In the future, when the MS fanbois start their eternal nitpicking at the Gnome and KDE interfaces again, I'll show them your quote. Given your posting history here, they can hardly accuse you of pro-Linux bias.
American auto makers have no problems competing outside the USA.
As long as you redefine 'American auto maker' as essentially running a completely different company, like Ford Europe or Opel. But given that these two are struggling to get more than a single digit market share, I think you are overestimating 'American' auto makers' competitive performance still.
Yes, but Steam has assured us that in the eventuality of their auth servers going down, they'd give us ways to continue playing.
That's an empty promise.
Think on it. How are they going to make good on this? How are they going to track down all those who legitimately paid for their games? The auth servers are down, they are what identifies legitimate Steam customers. How will Valve decide the software on your hard drive is a legitimate download?
What are the major deficincies in the Windows USB stack?
How about tying the device ID and driver to the physical USB port, reinstalling the driver when you plug the device in a different port? For fsck's sake, the problem is right there in the name USB: it's a bus. Meaning that it shouldn't matter in which port a device is plugged in, the device ID should be enough to identify it to the right driver. Same with PCI: move a card to a different slot, and Windows starts the 'Windows has found new hardware' dance all over again.
And how about all those devices that come with big warnings to install the driver first before plugging in, so that Windows won't accidentally mess up the driver assignment?
Really, Windows USB is just about the best example how not to program for a bus architecture with hot-pluggable devices.
To chime in in favour of the Cowon players: their DACs are very good. Combined with FLAC support, makes them great players for music that would suffer otherwise from compression, like Classical. I used to use an iAudio M5 with Creative EP630 earbuds (rebadged Akais, also available from Sennheiser as the CX300), and I could hear bows hitting the violin strings in quiet passages, even while wearing them under a motorcycle helmet.
One disadvantage: the batteries are built-in and non-replacable, and Cowon treats them as consumables, so they're not covered under warranty. Expect about a three-year lifetime out of your player before the batteries give out.
Or this one: the ones that use fake politeness and ask 'Do you mind?' while cutting in. The stares you get when you drily answer 'Yes' and close the gap they were trying to wedge in are priceless.
Mart
Re:Use JOpenDocument or ApachePOI
on
ODF Toolkit Announced
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I see. You're waiting for an official, branded 'ODF Toolkit'(tm). Sorry, no, but OpenOffice::OODoc is not part of that. I sincerely hope that is not what is stopping you from using it.
Mart
Re:Use JOpenDocument or ApachePOI
on
ODF Toolkit Announced
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
The problem is there really is no working "ODF Toolkit".
I know Perl is not considered sexy by the fad-hunting 'programmers' that haunt sites like this, but it works. And OpenOffice::OODoc is a very nice toolkit to programmatically create and manipulate ODF documents.
No, despite it being cross-platform, Perl has very visible roots in Unix. The fact that it picked its variable notation ($variable) from Bourne Shell, or that until 5.6 the only decent way to do multi-processing was to fork(), or the fact that one of the most common idioms is the while (<>) loop that iterates over STDIN, those are all Unixisms. And those are just the ones I can name off the top of my head. If you read the Camel Book, you'll see even more Unixisms, and the History of Perl section clearly mentions its Unix origins.
Their very well might be names from other parts of the world which sound similar to common North American/European names, but which are gender neutral or gender-reversed from their American/European counterparts.
How about a nice example: Andrea. Practically everyone from a Northwestern European or derived culture will get that wrong in an Italian context. I know I did at first, and I remember an article about some Italian FOSS programmer getting multiple subthreads with Slashdotters being confused about his gender.
Simple answer: it's the probably bloody protocol that's at fault.
IPSec has so many parameters that can be changed, and so many providers hardcode different defaults without documenting them (Cisco is a major example of this), that getting a multivendor IPSec setup working is an exercise in frustration. The only thing that comes even remotely close to foolproof is building a config on both sides where all parameters are explicitly spelled out. But that requires cooperation from the remote peer. And in a corporate setting, that's usually a sysadmin who has no time to help out in debugging the connection. And that's not even mentioning the fact that in order to build a working config, you need a good working knowledge of both networking and the nitty-gritty of your local IPSec implementation.
Serious sysadmins, by which I mean those that manage more than one box, don't in fact compile things themselves, because maintenance becomes a hassle when you have to track down, record and maintain all the dependencies yourself. We have computers to do that for us.
And as for timely patches: if you picked a vendor that's glacially slow in rolling out patches, you're not a serious sysadmin. Furthermore, you can rely on the distribution packaging scheme and hand-compile software as a workaround while you wait for updated packages, in case you run into a really critical zero-day flaw.
You may call pointing out that the Emperor has no clothes a political belief, but when the facts show that the Emperor is in fact naked, that's too bloody bad for you. Reality does not bend to your preferences.
And you're one to talk. Your beliefs about SCO and the bullshit you asserted in that case have become legendary.
Because the O.P. compared it with a receipt at a retail store. Which shows sloppy thinking that doesn't consider why a paper trail in voting is different.
Yes, there is also a perfecly fine solution for the Iraq mess: the U.S. withdraws and then fires off a few H-bombs to turn the entire Mesopotamian plain into a glass parking lot.
You will agree, I hope, that this is a moronic solution. Therefore crying 'at least I proposed it', doesn't make the proposer any less of a moron.
In other words: PHP is the language for complete morons that shouldn't be let anywhere near a keyboard, let alone be allowed to program.
Sorry if this sounds harsh, but I ran into yet another piece-of-shit-typical-PHP-weenie code today[1], and my tolerance for this abortion of a 'programming language' and its moronic practitioners hit a low.
[1] Using index.php on a heavily loaded server to implement virtual hosting; using mysql_escape_string to construct SQL queries from _POST variables. Guys like that should have their hands cut off at the wrist.
Who considered Nazi Germany "one of the greatest threats to the Soviet Union"?
How about the Nazis themselves? Their writings are available from libraries with a decent history section. Go educate yourself, and shut the fuck up until you do.
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks.
In the future, when the MS fanbois start their eternal nitpicking at the Gnome and KDE interfaces again, I'll show them your quote. Given your posting history here, they can hardly accuse you of pro-Linux bias.
Mart
As long as you redefine 'American auto maker' as essentially running a completely different company, like Ford Europe or Opel. But given that these two are struggling to get more than a single digit market share, I think you are overestimating 'American' auto makers' competitive performance still.
Mart
First, assume a perfectly spherical car of uniform density...
Mart
That's an empty promise.
Think on it. How are they going to make good on this? How are they going to track down all those who legitimately paid for their games? The auth servers are down, they are what identifies legitimate Steam customers. How will Valve decide the software on your hard drive is a legitimate download?
Mart
How about tying the device ID and driver to the physical USB port, reinstalling the driver when you plug the device in a different port? For fsck's sake, the problem is right there in the name USB: it's a bus. Meaning that it shouldn't matter in which port a device is plugged in, the device ID should be enough to identify it to the right driver. Same with PCI: move a card to a different slot, and Windows starts the 'Windows has found new hardware' dance all over again.
And how about all those devices that come with big warnings to install the driver first before plugging in, so that Windows won't accidentally mess up the driver assignment?
Really, Windows USB is just about the best example how not to program for a bus architecture with hot-pluggable devices.
Mart
Apparently dark sarcasm should be a requirement in the classroom.
So much for Roger Waters.
Mart
Easy.
9mm.
Applied with the requisite amount of cordite to the back of Rupert Murdoch's head.
I am not kidding.
Mart
As opposed to creating record debt to pay for wars and fat-cat bailouts?
Mart
To chime in in favour of the Cowon players: their DACs are very good. Combined with FLAC support, makes them great players for music that would suffer otherwise from compression, like Classical. I used to use an iAudio M5 with Creative EP630 earbuds (rebadged Akais, also available from Sennheiser as the CX300), and I could hear bows hitting the violin strings in quiet passages, even while wearing them under a motorcycle helmet.
One disadvantage: the batteries are built-in and non-replacable, and Cowon treats them as consumables, so they're not covered under warranty. Expect about a three-year lifetime out of your player before the batteries give out.
Mart
Try turning off JavaScript. My Nokia E61i crashes fairly reliably on JS-heavy sites, so I suspect a problem with the way WebKit handles JavaScript.
Mart
I hate to do this, but...BZZZT! Wrong!!. Straight from the horse's mouth, the MPEG LA:
So yes, you do have to pay license fees on the patents used in MP4.
Mart
Or this one: the ones that use fake politeness and ask 'Do you mind?' while cutting in. The stares you get when you drily answer 'Yes' and close the gap they were trying to wedge in are priceless.
Mart
I see. You're waiting for an official, branded 'ODF Toolkit'(tm). Sorry, no, but OpenOffice::OODoc is not part of that. I sincerely hope that is not what is stopping you from using it.
Mart
Are you sure about that?.
I know Perl is not considered sexy by the fad-hunting 'programmers' that haunt sites like this, but it works. And OpenOffice::OODoc is a very nice toolkit to programmatically create and manipulate ODF documents.
Mart
No, despite it being cross-platform, Perl has very visible roots in Unix. The fact that it picked its variable notation ($variable) from Bourne Shell, or that until 5.6 the only decent way to do multi-processing was to fork(), or the fact that one of the most common idioms is the while (<>) loop that iterates over STDIN, those are all Unixisms. And those are just the ones I can name off the top of my head. If you read the Camel Book, you'll see even more Unixisms, and the History of Perl section clearly mentions its Unix origins.
Mart
How about a nice example: Andrea. Practically everyone from a Northwestern European or derived culture will get that wrong in an Italian context. I know I did at first, and I remember an article about some Italian FOSS programmer getting multiple subthreads with Slashdotters being confused about his gender.
Mart
Simple answer: it's the probably bloody protocol that's at fault.
IPSec has so many parameters that can be changed, and so many providers hardcode different defaults without documenting them (Cisco is a major example of this), that getting a multivendor IPSec setup working is an exercise in frustration. The only thing that comes even remotely close to foolproof is building a config on both sides where all parameters are explicitly spelled out. But that requires cooperation from the remote peer. And in a corporate setting, that's usually a sysadmin who has no time to help out in debugging the connection. And that's not even mentioning the fact that in order to build a working config, you need a good working knowledge of both networking and the nitty-gritty of your local IPSec implementation.
IPSec? We hates it, yess preciousss.
Note: I do this for a living. Have pity on me.
Mart
Serious sysadmins, by which I mean those that manage more than one box, don't in fact compile things themselves, because maintenance becomes a hassle when you have to track down, record and maintain all the dependencies yourself. We have computers to do that for us.
And as for timely patches: if you picked a vendor that's glacially slow in rolling out patches, you're not a serious sysadmin. Furthermore, you can rely on the distribution packaging scheme and hand-compile software as a workaround while you wait for updated packages, in case you run into a really critical zero-day flaw.
Mart
You may call pointing out that the Emperor has no clothes a political belief, but when the facts show that the Emperor is in fact naked, that's too bloody bad for you. Reality does not bend to your preferences.
And you're one to talk. Your beliefs about SCO and the bullshit you asserted in that case have become legendary.
Mart
Because the O.P. compared it with a receipt at a retail store. Which shows sloppy thinking that doesn't consider why a paper trail in voting is different.
Mart
Yes, there is also a perfecly fine solution for the Iraq mess: the U.S. withdraws and then fires off a few H-bombs to turn the entire Mesopotamian plain into a glass parking lot.
You will agree, I hope, that this is a moronic solution. Therefore crying 'at least I proposed it', doesn't make the proposer any less of a moron.
Mart
In other words: PHP is the language for complete morons that shouldn't be let anywhere near a keyboard, let alone be allowed to program.
Sorry if this sounds harsh, but I ran into yet another piece-of-shit-typical-PHP-weenie code today[1], and my tolerance for this abortion of a 'programming language' and its moronic practitioners hit a low.
[1] Using index.php on a heavily loaded server to implement virtual hosting; using mysql_escape_string to construct SQL queries from _POST variables. Guys like that should have their hands cut off at the wrist.
Mart
Both you and parent fail, epically.
One of the primary requirements for a democratic voting process is anonymity.
Mart
How about the Nazis themselves? Their writings are available from libraries with a decent history section. Go educate yourself, and shut the fuck up until you do.
Mart
The nineties called, they want their Perl back.
Mart