I'm trying to think of why the kernel would be so old, that is 2.4.2. I mean, that's a year old! Plus, an ancient version of _Helix_Code_ GNOME (aka Ximian) is also installed. And while it's a little hard to tell, the KDE screenshot seems in my eyes to be running 2.0, although that's just a guess that would have to be double-checked.
This tells me one of two things: one, the Red Flag people just took a base Red Hat distro (7.0? I run Debian, so I don't know when Red Hat first introduced kernel 2.4.2), s/Hat/Flag, and put it on the web. Two, they started with a Red Hat distro long ago, but took a long time to make whatever modifications they needed to and did not bother to update the kernel and programs. Both scenarios say volumes about the people who work on Red Flag. I mean, there are distros assembled by a handful of people that are more up-to-date than this! What are they doing, reading/. all day?
I would be really interested if someone would do a security audit on this. Does Red Flag call home to Big Brother?
Someone has probably come up with this before, but submitted for your approval: The Taunt. The Taunt works like this. According to the BSA's tip page (http://www.bsa.org/usa/press/newsreleases//2000-1 1-14.350.phtml), you should watch out for the following signs for pirated software:
If a price for a software product seems too good to be true, it probably is
Be wary of software products that come without any documentation or manuals
Beware of products that do not look genuine, such as those with hand-written labels
Watch out for products labeled as academic, OEM, NFR or CDR
Beware of sellers offering to make "back-up" copies
Be wary of compilations of software titles from different publishers on a single disk
Check with organizations such as the BSA should you become a victim of software fraud
Now, I don't know about you, but I find a lot of this stuff in my desk drawer. Why, several people have made copies of cdroms crammed full of various programs and offered it to me for only the price of a blank CD!
The astute reader will have already caught my drift by now and realized that with Linux and the GPL (and all the other OSI licenses) you don't ever have to say sorry to the BSA. So why not taunt them? Report yourself today!
Actually, before someone jumps up and says something, let me point out that I don't think that reporting yourself to the BSA is really a good idea. It's like walking up to a 300 pound thug and saying something nasty about his mama. But we can dream, can't we?
I was wondering how long it would be before copyright law come up before the Supreme Court. Copyright law does need to change to something more sane and comprehensible. Perhaps we will be so blessed to see copyright reform...or am I getting my hopes too high?
If you were going to propose a reform to current US copyright, what would you do? On the top of my list is that stupid law that says that a work is not public domain until 75 years after the author's death. That, in my opinion, is ridiculous.
Well, you've already been moderated as flamebait, but I don't think that's the case, so I'll respond.
First of all, the major reason for KDE3 is QT3. QT3 has several advantages over QT2 for developers, and the KDE project want to use these to their advantage. As an end user, you probably won't be aware immediately of the changes, but developers will, which means that better programs will be coming your way.
I have been a KDE fan ever since last summer, when I finally got the hardware to support it.:) It's been my primary desktop environment ever since, although (probably due to something getting borked upstream) I'm having to use Fluxbox until the memory and performance issues in the current Debian Sid KDE go away.
Anywho, the feature that I've been most looking forward to is tabbed browsing in Konqueror, due to appear in KDE 3.1. Galeon is the one constantly used app that isn't a part of KDE, and I use it because a.) it has tabbed support and b.) a smart bookmarks toolbar. Plus, it's a web browser. Nothing more, nothing less. Konqueror has various view settings (such as "file manager", "web browser", and whatnot, but in my experience, the different view settings don't always play nice. But since tabs are at the top of my wishlist, I will definitely reconsider Konqueror in the near future.
So, what are all you other KDE fans looking forward to?
I read Fahrenheit 451 when I was in junior high, and it had a profound impact on my life. Don't believe me? Just look at my email address. I don't treat it as some sort of Bible, and I don't believe that it's the greatest book, or even the best science fiction, ever written. It just crawled under my skin and stayed there, and I hope it does the same for your students.
Ok, regarding your question, may I suggest that you have the students do a little leg-work themselves? I don't know what country you're in, but here in the USA, dissident thought (something other than, "My country right or wrong"), doesn't really start until late high school, and develops into full blossom in college. So this is the right time, because your students are probably starting to question The System, if they haven't already. So have them research censorship in these modern times. Heck, if you're in the US of A, there's plenty within the last six months. Have them research charges of censorship, then make a case: was it censorship? Was it right? (This is an excellent time to introduce the limits of free speech, ie, "Don't yell 'fire' in a crowded theater.")
Bradbury has an appendix in some later versions of the book, where he details how F451 has itself been censored. (Mostly for language, although there have been some cases where it was to "condense" the story.) Get the students thinking about what it means to "edit" a story. How does this effect the author's intent? What about just replacing swear words with milder equivalents?
High school students are at that very precarious stage where they are beginning to form their own ideas about politics and the nature of government. Use it! I'm one of those who believes that a little distrust of the government at all times is a healthy thing. Teach the book in such a way to create thoughtful, questioning citizens who aren't going to take what they hear from the talking heads on TV as gospel truth. Instill in them a desire to learn more about what's going on beneath the surface.
Yeah, it's outrageous. But think of it like computer software. Infinitely reproducible with no added cost except for electricity and perhaps medium, yet you still pay $5,000 per cpu. They charge that much because they think they can get that much. It's basic economics. Most people, given a choice between ebooks and dead tree books, choose the later. Why? There's probably a whole lot of reasons, but I like the physical connection, the ability to rapidly slip through the pages for something that strikes my fancy, the knowledge that with good care, it will last longer than me, and that I don't need an expensive piece of hardware that hurts my eyes just to read it.
That said, there is someone out there who will say, "I'd much rather have it in electronic form, and I'm willing to shell out the extra bucks for it." They've already shown their willingness to shell out a whole lot of bucks for the reader, so what's a couple extra? Having already purchased a questionably useful device, they would feel stupid for not using it (especially after spending so much); they feel compelled to justify their purchase, and if that means having to pay a little more than a dead tree book, well, so be it.
Also, the first law of capitalism applies here. In a nutshell: people are stupid, and successful companies exploit stupid people.
I hate to say the obvious, but why wasn't he the _first_ one that the grant was awarded to? After all, he is only the creator and lead architect of PERL. Are there any blindly obvious reasons why this didn't happen earlier?
:Peter
Thought: maybe Miguel was just getting bored at LinuxWorld and decided to throw out this little hand granade into the crowd to liven things up a bit? He definitely has my vote for Troll of the Week!
Mod me down as a troll, but now that I think about it, GNOME 3.0 is at least three years away, given GNOME's current state of development. Plenty of time to wait and see.
But, then again, maybe GNOME's development will pick up after 2.0 is released, same as KDE started gathering steam after its 2.0. We shall see...
He also had praise for the new Microsoft security model, dismissed the notion that Redmond was employing embrace and extend to its web services protocols, and put the message that the community should get over its beef with The Beast.
I respect Miguel. Not only is he a great programmer, but he's got guts. At a time when most other observers are downplaying Microsoft's "security initiative" as market-speak and vaporware, he comes out and praises them. He's also got a keen sense of history, too. "Embrace and extend? Why should Microsoft do that?" And telling "the community" that they should "get over" Microsoft, when it has shown no signs of repenting of its monopolistic, predatory ways, well, he's convinced me!
I suspect that most people will probably disagree with him, however.
P.S. Any guesses on how many trolls will say, "Sure glad I use KDE! GNOME sucks!" Etc...
:Peter
I agree, especially in regards to Europa, ominous warnings from black monoliths not withstanding. If life were discovered on Europa, it could be the shot in the arm that space exploration has desperately needed for so long. Once the moon race was won, the drive for space petered out. There is little incentive in the popular mindset for space exploration. But extra-terrestrial life, even if it is just simple bacterium (although higher life forms would be a definite bonus), excites everyone.
I really don't think that Europa would serve as a "marine preserve" for terran sea-life. Just think of the expenditure necessary. Far better to apply those resources to the terran oceans themselves.
:Peter
Jobs' definition of victory...
on
New iMac Announced
·
· Score: 1, Insightful
This just brings to mind a quote that the Times Canada article (now pulled) had from Jobs: "Victory in this industry is survival." He goes on by saying that Apple intends to survive by "innovating." Well, we all know that "innovation" is buzzword-compliant and really doesn't mean much these days, but it is clear that innovation for Apple (at least with this iLamp) is more centered around form than function. Yes, there's the usual bit about how much easier computing is going to be. Ra, ra, ra. Great for the grandmas of the world that have lived all their life quite hapilly without such features as iPhoto and whatnot. The real question is, will this new form shore up Apple's declining business?
Personally, I would be concerned any time a business equated "victory" with survival. However, given the current tech industry, perhaps that's not so far off.
:Peter
The whole thing hinges on two things: the look (certainly not like anything out there) and the price. It does look like a ball of clay with a monitor on a stick, but the small pictures might be to blame for that. The article sums the second matter succinctly:
Still, at $1,299 for the entry-level iMac, the product could be priced too dearly to attract many converts from the PC world.
Apple, in order to grow (which would be a reasonable aim for any business) needs to attract customers. This is only my opinion, but this is not going to attract new customers. This is going to attract Mac loyalists and CEO-types who like having funky looking stuff on their desks even if they don't know how to use it. The iMac is sooo 1997, don't you agree? Time for a new look! For Harry Homeowner, it's a weird-lookin' contraption that costs twice as much as the equivalent PC. Sure, it's got some free software bundled in, but now a-days, even that's no guarantee.
I'm sorry, but I don't see this as something that will increase (dramatically or otherwise) Apple's shares. Jobs makes it clear that he's interested in survival ("Victory in our industry is spelled survival"), but I'm not sure that this will help much.
Careful reading will reveal that these contracts essentially effect only Beijing, not the rest of China. Shanghai, for instance, recently negotiated a contract with Microsoft for Win2000. What remains to be seen, however, is how the seriously the Chinese government will crack down on pirating (the major reason for Windows' prevelence in China, as is the case for much of the world outside of the USA and Western Europe) and whether this will prompt a widespread movement toward Free Software. Sure, China is oggling free trade, but will it (or can it?) curb pirating?
First of all, the IBM Memory Key and M-System's DiskOnKey are one and the same, merely rebranded. Of the products that are currently on the market, I found the Memory Key/DiskOnKey the best of the lot. Why? Because it is compliant with the USB mass storage protocol. In essence, it says, "I'm just another hard drive" to any OS that supports USB mass storage (WinMe, Win2000, WinXP, Linux 2.4+, Mac9.6, OSX). All the others (Thumbdrive, AgateTech's Qdrive, JMTek's USBdrive) have their own proprietary system, which requires drivers wherever you go. Of course, with Windows, you still need to do the whole reboot sequence (pain in the butt), but unless you run Win98, you don't need to carry around a floppy disk with the drivers or go to the web site to download them.
I have used my DiskOnKey for only a month now, but so far I've had no complaints. No moving parts, so it can get jostled plenty without damage. It works just fine under Linux, something that the others can't do (Thumbdrive has been promising drivers for Linux "real soon now" since last year; the others don't even bother). Since it's a vfat file system, I can merrily transfer files between 'doze and Linux. Haven't tried Mac, but I imagine there shouldn't be a problem, as vfat is supported by Macs as well.
I got mine (8mb version) on eBay for $30 bucks. Some guy was selling them, and since it was cheaper than the $45 (the cheapest I could find), I grabbed it. Expect the prices to fall even more, though; you pay a hefty price for early adoption.
One last thing: Thumbdrive is supposedly coming out with the Thumbdrive Smart, which is supposedly going to support the USB mass storage protocol. If it ever makes it past the vaporware stage, you'll find it at http://www.trekstorusa.com/ThumbDriveSmart.html
You're both right and wrong. It depends on your BIOS. On my BIOS, for example, I can't boot from USB, but on other computers, it should (theoretically--haven't tried) work. Wish I could tell you which ones work; my BIOS is Award 6.0. If anyone can post BIOSes that allow booting from USB, please tell me.
It's way to late, and I should be in bed, but I thought I would c/p the relevant parts of the article for those at work tomorrow who find the site/.ed. Sorry that I didn't preserve the HTML formatting. The rest is amusing, too, so you might want to come back to it once the servers have recovered. (If you're the type of person who gets excited over perl modules, that is. The rest of you might just want to watch CSPAN.:)
:Peter
---
Moving swiftly on, we come to Date::Tolkien::Shire, a king amongst date modules. Most newspapers carry an ``on this day in history'' column -- where you find, for instance, that you were born on the same day as the man who invented chili-paste -- but no broadsheet will tell you what happened to Frodo and his valiant companions as they fought to free Middle Earth from the scourge of the Dark Lord. The undeceptively simple:
use Date::Tolkien::Shire;
print Date::Tolkien::Shire->new(time)->on_date, "\n";
outputs (well, output a few days ago):
Highday Winterfilth 30 7465
The four Hobbits arrive at the Brandywine Bridge in the dark, 1419.
What better task could there be for crontab but to run this in the wee hours and update/etc/motd for our later enjoyment. Implementing this is, as ever, left as an exercise for the interested reader.
There is a more useful side to Date::Tolkien::Shire or, at the very least, it does light the way for other modules. As well as the on_date() method it provides an overloaded interface to the dates it returns. This allows you to compare dates and times as if they were normal numbers, so that:
print 'time is '.( $date1 > $date2 ? 'later':'earlier' ).
"than time -1e6\n";
prints time is later than time -1e6, the more prosaic Date::Simple module provides a similar interface for real dates and ensures they stringify with ISO formatting.
...this is important _how_? Really, someone, clue me in. Is it just a terribly slow day or something? Yes, yes, I know, this is Slashdot, where "News For Ners" can mean anything from the kind of toilet paper Bill Gates uses to the latest version of 'ls', but really, is there _nothing_ going on in the tech world of any greater significance?
By the way, since his server is going to quickly go down in a ball of hot silicon (he has two pictures, one a 300+k jpg, the other one a tiff--don't want to think how enormous that is), I will describe the jpg to you, to save a click:
The top shows OS X's menu bar, while the bottom has IceWM's taskbar, with the OS X's dock on the left side. In the upper right hand corner is a window running/emulating a System 7.6 desktop with an "About This Computer" window showing 62 out of 66 mb of memory used. Halfway hidden behind that window is a window of WinXP, showing the grotesquely large WinXP start menu. Fascinating, isn't it?
Having dabbled in Python programming, I see this as a Very Good Thing (TM). I read the article, and as others have pointed out, this is not a new GUI toolkit, but a wrapper for all of them. So now I can write Python programs that use both PyQT (Linux) and Tk (Windows) without having to learn two different toolkits.
Now if only PyKDE2 would come out soon, so that I can start making a couple of kicker applets for KDE2. Of course, by the time PyKDE2 is out, KDE3 will have come out, and the whole cycle will start over again!
In the same way, the Computer helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to ask for, but the Computer itself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
My father-in-law lives in Japan and is very interested in breaking free of M$. The one thing that is really slowing him down is easy, out-of-the box Japanese support. That is to say, he wants to be able to create word processor files in Japanese--he's American, so he understands English just fine, but getting KWord or Star Office to understand Japanese text has not been easy for him.
He also has an ATI Radeon, which the beta version of 8.1 didn't seem to catch.
For those of you who are interested, this has already been done before on the software side. It is available as a kernal patch here. For those of you who fear blind links, you can copy/paste http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~john/computer/hk/
It's only good in console mode, as X has its own keyboard code, but the idea is simple and easy to implement.
Convinient. IANAC (I am not a cosmotologist), but the Big Bang theory seems to have some problems with it, as others have posted above. So what better way to avoid sticky issues like, "How did it all begin?" by putting it all out of reach? I'm not saying this is a grand conspiracy, mind you. Just something convinient that I might do if I was tired of beating my head against a blackboard at three o'clock in the morning.:)
Slashdot Mirror
This tells me one of two things: one, the Red Flag people just took a base Red Hat distro (7.0? I run Debian, so I don't know when Red Hat first introduced kernel 2.4.2), s/Hat/Flag, and put it on the web. Two, they started with a Red Hat distro long ago, but took a long time to make whatever modifications they needed to and did not bother to update the kernel and programs. Both scenarios say volumes about the people who work on Red Flag. I mean, there are distros assembled by a handful of people that are more up-to-date than this! What are they doing, reading
I would be really interested if someone would do a security audit on this. Does Red Flag call home to Big Brother?
:Peter
Now, I don't know about you, but I find a lot of this stuff in my desk drawer. Why, several people have made copies of cdroms crammed full of various programs and offered it to me for only the price of a blank CD!
The astute reader will have already caught my drift by now and realized that with Linux and the GPL (and all the other OSI licenses) you don't ever have to say sorry to the BSA. So why not taunt them? Report yourself today!
Actually, before someone jumps up and says something, let me point out that I don't think that reporting yourself to the BSA is really a good idea. It's like walking up to a 300 pound thug and saying something nasty about his mama. But we can dream, can't we?
:Peter
If you were going to propose a reform to current US copyright, what would you do? On the top of my list is that stupid law that says that a work is not public domain until 75 years after the author's death. That, in my opinion, is ridiculous.
:Peter
First of all, the major reason for KDE3 is QT3. QT3 has several advantages over QT2 for developers, and the KDE project want to use these to their advantage. As an end user, you probably won't be aware immediately of the changes, but developers will, which means that better programs will be coming your way.
Also, look at http://developer.kde.org/development-versions/kde
:Peter
Anywho, the feature that I've been most looking forward to is tabbed browsing in Konqueror, due to appear in KDE 3.1. Galeon is the one constantly used app that isn't a part of KDE, and I use it because a.) it has tabbed support and b.) a smart bookmarks toolbar. Plus, it's a web browser. Nothing more, nothing less. Konqueror has various view settings (such as "file manager", "web browser", and whatnot, but in my experience, the different view settings don't always play nice. But since tabs are at the top of my wishlist, I will definitely reconsider Konqueror in the near future.
So, what are all you other KDE fans looking forward to?
Ok, regarding your question, may I suggest that you have the students do a little leg-work themselves? I don't know what country you're in, but here in the USA, dissident thought (something other than, "My country right or wrong"), doesn't really start until late high school, and develops into full blossom in college. So this is the right time, because your students are probably starting to question The System, if they haven't already. So have them research censorship in these modern times. Heck, if you're in the US of A, there's plenty within the last six months. Have them research charges of censorship, then make a case: was it censorship? Was it right? (This is an excellent time to introduce the limits of free speech, ie, "Don't yell 'fire' in a crowded theater.")
Bradbury has an appendix in some later versions of the book, where he details how F451 has itself been censored. (Mostly for language, although there have been some cases where it was to "condense" the story.) Get the students thinking about what it means to "edit" a story. How does this effect the author's intent? What about just replacing swear words with milder equivalents?
High school students are at that very precarious stage where they are beginning to form their own ideas about politics and the nature of government. Use it! I'm one of those who believes that a little distrust of the government at all times is a healthy thing. Teach the book in such a way to create thoughtful, questioning citizens who aren't going to take what they hear from the talking heads on TV as gospel truth. Instill in them a desire to learn more about what's going on beneath the surface.
That said, there is someone out there who will say, "I'd much rather have it in electronic form, and I'm willing to shell out the extra bucks for it." They've already shown their willingness to shell out a whole lot of bucks for the reader, so what's a couple extra? Having already purchased a questionably useful device, they would feel stupid for not using it (especially after spending so much); they feel compelled to justify their purchase, and if that means having to pay a little more than a dead tree book, well, so be it.
Also, the first law of capitalism applies here. In a nutshell: people are stupid, and successful companies exploit stupid people.
I hate to say the obvious, but why wasn't he the _first_ one that the grant was awarded to? After all, he is only the creator and lead architect of PERL. Are there any blindly obvious reasons why this didn't happen earlier?
:Peter
:Peter
But, then again, maybe GNOME's development will pick up after 2.0 is released, same as KDE started gathering steam after its 2.0. We shall see...
:Peter
I respect Miguel. Not only is he a great programmer, but he's got guts. At a time when most other observers are downplaying Microsoft's "security initiative" as market-speak and vaporware, he comes out and praises them. He's also got a keen sense of history, too. "Embrace and extend? Why should Microsoft do that?" And telling "the community" that they should "get over" Microsoft, when it has shown no signs of repenting of its monopolistic, predatory ways, well, he's convinced me!
I suspect that most people will probably disagree with him, however.
P.S. Any guesses on how many trolls will say, "Sure glad I use KDE! GNOME sucks!" Etc...
:Peter
I agree, especially in regards to Europa, ominous warnings from black monoliths not withstanding. If life were discovered on Europa, it could be the shot in the arm that space exploration has desperately needed for so long. Once the moon race was won, the drive for space petered out. There is little incentive in the popular mindset for space exploration. But extra-terrestrial life, even if it is just simple bacterium (although higher life forms would be a definite bonus), excites everyone.
I really don't think that Europa would serve as a "marine preserve" for terran sea-life. Just think of the expenditure necessary. Far better to apply those resources to the terran oceans themselves.
:Peter
This just brings to mind a quote that the Times Canada article (now pulled) had from Jobs: "Victory in this industry is survival." He goes on by saying that Apple intends to survive by "innovating." Well, we all know that "innovation" is buzzword-compliant and really doesn't mean much these days, but it is clear that innovation for Apple (at least with this iLamp) is more centered around form than function. Yes, there's the usual bit about how much easier computing is going to be. Ra, ra, ra. Great for the grandmas of the world that have lived all their life quite hapilly without such features as iPhoto and whatnot. The real question is, will this new form shore up Apple's declining business?
Personally, I would be concerned any time a business equated "victory" with survival. However, given the current tech industry, perhaps that's not so far off.
:Peter
I'm sorry, but I don't see this as something that will increase (dramatically or otherwise) Apple's shares. Jobs makes it clear that he's interested in survival ("Victory in our industry is spelled survival"), but I'm not sure that this will help much.
Could be wrong, though.
Careful reading will reveal that these contracts essentially effect only Beijing, not the rest of China. Shanghai, for instance, recently negotiated a contract with Microsoft for Win2000. What remains to be seen, however, is how the seriously the Chinese government will crack down on pirating (the major reason for Windows' prevelence in China, as is the case for much of the world outside of the USA and Western Europe) and whether this will prompt a widespread movement toward Free Software. Sure, China is oggling free trade, but will it (or can it?) curb pirating?
:Peter
First of all, the IBM Memory Key and M-System's DiskOnKey are one and the same, merely rebranded. Of the products that are currently on the market, I found the Memory Key/DiskOnKey the best of the lot. Why? Because it is compliant with the USB mass storage protocol. In essence, it says, "I'm just another hard drive" to any OS that supports USB mass storage (WinMe, Win2000, WinXP, Linux 2.4+, Mac9.6, OSX). All the others (Thumbdrive, AgateTech's Qdrive, JMTek's USBdrive) have their own proprietary system, which requires drivers wherever you go. Of course, with Windows, you still need to do the whole reboot sequence (pain in the butt), but unless you run Win98, you don't need to carry around a floppy disk with the drivers or go to the web site to download them.
I have used my DiskOnKey for only a month now, but so far I've had no complaints. No moving parts, so it can get jostled plenty without damage. It works just fine under Linux, something that the others can't do (Thumbdrive has been promising drivers for Linux "real soon now" since last year; the others don't even bother). Since it's a vfat file system, I can merrily transfer files between 'doze and Linux. Haven't tried Mac, but I imagine there shouldn't be a problem, as vfat is supported by Macs as well.
I got mine (8mb version) on eBay for $30 bucks. Some guy was selling them, and since it was cheaper than the $45 (the cheapest I could find), I grabbed it. Expect the prices to fall even more, though; you pay a hefty price for early adoption.
One last thing: Thumbdrive is supposedly coming out with the Thumbdrive Smart, which is supposedly going to support the USB mass storage protocol. If it ever makes it past the vaporware stage, you'll find it at http://www.trekstorusa.com/ThumbDriveSmart.html
:Peter
You're both right and wrong. It depends on your BIOS. On my BIOS, for example, I can't boot from USB, but on other computers, it should (theoretically--haven't tried) work. Wish I could tell you which ones work; my BIOS is Award 6.0. If anyone can post BIOSes that allow booting from USB, please tell me.
:Peter
It's way to late, and I should be in bed, but I thought I would c/p the relevant parts of the article for those at work tomorrow who find the site /.ed. Sorry that I didn't preserve the HTML formatting. The rest is amusing, too, so you might want to come back to it once the servers have recovered. (If you're the type of person who gets excited over perl modules, that is. The rest of you might just want to watch CSPAN. :)
:Peter
/etc/motd for our later enjoyment. Implementing this is, as ever, left as an exercise for the interested reader.
---
Moving swiftly on, we come to Date::Tolkien::Shire, a king amongst date modules. Most newspapers carry an ``on this day in history'' column -- where you find, for instance, that you were born on the same day as the man who invented chili-paste -- but no broadsheet will tell you what happened to Frodo and his valiant companions as they fought to free Middle Earth from the scourge of the Dark Lord. The undeceptively simple:
use Date::Tolkien::Shire;
print Date::Tolkien::Shire->new(time)->on_date, "\n";
outputs (well, output a few days ago):
Highday Winterfilth 30 7465
The four Hobbits arrive at the Brandywine Bridge in the dark, 1419.
What better task could there be for crontab but to run this in the wee hours and update
There is a more useful side to Date::Tolkien::Shire or, at the very least, it does light the way for other modules. As well as the on_date() method it provides an overloaded interface to the dates it returns. This allows you to compare dates and times as if they were normal numbers, so that:
$date1 = Date::Tolkien::Shire->new(time);
$date2 = Date::tolkien::Shire->new(time - 1e6);
print 'time is '.( $date1 > $date2 ? 'later':'earlier' ).
"than time -1e6\n";
prints time is later than time -1e6, the more prosaic Date::Simple module provides a similar interface for real dates and ensures they stringify with ISO formatting.
...this is important _how_? Really, someone, clue me in. Is it just a terribly slow day or something? Yes, yes, I know, this is Slashdot, where "News For Ners" can mean anything from the kind of toilet paper Bill Gates uses to the latest version of 'ls', but really, is there _nothing_ going on in the tech world of any greater significance?
By the way, since his server is going to quickly go down in a ball of hot silicon (he has two pictures, one a 300+k jpg, the other one a tiff--don't want to think how enormous that is), I will describe the jpg to you, to save a click:
The top shows OS X's menu bar, while the bottom has IceWM's taskbar, with the OS X's dock on the left side. In the upper right hand corner is a window running/emulating a System 7.6 desktop with an "About This Computer" window showing 62 out of 66 mb of memory used. Halfway hidden behind that window is a window of WinXP, showing the grotesquely large WinXP start menu. Fascinating, isn't it?
:Peter
Having dabbled in Python programming, I see this as a Very Good Thing (TM). I read the article, and as others have pointed out, this is not a new GUI toolkit, but a wrapper for all of them. So now I can write Python programs that use both PyQT (Linux) and Tk (Windows) without having to learn two different toolkits.
Now if only PyKDE2 would come out soon, so that I can start making a couple of kicker applets for KDE2. Of course, by the time PyKDE2 is out, KDE3 will have come out, and the whole cycle will start over again!
(See Romans 8:25-27 for original.)
Well, I thought it was funny. :)
My father-in-law lives in Japan and is very interested in breaking free of M$. The one thing that is really slowing him down is easy, out-of-the box Japanese support. That is to say, he wants to be able to create word processor files in Japanese--he's American, so he understands English just fine, but getting KWord or Star Office to understand Japanese text has not been easy for him.
He also has an ATI Radeon, which the beta version of 8.1 didn't seem to catch.
:Peter
It's only good in console mode, as X has its own keyboard code, but the idea is simple and easy to implement.