Actually, Visual Basic is one of the few Microsoft products to not skip version numbers.
And now, submitted for your disapproval, the dark path I have trodden since 1993: The History of Visual Basic (short form).
May 1991: VB 1.0. Drag-n-drop window layout, VBX visual component architecture, p-code-based runtime. Simple by today's standards, but remember: It takes MS at least three versions to get it right.:-)
Nov 1992: VB 2.0. ODBC, Multiple Document Interface, and object variables.
June 1993: VB 3.0. Access DB engine, OLE Automation, Crystal Reports. Reaches Critical Mass, even though it's not really ready.
Oct 1995: VB 4.0. Parallel 16- and 32-bit development, rudimentary classes, ActiveX Controls (then called OCXs) replace VBXs, extensible IDE. Almost ready for prime time.
April 1997: VB 5.0. Goodbye, 16-bit. Native x86 and Alpha compilers, events in classes, API callback support, COM Component and ActiveX Control targets, vastly improved IDE (IMHO)....and there was much rejoicing.
Oct 1998: VB 6.0. Dynamic form building and lots of web candy. Little more than a service pack to VB5, if you ask me.
Q1 2001: VB 7.0. Major redesign. Real objects with inheritance, polymorphism, constructors, &c. Structured exception handling (Try...Catch...Finally instead of On Error Goto Hell). Free threading. Essentially, everything we've been begging and screaming for since VB4!
Note: VB7 info is based on Steve Ballmer's keynote at VBITS San Francisco yesterday. So if any real improvements are dropped before RTM, we know where the lynch mob will form.:-)
Would you expect a KDE installer to break GNOME? How about WordPerfect obliterating StarOffice binaries when you answer "Yes" to associating file types with WP?
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. I don't care how user-friendly making AOL the default connection is. It's user-HOSTILE to delete all other connections in the process.
If this is a bug, AOL deserves a lawsuit for piss-poor quality control. If Chevrolet sold a car that veered into the nearest tree when you turned on the defrosters, GM would be crucified. If this was deliberate, Time Warner should call off the merger, and AOL should be screwed until they gag.
Open on a bunch of "beautiful people," all in black Gap-esque wardrobe, each taking a line from "Cars" by Gary Numan. Couple quick cuts with wardrobe changes, then everybody runs like hell off one side of the screen as, from the other side, a 2001 Aurora fishtails to a stop in the middle of the set. Catchphrase: "Not what everyone else is doing." (Or something like that. That was the least memorable part of the ad.)
Sorta hypocritical, coming from General Monolith, but still a cool shot at the Gap.
M13 needs new 6.x versions of the Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime libraries, MSVCRT.DLL and MSVCIRT.DLL. Since these are usually locked when Windows is up and running, the installer program is necessary to update the files at reboot-time, if necessary.
In Zontar's case, he probably had the 6.x DLLs already, so everything ran out-of-the-zip. The release notes list the exact versions Mozilla expects. Newer versions should work, but Your Milage May Vary.
Much of what Tim says about computer languages shaping thought and design is motivated by a fundamental hacker ethic: Code reuse. Why reinvent the wheel?
This past year, I've been working on my first real-world production C++ project, and I have learned to truly appreciate templates. I find returning to Visual Basic frustrating now, because it doesn't have a concept of parameterized types. As a result, I find myself yanking code out of the archives, and adapting it for a project-specific class. The result is duplicated code all over the place, even with VB's COM-based Interface/Implementation metaphor. Oh, how I wish I could just say:
Dim Foo As Collection Of CBar
Instead, I have to create a specific CBars class that manually implements Collection. Which is a crock because there should be an ICollection interface I can Implement, but that's a whole 'nother rant.
Of course, when I was writing C code, I always complained that strings were so much easier in VB. Oh, well.
A clarification: You're right. You never own the content. Divx just put up a complicated, some would say unfriendly, barrier to fair use around the content. They led the consumer to believe that they were getting a good deal on Divx, when the license was more restrictive than that of DVD or VHS. Like I said, marketing rhetoric.
And as for tracking: I don't have any "frequent shopper" cards. That's the driving force behind most supermarket's tracking mechanisms. If I pay cash, the store has no idea what I bought. They only know that somebody bought it. I think most people accept that, at a local level, their purchases are tracked. It makes good business sense for a store to track, to meet its customer's demand and control inventory. The local data has a few levels of regional indirection from World HQ, anyway. Everything gets aggregated as it moves up the hierarchy. A regional manager only cares about what I bought, not that I bought it.
Why does a Divx computer in Richmond, VA need to know what someone in Tacoma, WA just watched? Doesn't the store in Tacoma need to know that more? If the local store tracked local demand, and the Divx computer just handled billing, fewer people would have a problem with it. Combine the national-level tracking with the ownership issues, and the whole thing gives off an ungood Orwellian vibe, compounded by the midnight dialups.
Tracking a Disposable DVD is no different than tracking a Clark Bar. If I pay cash for Wild Wild West, Giant Eagle doesn't know I bought it. (Nor would I want them to. Not Barry Sonnenfeld's best work.) If I'm one of many people who bought it, they'll know to stock more Will Smith films. Of course, if they were tracking on an individual level, they'd be missing the point, because I buy/rent films by directors I like, not by stars.
Self-destructing is the wrong word. Disposable may be more accurate.
This solves the two biggest philosophical problems the public (or at least I) had with Divx.
Ownership: With Divx, you had a persistent disc, but the consumer's ownership of the disc was always transient. In it's normal state, you had to continually pay for viewing rights. If you upgraded to Silver, you couldn't loan out the disc or play it on another person's player, without that person paying for viewing rights. You never really owned the disc, regardless of the marketing rhetoric. With these Disposable DVDs, you know and understand up front that they have a finite playing time. Pay $3, watch it, then throw it away (or add it to your AOL coaster collection).
The Big Brother Factor: The Wired article talks about delivering Disposable DVDs with pizzas, or putting them in supermarket checkout lines, right next to the candy, pop bottles, and other impulse-buy items. That's not nearly as trackable as a Divx player dialing out in the middle of the night, reporting your credit card number and viewing history to some master computer deep in the bowels of Circuit City World Headquarters.
This would be perfect for Bad Movie Nights. Me and my friends like to grab a twin-bill of really bad/cheesy/low-budget videos, supplement it with sufficient pizza and beverages, and do our worst MST3K impressions. With these Disposable DVDs, the discs go out with the boxes and cans, and there's no arguments over who has to drive back to Blockbuster. What's wrong with that?
IIRC, Be was planning hardware-accelerated OpenGL in R5. Whether that will make the final release or not, I don't know. Be doesn't like to make announcements like that until they're right on top of their release date.
Given that, Be seems to be closer to NVIDIA than other chipset manufacturers. I wouldn't be surprised if Be was using TNT and/or GeForce as reference chips for HW GL development. So we may just get our wish.
Amen. He's just divested himself of tons of day-to-day bureaucratic piffle, and trimmed his job description down to Big Thinker and Chief Geek. Rasing the kids, giving to charity, hanging out in the R&D labs all day. Who wouldn't prefer that?
He might even start coding again. Maybe even contribute a few lines to MozillaSMACK!!
Ah, that's better. Good thing the guy in the next cube has a Reality Stick. Anyhoo, IMHO, Ballmer's always been the shark at Microsoft. Nothing's gonna change, at least until the DOJ comes calling with their carving knives.
You'd think CodeWarrior was killed altogether, the way some people are reacting. Metrowerks said the Linux version was on hold. It's not dead. CW in general's not dead. Too many MacOS, PalmOS, and Playstation developers live in CW every day for MW to discontinue it. Why are so many people here shoveling dirt on the casket before it's in the ground?
Reminds me of the shoe commercial where a US Women's Soccer Team member is getting a physical. The doctor gives her the tap-on-the-knee reflex test, and she kicks him across the room hard enough to bounce him high off the far wall. Kinda like the kneejerk reactions to bad Linux news around here.
Take a deep breath, and let the caffeine work through your system a little before declaring Motorola the new Evil Empire.
It's not like he called a press conference, or something like that. The press is coming to him to get his side of the story. Would you prefer a mumbled "no comment" as he shuffles back to his pizza, Jolt, and Perl scripts?:-)
And that "cut of the revenue" comment at the end reeks of pseudo-journalistic spin. I'd bet that comment was a joke taken out of context.
While I agree that Dickens never really stood a chance, I'm not sure it would have needed big business to come to review. Any two-bit software firm that published a date entry VBX before 1998 could take Brucey to court, claim prior art, and tear Brucey's dream house to the ground. It's a slam dunk that this will get overturned.
So The Modular Man was typical after all. Roger's good at all the deep-thinking moral issues, but he can't write the story to back it up.
Quick-And-Dirty Review (Rant?): The Modular Man by Roger MacBride Allen
The Modular Man takes Bicentennial Man in the opposite direction: How many cybernetic replacement parts does it take for a man to stop being human? This question is well explored in the main plot. The sub-plots are based on his view of future technology, which is about 90% complete:
Functional, utilitarian robots for the masses.
Centrally-controlled androids working the corporate campus' menial tasks.
A UN ban on cybernetic components that connect directly to the brain or spinal cord, leading to:
Ultra-expensive cybernetics that turn physical disabilities into socio-economic ones.
"Remote persons" that use myoelectric-controlled telepresence androids, allowing the severely disabled (billionaire) to interact with, but not integrate into, society.
It's at this point that the 90-90 law catches up to Mr. Allen, because of a planetary-mass-sized hole in the plot. The last 10% of the technology is unfulfilled, leaving 90% of the ending feeling contrived and somewhat manipulative. Ironic, considering that a lawyer feels the effects most of all, and our modern legal system would never let the plot device in question exist in the first place.
ObSubject: I always approach movie adaptations of books with skepticism. The Columbus/Williams reunion had me expecting R. Doubtfire, only sappier. Looks like I was right on both counts.
Actors know darn well what they're getting into when they accept a project. In this case, especially. Chris Columbus directed Williams in the equally teeth-rotting Mrs. Doubtfire. I need to rent Good Morning, Vietnam, just to remember when Robin still had his edge.
What do you do, soldier?
I'M IN ARTILLERY, SIR! What can I play for you? ANYTHING! JUST PLAY IT LOUD!
Lucent: Big red zero. Oldsmobile: Big chrome zero, complete with slash, just for us geeks.
Chrysler's got it right. Gold seal, BIG CHROME WINGS!
Of course, Dodge has the best car names: Intrepid, Avenger, Viper, Charger, Dakota, Durango. Better than GM: Catera, Alero, Escalade, Grand Prix. (Or is that Grand Am? I can never tell which is which.)
Keith Russell OS != Religion
CapsLock vs. Ctrl. Round 1. FIGHT!
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Interface Zen
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Actually, the great CapsLock/Ctrl switch came about because touch typists, trained on typewriters, were accustomed to Shift Lock being above the left Shift key. (You do remember typewriters, don't you?:-) ) When placed in front of old-school XT keyboards, they kept hitting Ctrl, expecting CapsLock, and getting something other than what they expected. Their finger memory was already burned-in. I guess they just shouted louder than the hackers.
What I'd like to know is this: What poorly-trained chimpanzee decided that the F-Keys belonged across the top of the keyboard?
I miss my old Gateway AnyKey keyboard. No Winkeys, F-Keys down the left and across the top (independently reprogrammable, no less), and an arrow key cluster that would not satisfy Tom, but was absolutely awesome for games. Alas, a poorly placed pop bottle brought it to an untimely end. If I could go back in time, I'd tell myself, "No, fool! Don't put that bottle of Sprite there while playing Jedi Knight!"
Snow Crash's tech would be rather easy, actually. Really, the Metaverse is nothing more than an evolution of today's first-person shooters and chat rooms.
Obviously, there are some assumptions about future tech, like distributing the virtual geography without incurring 30 second load times every two blocks, or full-blown (or even half-assed) telepresence instead of text and smileys. Stephenson's writing is vivid enough for FX artists to come up with a visualization of the Metaverse that the average viewer can relate to, while making (hopefully) subtle references to current tech.
The real issue would be getting the viewer to accept the concept of the Nam-Shub of Enki. Babylonian myth may not be a cool hook for a Hollywood script, but it's just different enough to work. It certainly beats "If the bus drops below 50, the bomb explodes. What do you do?What Do You Do?"
And then there's the ending. Without giving too much away, let's just say that it's not a Hollywood ending. Certainly literary, but not Hollywood.
GOP Presidential Candidate Pat Buchanan has been told - by Senator John McCain among others -- to leave the Republican Party because his book argues that the United States had no pressing self-interest in entering World War II.
Get your facts straight, Katz! If you read past the sound bites, you would see that Buchanan isn't being kicked out. McCain said:
"It's evident to me by Pat Buchanan's own rhetoric that he's left the Republican Party.... Defeating Hitler's Germany and Tojo's Japan was a very noble cause and I would not want any Republican to think otherwise, or any American for that matter."
This was after Buchanan started flirting with the Reform Party. McCain was merely pointing out the obvious: Buchanan is full of crap, and the Republicans now think he's a putz. Here's the ABCNews.com article I got the quotes from.
Besides, how can that be censorship when I can link you to Buchanan's book, A Republic, Not an Empire, on Amazon.com?
You'd have to live in a deep, dark cave to not hear the buzz over Sony PlayStation2. I've seen reports that studios are complaining that PSX2 is so powerful, they don't really know how to take advantage of it all. It seems like whining to me, since I come from the world of PCs with their ever-expanding memory/hard drive space. Do you think game studios can fall that far behind hardware, are these studios thinking too short-term, or are they just not accustomed to having that much power at their disposal? Do you think that PSX2, and Dreamcast and Nintendo "Dolphin," for that matter, have reached parity with PCs, from a developer's standpoint?
Keith Russell OS != Religion
Re:Why Mozilla 5.0 will die. (At least on the Mac)
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Whither Netscape 5.0?
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· Score: 1
That's the cool thing about XUL. You can restyle the interface any way you please. Say AOL ships Comm. 5.0 with platform-sensitive styles; Windows for Windows, Mac for Mac, some hideous Enlightenment theme for Linux:-). The iMac/iBook/iWantCandy crowd will stick with the Mac style, blissfully ignorant of what else can be done with the User Experience. The Power Users will be scouring the web looking for the coolest styles around, or building their own.
It's an opt-in feature. If you like it, use it. If you don't like it, don't use it. If you're not sure, try it. It's undoable.
I know what you mean about "shovelware," though. Have you ever seen the Windows version of Metacreations Poser? The main window's not bad. Being a Windows guy, I wish more of the tool palettes were dockable, but that's neither here nor there. It's the dialog boxes where everything goes south. The layouts, colors, and fonts all scream Macintosh. But it gets worse, though, because Metacreations picked some Porting Toolkit From Hell. The controls are seriously broken. I get the impression that the PTFH couldn't convert Mac controls into Windows equivalents, and it couldn't replicate Mac controls on the Windows platform, so it created its own ugly, half-baked compromise consisting of sliders that can't be manipulated by keyboard, fonts too damn small to read at 800x600, and text entry fields that defy family-friendly description.
I hear you, brother. Let's hope Mozilla.org and AOL hear you, too.
The program is sendmail, and the programmer, Eric Allman, is openly gay. Which makes me wonder:
How many gay programmers, in or out, have contributed to the Linux kernel? Or XFree86? Or Apache? Or any other elements, open- or closed-source, that go into a typical distro? What about Jews? Hindus? Atheists? Agnostics? Divorcees? Catholics who use birth control? Mennonites?;-)
This is my tipoff that it's a hoax, but if it isn't, it raises an interesting question. They mentioned a clause in the GPL pertaining to discrimination when distributing to an arbitrary group of users. Could that apply to the programmer(s) as well? Would their exclusion of sendmail stand up if Allman and/or the ACLU challenge it?
My sig seems a bit ironic now. If you're wondering, I am a Christian, and != is a symmetric operator.
You've read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy at least once.
You like cats
You enjoy wordplay and puns
You are artistically or musically inclined
A colleague read this somewhere, and brought it up in the office one day. Most of us here hit on at least four of the five, and a few (myself included) were 5 for 5.
Anyone remember MSX? Way back in the heyday of the Commodore 64, Sinclair Spectrum, and Atari 800, Microsoft got the bright idea to build an 8-bit of their own. My memory is fuzzy about the details, but there was nothing compelling about the baseline design. Like CE handhelds today (and XBox, if I read right) companies that built MSX machines would add their own features to the baseline spec.
The only model I remember being released in the US was a Yamaha that featured their top-of-the-line sound chip, some MIDI ports, and two sliders (or pitch-bend wheels?) that turned the machine into a bargain-basement Atari ST fighter.
Needless to say, nobody bought any. Between Commodore, Atari, Apple, Texas Instruments, Radio Shack, and Timex/Sinclair, the American market was already oversaturated. And the sound chip in the Yamaha was the same as in my T/S 2068, IIRC.
It's a good thing that XBox is still in the planning stages, because if game-crazy PC folk like me have enough disposable income next Christmas, we're gonna be drooling over NV20s, and wondering why anyone would want to buy last year's eOne.
But it's still not right. Why should I pay to use and contribute to an Open Source project just because I'm "workin' for the Man?" What would be my motivation, then? Open Source/Free Software sounds far less altruistic when I must pay for a privilege others get free of charge.
If TT continues to charge for the Windows version, they'll just hand the market over to GTK+.
They are funding development which helps the cause of Linux, BSD and friends, and they are doing it at the expense of the Windows market *only*. ... We want to drive the application availability situation to the advantage of Linux, etc. people!
You're hampering interoperability, limiting your program's customer base, and excluding a pool of talented programmers, all for the sake of being politically correct. Making the source available only to the "right" OS is just as bad as not making the source available at all.
To paraphrase Planet of the Apes, it appears some operating systems are more equal than others.
Slashdot Mirror
And now, submitted for your disapproval, the dark path I have trodden since 1993: The History of Visual Basic (short form).
- May 1991: VB 1.0. Drag-n-drop window layout, VBX visual component architecture, p-code-based runtime. Simple by today's standards, but remember: It takes MS at least three versions to get it right.
:-) - Nov 1992: VB 2.0. ODBC, Multiple Document Interface, and object variables.
- June 1993: VB 3.0. Access DB engine, OLE Automation, Crystal Reports. Reaches Critical Mass, even though it's not really ready.
- Oct 1995: VB 4.0. Parallel 16- and 32-bit development, rudimentary classes, ActiveX Controls (then called OCXs) replace VBXs, extensible IDE. Almost ready for prime time.
- April 1997: VB 5.0. Goodbye, 16-bit. Native x86 and Alpha compilers, events in classes, API callback support, COM Component and ActiveX Control targets, vastly improved IDE (IMHO).
...and there was much rejoicing. - Oct 1998: VB 6.0. Dynamic form building and lots of web candy. Little more than a service pack to VB5, if you ask me.
- Q1 2001: VB 7.0. Major redesign. Real objects with inheritance, polymorphism, constructors, &c. Structured exception handling (Try...Catch...Finally instead of On Error Goto Hell). Free threading. Essentially, everything we've been begging and screaming for since VB4!
Note: VB7 info is based on Steve Ballmer's keynote at VBITS San Francisco yesterday. So if any real improvements are dropped before RTM, we know where the lynch mob will form.Can I moderate myself -1: Offtopic?
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
Would you expect a KDE installer to break GNOME? How about WordPerfect obliterating StarOffice binaries when you answer "Yes" to associating file types with WP?
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. I don't care how user-friendly making AOL the default connection is. It's user- HOSTILE to delete all other connections in the process.
If this is a bug, AOL deserves a lawsuit for piss-poor quality control. If Chevrolet sold a car that veered into the nearest tree when you turned on the defrosters, GM would be crucified. If this was deliberate, Time Warner should call off the merger, and AOL should be screwed until they gag.
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
Open on a bunch of "beautiful people," all in black Gap-esque wardrobe, each taking a line from "Cars" by Gary Numan. Couple quick cuts with wardrobe changes, then everybody runs like hell off one side of the screen as, from the other side, a 2001 Aurora fishtails to a stop in the middle of the set. Catchphrase: "Not what everyone else is doing." (Or something like that. That was the least memorable part of the ad.)
Sorta hypocritical, coming from General Monolith, but still a cool shot at the Gap.
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
M13 needs new 6.x versions of the Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime libraries, MSVCRT.DLL and MSVCIRT.DLL. Since these are usually locked when Windows is up and running, the installer program is necessary to update the files at reboot-time, if necessary.
In Zontar's case, he probably had the 6.x DLLs already, so everything ran out-of-the-zip. The release notes list the exact versions Mozilla expects. Newer versions should work, but Your Milage May Vary.
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
Much of what Tim says about computer languages shaping thought and design is motivated by a fundamental hacker ethic: Code reuse. Why reinvent the wheel?
This past year, I've been working on my first real-world production C++ project, and I have learned to truly appreciate templates. I find returning to Visual Basic frustrating now, because it doesn't have a concept of parameterized types. As a result, I find myself yanking code out of the archives, and adapting it for a project-specific class. The result is duplicated code all over the place, even with VB's COM-based Interface/Implementation metaphor. Oh, how I wish I could just say:
Dim Foo As Collection Of CBar
Instead, I have to create a specific CBars class that manually implements Collection. Which is a crock because there should be an ICollection interface I can Implement, but that's a whole 'nother rant.
Of course, when I was writing C code, I always complained that strings were so much easier in VB. Oh, well.
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
A clarification: You're right. You never own the content. Divx just put up a complicated, some would say unfriendly, barrier to fair use around the content. They led the consumer to believe that they were getting a good deal on Divx, when the license was more restrictive than that of DVD or VHS. Like I said, marketing rhetoric.
And as for tracking: I don't have any "frequent shopper" cards. That's the driving force behind most supermarket's tracking mechanisms. If I pay cash, the store has no idea what I bought. They only know that somebody bought it. I think most people accept that, at a local level, their purchases are tracked. It makes good business sense for a store to track, to meet its customer's demand and control inventory. The local data has a few levels of regional indirection from World HQ, anyway. Everything gets aggregated as it moves up the hierarchy. A regional manager only cares about what I bought, not that I bought it.
Why does a Divx computer in Richmond, VA need to know what someone in Tacoma, WA just watched? Doesn't the store in Tacoma need to know that more? If the local store tracked local demand, and the Divx computer just handled billing, fewer people would have a problem with it. Combine the national-level tracking with the ownership issues, and the whole thing gives off an ungood Orwellian vibe, compounded by the midnight dialups.
Tracking a Disposable DVD is no different than tracking a Clark Bar. If I pay cash for Wild Wild West, Giant Eagle doesn't know I bought it. (Nor would I want them to. Not Barry Sonnenfeld's best work.) If I'm one of many people who bought it, they'll know to stock more Will Smith films. Of course, if they were tracking on an individual level, they'd be missing the point, because I buy/rent films by directors I like, not by stars.
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
This solves the two biggest philosophical problems the public (or at least I) had with Divx.
- Ownership: With Divx, you had a persistent disc, but the consumer's ownership of the disc was always transient. In it's normal state, you had to continually pay for viewing rights. If you upgraded to Silver, you couldn't loan out the disc or play it on another person's player, without that person paying for viewing rights. You never really owned the disc, regardless of the marketing rhetoric. With these Disposable DVDs, you know and understand up front that they have a finite playing time. Pay $3, watch it, then throw it away (or add it to your AOL coaster collection).
- The Big Brother Factor: The Wired article talks about delivering Disposable DVDs with pizzas, or putting them in supermarket checkout lines, right next to the candy, pop bottles, and other impulse-buy items. That's not nearly as trackable as a Divx player dialing out in the middle of the night, reporting your credit card number and viewing history to some master computer deep in the bowels of Circuit City World Headquarters.
This would be perfect for Bad Movie Nights. Me and my friends like to grab a twin-bill of really bad/cheesy/low-budget videos, supplement it with sufficient pizza and beverages, and do our worst MST3K impressions. With these Disposable DVDs, the discs go out with the boxes and cans, and there's no arguments over who has to drive back to Blockbuster. What's wrong with that?Keith Russell
OS != Religion
While we're on the subject of R5 today....
IIRC, Be was planning hardware-accelerated OpenGL in R5. Whether that will make the final release or not, I don't know. Be doesn't like to make announcements like that until they're right on top of their release date.
Given that, Be seems to be closer to NVIDIA than other chipset manufacturers. I wouldn't be surprised if Be was using TNT and/or GeForce as reference chips for HW GL development. So we may just get our wish.
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
Amen. He's just divested himself of tons of day-to-day bureaucratic piffle, and trimmed his job description down to Big Thinker and Chief Geek. Rasing the kids, giving to charity, hanging out in the R&D labs all day. Who wouldn't prefer that?
He might even start coding again. Maybe even contribute a few lines to Mozilla SMACK!!
Ah, that's better. Good thing the guy in the next cube has a Reality Stick. Anyhoo, IMHO, Ballmer's always been the shark at Microsoft. Nothing's gonna change, at least until the DOJ comes calling with their carving knives.
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
You'd think CodeWarrior was killed altogether, the way some people are reacting. Metrowerks said the Linux version was on hold. It's not dead. CW in general's not dead. Too many MacOS, PalmOS, and Playstation developers live in CW every day for MW to discontinue it. Why are so many people here shoveling dirt on the casket before it's in the ground?
Reminds me of the shoe commercial where a US Women's Soccer Team member is getting a physical. The doctor gives her the tap-on-the-knee reflex test, and she kicks him across the room hard enough to bounce him high off the far wall. Kinda like the kneejerk reactions to bad Linux news around here.
Take a deep breath, and let the caffeine work through your system a little before declaring Motorola the new Evil Empire.
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
It's not like he called a press conference, or something like that. The press is coming to him to get his side of the story. Would you prefer a mumbled "no comment" as he shuffles back to his pizza, Jolt, and Perl scripts? :-)
And that "cut of the revenue" comment at the end reeks of pseudo-journalistic spin. I'd bet that comment was a joke taken out of context.
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
While I agree that Dickens never really stood a chance, I'm not sure it would have needed big business to come to review. Any two-bit software firm that published a date entry VBX before 1998 could take Brucey to court, claim prior art, and tear Brucey's dream house to the ground. It's a slam dunk that this will get overturned.
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
Quick-And-Dirty Review (Rant?): The Modular Man by Roger MacBride Allen
The Modular Man takes Bicentennial Man in the opposite direction: How many cybernetic replacement parts does it take for a man to stop being human? This question is well explored in the main plot. The sub-plots are based on his view of future technology, which is about 90% complete:
- Functional, utilitarian robots for the masses.
- Centrally-controlled androids working the corporate campus' menial tasks.
- A UN ban on cybernetic components that connect directly to the brain or spinal cord, leading to:
- Ultra-expensive cybernetics that turn physical disabilities into socio-economic ones.
- "Remote persons" that use myoelectric-controlled telepresence androids, allowing the severely disabled (billionaire) to interact with, but not integrate into, society.
It's at this point that the 90-90 law catches up to Mr. Allen, because of a planetary-mass-sized hole in the plot. The last 10% of the technology is unfulfilled, leaving 90% of the ending feeling contrived and somewhat manipulative. Ironic, considering that a lawyer feels the effects most of all, and our modern legal system would never let the plot device in question exist in the first place.ObSubject: I always approach movie adaptations of books with skepticism. The Columbus/Williams reunion had me expecting R. Doubtfire, only sappier. Looks like I was right on both counts.
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
Lucent: Big red zero.
Oldsmobile: Big chrome zero, complete with slash, just for us geeks.
Chrysler's got it right. Gold seal, BIG CHROME WINGS!
Of course, Dodge has the best car names: Intrepid, Avenger, Viper, Charger, Dakota, Durango. Better than GM: Catera, Alero, Escalade, Grand Prix. (Or is that Grand Am? I can never tell which is which.)
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
Actually, the great CapsLock/Ctrl switch came about because touch typists, trained on typewriters, were accustomed to Shift Lock being above the left Shift key. (You do remember typewriters, don't you? :-) ) When placed in front of old-school XT keyboards, they kept hitting Ctrl, expecting CapsLock, and getting something other than what they expected. Their finger memory was already burned-in. I guess they just shouted louder than the hackers.
What I'd like to know is this: What poorly-trained chimpanzee decided that the F-Keys belonged across the top of the keyboard?
I miss my old Gateway AnyKey keyboard. No Winkeys, F-Keys down the left and across the top (independently reprogrammable, no less), and an arrow key cluster that would not satisfy Tom, but was absolutely awesome for games. Alas, a poorly placed pop bottle brought it to an untimely end. If I could go back in time, I'd tell myself, "No, fool! Don't put that bottle of Sprite there while playing Jedi Knight!"
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
Snow Crash's tech would be rather easy, actually. Really, the Metaverse is nothing more than an evolution of today's first-person shooters and chat rooms.
Obviously, there are some assumptions about future tech, like distributing the virtual geography without incurring 30 second load times every two blocks, or full-blown (or even half-assed) telepresence instead of text and smileys. Stephenson's writing is vivid enough for FX artists to come up with a visualization of the Metaverse that the average viewer can relate to, while making (hopefully) subtle references to current tech.
The real issue would be getting the viewer to accept the concept of the Nam-Shub of Enki. Babylonian myth may not be a cool hook for a Hollywood script, but it's just different enough to work. It certainly beats "If the bus drops below 50, the bomb explodes. What do you do? What Do You Do? "
And then there's the ending. Without giving too much away, let's just say that it's not a Hollywood ending. Certainly literary, but not Hollywood.
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
Get your facts straight, Katz! If you read past the sound bites, you would see that Buchanan isn't being kicked out. McCain said: This was after Buchanan started flirting with the Reform Party. McCain was merely pointing out the obvious: Buchanan is full of crap, and the Republicans now think he's a putz. Here's the ABCNews.com article I got the quotes from.
Besides, how can that be censorship when I can link you to Buchanan's book, A Republic, Not an Empire, on Amazon.com?
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
You'd have to live in a deep, dark cave to not hear the buzz over Sony PlayStation2. I've seen reports that studios are complaining that PSX2 is so powerful, they don't really know how to take advantage of it all. It seems like whining to me, since I come from the world of PCs with their ever-expanding memory/hard drive space. Do you think game studios can fall that far behind hardware, are these studios thinking too short-term, or are they just not accustomed to having that much power at their disposal? Do you think that PSX2, and Dreamcast and Nintendo "Dolphin," for that matter, have reached parity with PCs, from a developer's standpoint?
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
That's the cool thing about XUL. You can restyle the interface any way you please. Say AOL ships Comm. 5.0 with platform-sensitive styles; Windows for Windows, Mac for Mac, some hideous Enlightenment theme for Linux :-). The iMac/iBook/iWantCandy crowd will stick with the Mac style, blissfully ignorant of what else can be done with the User Experience. The Power Users will be scouring the web looking for the coolest styles around, or building their own.
It's an opt-in feature. If you like it, use it. If you don't like it, don't use it. If you're not sure, try it. It's undoable.
I know what you mean about "shovelware," though. Have you ever seen the Windows version of Metacreations Poser? The main window's not bad. Being a Windows guy, I wish more of the tool palettes were dockable, but that's neither here nor there. It's the dialog boxes where everything goes south. The layouts, colors, and fonts all scream Macintosh. But it gets worse, though, because Metacreations picked some Porting Toolkit From Hell. The controls are seriously broken. I get the impression that the PTFH couldn't convert Mac controls into Windows equivalents, and it couldn't replicate Mac controls on the Windows platform, so it created its own ugly, half-baked compromise consisting of sliders that can't be manipulated by keyboard, fonts too damn small to read at 800x600, and text entry fields that defy family-friendly description.
I hear you, brother. Let's hope Mozilla.org and AOL hear you, too.
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
The program is sendmail, and the programmer, Eric Allman, is openly gay. Which makes me wonder:
;-)
How many gay programmers, in or out, have contributed to the Linux kernel? Or XFree86? Or Apache? Or any other elements, open- or closed-source, that go into a typical distro? What about Jews? Hindus? Atheists? Agnostics? Divorcees? Catholics who use birth control? Mennonites?
This is my tipoff that it's a hoax, but if it isn't, it raises an interesting question. They mentioned a clause in the GPL pertaining to discrimination when distributing to an arbitrary group of users. Could that apply to the programmer(s) as well? Would their exclusion of sendmail stand up if Allman and/or the ACLU challenge it?
My sig seems a bit ironic now. If you're wondering, I am a Christian, and != is a symmetric operator.
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
- You like Monty Python
- You've read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy at least once.
- You like cats
- You enjoy wordplay and puns
- You are artistically or musically inclined
A colleague read this somewhere, and brought it up in the office one day. Most of us here hit on at least four of the five, and a few (myself included) were 5 for 5.Ring any bells around here?
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
Anyone remember MSX? Way back in the heyday of the Commodore 64, Sinclair Spectrum, and Atari 800, Microsoft got the bright idea to build an 8-bit of their own. My memory is fuzzy about the details, but there was nothing compelling about the baseline design. Like CE handhelds today (and XBox, if I read right) companies that built MSX machines would add their own features to the baseline spec.
The only model I remember being released in the US was a Yamaha that featured their top-of-the-line sound chip, some MIDI ports, and two sliders (or pitch-bend wheels?) that turned the machine into a bargain-basement Atari ST fighter.
Needless to say, nobody bought any. Between Commodore, Atari, Apple, Texas Instruments, Radio Shack, and Timex/Sinclair, the American market was already oversaturated. And the sound chip in the Yamaha was the same as in my T/S 2068, IIRC.
It's a good thing that XBox is still in the planning stages, because if game-crazy PC folk like me have enough disposable income next Christmas, we're gonna be drooling over NV20s, and wondering why anyone would want to buy last year's eOne.
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
I misread. My bad.
But it's still not right. Why should I pay to use and contribute to an Open Source project just because I'm "workin' for the Man?" What would be my motivation, then? Open Source/Free Software sounds far less altruistic when I must pay for a privilege others get free of charge.
If TT continues to charge for the Windows version, they'll just hand the market over to GTK+.
Keith Russell
OS != Religion
They are funding development which helps the cause of Linux, BSD and friends, and they are doing it at the expense of the Windows market *only*.
...
We want to drive the application availability situation to the advantage of Linux, etc. people!
You're hampering interoperability, limiting your program's customer base, and excluding a pool of talented programmers, all for the sake of being politically correct. Making the source available only to the "right" OS is just as bad as not making the source available at all.
To paraphrase Planet of the Apes, it appears some operating systems are more equal than others.
Keith Russell
OS != Religion