Don't look upon Netscape 6.0 as being just another browser to compete with IE - it's not. Look upon Netscape 6.0 as a first taste of the Mozilla platform. This isn't about the browser war - it's about the internet application platform war, and it's one where Netscape are looking very good. Sure, there are bugs, sure it's slow, but look at the technologies that are being implemented - it's elegant and well thought out.
It's kind of assumed that Slashdot readers appreciate the benefits of an open platform, and Netscape 6.0 shows us what will be. History tells us that these initial problems with speed and crashes will be sorted out in time as fixes are applied and hardware gets faster (I'm not advocating bloated code, but it's a fact that hardware is getting faster).
These are exciting times - Linux finally has a state-of-the-art browser available for the masses.
Sega's main strength is its software lineup - no other company (with the possible exception of Nintendo) has such a potent catalogue of games, and in-house talent.
So, Sega get out of the console hardware market for a generation. It's probable they will continue to develop arcade hardware since they're pretty much unbeaten in that arena. Assuming that the hardware is what is costing Sega financially, they could turn themselves around making software for another platform for a generation.
But to count Sega out completely would be foolish - the Dreamcast is a fantastic piece of hardware. It may not be as powerful as the Playstation2, but it's not as far behind as many originally thought. In many ways, from a technical point of view, Sega and Sony have done a reversal - the Saturn was more powerful than the Playstation when programmed to the max (there were some things that PSX could do better, but the Saturn had more processing muscle, more memory, better 2D support and a fantastic audio system) yet the difficulty in programming the machine meant that many developers moved to the easily lucrative Playstation market. Now the Dreamcast is the easier of the two consoles to develop on, but it looks as if the hype will make the Playstation2 succeed again.
So, Sega will open the Dreamcast platform - that's a potentially good thing, but I wouldn't expect it to make much of a difference in the market. Sega will probably push ahead and develop a "Dreamcast2" (for want of a better name), and then relaunch themselves when they are financially more secure.
I don't own a Dreamcast (yet) despite sounding like a Sega fan. I admit it - I like Sega - the Saturn is a very nice piece of kit with some underrated games (Burning Rangers anyone?). It would be a shame to see Sega disappear forever.
...is that it is extremely difficult for a moderator to be objective - the subject of science and religion is both emotive and personal. I've read some comments here that have been marked "insightful" not because they contain conclusive evidence in a particular direction, but because they presumably support the view of the moderator.
The Slashdot moderation system isn't designed to cope with such a wide variety of deeply personal opinion. Ranting about Microsoft and praising Linux is a no-brainer for moderators - generally speaking the pro-Microsoft comments will be regarded as "troll" which anti-Linux comments are "flamebait". To expect otherwise is a naive considering the demographic. Religion is different as it concerns the deepest beliefs for some people.
Just so I stay on-topic, my personal belief is that science and religion are not mutually exclusive. The Bible doesn't try to explain everything, but it deals with issues of faith that science cannot.
I'm in the odd position of working in a department where I'm temporarily "on loan" to a new manager. My original manager is technically excellent - one of the most knowledgable people in his field, and in addition to that, he is extremely dedicated and efficient. He leads by example and expects us to do our best. We do. It's a pleasure to work for him.
The new manager I'm working for is probably a more experienced manager, and is certainly good at organising things, but he lacks the technical knowledge. I don't like working for someone who knows less than I do, and that's possibly the feeling for many of us. Slashdot readers are typically "techies" and proud of it. This is perhaps where the concept of a "suit" comes from - someone who may be good at managing, but doesn't really understand the technology. I have to confess to finding it difficult to give the same level of respect to my new manager.
What I'm trying to get at is if you are a "techie" in charge of other "techies", then as long as your experience is credible, they will enjoy working for you, and will want to work for you. You can build up a very loyal team this way that really pull their weight.
So Compaq have violated the GPL (apparently - I'm not a license expert). Is this different from the violation that KDE have been accused of, and if so, do Compaq need to beg forgiveness, and have they forfeited their rights to use the Linux kernel?
The lack of a decent open source multimedia framework is IMHO holding back Linux etc from making a real dent in the multimedia market. Apple have Quicktime, and Microsoft have DirectShow (which is a DirectX enabled version of ActiveMovie which was a 32bit evolution of Video for Windows).
What's needed is a standard method for decoding a stream of data using a variety of plugins that can be pushed to a display and audio output.
Such a system would need to playback video that covers everything from low bandwidth streaming through to DVD quality. So support for MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4. There are a few other codecs that are important including Sorenson (Quicktime's primary codec these days) and Microsoft's MPEG-4 Version 3 implementation (the high quality compression format that DivX is hacked from). It would also be nice if Real playback was possible, but I imagine that is very proprietery and secret...
Isn't KDE or GNOME doing something about multimedia?
In an ideal world, what you're saying is right. But you're assuming that 99% of the population are aware of the issues, care, or have the common sense to notice what's going on. I never cease to be amazed at some of my co-workers who believe what they read in the tabloid newspapers. If large media corporations can spin their version of events, then Joe and Jane Average are never going to know what's really happening.
While it would be good to bring about change by boycotting, how many of us would it take to make an impact? I'd guess it's bigger than the Slashdot community... When corporations have more money than some countries, they can afford to lose your custom if it means they can push their point of view.
In the future, I think we have more to fear from corporations than we do government. At the moment, governments are being put under pressure from powerful lobby groups (how else would the DMCA come into being?). Not that I trust government either, but at least they are held accountable every five years or so.
There are some people who are probably thinking what right does a European entity have to interfere with a US company? As a European, I'm quite pleased to see the EU make a stand in this. Time Warner are very powerful and very influencial. AOL have a huge amount of mindshare partly due them swamping the market with CDs and a "the internet's safe with us" advertising campaign. Combined, these two companies can be very destructive, and I don't think many Europeans fancy having such a pervasive US company (or any company) controlling the media.
Am I in favour of governments interfering with companies? If they protect the consumer then I do. Are governments to be trusted? No, but at least they're more accountable than multi-nationals. If I have a problem, I can write to my MP or MEP (and I did with regards to the RIP Bill in the UK - I also got a response). If I have a problem with the MPAA, who can I complain to? I can boycote products but when companies get as big as Time Warner/AOL, that can be pretty difficult as who knows what other brands they own? And we've already seen that the MPAA don't seem to respect local laws.
It's not a US vs EU thing, it's about stopping a big, monolithic, and IMHO ultimately malignent corporation from pushing their views to people ignoring local politcal and legal institutions in the process. This is not in the interests of the consumer and I think it's a bad thing(tm).
All IMHO naturally.
Re:This is berlin without the complications?
on
XFree & Rendering
·
· Score: 1
I think that there are plenty of people that are watching the development of Berlin with interest. My knowledge of C doesn't really progress much beyond "helloworld.c" and I haven't found the time to learn more, so can't currently contribute to Berlin, but think that it has a real future - they're doing something that is new and innovative (in the real, non-Microsoft meaning). While I think that this addition to X is great in that it will overcome the current limitations, there is nothing wrong from an alternative, especially if it turns out to be better in the long term.
The problem that Berlin will face is that too many people equate Linux graphics with X, when I think they should be concentrating on getting a lower level accelerated framework, be it FBcon, or even KGI. We need some form of accelerated display that doesn't require root access and all the associated security implications that this includes.
I'm glad this subject has come up, because I recently posted a similar question as an "Ask Slashdot" but guess it was rejected.
The Dejanews Usenet archive was one of the best resources on the Internet. I'd always check there before doing searches on company sites. The recent decrease in the archive database has reduced the usefulness of the service dramatically.
I suppose the important question should be: Is the old Usenet archive worth preserving (for general use, or even as an historical record (it might appear that most of it is useless waffle, but who know's what people will think in 100 years))?
If the answer to the above is "yes", then how can the archive be saved? Leaving it in the hands of a single company (Deja) means it's vulnerable to any silly decisions that the comapny makes.
Perhaps a better solution would be a huge distributed database, where sites archive particular groups for a particular time (eg. some of the big Linux companies could "sponsor" the comp.os.linux.* newsgroups for the dates between 1995 and 1998). These could then be mirrored by other sites with the same interests.
The two negative points I can think of (aside from the nightmare administrative aspects) is 1) what would the sponsor get out of this, and 2) just how big would the archive be?
It is possible that a Gnutella-like system could evolve where people could search for archives, with a set of "root servers" providing searching facilities. With 100GB disks becoming available, the possibility of smaller newsgroups being archived becomes a possibility.
All we need then is to persuade Deja to reimplement the full database (which I believe the eventually intend to do), and then get a tool to archive interesting articles. Anyone out there think they have the skills to write a "deja extractor"?
I wonder what other technologies customers are asking IBM to add to Linux. I'm not especially familiar with AIX - what interesting features does it have?
It'll also be interesting to see how this works with the other Linux LVM (no link - sorry). Will we end up with a similar situation to the current journalled filesystem developments where we go from 0 journalled filesystems to 4 (ext3, reiserfs, XFS and JFS)?
I would definitely never consider myself a suit, although I was wearing one...
It was my first Linux show, and I was very impressed. The Alpha Linux hardware made my jaw drop as it zoomed a mandelbrot image smoothly and quickly. The guy I spoke to on the stand said that it was realtime but I can't confirm it. If it really was realtime then those machines are FAST! The SGI hardware goes without saying - very impressive. One of their stand techies reamed off the specs and but when I asked him what software took advantage of the [phenominal] 3D graphics hardware, he replied "Quake!".:-)
One thing that was a bit odd was the "Great Linux Debate" (which was too packed for me to attend). It claimed to feature industry leaders, but the highest profile person, Alan Cox, was at the show (on Red Hat's stand), but wasn't at the debate. I know because I spoke to him when the debate was running. It's not everyday you get to meet a real Unix Wizard!!!![1]
It was interesting seeing which companies sent people to the show - including some "traditional" sectors like the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Defence.
All told, it was a very good day - I've got loads of new distributions to try, and left with two bags full of stuff including a rather nice "stress" penguin. The "Can I have one for my girlfriend?" worked well for the cute stuff....;-)
[1] I asked Alan about Linux at the highend (hot swap PCI etc). He said he'd seen it demoed, that Red Hat and SGI were involved in providing some high end stuff. He then talked about clustering, and how they evaluated Unix clustering, but decided that the VMS form of clustering was "right" and that's the way they're taking Linux. (apologies to AC if I misheard him).
This is my pet peeve with IE5 and the reason that I'm looking forward to Mozilla reaching the big time. When I want to open a new window, I want it blank - it's so much quicker than having to render the previous page.
There are loads of nice little features in IE5 that I hope make it to Mozilla. I love the autocompletion that drops down a list of options in all boxes. Makes my life just a bit easier, and means that I don't need to remember URLs or have to hunt through a long list of bookmarks.
One of the advantages of the Windows platform is DirectX. although it isn't necessarily the best implementation of a multimedia / gaming API, it is standard and loads of games are written for it.
What is needed for a Linux alternative? Does Linux have a particular weak spot that needs addressing before gaming becomes as easy as under Windows?
I've been a reader of/. for about two years, yet I missed the start of the Natalie Portman / Grits comments - it just seemed to suddenly appear. Where did it originate, and what is the deal with grits? (I'm probably being extremely naive, but I don't have a clue what it's refering to. Cultural thing?).
I work in the UK, and am also on exactly the same hours. I also value time more than money. I'm not on a bad salary, and I get overtime, but my manager works ridiculous hours, performing database upgrades at 2am(!). I don't mind a bit of overtime, but I want to see my girlfriend and have a life - what's the point in earning loads of money if you don't get the chance to enjoy it!
(I doing overtime now, but reading Slashdot in between upgrades...)
Of all websites, Slashdot rates highly in my humble opinion because it has a very well thought out moderation system. Okay, so it's not perfect, but it's probably the best out there.
The idea that a regular member of the community can gain temporary moderator status could surely be used to help filter the hundreds of new story submissions.
If Rob and Co don't want any random user selecting stories, how about the moderators get to see what the queued stories are, and vote on the stories that are interesting? This would be a form of meta-posting, and if this list was visible to the whole community, then any bias at the hands of the "now evil corporate Malda and his evil henchmen" actually happened, then everyone could see it.
For example, the/. crew could post their own stories (hey - it's still their site!) but we would know it was because they chose it themselves and not the unwashed masses (moderators). Similarly, if a high profile story dissing VA was voted on by the moderators, yet rejected by the/. team, then that bias would also be noted.
If this is implemented soon, before any chance that the contract Rob has with Andover/VA is questioned then it would be difficult to remove it - there would be too many questions asked.
Okay, so it wouldn't stop Rob from modifying the backend code, but if things get that bad, then/. has really lost it.
It's not a perfect solution I'm sure, but it should keep/. in the hands of the people that care about it for what it is, and not how much money it can make!
So, use this idea now and claim prior art before I patent it! (joke):-)
The BBC was released in the early-to-mid 80s (originally the Model A, then the Model B, then the Master - with a few oddities in between (B+, Master Compact etc). You're right in saying that it was an 8bit machine, but it had a very powerful implementation of BASIC (complete with functions and procedures, and the ability to embed assembler).
In 1987 the Archimedes was released which used an 8Mhz Arm2 - the first "consumer" machine to feature the RISC architecture. It was light years ahead of anything else on the market - but unfortunately, due to economies of scale, Acorn were not able to sustain it (although it did produce several generations of machines - the last I saw being the RISC PC, based on a 30Mhz (?) Arm610. Elegant hardware, a unique and powerful OS - no other platform can match it for drag and drop and anti-aliased fonts.
Unfortunately, the world moved to PCs and Windows became dominant. Now, there maybe a chance to rectify that...
I think the differences are more technical (speaking from an architectural pov). The component model means that the web browser is essentially a an applet which explorer integrates into it's interface. I think that's fairly smart, although the MS implementation is as ever spoilt by a lack of security and reliability.
When KDE 2.0 implements this functionality (which I believe it will), I'm sure it will be universally applauded. When GNOME does something similar (which I don't know if they intend to do), then that will be universally applauded. Let's hope that both KDE and GNOME implement it in a better way...
For me, it's got to be some Bjorn "Dr Awesome" Lynne. I grew up listening to his.mod music, and have progressed onto his space / fantasy music CDs. Definitely a must for ex-Amiga users who used to like Crusaders demos. Check out www.lynnemusic.com
Please drop the overuse of the word "geek". It gets very annoying, very quickly. Slashdot readers typically know what a geek is, and we don't need it defined in *every* article that you write - it's not important!
Anyhow, congratulations on getting started with Linux. There's a lot to learn, but it's getting easier...
Slashdot Mirror
Don't look upon Netscape 6.0 as being just another browser to compete with IE - it's not. Look upon Netscape 6.0 as a first taste of the Mozilla platform. This isn't about the browser war - it's about the internet application platform war, and it's one where Netscape are looking very good. Sure, there are bugs, sure it's slow, but look at the technologies that are being implemented - it's elegant and well thought out.
It's kind of assumed that Slashdot readers appreciate the benefits of an open platform, and Netscape 6.0 shows us what will be. History tells us that these initial problems with speed and crashes will be sorted out in time as fixes are applied and hardware gets faster (I'm not advocating bloated code, but it's a fact that hardware is getting faster).
These are exciting times - Linux finally has a state-of-the-art browser available for the masses.
Sega's main strength is its software lineup - no other company (with the possible exception of Nintendo) has such a potent catalogue of games, and in-house talent.
So, Sega get out of the console hardware market for a generation. It's probable they will continue to develop arcade hardware since they're pretty much unbeaten in that arena. Assuming that the hardware is what is costing Sega financially, they could turn themselves around making software for another platform for a generation.
But to count Sega out completely would be foolish - the Dreamcast is a fantastic piece of hardware. It may not be as powerful as the Playstation2, but it's not as far behind as many originally thought. In many ways, from a technical point of view, Sega and Sony have done a reversal - the Saturn was more powerful than the Playstation when programmed to the max (there were some things that PSX could do better, but the Saturn had more processing muscle, more memory, better 2D support and a fantastic audio system) yet the difficulty in programming the machine meant that many developers moved to the easily lucrative Playstation market. Now the Dreamcast is the easier of the two consoles to develop on, but it looks as if the hype will make the Playstation2 succeed again.
So, Sega will open the Dreamcast platform - that's a potentially good thing, but I wouldn't expect it to make much of a difference in the market. Sega will probably push ahead and develop a "Dreamcast2" (for want of a better name), and then relaunch themselves when they are financially more secure.
I don't own a Dreamcast (yet) despite sounding like a Sega fan. I admit it - I like Sega - the Saturn is a very nice piece of kit with some underrated games (Burning Rangers anyone?). It would be a shame to see Sega disappear forever.
...is that it is extremely difficult for a moderator to be objective - the subject of science and religion is both emotive and personal. I've read some comments here that have been marked "insightful" not because they contain conclusive evidence in a particular direction, but because they presumably support the view of the moderator.
The Slashdot moderation system isn't designed to cope with such a wide variety of deeply personal opinion. Ranting about Microsoft and praising Linux is a no-brainer for moderators - generally speaking the pro-Microsoft comments will be regarded as "troll" which anti-Linux comments are "flamebait". To expect otherwise is a naive considering the demographic. Religion is different as it concerns the deepest beliefs for some people.
Just so I stay on-topic, my personal belief is that science and religion are not mutually exclusive. The Bible doesn't try to explain everything, but it deals with issues of faith that science cannot.
I'm in the odd position of working in a department where I'm temporarily "on loan" to a new manager. My original manager is technically excellent - one of the most knowledgable people in his field, and in addition to that, he is extremely dedicated and efficient. He leads by example and expects us to do our best. We do. It's a pleasure to work for him.
The new manager I'm working for is probably a more experienced manager, and is certainly good at organising things, but he lacks the technical knowledge. I don't like working for someone who knows less than I do, and that's possibly the feeling for many of us. Slashdot readers are typically "techies" and proud of it. This is perhaps where the concept of a "suit" comes from - someone who may be good at managing, but doesn't really understand the technology. I have to confess to finding it difficult to give the same level of respect to my new manager.
What I'm trying to get at is if you are a "techie" in charge of other "techies", then as long as your experience is credible, they will enjoy working for you, and will want to work for you. You can build up a very loyal team this way that really pull their weight.
So Compaq have violated the GPL (apparently - I'm not a license expert). Is this different from the violation that KDE have been accused of, and if so, do Compaq need to beg forgiveness, and have they forfeited their rights to use the Linux kernel?
The lack of a decent open source multimedia framework is IMHO holding back Linux etc from making a real dent in the multimedia market. Apple have Quicktime, and Microsoft have DirectShow (which is a DirectX enabled version of ActiveMovie which was a 32bit evolution of Video for Windows).
What's needed is a standard method for decoding a stream of data using a variety of plugins that can be pushed to a display and audio output.
Such a system would need to playback video that covers everything from low bandwidth streaming through to DVD quality. So support for MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4. There are a few other codecs that are important including Sorenson (Quicktime's primary codec these days) and Microsoft's MPEG-4 Version 3 implementation (the high quality compression format that DivX is hacked from). It would also be nice if Real playback was possible, but I imagine that is very proprietery and secret...
Isn't KDE or GNOME doing something about multimedia?
In an ideal world, what you're saying is right. But you're assuming that 99% of the population are aware of the issues, care, or have the common sense to notice what's going on. I never cease to be amazed at some of my co-workers who believe what they read in the tabloid newspapers. If large media corporations can spin their version of events, then Joe and Jane Average are never going to know what's really happening.
While it would be good to bring about change by boycotting, how many of us would it take to make an impact? I'd guess it's bigger than the Slashdot community... When corporations have more money than some countries, they can afford to lose your custom if it means they can push their point of view.
In the future, I think we have more to fear from corporations than we do government. At the moment, governments are being put under pressure from powerful lobby groups (how else would the DMCA come into being?). Not that I trust government either, but at least they are held accountable every five years or so.
There are some people who are probably thinking what right does a European entity have to interfere with a US company? As a European, I'm quite pleased to see the EU make a stand in this. Time Warner are very powerful and very influencial. AOL have a huge amount of mindshare partly due them swamping the market with CDs and a "the internet's safe with us" advertising campaign. Combined, these two companies can be very destructive, and I don't think many Europeans fancy having such a pervasive US company (or any company) controlling the media.
Am I in favour of governments interfering with companies? If they protect the consumer then I do. Are governments to be trusted? No, but at least they're more accountable than multi-nationals. If I have a problem, I can write to my MP or MEP (and I did with regards to the RIP Bill in the UK - I also got a response). If I have a problem with the MPAA, who can I complain to? I can boycote products but when companies get as big as Time Warner/AOL, that can be pretty difficult as who knows what other brands they own? And we've already seen that the MPAA don't seem to respect local laws.
It's not a US vs EU thing, it's about stopping a big, monolithic, and IMHO ultimately malignent corporation from pushing their views to people ignoring local politcal and legal institutions in the process. This is not in the interests of the consumer and I think it's a bad thing(tm).
All IMHO naturally.
I think that there are plenty of people that are watching the development of Berlin with interest. My knowledge of C doesn't really progress much beyond "helloworld.c" and I haven't found the time to learn more, so can't currently contribute to Berlin, but think that it has a real future - they're doing something that is new and innovative (in the real, non-Microsoft meaning). While I think that this addition to X is great in that it will overcome the current limitations, there is nothing wrong from an alternative, especially if it turns out to be better in the long term.
The problem that Berlin will face is that too many people equate Linux graphics with X, when I think they should be concentrating on getting a lower level accelerated framework, be it FBcon, or even KGI. We need some form of accelerated display that doesn't require root access and all the associated security implications that this includes.
The next manufacturer will probably be Nintendo then who I believe have announced that "Dolphin" will be called "Star Cube".
I'm glad this subject has come up, because I recently posted a similar question as an "Ask Slashdot" but guess it was rejected.
The Dejanews Usenet archive was one of the best resources on the Internet. I'd always check there before doing searches on company sites. The recent decrease in the archive database has reduced the usefulness of the service dramatically.
I suppose the important question should be: Is the old Usenet archive worth preserving (for general use, or even as an historical record (it might appear that most of it is useless waffle, but who know's what people will think in 100 years))?
If the answer to the above is "yes", then how can the archive be saved? Leaving it in the hands of a single company (Deja) means it's vulnerable to any silly decisions that the comapny makes.
Perhaps a better solution would be a huge distributed database, where sites archive particular groups for a particular time (eg. some of the big Linux companies could "sponsor" the comp.os.linux.* newsgroups for the dates between 1995 and 1998). These could then be mirrored by other sites with the same interests.
The two negative points I can think of (aside from the nightmare administrative aspects) is 1) what would the sponsor get out of this, and 2) just how big would the archive be?
It is possible that a Gnutella-like system could evolve where people could search for archives, with a set of "root servers" providing searching facilities. With 100GB disks becoming available, the possibility of smaller newsgroups being archived becomes a possibility.
All we need then is to persuade Deja to reimplement the full database (which I believe the eventually intend to do), and then get a tool to archive interesting articles. Anyone out there think they have the skills to write a "deja extractor"?
I wonder what other technologies customers are asking IBM to add to Linux. I'm not especially familiar with AIX - what interesting features does it have?
It'll also be interesting to see how this works with the other Linux LVM (no link - sorry). Will we end up with a similar situation to the current journalled filesystem developments where we go from 0 journalled filesystems to 4 (ext3, reiserfs, XFS and JFS)?
I would definitely never consider myself a suit, although I was wearing one...
:-)
;-)
It was my first Linux show, and I was very impressed. The Alpha Linux hardware made my jaw drop as it zoomed a mandelbrot image smoothly and quickly. The guy I spoke to on the stand said that it was realtime but I can't confirm it. If it really was realtime then those machines are FAST! The SGI hardware goes without saying - very impressive. One of their stand techies reamed off the specs and but when I asked him what software took advantage of the [phenominal] 3D graphics hardware, he replied "Quake!".
One thing that was a bit odd was the "Great Linux Debate" (which was too packed for me to attend). It claimed to feature industry leaders, but the highest profile person, Alan Cox, was at the show (on Red Hat's stand), but wasn't at the debate. I know because I spoke to him when the debate was running. It's not everyday you get to meet a real Unix Wizard!!!![1]
It was interesting seeing which companies sent people to the show - including some "traditional" sectors like the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Defence.
All told, it was a very good day - I've got loads of new distributions to try, and left with two bags full of stuff including a rather nice "stress" penguin. The "Can I have one for my girlfriend?" worked well for the cute stuff....
[1] I asked Alan about Linux at the highend (hot swap PCI etc). He said he'd seen it demoed, that Red Hat and SGI were involved in providing some high end stuff. He then talked about clustering, and how they evaluated Unix clustering, but decided that the VMS form of clustering was "right" and that's the way they're taking Linux. (apologies to AC if I misheard him).
This is my pet peeve with IE5 and the reason that I'm looking forward to Mozilla reaching the big time. When I want to open a new window, I want it blank - it's so much quicker than having to render the previous page.
There are loads of nice little features in IE5 that I hope make it to Mozilla. I love the autocompletion that drops down a list of options in all boxes. Makes my life just a bit easier, and means that I don't need to remember URLs or have to hunt through a long list of bookmarks.
In the lift scene just before they snap the cable.
And this was marked "Troll" because....?
Very informative IMHO!
One of the advantages of the Windows platform is DirectX. although it isn't necessarily the best implementation of a multimedia / gaming API, it is standard and loads of games are written for it.
What is needed for a Linux alternative? Does Linux have a particular weak spot that needs addressing before gaming becomes as easy as under Windows?
I've been a reader of /. for about two years, yet I missed the start of the Natalie Portman / Grits comments - it just seemed to suddenly appear. Where did it originate, and what is the deal with grits? (I'm probably being extremely naive, but I don't have a clue what it's refering to. Cultural thing?).
I work in the UK, and am also on exactly the same hours. I also value time more than money. I'm not on a bad salary, and I get overtime, but my manager works ridiculous hours, performing database upgrades at 2am(!). I don't mind a bit of overtime, but I want to see my girlfriend and have a life - what's the point in earning loads of money if you don't get the chance to enjoy it!
(I doing overtime now, but reading Slashdot in between upgrades...)
Of all websites, Slashdot rates highly in my humble opinion because it has a very well thought out moderation system. Okay, so it's not perfect, but it's probably the best out there.
/. crew could post their own stories (hey - it's still their site!) but we would know it was because they chose it themselves and not the unwashed masses (moderators). Similarly, if a high profile story dissing VA was voted on by the moderators, yet rejected by the /. team, then that bias would also be noted.
/. has really lost it.
/. in the hands of the people that care about it for what it is, and not how much money it can make!
:-)
The idea that a regular member of the community can gain temporary moderator status could surely be used to help filter the hundreds of new story submissions.
If Rob and Co don't want any random user selecting stories, how about the moderators get to see what the queued stories are, and vote on the stories that are interesting? This would be a form of meta-posting, and if this list was visible to the whole community, then any bias at the hands of the "now evil corporate Malda and his evil henchmen" actually happened, then everyone could see it.
For example, the
If this is implemented soon, before any chance that the contract Rob has with Andover/VA is questioned then it would be difficult to remove it - there would be too many questions asked.
Okay, so it wouldn't stop Rob from modifying the backend code, but if things get that bad, then
It's not a perfect solution I'm sure, but it should keep
So, use this idea now and claim prior art before I patent it! (joke)
That's not completely accurate:
The BBC was released in the early-to-mid 80s (originally the Model A, then the Model B, then the Master - with a few oddities in between (B+, Master Compact etc). You're right in saying that it was an 8bit machine, but it had a very powerful implementation of BASIC (complete with functions and procedures, and the ability to embed assembler).
In 1987 the Archimedes was released which used an 8Mhz Arm2 - the first "consumer" machine to feature the RISC architecture. It was light years ahead of anything else on the market - but unfortunately, due to economies of scale, Acorn were not able to sustain it (although it did produce several generations of machines - the last I saw being the RISC PC, based on a 30Mhz (?) Arm610. Elegant hardware, a unique and powerful OS - no other platform can match it for drag and drop and anti-aliased fonts.
Unfortunately, the world moved to PCs and Windows became dominant. Now, there maybe a chance to rectify that...
I got it from dilbert.com and it runs under Netscape (dunno about IE4). How do I remove it completely from the system?
I think the differences are more technical (speaking from an architectural pov). The component model means that the web browser is essentially a an applet which explorer integrates into it's interface. I think that's fairly smart, although the MS implementation is as ever spoilt by a lack of security and reliability.
When KDE 2.0 implements this functionality (which I believe it will), I'm sure it will be universally applauded. When GNOME does something similar (which I don't know if they intend to do), then that will be universally applauded. Let's hope that both KDE and GNOME implement it in a better way...
For me, it's got to be some Bjorn "Dr Awesome" Lynne. I grew up listening to his .mod music, and have progressed onto his space / fantasy music CDs. Definitely a must for ex-Amiga users who used to like Crusaders demos. Check out www.lynnemusic.com
Please drop the overuse of the word "geek". It gets very annoying, very quickly. Slashdot readers typically know what a geek is, and we don't need it defined in *every* article that you write - it's not important!
Anyhow, congratulations on getting started with Linux. There's a lot to learn, but it's getting easier...