I don't believe IE is integrated into the kernel. MS got called on this on in court. What's more the rendering engine is a separate component that many Windows apps can use, the help system for instance. IE is not so much an application as it is a bunch of COM objects strung together under a UI we can call a browser. Adding tabs to IE means rearranging some the UI aspects with no need to rewrite the rendering engine proper.
Check out Crazybrowser sometime. It uses the IE rendering engine but supports tabs and popup killing. I don't use it myself (Linux user primarily) but I found it helpful when some of my users had popup complaints at the office. They liked the tabs once I showed them.
If a third party browser can support these features in Windows while being just as compatible as IE then IE can as well. Crazybrowser like IE is a little bit of new code wrapped around OS provided objects.
Sure if this capability were overused it would be a mess. On the other hand, judicious use of it would solve a lot of problems. Normally I'm not a fan of MS but if they do it right (big if I know) it's a GOOD idea.
Maybe some policy would help a bit. I'm thinking that things like services, especially public net facing ones be forced to use the latest DLL whether it breaks anything or not. If it's compatible, the service stays up. If it's not the service dies and doesn't make a public nuisance of itself. Reporting tools would help too. If it were easy to get a list of which apps were using which DLL, it would be possible to intelligently manage the situation. For that matter, make apps use the newest by default and then fall back to the oldest only if that doesn't work and it isn't a public facing service.
Yes, this can cause problems but if they include the right tools and sane policy they're managable. This isn't intriniscally new VMS did something like this. Unix admins have been doing manually for years. MS just wants to automate it.
The best words I can come up with to describe Trolltech's behaivor to the community are class and grace. Furthermore, the QT in KDE and friends is GPL and Trolltech lost the ability to blackmail anybody in the community by releasing it thus. They're smart enough to know this. I seriously doubt anybody at Trolltech has anything to do with this. In fact, it would seem to endanger a large deal they're working with IBM at the moment.
Let's reserve our anger for those who deserve it. Trolltech has been more than decent to us.
The proposed bill sets a mandate on how the government procures things. It has absolutely nothing to say about how non-govt. Joe Blow runs his IT department. Since you are a tax paying libertarian, I would think you would be in favor of anything that means the govt. spends less money or gets better return on what it does spend. Granted, the savings would be lost in the noise of all the other money governments waste.
It requires things that are entirely favorable to taxpayers. It mandates open formats for data storage which makes it less likely that the government would mandate say using Word to complete an electronic tax form. It legitimizes consideration of vendors and solutions the government couldn't consider. The consequences mean a bit more choice in how citizens interact with government. How is any of this a threat to libertarians?
Back when I ran Windows 98, I had an icon+sound hack that did just that. Actually, it was a little cooler. The empty toliet bowl had it's lid shut. A bowl with floaters in it had the lid up and little brown fumes rising from it. It did indeed make a flushing sound when emptied.
Many vendors that will sell laptops or other kit without Windows are still passing on the (lower OEM) cost on. The vendor in this case offered the same laptop with either XP or bare and the bare is $100 cheaper. Not bad at all although that C3 chip doesn't seem too tasty.
If I'm not mistaken, the Via cpus are descended from Cyrix chips. The Cyrix tech (such as it is) didn't really die, it just changed owners. Back in the day, K5s and K6s generally outperformed Cyrix chips.
What needs to happen is for some international court to be created to enforce IP laws. Otherwise, the US creates, patents, and developing nations steal the code, and package it as their own.
Why? So we can have one-click style insanity over the entire planet? Or even better, RAMBUS style submarines lurking in everyone's economy. I would hope at least some the world is intelligent enough not to smoke THAT particular crack. Why don't we fix our IP systems before imposing them on the entire planet 'kay?
I don't hate patents. I hate BAD patents. If our patent office weren't prone to giving patents for the computing equalivalent to the wheel I wouldn't be so torqued. Running a store is obvious. Inventorying what you sold is obvious. Doing it with software is somehow innovative one-click. There is a maxim that goes like this: "If you can't wow them with your brilliance then baffle them with bullshit." US patent officers are easily baffled with bullshit.
The plain fact is that even the most trivial piece of software cannot be written without violating at least twenty patents. THAT sir is what I'm against. Not patents in general. Have experienced software engineers screen patent applications (sceptically) and require working code to go with them then you'll see less objections like mine.
When we were kids, if one of us swung at another kid with a toy then our parents would take the toy away and probably throw in a trip behind the woodshed. The current patent system is a bludgeon for beating down potential competitors. If some innovation is protected in the process it is entirely accidental. A sanely reformed patent system would be the optimal outcome. But taking the toy away and having no software patents would be better than what we have now. Patent worthy ideas or don't do it all because copious bad patents have the opposite effects patents are supposed to encourage. Why try to make anything when an Apple, a Microsoft, or an IBM can reach into an infinite bag of legal trickery and squash you like a bug?
Nonetheless, applications can be minimized. It is possible to switch among minimized apps....easily. NextSTEP clones I've played with had application menus availiable through either a right mouse click or a hotkey. So MS made minimized apps go to a thing on the botton of the screen and hung the app menu off it. Whoop-de-doo. For that matter, the taskbar CAN hold quicklaunch icons so who's ripping off who here?
Does the first one to manage multitasked apps in a GUI get to hold everybody else hostage? If so, then this is yet another way the patent system is broken. I say it again. It's obvious that a multitasking GUI needs a way for the user to manage his open apps. The obvious ways to do this are going to look very similar regardless of whether they are in a context menu, a bar on the bottom of the screen, grouped minimized icons, or what have you. All are equally "intuitive" to a completely novice user. Again: whoop-de-doo.
It's worth noting that Tesla was the actual mind behind many of Edison's "inventions". Edison lived like a king and got all of the credit while Tesla was doing well if he got to eat out once or twice a year. The payback was priceless though. Just who do you think handed Westinghouse that AC power distribution system on a silver platter? The story is worth looking up.
What about cheezy software patents where the basic idea is patented but no implementation is supplied? Then on top of that, the patenting company does absolutely nothing whatsoever to market the idea or even make it practical. They just sit and wait for someone else to do all the hard work of marketing and implementation so they can surface the submarine and fire volleys of lawyer torpedoes?
I would say that patents can work but the current system for them is horridly broken. The current patent office would hand out patents on the wheel if the application used sufficiently large words and creatively tarted up diagrams. A working patent system would be wonderful. No patent system whatsoever would be be better than the corrupt and inept monstrosity we're dealing with now.
As for Microsoft's "innovation" here is screenie of a NEXTSTEP desktop that predates 95:
After you get through copying the mp3s off your iPod there are nice scripts that will rename mp3s sensibly based on the id3tags. How much fun is going to be to find a particular song when they're all named sadfjae2334.mp3 or some such?
Here is one such:
http://www.prongs.org/fixmp3/
Of course, you'll have to do things the hard way if your mp3s aren't tagged......
Which part of "outside the USA" did you miss? That's EXACTLY what he is telling you. This does not serve US' interests. Crypto development has already been pushed outside the country. This sort of behaivor could push most security work outside as well. The rest of the world isn't going to run their networks three-sheets-to-the-wind just so Tom Ridge can get his warm fuzzies.
Nobody outside the US is going to place their security below that of the US. Yet everybody, US included, runs the same software. This means something has to give and if the issue is forced then yet another chunk of the industry leaves the country. How is this good?
It's already started. Many developers won't visit the US because they discuss vulnerabilities "that could circumvent a copyright protection". Hello! They have to do that to fix problems. Pentagon-style paranoia could much worse than the DMCA. This industry is hurting as it is. We don't need more government imposed problems.
Crypto development had to be moved out of the US. If necessary, I suppose it can done for security disclosure as well. After all, our government would NEVER place a vendor's interests above those of consumers.
In a previous job, I found that my most outlandish sarcastic suggestions were the ones most likely to be seized upon by my managers as an innovative product idea. I learned to be careful about saying such things.
Shoot!, let loose in a candy store like that my imagination would go into overdrive. How about a special glass cleaner for the monitors on Windows computers? Everyone knows that you have to mix your Linux monitor cleaner by yourself. How about calling it "Windex"? Screwing with minds that weak would be too much fun. The trolls that live in -1 land here can only dream about so much power!
But this is an interesting twist that I think the OSS community could use for leverage. Perhaps Carmack could work with Redhat or some other large OSS corporation in order to develop an entire fucking gaming environment - put the CD in the damn PC and boot directly to your game. They could create a specification to which PC manufacturers could adhere - obviously driver suport would be a nightmare but if it was created extensibly enough, this wouldn't be a problem (i.e. - "compile" an updated/custom CD and burn it).
Knoppix can boot to a full desktop with video+sound+net provided it knows about the hardware. The only trouble I've had with Knoppix are nForce boards. Yes, NVidia provides drivers. No, they can't be incorporated on the CDs because NVidia's license for their proprietary drivers is braindead in this respect.
Anyway, Knoppix shows that something like what the parent poster proposed is possible. Because it employs a compressed filesystem, Knopppix comes with 2 GB of software. A Knoppix-style game DVD could hold all but the most involved games in its entirety.
I don't think it would amount to a dance on the grave of MS. It would be fun to watch MS pooh-pooh it though.
There's gobs of gobs of utilities and scripts that will automate iptables for you. I use gShield myself. Perhaps someone who runs RH can tell you what they supply for this but you really don't have to write rules by hand unless you want to.
Perhaps Webmin (yummy web based config tool) would be a good start. Google for Webmin and check out the modules for firewall automation.
Such packages get placeholder manpages that typically look like this: (Attempt to show example abandoned after several go-arounds with the lameness filter)
These distro provided manpages often have no other information other than to refer you to/usr/share/doc/.
Basically, Debian policy seems to say you must have a manpage but it doesn't have to be a great one. Also, Debian manpages also direct you to info for GNU utilities. Basically, Debian provided manpages function as pointers to whatever documentation does exist.
Sure QT licensing in inconvienient for some developers. It beats the hell of the ambiguity it used to have. On the other hand, I think Trolltech is a good rejoinder for licensing fanatics who have nothing better to do than whinge about the GPL. The GPL in this case PROTECTS a business model as well as the code.
Mormon door-to-door salesmen are notorious for their persistance but it usually isn't necessary to argue or tell them off. Unless you enjoy that sort of thing that is. You can usually get them to go away by politely saying something like this: "I have my own religious beliefs and am not interested in changing them." If they return say something like this: "I told you last time I wasn't interested and I'm disappointed that you have no consideration." I'm told by a former Mormon that should shame them into leaving you alone. It has something to do with their values and is more effective (though not as much fun) than poking holes in the Book of Mormon and their history.
If out of politeness, you express any interest or (horrors!) invite them in then be prepared to put your plans for the evening on hold. They are more than willing to "study" with you for several hours.
The parent is probably thinking of reflective LCDs. And yes, it would be nice if LCD monitors had reflective elements so they could be used in brightly lit rooms.
Anyhoo, you're right as well, IF these things are bright enough then they would do as well in brightly lit rooms as CRTs. Come to think of it I wouldn't care for any screen that had an overly bright light shining directly at it but it would be better if none of these things washed out in bright indirect lighting.
True enough but as computers become more powerful new apps become practical. As it is now, editing large uncompressed video files could bring even your 1GB uber-pc to it's knees. You may not need more than a gig now but that won't be true even five years out and sooner than that for a lot of people.
The parent wasn't talking about being able to decode files 5 or 6 revs down the road. He was talking about being able to use the libraries that implement the codec years down the line. It is easier to keep an evolving app in sync with a standard if the standard is fully documented. Also, one does not have to trust the OS vendor to keep this process easy.
Slashdot Mirror
A sun becomes a red giant before turning into a white dwarf ember. This would have been wittier if it Sun in SCO's place.....
I don't believe IE is integrated into the kernel. MS got called on this on in court. What's more the rendering engine is a separate component that many Windows apps can use, the help system for instance. IE is not so much an application as it is a bunch of COM objects strung together under a UI we can call a browser. Adding tabs to IE means rearranging some the UI aspects with no need to rewrite the rendering engine proper.
Check out Crazybrowser sometime. It uses the IE rendering engine but supports tabs and popup killing. I don't use it myself (Linux user primarily) but I found it helpful when some of my users had popup complaints at the office. They liked the tabs once I showed them.
If a third party browser can support these features in Windows while being just as compatible as IE then IE can as well. Crazybrowser like IE is a little bit of new code wrapped around OS provided objects.
Sure if this capability were overused it would be a mess. On the other hand, judicious use of it would solve a lot of problems. Normally I'm not a fan of MS but if they do it right (big if I know) it's a GOOD idea.
Maybe some policy would help a bit. I'm thinking that things like services, especially public net facing ones be forced to use the latest DLL whether it breaks anything or not. If it's compatible, the service stays up. If it's not the service dies and doesn't make a public nuisance of itself. Reporting tools would help too. If it were easy to get a list of which apps were using which DLL, it would be possible to intelligently manage the situation. For that matter, make apps use the newest by default and then fall back to the oldest only if that doesn't work and it isn't a public facing service.
Yes, this can cause problems but if they include the right tools and sane policy they're managable. This isn't intriniscally new VMS did something like this. Unix admins have been doing manually for years. MS just wants to automate it.
The best words I can come up with to describe Trolltech's behaivor to the community are class and grace. Furthermore, the QT in KDE and friends is GPL and Trolltech lost the ability to blackmail anybody in the community by releasing it thus. They're smart enough to know this. I seriously doubt anybody at Trolltech has anything to do with this. In fact, it would seem to endanger a large deal they're working with IBM at the moment.
Let's reserve our anger for those who deserve it. Trolltech has been more than decent to us.
The proposed bill sets a mandate on how the government procures things. It has absolutely nothing to say about how non-govt. Joe Blow runs his IT department. Since you are a tax paying libertarian, I would think you would be in favor of anything that means the govt. spends less money or gets better return on what it does spend. Granted, the savings would be lost in the noise of all the other money governments waste.
It requires things that are entirely favorable to taxpayers. It mandates open formats for data storage which makes it less likely that the government would mandate say using Word to complete an electronic tax form. It legitimizes consideration of vendors and solutions the government couldn't consider. The consequences mean a bit more choice in how citizens interact with government. How is any of this a threat to libertarians?
Back when I ran Windows 98, I had an icon+sound hack that did just that. Actually, it was a little cooler. The empty toliet bowl had it's lid shut. A bowl with floaters in it had the lid up and little brown fumes rising from it. It did indeed make a flushing sound when emptied.
Sorry, no patent for you. Oh! wait......
Many vendors that will sell laptops or other kit without Windows are still passing on the (lower OEM) cost on. The vendor in this case offered the same laptop with either XP or bare and the bare is $100 cheaper. Not bad at all although that C3 chip doesn't seem too tasty.
If I'm not mistaken, the Via cpus are descended from Cyrix chips. The Cyrix tech (such as it is) didn't really die, it just changed owners. Back in the day, K5s and K6s generally outperformed Cyrix chips.
What needs to happen is for some international court to be created to enforce IP laws. Otherwise, the US creates, patents, and developing nations steal the code, and package it as their own.
Why? So we can have one-click style insanity over the entire planet? Or even better, RAMBUS style submarines lurking in everyone's economy. I would hope at least some the world is intelligent enough not to smoke THAT particular crack. Why don't we fix our IP systems before imposing them on the entire planet 'kay?
I don't hate patents. I hate BAD patents. If our patent office weren't prone to giving patents for the computing equalivalent to the wheel I wouldn't be so torqued. Running a store is obvious. Inventorying what you sold is obvious. Doing it with software is somehow innovative one-click. There is a maxim that goes like this: "If you can't wow them with your brilliance then baffle them with bullshit." US patent officers are easily baffled with bullshit.
The plain fact is that even the most trivial piece of software cannot be written without violating at least twenty patents. THAT sir is what I'm against. Not patents in general. Have experienced software engineers screen patent applications (sceptically) and require working code to go with them then you'll see less objections like mine.
When we were kids, if one of us swung at another kid with a toy then our parents would take the toy away and probably throw in a trip behind the woodshed. The current patent system is a bludgeon for beating down potential competitors. If some innovation is protected in the process it is entirely accidental. A sanely reformed patent system would be the optimal outcome. But taking the toy away and having no software patents would be better than what we have now. Patent worthy ideas or don't do it all because copious bad patents have the opposite effects patents are supposed to encourage. Why try to make anything when an Apple, a Microsoft, or an IBM can reach into an infinite bag of legal trickery and squash you like a bug?
Nonetheless, applications can be minimized. It is possible to switch among minimized apps....easily. NextSTEP clones I've played with had application menus availiable through either a right mouse click or a hotkey. So MS made minimized apps go to a thing on the botton of the screen and hung the app menu off it. Whoop-de-doo. For that matter, the taskbar CAN hold quicklaunch icons so who's ripping off who here?
Does the first one to manage multitasked apps in a GUI get to hold everybody else hostage? If so, then this is yet another way the patent system is broken. I say it again. It's obvious that a multitasking GUI needs a way for the user to manage his open apps. The obvious ways to do this are going to look very similar regardless of whether they are in a context menu, a bar on the bottom of the screen, grouped minimized icons, or what have you. All are equally "intuitive" to a completely novice user. Again: whoop-de-doo.
It's worth noting that Tesla was the actual mind behind many of Edison's "inventions". Edison lived like a king and got all of the credit while Tesla was doing well if he got to eat out once or twice a year. The payback was priceless though. Just who do you think handed Westinghouse that AC power distribution system on a silver platter? The story is worth looking up.
What about cheezy software patents where the basic idea is patented but no implementation is supplied? Then on top of that, the patenting company does absolutely nothing whatsoever to market the idea or even make it practical. They just sit and wait for someone else to do all the hard work of marketing and implementation so they can surface the submarine and fire volleys of lawyer torpedoes?
h tm ld/desktop1.gif
I would say that patents can work but the current system for them is horridly broken. The current patent office would hand out patents on the wheel if the application used sufficiently large words and creatively tarted up diagrams. A working patent system would be wonderful. No patent system whatsoever would be be better than the corrupt and inept monstrosity we're dealing with now.
As for Microsoft's "innovation" here is screenie of a NEXTSTEP desktop that predates 95:
http://www120.pair.com/mccarthy/nextstep/intro.
I would say in a multitasking gui, the idea that you have to do SOMETHING to organize those tasks is pretty obvious.
After you get through copying the mp3s off your iPod there are nice scripts that will rename mp3s sensibly based on the id3tags. How much fun is going to be to find a particular song when they're all named sadfjae2334.mp3 or some such?
Here is one such:
http://www.prongs.org/fixmp3/
Of course, you'll have to do things the hard way if your mp3s aren't tagged......
Which part of "outside the USA" did you miss? That's EXACTLY what he is telling you. This does not serve US' interests. Crypto development has already been pushed outside the country. This sort of behaivor could push most security work outside as well. The rest of the world isn't going to run their networks three-sheets-to-the-wind just so Tom Ridge can get his warm fuzzies.
Nobody outside the US is going to place their security below that of the US. Yet everybody, US included, runs the same software. This means something has to give and if the issue is forced then yet another chunk of the industry leaves the country. How is this good?
It's already started. Many developers won't visit the US because they discuss vulnerabilities "that could circumvent a copyright protection". Hello! They have to do that to fix problems. Pentagon-style paranoia could much worse than the DMCA. This industry is hurting as it is. We don't need more government imposed problems.
Crypto development had to be moved out of the US. If necessary, I suppose it can done for security disclosure as well. After all, our government would NEVER place a vendor's interests above those of consumers.
In a previous job, I found that my most outlandish sarcastic suggestions were the ones most likely to be seized upon by my managers as an innovative product idea. I learned to be careful about saying such things.
Shoot!, let loose in a candy store like that my imagination would go into overdrive. How about a special glass cleaner for the monitors on Windows computers? Everyone knows that you have to mix your Linux monitor cleaner by yourself. How about calling it "Windex"? Screwing with minds that weak would be too much fun. The trolls that live in -1 land here can only dream about so much power!
But this is an interesting twist that I think the OSS community could use for leverage. Perhaps Carmack could work with Redhat or some other large OSS corporation in order to develop an entire fucking gaming environment - put the CD in the damn PC and boot directly to your game. They could create a specification to which PC manufacturers could adhere - obviously driver suport would be a nightmare but if it was created extensibly enough, this wouldn't be a problem (i.e. - "compile" an updated/custom CD and burn it).
Knoppix can boot to a full desktop with video+sound+net provided it knows about the hardware. The only trouble I've had with Knoppix are nForce boards. Yes, NVidia provides drivers. No, they can't be incorporated on the CDs because NVidia's license for their proprietary drivers is braindead in this respect.
Anyway, Knoppix shows that something like what the parent poster proposed is possible. Because it employs a compressed filesystem, Knopppix comes with 2 GB of software. A Knoppix-style game DVD could hold all but the most involved games in its entirety.
I don't think it would amount to a dance on the grave of MS. It would be fun to watch MS pooh-pooh it though.
There's gobs of gobs of utilities and scripts that will automate iptables for you. I use gShield myself. Perhaps someone who runs RH can tell you what they supply for this but you really don't have to write rules by hand unless you want to.
Perhaps Webmin (yummy web based config tool) would be a good start. Google for Webmin and check out the modules for firewall automation.
Such packages get placeholder manpages that typically look like this: (Attempt to show example abandoned after several go-arounds with the lameness filter)
These distro provided manpages often have no other information other than to refer you to /usr/share/doc/.
Basically, Debian policy seems to say you must have a manpage but it doesn't have to be a great one. Also, Debian manpages also direct you to info for GNU utilities. Basically, Debian provided manpages function as pointers to whatever documentation does exist.
Sure QT licensing in inconvienient for some developers. It beats the hell of the ambiguity it used to have. On the other hand, I think Trolltech is a good rejoinder for licensing fanatics who have nothing better to do than whinge about the GPL. The GPL in this case PROTECTS a business model as well as the code.
Mormon door-to-door salesmen are notorious for their persistance but it usually isn't necessary to argue or tell them off. Unless you enjoy that sort of thing that is. You can usually get them to go away by politely saying something like this: "I have my own religious beliefs and am not interested in changing them." If they return say something like this: "I told you last time I wasn't interested and I'm disappointed that you have no consideration." I'm told by a former Mormon that should shame them into leaving you alone. It has something to do with their values and is more effective (though not as much fun) than poking holes in the Book of Mormon and their history.
If out of politeness, you express any interest or (horrors!) invite them in then be prepared to put your plans for the evening on hold. They are more than willing to "study" with you for several hours.
The parent is probably thinking of reflective LCDs. And yes, it would be nice if LCD monitors had reflective elements so they could be used in brightly lit rooms.
Anyhoo, you're right as well, IF these things are bright enough then they would do as well in brightly lit rooms as CRTs. Come to think of it I wouldn't care for any screen that had an overly bright light shining directly at it but it would be better if none of these things washed out in bright indirect lighting.
True enough but as computers become more powerful new apps become practical. As it is now, editing large uncompressed video files could bring even your 1GB uber-pc to it's knees. You may not need more than a gig now but that won't be true even five years out and sooner than that for a lot of people.
The parent wasn't talking about being able to decode files 5 or 6 revs down the road. He was talking about being able to use the libraries that implement the codec years down the line. It is easier to keep an evolving app in sync with a standard if the standard is fully documented. Also, one does not have to trust the OS vendor to keep this process easy.