If you believe Rob Braun (http://ezine.daemonnews.org/200602/apple.html, link posted by an AC a few posts above), you get to see less and less of the source code. Too bad. Because Apple uses a few graphics chips with notoriously lousy Open Source support (ATI, NVIDIA). For a short time, I had the idea that looking at their drivers could maybe help Linux development. But now I guess that there is no help to be had from Apple there.
Being a programmer too, I'd like to add that a bug that eats one vote will probably eat more.
Errors in digital systems are usually systematic errors that will occur again under the same circumstances. With the exception of intermittent hardware glitches: those are random but tend to grow more frequent as the bad part deteriorates further.
So once a voting machine is known to give false results, it should not be assumed that it was a one-time error. Debug it or go back to paper.
Interesting. The player count curve seems to level off in recent months, but 30.000 simultaneous logins are quite a lot. In other places I've read that MMORPG designers should expect 20%-25% of their subscribers logging in simultaneously at peak times. If we apply this rule the other way, Eve might have 120.000 to 150.000 subscribers. Not a WOW but certainly big enough to keep things going.
I think that's overrated. Don't have mod points at the moment so you are lucky;-)
A game console is not something you MUST have, it is a luxury. If a manufacturer miscalculates demand or even plays games with the availability of a luxury item, I have little empathy for those who are annoyed by not getting one.
And semi-OT: Considering Sony's performance lately in quality assurance (exploding batteries), I would want to read some independent reviews before paying $600 for one of their products. That means waiting until a few weeks after the release day, by then reviews that are not sponsored by Sony should be available.
After listening to the sound in TFA, I'm amazed by how annoying it is. Ignoring for a moment the fact that the composer is known, I'm imagining they told their kernel programmers to throw some sounds together;-)
The car manufacturer could hire competent mechanical engineers and cut costs in the fabric design department instead. Which might lead to a drab but technically superior car. I think that kind of decision tells a lot about a company and its priorities. Back to computers: In the OS world, you can have -a non-userfriendly (at least not beginner-friendly) but technically superb system. Think of classic UNIX as an example. -or as the other extreme, a pretty, newbie-friendly but unreliable system, like Windows 9x.
Of course the differences are smaller these days. Microsoft is getting better on security and reliability, while modern Linux distributions make getting started a lot easier. But the underlying difference in philosophy still seems to be there, and my trust in Microsoft is still limited.
Of course, those don't cover the Lazarus IDE and the LCL (Lazarus Component Library), the Lazarus counterpart to Delphi's VCL. I guess you'd best start at http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Lazarus_Documen tation. Unfortunately, it is currently limited to a bunch of examples. An online reference on the individual components has been started but is not very useful yet. That is something I'm missing myself, the (exellent) Deplhi online help has spoiled me there;-)
At the risk of looking like a sociopath, I think that Visual BASIC sucks too;-)
For quick development of GUI applications (on Windows), Borland Delphi is nice. Similar target audience, clearer structure of the language. Delphi uses a Pascal dialect with object oriented extensions. I'm using it in my job and cannot complain.
The Linux branch of Delphi, Kylix, unfortunately seems defunct, but there is an Open Source project that works on a Delphi replacement: Lazarus (http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/). Available on both Windows and Linux.
So if you need a nice development tool for GUI stuff, I think Lazarus would be worth checking out.
In #1, you obviously assume that the companies still run Windows clients. While this will be an argument for some, -Outlook/Exchange can be replaced by systems like Novell Groupwise, available on Linux and Windows -Active Directory is a form of LDAP Directory services. There are other implementations of LDAP Directory services, some of them Open Source. While I'm not an expert on using those, I guess it is possible to manage a Linux environment with them. Of course, Windows is known to work well only with Active Directory.
So if a company is willing to do #2 as well, the obstacles from #1 will be irrelevant. I agree that the success or failure of the Munich project will have quite an impact on the reputation of Linux as viable solution.
On #3, I fully agree.
#4, drivers are important but some more market share from a Linux success in #3 will also be necessary. Unless WINE makes great enough progress that Linux + drivers + WINE will do the job.
I guess that Jim Allchin's little kid does not have any data on his machine that are irreplaceable or worth stealing. Maybe a few game saves. If Jim Allchin said he runs his own computer on Vista without antivirus software, it would be more convincing;-)
Another question is if Microsoft can make a refund offer that is binding for the dealer.
In Germany, the computer magazine C't had an article written by a lawyer about this topic a few years ago. His take on the situation was that the EULA is unenforcable, one of the reasons being that the sale is a contract between dealer and end user, and Microsoft cannot modify the terms of that sale.
Of course, this depends on jurisdiction - in some US states EULAs are enforcable by law.
Even without spyware, I usually dislike the layout of the default install.
For instance, the pre-installations tend to be on one large partition. I prefer to split the harddisk into at least two partitions, C:\ and D:\. This way, in case of a wrecked Windows installation I can later reformat C:\ without deleting my data on D:\.
The above is for a Windows only install, a dual boot configuration with Linux gets at least two more partitions.
The point is that you are supposed to accept limitations on how to use the product, which are only revealed after the sale. And the manufacturer extends an offer that you can return the limited part of the product for a refund. To extend the car analogy, after buying the car you get in to drive home. Over the ignition lock, there is a seal with a note that says "By breaking the seal, you agree never to have sex on your back seat. But if you don't like that condition, you can return the back seat for a refund".
Now such an after-the-sale condition may or may not be legally binding, depending on jurisdiction. But if it is binding, I think the refund offer should also be binding. And the car manufacturer (Microsoft) should be obliged to reimburse the dealer.
Your competition will have the same problems, so it balances out. When nobody can get perfect employees right away, somewhat longer project cycles will be the norm and accepted in the market. Your customers will not like it, but where can turn to if every other company has the same problems and resulting delays?
Now I wonder if the first two companies you mentioned tried to get the project contract first and look for suitable employees then? That is a practice I sometimes hear about, and the risks should be obvious.
The third company was probably a hopeless case by the time you got there. Lacking the means (good employees) to get the job done and the money to hire said good employees, it would have taken a miracle. Does not happen often.
Finally, outsourcing has its risks too:
When a company comes from India and says "We'll give you 7s and 8s and want to be paid like 6s." you assume they are 5s and hopefully have an 8 or 9 on their team and pull the trigger. Besides if they don't perform you can terminate the contract a whole lot easier than firing one of your own employees.
I see some wishful thinking here, with risks (they don't have an 8 or 9 on their team?) similar to what your first two companies went through. Besides, the easy termination of the contract is nice but this may not be your biggest problem. You still need to find new people for the project, unless it was canceled altogether. And replacing the whole team because you just "fired" the outsourcing company may be even harder than finding one or two new people.
To me, evil means rapists, murderers, Hitler, and professional wrestling. When people use the word evil, they're using hyperbole and emotional connotation to try to convince people of a position, and it just turns me off.
How did professional wrestling get into that list? As an attempt to be funny?
Because it is nothing more than a show. Not a very intelligent show, but shallow entertainment does not count as evil to me;-)
If I understand Common Carrier status correctly, it shields also against civil liability (as long as you comply with the DMCA when you get a takedown note). I think the real danger of losing CC status is that the RIAA might be able to sue you for the entirety of copyright violations on your network.
AFAIK the limiting factor in the average, healthy eye is not the density of the optical receptors but the quality of the optical apparatus that projects the image onto the retina. Think megapixel camera chip in a cell phone with cheap optics. More exactly, the density of the optical receptors suggests that a visual acuity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_acuity of 20/10 is the maximum possible with a perfect optical apparatus. In real life, only a few lucky individuals have that good eyesight. Most of us are limited by less than perfectly shaped eyeballs, not by the possible resolution of the retina.
I've been wondering for a while when the international finance markets will get the idea that you will not get the money back you lent to the USA. Not if, but when. Because the USA simply don't have the necessary amount of dollars, except maybe if they go wild printing them;-) In which case, the lenders will get their money but it will be seriously devalued through inflation.
Either way, US bonds will be considered worthless. Good luck then trying to buy any more oil with dollars.
And BTW, the countries of European Union (where I live) don't have the most healthy fiscal policy either. Under Clinton, the USA looked better than the EU in this regard. But with the crazy spending of the Bush administration, the USA are back in leading the way to the big crash.
In 1), do you mean Open Source hot tech?? Then 2) through 5) might go like this instead:
2) Team A proceeds to make Vista ports of the stuff. They'll need forever... possible if they are not too competent. Let's assume they DO need forever;-)
3) If Team B's something is worthwile at all (interesting to users?), some people will grab the code and start fixing it. I'll call them Team OSS.
4) M$'s Patchware finds itself in a race against Team OSS, who don't have an interest in delaying things.
5) By the time BlackComb comes out, there is also a well-established and working OSS version. Now M$ is one of multiple vendors, exactly the situation they usually want to avoid.
An obvious choice... if it would work. I guess the people who are willing to circumvent the DRM are also willing to ignore the Vista EULA and run it in a VM anyway. So I don't see how this clause will Microsoft help to protect the DRM.
But then again, maybe they just want to convince some clueless RIAA managers that they are Doing Something;-)
I love the dualism on Slashdot. First it's, "Windows is finally getting a fancy UI like OSX and Linux! Geez, took the copycats long enough!" The next day the same people crow, "Stupid XP and Vista GUI uses too many resources! I'm sticking with NT 4!"
Are you sure these are the same people?? Personally I tend to "Stupid XP and Vista GUI uses too many resources!", and I am still running Win 2000. Now if you lump me in with Lonewolf667 who really likes fancy UIs, it might look like dualism;-)
If I work on someone else's computer, reinstall is pretty much my last option. They don't have a simple backup system that they can use to move their data to another location, and they don't keep their drivers on a USB key for the occasion. You, sir, are a gamer, and care little about data, and are prepared for constant nuking and reinstalling. Keeps your configuration streamlined anyway, registry debris won't get in your way, and driver issues are minimized. When I was a gamer, I would reinstall every three months whether I needed it or not.
He might even be a smart gamer who keeps important data on a separate partition. Then he can nuke C:\ without much repercussions. A configuration I recommend to all my friends;-)
Sometimes the problem is more obvious during reinstall. A few months ago, I reinstalled Windows 2000 at home because it lost network access - I simply assumed a broken installation which had happened before. During reinstalling, the NIC driver refused to work at all. At that point it was easy to conclude the network card was broken, because the same drivers had worked in an earlier installation.
It may be a problem for the processor. If the heatsink is at 75 Celsius, the CPU might be at 90-100 Celsius which is above the maximum specified case temperature for some X86 models (don't know about the XBOX processor). Besides, semiconductors age faster at high temperatures, so I'd really prefer to have my CPU running at a nice moderate 60 Celsius or less.
"Can you cite case law holding EULAs valid?" Law is not a permissive pursuit--it's a limiting field. That is, it's legal until it's ruled illegal. Still, if you need examples, ProCD v. Zeidenberg is the de facto standard here. There have been other, smaller cases in a number of states as well. Further, there has been no case that has categorically overturned EULAs.
The question is usually not if the EULA is legal, it is if the inclusion in the contract is valid. In ProCD v. Zeidenberg the court said yes, but Specht v. Netscape went the other way. So there is no 100% consistent case law. According to the Wikipedia articles there is one important difference that may explain the different rulings: "The user in the Zeidenberg case had purchased and opened the packages of multiple copies of the product, and therefore could not easily prove he remained ignorant of the contract/license". If Zeidenberg knew the EULA before the bought further copies of the program, the opinion "a binding contract means that both parties know of the terms and agree to them" of the court in Specht v. Netscape might not preclude the same court from ruling against Zeidenberg.
Slashdot Mirror
If you believe Rob Braun (http://ezine.daemonnews.org/200602/apple.html, link posted by an AC a few posts above), you get to see less and less of the source code.
Too bad.
Because Apple uses a few graphics chips with notoriously lousy Open Source support (ATI, NVIDIA). For a short time, I had the idea that looking at their drivers could maybe help Linux development. But now I guess that there is no help to be had from Apple there.
Being a programmer too, I'd like to add that a bug that eats one vote will probably eat more.
Errors in digital systems are usually systematic errors that will occur again under the same circumstances. With the exception of intermittent hardware glitches: those are random but tend to grow more frequent as the bad part deteriorates further.
So once a voting machine is known to give false results, it should not be assumed that it was a one-time error. Debug it or go back to paper.
Interesting. The player count curve seems to level off in recent months, but 30.000 simultaneous logins are quite a lot.
In other places I've read that MMORPG designers should expect 20%-25% of their subscribers logging in simultaneously at peak times. If we apply this rule the other way, Eve might have 120.000 to 150.000 subscribers. Not a WOW but certainly big enough to keep things going.
I think that's overrated. Don't have mod points at the moment so you are lucky ;-)
A game console is not something you MUST have, it is a luxury. If a manufacturer miscalculates demand or even plays games with the availability of a luxury item, I have little empathy for those who are annoyed by not getting one.
And semi-OT:
Considering Sony's performance lately in quality assurance (exploding batteries), I would want to read some independent reviews before paying $600 for one of their products. That means waiting until a few weeks after the release day, by then reviews that are not sponsored by Sony should be available.
After listening to the sound in TFA, I'm amazed by how annoying it is. ;-)
Ignoring for a moment the fact that the composer is known, I'm imagining they told their kernel programmers to throw some sounds together
The car manufacturer could hire competent mechanical engineers and cut costs in the fabric design department instead. Which might lead to a drab but technically superior car. I think that kind of decision tells a lot about a company and its priorities. Back to computers:
In the OS world, you can have
-a non-userfriendly (at least not beginner-friendly) but technically superb system. Think of classic UNIX as an example.
-or as the other extreme, a pretty, newbie-friendly but unreliable system, like Windows 9x.
Of course the differences are smaller these days. Microsoft is getting better on security and reliability, while modern Linux distributions make getting started a lot easier. But the underlying difference in philosophy still seems to be there, and my trust in Microsoft is still limited.
For the language itself, the documentation pages of Free Pascal have lots of information:
n tation. Unfortunately, it is currently limited to a bunch of examples. An online reference on the individual components has been started but is not very useful yet. That is something I'm missing myself, the (exellent) Deplhi online help has spoiled me there ;-)
http://www.freepascal.org/docs.html
Of course, those don't cover the Lazarus IDE and the LCL (Lazarus Component Library), the Lazarus counterpart to Delphi's VCL.
I guess you'd best start at http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Lazarus_Docume
At the risk of looking like a sociopath, I think that Visual BASIC sucks too ;-)
For quick development of GUI applications (on Windows), Borland Delphi is nice. Similar target audience, clearer structure of the language. Delphi uses a Pascal dialect with object oriented extensions. I'm using it in my job and cannot complain.
The Linux branch of Delphi, Kylix, unfortunately seems defunct, but there is an Open Source project that works on a Delphi replacement:
Lazarus (http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/). Available on both Windows and Linux.
So if you need a nice development tool for GUI stuff, I think Lazarus would be worth checking out.
In #1, you obviously assume that the companies still run Windows clients. While this will be an argument for some,
-Outlook/Exchange can be replaced by systems like Novell Groupwise, available on Linux and Windows
-Active Directory is a form of LDAP Directory services. There are other implementations of LDAP Directory services, some of them Open Source. While I'm not an expert on using those, I guess it is possible to manage a Linux environment with them. Of course, Windows is known to work well only with Active Directory.
So if a company is willing to do #2 as well, the obstacles from #1 will be irrelevant. I agree that the success or failure of the Munich project will have quite an impact on the reputation of Linux as viable solution.
On #3, I fully agree.
#4, drivers are important but some more market share from a Linux success in #3 will also be necessary. Unless WINE makes great enough progress that Linux + drivers + WINE will do the job.
I guess that Jim Allchin's little kid does not have any data on his machine that are irreplaceable or worth stealing. Maybe a few game saves. ;-)
If Jim Allchin said he runs his own computer on Vista without antivirus software, it would be more convincing
Another question is if Microsoft can make a refund offer that is binding for the dealer.
In Germany, the computer magazine C't had an article written by a lawyer about this topic a few years ago. His take on the situation was that the EULA is unenforcable, one of the reasons being that the sale is a contract between dealer and end user, and Microsoft cannot modify the terms of that sale.
Of course, this depends on jurisdiction - in some US states EULAs are enforcable by law.
Even without spyware, I usually dislike the layout of the default install.
For instance, the pre-installations tend to be on one large partition. I prefer to split the harddisk into at least two partitions, C:\ and D:\. This way, in case of a wrecked Windows installation I can later reformat C:\ without deleting my data on D:\.
The above is for a Windows only install, a dual boot configuration with Linux gets at least two more partitions.
The point is that you are supposed to accept limitations on how to use the product, which are only revealed after the sale. And the manufacturer extends an offer that you can return the limited part of the product for a refund.
To extend the car analogy, after buying the car you get in to drive home. Over the ignition lock, there is a seal with a note that says "By breaking the seal, you agree never to have sex on your back seat. But if you don't like that condition, you can return the back seat for a refund".
Now such an after-the-sale condition may or may not be legally binding, depending on jurisdiction.
But if it is binding, I think the refund offer should also be binding. And the car manufacturer (Microsoft) should be obliged to reimburse the dealer.
Now I wonder if the first two companies you mentioned tried to get the project contract first and look for suitable employees then? That is a practice I sometimes hear about, and the risks should be obvious.
The third company was probably a hopeless case by the time you got there. Lacking the means (good employees) to get the job done and the money to hire said good employees, it would have taken a miracle. Does not happen often.
Finally, outsourcing has its risks too:
I see some wishful thinking here, with risks (they don't have an 8 or 9 on their team?) similar to what your first two companies went through.
Besides, the easy termination of the contract is nice but this may not be your biggest problem. You still need to find new people for the project, unless it was canceled altogether. And replacing the whole team because you just "fired" the outsourcing company may be even harder than finding one or two new people.
How did professional wrestling get into that list? As an attempt to be funny?
Because it is nothing more than a show. Not a very intelligent show, but shallow entertainment does not count as evil to me
If I understand Common Carrier status correctly, it shields also against civil liability (as long as you comply with the DMCA when you get a takedown note). I think the real danger of losing CC status is that the RIAA might be able to sue you for the entirety of copyright violations on your network.
Any lawyers, care to comment??
AFAIK the limiting factor in the average, healthy eye is not the density of the optical receptors but the quality of the optical apparatus that projects the image onto the retina. Think megapixel camera chip in a cell phone with cheap optics. More exactly, the density of the optical receptors suggests that a visual acuity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_acuity
of 20/10 is the maximum possible with a perfect optical apparatus. In real life, only a few lucky individuals have that good eyesight. Most of us are limited by less than perfectly shaped eyeballs, not by the possible resolution of the retina.
I've been wondering for a while when the international finance markets will get the idea that you will not get the money back you lent to the USA. Not if, but when. Because the USA simply don't have the necessary amount of dollars, except maybe if they go wild printing them ;-)
In which case, the lenders will get their money but it will be seriously devalued through inflation.
Either way, US bonds will be considered worthless. Good luck then trying to buy any more oil with dollars.
And BTW, the countries of European Union (where I live) don't have the most healthy fiscal policy either. Under Clinton, the USA looked better than the EU in this regard. But with the crazy spending of the Bush administration, the USA are back in leading the way to the big crash.
In 1), do you mean Open Source hot tech?? Then 2) through 5) might go like this instead:
;-)
2) Team A proceeds to make Vista ports of the stuff. They'll need forever... possible if they are not too competent. Let's assume they DO need forever
3) If Team B's something is worthwile at all (interesting to users?), some people will grab the code and start fixing it. I'll call them Team OSS.
4) M$'s Patchware finds itself in a race against Team OSS, who don't have an interest in delaying things.
5) By the time BlackComb comes out, there is also a well-established and working OSS version. Now M$ is one of multiple vendors, exactly the situation they usually want to avoid.
An obvious choice... if it would work.
;-)
I guess the people who are willing to circumvent the DRM are also willing to ignore the Vista EULA and run it in a VM anyway. So I don't see how this clause will Microsoft help to protect the DRM.
But then again, maybe they just want to convince some clueless RIAA managers that they are Doing Something
Personally I tend to "Stupid XP and Vista GUI uses too many resources!", and I am still running Win 2000. Now if you lump me in with Lonewolf667 who really likes fancy UIs, it might look like dualism
Sometimes the problem is more obvious during reinstall. A few months ago, I reinstalled Windows 2000 at home because it lost network access - I simply assumed a broken installation which had happened before.
During reinstalling, the NIC driver refused to work at all. At that point it was easy to conclude the network card was broken, because the same drivers had worked in an earlier installation.
It may be a problem for the processor. If the heatsink is at 75 Celsius, the CPU might be at 90-100 Celsius which is above the maximum specified case temperature for some X86 models (don't know about the XBOX processor). Besides, semiconductors age faster at high temperatures, so I'd really prefer to have my CPU running at a nice moderate 60 Celsius or less.
The question is usually not if the EULA is legal, it is if the inclusion in the contract is valid.
In ProCD v. Zeidenberg the court said yes, but Specht v. Netscape went the other way. So there is no 100% consistent case law. According to the Wikipedia articles there is one important difference that may explain the different rulings:
"The user in the Zeidenberg case had purchased and opened the packages of multiple copies of the product, and therefore could not easily prove he remained ignorant of the contract/license".
If Zeidenberg knew the EULA before the bought further copies of the program, the opinion "a binding contract means that both parties know of the terms and agree to them" of the court in Specht v. Netscape might not preclude the same court from ruling against Zeidenberg.