Besides, you'd be surprised how many commercial libs out there are based on OSS. Like all the zlib variants. Or all the MP3 decoders, etc...
The difference is more of a "reputation" is at stake in OSS. You can't just half-ass write something that works most of the time when your name is all over it.
Of the few software firms I've worked in most of the software developers are in the mindset "if the program runs and doesn't crash, its all good" which leads to horribly incomplete poorly factored source code that is a bitch to work on.
While generally that is true you'd be surprised how many people trust you at face value. [cheap plug] one of my OSS projects is a crypto library. You'd be surprised how few people actually verify test vectors for themselves before deploying a project using my lib.
While I [as I suppose many OSS developers] try to write good code, all too many end users [often other developers] will simply plomp a library in and use it.
How many times can you honestly say you verified the source for vorbis/ogg or zlib or etc... for corectness?
You're missing a big part of it though. If you have to try say 3 times to send a message [over a 5 day period or so] you're ability to mass send 100million emails is really squashed.
Legitimate people first time sending won't really mind the few day wait and most MTAs will try for upto a month.
I think its safe to say digital cameras still have a one-up on the thingies in cell phones. When a cell phone can take 256MB worth of high quality 2048x1536 pictures we can say digital cameras have no future.
Maybe the 3000+ uses less power than the 3.06Ghz but that's not saying much.
Personally I wouldn't mind a processor with better thermal management. For instance AMD processors have horrible idle power usage [re: 95% or so]. Which means when my server is sitting here idle [which is basically 99% of the time] the processor is still running full tilt. [hint: to the other readers, try a program called VCOOL out. It drops my CPU temp from an idle 52C to 37C]
Anyways my point was that the NIMBY is just a symptom of a larger problem. People demand change not because they want it but because they want their 15 mins of fame being known for demanding change.
When all handwaving is said in done it comes down to the cost-benefit ratio. Is installing this device going to produce more energy than it requires [to build, setup, maintain] and is the device going to significantly interfere with the local environment. As compared to a coal, nuclear or hydro solution.
And that's bad? Maybe 10000 people will download it over the next three days. Of those maybe 1000 will be impressed and of those maybe 10 will be in a position to buy/use it commercially.
All in all a good day at QNX:-)
Don't forget those who have already used QNX [e.g. in college] and don't need to download a new copy.
Things don't always happen overnight. For example, we no longer have slavery.
Eventually OSS will become more than a fad for profit making businesses and companies like MSFT will have to shape up or ship out.
We've turned from a dime-a-dozen society into a fairly organized open source community. I mean look at the early 80s. How many C compilers for the x86 were there? I personally used quite a few of them [from smallC, PCC, turbo C, MICRO-C upto the "elite" Watcom].
Now? Basically all OSS developers use GNU CC. In fact I don't even have another compiler install [aside from MSVC which is what I use for paying work... arrg].
On the distro front things are a bit different but mostly because many distros have horrible user support and flop. I see Debian and Gentoo sticking it out for a long time [Knoppix for instance is freakin awesome!]. Redhat and all the other "oh we're a distro too!" series will die off by the side lines like the Pacific C Compiler:-)
If you can do part of the work from home I don't see what the huge issue is. 12/7 is a bit much but 8/6 is certainly doable if you can work some of it from home [which if you're a coder why not?]
Ok when I said "skill" I meant a realistic and useful skill. Being able to play the piano is useful not only because it has medical benefits [can lower blood pressure if you play decent:-)] but also has been known to be correlated [though perhaps even a cause] for higher academia.
I mean by your logic we should idolize people who can crush Canadian Housing Bricks on their foreheads. I mean there *is* a skill to that too....
Some lacky who can point and zap with a busto-ray is a person who has played far too many video games and should take up a new pursuit.
I'm sorry but most physical sports like baseball, basketball, et al. require a bit more concentration and skill then it takes to click a mouse on the screen.
Put it another way, if gaming skills and sport skills are in the same ballbark then I could have a NBA career by now.... I mean I certainly can frag like the best of them.
Admitedly for different reasons, I am against people who solely focus on playing sports. [e.g. sacrifice school for sports].
I guess what I realized today is that the real "skill" is being able to lead a balanced life. E.g. not shut out life to play a RPG but not burn text books to play hockey.
I never said people shouldn't play games [though I'd actively discourage RPG/MMORPG games]. I said playing a video game which a 12 yr can master is not a skill.
I suppose the golden rule is moderation. Given the chance to play say a real physical game and a virtual one I'd play the real one [even though I'm not in what you'd call athletic shape].
As long as you can't recite your deck of magic cards forwards and backwards you're ok by my rules:-)
1) Often being "better" at a game is more a matter of circumstance [lower ping, joining first, playing more] than actually having better faculties. I find that often over internet FPS type games I get whoop but over LANs I do fairly well... [etc]
2) I'd argue the value of the social component. First off, gamers hide by not only fake names but fake personas. Yeah I know "what's in a name" but most people grow into their name [e.g. within their community]. Making a fake name and persona is just a matter of detaching from one society to join another.
3) I've met a few hard core RPG style gamers [and card players [e.g. magic]] and I'd have to say they're not all that inteligent. They're good at the games for the sole reason that they memorized the dark tree stump can tap eight mana and stop +3 damage.
When is the last time you saw a dissertation on Diablo strategy? They're not "brainy" games that require a whole heck of a lot of thought.
Note I'm not saying games don't have any strategy. I'm just saying the strategy is so deep 12 yr olds can pick it out.... draw your own conclusions.
I think the stigma is that people get a little "too" attached to their games [specially MP and MMORPGZTDJDJK whatever...] games.
It's all about balance. I for example, have six *different* games installed at the moment and I play all of them regularly in short periods [e.g. no more than 10 mins at a time].
Oh, and btw, society [well western anyways] does look down upon beer guzzling tv watchers. They're called "fat lazy couch potatos".
Actually it was a serious question. I really want to know why gaming is a "skill". When I was 12 I played the piano, I was in swimming lessons, played baseball and was active in scouts.
I'd say playing the piano or knowing how to revive humans or being able to survive [to a limited degree] in the woods is a heck of alot better than being a lvl200 Daemon dude with a +12 Sword.
Slashdot Mirror
Linux. Nuff said.
Besides, you'd be surprised how many commercial libs out there are based on OSS. Like all the zlib variants. Or all the MP3 decoders, etc...
The difference is more of a "reputation" is at stake in OSS. You can't just half-ass write something that works most of the time when your name is all over it.
Of the few software firms I've worked in most of the software developers are in the mindset "if the program runs and doesn't crash, its all good" which leads to horribly incomplete poorly factored source code that is a bitch to work on.
Tom
While generally that is true you'd be surprised how many people trust you at face value. [cheap plug] one of my OSS projects is a crypto library. You'd be surprised how few people actually verify test vectors for themselves before deploying a project using my lib.
While I [as I suppose many OSS developers] try to write good code, all too many end users [often other developers] will simply plomp a library in and use it.
How many times can you honestly say you verified the source for vorbis/ogg or zlib or etc... for corectness?
Tom
You're missing a big part of it though. If you have to try say 3 times to send a message [over a 5 day period or so] you're ability to mass send 100million emails is really squashed.
Legitimate people first time sending won't really mind the few day wait and most MTAs will try for upto a month.
Tom
How did I spam my own shite it isn't like I am trying to draw attention to myself.
See, now **that** is spamming.
I think its safe to say digital cameras still have a one-up on the thingies in cell phones. When a cell phone can take 256MB worth of high quality 2048x1536 pictures we can say digital cameras have no future.
Tom
So what? Just because something doesn't happen doesn't mean it can't.
DOS doesn't really have a kernel perse as any application can just hoist it and re-write it as it sees fit.
A true kernel like that of QNX, linux or [shiver] WinXP does not let a rogue/buggy application walk over the OS.
Tom
Since when is what files you download private? I mean is it, or is it not legal for me to post the access_log for my website publicly?
Tom
Maybe the 3000+ uses less power than the 3.06Ghz but that's not saying much.
Personally I wouldn't mind a processor with better thermal management. For instance AMD processors have horrible idle power usage [re: 95% or so]. Which means when my server is sitting here idle [which is basically 99% of the time] the processor is still running full tilt. [hint: to the other readers, try a program called VCOOL out. It drops my CPU temp from an idle 52C to 37C]
Anyways my point was that the NIMBY is just a symptom of a larger problem. People demand change not because they want it but because they want their 15 mins of fame being known for demanding change.
When all handwaving is said in done it comes down to the cost-benefit ratio. Is installing this device going to produce more energy than it requires [to build, setup, maintain] and is the device going to significantly interfere with the local environment. As compared to a coal, nuclear or hydro solution.
Tom
Not really. DOS has no scheduling at all. In fact a poorly implemented IRQ handler can rob CPU time indiscriminatly.
More to the point DOS has no multi-processing abilities, no semaphores, no mutexes, etc...
Tom
And that's bad? Maybe 10000 people will download it over the next three days. Of those maybe 1000 will be impressed and of those maybe 10 will be in a position to buy/use it commercially.
:-)
All in all a good day at QNX
Don't forget those who have already used QNX [e.g. in college] and don't need to download a new copy.
Tom
Interesting? What type of fuck not are you?
QNX is an OS, yes. But it fills a very small niche where it works very well. I've used it in a college course "real-time programming". Hint....
If you absolutely need control over how a process will run [e.g. timing] QNX beats linux and windows handsdown.
QNX [neutrino] is also VERY small. A fully functioning kernel + drivers + Networking + terminal + etc can run you less than 1MB.
So moderators: how about you RTFA before modding people?
Tom
impatient aren't ya?
:-)
Things don't always happen overnight. For example, we no longer have slavery.
Eventually OSS will become more than a fad for profit making businesses and companies like MSFT will have to shape up or ship out.
We've turned from a dime-a-dozen society into a fairly organized open source community. I mean look at the early 80s. How many C compilers for the x86 were there? I personally used quite a few of them [from smallC, PCC, turbo C, MICRO-C upto the "elite" Watcom].
Now? Basically all OSS developers use GNU CC. In fact I don't even have another compiler install [aside from MSVC which is what I use for paying work... arrg].
On the distro front things are a bit different but mostly because many distros have horrible user support and flop. I see Debian and Gentoo sticking it out for a long time [Knoppix for instance is freakin awesome!]. Redhat and all the other "oh we're a distro too!" series will die off by the side lines like the Pacific C Compiler
Tom
If you can do part of the work from home I don't see what the huge issue is. 12/7 is a bit much but 8/6 is certainly doable if you can work some of it from home [which if you're a coder why not?]
Why not ask for a compromise?
Tom
A/k/a hypocrisy :-)
...
People demand hybrid cars, but don't drive them because they don't have enough power to excessively speed in city.
People demand low power [re: less heat] computers than buy Athlon 3200+
People are worried of dying at age 20 from coronary diesease then eat a 25pc bucket to themselves...
etc....
Whatever, more power! I wouldn't mind one in my backyard only if I was able to fling birds at it...
Tom
Do I give a shit what my government uses? Nope. All I care is that they don't expend oodles of money and actually get the job done.
And don't give me that free as in beer shit. The *training* and lower productivity alone will cost more.
Phase out yes, wholly replace in one step no.
Tom
Bah I was born yesterday and my first computer was an Athlon 2400+. Whine whine whine.....
Tom
PKI is a scam anyways. All the better.
I mean what does it mean that some faceless corporation from USCA signed a key for "poptoys.com" or something.
Good riddance and I hope he wins his $100m!
Tom
Ok when I said "skill" I meant a realistic and useful skill. Being able to play the piano is useful not only because it has medical benefits [can lower blood pressure if you play decent :-)] but also has been known to be correlated [though perhaps even a cause] for higher academia.
I mean by your logic we should idolize people who can crush Canadian Housing Bricks on their foreheads. I mean there *is* a skill to that too....
Some lacky who can point and zap with a busto-ray is a person who has played far too many video games and should take up a new pursuit.
Tom
I'm sorry but most physical sports like baseball, basketball, et al. require a bit more concentration and skill then it takes to click a mouse on the screen.
Put it another way, if gaming skills and sport skills are in the same ballbark then I could have a NBA career by now.... I mean I certainly can frag like the best of them.
Admitedly for different reasons, I am against people who solely focus on playing sports. [e.g. sacrifice school for sports].
I guess what I realized today is that the real "skill" is being able to lead a balanced life. E.g. not shut out life to play a RPG but not burn text books to play hockey.
Tom
Whoa you're trolling mor than I was.
I never said people shouldn't play games [though I'd actively discourage RPG/MMORPG games]. I said playing a video game which a 12 yr can master is not a skill.
Tom
I suppose the golden rule is moderation. Given the chance to play say a real physical game and a virtual one I'd play the real one [even though I'm not in what you'd call athletic shape].
:-)
As long as you can't recite your deck of magic cards forwards and backwards you're ok by my rules
Addressing your points...
1) Often being "better" at a game is more a matter of circumstance [lower ping, joining first, playing more] than actually having better faculties. I find that often over internet FPS type games I get whoop but over LANs I do fairly well... [etc]
2) I'd argue the value of the social component. First off, gamers hide by not only fake names but fake personas. Yeah I know "what's in a name" but most people grow into their name [e.g. within their community]. Making a fake name and persona is just a matter of detaching from one society to join another.
3) I've met a few hard core RPG style gamers [and card players [e.g. magic]] and I'd have to say they're not all that inteligent. They're good at the games for the sole reason that they memorized the dark tree stump can tap eight mana and stop +3 damage.
When is the last time you saw a dissertation on Diablo strategy? They're not "brainy" games that require a whole heck of a lot of thought.
Note I'm not saying games don't have any strategy. I'm just saying the strategy is so deep 12 yr olds can pick it out.... draw your own conclusions.
4) I too would applaud that.
Tom
I think the stigma is that people get a little "too" attached to their games [specially MP and MMORPGZTDJDJK whatever...] games.
It's all about balance. I for example, have six *different* games installed at the moment and I play all of them regularly in short periods [e.g. no more than 10 mins at a time].
Oh, and btw, society [well western anyways] does look down upon beer guzzling tv watchers. They're called "fat lazy couch potatos".
Tom
Actually it was a serious question. I really want to know why gaming is a "skill". When I was 12 I played the piano, I was in swimming lessons, played baseball and was active in scouts.
I'd say playing the piano or knowing how to revive humans or being able to survive [to a limited degree] in the woods is a heck of alot better than being a lvl200 Daemon dude with a +12 Sword.
Tom
The last sentence was supposed to read "Hard Core Gamer..." but I missed the 'd'.
Pays to aim I guess...