1) Complexity. Most desktop apps are much more complex than your average cgi. Granted there are some anomaly cgi's that you may consider doing as a java servlet or somesuch setup because it is more complex.
2) You own the code. It's nice to use an interpreted language because it's easy to change without a recompile. And due to the fact that most CGI's are only running on a handful of machines at most, having to recompile everytime you want to bugfix is annoying.
3) Mod Perl. Mod perl cgi's are faster than C cgi's, and are easily built from freestanding perl cgi. The execution speed to ease of use ratio is in mod-perl's
4) Hardware is cheap. If you are getting enough hits on your mod-perl machine where the cgi is becoming a bottleneck, buy more hardware. At that point your making enough money from ad banners to afford it.
5) Security. Although I would venture java as the safest CGI language, you run an extreme risk of buffer overflows unless you make sure you're memory management is secure in CGIs. Since perl has garbage collection, that is not an issue. Howerver, you still have to worry about user input being interpreted as code, but that is easily remedied with taint, as well as CGI.pm's various quoting methods.
"If you work for Microsoft for the money, even though you know what you are doing to the industry by working there, then we have a word for you. It's called a whore."
I may have reworded the above quote a bit, but the point is I don't think he's working for Microsoft.
After seeing Good Will Hunting I went to my university library and did some research on speed reading studies. It appears that speed reading does not improve your comprehension speed at all. All it does is allow you to spread what you comprehend over a larger area. For example, if a slow reading of a technical document is 10 times slower than a speed reading, then the speed reading will only retain 10% of the information that the slow reading will.
You may read a lot of propaganda on the contrary to this, but before you buy into it, reseach the legitimate studies on speed reading. There are a lot of poorly done studies out there.
anyone notice the difference in tone between these comments and the comments on ESR's article below? One can be lead to deduce a lot of things from this about Slashdot, the respective authors, etc. but Jon... RESIST THE TEMPTATION.
Look and Feel copyrights are bogus, and if this goes through it could ruin the software industry. Getting a look-and-feel copyright on tetris creates a slippery slope.
Imagine if id wanted to get a look and feel copyright with wolfenstein and claim that all first person perspective 3D games with a gun were their invention. It would be a reasonable extrapolation if the look and feel of tetris could be copyrighted.
I can't correctly articulate why, but I don't think that Microsoft pointing to open source products as competitors is a valid defence. Maybe it's this:
If they are the wealthiest corporation in the world, how is it possible that their only competition is a bunch of rogue hackers who give away the code they write as a hobby, yet there is nothing wrong in the industry.
Slashdot Mirror
1) Complexity. Most desktop apps are much more complex than your average cgi. Granted there are some anomaly cgi's that you may consider doing as a java servlet or somesuch setup because it is more complex.
2) You own the code. It's nice to use an interpreted language because it's easy to change without a recompile. And due to the fact that most CGI's are only running on a handful of machines at most, having to recompile everytime you want to bugfix is annoying.
3) Mod Perl. Mod perl cgi's are faster than C cgi's, and are easily built from freestanding perl cgi. The execution speed to ease of use ratio is in mod-perl's
4) Hardware is cheap. If you are getting enough hits on your mod-perl machine where the cgi is becoming a bottleneck, buy more hardware. At that point your making enough money from ad banners to afford it.
5) Security. Although I would venture java as the safest CGI language, you run an extreme risk of buffer overflows unless you make sure you're memory management is secure in CGIs. Since perl has garbage collection, that is not an issue. Howerver, you still have to worry about user input being interpreted as code, but that is easily remedied with taint, as well as CGI.pm's various quoting methods.
...and any other reasons I left out.
Ah... Flowers For Algernon.
First a short story, then a novel, then a TV movie if I remember correctly.
If you get a chance, I _HIGHLY_ recommend the short story. The novel shows a little too much that it was written to cash in on the short story.
Quote of Brian Hook from memory:
"If you work for Microsoft for the money, even though you know what you are doing to the industry by working there, then we have a word for you. It's called a whore."
I may have reworded the above quote a bit, but the point is I don't think he's working for Microsoft.
After seeing Good Will Hunting I went to my university library and did some research on speed reading studies. It appears that speed reading does not improve your comprehension speed at all. All it does is allow you to spread what you comprehend over a larger area. For example, if a slow reading of a technical document is 10 times slower than a speed reading, then the speed reading will only retain 10% of the information that the slow reading will.
You may read a lot of propaganda on the contrary to this, but before you buy into it, reseach the legitimate studies on speed reading. There are a lot of poorly done studies out there.
"Cracker" seems to be open now...
This guy is a moron. I wonder where they find these people.
When we installed RH5.0 on my buddie's new VAIO laptop, I got it up with Networking and X faster than windows.
Linux Setup:
XF86Setup.. click on monitor, click on card, startx
Pop in the pcmcia ethernet, ifconfig, route, netscape
Windows Setup:
Reboot, load display driver, reboot
pop in pcmcia card, reboot, setup networking, reboot
Talk about a pain in the ass to set up. We counted 5 reboots in the whole 98 install. Retarded.
anyone notice the difference in tone between these comments and the comments on ESR's article below? One can be lead to deduce a lot of things from this about Slashdot, the respective authors, etc. but Jon... RESIST THE TEMPTATION.
> high tech products that nobody wants. Look at GNU Emacs
Hey!! I resemble that statement!
Emacs is the greatest thing since sliced bread!
(BTW, does anyone know the origin of my first statement? The s/resent/resemble deal? I seem to have forgotten it)
> Name me a product which had it's initial release be production ready.
Gimp 1.0 Was pretty darn smooth. Granted it needed some fixes, but the full year in 0.99 mode made it pretty solid.
Look and Feel copyrights are bogus, and if this goes through it could ruin the software industry. Getting a look-and-feel copyright on tetris creates a slippery slope.
Imagine if id wanted to get a look and feel copyright with wolfenstein and claim that all first person perspective 3D games with a gun were their invention. It would be a reasonable extrapolation if the look and feel of tetris could be copyrighted.
I can't correctly articulate why, but I don't think that Microsoft pointing to open source products as competitors is a valid defence. Maybe it's this:
If they are the wealthiest corporation in the world, how is it possible that their only competition is a bunch of rogue hackers who give away the code they write as a hobby, yet there is nothing wrong in the industry.
Maybe someone can articulate this better.