For reference, "And in any case, emulators are slow." is the broken assumption you made in your post.
Here's some simple pseudo-code for a WINE-style emulator that runs at least as fast if not faster than the original.
For each DLL
Load DLL bytecode into memory
Translate system calls to use appropriate Linux functions
Load EXE into memory Translate DLL calls to use the previously-loaded DLLs Begin executing EXE code
All the startup overhead is at the beginning, when it's loading and trnaslating. Once it begins executing, everything runs at full speed -- faster, in fact, because everything has already been loaded off the disk into memory.
I realize this is not practical for larger applications, but my point is that it is possible for an emulator to run quickly.
In my mind at least, multi-console releases hurt the revolution. In the current generation, all the consoles have reasonably similar hardware specs, and so while a game may look slightly better on the Xbox, playing the port of the game on PS2 doesn't change that much. However, with the revolution not supporting HD, and having noticibly worse hardware specs than Xbox 360 and PS3, multi-console games are going to look much better on the other consoles. I know if i had the choice of two identical games, one playng in HD with much better graphics, i'm going to pick that one every time.
Yes, but given the choice of one console, (which is a lot of people already, and it's going to be a lot more people now given the cost of the next-gen consoles) do I buy the one that plays Madden and Animal Crossing and Nintendogs and whatever other goofy but fun crap Nintendo comes up with, or do I buy the one that plays Madden and Halo 3 in HD?
"I" probably don't even have a HD TV anyway.
Re:When are they going to patch
on
A History of Firefox
·
· Score: 2, Informative
It already does. I've been running this browser instance in single-window mode (tabs only, never a new window - ever) for 2 months now and it's only using 95MB of memory. Which granted, is a lot, but it's fairly normal for Firefox with 10 tabs open. If it didn't release memory when I closed tabs, it would be way, way, way beyond that.
Some employers require employees to work 10 or 12hr days, occasionally working less over time is not an option.
Why not? What do they do? Chain you to your desk? Lock the doors?
Employee: "I'm going home. I feel sick." Boss: "You don't look sick, besides you have work to do." Employee: "Oh, I'm very sick. Look, I can't seem to move my middle finger."
If the job sucks that much, you need to get over your fear of getting fired. Stand up for yourself. Stop feeling trapped. You're not.
And that makes it okay? "Shareholders" and society in general need to grow a conscience and learn there is more to success than money. That there's more to LIFE than money.
While we're at it, why not an "intelligent html" edit mode? I like being able to add links, but I also like being able to hit enter to make a linebreak (I can't tell you how many times I've written a comment, decided to add a link, and then had to go through and add [BR] to every line so that it didn't look like garbage)
Maybe if they made a small subset of non-linebreaking HTML work in "Plain Old Text" mode it would solve your problem. Just the basics, like italics, and bold and links...
What? I've got 3 digital cameras, the oldest of which is a Kodak DC-240 purchased in 1999, and they all still work just fine.
It's okay to not like digital cameras, perhaps they are not as reliable as film cameras, but you know what? For a long time, cars were not as reliable as carriages either... Sometimes you have to make some sacrafices for an overall better product.
That's not any sort of fundamental law though, that's just how it happens to be currently.
As development continues, I don't think it's unreasonable to imagine that someday power generation without any serious side effects may be possible. I'm looking forward to improved mirror-focused solar plants, personally. Basically, an Archimedes death ray that powers steam turbines instead of burning ships.
Unless someone cares to enlighten me with the serious downfalls of that strategy? I can't think of any.
Indeed, as the AC touched on, I wasn't really attacking your conclusions as much I was your argument. I mostly agree with your conclusion on the matter, just not with the way you were trying to argue it. I certainly agree that musicians deserve some form of compensation for the recordings they make.
I do disagree with many of the places where copyright has encroached (eg. network protocols, music clips and samples, look and feel) and I strongly disagree with the orders-of-magnitude excessive length of copyright. With the original protections of intellectual property there was a provision that they be protected only for a limited time, after which they are freely available for all of society to use in *absolutely* whatever way they choose, especially using them as a building block for making something better. In exchange for protecting your intellectual property, there is the balance that ensures that it will not be protected forever, and that after you've had a reasonable amount of time to capitalize on it, your protections expire.
While saying they are protected for a lifetime plus 80 years (renewable indefinitely) or whatever it is may technically meet the requirement of being a 'limited time' it is a vicious denial of the spirit of the law. You are not supposed to have your entire lifetime to capitalize on it, much less well after your death for your family (ahem, company) to capitalize on it.
Well, public domain is what it becomes. It's actually true that copyright law (used to) require that something become public domain after the copyright period has expired.
Now, I agree it doesn't require anyone to release the source, unfortunately. But what it does do, is allow completely legal reverse engineering, emulation, and cloning. Trade secrets have never been a problem in the software world. bnetd never used any leaked source code, they simply sniffed the network traffic and figured out what it was doing. If copyright ever expired on the Battle.net protocol, then bnetd would be legal.
Unfortunately, copyright can now be extended indefinitely, so this is all a moot point.
If I'm a rich bastard with a plantation, and I'm depending on the slave labor to make money, then under what circumstances is freeing my slaves ok?
Caveats: 1. Yes, I know slaves are often mistreated. 2. Yes, I know that many slaves already have a life that's much better than some freed slaves. 3. Yes, I know that society as a whole would prosper if these slaves were able to become a equal member of our society rather than a subjugated class.
But the fact remains that this is the system we have in place. It needs changed but it's not changed yet.
Back in reality land, the purpose of sweeping legal changes like this is TO CHANGE THE SYSTEM. You don't wait for the system to change, then change the laws, that's ridiculous. You change the laws, and the system changes to fit. One might even say that the system is simply the actual implementation of the laws, and nothing more. Much in the same way that falling is simply the implementation of gravity. They are the same damn thing.
I found that having to go to a website to register was quite tacky.
Oh no. It's TACKY! Big fan of keeping up appearances, are you?
The fact is, it's not only intelligent from a programming standpoint, it is also the correct medium for such a system. It makes sense for a player as well. Imagine that my computer dies and I can't afford to replace it, or I have just stopped playing the game and uninstalled it but forgot to unsubscribe. How do I cancel my subscription now? Well, you know, just about every computer in the world has a web browser installed. Why in the heck should I have to reinstall the WHOLE DAMN GAME just to unsubscribe and then uninstall the WHOLE DAMN GAME? I hope this doesn't sound like a ridiculous scenario, because it happened to both me and my friend.
The game executable should be just that. THE GAME. It should allow you to play THE GAME. Why should it handle accounts and subscriptions? Use a separate executable, or a website, or anything you want. It doesn't belong in the game, because it's wrong in two ways. First you're reinventing the wheel and then you're attaching it to an unnecessary place.
the reality in every rational, sane person in the country thinks Bush won fair and square.
and where's your evidence for THAT? Two can play this game. That and there's a difference from being sure the election was rigged, and thinking that while the likelihood was small, it is nevertheless a serious enough charge that it ought to be investigated.
I dunno. Sounds to me like Gnome is following the Apple approach, and KDE is following the Windows approach to UI design. I don't think either is necessarily "better" but I know which one I prefer overall and it's actually not the same as Linus' preference.
Although I do think it's a little snobbish of him to tell people "No, pick the one I like". How about simply informing them of the differences and letting them choose what THEY like? Isn't that the whole point of free and open source software?
I've had good luck with both Misk.com (formerly RegisterSite) and Domainmonger. Never have they tried to screw me, or do anything that made me suspect they were anything other than aboveboard. (Well except for Domainmonger's goofy fish logo...)
I have specifically-named email accounts for each and every domain I own, which are registered through several different registrars. To each of these addresses, I get about 20 emails a week. Identical emails, sent to each address.
I think it's pretty obvious that there are certainly spammers trolling the whois database. I ask you, WHY would they pass up that super easy source of email addresses? But hey, it's my anecdote vs. your anecdote, do they cancel each other out?
Congratulations, you're ridiculous and have completely missed the point.
You can write code in RMS's editor, Emacs, without having to put it under the GPL.
He's not interested in "restricting your freedom" (if that's what you choose to feel like the GPL does) to do whatever the hell you want with your own code. He's interested in restricting your freedom" to do whatever the hell you want with HIS CODE.
If you don't want the GPL to 'infect' your application, then DON'T USE GPL'D CODE. Write it yourself, you lazy ass.
Why do you think it takes 100ms to get to google and back? It's because the router is busy with other traffic and it can only process so many in a given time. Prioritizing traffic does not make the router work faster, it makes it take the time it was originally spending routing google's traffic to route yahoo's instead. Of COURSE it's going to affect everyone other than yahoo in a negative way.
Yes it will probably be an immeasurably small slowdown, when aggregated against "all traffic other than yahoo", but it's the principle of allowing this that is what's really offensive. What happens when the major spammers all manage to buy themselves high-priority traffic? Yuck.
Slashdot Mirror
For reference, "And in any case, emulators are slow." is the broken assumption you made in your post.
Here's some simple pseudo-code for a WINE-style emulator that runs at least as fast if not faster than the original.
For each DLL
Load DLL bytecode into memory
Translate system calls to use appropriate Linux functions
Load EXE into memory
Translate DLL calls to use the previously-loaded DLLs
Begin executing EXE code
All the startup overhead is at the beginning, when it's loading and trnaslating. Once it begins executing, everything runs at full speed -- faster, in fact, because everything has already been loaded off the disk into memory.
I realize this is not practical for larger applications, but my point is that it is possible for an emulator to run quickly.
In my mind at least, multi-console releases hurt the revolution. In the current generation, all the consoles have reasonably similar hardware specs, and so while a game may look slightly better on the Xbox, playing the port of the game on PS2 doesn't change that much. However, with the revolution not supporting HD, and having noticibly worse hardware specs than Xbox 360 and PS3, multi-console games are going to look much better on the other consoles. I know if i had the choice of two identical games, one playng in HD with much better graphics, i'm going to pick that one every time.
Yes, but given the choice of one console, (which is a lot of people already, and it's going to be a lot more people now given the cost of the next-gen consoles) do I buy the one that plays Madden and Animal Crossing and Nintendogs and whatever other goofy but fun crap Nintendo comes up with, or do I buy the one that plays Madden and Halo 3 in HD?
"I" probably don't even have a HD TV anyway.
It already does. I've been running this browser instance in single-window mode (tabs only, never a new window - ever) for 2 months now and it's only using 95MB of memory. Which granted, is a lot, but it's fairly normal for Firefox with 10 tabs open. If it didn't release memory when I closed tabs, it would be way, way, way beyond that.
Some employers require employees to work 10 or 12hr days, occasionally working less over time is not an option.
Why not? What do they do? Chain you to your desk? Lock the doors?
Employee: "I'm going home. I feel sick."
Boss: "You don't look sick, besides you have work to do."
Employee: "Oh, I'm very sick. Look, I can't seem to move my middle finger."
If the job sucks that much, you need to get over your fear of getting fired. Stand up for yourself. Stop feeling trapped. You're not.
And that makes it okay? "Shareholders" and society in general need to grow a conscience and learn there is more to success than money. That there's more to LIFE than money.
It is an easy change. Go to your preferences, choose the "Comments" tab. There's a setting under there. :)
While we're at it, why not an "intelligent html" edit mode? I like being able to add links, but I also like being able to hit enter to make a linebreak (I can't tell you how many times I've written a comment, decided to add a link, and then had to go through and add [BR] to every line so that it didn't look like garbage)
Maybe if they made a small subset of non-linebreaking HTML work in "Plain Old Text" mode it would solve your problem. Just the basics, like italics, and bold and links...
Oh wait, how about that, they do!
You're welcome.
No installation step. Users can launch your application just by following a hyperlink.
That's an enormous win, though. In some (many) applications, corporate software in particular, it is basically the holy grail.
What? I've got 3 digital cameras, the oldest of which is a Kodak DC-240 purchased in 1999, and they all still work just fine.
It's okay to not like digital cameras, perhaps they are not as reliable as film cameras, but you know what? For a long time, cars were not as reliable as carriages either... Sometimes you have to make some sacrafices for an overall better product.
That's not any sort of fundamental law though, that's just how it happens to be currently.
As development continues, I don't think it's unreasonable to imagine that someday power generation without any serious side effects may be possible. I'm looking forward to improved mirror-focused solar plants, personally. Basically, an Archimedes death ray that powers steam turbines instead of burning ships.
Unless someone cares to enlighten me with the serious downfalls of that strategy? I can't think of any.
Indeed, as the AC touched on, I wasn't really attacking your conclusions as much I was your argument. I mostly agree with your conclusion on the matter, just not with the way you were trying to argue it. I certainly agree that musicians deserve some form of compensation for the recordings they make.
I do disagree with many of the places where copyright has encroached (eg. network protocols, music clips and samples, look and feel) and I strongly disagree with the orders-of-magnitude excessive length of copyright. With the original protections of intellectual property there was a provision that they be protected only for a limited time, after which they are freely available for all of society to use in *absolutely* whatever way they choose, especially using them as a building block for making something better. In exchange for protecting your intellectual property, there is the balance that ensures that it will not be protected forever, and that after you've had a reasonable amount of time to capitalize on it, your protections expire.
While saying they are protected for a lifetime plus 80 years (renewable indefinitely) or whatever it is may technically meet the requirement of being a 'limited time' it is a vicious denial of the spirit of the law. You are not supposed to have your entire lifetime to capitalize on it, much less well after your death for your family (ahem, company) to capitalize on it.
Well, public domain is what it becomes. It's actually true that copyright law (used to) require that something become public domain after the copyright period has expired.
Now, I agree it doesn't require anyone to release the source, unfortunately. But what it does do, is allow completely legal reverse engineering, emulation, and cloning. Trade secrets have never been a problem in the software world. bnetd never used any leaked source code, they simply sniffed the network traffic and figured out what it was doing. If copyright ever expired on the Battle.net protocol, then bnetd would be legal.
Unfortunately, copyright can now be extended indefinitely, so this is all a moot point.
If I'm a rich bastard with a plantation, and I'm depending on the slave labor to make money, then under what circumstances is freeing my slaves ok?
Caveats:
1. Yes, I know slaves are often mistreated.
2. Yes, I know that many slaves already have a life that's much better than some freed slaves.
3. Yes, I know that society as a whole would prosper if these slaves were able to become a equal member of our society rather than a subjugated class.
But the fact remains that this is the system we have in place. It needs changed but it's not changed yet.
Back in reality land, the purpose of sweeping legal changes like this is TO CHANGE THE SYSTEM. You don't wait for the system to change, then change the laws, that's ridiculous. You change the laws, and the system changes to fit. One might even say that the system is simply the actual implementation of the laws, and nothing more. Much in the same way that falling is simply the implementation of gravity. They are the same damn thing.
Oh. So you're to blame for all the spam I get. Thanks, asshole.
Running a virus for 24 hours really sucks anyway. Also, I hope you never run into one that flashes your BIOS.
Congratulations, you reinvented the second paragraph of the very same post you just finished replying to.
Too excited to even read past the first paragraph before you succumb to the compulsion to throw your opinion into the ring? Attention-defecit much?
Include *what*? A Tech demo?
I found that having to go to a website to register was quite tacky.
Oh no. It's TACKY! Big fan of keeping up appearances, are you?
The fact is, it's not only intelligent from a programming standpoint, it is also the correct medium for such a system. It makes sense for a player as well. Imagine that my computer dies and I can't afford to replace it, or I have just stopped playing the game and uninstalled it but forgot to unsubscribe. How do I cancel my subscription now? Well, you know, just about every computer in the world has a web browser installed. Why in the heck should I have to reinstall the WHOLE DAMN GAME just to unsubscribe and then uninstall the WHOLE DAMN GAME? I hope this doesn't sound like a ridiculous scenario, because it happened to both me and my friend.
The game executable should be just that. THE GAME. It should allow you to play THE GAME. Why should it handle accounts and subscriptions? Use a separate executable, or a website, or anything you want. It doesn't belong in the game, because it's wrong in two ways. First you're reinventing the wheel and then you're attaching it to an unnecessary place.
the reality in every rational, sane person in the country thinks Bush won fair and square.
and where's your evidence for THAT? Two can play this game. That and there's a difference from being sure the election was rigged, and thinking that while the likelihood was small, it is nevertheless a serious enough charge that it ought to be investigated.
I dunno. Sounds to me like Gnome is following the Apple approach, and KDE is following the Windows approach to UI design. I don't think either is necessarily "better" but I know which one I prefer overall and it's actually not the same as Linus' preference.
Although I do think it's a little snobbish of him to tell people "No, pick the one I like". How about simply informing them of the differences and letting them choose what THEY like? Isn't that the whole point of free and open source software?
Apply - "Do you really want to apply these changes? Yes/No"
No. I went into the property pages for fun, made modifications because I was bored, then hit Apply by accident.
Yes of COURSE I want to make the changes you stupid software, argh!
I've had good luck with both Misk.com (formerly RegisterSite) and Domainmonger. Never have they tried to screw me, or do anything that made me suspect they were anything other than aboveboard. (Well except for Domainmonger's goofy fish logo...)
Very punny.
I have specifically-named email accounts for each and every domain I own, which are registered through several different registrars. To each of these addresses, I get about 20 emails a week. Identical emails, sent to each address.
I think it's pretty obvious that there are certainly spammers trolling the whois database. I ask you, WHY would they pass up that super easy source of email addresses? But hey, it's my anecdote vs. your anecdote, do they cancel each other out?
Congratulations, you're ridiculous and have completely missed the point.
You can write code in RMS's editor, Emacs, without having to put it under the GPL.
He's not interested in "restricting your freedom" (if that's what you choose to feel like the GPL does) to do whatever the hell you want with your own code. He's interested in restricting your freedom" to do whatever the hell you want with HIS CODE.
If you don't want the GPL to 'infect' your application, then DON'T USE GPL'D CODE. Write it yourself, you lazy ass.
Why do you think it takes 100ms to get to google and back? It's because the router is busy with other traffic and it can only process so many in a given time. Prioritizing traffic does not make the router work faster, it makes it take the time it was originally spending routing google's traffic to route yahoo's instead. Of COURSE it's going to affect everyone other than yahoo in a negative way.
Yes it will probably be an immeasurably small slowdown, when aggregated against "all traffic other than yahoo", but it's the principle of allowing this that is what's really offensive. What happens when the major spammers all manage to buy themselves high-priority traffic? Yuck.