Except, of course, that Sun has this problem with actually letting MS implement anything like recent Java specs on Windows...
Where did you get that from? Check this article on news.com to refresh your memory. Basically what SUN objects to is Microsoft's attempt to fragment Java by not conforming to the specifications. I certainly get the impression that SUN would love having Microsoft provide a compliant Java implementation.
"This is an opportunity for Microsoft to rejoin the Java community" - Alan Baratz
Remember watching AI? Kubrick's parts and Spielberg's parts contrasted badly with each other, especially the ending.
"There's been quite a bit of confusion among critics, especially about the final 20 minutes, which aren't Spielberg being sentimental (his main addition was the cruel, brutal Flesh Fair), but are exactly what I wrote for Stanley and exactly what Stanley wanted." - Ian Watson (http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue268/interview.html)
I suspect that you are referring to the ending. At least many people seem to assume that the ending was added by Spielberg because of it's apparent sentimentality. There is an interesting interview with Ian Watson who wrote the story that the screenplay is based on: http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue268/interview.html. Yes I know that Aldiss wrote the original story. Interestingly Spielberg's addition was the rather violent Flesh Fair and the ending was Kubrick's.
Personally I enjoyed AI and thought that the ending drove home the idea that humanity is doomed and will be replaced by robots/mecha/androids quite well, if a little jarringly.
"The problem with general public license advocates is that they don't understand that people need the opportunity to commercialize software,"
Absolutely right. It's not fair that everyone has free access to air, water, sunshine and all sorts of other stuff. Think about all the money that the government is losing in potential tax dollars. I propose that we give Microsoft a monopoly on all these things so the governments gets more tax money to run universities, and all the other things that governments do.:)
>single-program-per-extension
Yes this is really a stupid design decision. I don?t see why Microsoft couldn't have made it possible to associate several programs with one file extension. That way when the user double-clicks on a file with multiple programs associated with it, Windows could present a list of all programs associated with that files extension. The list could even be sorted so that the most often selected program appears first. This is so obvious one has to wonder if the Salon article is on to something.
I agree with everything you wrote about SF magazines and the importance of the short story in SF. Just a minor point though. The movie Blade Runner is based (loosely) on a Philip K. Dick novel, not a short story, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Total Recall is based on a Philip K. Dick short story though.
Then check this old article on Wired, titled:
Sun Sues Microsoft, Alleges Java Pact Breach
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,7499,00. html
A quote:
"Ross points to Microsoft's lack of support for the Java Archive file as perhaps the most significant omission".
And there were modifications to the standard
Java APIs at least originally. Maybe MS fixed
them later, I don't know, but I had stopped
caring by then. This was discussed at
www.javalobby.org some time ago.
Anther little known fact is that Science Fiction writer Ian Watson, author of The Embedding and many other excellent novels, worked with Kubrick on the script.
"Who is going to rush out to support SSE2 instructions for a chip that isn't likely to sell very well?"
Well according to a previous article at Toms, AMD will support SSE2 in future Hammer processors. Since both Intel and AMD will support SSE2 it looks like it is here to stay. I only worry a bit (or is it 16 bits?) about the loss of precision, since normal floating point uses 80 bits and as far as I understood SSE2 is only 64 bit.
>..but, if Borland/Inprise is spending all their time and energy producing making the same product cross-platform, is this going to have an effect on the quality of their software.
At least when it comes to JBuilder this is not much of an issue, since JBuilder 3.5 is a 100% Java application.
Maybee I'm too old to remember but as I recall there where several WordProcessors available when WordPerfect (from WordPerfect Inc. not Corel) was released. Although WordPerfect was certainly the one that got a lot of attention.
One thing with standard JDK javac compiler though, it is very slow. I compiled a large directory with javac, Borland's Java compiler, and IBM's jikes. The Borland and IBM compilers were 50 times faster.
The readme file states that a JIT is included and used by defualt. And that it is based on the Solaris x86 version. This is great news, I think. Anyone notice any speed improvements?
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It could however be a little confusing listening to the group PFM (Premiata Forneria Merconi) encoded in PFM (Patent Free Media) format. :)
Where did you get that from? Check this article on news.com to refresh your memory. Basically what SUN objects to is Microsoft's attempt to fragment Java by not conforming to the specifications. I certainly get the impression that SUN would love having Microsoft provide a compliant Java implementation.
"This is an opportunity for Microsoft to rejoin the Java community" - Alan Baratz
"There's been quite a bit of confusion among critics, especially about the final 20 minutes, which aren't Spielberg being sentimental (his main addition was the cruel, brutal Flesh Fair), but are exactly what I wrote for Stanley and exactly what Stanley wanted." - Ian Watson (http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue268/interview.html)
Personally I enjoyed AI and thought that the ending drove home the idea that humanity is doomed and will be replaced by robots/mecha/androids quite well, if a little jarringly.
Absolutely right. It's not fair that everyone has free access to air, water, sunshine and all sorts of other stuff. Think about all the money that the government is losing in potential tax dollars. I propose that we give Microsoft a monopoly on all these things so the governments gets more tax money to run universities, and all the other things that governments do. :)
>single-program-per-extension
Yes this is really a stupid design decision. I don?t see why Microsoft couldn't have made it possible to associate several programs with one file extension. That way when the user double-clicks on a file with multiple programs associated with it, Windows could present a list of all programs associated with that files extension. The list could even be sorted so that the most often selected program appears first. This is so obvious one has to wonder if the Salon article is on to something.
> (side note- the lokisoft page is down, i dunno
if that is a fluke, if i have the wrong URL, or if they've packed up and left)
Perhaps you are thinking of the Loki games company?
In that case their URL www.lokigames.com is alive
and well.
I agree with everything you wrote about SF magazines and the importance of the short story in SF. Just a minor point though. The movie Blade Runner is based (loosely) on a Philip K. Dick novel, not a short story, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Total Recall is based on a Philip K. Dick short story though.
But they ship Mozilla though© Netscape 6©01 is based on a relatively old version of Mozilla, so it might be that RH simply wantet to ship with the "latest software", in other words a resent Mozilla build©
Then check this old article on Wired, titled: Sun Sues Microsoft, Alleges Java Pact Breach http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,7499,00. html
A quote:
"Ross points to Microsoft's lack of support for the Java Archive file as perhaps the most significant omission".
And there were modifications to the standard
Java APIs at least originally. Maybe MS fixed
them later, I don't know, but I had stopped
caring by then. This was discussed at
www.javalobby.org some time ago.
Actually Microsoft also added keywords and changed some APIs. And also left out functionality like RMI and some other and support for JAR files.
Anther little known fact is that Science Fiction writer Ian Watson, author of The Embedding and many other excellent novels, worked with Kubrick on the script.
Well according to a previous article at Toms, AMD will support SSE2 in future Hammer processors. Since both Intel and AMD will support SSE2 it looks like it is here to stay. I only worry a bit (or is it 16 bits?) about the loss of precision, since normal floating point uses 80 bits and as far as I understood SSE2 is only 64 bit.
Could it be that JDK/JRE v1.3 for Linux has not been released by SUN for Linux yet?
>..but, if Borland/Inprise is spending all their time and energy producing making the same product cross-platform, is this going to have an effect on the quality of their software.
At least when it comes to JBuilder this is not much of an issue, since JBuilder 3.5 is a 100% Java application.
Maybee I'm too old to remember but as I recall there where several WordProcessors available when WordPerfect (from WordPerfect Inc. not Corel) was released. Although WordPerfect was certainly the one that got a lot of attention.
One thing with standard JDK javac compiler though, it is very slow. I compiled a large directory with javac, Borland's Java compiler, and IBM's jikes. The Borland and IBM compilers were 50 times faster.
The concept is quite old, byt Gibson invented the term 'cyberspace' in his novel Neuromancer (1984).
The readme file states that a JIT is included
and used by defualt. And that it is based on
the Solaris x86 version. This is great news,
I think. Anyone notice any speed improvements?