Maybe this will promote smuggling of blank CD-R's across the border, like during Prohibiton. I can see a modern-day Elliot Ness smashing boxes of CD-R's with a bulldozer.
Or, more likely, various Indian/Native American reservations along the border will add CD-R's to their shelves, along with the duty-free cigarettes and liquor. If the taxes are high enough and demand is high enough, it'll be worth it.
It would have been that much more ironic had the laptop been running the SETI client - While searching for extra-terrestrial intelligence, a computer reveals terrestrial stupidity. Not that it takes a computer to do that...
That's funny, but I agree with the original poster: I much prefer to be able to navigate with the keyboard in a GUI. I very much enjoy Windows' Alt+underlined letters in menus and dialog boxes. I find that much faster than using the mouse.
Does the fact that Netscape 4.51 on Linux doesn't seem to have similar keybindings stem from the toolkit they used to write it? Forgive my ignorance - I've never done any X programming.
How do you handle user specific vs. computer specific settings in.ini files? Just wondering; it's been a while since I did that kind of stuff, but I leaned towards the registry.
One nice thing for dealing with my users was that I could change single settings on their computers by sending them a.reg file with that setting. This wouldn't wipe out their other settings, as would happen if I sent them a new.ini file. Yes, I know this is very dangerous, but I tried to use my powers for good.
I know about nervous. As a grad student I taught first-year undergrads. After a couple years doing that, one student discovered that her friend had been in my class my first semester teaching. The friend asked "Does he still shake?"
Open source free software does this same 'evolution' in real life. These mini-programs are rewarded by the meta-program with more CPU time - that's just like somebody trying out software and either discarding it (allowing it to die off) or debugging the source and recompiling it (mutating.)
Think of users modifying source as sort of a nearly continuous trickle of small changes and the developers making changes (adding features, etc.) as sort of a discrete large jump. (I forget the analogous terms in evolutionary theory.)
The closed source model doesn't allow these small mutations - changes are only made in the large jump fashion, or by products dying because users discard them.
That's why Microsoft is interested in this. Since they're a closed-source vendor, they want to automate the "many eyes making bugs shallow" part without opening their source.
What about if you live near an international airport (or the Australian consulate)? Take your laptop to the airport, borrow a boarding pass to get into the "international" section, and go to work. Maybe there's a duty-free Starbucks where you can do your work...
Or go on one of those off-shore gambling cruises. If you write code in international waters, it's probably ok. Just make sure you post it to the 'net from there so you aren't carrying the stuff with you through customs.
I believe John von Neumann used to take long round-trip train rides just to get work done without getting interrupted, so it's maybe not so far fetched...
I can only imagine they're going to lean on Avid (that's who owns Softimage this week, right?) to get Softimage ported to Linux, since it's already available for Irix.
SGI designs their hardware around the demands of this kind of program. I think all the s/w vendors know this and will port their wares, simply because they want their programs to run their best. We've all heard how easy it is to port to Linux from unix flavors. It's often just "./configure; make"
Had this law existed a few years ago...nobody but Microsoft would be allowed to read Word and Excel files.
Good point; I wonder if Word would have sold so well if it hadn't been able to read WordPerfect files. As I recall, one of their big target markets was legal firms using WP. I doubt such companies would have switched if they hadn't been able to open their old files directly in Word.
Wouldn't it be ironic if this legislation were documented in a proprietary format and that company stopped supporting that product? If the legislators upgraded their computers, they'd be unable to read their own legislation, since they'd be prevented from copying the old software to the ones and competing products couldn't read it either.
Proprietary file formats are bad; legally protected proprietary file formats are worse.
Perhaps, but at this point in Linux's commercial development, I'm inclined to think that something that helps Linux in general will help all Linux vendors, since it'll increase the total awareness/market share of Linux.
So, even though it may help Corel more at the moment (or when they release it), developers will be that much more inclined to support Linux by porting to it. This will help RedHat as well as all other distributions. Similarly, IT departments considering using Linux may see this as a sign of industry support and end up choosing RedHat, or any other distribution that they think will suit their needs.
Let's see... popular articles on/. get some 300 replies. Suppose half of those are from people who support Mitnick to some extent. That's $27.50 each to pay off his fine.
Sounds like they sentenced him to being Amish, and could get out as early as January 2000. As the recent Wired article on the ice storms in Canada pointed out, the Amish aren't particularly worried about Y2K, so the timing could be a blessing in disguise.
Re:Could you believe I used to be a republican?
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New Cyberlaws
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I finally heard the second part of the quote "A conservative is a liberal that's just been mugged." It says that "a liberal is a conservative that's just been arested."
I guess "a libertarian is a conservative that's just fed up."
Re:So, does this mean,.
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New Cyberlaws
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I'll have to take down all my Amsterdam links
That's right - and what about all the online travel agencies promoting travel to Holland?
I wonder what the law would do about a link to a page telling Californians about the requirements to qualify for medical marijuana. Especially if that was a California-approved page...
I can't wait for some serious, Supreme Court, rulings on the first amendment and the net. Not that I'm all that sure they'll get it right (you know, how I see it...)
Where is it written that you can only meet/date people in your class/job? Incidentally, I found it's so much easier to meet other people when you're a student than when you're a working adult.
Go to a meeting of some club, for example. They tend to be fairly small, so introduce yourself to the people organizing the meeting. Tell 'em you thought it sounded interesting and that you just wanted to check it out. (Don't lie - if you're only going to try to meet babes, your insincerity will come through and you will be shunned.) That way you won't seem like the weird new guy, and they'll probably try extra hard to make you feel welcome, maybe introducing you to people there.
And, yes, shower more than once every three days. Blacksburg, VA is hot enough that once a day should be a minimum...
In general, the rest of the world pays more attention to personal hygiene than the stereotypical geek, so keep that in mind if you do try leaving the CS nest...
...I don't think it has all that many applications outside of scientific research...
One big one is simulations for financial calculations. One such is roughly this: the price of some class of security is sensitive to interest rates. So you want to see what happens if, at several time steps, the interest rate goes up or down some small amount. Evaluating the different 'paths' of interest rates over time lends itself to parallel processing.
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Or, more likely, various Indian/Native American reservations along the border will add CD-R's to their shelves, along with the duty-free cigarettes and liquor. If the taxes are high enough and demand is high enough, it'll be worth it.
It would have been that much more ironic had the laptop been running the SETI client - While searching for extra-terrestrial intelligence, a computer reveals terrestrial stupidity. Not that it takes a computer to do that...
Won't that run the client as root? That doesn't sound like a great idea. I like the sound of the earlier 'su' solution.
Does the fact that Netscape 4.51 on Linux doesn't seem to have similar keybindings stem from the toolkit they used to write it? Forgive my ignorance - I've never done any X programming.
One nice thing for dealing with my users was that I could change single settings on their computers by sending them a .reg file with that setting. This wouldn't wipe out their other settings, as would happen if I sent them a new .ini file. Yes, I know this is very dangerous, but I tried to use my powers for good.
I guess Jeff Foxworthy could (finally) update his act: "If you take online quizzes, you might be an internet addict."
I'd really like to try one of these. Does anyone know any models/manufacturers?
I know about nervous. As a grad student I taught first-year undergrads. After a couple years doing that, one student discovered that her friend had been in my class my first semester teaching. The friend asked "Does he still shake?"
Think of users modifying source as sort of a nearly continuous trickle of small changes and the developers making changes (adding features, etc.) as sort of a discrete large jump. (I forget the analogous terms in evolutionary theory.)
The closed source model doesn't allow these small mutations - changes are only made in the large jump fashion, or by products dying because users discard them.
That's why Microsoft is interested in this. Since they're a closed-source vendor, they want to automate the "many eyes making bugs shallow" part without opening their source.
Sorry, it was too obvious.
I'm glad someone got the reference in the subject...
Or go on one of those off-shore gambling cruises. If you write code in international waters, it's probably ok. Just make sure you post it to the 'net from there so you aren't carrying the stuff with you through customs.
I believe John von Neumann used to take long round-trip train rides just to get work done without getting interrupted, so it's maybe not so far fetched...
Will they have to pay royalties to Fisher-Price for this one?
It's still programmed - i.e. the hotly debated TCP/IP stack - so if there's an infinite loop in that, for example, I'd count that as a crash.
SGI designs their hardware around the demands of this kind of program. I think all the s/w vendors know this and will port their wares, simply because they want their programs to run their best. We've all heard how easy it is to port to Linux from unix flavors. It's often just "./configure; make"
Good point; I wonder if Word would have sold so well if it hadn't been able to read WordPerfect files. As I recall, one of their big target markets was legal firms using WP. I doubt such companies would have switched if they hadn't been able to open their old files directly in Word.
Wouldn't it be ironic if this legislation were documented in a proprietary format and that company stopped supporting that product? If the legislators upgraded their computers, they'd be unable to read their own legislation, since they'd be prevented from copying the old software to the ones and competing products couldn't read it either.
Proprietary file formats are bad; legally protected proprietary file formats are worse.
So, even though it may help Corel more at the moment (or when they release it), developers will be that much more inclined to support Linux by porting to it. This will help RedHat as well as all other distributions. Similarly, IT departments considering using Linux may see this as a sign of industry support and end up choosing RedHat, or any other distribution that they think will suit their needs.
Let's see... popular articles on /. get some 300 replies. Suppose half of those are from people who support Mitnick to some extent. That's $27.50 each to pay off his fine.
Sounds like they sentenced him to being Amish, and could get out as early as January 2000. As the recent Wired article on the ice storms in Canada pointed out, the Amish aren't particularly worried about Y2K, so the timing could be a blessing in disguise.
I guess "a libertarian is a conservative that's just fed up."
That's right - and what about all the online travel agencies promoting travel to Holland?
I wonder what the law would do about a link to a page telling Californians about the requirements to qualify for medical marijuana. Especially if that was a California-approved page...
I can't wait for some serious, Supreme Court, rulings on the first amendment and the net. Not that I'm all that sure they'll get it right (you know, how I see it...)
Ok, deep breaths, PenguinDude. Count to 10...
Maybe they'll tell us where the box is sitting - does breaking and entering count?
Go to a meeting of some club, for example. They tend to be fairly small, so introduce yourself to the people organizing the meeting. Tell 'em you thought it sounded interesting and that you just wanted to check it out. (Don't lie - if you're only going to try to meet babes, your insincerity will come through and you will be shunned.) That way you won't seem like the weird new guy, and they'll probably try extra hard to make you feel welcome, maybe introducing you to people there.
And, yes, shower more than once every three days. Blacksburg, VA is hot enough that once a day should be a minimum...
In general, the rest of the world pays more attention to personal hygiene than the stereotypical geek, so keep that in mind if you do try leaving the CS nest...
One big one is simulations for financial calculations. One such is roughly this: the price of some class of security is sensitive to interest rates. So you want to see what happens if, at several time steps, the interest rate goes up or down some small amount. Evaluating the different 'paths' of interest rates over time lends itself to parallel processing.