(Well, I didn't discover Linux (1.2.8) until '95 or I might have found it acceptable somewhat earlier...)
I tend to agree with your gripes... but let me add my own:
Gripe #1: When they say "Linux isn't ready for the desktop" what they really mean is "Linux isn't ready for 85% [editor note: this number is for example purposes only and is intended to illustrate only that some number is valid there;)] of the desktops".
Gripe #2: Linux, preinstalled with a GUI and a bunch of applications like many desktop WinPC's, just might be more user friendly than at least the MS variety. [Unfortunately, the fact that they don't come that way makes my point somewhat irrelevant, but it isn't really Linux's fault -- and that is the implication in the claim that Windows is more user friendly.]
Shouldn't this have been posted under "It's funny: Laugh"?;)
two abused and ignored (U.S.) patent requirements
on
What Can Be Patented?
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· Score: 3
IANAPL;)
an original invention or an improvement to another (many, many software patents seem to have been awarded by ignoring the requirement that there not exist "prior art" of essentially the same "invention")
Nonobvious to one skilled in the art (Try telling a group of non-computer people that some straight-forward hack isn't really nonobvious to a programmer of ordinary skill...)
I recently got a free subscription to Computer Shopper. I remember CS as an ~11x14, 1000 page behemoth, consisting mostly of ads. Now it's about 20% its former size.
After a moment's reflection, it seems obvious why CS is on such a spectacular decline. Its target audience is people in the market for computer equipment, a niche that websites, augmented by search engines, fills dramatically better.
News, unfortunately for newspapers, is another niche where the net has tremendous advantages over traditional print media. And, of course, the list goes on and on.
Newspapers are doomed to drop to at least a shadow of their former scale and influence. My advice to newspaper owners and editors: bail out while you can still salvage some of your investment in money and experience. Don't wait until the market is flooded with ex-newspeople and the money is gone.
Looking at the wide range of price/earning ratios and the crazy market caps of the new Internet companies, this doesn't really seem as outlandish as the author intended.;)
Sun's market cap is almost 80% of IBM's as of yesterday and Red Hat probably could buy SCO, sell off the IP and physical assets and come out ahead just on their customer list and name!
I think I better whip up something soon for an IPO before the magic goes away...
And just when the color was returning to the site
on
etoy.com Returns
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· Score: 1
Now, thanks to the/. effect, they're having a relapse:
"There was no response. The server could be down or is not responding." -Netscape
"DeCSS" and a bit of publicity...
on
A New DeCSS
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· Score: 2
...might be sufficient to accomplish his goals. If this effort gets a bunch of publicity on the web and a thousand pages get linked from the various search engines, it will have been worthwhile.
If the software were actually useful it could be a roaring success. Does anyone out there have a useful program just lying around that could plausibly be renamed DeCSS and relaunched?
Imagine if this, or a similar law, passes in most or all of the states. No spammer in the U.S. could send unsolicited email without passing through their local provider, and their provider.
Suddenly it becomes pretty easy to collect up the spam into a nice big batch. With a big enough batch, lawyers might take the case on a contingency basis. Soon, ISP's would be getting unsolicited (postal, first class!) mail from spam-specializing attorneys.;)
Finally, my 15 minutes of fame!
on
Brainball!
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· Score: 1
At least if they properly connect up to the dead outer layer of my brain! I can just see myself posing for a photo op with the publishers of the Guiness Book of World Records... A new champion and the new world record: Zero brain activity!;)
My favorite change going into 2.4 is the halving of the filesystem caching structures. Instead of a read buffer and a write buffer, there is a single buffer. That makes the buffering data files use far less memory. Systems like mine will benefit greatly from this because the key to good performance at my site is getting all the game files in memory to avoid the awful penalty of disk IO.;)
I'm on call an average of 31 hours a week and have weeks where I work closer to 60. Fortunately, those are rarer than they used to be.
With this same employer some years ago, I would get called at all hours of the night with no compensation whatsoever. My housemate hated several of our operators personally, since she typically answered the phone.
So, my situation has drastically improved in recent years. At least I'm paid for being on call now. (I'm a system administrator, previously a programmer/analyst).
I also suspect it was a lack of precision in their monitoring equipment. After all, how much inertia is there in a chip's speed?;)
Anyway, I think this is quite a positive development. It does at least prove that Willamette is capable of doing 1.5 GHz. Of course it is a rare chip off the line that can do it now. Too bad the cooling wasn't mentioned, but the fact that is is clockable to 1.5 GHz under *any* conditions is quite a claim.
Yields will improve and they will improve the quality of the chips steadily -- I have confidence in that much. Unfortunately, I am afraid that their failure to mention either power consumption or heat dissipation methods is not a coincidence.
Of course, it may be that that was also just an oversight of a clueless reporter who thought 1.5GHz was the only important datum. Maybe we'll see 1.2 and 1.4GHz chips in a few months, after all.
Re:Heh -- you beat me to the draw!
on
Quake Wedding
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· Score: 3
"If anyone knows of any reason why these two should not be joined, let him speak now or forever hold his peace."
At which point, a pregnant young lady steps from behind a column with a shotgun and unfastened body armor...
...Roblimo has saved all of us by supplying us with pre-shrink-wrapped opinions which require no critical thought on our part. Truly, this is news for nerds and stuff that matters.
*giggle*
We're just a bunch of ditto-heads here, eh?
Meanwhile, I'm glad to see that at least you can maintain your composure and objectivity!;)
On the Netcraft claim that Windows runs 25 percent of Web sites worldwide: I suspect that their estimate is low. How can Windows get credit for running a web site when the system is down during the survey? Because of this widespread reporting anomaly, Unix/Linux and Apache systems are vastly overrepresented in these non-scientific surveys at the expense of Windows. Their numbers are inflated due to the (irrelevant) fact that they are more likely to be up during the scan.
A responsible survey would correct for this obvious disparity.
With 28,000 known (real) bugs before release and some unknown number of undiscovered bugs lurking in the software, how many do you think there really are?
My guess is that there are more than one undiscovered real bug for each known bug. Even that (conservative) guess would put the minimum number of real bugs right around the 64K number.
Realistically, however, there are likely to be far more than one unknown bug for each known one at this stage in W2K's life. But enough of my guesses. How would you estimate the number of real bugs likely to be lurking in W2K?
I think Linux is great and I run it on all of my personal machines. As the operating system on my machines, it is the single most important piece of software on my systems -- and the one that benefits the most from being open source software.
I have no qualms about non-open source software. However, I have no patience with companies that can and do abuse their proprietary position by taking advantage of their customers. Meanwhile, I have no objection to programmers making their living by selling their wares. Do you?
...If you add Linux and the lumped-together Unices' market shares. Since they lumped together other Unices, I'll take the liberty to add Linux into the group as well. (Yes, I know Linux in general isn't blessed as Unix by The Open Group, but so what? OS/390 is and it's surely not added into the Unix number.)
So... Unix/Linux now has 40%, passing NT at 38%.
*Oh yeah, UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.;)
Well, I haven't resorted to a Windows partition on any of my Linux boxes -- but I do "borrow" my kids' Win98 box to play Quake ][ from time to time.
Has anyone here had the opportunity to compare the Windows version of Q2 with the Linux version on the same hardware? Assuming a decent port is available, just how well does Linux compare as a gaming platform?
You have a good point, but the resulting monopolies from such a breakup, while still monopolies, would have far less ability to leverage their advantage. For example, the insider information that the applications group currently (presumably) enjoys would be gone in this scenario. Further, the marketing leverage the applications group used against Netscape would not have been possible had they not been the same company that made the operating system. (ooops! I forgot -- IE is part of the OS. *slaps forehead*)
Slashdot Mirror
(Well, I didn't discover Linux (1.2.8) until '95 or I might have found it acceptable somewhat earlier...)
;)] of the desktops".
I tend to agree with your gripes... but let me add my own:
Gripe #1: When they say "Linux isn't ready for the desktop" what they really mean is "Linux isn't ready for 85% [editor note: this number is for example purposes only and is intended to illustrate only that some number is valid there
Gripe #2: Linux, preinstalled with a GUI and a bunch of applications like many desktop WinPC's, just might be more user friendly than at least the MS variety. [Unfortunately, the fact that they don't come that way makes my point somewhat irrelevant, but it isn't really Linux's fault -- and that is the implication in the claim that Windows is more user friendly.]
The scary thing is: their chances of getting a patent through the U.S. PTO are probably pretty high....
Shouldn't this have been posted under ;)
"It's funny: Laugh"?
IANAPL ;)
an original invention or an improvement to another
(many, many software patents seem to have been awarded by ignoring the requirement that there not exist "prior art" of essentially the same "invention")
Nonobvious to one skilled in the art
(Try telling a group of non-computer people that some straight-forward hack isn't really nonobvious to a programmer of ordinary skill...)
Well, to me anyway. There are those who say I could use a book that intelligently covers game design and architecture. ;)
...so I guess I'll have to pick this one up.
I recently got a free subscription to Computer Shopper. I remember CS as an ~11x14, 1000 page behemoth, consisting mostly of ads. Now it's about 20% its former size.
;)
After a moment's reflection, it seems obvious why CS is on such a spectacular decline. Its target audience is people in the market for computer equipment, a niche that websites, augmented by search engines, fills dramatically better.
News, unfortunately for newspapers, is another niche where the net has tremendous advantages over traditional print media. And, of course, the list goes on and on.
Newspapers are doomed to drop to at least a shadow of their former scale and influence. My advice to newspaper owners and editors: bail out while you can still salvage some of your investment in money and experience. Don't wait until the market is flooded with ex-newspeople and the money is gone.
Save a tree. Don't buy a newspaper today.
Looking at the wide range of price/earning ratios and the crazy market caps of the new Internet companies, this doesn't really seem as outlandish as the author intended. ;)
Sun's market cap is almost 80% of IBM's as of yesterday and Red Hat probably could buy SCO, sell off the IP and physical assets and come out ahead just on their customer list and name!
I think I better whip up something soon for an IPO before the magic goes away...
Now, thanks to the /. effect, they're having a relapse:
"There was no response. The server could be down or is not responding."
-Netscape
...might be sufficient to accomplish his goals. If this effort gets a bunch of publicity on the web and a thousand pages get linked from the various search engines, it will have been worthwhile.
;)
If the software were actually useful it could be a roaring success. Does anyone out there have a useful program just lying around that could plausibly be renamed DeCSS and relaunched?
If one is good, a hundred would be better!
Imagine if this, or a similar law, passes in most or all of the states. No spammer in the U.S. could send unsolicited email without passing through their local provider, and their provider.
;)
Suddenly it becomes pretty easy to collect up the spam into a nice big batch. With a big enough batch, lawyers might take the case on a contingency basis. Soon, ISP's would be getting unsolicited (postal, first class!) mail from spam-specializing attorneys.
At least if they properly connect up to the dead outer layer of my brain! I can just see myself posing for a photo op with the publishers of the Guiness Book of World Records... A new champion and the new world record: Zero brain activity! ;)
heh. The first thing I think of is Sun's Full Moon clustering project.... and Wolfpack. ;)
Is this a Rorschach test?
My favorite change going into 2.4 is the halving of the filesystem caching structures. Instead of a read buffer and a write buffer, there is a single buffer. That makes the buffering data files use far less memory. Systems like mine will benefit greatly from this because the key to good performance at my site is getting all the game files in memory to avoid the awful penalty of disk IO. ;)
Other changes are detailed in a story over on Linuxtoday.
I'm on call an average of 31 hours a week and have weeks where I work closer to 60. Fortunately, those are rarer than they used to be.
With this same employer some years ago, I would get called at all hours of the night with no compensation whatsoever. My housemate hated several of our operators personally, since she typically answered the phone.
So, my situation has drastically improved in recent years. At least I'm paid for being on call now. (I'm a system administrator, previously a programmer/analyst).
I also suspect it was a lack of precision in their monitoring equipment. After all, how much inertia is there in a chip's speed? ;)
Anyway, I think this is quite a positive development. It does at least prove that Willamette is capable of doing 1.5 GHz. Of course it is a rare chip off the line that can do it now. Too bad the cooling wasn't mentioned, but the fact that is is clockable to 1.5 GHz under *any* conditions is quite a claim.
Yields will improve and they will improve the quality of the chips steadily -- I have confidence in that much. Unfortunately, I am afraid that their failure to mention either power consumption or heat dissipation methods is not a coincidence.
Of course, it may be that that was also just an oversight of a clueless reporter who thought 1.5GHz was the only important datum. Maybe we'll see 1.2 and 1.4GHz chips in a few months, after all.
"If anyone knows of any reason why these two should not be joined, let him speak now or forever hold his peace."
At which point, a pregnant young lady steps from behind a column with a shotgun and unfastened body armor...
;)
...Roblimo has saved all of us by supplying us with pre-shrink-wrapped opinions which require no critical thought on our part. Truly, this is news for nerds and stuff that matters.
;)
*giggle*
We're just a bunch of ditto-heads here, eh?
Meanwhile, I'm glad to see that at least you can maintain your composure and objectivity!
On the Netcraft claim that Windows runs 25 percent of Web sites worldwide: I suspect that their estimate is low. How can Windows get credit for running a web site when the system is down during the survey? Because of this widespread reporting anomaly, Unix/Linux and Apache systems are vastly overrepresented in these non-scientific surveys at the expense of Windows. Their numbers are inflated due to the (irrelevant) fact that they are more likely to be up during the scan.
A responsible survey would correct for this obvious disparity.
;)
With 28,000 known (real) bugs before release and some unknown number of undiscovered bugs lurking in the software, how many do you think there really are?
My guess is that there are more than one undiscovered real bug for each known bug. Even that (conservative) guess would put the minimum number of real bugs right around the 64K number.
Realistically, however, there are likely to be far more than one unknown bug for each known one at this stage in W2K's life. But enough of my guesses. How would you estimate the number of real bugs likely to be lurking in W2K?
Is that your logic? ;)
I think Linux is great and I run it on all of my personal machines. As the operating system on my machines, it is the single most important piece of software on my systems -- and the one that benefits the most from being open source software.
I have no qualms about non-open source software. However, I have no patience with companies that can and do abuse their proprietary position by taking advantage of their customers. Meanwhile, I have no objection to programmers making their living by selling their wares. Do you?
kuro5hin.org does not have a DNS entry -- and then it does! What's going on over there? I finally managed to get in after several failed attempts.
...If you add Linux and the lumped-together Unices' market shares. Since they lumped together other Unices, I'll take the liberty to add Linux into the group as well. (Yes, I know Linux in general isn't blessed as Unix by The Open Group, but so what? OS/390 is and it's surely not added into the Unix number.)
;)
So... Unix/Linux now has 40%, passing NT at 38%.
*Oh yeah, UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.
or, perhaps, this
Well, I haven't resorted to a Windows partition on any of my Linux boxes -- but I do "borrow" my kids' Win98 box to play Quake ][ from time to time.
Has anyone here had the opportunity to compare the Windows version of Q2 with the Linux version on the same hardware? Assuming a decent port is available, just how well does Linux compare as a gaming platform?
You have a good point, but the resulting monopolies from such a breakup, while still monopolies, would have far less ability to leverage their advantage. For example, the insider information that the applications group currently (presumably) enjoys would be gone in this scenario. Further, the marketing leverage the applications group used against Netscape would not have been possible had they not been the same company that made the operating system. (ooops! I forgot -- IE is part of the OS. *slaps forehead*)