I'm not sure where you see MS is losing PR points. It sure wasn't anytime recent on this planet.
I'm not a MS fanboy, but their sales are just peachy. And how much I hate to admit it, their latest line of office products is just good. Just that. Mappoint 2002 is fine. Word XP is a blessing over older versions, as are the other office applications. (Except outlook, but that'll be fixed in SP1)
But yea, there will always be the hardcore elite of the slashdot brainwashed herd that will say "bad! evil! monopoly! bingo!" to every thing MS does or makes.
Good software is good software, doesn't matter who makes it or what lisence it is distributed under.
Oh, there WILL be a "pentium 8" arount that time. That isn't the point really.
The point (more of a dilemma actually) is that the developers at gnu and microsoft are extremely slow at implementing the optimisations the newer processors support. And even if they catch up, the applications need to be recompiled to actually take advantage of it. So there's a lot of ancient software out there, compiled for obsolete P2's and stuff.
There's really not much you can do about that situation, so we'll just have to take that for granted.
Now, as hardware developer (intel, amd) you've got the dilemma and basically two choices -
A) Try and tune that old engine some more. Same core, smaller circuits, higher mhz, etc. Try to run existing 386 code as fast as possible.
B) Implement those new state-of-the-art designs, instructionsets, etc. At the cost of losing backwards compatibility, and with the knowledge that software needs to be properly optimized to get the most performance.
Intel chose B. Their P4 is slower then athlons and sometimes even P3's at executing old code. But when software is properly optimized for the P4, the thing woops ass. (See graphs in article)
However, all that people see now are the lower results, and for that Intel is slaughtered. But, IMHO, in the long term Intel made the right choice.
Saying that the P4 sucks even before there is software out there that can properly drive it would be unwise. I don't think the P4 will go down in history as a crappy processor - I think it just needs a while to warm up and start kicking ass.
Don't get me wrong here - I'm not saying it is better then the AMD solutions, I'm just saying it doesn't suck so hard as some people here think it does. It's their software that just can't handle the P4 correctly.
And besides - DDOSing Mickeysoft would mean the feds are on your doorstep in about 20 seconds, and you'd face a lawsuit of millions of dollars.
Wheras you can get away with DDOSing some IRC network.
Dude.. really. You've got to get that sand outta your vagina, it's making you cranky!
Star Trek: First Contact was a pretty good movie. (7.2 average) and although Starship Troopers probably didn't light a candle to the book, it still was a damn good splattermovie in its own way. (Rated 6.6 avg)
And if you want interesting, mind-expanding stories... well... I hate to break it to you, but Hollywood hasn't made those in a long, long time. (And that's why there is an asian/european/indies film-circuit - get your brainfood there.)
I mean, do you REALLY think a company out there sells (and supports, etc) a product that is 1) likely to COST them money in returns, failures and 2) pisses off their users?
A little more faith in one of the leading drive manufacturers would be in place, IMHO:)
Just remember - The Hague is only the place where the convention is held, it could as easily be the Miami convention or something.
The Netherlands have as much to do with this as the Americans, or for that matter - any other participating country. Your point of view can easily be reversed - the USA has many laws that are more restrictive then the ones we have here in the EU.
Historically, MySQL has been faster, and had *PROPER* support for BLOBs. Not that crappy 8k/row limit PostgresSQL has. (had?)
One of the primary uses for databases on the web is to store text (articles), and hence the postgresql row limits were a problem for many people. (And no, I dont wanna bother with that seperate blob interface.)
Windows has pretty good documentation - msdn.microsoft.com contains about all you want to know, and those MSDN enterprise edition DVD's have the rest.
Now, on the other hand, you've got to scrape the documentation for linux together from usenet, howtoes and faq's spread all over the known galaxy.
What linux really needs is a consistent, updated, up-to-date documentation archive that covers everything from installation, to operation, to kernel programming details.
Threads have their problems (especially when mixed with C++ and cross-platform code).. BUT... when properly done, you can gain a LOT of performance you could't get any other way. (ie - no IPC overhead nessecary.)
Ofcourse, good threading support in relatively new, and a lot of oldskool programmers won't 'get it'. (Probably the same ones that bash OO every chance they get:)
Threading is not the golden solution to every problem. It's just another tool in the toolbox, and for some problems they are a better tool than say, multiprocesses communicating over sockets or shared memory.
I have to agree. Office XP is simply the best when it comes to office applications. Windows 2000 aint half-bad either.
IMHO Open source zealots need to put their actions where their mouths are - and start to release, promote AND support software that bests the commercial equivalents.
I suspect there are other reasons for the one sided contracts:
a) they deal with small teams, running websites as a hobby, dealing with young and often foreign people. You can easily give them a crappy contract and say: "sign and you get cash!". Not like UGO is the only one that does it.
b) the "not their fault" was more targetted at that it is not their fault that the marked crashed. (Also UGO managers felt the blow - my ugo contact (brent) has been fired.)
I have taken their cash, and am happy for it. I honestly believe that stuff like this was inavoidable. Offering fixed CPM's to affiliates was a very stupid thing to do, and they have a choice now - pay $4000/month for a small site with 1M views, basically losing $3800, or breach contract. I'd bet on the last - it might not be the honorable thing to do, but it's a better shot at staying afloat.
We've had the ugo contract examined by a lawyer earlier last year. There's very very little chance you can squeeze money out of them. The lawyer classified the contract as "one of the most one-sided contracts I've seen in my life."
UGO is, as the rest of that sector of the net, hit hard by the current crisis. It is not their fault, how much even I hate it. (I have sites under UGO)
There simply is no money to pay the sites their $10K+/month anymore. The party is over. Get over it, get a real job.
yeah, the best book every voted for by a lot of people that read a grand total of 3 books in their life. You can't vote for the best book ever unless you've read them all. Tolkien is good, sure, no doubt about that, but there is competition. Hobb. Martin. Kay. (I wont mention Jordan:)
As for movies being made from books - for those that read the books the movies will ALWAYS be a dissapointment. For the simple fact that people imagine themselves a world full of details, and the world a movie shows them will never be as beautiful or detailed as they have imagined it.
I very very very very much doubt that atech gets that much. CF & NT are pretty slow compared to highly tuned *nix boxes, and 5 of those servers are for forums too. (Makes you wonder about their forum system... )
Slashdot Mirror
Office XP runs just fine after alteration of your PC. At least, here it does.
You've been brainwashed by the dot very well. The Taco would be proud of you.
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You should turn that around. Your software is crappy and needs an upgrade if it can't properly drive the latest generation of processors.
A ferrari doesn't suck just because you just dont know how to work the stick.
I'm not sure where you see MS is losing PR points. It sure wasn't anytime recent on this planet.
I'm not a MS fanboy, but their sales are just peachy. And how much I hate to admit it, their latest line of office products is just good. Just that. Mappoint 2002 is fine. Word XP is a blessing over older versions, as are the other office applications. (Except outlook, but that'll be fixed in SP1)
But yea, there will always be the hardcore elite of the slashdot brainwashed herd that will say "bad! evil! monopoly! bingo!" to every thing MS does or makes.
Good software is good software, doesn't matter who makes it or what lisence it is distributed under.
And yes, their products are way overpriced. Heh.
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Oh, there WILL be a "pentium 8" arount that time. That isn't the point really.
The point (more of a dilemma actually) is that the developers at gnu and microsoft are extremely slow at implementing the optimisations the newer processors support. And even if they catch up, the applications need to be recompiled to actually take advantage of it. So there's a lot of ancient software out there, compiled for obsolete P2's and stuff.
There's really not much you can do about that situation, so we'll just have to take that for granted.
Now, as hardware developer (intel, amd) you've got the dilemma and basically two choices -
A) Try and tune that old engine some more. Same core, smaller circuits, higher mhz, etc. Try to run existing 386 code as fast as possible.
B) Implement those new state-of-the-art designs, instructionsets, etc. At the cost of losing backwards compatibility, and with the knowledge that software needs to be properly optimized to get the most performance.
Intel chose B. Their P4 is slower then athlons and sometimes even P3's at executing old code. But when software is properly optimized for the P4, the thing woops ass. (See graphs in article)
However, all that people see now are the lower results, and for that Intel is slaughtered. But, IMHO, in the long term Intel made the right choice.
Saying that the P4 sucks even before there is software out there that can properly drive it would be unwise. I don't think the P4 will go down in history as a crappy processor - I think it just needs a while to warm up and start kicking ass.
Don't get me wrong here - I'm not saying it is better then the AMD solutions, I'm just saying it doesn't suck so hard as some people here think it does. It's their software that just can't handle the P4 correctly.
And besides - DDOSing Mickeysoft would mean the feds are on your doorstep in about 20 seconds, and you'd face a lawsuit of millions of dollars. Wheras you can get away with DDOSing some IRC network.
Dude.. really. You've got to get that sand outta your vagina, it's making you cranky! Star Trek: First Contact was a pretty good movie. (7.2 average) and although Starship Troopers probably didn't light a candle to the book, it still was a damn good splattermovie in its own way. (Rated 6.6 avg) And if you want interesting, mind-expanding stories... well... I hate to break it to you, but Hollywood hasn't made those in a long, long time. (And that's why there is an asian/european/indies film-circuit - get your brainfood there.)
Try that 512Mb of DDR SDRAM that's in your box :)
"Years ago" is probably the keyword here.
:)
I mean, do you REALLY think a company out there sells (and supports, etc) a product that is 1) likely to COST them money in returns, failures and 2) pisses off their users?
A little more faith in one of the leading drive manufacturers would be in place, IMHO
Just remember - The Hague is only the place where the convention is held, it could as easily be the Miami convention or something. The Netherlands have as much to do with this as the Americans, or for that matter - any other participating country. Your point of view can easily be reversed - the USA has many laws that are more restrictive then the ones we have here in the EU.
Historically, MySQL has been faster, and had *PROPER* support for BLOBs. Not that crappy 8k/row limit PostgresSQL has. (had?) One of the primary uses for databases on the web is to store text (articles), and hence the postgresql row limits were a problem for many people. (And no, I dont wanna bother with that seperate blob interface.)
Amen brother. Well said.
Windows has pretty good documentation - msdn.microsoft.com contains about all you want to know, and those MSDN enterprise edition DVD's have the rest.
Now, on the other hand, you've got to scrape the documentation for linux together from usenet, howtoes and faq's spread all over the known galaxy.
What linux really needs is a consistent, updated, up-to-date documentation archive that covers everything from installation, to operation, to kernel programming details.
As an experienced programmer, I have to disagree.
:)
Threads have their problems (especially when mixed with C++ and cross-platform code).. BUT... when properly done, you can gain a LOT of performance you could't get any other way. (ie - no IPC overhead nessecary.)
Ofcourse, good threading support in relatively new, and a lot of oldskool programmers won't 'get it'. (Probably the same ones that bash OO every chance they get
Threading is not the golden solution to every problem. It's just another tool in the toolbox, and for some problems they are a better tool than say, multiprocesses communicating over sockets or shared memory.
How did MS drive the competition out of the office space? By simply making a better office suite? Is that a crime these days?
Yeah it is. And damn those frikkin supermarkets for not giving away their goods for free. Now I'll have to use my evil money to BYA the food. ARGH!
I have to agree. Office XP is simply the best when it comes to office applications. Windows 2000 aint half-bad either. IMHO Open source zealots need to put their actions where their mouths are - and start to release, promote AND support software that bests the commercial equivalents.
I agree with most what you said... but...
I suspect there are other reasons for the one sided contracts:
a) they deal with small teams, running websites as a hobby, dealing with young and often foreign people. You can easily give them a crappy contract and say: "sign and you get cash!". Not like UGO is the only one that does it.
b) the "not their fault" was more targetted at that it is not their fault that the marked crashed. (Also UGO managers felt the blow - my ugo contact (brent) has been fired.)
I have taken their cash, and am happy for it. I honestly believe that stuff like this was inavoidable. Offering fixed CPM's to affiliates was a very stupid thing to do, and they have a choice now - pay $4000/month for a small site with 1M views, basically losing $3800, or breach contract. I'd bet on the last - it might not be the honorable thing to do, but it's a better shot at staying afloat.
Wrong suggestion -
Don't run their ads, and you're kicked out in a second. You're obliged to by the contract.
I suggest to sign, take the cash, and try to find somewhere else to get your banners. Except finding that "somewhere else" will be very, very hard.
We've had the ugo contract examined by a lawyer earlier last year. There's very very little chance you can squeeze money out of them. The lawyer classified the contract as "one of the most one-sided contracts I've seen in my life."
UGO is, as the rest of that sector of the net, hit hard by the current crisis. It is not their fault, how much even I hate it. (I have sites under UGO)
There simply is no money to pay the sites their $10K+/month anymore. The party is over. Get over it, get a real job.
Proud products of capitalism: Microsoft AOL Time-warner
yeah, the best book every voted for by a lot of people that read a grand total of 3 books in their life. You can't vote for the best book ever unless you've read them all. Tolkien is good, sure, no doubt about that, but there is competition. Hobb. Martin. Kay. (I wont mention Jordan :)
As for movies being made from books - for those that read the books the movies will ALWAYS be a dissapointment. For the simple fact that people imagine themselves a world full of details, and the world a movie shows them will never be as beautiful or detailed as they have imagined it.
Falling from great heights is very hazardous, yet we still fly around in airplanes.
I very very very very much doubt that atech gets that much. CF & NT are pretty slow compared to highly tuned *nix boxes, and 5 of those servers are for forums too. (Makes you wonder about their forum system... )
Shack doesn't use any homebrew server-side code. It uses PHP4 (.x pages) and a little bit of comment system was done in C. (.y pages)