Yea, you did. You missed the part where it is not the duty of the government to create and enforce laws to tell you what your children should and should not have exposed to them. That is your job as a parent.
TFA mentions that the MPAA was awarded $30,000 per infringement. So following your lead the US thinks the people of Burma are worth $30 per person (assuming the 100,000 figure is somewhat accurate.)
No this is horrible, if I create something it should be copyrighted immediately, I should not need a lawyer for my creative process. Copyright is not the problem, the problems exist in patent law and penalties for violating copyright. Not in the copyright itself. Although I do think that the length of copyright is a bit too long.
I sincerely hope that someone will fix the system before we have to move to the 3rd "box" of the political system.
How many SA's do you know who would choose solaris over linux ?
As someone who works for one of the big 3 batch queuing system providers that are not directly tied to hardware manufacturers (read: not IBM or Sun.) I can tell you that the vast majority of our customer base, probably 90% are running Linux. The rest are mostly AIX and HPUX with sprinklings of Cray, Sun, and Microsoft systems.
Just say 79 exabytes or even just 79 EB. News for nerds, ok? We didn't smoke our way through high school.... I just wish more people would take advantage of the fact that people on this site should have a basic understanding of things like SI prefixes
You didn't use them. Why would you take advantage of the fact that you merely assume people understand them when you yourself do not?
P.S.-Since I don't have much experience with Macs, maybe someone could tell me-Is there something similar to Crossover on Linux for Macs? It would be nice if I could play Return to Castle Wolfenstein and a few other games while I killed time between classes. I'll probably keep a frankensteined XP gamer rig offline just for gaming, but Wolfenstein plays better on my laptop under Linux than it does on Windows so I was just curious if there was anything similar. Thanks and have a great weekend!!!
I would assume the crossover product is at least in part based on the OS X port of wine. I have not used either of these so I have no idea how stable they are or if either will work with the game you mentioned. I am just aware that they exist.
Oh I love this type of comment, lets rephrase shall we?
How can a religion have credibility when the entire faith is surrounded around writers from the late 00's? Doesn't the very idea that souls came from God that were dumped into a garden and sent to the neo-people of about 2,000 bc which created all of humanity. Whats not to love?
Ultimately I cannot view Scientology as any more ridiculous than any other religion. Sorry religious folks, just cause yours is older doesn't make it any more reasonable.
The biggest problem I see with the current system is that it isn't comprehensive. There's no easy way to provide trusted computing to memory (especially shared on the system, distributed or otherwise networked), security models generally don't work over clusters (eg: migrating a process from one machine to another won't necessarily migrate security labels or permissions), VNIC and Infiniband cards can RDMA direct into and out of memory without reference to security models, etc. This isn't a Linux problem, per se, in most cases. It's a hardware problem. Hardware is designed to be insecure, by design, and there is nothing any OS can do about such limitations.
I would agree in general, however most cluster environments that I've dealt with are not very concerned about internal security (i.e. everyone with access is trusted, and working on similar things.) They tend to be more interested in external security, gaining access to the cluster from an external system. Many times these clusters are on private networks for this very reason. Now a grid situation poses a more difficult challenge as you often times have many systems with different staff (of varying levels of experience) maintaining the systems, with many semi-trusted users on a system at any given time.
Again, not disagreeing or saying your points aren't valid, just pointing out what I've seen in practice.
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.
How the hell did the parent post get a +5 informative of all things?!
No, last I read the GPL you had to *PROVIDE* the source code that you used to create the binaries that you distributed on request (for a reasonable fee, if necessary)
Now in many cases if you did not change the source code that you snagged from a sourceforge site or similar you would probably never be questioned, unless you're part of a hated organization (e.g. ??AA). For example a company I used to work for distributes a copy of libstdc++ that they built against for ease of use, they don't modify it, they tell you where they got it, and that you will probably fuck a lot of shit up if you try to build and install it on your system (e.g. out of date for most systems). And if you *really* want you to they will send you the source code, but ultimately if you play the GPL game it is your responsibility to provide the source code that you used for distribution.
As usual, the devil is in the details. Your little home computers DID have many of the problems you mentioned. They weren't built for the environment, so the environment was going to kill them. And where DO you mount that monitor? Sitting it atop a surface is a good way to get it knocked off. And how will an uneducated user manage to type fast enough to enter the order?
Actually, I used to manage a McD's and they use pretty standard equipment (as far as computer stuffs go). The secret is in the placement, I've seen both monitors and printers melt with the wrong placement and I'm not talking about putting them on the grill but 1' above a toaster (they get hot!). Furthermore the systems that drive everything are pretty standard old school tech. The interaction between the registers and the screens are driven by a PC-DOS system (at least at the stores I was at) and the management aspect was done via a AIX system. IIRC the registers (they were the touch screen ones) were pentium IIs. This of course all ran proprietary software, the AIX system actually did automatic employee scheduling and ordering of the delivery trucks. Although you always had to go through and make changes to not piss people off or run out of product. For example it would schedule people for 1 hour shifts (not even worth coming to work) and would not keep track of paper products very well (because those aren't tracked via register very well).
Also, if the mostly standard equipment only lasts a couple years that is NOTHING compared to how much they pay for the equipment that actually makes the product. We're talking about $200 for a monitor compared to $10k for a toaster.
Why is it insane? Setting up a cluster with any distro is trivial. Granted OSCAR and Rocks are nice because they're geared towards clusters but that does not make something like Fedora or Suse difficult to use in a cluster configuration by any means.
So you've seen my MY space?!$%? OMG What did you think?!
Seriously, I think the music thing is the worst. Although I don't blame the members of myspace, instead I blame whoever decided that a website should be able to make noise without user intervention in the first place.
Furthermore why is it that not all major browsers have a way of turning this off? I use Linux for the most part and regardless of OS I normally use Firefox as a browser and the only browser I know of that has an option to turn this off is Opera [1]. Which is a great browser but I try to use OSS as much as possible even if I have to make some sacrifices.
What makes myspace especially bad is the music often takes a few minutes to load, so if you decide to bite the bullet and take a look at one of your idiot friends profile and are ready to hit the volume as the page is loading you will think there is no custom music until you give up and just then the most god awful sounds start pumping through your speakers.
[1] Please let me know if I'm wrong about this assumption, I've looked into it briefly and didn't find much.
Does a custom-compiled compiler create different binaries to a pre-packaged compiler? I was under the impression that it might compile the application faster, but the resulting linked-up, ready-to-run binary is no different. So "it does accumulate" doesn't add up to me...
The object file produced by the compiler would theoretically be the same. However the libraries that your object file(s) get linked with will be optimized as well (such as the C library), unfortunately the GP's statement that "it does accumulate" is a double edged sword. You can increase the overall speed of a binary by having an optimized compiler (because of its optimized libraries), but if there is a bug in the optimizers it can cause you to end up with a compiler that causes even more bugs in the optimized code produced by the compiler. I should also point out that especially with a source based distro a speedup in compile time will certainly add up.
Let's examine the sentence... if the theif wouldn't have bought it anyway, it's not stealing. Wow... Perhaps it's not a lost sale, but it is stealing.
Remember, stealing is a legal definition, not a personal one. You can disagree with it all day long and you haven't changed anything.
Although it might be a legal definition, it still implies loss. If the individual gets said item without taking something tangible from the owner and would have *never* legally purchased the item then nothing is lost. You did not lose money, you did not pass go, and you certainly didn't collect $200. If the law actually prevented crime then the owner of the software would see no difference in revenue (if there was a difference it would be a loss in my opinion). However on that particular subject, I will point out that the software companies are not suing random file traders because they realize that people who would not purchase their software will pirate it and it may benefit them in the future.
I would also like to point out that laws are not carved in stone and are subject to change. Just because a law states something does not mean its right in an ethical sense. I do believe that the people who make said productions deserve a cut however I do not believe the consumers should be charged a ridiculous fee without having any real idea on the quality of the film/music. Some companies have taken steps to remedy this issue however their DRM systems generally prevent me from utilizing their media on my system, so I will not support it.
Here's a question for ya... the enjoyment and entertainment you receive watching these videos, listening to these songs... (I know, it's hip to pretend you don't like it cuz it's popular, but you ~did~ download it.) So that enjoyment you recieved, where did that come from? From the hard work of the artists, crews, etc? Should they be paid for that work?
Perhaps you missed something but I said that I had purchased thousands of dollars worth of music and movies. Not downloaded, *PURCHASED*.
And to ultimately finish, I said I was boycotting the RIAA and MPAA. Did I miss something? Does that secretly mean that I do not give them money but still download their works?
If so then I apologize, but the truth of the matter is that I have not watched any new movie or listened to any CD released in the last year or so.
When we catch shoplifters we don't just ask them to pay for the stuff they stole right? When you catch someone in your house stealing your stereo, do you just ask them to pay for it?
Do I get replacement cost? If so then hell yes! If a burglar gave me $400 for the home theater system I bought 4 years ago then I can buy a much better system now. The current system is fine, but hey free upgrades are great.
Stealing content online feels anonymous and somehow ~okay~. But it's not. It isn't civil disobedience. It's illegal and it's wrong. The penalties will exceed the cost of the unsold movie ticket to help impress upon people that it's a Bad Thing to get caught stealing.
blah blah blah, if the person "stealing" the movie/music/software would never purchase it then its not stealing. There is nothing that was actually stolen, you have lost no goods.
Personally, I have purchased thousands of dollars worth of movies and music over the years but have not spent a dime on either since the RIAA and MPAA have started suing casual file traders. I will continue my boycott until they cease such practices.
Given the current state of movies and music in the US I don't think I'm missing out on too much.
Not that I don't think some packages are overpriced. However all examples you have pointed out are professional versions of software or geared towards professionals. If you make a living using Adobe tools then those tools are very reasonably priced. Most people don't need anything more than Windows XP Home edition (which generally comes with a new computer) and maybe Word.
So really if your mom really *needed* Windows XP Pro, Office 2003 Pro, Adobe Photoshop, etc, etc then she is probably making a living using those tools and should pay for them.
Not to mention the fact that compilers are far from perfect. Any vuln in the "automagic security" of the compiler would be exploitable in every application compiled by that compiler.
The "new" Mac OS X market really doesn't take into account the mass switch of users of MS Windows that will make the switch to Mac OS X when it is available on x86.
You're forgetting that Apple is a hardware company, they would be foolish to make OS X work on a generic x86 box. Even if they could offset loss in sales with an increase in sales on the OS side of things it would diminish the end user experience. As it stands now Apple has a ton of control over what hardware goes into its systems therefore its a lot easier to have a system where "it just works."
So really I don't expect a _huge_ amount of people to switch to OS X just because of the change in processor type. Your average user just doesn't really care what is under the hood. The only benefit to the x86 Macs will be that people can get the shiny Apple engineered equipment and dual boot OS X and Windows.
After that you are into rather more niche material (like AIX, HP-UX, UNICOS etc.) designed for servers and the like.
Designed for servers? Perhaps, I would say servers and workstations alike but I certainly wouldn't say they have a niche market. I don't have much UNICOS experience but have run into many systems using HP-UX and AIX. I would guess that it will become a niche market for these systems especially with companies like IBM producing big iron running Linux.
OS X - by being able to promise application developers a market: Apple has always had a fairly solid hold on the graphics and design market, and enough general use that they can convince developers to write stuff for the Mac.
Don't forget scientific computing. Apple has a significant market there. If I had to guess why this seems to be the case, I would assume its because the applications were originally developed and run on various Unix systems. Therefore I'd assume that most of these applications port easier to OS X than they would to Windows and the scientists want to do their work not fiddle with the operating system and/or porting the app.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps I'm missing something obvious.
Yea, you did. You missed the part where it is not the duty of the government to create and enforce laws to tell you what your children should and should not have exposed to them. That is your job as a parent.
TFA mentions that the MPAA was awarded $30,000 per infringement. So following your lead the US thinks the people of Burma are worth $30 per person (assuming the 100,000 figure is somewhat accurate.)
No this is horrible, if I create something it should be copyrighted immediately, I should not need a lawyer for my creative process. Copyright is not the problem, the problems exist in patent law and penalties for violating copyright. Not in the copyright itself. Although I do think that the length of copyright is a bit too long.
I sincerely hope that someone will fix the system before we have to move to the 3rd "box" of the political system.
How many SA's do you know who would choose solaris over linux ?
As someone who works for one of the big 3 batch queuing system providers that are not directly tied to hardware manufacturers (read: not IBM or Sun.) I can tell you that the vast majority of our customer base, probably 90% are running Linux. The rest are mostly AIX and HPUX with sprinklings of Cray, Sun, and Microsoft systems.
Just say 79 exabytes or even just 79 EB. News for nerds, ok? We didn't smoke our way through high school. ...
I just wish more people would take advantage of the fact that people on this site should have a basic understanding of things like SI prefixes
You didn't use them. Why would you take advantage of the fact that you merely assume people understand them when you yourself do not?
Anyways, you should read:
http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html
P.S.-Since I don't have much experience with Macs, maybe someone could tell me-Is there something similar to Crossover on Linux for Macs? It would be nice if I could play Return to Castle Wolfenstein and a few other games while I killed time between classes. I'll probably keep a frankensteined XP gamer rig offline just for gaming, but Wolfenstein plays better on my laptop under Linux than it does on Windows so I was just curious if there was anything similar. Thanks and have a great weekend!!!
There is crossover for OS X http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/
As well as a port of wine for OS X http://wiki.winehq.org/MacOSX
I would assume the crossover product is at least in part based on the OS X port of wine. I have not used either of these so I have no idea how stable they are or if either will work with the game you mentioned. I am just aware that they exist.
Oh I love this type of comment, lets rephrase shall we?
How can a religion have credibility when the entire faith is surrounded around writers from the late 00's? Doesn't the very idea that souls came from God that were dumped into a garden and sent to the neo-people of about 2,000 bc which created all of humanity. Whats not to love?
Ultimately I cannot view Scientology as any more ridiculous than any other religion. Sorry religious folks, just cause yours is older doesn't make it any more reasonable.
The biggest problem I see with the current system is that it isn't comprehensive. There's no easy way to provide trusted computing to memory (especially shared on the system, distributed or otherwise networked), security models generally don't work over clusters (eg: migrating a process from one machine to another won't necessarily migrate security labels or permissions), VNIC and Infiniband cards can RDMA direct into and out of memory without reference to security models, etc. This isn't a Linux problem, per se, in most cases. It's a hardware problem. Hardware is designed to be insecure, by design, and there is nothing any OS can do about such limitations.
I would agree in general, however most cluster environments that I've dealt with are not very concerned about internal security (i.e. everyone with access is trusted, and working on similar things.) They tend to be more interested in external security, gaining access to the cluster from an external system. Many times these clusters are on private networks for this very reason. Now a grid situation poses a more difficult challenge as you often times have many systems with different staff (of varying levels of experience) maintaining the systems, with many semi-trusted users on a system at any given time.
Again, not disagreeing or saying your points aren't valid, just pointing out what I've seen in practice.
This is simply incorrect, from http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/constitution_transcript.html
Article. V.
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.
How the hell did the parent post get a +5 informative of all things?!
No, last I read the GPL you had to *PROVIDE* the source code that you used to create the binaries that you distributed on request (for a reasonable fee, if necessary)
Now in many cases if you did not change the source code that you snagged from a sourceforge site or similar you would probably never be questioned, unless you're part of a hated organization (e.g. ??AA). For example a company I used to work for distributes a copy of libstdc++ that they built against for ease of use, they don't modify it, they tell you where they got it, and that you will probably fuck a lot of shit up if you try to build and install it on your system (e.g. out of date for most systems). And if you *really* want you to they will send you the source code, but ultimately if you play the GPL game it is your responsibility to provide the source code that you used for distribution.
THANK GOD we have a Christ loving president that would never receive a hummer in the oval office!
the US is fucked thanks to 50% of the population being fucktards.
Considering that SGI has already announced the end of IRIX production:
http://www.sgi.com/support/mips_irix.html
I doubt you'll see many new OS features, if they update at all it will most likely be security updates.
As usual, the devil is in the details. Your little home computers DID have many of the problems you mentioned. They weren't built for the environment, so the environment was going to kill them. And where DO you mount that monitor? Sitting it atop a surface is a good way to get it knocked off. And how will an uneducated user manage to type fast enough to enter the order?
Actually, I used to manage a McD's and they use pretty standard equipment (as far as computer stuffs go). The secret is in the placement, I've seen both monitors and printers melt with the wrong placement and I'm not talking about putting them on the grill but 1' above a toaster (they get hot!). Furthermore the systems that drive everything are pretty standard old school tech. The interaction between the registers and the screens are driven by a PC-DOS system (at least at the stores I was at) and the management aspect was done via a AIX system. IIRC the registers (they were the touch screen ones) were pentium IIs. This of course all ran proprietary software, the AIX system actually did automatic employee scheduling and ordering of the delivery trucks. Although you always had to go through and make changes to not piss people off or run out of product. For example it would schedule people for 1 hour shifts (not even worth coming to work) and would not keep track of paper products very well (because those aren't tracked via register very well).
Also, if the mostly standard equipment only lasts a couple years that is NOTHING compared to how much they pay for the equipment that actually makes the product. We're talking about $200 for a monitor compared to $10k for a toaster.
Why is it insane? Setting up a cluster with any distro is trivial. Granted OSCAR and Rocks are nice because they're geared towards clusters but that does not make something like Fedora or Suse difficult to use in a cluster configuration by any means.
So you've seen my MY space?!$%? OMG What did you think?!
Seriously, I think the music thing is the worst. Although I don't blame the members of myspace, instead I blame whoever decided that a website should be able to make noise without user intervention in the first place.
Furthermore why is it that not all major browsers have a way of turning this off? I use Linux for the most part and regardless of OS I normally use Firefox as a browser and the only browser I know of that has an option to turn this off is Opera [1]. Which is a great browser but I try to use OSS as much as possible even if I have to make some sacrifices.
What makes myspace especially bad is the music often takes a few minutes to load, so if you decide to bite the bullet and take a look at one of your idiot friends profile and are ready to hit the volume as the page is loading you will think there is no custom music until you give up and just then the most god awful sounds start pumping through your speakers.
[1] Please let me know if I'm wrong about this assumption, I've looked into it briefly and didn't find much.
Does a custom-compiled compiler create different binaries to a pre-packaged compiler? I was under the impression that it might compile the application faster, but the resulting linked-up, ready-to-run binary is no different. So "it does accumulate" doesn't add up to me...
The object file produced by the compiler would theoretically be the same. However the libraries that your object file(s) get linked with will be optimized as well (such as the C library), unfortunately the GP's statement that "it does accumulate" is a double edged sword. You can increase the overall speed of a binary by having an optimized compiler (because of its optimized libraries), but if there is a bug in the optimizers it can cause you to end up with a compiler that causes even more bugs in the optimized code produced by the compiler. I should also point out that especially with a source based distro a speedup in compile time will certainly add up.
a windows update that turns off ... the entire OS
That would be ideal.
Let's examine the sentence... if the theif wouldn't have bought it anyway, it's not stealing. Wow... Perhaps it's not a lost sale, but it is stealing.
Remember, stealing is a legal definition, not a personal one. You can disagree with it all day long and you haven't changed anything.
Although it might be a legal definition, it still implies loss. If the individual gets said item without taking something tangible from the owner and would have *never* legally purchased the item then nothing is lost. You did not lose money, you did not pass go, and you certainly didn't collect $200. If the law actually prevented crime then the owner of the software would see no difference in revenue (if there was a difference it would be a loss in my opinion). However on that particular subject, I will point out that the software companies are not suing random file traders because they realize that people who would not purchase their software will pirate it and it may benefit them in the future.
I would also like to point out that laws are not carved in stone and are subject to change. Just because a law states something does not mean its right in an ethical sense. I do believe that the people who make said productions deserve a cut however I do not believe the consumers should be charged a ridiculous fee without having any real idea on the quality of the film/music. Some companies have taken steps to remedy this issue however their DRM systems generally prevent me from utilizing their media on my system, so I will not support it.
Here's a question for ya... the enjoyment and entertainment you receive watching these videos, listening to these songs... (I know, it's hip to pretend you don't like it cuz it's popular, but you ~did~ download it.) So that enjoyment you recieved, where did that come from? From the hard work of the artists, crews, etc? Should they be paid for that work?
Perhaps you missed something but I said that I had purchased thousands of dollars worth of music and movies. Not downloaded, *PURCHASED*.
And to ultimately finish, I said I was boycotting the RIAA and MPAA. Did I miss something? Does that secretly mean that I do not give them money but still download their works?
If so then I apologize, but the truth of the matter is that I have not watched any new movie or listened to any CD released in the last year or so.
When we catch shoplifters we don't just ask them to pay for the stuff they stole right? When you catch someone in your house stealing your stereo, do you just ask them to pay for it?
Do I get replacement cost? If so then hell yes! If a burglar gave me $400 for the home theater system I bought 4 years ago then I can buy a much better system now. The current system is fine, but hey free upgrades are great.
Stealing content online feels anonymous and somehow ~okay~. But it's not. It isn't civil disobedience. It's illegal and it's wrong. The penalties will exceed the cost of the unsold movie ticket to help impress upon people that it's a Bad Thing to get caught stealing.
blah blah blah, if the person "stealing" the movie/music/software would never purchase it then its not stealing. There is nothing that was actually stolen, you have lost no goods.
Personally, I have purchased thousands of dollars worth of movies and music over the years but have not spent a dime on either since the RIAA and MPAA have started suing casual file traders. I will continue my boycott until they cease such practices.
Given the current state of movies and music in the US I don't think I'm missing out on too much.
Not that I don't think some packages are overpriced. However all examples you have pointed out are professional versions of software or geared towards professionals. If you make a living using Adobe tools then those tools are very reasonably priced. Most people don't need anything more than Windows XP Home edition (which generally comes with a new computer) and maybe Word.
So really if your mom really *needed* Windows XP Pro, Office 2003 Pro, Adobe Photoshop, etc, etc then she is probably making a living using those tools and should pay for them.
Not to mention the fact that compilers are far from perfect. Any vuln in the "automagic security" of the compiler would be exploitable in every application compiled by that compiler.
Yeah, sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.
The "new" Mac OS X market really doesn't take into account the mass switch of users of MS Windows that will make the switch to Mac OS X when it is available on x86.
You're forgetting that Apple is a hardware company, they would be foolish to make OS X work on a generic x86 box. Even if they could offset loss in sales with an increase in sales on the OS side of things it would diminish the end user experience. As it stands now Apple has a ton of control over what hardware goes into its systems therefore its a lot easier to have a system where "it just works."
So really I don't expect a _huge_ amount of people to switch to OS X just because of the change in processor type. Your average user just doesn't really care what is under the hood. The only benefit to the x86 Macs will be that people can get the shiny Apple engineered equipment and dual boot OS X and Windows.
After that you are into rather more niche material (like AIX, HP-UX, UNICOS etc.) designed for servers and the like.
Designed for servers? Perhaps, I would say servers and workstations alike but I certainly wouldn't say they have a niche market. I don't have much UNICOS experience but have run into many systems using HP-UX and AIX. I would guess that it will become a niche market for these systems especially with companies like IBM producing big iron running Linux.
OS X - by being able to promise application developers a market: Apple has always had a fairly solid hold on the graphics and design market, and enough general use that they can convince developers to write stuff for the Mac.
Don't forget scientific computing. Apple has a significant market there. If I had to guess why this seems to be the case, I would assume its because the applications were originally developed and run on various Unix systems. Therefore I'd assume that most of these applications port easier to OS X than they would to Windows and the scientists want to do their work not fiddle with the operating system and/or porting the app.
You should get dog, you could use a friend.
Thank you /. nazi.
Did someone run over your dog today? I happened to think grandparent's post was amusing.