The buggy whip industry died (and is used as a common example because it died) as a result of something better that completely and utterly replaced the horse drawn carriage. Unfortunately, its a bad example to use because often, especially in debates here on Slashdot, the industry being compared has not been replaced either in whole or in part.
New technology almost never wipes out the old. We still have horse carriages in downtown Montreal. There are still practical reasons to ride a horse: we have cops that do.
We will still have old school mail as well as old school radio in 20 years. It won't go away. It just becomes less economically important.
It is all about trade-off. So, if we want to inform the public, that is good, but let us do it fairly, without the FUD though. Many producers of regular crops also use a lot more insecticides. Why shouldn't they be required to disclose it as well?
Moreover, the public should be informed that the wheat and the rice they eat has nothing to do with what their ancestors ate. It has been modified in all sorts of crazy ways, sometimes use radiations to accelerate genetic mutations. Should we disclose this as well? Let us be fair: why not?
A better informed consumer is a great thing. FUD is something different.
I'll take GMOs if this means that farmers don't have to dump crazy quantities of insecticides on their field. But if I don't know which insecticide they used and how much they applied, how can I make an informed decision?
It is necessary to understand the concepts behind CS, but as a strict field of study, it is very lacking. For those who want pure theory, Math is a better field of study.
Right. Care to explain why CS is lacking and Math is a better field? Math is in a sorry state compared to theoretical CS, if you ask me.
You are missing the point. As a scientist, you are supposed to give due credit. Starting way back at Newton, good scientists have acknowledged the work of others and showed how it came into their own work.
What Wolfram did was to take much work done by other scientists and *not* acknowledge them in any way.
We have a collaborative filtering system which attempts to recommend Canadian Music to you based on your ratings... you like Celine Dion, you might like other Canadian artists...
A lot of code will use fstream read and write. That's the standard way to do things. Granted, that's not high performance programming... but that's common programming. If 90% of C++ code out there is slowed down by at least a fixed percentage, this will have a major impact.
gcc 3.x compilers have serious C++ perfs issues
on
GCC 3.3 Released
·
· Score: 5, Informative
The new breed of gcc compiler are anywhere from
3 %to 5% slower with file processing using the
C++ library.
So, compiling the kernel with gcc 3.x is fine,
but I suspect that something like KDE which is
mostly written in C++ is impacted seriously. At
least, all software using the C++ library for IO (fstream) will be much slower.
On the other hand, the support for C++ standards is much better so what I do is that I compile using gcc 3.2.3 to validate my C++ and then I run the real thing with a pre 3.x compiler.
You can pretty much do everything you want using Python Numeric. It is actually a much nicer language than Matlab if you know your stuff as far as languages are concerned (OOP, functional programming and such).
Also, there is a port of Python Numeric in java (JNumeric) which means that Numeric is extremely portable.
All of that for free. Not just free as in free beer too... free as in free software...you can't beat that!!!
For example, you can write batch scripts in Maxima a lot more easily than you can in Maple. I have scripts to automatically generate PostScript figures and I'm really not sure I could do the same with Maple.
Maxima has some bugs, some annoyances, but at least, you can report them on sourceforge and they do get fixed. If not, someone will suggest a work-around.
It actually allows you to do without Maple or Mathematica quite nicely. It is free and it has a great community around it. Not a few puny hackers but actual researchers who have been doing these things for decades.
See slashem for example!!!
on
Nethack 3.4.0
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I think Nethack has a large following because it is a well-balanced, difficult, and elaborate game.
If you look at something like Diablo... One could argue that Nethack is a more elaborate game. You can be sure though that the Diable developers played Nethack before.
Sure, you don't have fancy graphics... even though some people got good results on that...
http://slashem.sourceforge.net
It is still turn-based... so what? A lot of recent RPGs are turned-based at least in part (Might and Magic, Wizardry...).
Honestly, the "I sell software" market is just not what it used to be. I think that the internet changed things. Software is now abundant, easy to come by.
Except for games which aren't really 100% software (mix of art and code), the consumer market doesn't exist or will not exist much longer for software-only solutions.
Corporations will always buy software... or will they? For niche applications, I think that proprietary software will always survive, but for generic software, I don't much of a future. As soon as the market is dominated by both free software (GPL and al.) and large corporations such as Microsoft, there isn't much room for growth anymore, not much room for new software companies.
It has been my experience that coders working inside companies that sell code have had very stressful lives recently and this isn't about to go away. Salaries might be high, but requirements are also very though.
So, not only is the market more difficult, but coders have a more stressful life... I just think that a lot of them will eventually switch to companies who make a living off something else (not software) and people who know the market well will not want to invest and start companies in the software industry.
In ten years, you'll have Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, a couple more... and everything else will be free software.
Hardly something to get excited about. Plus StarOffice is going to be payware will OpenOffice will remain free (LGPL).
Just use OpenOffice and forget about StarOffice unless you work for a big corporation. In which case, a payware like StarOffice might be a good choice.
It is cool, you can play on the web using an applet and you can download it on your palm as a native application (compiled through jump) or else you can run it just about everywhere as JITed bytecode (wince, palmos and so on).
Yeah! But try getting it to look as nice as LaTeX!
on
Penguin2Apple
·
· Score: 1
Here's a little secret for you. You don't actually save time with word.
In fact, the only advantage to using word is the learning curve for simple tasks. For LaTeX, even something simple requires learning. Not so for Word.
However, try to write a Ph.D. thesis in Word. ahahahahah... I never tried, but you can be sure that you'll waste *plenty* of time. A lot more than LaTeX.
Please. Ordinary people have made the difference throughout history.
The fact that history mostly records the rich and the famous is another story. Also, don't forget that people who make a difference often end up rich and influencial. They didn't necessarily start that way.
Bill Gates wasn't famous and influencial when he founded Microsoft. Torvald wasn't very rich when he started hacking Linux... and so on.
Slashdot Mirror
The buggy whip industry died (and is used as a common example because it died) as a result of something better that completely and utterly replaced the horse drawn carriage. Unfortunately, its a bad example to use because often, especially in debates here on Slashdot, the industry being compared has not been replaced either in whole or in part.
New technology almost never wipes out the old. We still have horse carriages in downtown Montreal. There are still practical reasons to ride a horse: we have cops that do.
We will still have old school mail as well as old school radio in 20 years. It won't go away. It just becomes less economically important.
It is all about trade-off. So, if we want to inform the public, that is good, but let us do it fairly, without the FUD though. Many producers of regular crops also use a lot more insecticides. Why shouldn't they be required to disclose it as well?
Moreover, the public should be informed that the wheat and the rice they eat has nothing to do with what their ancestors ate. It has been modified in all sorts of crazy ways, sometimes use radiations to accelerate genetic mutations. Should we disclose this as well? Let us be fair: why not?
A better informed consumer is a great thing. FUD is something different.
I'll take GMOs if this means that farmers don't have to dump crazy quantities of insecticides on their field. But if I don't know which insecticide they used and how much they applied, how can I make an informed decision?
What about DRM?
It is necessary to understand the concepts behind CS, but as a strict field of study, it is very lacking. For those who want pure theory, Math is a better field of study.
Right. Care to explain why CS is lacking and Math is a better field? Math is in a sorry state compared to theoretical CS, if you ask me.
Actually, using SWIG, it is almost trivial to wrap a C++ object in Python.
You are missing the point. As a scientist, you are supposed to give due credit. Starting way back at Newton, good scientists have acknowledged the work of others and showed how it came into their own work.
What Wolfram did was to take much work done by other scientists and *not* acknowledge them in any way.
We have a collaborative filtering system which attempts to recommend Canadian Music to you based on your ratings... you like Celine Dion, you might like other Canadian artists...
http://racofi.elg.ca
Cheers!
I'm the one who filled the bug report, so I should
have known better.
I don't see why anyone would accept the current libc++ for anything else but a beta or even an alpha release.
It probably doesn't get noticed so much because fstream isn't used that much.
For something like koffice or kmail, assuming it uses fstream, I suspect that one would notice the difference.
It also impacts text file processing (see full description of the bug report).
A lot of code will use fstream read and write.
That's the standard way to do things. Granted,
that's not high performance programming... but
that's common programming. If 90% of C++ code out there is slowed down by at least a fixed percentage, this will have a major impact.
The new breed of gcc compiler are anywhere from 3 %to 5% slower with file processing using the C++ library. So, compiling the kernel with gcc 3.x is fine, but I suspect that something like KDE which is mostly written in C++ is impacted seriously. At least, all software using the C++ library for IO (fstream) will be much slower. On the other hand, the support for C++ standards is much better so what I do is that I compile using gcc 3.2.3 to validate my C++ and then I run the real thing with a pre 3.x compiler.
You can pretty much do everything you want using Python Numeric. It is actually a much nicer language than Matlab if you know your stuff as far as languages are concerned (OOP, functional programming and such).
Also, there is a port of Python Numeric in java (JNumeric) which means that Numeric is extremely portable.
All of that for free. Not just free as in free beer too... free as in free software...you can't beat that!!!
For example, you can write batch scripts in Maxima a lot more easily than you can in Maple. I have scripts to automatically generate PostScript figures and I'm really not sure I could do the same with Maple.
Maxima has some bugs, some annoyances, but at least, you can report them on sourceforge and they do get fixed. If not, someone will suggest a work-around.
It actually allows you to do without Maple or Mathematica quite nicely. It is free and it has a great community around it. Not a few puny hackers but actual researchers who have been doing these things for decades.
I think Nethack has a large following because it is a well-balanced, difficult, and elaborate game.
If you look at something like Diablo... One could argue that Nethack is a more elaborate game. You can be sure though that the Diable developers played Nethack before.
Sure, you don't have fancy graphics... even though some people got good results on that...
http://slashem.sourceforge.net
It is still turn-based... so what? A lot of recent RPGs are turned-based at least in part (Might and Magic, Wizardry...).
Does any of my money goes to pay these fellows?
Honestly, the "I sell software" market is just not what it used to be. I think that the internet changed things. Software is now abundant, easy to come by.
Except for games which aren't really 100% software (mix of art and code), the consumer market doesn't exist or will not exist much longer for software-only solutions.
Corporations will always buy software... or will they? For niche applications, I think that proprietary software will always survive, but for generic software, I don't much of a future. As soon as the market is dominated by both free software (GPL and al.) and large corporations such as Microsoft, there isn't much room for growth anymore, not much room for new software companies.
It has been my experience that coders working inside companies that sell code have had very stressful lives recently and this isn't about to go away. Salaries might be high, but requirements are also very though.
So, not only is the market more difficult, but coders have a more stressful life... I just think that a lot of them will eventually switch to companies who make a living off something else (not software) and people who know the market well will not want to invest and start companies in the software industry.
In ten years, you'll have Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, a couple more... and everything else will be free software.
Want to bet?
Hardly something to get excited about. Plus StarOffice is going to be payware will OpenOffice will remain free (LGPL).
Just use OpenOffice and forget about StarOffice unless you work for a big corporation. In which case, a payware like StarOffice might be a good choice.
How can it know who is Saddam?
This is very annoying, please stop that!
It is cool, you can play on the web using an applet and you can download it on your palm as a native application (compiled through jump) or else you can run it just about everywhere as JITed bytecode (wince, palmos and so on).
Sokoban
Here's a little secret for you. You don't actually save time with word.
In fact, the only advantage to using word is the learning curve for simple tasks. For LaTeX, even something simple requires learning. Not so for Word.
However, try to write a Ph.D. thesis in Word. ahahahahah... I never tried, but you can be sure that you'll waste *plenty* of time. A lot more than LaTeX.
Please. Ordinary people have made the difference throughout history.
The fact that history mostly records the rich and the famous is another story. Also, don't forget that people who make a difference often end up rich and influencial. They didn't necessarily start that way.
Bill Gates wasn't famous and influencial when he founded Microsoft. Torvald wasn't very rich when he started hacking Linux... and so on.
Without Microsoft, I would probably still be naive and think it ok to base my life on proprietary software.
"no person should be rewarded for what was complete chance"
Then let's go! Open up the border already and let's everybody come in and enjoy our privileges!
Surely, it is only by chance that you are Canadian... why couldn't everyone be Canadian and get Canadian welfare?
Pleeeeeassse!