Does he think that TiVo doesn't know the exact things he's talking about? TiVo doesn't need to sell boxes, they license the software and sell the service. Most people won't notice the difference between current "analog" TiVo and digital TiVo, unless they have a really good TV, in which case, they would probably shell out for the HDTiVo anyway. That $1000 price point will drop, too- the product is still clearly in the early adopter phase. Eventually, sales will pick up, components will be cheaper, and they'll be able to drop the price. TiVo happens to be really, really good at what it does.
Like others here, I'll be building a media box, so I can play FLAC and Vorbis files on my stereo, games on the big screen, etc., but I have no doubt it will be far more expensive (in time and money) than TiVo, and it won't be as easy to use.
Anyone else feel a little nervous that the usenet archives are in the hands of a private company, which could potentially fold or go under -instead of being made freely available in a federally funded repository?
Anyone has had the opportunity to archive USENET. But, only one company saw the value in this and invested in it, and Google bought them. They simply harvested all of those messages over the past 15-20 years. Don't like it? Create your own archive. Good luck finding a server that has a spool for the last 15+ years of USENET, though...
While UNIX-style IPC is failrly primitive, there has been a good amount of effort (esp. by the freedesktop.org folks) to recitify some of the problems you mention:
COM/DCOM/Active-X: These were designed to support GUI applications; as a result, they're pretty lightweight, but don't handle distributed applications well. CORBA, on the other hand, was designed for remove method invocation, and is really too heavy for GUI-type apps, as GNOME found out. Theres been some progress here, though: DCOP, used by KDE, is very nice; it's KParts system is the best example of its kind in Unix-land. The KDE and GNOME folks (via freedesktop) are moving towards a common protocol and desktop messaging framework,.
Window Managers vs. OOo: I'm not fully aware of the issues, but it sounds like (and wouldn't surprise me to find out that) OOo doesn't follow the well-known ICCCM protocol. There is a standard, OOo doesn't support it. Kind of like how Microdoft Office doesn't use the standard widget set of Windows.
That Java RMI "hack" comes in real handy when doing IPC operations across a heterogeneous network, btw.
The drag-and-drop argument is really getting tired. The three major DEs (KDE, GNOME, XFCE) all support the XDND protocol... This was a problem a few years ago, and mostly to those who didn't understand how X cut and selection buffers work. But now, XDND has simplified and standardized how drang-and-drop works on X clients...
This is what our company does. We bought our generator for Y2K. Turns out, we didn't need it then.. We did need it last year during the summer time, when the east coast electric grid was toast. A slight dimming of the lights, and you can hear the roar of the diesel generator start up. Half an hour later, the power came back on, and the generator shut itself down. The UPSs were only in action for a couple of minutes.
Generators aren't cheap, but they're not incredibly expesive, either, when you factor in the cost of downtime.
For example, I know that the UNIX file system can easily and efficiently handle files that are gigabytes in size (because lots of people are using UNIX file systems that way), but I have less confidence that Berkeley DB can handle many records well that are that big.
Databases up to 256 terabytes Berkeley DB uses 48 bits to address individual bytes in a database. This means that the largest theoretical Berkeley DB database is 248 bytes, or 256 terabytes, in size. Berkeley DB is in regular production use today managing databases that are hundreds of gigabytes in size. Keys and values up to 4 gigabytes New applications, including multimedia storage and playback systems, must manage individual data values that are large. Berkeley DB is able to store single keys and values as large as 2^32 bytes, or four gigabytes, in size.
4G/256T is big enough for most applications... FWIW, Subversion allows different backends, however no others have been written yet.
I also agree; this list is "current generation", not "next generation". The IBM/Lotus team has shown some truly innovative work with Remail. Take a look at the screenshots. FOSS email developers should take a look at this instead of Outlook when adding features to their email clients...
In addition to finding a lawyer with international and/or IP experience, I would also recommend writing to the embassies in both countries, asking for a course of action. There are most likely trade agreements between the two countries that can help enforce the licensing terms. Someone else here mentioned that both countries are part of the Berne Union and TRIPS...
I completely agree. Nowadays, the only way arcade machines get my quarters are if they are "old-school" (childhood nostalgia value, from the golden age of arcades: Pac Man, Tempest, Galaga, Robotron 2084, etc.), or Golden Tee. Home console gaming lets me play my games on my terms when I want to. Arcades these days are full of genres I generally don't care for: driving (cars, boats, snowmobiles) or fighting games, which are three minute multi-button mash-fests.
As the article alludes to, the only way the arcade industry has any hope in the US is to add the online element, and especially a way to have the player feel like they are actually competitive within the game. There's no point to have a player ranking system where there's just no possible way I'll ever be better than 2324th place. A tiered system would really help to get the player more involved. I know I'd play a lot more if it got me from 24th place to 9th place, than if it got me from 2320th place to 1387th.
So, 25c machines with simple, yet addictive gameplay, and online action for more complex games are necessary for the arcade to survive beyond 2010.
That's a lot more complex than simply setting an environment variable. A lot more error-prone, too, and difficult to reproduce.
[install most things from binary packages, and use source packages as desired]
Gentoo's portage system also allows you to do the same thing: you can easily build binary packages by using the --buildpkg option of emerge. This is really useful when deploying to multiple machines, or systems with resource constraints. Compiling XFree and KDE on an older P3 takes a looong time. Apparently this isn't too much of a problem, though, because AFAIK there's no repository of pre-built Gentoo packages, other than what's on the Gentoo Reference Platform CD..
I was a long time Debian user, and I've "switched" to Gentoo. The primary reason I feel the ports/portage system is better is that I am not forced to install packages that have dependencies on other packages I don't need. For example, take gaim. In Debian, gaim has a dependency on NAS (Network Audio System), so I'm forced to install it. I don't need NAS. I don't want to install NAS. Gentoo has a USE flag that allows me to declare that I don't want anything to use NAS.
Also, it is pretty easy to make a custom "ebuild" file (which is a shell script) in Gentoo, and relatively difficult to create a new.deb. Say a new release of your favorite software comes out, but the package maintainer hasn't gotten around to packaging it. In Gentoo, in most cases, you simply copy the old ebuild file, and possibly tweak the version number. You don't have to download, compile, and package it seperately, as you'd have to do in Debian.
There is also a lot less political activity in Gentoo, and they seem to Get Things Done.
So now we're looking for anyone NOT named Andy, because even someone as stupid as a virus-writer wouldn't be so dumb as to put their real name on something this destructive.
Yeh. My girlfriend and I watched that episode, and she thought it was satire. I had to bust out a book about religion and heresy to show that everything they said in the episode was true...
Never thought I'd learn something from South Park.
Re:let's see sun invents java, ibm, makes a tool .
on
Sun and Eclipse Squabble
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Consider this: Java on *any* platform also needs some sort of native library for GUI access. It just turns out that they happen to bundle this with the JRE. In fact, if Sun was willing to ship Java without AWT (as it's commonly used in an server environment), they could probably port it to more platforms. Right now, SWT supports the vast majority of the machines currently running Java (Windows/Linux/Solaris/AIX/OS X), but even more "fringe" platforms like QNX.
And it does it pretty well. This is what AWT should have been. The fact that it actually uses the underlying environment effectively means they don't have to update their look and feel every time one of their platforms releases a new UI. As a result, applications look like other native apps, including "themes" and such.
I recently bought a pair of Dell 1800FP panels (one for work, one for home), because I needed the space, and my eyes needed the rest. I chose the 1800FP because it was relatively inexpensive, fairly large, and has DVI connector. I have a GeForce3 I bought two years ago that has DVI output. My picture is crystal clear; I have no complaints.
Manufacturers are catering to the lowest common denominator- the "good enough" theory in action. This is also why the market is being flooded with cheap 42" plasma displays, that only have 864x480 (ie, non-HDTV) resolution, often without DVI. Most people just want the sexy thin screen, but don't care or don't realize how low the resolution is, and what they're missing out on.
DVI isn't necessarily in the domain of high-end, but you have to look a little harder to get it.
Bush's interests are very much on the "for-profit" side of things.
Perhaps, but one of the big reasons companies use Linux is to reduce costs: ie, turn more profit. I think Bush would rather see companies like IBM profit than those like SCO.
Has Halliburton paid their SCO tax yet? How about the Pentagon?
Years ago, when speedpass first came out, I filled out an application, but declined to put my SSN on it. If I link it to a credit card, why should you have my SSN?
I just signed up (I've been meaning to for a while, anyway), and all they want is a credit card number. Sweet. No more frozen fingers at the pump!
The fact that most universities and engineering copmanies have these packages readily available is probably why a big reason why open source alternatives have not shown up. The people who usually write this type of software are academics- who already have access, and don't have the itch to scratch.
There is a spec for streaming Vorbis over RTP (which I belive is usually on top of IP directly). I don't know of any implementations of this, though...
An important distiction is that MiniDiscs are pretty rugged. You can drop and run over a MiniDisc, and it will still play just fine. CDs and DVDs are far more delicate.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, the Blackdown release comes with the stage 3 Gentoo install...
Does he think that TiVo doesn't know the exact things he's talking about? TiVo doesn't need to sell boxes, they license the software and sell the service. Most people won't notice the difference between current "analog" TiVo and digital TiVo, unless they have a really good TV, in which case, they would probably shell out for the HDTiVo anyway. That $1000 price point will drop, too- the product is still clearly in the early adopter phase. Eventually, sales will pick up, components will be cheaper, and they'll be able to drop the price. TiVo happens to be really, really good at what it does.
Like others here, I'll be building a media box, so I can play FLAC and Vorbis files on my stereo, games on the big screen, etc., but I have no doubt it will be far more expensive (in time and money) than TiVo, and it won't be as easy to use.
Anyone else feel a little nervous that the usenet archives are in the hands of a private company, which could potentially fold or go under -instead of being made freely available in a federally funded repository?
Anyone has had the opportunity to archive USENET. But, only one company saw the value in this and invested in it, and Google bought them. They simply harvested all of those messages over the past 15-20 years. Don't like it? Create your own archive. Good luck finding a server that has a spool for the last 15+ years of USENET, though...
When I saw the picture I thought it looked a lot like an Iridium flare- a glint from the solar panels from the Iriduim communications satellites.
While UNIX-style IPC is failrly primitive, there has been a good amount of effort (esp. by the freedesktop.org folks) to recitify some of the problems you mention:
.
COM/DCOM/Active-X: These were designed to support GUI applications; as a result, they're pretty lightweight, but don't handle distributed applications well. CORBA, on the other hand, was designed for remove method invocation, and is really too heavy for GUI-type apps, as GNOME found out. Theres been some progress here, though: DCOP, used by KDE, is very nice; it's KParts system is the best example of its kind in Unix-land. The KDE and GNOME folks (via freedesktop) are moving towards a common protocol and desktop messaging framework,
Window Managers vs. OOo: I'm not fully aware of the issues, but it sounds like (and wouldn't surprise me to find out that) OOo doesn't follow the well-known ICCCM protocol. There is a standard, OOo doesn't support it. Kind of like how Microdoft Office doesn't use the standard widget set of Windows.
That Java RMI "hack" comes in real handy when doing IPC operations across a heterogeneous network, btw.
The drag-and-drop argument is really getting tired. The three major DEs (KDE, GNOME, XFCE) all support the XDND protocol... This was a problem a few years ago, and mostly to those who didn't understand how X cut and selection buffers work. But now, XDND has simplified and standardized how drang-and-drop works on X clients...
This is what our company does. We bought our generator for Y2K. Turns out, we didn't need it then.. We did need it last year during the summer time, when the east coast electric grid was toast. A slight dimming of the lights, and you can hear the roar of the diesel generator start up. Half an hour later, the power came back on, and the generator shut itself down. The UPSs were only in action for a couple of minutes.
Generators aren't cheap, but they're not incredibly expesive, either, when you factor in the cost of downtime.
Big whoop, one weekend? If you want to really play some agmes, go to FunSpot in Laconia NH any time of year.
From Sleepycat:
4G/256T is big enough for most applications... FWIW, Subversion allows different backends, however no others have been written yet.I also agree; this list is "current generation", not "next generation". The IBM/Lotus team has shown some truly innovative work with Remail. Take a look at the screenshots. FOSS email developers should take a look at this instead of Outlook when adding features to their email clients...
In addition to finding a lawyer with international and/or IP experience, I would also recommend writing to the embassies in both countries, asking for a course of action. There are most likely trade agreements between the two countries that can help enforce the licensing terms. Someone else here mentioned that both countries are part of the Berne Union and TRIPS...
IANAL.
Here's the US link. It's surprisingly expensive, compared to their other keyboards.. ($155).
"If cash were invented today, it would be illegal."
I completely agree. Nowadays, the only way arcade machines get my quarters are if they are "old-school" (childhood nostalgia value, from the golden age of arcades: Pac Man, Tempest, Galaga, Robotron 2084, etc.), or Golden Tee. Home console gaming lets me play my games on my terms when I want to. Arcades these days are full of genres I generally don't care for: driving (cars, boats, snowmobiles) or fighting games, which are three minute multi-button mash-fests.
As the article alludes to, the only way the arcade industry has any hope in the US is to add the online element, and especially a way to have the player feel like they are actually competitive within the game. There's no point to have a player ranking system where there's just no possible way I'll ever be better than 2324th place. A tiered system would really help to get the player more involved. I know I'd play a lot more if it got me from 24th place to 9th place, than if it got me from 2320th place to 1387th.
So, 25c machines with simple, yet addictive gameplay, and online action for more complex games are necessary for the arcade to survive beyond 2010.
[apt-get source package, season to taste]
That's a lot more complex than simply setting an environment variable. A lot more error-prone, too, and difficult to reproduce.
[install most things from binary packages, and use source packages as desired]
Gentoo's portage system also allows you to do the same thing: you can easily build binary packages by using the --buildpkg option of emerge. This is really useful when deploying to multiple machines, or systems with resource constraints. Compiling XFree and KDE on an older P3 takes a looong time. Apparently this isn't too much of a problem, though, because AFAIK there's no repository of pre-built Gentoo packages, other than what's on the Gentoo Reference Platform CD..
I was a long time Debian user, and I've "switched" to Gentoo. The primary reason I feel the ports/portage system is better is that I am not forced to install packages that have dependencies on other packages I don't need. For example, take gaim. In Debian, gaim has a dependency on NAS (Network Audio System), so I'm forced to install it. I don't need NAS. I don't want to install NAS. Gentoo has a USE flag that allows me to declare that I don't want anything to use NAS.
.deb. Say a new release of your favorite software comes out, but the package maintainer hasn't gotten around to packaging it. In Gentoo, in most cases, you simply copy the old ebuild file, and possibly tweak the version number. You don't have to download, compile, and package it seperately, as you'd have to do in Debian.
Also, it is pretty easy to make a custom "ebuild" file (which is a shell script) in Gentoo, and relatively difficult to create a new
There is also a lot less political activity in Gentoo, and they seem to Get Things Done.
So now we're looking for anyone NOT named Andy, because even someone as stupid as a virus-writer wouldn't be so dumb as to put their real name on something this destructive.
Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.
Yeh. My girlfriend and I watched that episode, and she thought it was satire. I had to bust out a book about religion and heresy to show that everything they said in the episode was true...
Never thought I'd learn something from South Park.
Consider this: Java on *any* platform also needs some sort of native library for GUI access. It just turns out that they happen to bundle this with the JRE. In fact, if Sun was willing to ship Java without AWT (as it's commonly used in an server environment), they could probably port it to more platforms. Right now, SWT supports the vast majority of the machines currently running Java (Windows/Linux/Solaris/AIX/OS X), but even more "fringe" platforms like QNX.
And it does it pretty well. This is what AWT should have been. The fact that it actually uses the underlying environment effectively means they don't have to update their look and feel every time one of their platforms releases a new UI. As a result, applications look like other native apps, including "themes" and such.
I recently bought a pair of Dell 1800FP panels (one for work, one for home), because I needed the space, and my eyes needed the rest. I chose the 1800FP because it was relatively inexpensive, fairly large, and has DVI connector. I have a GeForce3 I bought two years ago that has DVI output. My picture is crystal clear; I have no complaints.
Manufacturers are catering to the lowest common denominator- the "good enough" theory in action. This is also why the market is being flooded with cheap 42" plasma displays, that only have 864x480 (ie, non-HDTV) resolution, often without DVI. Most people just want the sexy thin screen, but don't care or don't realize how low the resolution is, and what they're missing out on.
DVI isn't necessarily in the domain of high-end, but you have to look a little harder to get it.
I bet you don't even know how many cubic inches there are in a cup.
Google knows all:
14.4375001
Bush's interests are very much on the "for-profit" side of things.
Perhaps, but one of the big reasons companies use Linux is to reduce costs: ie, turn more profit. I think Bush would rather see companies like IBM profit than those like SCO.
Has Halliburton paid their SCO tax yet? How about the Pentagon?
Years ago, when speedpass first came out, I filled out an application, but declined to put my SSN on it. If I link it to a credit card, why should you have my SSN?
I just signed up (I've been meaning to for a while, anyway), and all they want is a credit card number. Sweet. No more frozen fingers at the pump!
The fact that most universities and engineering copmanies have these packages readily available is probably why a big reason why open source alternatives have not shown up. The people who usually write this type of software are academics- who already have access, and don't have the itch to scratch.
There is a spec for streaming Vorbis over RTP (which I belive is usually on top of IP directly). I don't know of any implementations of this, though...
An important distiction is that MiniDiscs are pretty rugged. You can drop and run over a MiniDisc, and it will still play just fine. CDs and DVDs are far more delicate.