Yikes! That is some urglee code. I mean come on, since when has code used a possessive apostrophe?
Since AppleScript was invented, obviously. (90-91?)
IIRC, set text item delimiters of AppleScript to {":"} works just as well. It's the versatility and its way of knowing where to put parentheses that makes AppleScript easy.
You can be sure there are no backdoors in the kernel, because you can download the source (free registration required) and compile a custom one. After that you can set up some firewall rules and you're pretty safe from network backdoors at least.
As for backdoors originating on the machine and making calls outward, you can be pretty sure any such would be discovered pretty fast by people that log every data your machine sends (I have no doubt there's those that do).
I say if you've played earlier FF, you should've expected a final battle with more than 3 characters. It was the case in both FF6 and FF7.
As for under powered when you get there, I for one didn't do that much out of the main story (I went and got Bahamut and Master Tonberry), but my lowest character were at level 40 or so (Squall at 60-something), and all of them had junctions on all the primary stats (bought extra GF abilities of course). I suppose it's because I did explore the dungeons I ended up in.
As for the original post, I wholeheartedly agree. I was disappointed with FF9. It didn't contain any surprises. You knew from the moment you heard the person existed who was the final boss, and the plot wasn't exactly revolutionary. (boy rescues princess from her evil [step] mother who wants to destroy her and then goes on to save the world from whatever corrupted the mother).
I was also disappointed with FF8 the first time I played it, but the second time I really enjoyed it. It's much more well thought through than FF7, and it can be quite challenging at times.
I also think it helped that I read a walk-through and found out all the stuff I'd missed the first time through. There is a lot of side quests in FF8, they're just more hidden than in FF7.
Both the issues of slow combat and slow summoning has been addressed in FFX. Perhaps you should give it a try. (Disclaimer: I haven't played it, I'm only stating what I've heard.)
FF6 had some crashing bugs (for example summoning Palinor after sketching iirc), but that's the last I can remember with crashing bugs.
FF7 had a bug where you could get infinite items of any kind you could throw.
You should try Final Fantasy 6. After 25 hours or so you're left with an airship, a world, and a final destination. It's up to you where you want to go, though I wouldn't choose the final destination for a while, you'd be axed in about 2 seconds.
And before that, pretty early actually, the party splits into 3 and you get to follow one at a time, in the order you choose.
The scary part is when you realise that what they give out is the interest (growth if you count in stocks) of Alfred Nobel's fortune, minus what is required to keep for inflation and a few salaries.
That's $6M in interest. Ok, perhaps not too much by todays standards, but he made this fortune in the 19th century. Quite an achievement, if you ask me.
Fire fighting is a profession where you have to put much trust into your co-workers. It would not be possible unless you know them to some extent. Here fire fighters have a 2 hours physics pass every day. It's hard to not learn things about each other in a locker room. I think "bond-making" is encouraged more in their line of work than in others.
And of course they work in teams, and then I mean that they do everything in teams, not just decide what to do.
Re:Philosophical differences, and the Unix Way
on
Apple releases iPod
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· Score: 1
I will NEVER claim that the Macintosh is a "great UI". It is easy-to-learn. It is not easy-to-use for people used to a better interface (focus-follows-mouse? Multiple desktops? Remote display? Auto-select-to-clipboard? Give me my nice custom-configured X interface or give me death!)
I surely hope your trolling. focus-follows-mouse and Auto-select-to-clipboard are great examples of bad UI. How often have you accidently overwritten your clipboard by selecting some text? I do it all the time... How often have you typed in the wrong window or not had any window focused because of focus-follows-mouse? I do it all the time... I'll give you multiple desktops and remote display though. They are high on the requests lists, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were implemented.
Speaking particularly of iTunes, how do I script it into apache? How do I use it from the command line? How do I run it on the machine hooked into my stereo from my desktop with the display that is in the other room? This is trivial and elegant in my UNIX environment.
Well, I haven't tried it, but I would expect something along osascript -e 'tell application "iTunes" to play' to work. AppleScript has been around since Mac OS 7, and there wasn't long before there was a 3rd party product to use it remotedly. Now-a-days the language itself can connect over networks.
Trivial enough for you? And yes, you can get answers back using AppleScript as well.
I read this story and was very confused.
Reason? I heard of this root exploit months ago, by a friend who said he'd known it for quite a while. I even wrote a little kernel module that disables ptrace() to all users but root back then.
I can't believe it hasn't shown up on bugtraq until now. 2.2.0 is over a year old, isn't it? I thought there were quite a few people actively looking for kernel bugs and reporting them there.
It's namely still the only editor available on many MUDs, including one that I help work on. Of course, it does print some more error information that standard ed.
Don't underestimate ed, it's a good editor, and that's from someone who hate vi(m).:)
Much of this is a matter of opinion and therefor subject to flame. It also comes up once in a while.
One of the greatest strengths of Obj-C is it's ability to catch and forward unknown methods. You can for example do
[[array do] doStuff:2];
where [array do] returns an object that doesn't itself respond to any methods (except that needed to destroy it) but forwards everything called on it to all objects in the array (in this case doStuff:2).
If an unknown method isn't caught by the object itself an exception will be raised but you can catch that as well.
You can make calls to nil (they will be ignored) which can be quite useful as you don't have to check for failure after each call but can do it further down.
You can add methods to classes dynamically. For instance I had the need to have a special function in all my window objects (including floating palettes). I didn't have to subclass NSWindow and NSFloating etc but instead could add an extra function to NSWindow.
You have a general object type called id which is useful when you don't know the class of an object or it can be one of two similar classes. Which leads to the fact that if two classes has a method with the same name you can call either of them with the same call not having to know the exact class.
If you use the Foundation (most do) you will have a reference counting garbage collector that works with all objects.
I might have forgotten something, but I'm sure I'll be corrected in that case.:)
This is such a troll.
First of all, it's wrong. You'd have to do find . -name "*.o" -exec rm -f {} \;
How easy is that?
Second of all, perhaps it's not true for windows, but many GUI:s can sort by file type, and show files from more than one directory in the same window. Then it's an easy task to mark all of a same type and just delete them.
If you're willing to do quite some work, it seems kame was ported into the darwin kernel quite some while ago, and the kernel parts of IPv6 and IPSec are fully working. However, there's not a single userspace command available, so some porting would be required.
Of course, as mentioned above, pppd over an ssl tunnel is probably an easier solution.
Re:Why stack smashing works on (almost) every CPU
on
Cracking OSX
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· Score: 1
Well, either you have to store the return address in memory at least some of the time, or you have to severely restrict the number of nested function calls allowed by the architecture.
Yes, but they could for example have put the return address at offset 4 of the current stack frame instead of the parent stack frame. That would've made it much more resistant to buffer overflows as the start of the variables would be above the return address.
Of course, you could still change the return address of the parent function, but that would be much less reliable.
Re:GNUStep's WORST feature: Applicatoin Bundles
on
GNUstep On LinuxFocus
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· Score: 1
This requires a special command to run your commands....why??
Well, it might be this way right now, but it wouldn't have to be. Since the bundles all have a specific layout you could make a shell that sees the bundle as an executable. Just put the bundle in the path, type the name of it, and the shell knows where to find the executable.
Of cource, there's no such shell at the moment, but that doesn't make bundles in itself a bad idea. And if you really want to, you can always use symlinks.
but Java adds runtime safety and garbage collection, two really important features.
While Obj-C doesn't have garbage collection, the Foudation kit does. It's actually very smart and I can't see why other APIs haven't implemented it as well. It's true that there isn't full runtime safety, but once you've learned to retain your objects you very seldom have pointers pointing wrong, and Obj-C does offer some safety with exceptions and the fact that calling a nil object isn't an error (this last thing can be very useful actually, since you don't have to check for nil all the time).
While not really related, Obj-C does have some really nifty features that I haven't seen in any other programming languages (and I've tried quite a few, though not SmallTalk). One example is when an object doesn't respond to a method call. Then a special function is called with a structure describing the call and the object can do whatever it wishes. For example an array can forward it to all it's elements or a proxy can forward it to some remote object. All completely transparent.
Well not quite a reply but I wanted to point out that much of Mac OS X, including the kernel, is Open Source. It actually runs on x86 (though there's no binary distribution yet). The only thing that's not open is the GUI and most of the programs that use it.
There's actually nothing stopping a 3rd party to make the kernel run on their hardware and then letting people buy Mac OS X to install the GUI over it. Nothing except that they have to use PPC and give their patches to Apple that is.
Slashdot Mirror
Since AppleScript was invented, obviously. (90-91?)
IIRC, set text item delimiters of AppleScript to {":"} works just as well. It's the versatility and its way of knowing where to put parentheses that makes AppleScript easy.
As for backdoors originating on the machine and making calls outward, you can be pretty sure any such would be discovered pretty fast by people that log every data your machine sends (I have no doubt there's those that do).
So what are the chances people won't contact eachother and then transfer the music outside napster, through ICQ for example?
I say if you've played earlier FF, you should've expected a final battle with more than 3 characters. It was the case in both FF6 and FF7.
As for under powered when you get there, I for one didn't do that much out of the main story (I went and got Bahamut and Master Tonberry), but my lowest character were at level 40 or so (Squall at 60-something), and all of them had junctions on all the primary stats (bought extra GF abilities of course). I suppose it's because I did explore the dungeons I ended up in.
As for the original post, I wholeheartedly agree. I was disappointed with FF9. It didn't contain any surprises. You knew from the moment you heard the person existed who was the final boss, and the plot wasn't exactly revolutionary. (boy rescues princess from her evil [step] mother who wants to destroy her and then goes on to save the world from whatever corrupted the mother).
I was also disappointed with FF8 the first time I played it, but the second time I really enjoyed it. It's much more well thought through than FF7, and it can be quite challenging at times.
I also think it helped that I read a walk-through and found out all the stuff I'd missed the first time through. There is a lot of side quests in FF8, they're just more hidden than in FF7.
Both the issues of slow combat and slow summoning has been addressed in FFX. Perhaps you should give it a try. (Disclaimer: I haven't played it, I'm only stating what I've heard.)
FF6 had some crashing bugs (for example summoning Palinor after sketching iirc), but that's the last I can remember with crashing bugs.
FF7 had a bug where you could get infinite items of any kind you could throw.
So bugs do exist, usually not fatal though.
You should try Final Fantasy 6. After 25 hours or so you're left with an airship, a world, and a final destination. It's up to you where you want to go, though I wouldn't choose the final destination for a while, you'd be axed in about 2 seconds.
And before that, pretty early actually, the party splits into 3 and you get to follow one at a time, in the order you choose.
That's $6M in interest. Ok, perhaps not too much by todays standards, but he made this fortune in the 19th century. Quite an achievement, if you ask me.
Well, you didn't look close enough. My screen is clearly visible in the top left.
Fire fighting is a profession where you have to put much trust into your co-workers. It would not be possible unless you know them to some extent. Here fire fighters have a 2 hours physics pass every day. It's hard to not learn things about each other in a locker room. I think "bond-making" is encouraged more in their line of work than in others.
And of course they work in teams, and then I mean that they do everything in teams, not just decide what to do.
I surely hope your trolling. focus-follows-mouse and Auto-select-to-clipboard are great examples of bad UI. How often have you accidently overwritten your clipboard by selecting some text? I do it all the time... How often have you typed in the wrong window or not had any window focused because of focus-follows-mouse? I do it all the time... I'll give you multiple desktops and remote display though. They are high on the requests lists, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were implemented.
Speaking particularly of iTunes, how do I script it into apache? How do I use it from the command line? How do I run it on the machine hooked into my stereo from my desktop with the display that is in the other room? This is trivial and elegant in my UNIX environment.
Well, I haven't tried it, but I would expect something along osascript -e 'tell application "iTunes" to play' to work. AppleScript has been around since Mac OS 7, and there wasn't long before there was a 3rd party product to use it remotedly. Now-a-days the language itself can connect over networks.
Trivial enough for you? And yes, you can get answers back using AppleScript as well.
I read this story and was very confused.
Reason? I heard of this root exploit months ago, by a friend who said he'd known it for quite a while. I even wrote a little kernel module that disables ptrace() to all users but root back then.
I can't believe it hasn't shown up on bugtraq until now. 2.2.0 is over a year old, isn't it? I thought there were quite a few people actively looking for kernel bugs and reporting them there.
Well, I'm using ed on an almost daily basis.
:)
It's namely still the only editor available on many MUDs, including one that I help work on. Of course, it does print some more error information that standard ed.
Don't underestimate ed, it's a good editor, and that's from someone who hate vi(m).
Much of this is a matter of opinion and therefor subject to flame. It also comes up once in a while.
:)
One of the greatest strengths of Obj-C is it's ability to catch and forward unknown methods. You can for example do
[[array do] doStuff:2];
where [array do] returns an object that doesn't itself respond to any methods (except that needed to destroy it) but forwards everything called on it to all objects in the array (in this case doStuff:2).
If an unknown method isn't caught by the object itself an exception will be raised but you can catch that as well.
You can make calls to nil (they will be ignored) which can be quite useful as you don't have to check for failure after each call but can do it further down.
You can add methods to classes dynamically. For instance I had the need to have a special function in all my window objects (including floating palettes). I didn't have to subclass NSWindow and NSFloating etc but instead could add an extra function to NSWindow.
You have a general object type called id which is useful when you don't know the class of an object or it can be one of two similar classes. Which leads to the fact that if two classes has a method with the same name you can call either of them with the same call not having to know the exact class.
If you use the Foundation (most do) you will have a reference counting garbage collector that works with all objects.
I might have forgotten something, but I'm sure I'll be corrected in that case.
This is such a troll.
First of all, it's wrong. You'd have to do find . -name "*.o" -exec rm -f {} \;
How easy is that?
Second of all, perhaps it's not true for windows, but many GUI:s can sort by file type, and show files from more than one directory in the same window. Then it's an easy task to mark all of a same type and just delete them.
Except if you read the fine print, you can't use it for anything except games distributed by Garage Games.
You might want to check out Escape from Monkey Island and Gabriel Knight 3, and their predecessors.
Of course, as mentioned above, pppd over an ssl tunnel is probably an easier solution.
Yes, but they could for example have put the return address at offset 4 of the current stack frame instead of the parent stack frame. That would've made it much more resistant to buffer overflows as the start of the variables would be above the return address.
Of course, you could still change the return address of the parent function, but that would be much less reliable.
Well, it might be this way right now, but it wouldn't have to be. Since the bundles all have a specific layout you could make a shell that sees the bundle as an executable. Just put the bundle in the path, type the name of it, and the shell knows where to find the executable.
Of cource, there's no such shell at the moment, but that doesn't make bundles in itself a bad idea. And if you really want to, you can always use symlinks.
While Obj-C doesn't have garbage collection, the Foudation kit does. It's actually very smart and I can't see why other APIs haven't implemented it as well. It's true that there isn't full runtime safety, but once you've learned to retain your objects you very seldom have pointers pointing wrong, and Obj-C does offer some safety with exceptions and the fact that calling a nil object isn't an error (this last thing can be very useful actually, since you don't have to check for nil all the time).
While not really related, Obj-C does have some really nifty features that I haven't seen in any other programming languages (and I've tried quite a few, though not SmallTalk). One example is when an object doesn't respond to a method call. Then a special function is called with a structure describing the call and the object can do whatever it wishes. For example an array can forward it to all it's elements or a proxy can forward it to some remote object. All completely transparent.
There's actually nothing stopping a 3rd party to make the kernel run on their hardware and then letting people buy Mac OS X to install the GUI over it. Nothing except that they have to use PPC and give their patches to Apple that is.
link: http://www.opensource.apple.com/