Let there be no more remarks about how Open Source never innovates and is always copying Apple or M$...
I've long expected that the next Win would become more *nix like. They want some of the *nix geek acceptance apple found when they created Darwin and OSX
What remains is how far will they go - fully embracing the ethic might be upset their business model.
" To do the Unix philosophy right, you have to be loyal to excellence. You have to believe that software is a craft worth all the intelligence and passion you can muster. . . . Software design and implementation should be a joyous art, and a kind of high-level play. If this attitude seems preposterous or vaguely embarrassing to you, stop and think; ask yourself what you've forgotten. Why do you design software instead of doing something else to make money or pass the time? You must have thought software was worthy of your passions once. . ..
To do the Unix philosophy right, you need to have (or recover) that attitude. You need to care. You need to play. You need to be willing to explore. "
how can a film - thats going to take a long period of time to make -ever be called "Live" ? Action Movie - yes . But its only "Live" if its happening as you watch it. This is obviously impossible.
they have the facility to match the altavista search. (in terms of searching for files - altavista does not allow searching the content of audio file as such - only the filename any maybe meta information) to achieve the same on google its extremely simple. try googling like this
who mentioned about forcing people to do anything? Most projects supply their files in several different formats so that people can make a choice as to what kind of install they want to do. I dont really care what you think, because if you are truly honest with yourself, you will admit that installing software on linux is a pain in the arse sometimes - even for seasoned users. Giving joe sixpack a foolproof click-through self-installer for linux is not just a good idea its a requirement. Especially as it continues to make headroads on the desktop.
I use Gentoo and Vidalinux by the way. The portage system is pretty good and dependancy issues are pretty much a thing of the past although annoyingly i still have problems. Im lucky enough to have a fairly beefy SMP computer so most of the time i dont have to wait too long for compiles.
Having said all that Autopackage is the best thing ive seen as an installation method yet. Have you actually tried to use it yet ?
Make sure you read the instructions first. You dont even need to go anywhere near a shell prompt!
I dont have mod points to mod you up, but autopackage really does exactly what it says on the tin (tm) - it just works (tm) I hope that more and more projects start providing ".package" files in addition to the source code etc.
What i meant by that is - you dont have much of a choice for which version of windows that you buy, or what applications come with it. Nor are you afforded the flexibility to roll your own windows distribution. Of course you can install whatever you like (within reason) on Windows - but the fact that M$ ship mediaplayer with their os gives them an unfair advantage over the competition. When you are a convicted monopolist this practice is frowned upon.
Im sorry I failied to address the posters question about OSX but that is largely covered by the original and main point that M$ is using its position in the market place to an unfair advantage. OSX nor Linux occupy this position. And I suspect (but cannot confirm) that OSX offers a lot more flexibility during the install process as to what you can and cant chose to be installed.
Not sure whether you are gunning for flamebait or you simply dont understand.
The following points are important -
* Microsoft are convicted of violating antitrust laws and guilty of monopolistic practices.
* Linux is just a kernel -
* There are many competing linux vendors both commercial and free - you and everyone else are free to create and distribute a linux based operating system with or without whatever tools you want.
* Windows gives you no such choice or flexibility.
Isnt this the point about open source ? if there is something you dont like or feel could be done better another way - just take the code, fork it if neccessary and do it your own way.
Personally I agree - i'd rather OpenOffice did not have a strong dependancy for Java but thats just me!
Re:I don't know why I hadn't thought of this befor
on
Gentoo 2005.0 Released
·
· Score: 1
I think that sounds like a great idea. Id be interested to hear what one of the gentoo developers thinks about the matter.
Funny , I just downloaded the package file for inkscape, set it to executable and launched the file from KDE. It really couldnt have been simpler (cept the changing the ".package" file to executable maybe a bit difficult for new users to grasp.) -you perhaps?
The package files contain everything you need to install the file. If it is the first time you use. an auto-packaged file you may find that you are asked to download a couple of support files "automatically" . I dont see why you needed to download those files in order to begin the install process. the only manual download you need to do is the package file itself. Unless of course you failed to read the bullet point guide and tried to install without setting the package as an executable. In which case there really is no hope for you.
Just in case you missed it and for the benefit of anyone else. Its a good idea to read this if you want to test them out.
I tested this on gentoo and im impressed so far. It just remains to be seen if this rises in popularity and how easily it breaks (im nursing gentoo out of a fix right now!). I beleive that this is a good thing and something that is needed by linux. The various packaging systems are great for specific distros. But are largely incompatible with each other. While this is great for open source projects and developers its also something i would like to see some of the proprietary providers utilise. It would be great if things like acrobat reader and flash-plugin and those other essentials were to use this system. All too many times I've found myself trying to install stuff that i couldnt build from source - or only came in an RPM or DEB. This could help change a lot of problems for new and seasoned linux users alike.
Lets face it - it doesnt matter what flavor linux you use how is joe sixpack supposed to know whether he wants an ebuild, deb or rpm. Let alone know what to do with a ".tar.gz"?
would it be possible to create an open office document that contained an embedded plugin to allow MS Word to open it ? with the holes in microsoft products surely something exploiting them for beneficial purposes is feasible.
"Perhaps the next step, apple will have to put the DRM on before it sends the file?"
This is the obvious next step i'll agree. But as i understand it. I thought about this when I read the article the other day, but this might be an even greater hole that the current one. DRM is tied down to your computer in some way. In order to DRM a tune your computer would have to send some information about itself to the server which DRM's the music file before sending it back. That is something you can easily control. Herein lies the problem with this method. Given a known "data set" (info about computer) used to DRM music , it would be trivial to create a known "data set" and using something pyMusique ensure the music files are encrypted using a data set key that can easily be shared / cracked.
Badly explained - i know - but hopefully you get the gyst.
Not thinking of switching - but im thinking of getting one to do the things linux aint to hot at. OSX will complement my linux box - not replace it! linux will always remain for my serious development stuff, Im tempted by OSX for my other hobbies namely composing music and editing video. I know i can do those things with Windows but I despise it and besides Apple hardware "just looks nice" (tm) then of course theres the "power of unix under the hood" which might be fun.
For those of you with enquiring minds - google seem to have done a pretty thorough job of preventing you from extracting the pages from books via javascript right click interceptor. Combining several cunning techniques such as dynamic stylesheet and also covering the book text with a large (dimensions) transparant gif.
Im sure its still fairly trivial to script something to download entire books. But one thing they seem to have missed...Firefox "Page Info" is the "Tools" menu contains a "Media" tab. it is here you will find the image you are looking for complete with a "Save As" button. Could be quite tedious to do this for each page but it proves that it can be done.
I tried to download using wget but was unsuccesful - even though I specified a valid user agent. There must be some other check that google are doing.... It may be a case of writing a Firefox extension (hint, hint) - or can it be done with a simple python script?
Its great now that we have a rudimentary interface for iTunes that will work with linux. It would be great to see this being used to create a fully fledged and open source iTunes client for linux and other operating systems. As much as I avoid DRM'd music like the plague - I can't help but feel that regardless of DRM, there should be in existance a client that brings the iTunes resource to linux.
Marketing pymusique as an open source/linux "iTunes" would be a much better initiative to make apple "notice" the requirement to have iTunes on other platforms. Not that thats going to happen in my wildest dreams though.
I have had an idea for years, Im not sure if it is possible technically or phsyically because I dont have a fantastic understanding of the human brain. I also have no idea whether anyone has thought of this before but here goes.
One of the nice things about neural networks is that you dont neccesarily have to understand processes that occur during translation. I have often hypothesised that it might be possible to use the traits of a neural network to create an interface with the brain. Suppose there was a patient who had a degenerative eye condition that meant in 10yrs he or she would be completely blind. Forgetting the implications of connecting wetware to hardware for a moment- imagine if we could use a neural network to interface with the visual cortex of a patient , to learn to understand the electrical impulses on the patients visual cortex by way of matching them up with a camera mounted on the side of the head. Might it be possible for the patient to look at a tree using his real eye - the nueral network sees the tree with its camera and this way "Learns" what the patterns in the cortex represent.
Something like this (if it is possible) would have some quite phenomenal implications - especially if it were possible to "playback" the patterns into the cortex from the camera.
Would anyone who knows a bit more about these subjects care to discuss the possibilities of something like this?
It is great that Google are visibly supporting the development of open source software - to whatever degree.
The ubiquity of google and the respect they have gained over the years make them somewhat of a model company. While im sure there may be a couple of people who might dispute their company motto to "not be evil" I think most people would agree that google seems to be doing things the right way.
Google is well thought of by anyone who uses the web, not just geeks, but the PHB's and Grandma's alike. This brings me to the next point...
Google have got Microsoft worried - frustrated that they couldnt "own" google they paid google the greatest compliment- they redesigned their search engine that is functionally more than just similar to google - and to a certain extent the low graphic - no-frills feel!
It is interesting to see Google innovating and re-thinking many of the ways we use the web. Now that google are being visibly more active in open source - It couldnt be better press for F/OSS at this time - and damn that's really going to p*ss Microsoft off - I'd like to see them match this idea. In addition to this its certainly going to help to legitimise F/OSS to those PHB's who have been toying with the idea but afraid to test the water.
Its going to be extremely interesting to see what google has deep in the bowels of its R&D department waiting to come into fruition. Lets hope that they can keep their face clean in the process!
Slashdot Mirror
Whats next ?
...
Playstation Gyration ?
Nick
Does a canadian based music downloads site exist and if not , why not ?
Let there be no more remarks about how Open Source never innovates and is always copying Apple or M$...
.
...
I've long expected that the next Win would become more *nix like. They want some of the *nix geek acceptance apple found when they created Darwin and OSX
What remains is how far will they go - fully embracing the ethic might be upset their business model.
"
To do the Unix philosophy right, you have to be loyal to excellence. You have to believe that software is a craft worth all the intelligence and passion you can muster. . . . Software design and implementation should be a joyous art, and a kind of high-level play. If this attitude seems preposterous or vaguely embarrassing to you, stop and think; ask yourself what you've forgotten. Why do you design software instead of doing something else to make money or pass the time? You must have thought software was worthy of your passions once. . .
To do the Unix philosophy right, you need to have (or recover) that attitude. You need to care. You need to play. You need to be willing to explore.
"
Id be surprised if they did.
Nick
How else are they supposed to raise enough capitol for the next mission?
encode from mp3 to flac ... ;)
how can a film - thats going to take a long period of time to make -ever be called "Live" ? Action Movie - yes . But its only "Live" if its happening as you watch it. This is obviously impossible.
they have the facility to match the altavista search. (in terms of searching for files - altavista does not allow searching the content of audio file as such - only the filename any maybe meta information) to achieve the same on google its extremely simple. try googling like this
...
song filetype:ogg
nick
who mentioned about forcing people to do anything? Most projects supply their files in several different formats so that people can make a choice as to what kind of install they want to do. I dont really care what you think, because if you are truly honest with yourself, you will admit that installing software on linux is a pain in the arse sometimes - even for seasoned users. Giving joe sixpack a foolproof click-through self-installer for linux is not just a good idea its a requirement. Especially as it continues to make headroads on the desktop.
I use Gentoo and Vidalinux by the way. The portage system is pretty good and dependancy issues are pretty much a thing of the past although annoyingly i still have problems. Im lucky enough to have a fairly beefy SMP computer so most of the time i dont have to wait too long for compiles.
Having said all that Autopackage is the best thing ive seen as an installation method yet. Have you actually tried to use it yet ?
Make sure you read the instructions first. You dont even need to go anywhere near a shell prompt!
4 steps to installing an autopackage...
I dont have mod points to mod you up, but autopackage really does exactly what it says on the tin (tm) - it just works (tm) I hope that more and more projects start providing ".package" files in addition to the source code etc.
More so a stunning .... oh never mind!
What i meant by that is - you dont have much of a choice for which version of windows that you buy, or what applications come with it. Nor are you afforded the flexibility to roll your own windows distribution. Of course you can install whatever you like (within reason) on Windows - but the fact that M$ ship mediaplayer with their os gives them an unfair advantage over the competition. When you are a convicted monopolist this practice is frowned upon.
Im sorry I failied to address the posters question about OSX but that is largely covered by the original and main point that M$ is using its position in the market place to an unfair advantage. OSX nor Linux occupy this position. And I suspect (but cannot confirm) that OSX offers a lot more flexibility during the install process as to what you can and cant chose to be installed.
Not sure whether you are gunning for flamebait or you simply dont understand.
...
The following points are important -
* Microsoft are convicted of violating antitrust laws and guilty of monopolistic practices.
* Linux is just a kernel -
* There are many competing linux vendors both commercial and free - you and everyone else are free to create and distribute a linux based operating system with or without whatever tools you want.
* Windows gives you no such choice or flexibility.
Nick
Isnt this the point about open source ? if there is something you dont like or feel could be done better another way - just take the code, fork it if neccessary and do it your own way.
Personally I agree - i'd rather OpenOffice did not have a strong dependancy for Java but thats just me!
I think that sounds like a great idea. Id be interested to hear what one of the gentoo developers thinks about the matter.
Funny , I just downloaded the package file for inkscape, set it to executable and launched the file from KDE. It really couldnt have been simpler (cept the changing the ".package" file to executable maybe a bit difficult for new users to grasp.) -you perhaps?
The package files contain everything you need to install the file. If it is the first time you use. an auto-packaged file you may find that you are asked to download a couple of support files "automatically" . I dont see why you needed to download those files in order to begin the install process. the only manual download you need to do is the package file itself. Unless of course you failed to read the bullet point guide and tried to install without setting the package as an executable. In which case there really is no hope for you.
Just in case you missed it and for the benefit of anyone else. Its a good idea to read this if you want to test them out.
4 step guide
I tested this on gentoo and im impressed so far. It just remains to be seen if this rises in popularity and how easily it breaks (im nursing gentoo out of a fix right now!). I beleive that this is a good thing and something that is needed by linux. The various packaging systems are great for specific distros. But are largely incompatible with each other. While this is great for open source projects and developers its also something i would like to see some of the proprietary providers utilise. It would be great if things like acrobat reader and flash-plugin and those other essentials were to use this system. All too many times I've found myself trying to install stuff that i couldnt build from source - or only came in an RPM or DEB. This could help change a lot of problems for new and seasoned linux users alike.
Lets face it - it doesnt matter what flavor linux you use how is joe sixpack supposed to know whether he wants an ebuild, deb or rpm. Let alone know what to do with a ".tar.gz"?
would it be possible to create an open office document that contained an embedded plugin to allow MS Word to open it ? with the holes in microsoft products surely something exploiting them for beneficial purposes is feasible.
ROTFL That deserves a +6 because it was the funniest comment ever!
Me neither ... I wonder if this new update fixes the "not able to find any updates bug"
Im gonna submit a bug report just in case...
"Perhaps the next step, apple will have to put the DRM on before it sends the file?"
This is the obvious next step i'll agree. But as i understand it. I thought about this when I read the article the other day, but this might be an even greater hole that the current one. DRM is tied down to your computer in some way. In order to DRM a tune your computer would have to send some information about itself to the server which DRM's the music file before sending it back. That is something you can easily control. Herein lies the problem with this method. Given a known "data set" (info about computer) used to DRM music , it would be trivial to create a known "data set" and using something pyMusique ensure the music files are encrypted using a data set key that can easily be shared / cracked.
Badly explained - i know - but hopefully you get the gyst.
Not thinking of switching - but im thinking of getting one to do the things linux aint to hot at. OSX will complement my linux box - not replace it! linux will always remain for my serious development stuff, Im tempted by OSX for my other hobbies namely composing music and editing video. I know i can do those things with Windows but I despise it and besides Apple hardware "just looks nice" (tm) then of course theres the "power of unix under the hood" which might be fun.
For those of you with enquiring minds - google seem to have done a pretty thorough job of preventing you from extracting the pages from books via javascript right click interceptor. Combining several cunning techniques such as dynamic stylesheet and also covering the book text with a large (dimensions) transparant gif. ...Firefox "Page Info" is the "Tools" menu contains a "Media" tab. it is here you will find the image you are looking for complete with a "Save As" button. Could be quite tedious to do this for each page but it proves that it can be done.
....
Im sure its still fairly trivial to script something to download entire books. But one thing they seem to have missed
I tried to download using wget but was unsuccesful - even though I specified a valid user agent. There must be some other check that google are doing.... It may be a case of writing a Firefox extension (hint, hint) - or can it be done with a simple python script?
Nick
Its great now that we have a rudimentary interface for iTunes that will work with linux. It would be great to see this being used to create a fully fledged and open source iTunes client for linux and other operating systems. As much as I avoid DRM'd music like the plague - I can't help but feel that regardless of DRM, there should be in existance a client that brings the iTunes resource to linux.
Marketing pymusique as an open source/linux "iTunes" would be a much better initiative to make apple "notice" the requirement to have iTunes on other platforms. Not that thats going to happen in my wildest dreams though.
I have had an idea for years, Im not sure if it is possible technically or phsyically because I dont have a fantastic understanding of the human brain. I also have no idea whether anyone has thought of this before but here goes.
One of the nice things about neural networks is that you dont neccesarily have to understand processes that occur during translation. I have often hypothesised that it might be possible to use the traits of a neural network to create an interface with the brain. Suppose there was a patient who had a degenerative eye condition that meant in 10yrs he or she would be completely blind. Forgetting the implications of connecting wetware to hardware for a moment- imagine if we could use a neural network to interface with the visual cortex of a patient , to learn to understand the electrical impulses on the patients visual cortex by way of matching them up with a camera mounted on the side of the head. Might it be possible for the patient to look at a tree using his real eye - the nueral network sees the tree with its camera and this way "Learns" what the patterns in the cortex represent.
Something like this (if it is possible) would have some quite phenomenal implications - especially if it were possible to "playback" the patterns into the cortex from the camera.
Would anyone who knows a bit more about these subjects care to discuss the possibilities of something like this?
Actually; unless the parent Accepts the No Whining License - he is perfectly free to whine about the product in any way he/she desiresw
It is great that Google are visibly supporting the development of open source software - to whatever degree.
The ubiquity of google and the respect they have gained over the years make them somewhat of a model company. While im sure there may be a couple of people who might dispute their company motto to "not be evil" I think most people would agree that google seems to be doing things the right way.
Google is well thought of by anyone who uses the web, not just geeks, but the PHB's and Grandma's alike. This brings me to the next point...
Google have got Microsoft worried - frustrated that they couldnt "own" google they paid google the greatest compliment- they redesigned their search engine that is functionally more than just similar to google - and to a certain extent the low graphic - no-frills feel!
It is interesting to see Google innovating and re-thinking many of the ways we use the web. Now that google are being visibly more active in open source - It couldnt be better press for F/OSS at this time - and damn that's really going to p*ss Microsoft off - I'd like to see them match this idea. In addition to this its certainly going to help to legitimise F/OSS to those PHB's who have been toying with the idea but afraid to test the water.
Its going to be extremely interesting to see what google has deep in the bowels of its R&D department waiting to come into fruition. Lets hope that they can keep their face clean in the process!