do the average computer user really need more than 4 Ghz?
Would the average computer user like to transcode video in less than realtime, or turn their home movies into DVDs without launching a compression run before they go to bed, or emerge -uDp world in a reasonable amount of time? Yeah, I can think of a quite a few uses for faster processors off the top of my head.
The great part is that once we actually have them, some smartass from Argentina will come out with a hot new technology that we'll all want but that won't run very well on our puny 4GHz systems. Then, some pundit on Slashdot will say that no one really needs a 10GHz quad-core processor, and someone else will prove that KDE sucks by pointing out that Mandlebrot translucency vectors can't be computed in realtime on their 3.6GHz Opteron and that power users should check out XFCE (with built-in Composite support).
Darn whippersnapper quantum engineers with their fancy-pants "crossbar latches" only have to add one bit every year and a half. When I was a kid, we had to double our transistors, and we liked it that way!
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Actually, I work for a small (less than 40 people) company in a very niche industry. Ignore the fact that the owner is one of my city's biggest charitable givers, or that he just let me release my last year's worth of work under the GPL, or that he routinely takes us all out to eat or on all-expense-paid daytrips to other cities. No, he's a businessman and therefore Evil.
I wasn't angry, just incredulous that they were replacing the birth-of-Jesus standard already commonly used with another birth-of-Jesus standard called the "Common Era".
The "old way" explicitly said, "hey, Buddhist, this is the 2005th year after Jesus birth." The new way says "hey, Hindu, this is the 2005th year of the friendly world-standard numbering scheme based on the birth of the Christian leader." I fail to see how the latter is less offensive to those that "Common Era" was designed not to offend.:-)
That, or perhaps the birth of Stallman (unlike the Christian story, whereby the saviour was born TO a virgin, in the GNU story, the saviour was born to STAY a virgin - see below)
<Larry The Cable Guy>I don't care who you are, that's funny right there.</Larry The Cable Guy>
I'd have to disagree. The oath taken upon entrance to the US military is:
I,_________,do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
The very first clause is to support the Constitution, and obedience to the government is the last duty mentioned. Think of it like Asimov's laws; you promise to obey all rules that don't require you to break previous ones.
You haven't done squat to protect the rights of US citizens.
I don't see it that way. When I was a Navy corpsman off the coast of Mogadishu, Somalia in 1994 (and participating in civilian medical programs in Kenya), we were protecting hundreds of thousands of people. You've heard the saying that none of us are free until all of us are free? I believe that.
Many rational people feel exactly this way and avoid Java for that reason.
Huh?
See the commonality? Open is Good; Closed is Bad. Looks pretty consistent to me. Ergo, if Sun opens their patents to Open Source (or, ideally, Free Software) developers, then that particular action can be filed under Good. Right now, some pretty respected thinkers are unconvinced.
Cuz I'll be honest with you, I'll stand shoulder to shoulder with James "Spongebob Is Gay" Dobson if it means we get the message out loud and clear about the Bill of RIghts.
I'm a hard-right conservative who took an oath of military service to defend and protect my constitution. While I'm not one who believes that you're "less of a citizen" if you haven't served, I'm on the record as stepping up to offer my life to protect your rights and mine. What exactly have you done besides bitching on Slashdot?
If the answer isn't more than "why, I joined the ACLU!", then you better get off your butt and do something before you complain about others' apathy.
It wasn't until college (and I remember our second semester English professor being appalled) that I was able to write how I felt about a topic and back it up with real information.
Funny; I could write pretty much anything I wanted in my high school English class as long as it was good. It wasn't until I got to college and lost two letter grades on a Religion 101 paper - one for using "he" as a pronoun referring to Jesus (?!?!?!) and another for saying "1862 A.D." instead of "1862 A.C.E." - that I learned what it meant to be censored in school.
Off-topic P.S.: It's un-PC to say "A.D." because it means "Year of our Lord", but perfectly fine to define a "common era" that begins with the birth of Christ and use that instead. That's possibly the dumbest thing I've ever heard from a hypothetically intelligent person.
A communist state is a communist state
No matter what they take
No matter what they give
No matter who runs it
No matter who lives there
No matter how exceptional they may seem or may be
Communism is still communism,
It always turn out the same way in the end, always
If you think the above is flamebait, then reconsider the BS moderations ("Insightful"?!?!) of the parent post. WTF? All businesses are evil? A company is not a company. You might have the misfortune of working for a soulless vampire, but that doesn't mean the rest of us do.
For example, I'm on the way out the door to pick up my daughter from school. I work on flex time, and my boss doesn't care if I skip out an hour and a half early to spend time with my kids as long as I make it up somewhere else, and as long as I don't work more than 40 hours. Oh, I also have full health, disability, and retirement benefits. My company is pretty much the monopoly in its industry, but it's because we're really good at what we do and we provide excellent service. You could be working here, too, if you weren't so busy moping around and wearing your hatred for employers on your sleeve.
You just described LaTeX + CVS/Subversion/whatever. No one seems to be rushing to adopt it, which makes me think that the need for a unified format isn't as dire as you would expect. I love LaTeX and use it to write reports (and even my resume). However, the reality is that it will always be a niche application, even if it would solve 99.9% of the problems of people who don't know it exists.
How each state wants to operate in its sovereign form is up to the people as long as its republic in nature. If New Jersey would like to call itself the "Free and Independent Peoples Democratic Place of the Principality of New Jersey, formerly known as the State of New Jersey." That's up to itself.
True, but everyone in the other 49 states will still laugh at them.
Notepad has become a generic term much like Kleenex, Xerox, Coke, etc. I really don't feel like explaining what "vim" is, what "vi" is, and how the two differ, every time I want to say I opened something in a text editor.
Saying that "notepad" and "vim" are both text editors is roughly as accurate as saying that a Geo Metro and a Ferrari Enzo are both cars; one meets the bare minimum requirements, while the other exemplifies the class. The lack of ability of notepad to make sense of a particular document doesn't mean that all text editors are so crippled, only that notepad sucks.
If you ask someone for a Kleenex, do you expect them to answer "no, but I have some lemon-juice soaked sand paper"? Why? They're both paper, aren't they?
They continue to refuse to admit that it is a mistake, instead touting it as the supposed superiority of Mac over PC. (Note: Every time I sit down at my Mac to work with Maya, the first thing I do is plug in a three-button mouse with scroll wheel -- and so does everybody else.)
It's not a bug - it's a feature. Really. Every Mac user I know still uses the one-button mouse that came with it and has zero expressed interest in "upgrading" to a multi-button mouse. I'm personally spoiled by my Microsoft Trackball Optical with extra side buttons (they're a good peripheral manufacturer, what can I say?), but that's horses for courses.
Whenever I build a new database server, the first thing I do is plug in a set of SCSI 320 drives. That doesn't mean that Dell is dumb for shipping other configurations; rather, they've made the smart decision of using components that the majority of their users want and letting power users do their own upgrades.
Slashdotters, please, listen: Windows 2000 and XP are remarkably stable.
We'll listen, but we still won't believe you. Unless you mean "remarkable" literally and are saying that Windows's stability is worth commenting on; I can go along with that.
That would definitely make a difference. I'm a big KDE fan, so I typically have a lot of short-lived processes running around - that's not exactly OpenBSD's strong point. On our servers, though, where big processes run for ages, it works great.
Explain to me why we are using Bluetooth instead of a wired solution.
Because I don't want to run a switch off a power inverter (or pay $3799 for Lexus' own 2-port hub, if they made one) whenever I connect more than one device to the system.
Because I don't want to have to remember to plug my phone into the car before I start driving so that I don't get killed trying to do it on the freeway.
Because Bluetooth was designed for lower-power, low-speed, short-range networks, which pretty much exactly describes this situation.
Actually, this seems like the textbook application for Bluetooth, minus the whole "spreading viruses through my car" thing. BTW, who wants to be the first to make up a catchy new word to describe this? Eboladriving?
Cool. I'm currently playing around with NetBSD 2.0 (via qemu) for the first time since I booted it on my Amiga in '97 or so. I might give that a try in the near future.
To you. I'm a hardcore geek and built my last 5 systems, but the $125 premium for "I don't have to mess with it" and "if Apple breaks it during the upgrade, then that's their problem" is looking increasingly attractive.
Maybe it's because I'm married and I know that if I bought a Mac Mini and then managed to screw up the case while trying to get it open, then I'd still be hearing about it 20 years from now. $125 is cheap insurance against that in my book.
If the driver causes problems, fix it. If it doesn't cause problems, why not load the module automatically when the relevant hardware is present?
I can see both sides. Everything you're saying makes perfect sense, but I can also imagine an influx of new users on the mailing lists complaining that some freak glitch in their ISA sound card won't let them install FreeBSD. They don't have the installation base of Linux (and the huge number of fault-finding eyes that goes with it), or the "if you don't like it, fix it and send a patch" attitude of some of the OpenBSD support forums.
If I were in charge of release engineering, I'd have a hard time deciding.
Doesn't PF support IPv6?
Sure, but that still means I can't run IPv6-native apps in a jail.
I love jails and use 'em all the time, but they still have a few limitations that make them a little more complicated than the ideal.
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Would the average computer user like to transcode video in less than realtime, or turn their home movies into DVDs without launching a compression run before they go to bed, or emerge -uDp world in a reasonable amount of time? Yeah, I can think of a quite a few uses for faster processors off the top of my head.
The great part is that once we actually have them, some smartass from Argentina will come out with a hot new technology that we'll all want but that won't run very well on our puny 4GHz systems. Then, some pundit on Slashdot will say that no one really needs a 10GHz quad-core processor, and someone else will prove that KDE sucks by pointing out that Mandlebrot translucency vectors can't be computed in realtime on their 3.6GHz Opteron and that power users should check out XFCE (with built-in Composite support).
Darn whippersnapper quantum engineers with their fancy-pants "crossbar latches" only have to add one bit every year and a half. When I was a kid, we had to double our transistors, and we liked it that way!
Why do you think he got modded up?
Actually, I work for a small (less than 40 people) company in a very niche industry. Ignore the fact that the owner is one of my city's biggest charitable givers, or that he just let me release my last year's worth of work under the GPL, or that he routinely takes us all out to eat or on all-expense-paid daytrips to other cities. No, he's a businessman and therefore Evil.
The "old way" explicitly said, "hey, Buddhist, this is the 2005th year after Jesus birth." The new way says "hey, Hindu, this is the 2005th year of the friendly world-standard numbering scheme based on the birth of the Christian leader." I fail to see how the latter is less offensive to those that "Common Era" was designed not to offend. :-)
That, or perhaps the birth of Stallman (unlike the Christian story, whereby the saviour was born TO a virgin, in the GNU story, the saviour was born to STAY a virgin - see below)
<Larry The Cable Guy>I don't care who you are, that's funny right there.</Larry The Cable Guy>
You haven't done squat to protect the rights of US citizens.
I don't see it that way. When I was a Navy corpsman off the coast of Mogadishu, Somalia in 1994 (and participating in civilian medical programs in Kenya), we were protecting hundreds of thousands of people. You've heard the saying that none of us are free until all of us are free? I believe that.
Directly working to raise the awareness of others is a worthy pursuit.
Also, I vote.
Thank you for actively participating! That's more than a lot of people can be bothered with.
- AFAIK, NFS is an Open specification.
- OpenOffice is available under the GPL.
- GNOME is available under the GPL.
- X.Org is available under the MIT license.
- Many rational people feel exactly this way and avoid Java for that reason.
- Huh?
See the commonality? Open is Good; Closed is Bad. Looks pretty consistent to me. Ergo, if Sun opens their patents to Open Source (or, ideally, Free Software) developers, then that particular action can be filed under Good. Right now, some pretty respected thinkers are unconvinced.I'm a hard-right conservative who took an oath of military service to defend and protect my constitution. While I'm not one who believes that you're "less of a citizen" if you haven't served, I'm on the record as stepping up to offer my life to protect your rights and mine. What exactly have you done besides bitching on Slashdot?
If the answer isn't more than "why, I joined the ACLU!", then you better get off your butt and do something before you complain about others' apathy.
Funny; I could write pretty much anything I wanted in my high school English class as long as it was good. It wasn't until I got to college and lost two letter grades on a Religion 101 paper - one for using "he" as a pronoun referring to Jesus (?!?!?!) and another for saying "1862 A.D." instead of "1862 A.C.E." - that I learned what it meant to be censored in school.
Off-topic P.S.: It's un-PC to say "A.D." because it means "Year of our Lord", but perfectly fine to define a "common era" that begins with the birth of Christ and use that instead. That's possibly the dumbest thing I've ever heard from a hypothetically intelligent person.
Does Ford still make Pintos? No. I guess you proved his point.
No matter what they take
No matter what they give
No matter who runs it
No matter who lives there
No matter how exceptional they may seem or may be
Communism is still communism,
It always turn out the same way in the end, always
If you think the above is flamebait, then reconsider the BS moderations ("Insightful"?!?!) of the parent post. WTF? All businesses are evil? A company is not a company. You might have the misfortune of working for a soulless vampire, but that doesn't mean the rest of us do.
For example, I'm on the way out the door to pick up my daughter from school. I work on flex time, and my boss doesn't care if I skip out an hour and a half early to spend time with my kids as long as I make it up somewhere else, and as long as I don't work more than 40 hours. Oh, I also have full health, disability, and retirement benefits. My company is pretty much the monopoly in its industry, but it's because we're really good at what we do and we provide excellent service. You could be working here, too, if you weren't so busy moping around and wearing your hatred for employers on your sleeve.
Some would disagree.
Maybe Don should take out an ad in the Times?
True, but everyone in the other 49 states will still laugh at them.
Saying that "notepad" and "vim" are both text editors is roughly as accurate as saying that a Geo Metro and a Ferrari Enzo are both cars; one meets the bare minimum requirements, while the other exemplifies the class. The lack of ability of notepad to make sense of a particular document doesn't mean that all text editors are so crippled, only that notepad sucks.
If you ask someone for a Kleenex, do you expect them to answer "no, but I have some lemon-juice soaked sand paper"? Why? They're both paper, aren't they?
Yes, but that's only the first line of defense. The application should still be able to protect itself if all other defenses fail.
It's not a bug - it's a feature. Really. Every Mac user I know still uses the one-button mouse that came with it and has zero expressed interest in "upgrading" to a multi-button mouse. I'm personally spoiled by my Microsoft Trackball Optical with extra side buttons (they're a good peripheral manufacturer, what can I say?), but that's horses for courses.
Whenever I build a new database server, the first thing I do is plug in a set of SCSI 320 drives. That doesn't mean that Dell is dumb for shipping other configurations; rather, they've made the smart decision of using components that the majority of their users want and letting power users do their own upgrades.
We'll listen, but we still won't believe you. Unless you mean "remarkable" literally and are saying that Windows's stability is worth commenting on; I can go along with that.
That would definitely make a difference. I'm a big KDE fan, so I typically have a lot of short-lived processes running around - that's not exactly OpenBSD's strong point. On our servers, though, where big processes run for ages, it works great.
Because I don't want to run a switch off a power inverter (or pay $3799 for Lexus' own 2-port hub, if they made one) whenever I connect more than one device to the system.
Because I don't want to have to remember to plug my phone into the car before I start driving so that I don't get killed trying to do it on the freeway.
Because Bluetooth was designed for lower-power, low-speed, short-range networks, which pretty much exactly describes this situation.
Actually, this seems like the textbook application for Bluetooth, minus the whole "spreading viruses through my car" thing. BTW, who wants to be the first to make up a catchy new word to describe this? Eboladriving?
Cool. I'm currently playing around with NetBSD 2.0 (via qemu) for the first time since I booted it on my Amiga in '97 or so. I might give that a try in the near future.
"Never mind the camera, ma'am. HP's magic patent won't even let it take a picture of you. That's right, you can go ahead and disrobe in peace."
To you. I'm a hardcore geek and built my last 5 systems, but the $125 premium for "I don't have to mess with it" and "if Apple breaks it during the upgrade, then that's their problem" is looking increasingly attractive.
Maybe it's because I'm married and I know that if I bought a Mac Mini and then managed to screw up the case while trying to get it open, then I'd still be hearing about it 20 years from now. $125 is cheap insurance against that in my book.
I can see both sides. Everything you're saying makes perfect sense, but I can also imagine an influx of new users on the mailing lists complaining that some freak glitch in their ISA sound card won't let them install FreeBSD. They don't have the installation base of Linux (and the huge number of fault-finding eyes that goes with it), or the "if you don't like it, fix it and send a patch" attitude of some of the OpenBSD support forums.
If I were in charge of release engineering, I'd have a hard time deciding.
Doesn't PF support IPv6?
Sure, but that still means I can't run IPv6-native apps in a jail.
I love jails and use 'em all the time, but they still have a few limitations that make them a little more complicated than the ideal.