So basically you still use Windows. Running apps in a VM or using WINE just puts you in this specialized niche of Windows users. Its still Windows. You still pay Microsoft. It's just you pay twice as much to do it.
No - I used to use Windows, when I was still using a VM. Using WINE doesn't require an install of Windows; it downloads what libraries it needs. I did pay for CrossOver Games, but I'm fairly certain I didn't pay Microsoft for it.:)
I had been using VMware, Parallels and/or BootCamp to run XP on my MacBook so I could use a few programs. Then I encountered a game that didn't like VMware or Parallels at all - and I didn't want to reboot just to play it. Interestingly, it got on just fine with the WINE-based CrossOver Games package. So now I'm only "on" a few Windows libraries, and don't have to set aside space for a full install.:)
...for adding a capability Safari has had for over five years.:)
But seriously - the sooner we get to a point where all major browsers have this capability built-in, the sooner we can be free of the abomination that is "Acrobat plugin."
Where I work, we've got plenty of thesethings. We already report to both the FAA and the DoD's Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) at... Vandenberg AFB, I think it is these days. Of course, this is maybe 30,000 laser-pointers worth...;)
This is just the first step. "Oh, hey, something must exist."
Step two is figuring out what that something is, and/or how it works. That's what we're* working on now.
Then comes application of that knowledge.
Einstein's Field Equations back around the first World War might have seemed awfully cryptic, but they led to quantum physics, which led to semiconductors, which led to Slashdot. (Okay, I may have skipped a step or two.)
So maybe in another 100 years, this dark energy stuff will actually lead to something.
Aren't scientists all supposed to be godless atheists?...According to all the non-scientist atheists out there who want the scientists on their side.;)
"[Astronomy] is the most noble and sublime of all the sciences, and presents to our view the most astonishing and magnificent objects - whether we consider their immense magnitude, the splendor of their appearance, the vast spaces which surround them, the magnificent apparatus with which some of them are encompassed, the rapidity of their motions, or the display they afford of the omnipotent energy and the intelligence of the Creator." - Rev. Thomas Dick, "The Philosophy of a Future State," 1831.
US Airshows specifically prohibit any trajectories towards crowds and have large setback distances from the "box" that the display is allowed in, specifically for this reason.
I presume this prohibition does not apply to shows at military bases?
Or at least, does not apply to the Blue Angels?
Or at the very least, does not apply to Fat Albert?
After many years of working primarily with Linux, I am using Windows 7 in my new job. All I can say is, it is pathetic. Nothing works the way it should. I have to spend hours searching the web to find out how to do anything with it.
Don't worry, Windows 7's new "improved" ribbon-y interface with its auto-hiding widgetry is just as bewildering to people who've used every version of Windows since 3.1, administered Windows servers, and so on. I'm just glad they've left the keyboard shortcuts in place, since otherwise I'd have a hard time saving anything in Office.;)
To be fair to Windows, though, I don't use it exclusively, having also used MacOS since System 7, Linux since the 0.xx eat-a-bowl-of-disks days, Solaris since SunOS 4, Tru64 Unix since it was Ultrix, and iOS since 2.x (and those are just the ones that I'm still using the current version of; you do not want to see the full list).
On the other hand, none of those other OSes have ever managed to put out a new release with UI changes that confused me as much as Windows 7.;)
In that context, Win7 looks pretty lifeless. It may be faster than Vista, but even on good modern hardware it still feels like the UI is mired in honey.
Honey? How diplomatic of you. I was thinking of something thicker, browner, and not at all sweet.
I'd like to see the old "first to show the damned thing working" system come back. Ideas are one thing, but there's nothing like a working sample. No ambiguity if you can/can't show it, no pie-in-the-sky "inventions" that lay in wait in patent trolls' filing cabinets.
This is unfair to all the inventors of perpetual motion machines.
Even at Mauna Kea (4100m), the telescope control rooms are further down the mountain where out-of-shape astronomers and technicians are less likely to drop dead.
All the summit observatories on Mauna Kea (4100-4200m) were built with summit control rooms.
A few of the smaller, older ones have implemented remote operations from their offices in Hilo or Waimea, and most have some remote observation capabilities, but seven or eight of the eleven on the summit have operators on the summit every night they're in use, and summit observations are still common at most of those as well.
The thing further down the mountainside is dining hall, dormitories, etc. We don't operate or observe from there.
(I operate the Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea, 4140m up.)
So you're telling me that before stepping down as Google CEO on April 4 (he now only serves as "executive chairman," whatever the heck that is, in an advisory role to Page and Brin), Schmidt time-traveled almost 5 months into the future to make this statement?
You guys can worry about Google being evil, but if they can alter the timeline... oh no!
Seriously, though, I take this about as seriously as I take anything Ron Johnson says about Apple's retail strategy.
I'm not sure everybody's data will end up there right away, but a lot of people will be observing, so collectively you might get close to what you want.:)
Yay, something useful. And something I'd like to see Google+ do, too. It's been a feature all along on Multiply, which I used for, gosh, 7 years? But it was hamstrung by their less-than-slick implementation of friend lists.
It does not mention keychain. I see that as an oversight - not a recommendation of its security.
Did you just imply that the National Security Agency is so bad at its job that when it examines an operating system for vulnerabilities, and writes up instructions on hardening it (which will presumably be used by other government agencies), key things are overlooked?
The first Pan-STARRS scope with its 1.3-gigapixel camera has been doing science for a little while now, and I think it might do something like 2.5TB a night. That's still a lot of disk (and keep in mind that they originally planned to have 4 of those scopes), but I think their pipeline reduces it all to coordinates for each bright thingy in the frame and then throws away the actual image (though I could be wrong).
Where I work, our highest-resolution toy is 80 megapixels right now, but we're supposed to get a shiny new one next year with a FOV three times wider and close to a gigapixel of resolution... that'll chew through disk and bandwidth like crazy.
Slashdot Mirror
I eagerly await the "EXTERMINATE!" emoticon.
So basically you still use Windows. Running apps in a VM or using WINE just puts you in this specialized niche of Windows users. Its still Windows. You still pay Microsoft. It's just you pay twice as much to do it.
No - I used to use Windows, when I was still using a VM. Using WINE doesn't require an install of Windows; it downloads what libraries it needs. I did pay for CrossOver Games, but I'm fairly certain I didn't pay Microsoft for it. :)
I don't even have a VM installed any more.
I had been using VMware, Parallels and/or BootCamp to run XP on my MacBook so I could use a few programs. Then I encountered a game that didn't like VMware or Parallels at all - and I didn't want to reboot just to play it. Interestingly, it got on just fine with the WINE-based CrossOver Games package. So now I'm only "on" a few Windows libraries, and don't have to set aside space for a full install. :)
Personally, I'd want my robot stand-in to look like Crow. But I could understand some people preferring to have a Dalek represent them.
...for adding a capability Safari has had for over five years. :)
But seriously - the sooner we get to a point where all major browsers have this capability built-in, the sooner we can be free of the abomination that is "Acrobat plugin."
Where I work, we've got plenty of these things. We already report to both the FAA and the DoD's Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) at... Vandenberg AFB, I think it is these days. Of course, this is maybe 30,000 laser-pointers worth... ;)
This is just the first step. "Oh, hey, something must exist."
Step two is figuring out what that something is, and/or how it works. That's what we're* working on now.
Then comes application of that knowledge.
Einstein's Field Equations back around the first World War might have seemed awfully cryptic, but they led to quantum physics, which led to semiconductors, which led to Slashdot. (Okay, I may have skipped a step or two.)
So maybe in another 100 years, this dark energy stuff will actually lead to something.
*As a GradCert surrounded by PhD's, I'm probably Saul Perlmutter's least educated collaborator.
Aren't scientists all supposed to be godless atheists? ...According to all the non-scientist atheists out there who want the scientists on their side. ;)
"[Astronomy] is the most noble and sublime of all the sciences, and presents to our view the most astonishing and magnificent objects - whether we consider their immense magnitude, the splendor of their appearance, the vast spaces which surround them, the magnificent apparatus with which some of them are encompassed, the rapidity of their motions, or the display they afford of the omnipotent energy and the intelligence of the Creator." - Rev. Thomas Dick, "The Philosophy of a Future State," 1831.
Yeah, but dang it, I can get HPQ or DELL stock for under $25!
US Airshows specifically prohibit any trajectories towards crowds and have large setback distances from the "box" that the display is allowed in, specifically for this reason.
I presume this prohibition does not apply to shows at military bases?
Or at least, does not apply to the Blue Angels?
Or at the very least, does not apply to Fat Albert?
Maybe they're a Java fan and bitter that the media never gives anything Gosling does sufficient respect. ;)
After many years of working primarily with Linux, I am using Windows 7 in my new job. All I can say is, it is pathetic. Nothing works the way it should. I have to spend hours searching the web to find out how to do anything with it.
Don't worry, Windows 7's new "improved" ribbon-y interface with its auto-hiding widgetry is just as bewildering to people who've used every version of Windows since 3.1, administered Windows servers, and so on. I'm just glad they've left the keyboard shortcuts in place, since otherwise I'd have a hard time saving anything in Office. ;)
To be fair to Windows, though, I don't use it exclusively, having also used MacOS since System 7, Linux since the 0.xx eat-a-bowl-of-disks days, Solaris since SunOS 4, Tru64 Unix since it was Ultrix, and iOS since 2.x (and those are just the ones that I'm still using the current version of; you do not want to see the full list).
On the other hand, none of those other OSes have ever managed to put out a new release with UI changes that confused me as much as Windows 7. ;)
In that context, Win7 looks pretty lifeless. It may be faster than Vista, but even on good modern hardware it still feels like the UI is mired in honey.
Honey? How diplomatic of you. I was thinking of something thicker, browner, and not at all sweet.
I'd like to see the old "first to show the damned thing working" system come back. Ideas are one thing, but there's nothing like a working sample. No ambiguity if you can/can't show it, no pie-in-the-sky "inventions" that lay in wait in patent trolls' filing cabinets.
This is unfair to all the inventors of perpetual motion machines.
Even at Mauna Kea (4100m), the telescope control rooms are further down the mountain where out-of-shape astronomers and technicians are less likely to drop dead.
All the summit observatories on Mauna Kea (4100-4200m) were built with summit control rooms.
A few of the smaller, older ones have implemented remote operations from their offices in Hilo or Waimea, and most have some remote observation capabilities, but seven or eight of the eleven on the summit have operators on the summit every night they're in use, and summit observations are still common at most of those as well.
The thing further down the mountainside is dining hall, dormitories, etc. We don't operate or observe from there.
(I operate the Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea, 4140m up.)
So you're telling me that before stepping down as Google CEO on April 4 (he now only serves as "executive chairman," whatever the heck that is, in an advisory role to Page and Brin), Schmidt time-traveled almost 5 months into the future to make this statement?
You guys can worry about Google being evil, but if they can alter the timeline... oh no!
Seriously, though, I take this about as seriously as I take anything Ron Johnson says about Apple's retail strategy.
I'd suggest Rochester Astronomy's bright supernova page:
http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/snimages/
I'm not sure everybody's data will end up there right away, but a lot of people will be observing, so collectively you might get close to what you want. :)
I was reading too fast, missed the words "a job despite having" and wondered why you were having trouble getting a PhD in CS, dressing like that.
Holy cow, Pez, I didn't even know/remember you were on this place. :)
And I thought I was an old-timer with my 4 digits... the comments on this post are bringing out the real ancients.
Yay, something useful. And something I'd like to see Google+ do, too. It's been a feature all along on Multiply, which I used for, gosh, 7 years? But it was hamstrung by their less-than-slick implementation of friend lists.
I look forward to being able to tank against kung-fu pandas.
It does not mention keychain. I see that as an oversight - not a recommendation of its security.
Did you just imply that the National Security Agency is so bad at its job that when it examines an operating system for vulnerabilities, and writes up instructions on hardening it (which will presumably be used by other government agencies), key things are overlooked?
BlogSpot loves showing me ads for Chrome, saying I can drag one tab to the right, and get a split-screen view.
Be nice if it actually started working in Chrome for Mac, someday.
*WILL* generate. LSST isn't operating yet.
This, unless they have a time machine. ;)
The first Pan-STARRS scope with its 1.3-gigapixel camera has been doing science for a little while now, and I think it might do something like 2.5TB a night. That's still a lot of disk (and keep in mind that they originally planned to have 4 of those scopes), but I think their pipeline reduces it all to coordinates for each bright thingy in the frame and then throws away the actual image (though I could be wrong).
Where I work, our highest-resolution toy is 80 megapixels right now, but we're supposed to get a shiny new one next year with a FOV three times wider and close to a gigapixel of resolution... that'll chew through disk and bandwidth like crazy.
But don't most modern CPUs use hexadecimal?