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User: QuantumG

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  1. Re:Autovectorization on GCC 4.0.0 Released · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I used to work for Codeplay, a company that made compilers for games development, and we were pretty surprised at the kinds of speedups you would get on non-gaming applications. Obviously compiling open source software was a great way to test our compiler. Basically any loop which performs the same operation on multiple data can be unrolled 4 times and vectorized. That's a massive speedup. So yes, I would expect OpenOffice to be faster.

  2. Autovectorization on GCC 4.0.0 Released · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Correct me if I'm wrong here, but most Linux distributions are still i386 right? It's only the people who use Gentoo who actually compile everything with i686 options right? So, if autovectorization and all the other improvements in GCC 4.0 make binaries massively faster on modern platforms, how long will it be before the major binary based distributions (like Ubuntu) start making i686 the default and i386 an available alternative (like AMD64 is now).

  3. Re:The ZDNet article gets it wrong on Torvalds Unveils New Linux Control System · · Score: 1

    No, you're wrong. Unless I give you authorisation to use my car you are not permitted to use my car, it doesn't matter if I left the door open and the keys in the ignition. That's what a license is, it's authorisation to do something that you're not otherwise permitted to do, like drive my car. The fact that you havn't been presented with a license is even greater reason why you are not authorised to connect to Larry's server, not less.

  4. Re:Perhaps it's all about ego on Torvalds Unveils New Linux Control System · · Score: 1

    And you have no problem with it telling you how to run your life? I mean, Bazaar and Bazaar-NG were started specifically to get away from Tom Lord's eccentricities. I can only imagine Linus' response to it.

  5. Re:Perhaps it's all about ego on Torvalds Unveils New Linux Control System · · Score: 1

    You've obviously never used Arch.

  6. Re:I say on EU Rapporteur Publishes Software Patent · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    There's nothing irrational about being anti-French. The Americans just happen to have trouble putting into words why they hate the French, whereas everyone else on the planet is happy to shout it from the rooftops.

  7. Free Software Foundation on Software Patents Stopped in India · · Score: 0, Troll

    Ya know, failure to capitalize an organisation name is pretty insulting.

  8. Re:break it up on Lack Of Developers Delays OpenOffice.org · · Score: 1

    The two are intimately related. Developers start out as sophisticated users. They are the people who will do apt-get install oo-writer look at the dependancies, grab the -dev versions of those dependancies if applicable, and then go download the source to the one component they are interested in working on. Documentation is great and all, but I don't know all that many programmers who go looking for it first. I went to the OpenOffice web site today to download the source, saw the bastard that is the "solver" and gave up. If you can't even do things the community standard way then how are you ever going to attract developers.

    On the other hand, I've never gotten into this whole packaging biz. Maybe I could take a look at making some apts for them. Or not.

  9. Re:Need wormholes on Vint Cerf on Internet Challenges · · Score: 1

    also presumes that you'd have control over "when" the other end of the wormhole was.. I personally think that if wormholes were ever feasible they would require large structures on both ends to maintain them and facilitate "instant" communications only. You couldn't open a wormhole into the past or the future. But hey, who the hell knows.

  10. Need wormholes on Vint Cerf on Internet Challenges · · Score: 1

    Of course, that's got me thinking about Pandora's Star again and now I'm depressed as it has been 12 freakin' months and Peter F. Hamilton still hasn't completed Judas Unleashed.

    But seriously, imagine if CERN discovered a workable way to make microscopic wormholes. All you'd need is one big enough to send a stream of photons through. Hook up your optic fibre and you've got yourself a zero latentcy round-the-world communications network. It'd certainly change gaming.

  11. Re:heck yeah on Lack Of Developers Delays OpenOffice.org · · Score: 1

    In the case of debian, OO need to figure out the -dev.apt system. If I want to hack on some component of GNOME that has a lot of dependancies, I can just grab all those dependancies as -dev packages and compile the source for the component I'm interested in against those .so files. No need to compile the freakin' universe.

  12. Re:break it up on Lack Of Developers Delays OpenOffice.org · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah, I was just lookin' at their "solver". Pfft. All well and good for developers but the user's options are basically install-OpenOffice-or-not. It's not like GNOME doesn't have the exact same issues. The problem there is solved by the packagers who make apt and rpm dependancy trees. Of course, what's going to happen is that people are going to keep contributing to other projects and they will soon supercede anything OpenOffice has to offer simply because they are easier for people to get.

  13. break it up on Lack Of Developers Delays OpenOffice.org · · Score: 5, Interesting

    seperate all the different apps so users have the choice of which components to install and developers can focus on a single part of the code.

  14. Re:Did no one read the mentioned commentary? on Lyrics to OpenBSD 3.7 Song Released · · Score: 1

    Who said anything about changing their minds? What difference does it make if you have 20 different drivers or 5 different drivers? Let them lose your business, they can handle it.

  15. Re:Mac support on Federal Grant Applications to Require Windows · · Score: -1, Redundant

    I don't get it. If you're one of them groovy Mac users why would you wanna work for "the man" anyway?

  16. Re:Did no one read the mentioned commentary? on Lyrics to OpenBSD 3.7 Song Released · · Score: 1

    Sure. A lot of people think calling the HR person at company X to get hardware documentation is just going to alienate people. If these hardware companies want to keep their documentation secret, that's fine, they should be allowed to, and if you don't like it, don't buy their product. As for some Linux vendors signing NDAs, they're just doing what they consider best for their customers.. if their customers don't like that they should tell them and stop buying their product until they rectify the situation. Everyone else should STFU and mind their own business.

  17. Re:Oh for God's sake on Federal Grant Applications to Require Windows · · Score: 0, Troll

    Yeah, cause if you're a Mac user you really want to work for "the man".

  18. Re:3.6 was better on Lyrics to OpenBSD 3.7 Song Released · · Score: 2, Interesting

    As far as musical merit goes you're probably right, but I liked Pond-erosa for the comedy value.. hearin' that fish "lose his cool" made my day.

  19. Oh for God's sake on Federal Grant Applications to Require Windows · · Score: 1, Funny

    Quit WhINEing.

  20. 3.6 was better on Lyrics to OpenBSD 3.7 Song Released · · Score: 3

    Pond-erosa Puff was actually funny, witty and told a story. Wizard of OS is a bit of a step down.

  21. Re:Polish on Users as Innovators - Why Open Source Works · · Score: 1

    The point is that it's all about management. *BSD shoves all the code for the entire operating system into CVS and restricts who can commit to it. Linux distributions are a mixture of lots of different projects to create a coherent whole. With that kind of culture, obviously there's going to be lots of different distributions.

  22. Re:Problem on Users as Innovators - Why Open Source Works · · Score: 1

    Well have a look at all the graphics in 2nd life.. everything there is built from primitives, except for the player characters, which are algorithmically generated. It is doable, I've just never seen much of it in open source.

  23. Re:Polish on Users as Innovators - Why Open Source Works · · Score: 1

    All the BSDs are operating systems. Linux is just a kernel. The reason why there are a large number of "linux distributions" is because you can do a heck of a lot with a kernel.

  24. Re:Bottom-up innovation on Users as Innovators - Why Open Source Works · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You do know there are technology companies out there that let the engineers hire people themselves? When I was at VMWare an interview took all day. The recruit would be taken around to every engineer in the company and asked to help out with whatever the engineer was working on. The engineer would form an opinion of the person and their abilities and then send them on to the next engineer. This worked especially well because, at the time, every engineer at VMWare had their own office, or shared with 1 or 2 other engineers, but there were no cubicals. At the end of the day the recruit was sent away and the team leaders asked everyone what they thought of the recruit. If there was an overall good feeling the recruit got hired.

  25. Re:Problem on Users as Innovators - Why Open Source Works · · Score: 1

    I think you're so fundamentally right that us, programmers, need to revolutionise "artwork". We've already done this with scalable vector graphics. It's common for people to take SVG icon sets that they like and extend them, or copy bits from one icon to make a new one. You try to do the same thing with bitmaps and you quickly discover how limiting it is. I think the same thing goes for 3d graphics. We need to drop this artist-tweaks-the-vertexs-till-it's-right mentality and start coding our "art".