I am with you on this one. As a 6 year Slack user, I have little need for more package management.
I have been working on our new web server for our LUG. The box is RHAT and I had to set up Apache, PHP, and MySQL. I found it to be far easier to install tar balls than binary only RPMS that were installed by the SysAdmins. Of course, the binary only package of Apache had PHP, but the binary only PHP package did not have MySQL. Recompile of PHP (to include MySQL drivers) forced recompile of Apache. In short, it took me 1 hour to do this on my Slackware workstation (for test purposes), but 3 hours on RHAT (mostly spent trying to figure out why the source of Apache and PHP was not around and a half-hearted attempt to use rpm -rebuild (or whatever) instead of the standard configure && make && make install).
BTW - I ended up installing tar balls in/usr/local on the RHAT box and configured it using the standard configure && make && make install.
I think people are born self-centered. Are you self-centered when you wish to feed your hungry body? You bet. This is a simple example, but the premise has become exaggerated in our 'me first' society. Don't like your job? Quit! Don't like your wife? Get a divorce. Mud to Mud...
It is up to our society and our own choices that implore us to be less self-centered, i.e., 'to be a good neighbor' as you put it.
As far as I can tell, religion is the most constructive way to teach individuals how to be less self-centered. I say less because we humans cannot be selfless. Some of us have come real close (Mother Theresa, Ghandi, to name 2 examples).
Of course, just like us humans, religion is not perfect. In my mind, it sure beats the selfish, empty feelings I have had without it (Catholicism).
Couples that don't want to be together (and remember, it takes two), should be allowed to split up, no matter what.
IMHO - Then these couples should not have married. I agree that remaining married when you should not be is a mistake. The real tragedy is that folks are so cavalier about marriage. 'Until death do us part' is a serious vow. But many people seem to enter into this vow with the idea that 'if it doesn't work out, then we can just get a divorce'. So when the turbulent times occur (like it will in all relationships), how committed are these folks to their spouse if they 'can just get a divorce'? Once again, the standard is lowered and we're all much worse off.
I maintain our LUG web site. The ratio of constructive criticism to kudos is actually about 1:1. It's actually scary that I receive so few comments either way, given the relatively large number of LUG meeting attendees (average 60-70 / month). Another intersting point is that although I give instructions (on the site) on how to build the site and contribute to development, rarely am I approached or do I receive patches or contributions.
The sausage release comment reminds me of the Big Ball of Mud architecture.
The bottom line for me is that software maintenance sounds much easier under the Free Software / CatB model, but it's not. You still have people trying to read your code, which is equivalent to reading your mind.
Maybe 50% incorrect. My point is that in-line cannot occur unless a method is final. Your quote says the same thing because if the optimizer "finds" a method that is used in a non-final way, it will be un-inlined. To me, this is just extra work for the optimizer. Yes, I read the rest of the white paper, but
I am not sold on Hot Spot because it degrades heavily under high loads. Check out JDJ article by Jeremy Lizt (p 66) for a fairly biased perspective. Notice how Hot Spot blows up with many concurrent users. We have observed similar degredation in performance on Solaris with Hot Spot. Food for thought.
Hello.  .If you are looking for Java support for Mozilla, visit this page.
You can also check out the Mozilla home page for additional information and the rationale for the decision to only specify a Java interface for Mozilla.
Yes, I would expect *any* 1.2.x JVM to be faster because Sun added the JIT to the 1.2 specification. This is another of the quite large differences between JDK 1.1.x and JDK 1.2.x.
It's funny that the article talks about the new tarantella division. The tarantella software was released in 1997. A new spin on an interesting, but slow product does not really constitute new, does it?
As a former SCO developer, I can assert: SCO is dead. Deal with it. Why is SCO dead? Because Linux is better, faster, cheaper on Intel hardware. SCO only works on Intel hardware...You do the math.
The only shred of stockholder value that SCO could provide is to either 1) produce a Linux distribution or 2) become a Linux support and services company (c.f. SGI).
I disagree with your point about 'heavy lifting'. Ever heard of Beowulf? What about PostGres? I have written several applications that at times will consume all of the system resources - i.e., do 'heavy lifting'.
While I agree that vi doesn't use many system resources, I would argue that it doesn't because it's because these programs are more efficient.
I agree that moderation with regard to licensing is a good thing. Not everything I run on Linux is free software, but 95% is. (I happen to fall on the GPL side of things). Nevertheless, it is me or does Love give a lot of marketspeak? For example, you already can remotely administer Linux. Hmm...I wonder how this kind of talk affects Wall Street perception of Caldera?
I am not sure which IT industry they think folks are "possibly over the hill at 30 and certainly over the hill at 40". In my IT ship, I am the youngest software engineer at age 29 (just turned last week). Of the 30 software engineers that I work with, a total of 2 are under 30. The mean age is certainly above 40 years old.
The reason for this is that in my department, we never hire recent college grads. The main reason is that we want intelligent people with a lot of experience. I have the fewest years of experience at 5. Most folks I work with have 10-15 years experience in software engineering. Some "old timers" even have more than 15 years.
I left a start up full of recent college grads because I grew bored teaching the same concepts to new folks who would then bolt after 2 years to garner a higher salary. I went to my current job because of the wealth of knowledge, experience, and expertise of my colleagues.
We don't have to stay up all night to get our jobs completed because we: 1) Actually conduct analysis and design on our software before we build it and 2) know what the hell we're doing.
Actually, it phlegmatic is a typo. Or Stuart Brand (the fellow quoted using this word) does not know what phlegmatic means. Here's what stolid means (Merriam-Webster)
Main Entry: stolid
Pronunciation: 'stä-l&d Function: adjective Etymology: Latin stolidus dull, stupid Date: circa 1600 : having or expressing little or no sensibility : UNEMOTIONAL synonym see IMPASSIVE - stolidity/stä-'li-d&-tE, st&-/ noun
Maybe he means stolid as in 'unemotional'? But, he basically called him either 1) fully of phlegm or 2) stupid.
The only reason I post this is that I didn't know what phlegmatic and when I looked it up, I realized that I though 'stolid' meant something else.
For example, in Composer 4.71 (glibc 2.1.2, Linux 2.2.12), I highlight text and click on the link button to change text to a URL link . I insert the URL into the link dialog and hit either 'Apply' or 'Finished' and the entire application crashes.
Way back when I signed up on/. (user #4817), things like satire didn't seem to miss so many users. IMHO, my post was satirical - why? because no one (including me) really cares about the population of Holland, Michigan, much less whether it is 'big enough' to have a 'downtown'.
Now, with the readership of/. becoming much broader, things that are still funny to people like me are lost on others.
The new mantra of/. is that moderators and meta-moderators take themselves way too seriously. Thus, the 'feel' of/. has changed. It has become less tolerant -- especially to offtopic posts. Less tolerant is exactly how many corporations act. Thus, to me/. is acting like a corporation. In this sense,/. is not just Rob and Hemos, but all of us readers. One/. user (don't remember his nick) has a great signature:
Open Source, Closed Minds - We Are Slashdot
This is definitely food for thought.
You have a point, it may be coincidence that/. has become more conservative. It may have more to do with censor^H^H^H^H^H moderation than the fact that/. is 'owned' by VA. More likely, the combination of so many users and moderation has created a 'low-water mark'. The mark being some perceived code of conduct, i.e., content of a post, less it be 'moderated down'. It's unfortunate because it has altered the original beauty of/.
Hey Captain Ahab? What's your deal? Why are so adding to the/. spam problem by replying to spam? Look at how much spam you personally generated when you reply to spam? It's getting so a guy can't even read/.
My real question is about your/. nick. Are you MadAhab as in 'I am MAD at that damn whale?' or are you Mad as in 'the MAD Hatter'.
Please moderate the aformentioned 'request for troll moderation' because the accuser is more of a troll than the accused.
Why can't the accuser see the funny aspect of the post? Why can't disgruntled posters on/. lighten up?
Is this some side effect of the 'corporitization of/.'?
I know, why don't we just censo^H^H^H^H^H moderateevery free thought or expression, or alternative opinion here on our beloved/.? THAT WOULD BE SO COOL! Just then, we could all swear our allegiance to Big Brother.
Excuse my geographical ignorance, but I have never heard of Holland, Michigan, much less that it's big enough to have a downtown. Detroit? East Lansing? Sure. Holland? Hmm...
Anyone have a link for population numbers? Just curious.
Oracle & Sybase (also SQL Anywhere) now ship their DB software with Java as the internal procedure language.
Big point of clarification for Oracle. Java has not replaced Oracle's internal procedural language (PL-SQL). Actually, you must wrap your calls to STATIC Java methods in PL-SQL.
Maybe interesting to you or not. But there is a big difference in replacing your procedural language and providing a relatively cheesy (IMHO) wrapper interface.
He's earned the right to do so. He made it through college, been married for a long time...
Actually, in this article (apparently you didn't read it), Katz says that he didn't graduate from college and that "he barely made it through high school".
IMHO, academic credentials are not necessary to become an insightful writer. Some of the greatest writers have been uneducated in a formal manner such as college. Unlike great writers, Katz is not insightful, he is boorish - i.e., his writing "implies rudeness of manner due to insensitivities to others' feelings and unwillingness to be agreeable" (Websters)
I don't hate the guy, I just think his writing and opinions are generally trite. I have read several of his articles and to me they imply a simpleton's view of the world. I haven't gleaned any real meaning from those articles. Given the amount of criticsm he receives, I believe I am not the only one with this point of view. When you make him out to be some important go-between technical and non-technical folks you exagerate the importance of his writing. Most non-technical folks haven't heard of Katz or/. The truth is,/. is a small and sheltered part of the world.
You are correct, we need such writers to be go-betweens. IMHO, Katz is not one of them.
Slashdot Mirror
I am with you on this one. As a 6 year Slack user, I have little need for more package management.
I have been working on our new web server for our LUG. The box is RHAT and I had to set up Apache, PHP, and MySQL. I found it to be far easier to install tar balls than binary only RPMS that were installed by the SysAdmins. Of course, the binary only package of Apache had PHP, but the binary only PHP package did not have MySQL. Recompile of PHP (to include MySQL drivers) forced recompile of Apache. In short, it took me 1 hour to do this on my Slackware workstation (for test purposes), but 3 hours on RHAT (mostly spent trying to figure out why the source of Apache and PHP was not around and a half-hearted attempt to use rpm -rebuild (or whatever) instead of the standard configure && make && make install).
BTW - I ended up installing tar balls in /usr/local on the RHAT box and configured it using the standard configure && make && make install.
--
It is up to our society and our own choices that implore us to be less self-centered, i.e., 'to be a good neighbor' as you put it.
As far as I can tell, religion is the most constructive way to teach individuals how to be less self-centered. I say less because we humans cannot be selfless. Some of us have come real close (Mother Theresa, Ghandi, to name 2 examples).
Of course, just like us humans, religion is not perfect. In my mind, it sure beats the selfish, empty feelings I have had without it (Catholicism).
Later.
--
IMHO - Then these couples should not have married. I agree that remaining married when you should not be is a mistake. The real tragedy is that folks are so cavalier about marriage. 'Until death do us part' is a serious vow. But many people seem to enter into this vow with the idea that 'if it doesn't work out, then we can just get a divorce'. So when the turbulent times occur (like it will in all relationships), how committed are these folks to their spouse if they 'can just get a divorce'? Once again, the standard is lowered and we're all much worse off.
--
I maintain our LUG web site. The ratio of constructive criticism to kudos is actually about 1:1. It's actually scary that I receive so few comments either way, given the relatively large number of LUG meeting attendees (average 60-70 / month). Another intersting point is that although I give instructions (on the site) on how to build the site and contribute to development, rarely am I approached or do I receive patches or contributions.
--
The bottom line for me is that software maintenance sounds much easier under the Free Software / CatB model, but it's not. You still have people trying to read your code, which is equivalent to reading your mind.
--
Maybe 50% incorrect. My point is that in-line cannot occur unless a method is final. Your quote says the same thing because if the optimizer "finds" a method that is used in a non-final way, it will be un-inlined. To me, this is just extra work for the optimizer. Yes, I read the rest of the white paper, but
I am not sold on Hot Spot because it degrades heavily under high loads. Check out JDJ article by Jeremy Lizt (p 66) for a fairly biased perspective. Notice how Hot Spot blows up with many concurrent users. We have observed similar degredation in performance on Solaris with Hot Spot. Food for thought.
later
--
I was wrong about the JIT being part of JDK 1.2.x. It is part of IBMs 1.1.8:
--
Hello.  .If you are looking for Java support for Mozilla, visit this page.
You can also check out the Mozilla home page for additional information and the rationale for the decision to only specify a Java interface for Mozilla.
--
Yes, I would expect *any* 1.2.x JVM to be faster because Sun added the JIT to the 1.2 specification. This is another of the quite large differences between JDK 1.1.x and JDK 1.2.x.
--
On this topic, AFAIK, JITs cannot in-line anything *but* classes declared final. If this has changed in JDK 1.3.0, I would like to see a reference.
Thanks.
--
As a former SCO developer, I can assert: SCO is dead. Deal with it. Why is SCO dead? Because Linux is better, faster, cheaper on Intel hardware. SCO only works on Intel hardware...You do the math.
The only shred of stockholder value that SCO could provide is to either 1) produce a Linux distribution or 2) become a Linux support and services company (c.f. SGI).
--
While I agree that vi doesn't use many system resources, I would argue that it doesn't because it's because these programs are more efficient.
--
I agree that moderation with regard to licensing is a good thing. Not everything I run on Linux is free software, but 95% is. (I happen to fall on the GPL side of things). Nevertheless, it is me or does Love give a lot of marketspeak? For example, you already can remotely administer Linux. Hmm...I wonder how this kind of talk affects Wall Street perception of Caldera?
--
I am not sure which IT industry they think folks are "possibly over the hill at 30 and certainly over the hill at 40". In my IT ship, I am the youngest software engineer at age 29 (just turned last week). Of the 30 software engineers that I work with, a total of 2 are under 30. The mean age is certainly above 40 years old.
The reason for this is that in my department, we never hire recent college grads. The main reason is that we want intelligent people with a lot of experience. I have the fewest years of experience at 5. Most folks I work with have 10-15 years experience in software engineering. Some "old timers" even have more than 15 years.
I left a start up full of recent college grads because I grew bored teaching the same concepts to new folks who would then bolt after 2 years to garner a higher salary. I went to my current job because of the wealth of knowledge, experience, and expertise of my colleagues.
We don't have to stay up all night to get our jobs completed because we: 1) Actually conduct analysis and design on our software before we build it and 2) know what the hell we're doing.
Chalk one up for the old timers...
--
The only reason I post this is that I didn't know what phlegmatic and when I looked it up, I realized that I though 'stolid' meant something else.
Learn something new every day...
--
For example, in Composer 4.71 (glibc 2.1.2, Linux 2.2.12), I highlight text and click on the link button to change text to a URL link . I insert the URL into the link dialog and hit either 'Apply' or 'Finished' and the entire application crashes.
--
My point:
Way back when I signed up on /. (user #4817), things like satire didn't seem to miss so many users. IMHO, my post was satirical - why? because no one (including me) really cares about the population of Holland, Michigan, much less whether it is 'big enough' to have a 'downtown'.
Now, with the readership of /. becoming much broader, things that are still funny to people like me are lost on others.
The new mantra of /. is that moderators and meta-moderators take themselves way too seriously. Thus, the 'feel' of /. has changed. It has become less tolerant -- especially to offtopic posts. Less tolerant is exactly how many corporations act. Thus, to me /. is acting like a corporation. In this sense, /. is not just Rob and Hemos, but all of us readers. One /. user (don't remember his nick) has a great signature:
This is definitely food for thought.You have a point, it may be coincidence that /. has become more conservative. It may have more to do with censor^H^H^H^H^H moderation than the fact that /. is 'owned' by VA. More likely, the combination of so many users and moderation has created a 'low-water mark'. The mark being some perceived code of conduct, i.e., content of a post, less it be 'moderated down'. It's unfortunate because it has altered the original beauty of /.
--
My real question is about your /. nick. Are you MadAhab as in 'I am MAD at that damn whale?' or are you Mad as in 'the MAD Hatter'.
--
Please moderate the aformentioned 'request for troll moderation' because the accuser is more of a troll than the accused.
Why can't the accuser see the funny aspect of the post? Why can't disgruntled posters on /. lighten up?
Is this some side effect of the 'corporitization of /.'?
I know, why don't we just censo^H^H^H^H^H moderateevery free thought or expression, or alternative opinion here on our beloved /.? THAT WOULD BE SO COOL! Just then, we could all swear our allegiance to Big Brother.
--
1. My comment is officially 'Offtopic'.
2. I was the third comment on this story.
This leads me to the following point: Comedy is dead on /. Coincidentally, this occurs as the idiocy of moderation is combined with stock options.
Hmm. I wonder what this post will be 'Moderated' to? -666
--
it was a joke
--
Excuse my geographical ignorance, but I have never heard of Holland, Michigan, much less that it's big enough to have a downtown. Detroit? East Lansing? Sure. Holland? Hmm...
Anyone have a link for population numbers? Just curious.
--
Big point of clarification for Oracle. Java has not replaced Oracle's internal procedural language (PL-SQL). Actually, you must wrap your calls to STATIC Java methods in PL-SQL.
Maybe interesting to you or not. But there is a big difference in replacing your procedural language and providing a relatively cheesy (IMHO) wrapper interface.
--
I have been using IBMs JDK 1.1.8 for 6 months and despite one huge bug (which is fixed), it has been a stable and fast JVM.
Anyone know how BD/Sun JDK 1.2.2 compares in terms of raw speed?
--
He's earned the right to do so. He made it through college, been married for a long time...
Actually, in this article (apparently you didn't read it), Katz says that he didn't graduate from college and that "he barely made it through high school".
IMHO, academic credentials are not necessary to become an insightful writer. Some of the greatest writers have been uneducated in a formal manner such as college. Unlike great writers, Katz is not insightful, he is boorish - i.e., his writing "implies rudeness of manner due to insensitivities to others' feelings and unwillingness to be agreeable" (Websters)
I don't hate the guy, I just think his writing and opinions are generally trite. I have read several of his articles and to me they imply a simpleton's view of the world. I haven't gleaned any real meaning from those articles. Given the amount of criticsm he receives, I believe I am not the only one with this point of view. When you make him out to be some important go-between technical and non-technical folks you exagerate the importance of his writing. Most non-technical folks haven't heard of Katz or /. The truth is, /. is a small and sheltered part of the world.
You are correct, we need such writers to be go-betweens. IMHO, Katz is not one of them.
--