. It's none of your business.) I simply think that this subject is completely off topic in the academic environment.
Schools need to get their act together. English class (or whatever language is spoken in your part of the world) should be about spelling, grammar, punctuation, proper use of a dictionary, etc. Currently, English class is an excuse to read and write about liberal social issues.
The way math is taught should be overhauled, because too many students are turned off from it and grow up barely able to balance a checkbook. In fact, basic accounting, a subject that could be considered math, should probably be taught, because children are increasingly growing up very irresponsible financially, and getting into a lot of debt before they get their first "real" job.
Sciences should also be a focus. Physics, chemistry, biology, space sciences, geology, and many other sciences should be taught. Keep kids in school for an additional hour if you need to. It'll keep them off of drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, sex, and other problems.
An area that is currently lacking in public schools is business classes. You don't have to teach anything complicated. Just basic people skills, how to believe in yourself, how to get results. This will go extremely far in most children's futures.
And MOST IMPORTANTLY, schools should offer art classes, auto shop, printing shop, wood shop, metal shop, sewing, acting, music, computer programming, sports, drama, computer animation, and any other "elective" that someone could dream of. (This is not an exhaustive list, only the first items that came to my mind.) And the BEST equipment and instructions, and plenty of time, should be provided for students. These are the subjects that let kids' imaginations grow. These are the subjects that get students interested in school and keep them interested in the boring academic crap. All you need to tell a kid who is an animation fanatic is that "all those other classes are what make you really good at animation." Even if they have to cut funding to the aforementioned boring stuff, and have 80 students in each English class, the auto shop should be better than Jesse James' wildest dreams. And *everyone*, not just property owners, should pay equally for educational taxes. The burden on property owners will be less, thereby causing rental prices to drop, while the revenue for schools will climb.
Billions upon billions of dollars are allocated for the currently useless schools, and the administrators probably jack most of it. This money should be used for constructive purposes. If you disagree, then wait until Mexico gets its act together and people start sneaking the other way across the border.
The liberals amongst you are probably horrified at this point.
So, for Bill Gates, 613 BILLION bucks is about, what, 50 cents? Sure, that'll really piss him off.
I see this exactly the way I see modern operating systems boot up. The BIOS goes to some place and reads 512 bytes. Those bytes load up a "real" bootloader. That bootloader loads up some darn thing, which loads up the kernel, which loads up a bunch of device drivers and other software, and after a minute of grinding the disk, you have a system waiting for input. Why all this fuss?
My idea, then, is that instead of having an operating system kernel on your hard drive, it and its bootloader should reside in a really friggen powerful BIOS chip. By powerful I mean that there should be a LOT of flash space and the BIOS itself should be a relatively powerful microprocessor. The software is started immediately upon the powerup of the computer. The BIOS Flash then looks like the root partition; it is mounted just like the hard drives and other devices are. All device drivers are present in the kernel, anyway, and since the BIOS is designed for the computer (by the factory) or configured (by a hacker who puts together his own system), there is nothing to detect or load. Furthermore, all software that starts at startup has a complete image "frozen" in the BIOS Flash, and is copied directly into RAM during the initial stages of startup. Therefore, if you have X, and an entire desktop environment, the entire computer goes from OFF to running X and your desktop software, and whatever else you want for that matter, in almost no time at all. Your monitor would probably take longer to warm up then it would take for your desktop to be ready for input.
This sounds a lot like un-suspending a computer that is in suspend mode, and yes, in effect, it's just like that. You have your system running the way you want it to start up, then you "freeze" it a la VMWare, put it in the BIOS Flash, and when you turn on the computer, the BIOS copies the image directly into RAM, with perhaps a few routines here and there that initialize hardware upon powerup, or set a few values throughout RAM, like time-sensitive things and whatnot... No matter how fast MS makes their OS load, it'll never come close to this kind of performance.
Take it a step further, and each user could have almost an entire operating system setup, as if the computer has multiple personalities from the bootloader up. The BIOS has some routine that lets you log in, and accordingly, selects the image that will get loaded. In this respect, you could completely power down the computer, and come back a week later, turn it on, and immediately it will return to where it was.
This will probably be the case in 10 years or so. (Hey, in the 90's we went from the 386 SX to the Pentium 3. Who knows what the hell will happen by 2015 or so.)
Disclaimer: I run FreeBSD. I know Hotmail no longer runs on FreeBSD. But it runs on Windows, which is probably just a BSD fork with added bugs, vulnerabilities, and security holes. (I haven't used Windows in a few years though, so don't take my word for the BSD clone thing.)
Any idiot with access to a computer can spoof a domain name.
This is some incredibly exciting news! I am over there, downloading this right now, as I write, in another window. First, I'm going to install it on my Linux tower, and then, I'll take it to work and put it on all those poor computers that have to execute that software from Brand "X" (er, Brand "XP").
In fact, with so much storage, perhaps it will become possible to partition these discs and put several Linux distributions and *BSDs, running essentially the same application software, to allow people to compare and contrast them without actually installing anything.
Oh yeah, and the rumors of this technology have kept me waiting for months to buy a DVD burner.
Three words: PEACE, LOVE, and LINUX.
Ok, that's four words. :-)
It's funny... My friends and I are into both cars and computers. I'm thinking of one friend in particular who has the fastest car in the crowd... he is also the only one among us who likes to overclock his stuff. It all started a few years ago when he had a motherboard that allowed him to set the speed with some jumper settings. He said, "Hmmm... This CPU is only supposed to go up to X mhz" (I think it was, like, 233 or something) "but let's put it on 300 and see what happens." Apparently, it worked fine, so he's been pushing his computers ever since.
Funny thing about reliability vs. performance, too: Among our group of friends, he has had the most hard drive disasters, and has also had the most transmissions break in his car (physically break--as in a loud BAM!!! from power-shifting too much). Both are mechanical systems... I wonder if there is any correlation.
On the other hand, there are programmers who don't know a screwdriver from an impact wrench, and there is the story I recently read about how new cars' computer codes frustrate mechanics. Most of these guys are purely mechanically inclined. I think there is a serious need for people in each of these two industries to familiarize themselves with the other.
Ok, that's enough rambling.I admittedly haven't read the article (yet), but I'd like to include a few reasons of my own that programming stinks. As you might guess, I am a programmer.
My friends and I compare a lot of computer things to car things. Most likely, we do that because we are enthusiasts of both. Fast cars and fast software are very similar in many respects.
A little background information on cars is necessary to gain the full effect of my argument about programming. Although the next three paragraphs may seem unnecessary at first glance, I assure you that I am a careful writer and that you should read them.
Car enthusiasts fall into quite a few categories. For example, people who restore classic Mopar or Chevy cars enjoy making everything look like "mint" condition. Usually, every part of the car is so spotless and beautiful that you could eat off the engine. On the other end of the classic car spectrum, there are those who will tub out the entire car and concentrate only on performance features. These cars may not look like much, but they'll break your neck if you push the gas too hard. And of course, there is an entire spectrum of prefenences between these two ideals.
In most of these categories, the hard core enthusiasts like to do the ENTIRE job themselves. They won't let anyone else touch their cars. The wanna be's will usually contract out nearly everything, because they want the glamor of showing up at car shows and showing off their machine, but can't hold a screwdriver and don't know the difference between a 6-point wrench and an Allen wrench. And of course, there is an entire spectrum of car knowledge, experience, and do-it-yourself levels in between these two extremes.
Somewhere in the middle of the two extremes are people like my friends and I. We do a lot of work ourselves, but when it's a complex or high-risk job, or if we don't feel like doing it because it's boring and time consuming, we'll have a professional do it. There are auto mechanics who do pretty much any job. And there are mechanics who specialize in a specific area. For example, I have my radiator guy, my transmission guy, my engine rebuilding guy, my chrome plating guy, my carpet guy, my headliner guy, and the list goes on and on. I use each specific person for the job he excels at because I understand thoroughly what I am about to explain.
Programmers are a lot like the car enthusiasts that I am and whom I describe above. Some prefer to do EVERYTHING, like that guy who wrote 386BSD and wouldn't insert other peoples' code improvements. (The project got forked and now you've got the *BSDs, and that guy is no longer involved as far as I know.) Some prefer to concentrate only on a specific area of software, such as graphics, numerical algorithms, kernel schedulers, assembly optimizations, databases, text processing, and the list goes on and on forever. Even an area such as graphics can break down into a plethora of categories, such as charting software, user interfaces, etc.
The biggest reason that software sucks, in my opinion, is the very same reason that the automotive repair industry sucks. I wouldn't be surprised if programmers are just as hated as car mechanics. The programmer's boss is just like the old lady who takes her car to the mechanic. Neither knows anything about the job at hand. The only thing they know is that it costs them big and the results suck.
For the programmer's boss, the software contains bugs, is difficult and confusing for the customer to use, and takes much too long to develop, so the market window closes, the project goes over budget, and maybe higher management cancels the project altogether.
For the little old lady, the car broke down. The mechanic wants to fix it properly. But doing so will take weeks (believe me). The symptoms are caused by one or more problems, which require several new parts and quite a lot of labor to repair. The parts may be hard to find. The old ones may need to be rebuilt. And generally, people don't like renting a car for t
Anyway, here's what I was going to post... Can this CPA add up 2 and 2? If there is libelous information on the Internet, and he wishes to pursue litigation, then he should go after the persons responsible for the information. Google is only an index, making the information on the Internet easily available for access. Without Google (and perhaps without similar search engines), it would be all but impossible to find anything useful on the Internet.
In fact, I think the aforementioned CPA should THANK Google for making it possible for him to FIND the offending information, so that he can take action against whomever he should take action. Without Google, the alleged libel might have been posted all over the Internet and our friend the CPA would never have been any the wiser.
I further think there is no basis in law for suing an index for pointing to information. On the contrary, I think this was tested in court quite a few times (in all those trials against linking to pages within a site) and it was decided that you can link to whatever the heck you want to link to.
Therefore, I think this CPA is making a stupid decision, and I believe the case will get dismissed. I hope Google countersues for legal fees. And wins.
Oh yeah, and did I mention I'm a Supreme Court Justice? Yeah, the Supreme Court of Bullshit.
And if they insist on innovating, why not release Mac OS X for the PC platform? Sure, it might totally fuck sales of their hardware, which graphic artists and musicians would undoubtedly continue to buy anyway, but many people would gladly use Mac OS X on the PC because it is clearly, obviously, and in every other way TOTALLY better than that shit that Microsoft makes.
Oh yeah, and one other thing... Since OS X is based on BSD, and both Apple and BSD are obviously dying (and have been for the past, what, 20 years?), what does that say about Linux? Probably that Linux is the suxx0rz because emacs is too complicated.
And, no, I'm not being sarcastic.
In other news, Microsoft today announced plans to acquire the government of the United States. By leveraging innovative technologies, content providers streamline compelling enterprise solutions.
A Microsoft spokenperson commented, "By controlling what is arguably the most powerful government in the world, Microsoft will be able to better control the rights of consumers in regards to the company's valuable intellectual property." The first change to be made, according to Chairman and now Chief World Domination Officer Bill Gates, is to rename the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) to MRS (Microsoft Revenue Service). From now on, all tax dollars will go directly into Bill Gates' checking account.
Microsoft's acquisitions last week of the RIAA, MPAA, SCO, and the Equifax credit reporting bureau have empowered the company to supply the best operating system since Windows XP, enabling the multinational corporations next on Microsoft's acquisition list to gain a higher return on lawsuits against their own customers.
Microsoft stock climbed 90 points after the announcement.
Tell management that you will continue to make this noise until (1) They reverse the stupid policy, or (2) They fire you.
Upon getting fired, go stand in the unemployment line, and continue getting paid by your company for the next 12 months.
It's a good thing I heard about this today, because I was planning on removing those old decrepid antennas I have on my roof this weekend. Now, I'm going to keep them. Forever.
Yes, I think this would be a good system for making the entire planet a safe and happy place to live, where nobody is ever in fear of anything that might even resemble something even remotely doubleplusungood.
(Later, while NASA continued to track this pebble, a rock six times the size of the sun came by and hit the Earth head-on. The entire planet became completely smashed up and is now a minor blemish of dirt on the face of the big rock. Oh well.)
Microsoft should be forced to release ALL source code and documentation for EVERY product they released during the company's existance under the GPL. They should be forced to give all their assets to the Free Software Foundation. Microsoft should be forced to shut down. And Bill Gates should be forced to give Linus Torvalds all of his personal assets, and work for Linus as a janitor. And pigs should be forced to grow wings and fly.
No doubt, they work on government funding, and lots of it. So they can afford a Level 4 air filtration system. So they can afford decontamination procedures. So they can afford pressurized airlock doors...
BUT THEY CANNOT AFFORD A GASOLINE OPERATED POWER GENERATOR?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Methinks this story is a bunch of hogwash.
(Poster's note: MIT has released benchmarks showing that a single G9 processor can process more data faster the entire GridPP2 Linux cluster.)
In other news, Intel today announced a new addition to its x86 family of microprocessors, the GNU/Pentium 7. At its core lies an integrated computer powered by Apple's new G9 processor, running a variant of Yellow Dog Linux and a modified version of Bochs, which executes Intel's traditional IA-128 instruction set entirely by emulation. This innovative new technology allows Intel to cut development and fabrication costs, while leveraging the free software community to provide a working processor core at virtually no cost to Intel.
In an interview, Bill Gates was asked whether he was concerned that every installation of Windows GQ will actually run by emulation under Linux. He didn't answer because he did not understand the word, "Concerned."
This little disk would be really convenient for watching pr0n, er, I mean, for efficient statutory law research. Yeah, that's it.