that was my point. it was desinged in c. not c++ and was ported to java as is. it was not architected from the ground up around java or any oo language. it is amazing it does as well as it does and is a testimate to how far java has come.
Written by arguably one of the greatest C programmers around. Was the port done by a company? I wonder what the performance hit would be just doing it in C++?
Active Directory is integrated but going with any type of directory service makes the overall desgin more complex. Does it help "some" organizations? Yes, but you pretty much have to use AD if you want to use Microsoft. Now could someone please explain to me why Microsoft still uses Domains with AD? Doesn't a true directory service not use Domains? Also can you have two people in different OU's on the same "domain" with the same exact name. Something like ou=marketing,uid=myLogin ou=hr,uid=myLogin
with only one server?
NTFS vs Unix file permissions. This use to be true but no longer, read up on ACL's in Linux and Unix, they have been around for a while. I would point to secure Linux and say that Microsoft doesn't have anything that competes in this arena. Granted this is somewhat complex and a lot of shops don't need it.
IIS is easy to configure, but then again using YAST or any of the webmin tools make Linux/UNIX a snap to configure. I would argue it is easier to admin a server with webmin than it is to learn all the Microsoft admin tools.
SMS is finally a decent package for Windows only shops. So is WinInstall and other products.
Oracle VS SQL Server. Oracle is free for one processor, 2GB of RAM and a 4GB database size. It runs on multiple platforms and it's target market is for higher end databases. It can mount XML, TAB delimeted and other files natively as tables. That is very very nice to developers. SQL Server has the DTS stuff. DTS is very nice for moving data around, but not as nice as actually mounting files as tables. Oracles Enterprise manager is very comparable to Microsofts, and at least with Oracles EM you can actually sort data after you view it AND you can see the SQL that is being generated by the query. I will say that the query builder in SQL server is very nice. I can't comment on DB2... All in all I would say that both are very friendly to developers, but one is free for small to mid size shops and one is not.
Now I find the core difference in Windows and Linux is that most shops do a LOT more on one Linux/Unix box than one Windows box. Most Windows shops (ours included), have a Windows server for one specific task, perhaps two tasks. Most Linux and Unix boxes run many different tasks and as such you need far less of them. Perhaps this is just the attitude of Windows users to purchase more servers because they are "cheap" but I can say that every place I have been this is the case. Most Unix/Linux guys you talk to mention two things, their uptime AND the amount of crap that is running on their boxes. Most Windows guys I talk to mention the number of servers they manage. So in short this needs to be factored in as well. This issue may also come from all the DLL hell that has plagued Microsoft for years, or the fact that it was difficult to impossible to run different versions of SQL server on the same box.
You are correct in mentioning security as a major concern. The constant amount of patches and reboots needs to also be factored in. You start to really need tools like SMS when you have 100 to 500 Windows servers that need patched as often as they do. Now if you replace those servers with say 10-20 high end Linux boxes then the need for an SMS type of application starts to diminish. This is not to say that you couldn't use a product like E-Directory and Red Carpet to manage those boxes, but the need isn't as great.
Don't let facts about Sony get in the way of a good rumor here on Slashdot.
How about I start one. Did you know Bue-Ray DVD's will actually look for any pirated software, music or videos that you have and delete them.
I also have had and have accounts with Sony. They have never deleted any of my accounts after a one or two month laps. I played EQ and now play EQII. My only small issue is that I wish they would release a Linux version of the game.
"However I also have no problem telling children that some people believe that everything wasn't random in the universe, and as such they believe that a greater power has played a part in it all."
Then you and I agree on the core point. Now if we could just filter out all the politics this is a non issue. As I said this should be a 10 min discussion in a science class. If a significant amount of people believed that a cow had a major part in the process (say 90%+ then that should be mentioned).
" ID doesn't help, and just because we don't have all the answers doesn't make ID worth considering."
Not worth considering. Science and "not considering" don't seem to go well together. Reverse some of the words you have in the sentence above and you have the following.
"Just because religion doesn't eplain everything doesn't mean that we should consider science":-) To me both sentences sound odd.
Intelligent Design, the way it was explained to me, is not something that "hurts" or "helps", but it is just another theory. One you may disagree with but it is a viable theory. Again my main point is that it can be taught in a class in about 10 min. Heck they could more than cover the topic in a one day class.
In my opinion the kids that are exposed to multiple ideas and theories will probably be better off than those just exposed to one.
Now if I had a political agenda and my party had basically full control over the schools for the last 40 years or so, and now my political views are being threatened... well, lets just say I could see why some people would be making a big deal out of this decision. But that doens't mean it is that big of a deal.
Then with "facts" explain how everything came in to being.
Just to save some time please go in to detail of what it was like before the "big bang". What was around before that
and before that, and before that and before that.... you get the idea. No beginning is a difficult "idea" for science to explain.
Now having said that I have no problem at all with evolution. It sounds very reasonable to me. However I also have no problem telling children that some people believe that everything wasn't random in the universe, and as such they believe that a greater power has played a part in it all.
This shouldn't be that big of a deal, at most a small conversation in a class, but I have a feeling it is going to turn in to a big deal. The far left are on an agenda to wipe out any mention of God at all in our society. Well to be specific Christianity, and the "radical" right seem hell bent in the other direction. There is a middle ground on this issue, as with most issues.
I normally don't respond to anonymous cowards, but I will state again that it depends on what you are doing.
If you have a business with no real I.T. support and you don't know jack about any programming language (SQL/PLSQL/Transact SQL etc) AND you need to get your business on the web, or you need to have a web based intranet app them FileMaker appears to fit that better than anything I have ever ran across. Now factor in that it runs on a server unlike Microsoft Access; that it is under $1,200.00, and you have a good package that fills a need.
I have seen guys skilled with Filemaker develop an entire order entry/processing/reporting system in a day that worked well for a business.
I am not about to start the holy war here, but you might want to define your question a bit more.
What do you want to do with your database(s)? How many users do you expect? How many writes per second do you expect? How many reads per second do you expect? Are you comfortable with SQL? What programming languages do you use to acess data? How important is it to you to be flexible in what OS you run your DB on? How important is cost to you? Do you plan on running this on multipe processors or multi-core chips? What reporting tools do you plan on using? How critical is the data? If the system goes down for some time, how much will it cost you?
I have worked a bit with various databases and from a developers view I can say that all offer some features that I like. In short here is my list of what I think is cool about each of the ones I have worked with.
1. SQL Server (not 2005, but I have loaded it and to me, as a developer not much has changed) - The enterprise manager is a good gui and the DTS system is very strong. I wish other vendors had something similar to this. If you need to get data in and out of systems and are not strong with Transact SQL then this is a very cool tool.
2. Oracle - Great support, runs very fast, and runs on just about everything out there. It is cool to mount XML/Excel and CSV files as tables to work with them. The personal version of this is also free. It is also nice to know that you almost never here these words with Oracle "Our DB doesn't support that". If it is a feature then Oracle more than likely supports it.
3. PostGreSQL - FREE, supports everything I need to do development. Speed is good.
4. MySQL - Wow the GUI tools have really improved, and it now supports most of the database features that I need for development. Also this is FREE.
5. FileMaker - I have had little experience with this directly, but I will say that if you are not a developer or a strong SQL guy, it is by far the best DB I have seen for getting an entire application to the web in the shortest amount of time. A specific example would be that things I have seen done in Microsoft SQL Server + C# can be done in around one tenth the amount of time.
Now judging by your question I would say that you should take a long look at FileMaker.
Well having just bought a new car. I asked the guys at the local shops here all the same question.
How has the higher gas prices effected sales of your SUV's?
Every freaking dealer said that they still couldn't keep the high end SUV's in stock. The gas prices just hurt the sales of the "lowest" end models.
Now, I will give you that there are some poor that drive old caddies, but a ton drive small 10+ year old cars and are hurt WAY worse by a 50% increase in gas price than the people who buy Hummers or Land Cusiers.
Your stepson that is unemployed found a $500 car just hammers home my point. He needs to watch every penny he has saved up and if gas doubles in price it will hurt him far worse than the typical buyer of a Hummer. We do agree that fuel cost are a part of the overall expense of the car, but it is an expense none the less, and when that expense doubles in price, or as your sig suggest, to quadruple in price then the poor will ALLWAYS suffer more than the rich.
Either way I hope your stepson finds a job, and that perhaps we as a country will make a focused effort to move away from oil. I personally would like to see better mass transit, nuclear energy and better government incentives on building higher quality homes/cars. I do believe in a free market, and I agree that when gas hits $8+ a gallon, we will adapt, I just feel for the poor that will suffer with no heat and no means of transportation during that time. I also hate the fact that our money for oil is basically ending up feeding the terrorist. I truely believe that when we find a more viable form of energy and stop dumping tons of money in the middle east, that there will finally be peace there. It is kind of hard to fund a war without any money...
Gas is now at $2.00 a gallon here in the midwest. Down from over $3.50
I find that the people who buy SUV's don't really give a rats ass about gas prices, now the people that drive 10+ year old cars and live paycheck to paycheck get killed when gas doubles in price. Ironically, it is usually those people that buy fuel efficient cars... Those that can afford a $50k + SUV may "whine" about gas prices but those with an under $10k car generally get hurt very bad by the price.
Novell focused on GNOME, while SuSe still is KDE heavy. (yes I know GNOME support is good)
My question is What the hell was Novell thinking? The previous poster is somewhat correct in that more people do run KDE. So if Novell is commited to SuSE and GNOME, then they probably should have released a statement that they are going to focus totally on KDE and little to no effort is going in to KDE. However, after sitting through a few Novell presentations lately, they don't seem to send that message at all. In short here is their message.
Linux is ready for the desktop. Sun is evil. Linux runs great on IBM hardware. If you can't run Microsoft C# on linux then Linux won't be a viable solution in the future. Red Carpet allows you to manage different Linux "clients" via Edirectory. If you choose IBM, and Novell that is better than Sun because you will have "One throat to choke" if something goes wrong". I had to laugh at that one...
Now for some reason they are quiet about these issues. How to migrate off of Windows SERVERS to Linux SERVERS. How to manage Windows, Linux and Solaris servers with NDS.
I will try and summarize your main point. You don't like Java because the JVM for each platform can be upwards of 100MB and you don't like garbage collection over handling the cleanup of objects yourself in code.
To the first point. Do you develop software? I do and it sucks big time if you code for Windows. You currently have to worry about DLL issues and what service packs are installed and what the heck Microsoft is going to throw at you in the next "hotfix". You say that you want to code for Linux? Well do you want to make an RPM, shell script, YAST, Yum or Apt get? What version of libraries are they running? Do you want to include "everything" just in case they don't have the correct libraries you think they will need? Or do you just want to make the user go through something like "RPM Hell". Do you want to target a Macintosh? Well good luck there! What platform are you going for? OSX on X86 or OSX on PPC or are you going to produce "fat" binaries? I find it a bit easier to just have the user install a 1.4 JVM for their platform.
Now Java is by no means the silver bullet of programming, you still have some small library issues, however getting an application to run on multiple versions of Windows, Linux, Solaris, OSX, and just about everything else is very easy compared to what else is out there. I will actually say that there is no reason for Java in one core situation. That is if the whole world runs the latest patched version of Windows. Then, and only then does Java loose one of it's major strengths. However, as you mentioned in your post that place doesn't exist, or if a company tries to inforce those strick standards they are "broken" within a couple of years.
Now as far as garbage collection. I somewhat agree with your point, but I would say that I have created close to a million objects in a few seconds and distroyed them (let garbage collection run) and the program has run fine. I will say that it uses up a rather large amount of memory, but that wasn't your complaint and in my case it didn't matter.
I do wish that Java would do a couple of things better. One is to provide a good tool for JSF development (WYSIWYG) Studio Creator beta does not cut it! It needs some serious work. MyEclipse also doesn't quite cut it. I would also like to see AJAX support in JSF. I also wish that they would simplify developing web services a bit and perhaps their security layout as well. Much later down my list would be to address any performance/memory issues. I guess I would also wish for one more thing, and that would be to make EJB 3 very similar to hibernate (I believe that this is the case).
If dumping Groupwise and Zenworks to preserve SUSE makes sense then they will do that also.
I agree with the parent poster. If Novell was to sell off SuSE then they have just killed themselves. But lets take a serious look at the amount of dollars that it takes to run SuSE vs say groupwise. Groupwise requires a ton more developers and support professionals than SuSE. SuSE at it's core is nothing much more that YAST and some great testing of other peoples software. (yes I am over stateing the facts a bit, but the comparison is true)
What profit does groupwise bring in? What percentage of revenue will it bring in over the next 5 years?
Now in my opinion they need to keep Zen for those shops that will run both Windows AND Linux. They also need to stop spreading the word that SuSE is their "client". Sorry guys but it is your SERVER and a lot of peoples SERVER. It may be a client in the future but that isn't today. Focus on adding value to SuSE in the server realm and you will make more money. Granted you will NEVER make the money you made in the early 90's but then those days are over.
Lastly, they may think about open sourcing NDS or Edirectory or whatever the heck they call it now. If they would have done that 5 years ago, then maybe more people would have apps for it now.
I still think Novell would benifit a ton from working on making life easier for developers to port their software to SuSe from Windows. The more roadblocks they get rid of the more it helps their product.
As for the video driver issue. I honestly don't care as a consumer what Windows does and what Linux does under the hood. I just want to use my new video card. So if I was working on the development in Linux, I would develop a standard interface for all video cards to write to. In this way the video card makers could choose to implement the interfaces any way they want.
"If you don't have a diverse testing population, you aren't going to produce meaningful results. The idea is fine and all, but the results are mostly useless."
This isn't correct. If 99.99% of the computer users where white males that live in their mothers basement then it would be foolish to target black college females at all in the test.
The question is "Who is their target market?"
I personally would love to use ANY desktop except Windows but here is what I need.
1. Games - I hate to say it but games like EQII need to run on a version of Linux and run well. Oh yeah and be supported by SOE.
2. Video card drivers need to be easier to load. I don't have to jack with the kernel in Microsoft Windows to load a new video driver, yet it "can" be a pain in Linux. Novell/SuSE does a good job with this for Nvidia drivers. I should be able to go out and buy a new video card, then load the driver for it for SuSE. I should not be required to recompile the kernel.
3. Wireless card access. While this is ok, it still has a LONG way to go before it is good. Novell could work with the top wireless companies to help make this a lot better. Heck good Centrino support would be a nice step.
4. Printer drivers - Heck hardware drivers in general. While this is ok, Novell could work with the top manufacturers to make sure that they support SuSE out of the box. So HP/Lexmark/Cannon and Dell.
Now another step would be to work with Adobe/Macromedia to port all their apps to Linux, heck perhaps Novell should work on a general process to help developers port their software to Linux. Specifically SuSE linux.
Unless that country payed for the following: 1. The architecture of the Internet. 2. The initial layout ouf the Internet. 3. By far and above the largest working part of the Internet today.
As with most things the U.S. pays for it, and the rest of the world wants to take it for free. While the U.S. is at it, it could just forgive every debt it is owed...
I can see it now. China controls the top level domains and you want to register something like ChinaKillsPeople.com, and you just don't get denied acess but they come and kill you and your family later that night. Well they would leave the little girls to be adopted by another country...
People have mentioned in a few other posts that DB2 is "only" $700. People then mention that MySQL is $500. I would argue that this isn't the case. I would say that MySQL and PostgreSQL are free and DB2 starts at $700, but that cost is just the beginning. What happens if you run a processor with multiple cores? How much does it cost if you migrate off of X86 to Sparc? How much if you want to run it on one of their mainframes? It is my experience that Oracle and IBM tend to "give" away some of their products, but they do that to hook you in to the upgrades. In short, IBM and Oracle are not stupid companies and they want nothing more than to get their hooks in to your company. Given that the database is generally the cornerstone of the companies data, it is a great place for them to start. Then when your company "needs" a feature that isn't supported in the "standard" package the cost will go WAY WAY WAY up.
This isn't the case with PostgreSQL or MySQL. You never get that "drug pusher" type of attitude.
1st. Sony AND Nintendo make a profit on their consoles. Only the Xbox is sold at a loss, and that is hard to tell because Microsoft hides the xbox sales in a division of the company that sells other stuff.
2nd. People seem to be missing the point that to run todays games at 1600X1200 resolution, you need far more than the posted $300 computer. You need a $300 to $500 video card. You "might" be able to get by with a $1,000 machine, but that won't last you long in the PC world. you will have to upgrade very soon. Hense there lies the rub with game developers on PC's. yes there are a lot of them, but the base keeps changing and their support cost keep going up because of all the different hardware out there. The consoles couldn't compete with graphics, given yesterdays TV's so they where in a bind. That is all about to change with the new consoles. All will do 720P and the PS3 will do 1080P and 1080i. Given the cost of these new consoles AND the graphics upgrade they will see; this will be the time game developers will start dumping development for the PC. Again, the last advantage the PC had is going away, while the developers get a "stable" platform to develop on.
3rd. Once you start to take games out of the discussion. The "sun guy's" point start to make a little sense. Can office be a web application? yes. Can your banking be done? yes. Can your email be done? yes.
I think his main point is that you can start to do more stuff without a traditional PC. That means Microsoft Windows.
However, I agree that there are some applications that currently can't be done and would need to be addressed. They are. Video Editing. Picture scanning and editing.
Could those be replaced with some other type of internet appliance or does it make sense to just keep the PC? Time and cost will tell. I personally think the PC will be here for a long time, but it will no longer be the king of video games in the house.
Heck put in anything in your sentence and it tells the story of any I.T. project.
Lets see.
"Indeed. I've given up even trying to install XXXX now; the conflicts in version were costing much more time and effort than the ability to run YYYY apps could pay back."
Now substitute just about any technology for XXXX.
I have developed in quite a few languages and can say that Java, without a doubt is the best cross platform language. Is it perfect? Nope, nothing is. Will the new JDK 1.5 run 99.999% of the older code out there? Yes.
Let me say again, that I am an Apple fan. I wish them the best.
Apple is abandoning the PPC. It is doing this as fast as it can. After a year or so, 2007ish, Apple will not be producing ANY PPC Macintoshes. If you look at their future products they don't mention PPC at all. That says it all doesn't it? I hope that the "Fat binaries" work out for them, but I have a feeling that this migration will be a difficult as the 68040 to PPC one and that one took years to get flush out. I lived it and hope and pray they don't have the same type issues they had back then. In short, this migration will kill their sales in the short time frame, but might help them a ton later. I hope so. I think it will be great to better compare Apple, Linux and Windows on the same hardware.
Yes a few users are still onl older OS'es. But I say again, ask your ISP for their stats. I believe you will find that 95% are Windows, and a ton of those are now XP. Granted it took this long for XP to become the dominate player.... and that gives strong hope to Linux and Apple.
You ask who will throw out a dual G5 just because a new X86 comes out. It is my hope that the new X86 Macs rock and are awesome, but history tells me that they will be significantly slower than the fastest Macs today. So we agree that nobody is going to toss out their Macintosh for a slower system. The issue for Apple will be that during this "migration" period those same Apple people will start seeing two things.
1. The software that works great on their Mac get better and better on other platforms (Windows). Specifically Quark, Photoshop and others... I know for a fact that one MAJOR company that has always supported Apple has decided that they probably won't do "fat" binaries, and just support the PPC for the next few years. Then "if" the X86 Macintosh gains enough support they will produce a n X86 version. The issue isn't so much a "fat" binary as it is spending resources tesing and debugging for multiple platforms. I will quote a person in this company "My Name, why would we want to have yet another platform to support for 1% marketshare?" His point was that they now support OSX 10.3 and Windows. Their sales for Windows is over 80% of their business. Did I mention that this company use to product software for ONLY the Macintosh! So they are going to take a very long "wait and see" attitude on X86 Apple.
2. Those users would want to purchase another machine, but it will run most of their current software slower than what they have. This is similar to what happened with the 68000 to PPC migration. The 601 chip sucked at running old applications and nobody had new apps written yet. So just when everyone got over the sting of that, Apple came out with OSX. Everyone had to migrate their apps again.... Well this time some of those people will look at another migration, and "if" Apple can't pull this off quickly, then they will probabably migrate to Windows. Granted "if" Adobe and Macromedia and a few others supported Linux, then a few would migrate there.
Lastly, I want to say again. I hope and pray that Apple does this correct and it all works out. I just have serious doubts given their history.
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I agree. I can't understand why Quake III won't run on my 386sx with 4 MB of RAM either.
Obviously C is a bloated piece of crap, and we should all use Assembler.
that was my point. it was desinged in c. not c++ and was ported to java as is. it was not architected from the ground up around java or any oo language. it is amazing it does as well as it does and is a testimate to how far java has come.
Written by arguably one of the greatest C programmers around. Was the port done by a company? I wonder what the performance hit would be just doing it in C++?
It is amazing that it was even done at all.
"Rather than railing against the Java-haters, why not point out some useful, slick, fast Java-based applications? I'd love to see some."
Um, you did see what the article is about didn't you? Perhaps you should try it out.
I have used quite a few Java programs and most perform well.
Active Directory is integrated but going with any type of directory service makes the overall desgin more complex. Does it help "some" organizations? Yes, but you pretty much have to use AD if you want to use Microsoft. Now could someone please explain to me why Microsoft still uses Domains with AD? Doesn't a true directory service not use Domains? Also can you have two people in different OU's on the same "domain" with the same exact name. Something like
ou=marketing,uid=myLogin
ou=hr,uid=myLogin
with only one server?
NTFS vs Unix file permissions. This use to be true but no longer, read up on ACL's in Linux and Unix, they have been around for a while. I would point to secure Linux and say that Microsoft doesn't have anything that competes in this arena. Granted this is somewhat complex and a lot of shops don't need it.
IIS is easy to configure, but then again using YAST or any of the webmin tools make Linux/UNIX a snap to configure. I would argue it is easier to admin a server with webmin than it is to learn all the Microsoft admin tools.
SMS is finally a decent package for Windows only shops. So is WinInstall and other products.
Oracle VS SQL Server. Oracle is free for one processor, 2GB of RAM and a 4GB database size. It runs on multiple platforms and it's target market is for higher end databases. It can mount XML, TAB delimeted and other files natively as tables. That is very very nice to developers. SQL Server has the DTS stuff. DTS is very nice for moving data around, but not as nice as actually mounting files as tables. Oracles Enterprise manager is very comparable to Microsofts, and at least with Oracles EM you can actually sort data after you view it AND you can see the SQL that is being generated by the query. I will say that the query builder in SQL server is very nice. I can't comment on DB2... All in all I would say that both are very friendly to developers, but one is free for small to mid size shops and one is not.
Now I find the core difference in Windows and Linux is that most shops do a LOT more on one Linux/Unix box than one Windows box. Most Windows shops (ours included), have a Windows server for one specific task, perhaps two tasks. Most Linux and Unix boxes run many different tasks and as such you need far less of them. Perhaps this is just the attitude of Windows users to purchase more servers because they are "cheap" but I can say that every place I have been this is the case. Most Unix/Linux guys you talk to mention two things, their uptime AND the amount of crap that is running on their boxes. Most Windows guys I talk to mention the number of servers they manage. So in short this needs to be factored in as well. This issue may also come from all the DLL hell that has plagued Microsoft for years, or the fact that it was difficult to impossible to run different versions of SQL server on the same box.
You are correct in mentioning security as a major concern. The constant amount of patches and reboots needs to also be factored in. You start to really need tools like SMS when you have 100 to 500 Windows servers that need patched as often as they do. Now if you replace those servers with say 10-20 high end Linux boxes then the need for an SMS type of application starts to diminish. This is not to say that you couldn't use a product like E-Directory and Red Carpet to manage those boxes, but the need isn't as great.
Don't let facts about Sony get in the way of a good rumor here on Slashdot.
How about I start one. Did you know Bue-Ray DVD's will actually look for any pirated software, music or videos that you have and delete them.
I also have had and have accounts with Sony. They have never deleted any of my accounts after a one or two month laps. I played EQ and now play EQII. My only small issue is that I wish they would release a Linux version of the game.
"However I also have no problem telling children that some people believe that everything wasn't random in the universe, and as such they believe that a greater power has played a part in it all."
Then you and I agree on the core point. Now if we could just filter out all the politics this is a non issue. As I said this should be a 10 min discussion in a science class. If a significant amount of people believed that a cow had a major part in the process (say 90%+ then that should be mentioned).
ID is a theory, you may not like the theory but it is a viable theaory.
Since we are debating it, it is open to debate.
" ID doesn't help, and just because we don't have all the answers doesn't make ID worth considering."
:-) To me both sentences sound odd.
Not worth considering. Science and "not considering" don't seem to go well together. Reverse some of the words you have in the sentence above and you have the following.
"Just because religion doesn't eplain everything doesn't mean that we should consider science"
Intelligent Design, the way it was explained to me, is not something that "hurts" or "helps", but it is just another theory. One you may disagree with but it is a viable theory. Again my main point is that it can be taught in a class in about 10 min. Heck they could more than cover the topic in a one day class.
In my opinion the kids that are exposed to multiple ideas and theories will probably be better off than those just exposed to one.
Now if I had a political agenda and my party had basically full control over the schools for the last 40 years or so, and now my political views are being threatened... well, lets just say I could see why some people would be making a big deal out of this decision. But that doens't mean it is that big of a deal.
Then with "facts" explain how everything came in to being.
Just to save some time please go in to detail of what it was like before the "big bang". What was around before that
and before that, and before that and before that.... you get the idea. No beginning is a difficult "idea" for science to explain.
Now having said that I have no problem at all with evolution. It sounds very reasonable to me. However I also have no problem telling children that some people believe that everything wasn't random in the universe, and as such they believe that a greater power has played a part in it all.
This shouldn't be that big of a deal, at most a small conversation in a class, but I have a feeling it is going to turn in to a big deal. The far left are on an agenda to wipe out any mention of God at all in our society. Well to be specific Christianity, and the "radical" right seem hell bent in the other direction. There is a middle ground on this issue, as with most issues.
Yes.
I normally don't respond to anonymous cowards, but I will state again that it depends on what you are doing.
If you have a business with no real I.T. support and you don't know jack about any programming language (SQL/PLSQL/Transact SQL etc) AND you need to get your business on the web, or you need to have a web based intranet app them FileMaker appears to fit that better than anything I have ever ran across. Now factor in that it runs on a server unlike Microsoft Access; that it is under $1,200.00, and you have a good package that fills a need.
I have seen guys skilled with Filemaker develop an entire order entry/processing/reporting system in a day that worked well for a business.
I am not about to start the holy war here, but you might want to define your question a bit more.
What do you want to do with your database(s)?
How many users do you expect?
How many writes per second do you expect?
How many reads per second do you expect?
Are you comfortable with SQL?
What programming languages do you use to acess data?
How important is it to you to be flexible in what OS you run your DB on?
How important is cost to you?
Do you plan on running this on multipe processors or multi-core chips?
What reporting tools do you plan on using?
How critical is the data?
If the system goes down for some time, how much will it cost you?
I have worked a bit with various databases and from a developers view I can say that all offer some features that I like. In short here is my list of what I think is cool about each of the ones I have worked with.
1. SQL Server (not 2005, but I have loaded it and to me, as a developer not much has changed) - The enterprise manager is a good gui and the DTS system is very strong. I wish other vendors had something similar to this. If you need to get data in and out of systems and are not strong with Transact SQL then this is a very cool tool.
2. Oracle - Great support, runs very fast, and runs on just about everything out there. It is cool to mount XML/Excel and CSV files as tables to work with them. The personal version of this is also free. It is also nice to know that you almost never here these words with Oracle "Our DB doesn't support that". If it is a feature then Oracle more than likely supports it.
3. PostGreSQL - FREE, supports everything I need to do development. Speed is good.
4. MySQL - Wow the GUI tools have really improved, and it now supports most of the database features that I need for development. Also this is FREE.
5. FileMaker - I have had little experience with this directly, but I will say that if you are not a developer or a strong SQL guy, it is by far the best DB I have seen for getting an entire application to the web in the shortest amount of time. A specific example would be that things I have seen done in Microsoft SQL Server + C# can be done in around one tenth the amount of time.
Now judging by your question I would say that you should take a long look at FileMaker.
Well having just bought a new car. I asked the guys at the local shops here all the same question.
How has the higher gas prices effected sales of your SUV's?
Every freaking dealer said that they still couldn't keep the high end SUV's in stock. The gas prices just hurt the sales of the "lowest" end models.
Now, I will give you that there are some poor that drive old caddies, but a ton drive small 10+ year old cars and are hurt WAY worse by a 50% increase in gas price than the people who buy Hummers or Land Cusiers.
Your stepson that is unemployed found a $500 car just hammers home my point. He needs to watch every penny he has saved up and if gas doubles in price it will hurt him far worse than the typical buyer of a Hummer. We do agree that fuel cost are a part of the overall expense of the car, but it is an expense none the less, and when that expense doubles in price, or as your sig suggest, to quadruple in price then the poor will ALLWAYS suffer more than the rich.
Either way I hope your stepson finds a job, and that perhaps we as a country will make a focused effort to move away from oil. I personally would like to see better mass transit, nuclear energy and better government incentives on building higher quality homes/cars. I do believe in a free market, and I agree that when gas hits $8+ a gallon, we will adapt, I just feel for the poor that will suffer with no heat and no means of transportation during that time. I also hate the fact that our money for oil is basically ending up feeding the terrorist. I truely believe that when we find a more viable form of energy and stop dumping tons of money in the middle east, that there will finally be peace there. It is kind of hard to fund a war without any money...
your sig.
Gas is now at $2.00 a gallon here in the midwest. Down from over $3.50
I find that the people who buy SUV's don't really give a rats ass about gas prices, now the people that drive 10+ year old cars and live paycheck to paycheck get killed when gas doubles in price. Ironically, it is usually those people that buy fuel efficient cars... Those that can afford a $50k + SUV may "whine" about gas prices but those with an under $10k car generally get hurt very bad by the price.
I agree with you but I see some history here.
.NOT errr .Net guy Miguel....
SuSe is and has been a KDE desktop environment.
Novell was not in the Linux business.
Novell bought SuSE.
Novell bought some other Linux companies
Novell employed the
Novell focused on GNOME, while SuSe still is KDE heavy. (yes I know GNOME support is good)
My question is What the hell was Novell thinking? The previous poster is somewhat correct in that more people do run KDE. So if Novell is commited to SuSE and GNOME, then they probably should have released a statement that they are going to focus totally on KDE and little to no effort is going in to KDE. However, after sitting through a few Novell presentations lately, they don't seem to send that message at all. In short here is their message.
Linux is ready for the desktop.
Sun is evil.
Linux runs great on IBM hardware.
If you can't run Microsoft C# on linux then Linux won't be a viable solution in the future.
Red Carpet allows you to manage different Linux "clients" via Edirectory.
If you choose IBM, and Novell that is better than Sun because you will have "One throat to choke" if something goes wrong". I had to laugh at that one...
Now for some reason they are quiet about these issues.
How to migrate off of Windows SERVERS to Linux SERVERS.
How to manage Windows, Linux and Solaris servers with NDS.
I will try and summarize your main point. You don't like Java because the JVM for each platform can be upwards of 100MB and you don't like garbage collection over handling the cleanup of objects yourself in code.
To the first point. Do you develop software? I do and it sucks big time if you code for Windows. You currently have to worry about DLL issues and what service packs are installed and what the heck Microsoft is going to throw at you in the next "hotfix". You say that you want to code for Linux? Well do you want to make an RPM, shell script, YAST, Yum or Apt get? What version of libraries are they running? Do you want to include "everything" just in case they don't have the correct libraries you think they will need? Or do you just want to make the user go through something like "RPM Hell". Do you want to target a Macintosh? Well good luck there! What platform are you going for? OSX on X86 or OSX on PPC or are you going to produce "fat" binaries? I find it a bit easier to just have the user install a 1.4 JVM for their platform.
Now Java is by no means the silver bullet of programming, you still have some small library issues, however getting an application to run on multiple versions of Windows, Linux, Solaris, OSX, and just about everything else is very easy compared to what else is out there. I will actually say that there is no reason for Java in one core situation. That is if the whole world runs the latest patched version of Windows. Then, and only then does Java loose one of it's major strengths. However, as you mentioned in your post that place doesn't exist, or if a company tries to inforce those strick standards they are "broken" within a couple of years.
Now as far as garbage collection. I somewhat agree with your point, but I would say that I have created close to a million objects in a few seconds and distroyed them (let garbage collection run) and the program has run fine. I will say that it uses up a rather large amount of memory, but that wasn't your complaint and in my case it didn't matter.
I do wish that Java would do a couple of things better. One is to provide a good tool for JSF development (WYSIWYG) Studio Creator beta does not cut it! It needs some serious work. MyEclipse also doesn't quite cut it. I would also like to see AJAX support in JSF. I also wish that they would simplify developing web services a bit and perhaps their security layout as well. Much later down my list would be to address any performance/memory issues. I guess I would also wish for one more thing, and that would be to make EJB 3 very similar to hibernate (I believe that this is the case).
If dumping Groupwise and Zenworks to preserve SUSE makes sense then they will do that also.
I agree with the parent poster. If Novell was to sell off SuSE then they have just killed themselves. But lets take a serious look at the amount of dollars that it takes to run SuSE vs say groupwise. Groupwise requires a ton more developers and support professionals than SuSE. SuSE at it's core is nothing much more that YAST and some great testing of other peoples software. (yes I am over stateing the facts a bit, but the comparison is true)
What profit does groupwise bring in? What percentage of revenue will it bring in over the next 5 years?
Now in my opinion they need to keep Zen for those shops that will run both Windows AND Linux. They also need to stop spreading the word that SuSE is their "client". Sorry guys but it is your SERVER and a lot of peoples SERVER. It may be a client in the future but that isn't today. Focus on adding value to SuSE in the server realm and you will make more money. Granted you will NEVER make the money you made in the early 90's but then those days are over.
Lastly, they may think about open sourcing NDS or Edirectory or whatever the heck they call it now. If they would have done that 5 years ago, then maybe more people would have apps for it now.
Thanks for the comment.
I still think Novell would benifit a ton from working on making life easier for developers to port their software to SuSe from Windows. The more roadblocks they get rid of the more it helps their product.
As for the video driver issue. I honestly don't care as a consumer what Windows does and what Linux does under the hood. I just want to use my new video card. So if I was working on the development in Linux, I would develop a standard interface for all video cards to write to. In this way the video card makers could choose to implement the interfaces any way they want.
"If you don't have a diverse testing population, you aren't going to produce meaningful results. The idea is fine and all, but the results are mostly useless."
This isn't correct. If 99.99% of the computer users where white males that live in their mothers basement then it would be foolish to target black college females at all in the test.
The question is "Who is their target market?"
I personally would love to use ANY desktop except Windows but here is what I need.
1. Games - I hate to say it but games like EQII need to run on a version of Linux and run well. Oh yeah and be supported by SOE.
2. Video card drivers need to be easier to load. I don't have to jack with the kernel in Microsoft Windows to load a new video driver, yet it "can" be a pain in Linux. Novell/SuSE does a good job with this for Nvidia drivers. I should be able to go out and buy a new video card, then load the driver for it for SuSE. I should not be required to recompile the kernel.
3. Wireless card access. While this is ok, it still has a LONG way to go before it is good. Novell could work with the top wireless companies to help make this a lot better. Heck good Centrino support would be a nice step.
4. Printer drivers - Heck hardware drivers in general. While this is ok, Novell could work with the top manufacturers to make sure that they support SuSE out of the box. So HP/Lexmark/Cannon and Dell.
Now another step would be to work with Adobe/Macromedia to port all their apps to Linux, heck perhaps Novell should work on a general process to help developers port their software to Linux. Specifically SuSE linux.
"No single country should. That's the point."
Unless that country payed for the following:
1. The architecture of the Internet.
2. The initial layout ouf the Internet.
3. By far and above the largest working part of the Internet today.
As with most things the U.S. pays for it, and the rest of the world wants to take it for free. While the U.S. is at it, it could just forgive every debt it is owed...
I can see it now. China controls the top level domains and you want to register something like ChinaKillsPeople.com, and you just don't get denied acess but they come and kill you and your family later that night. Well they would leave the little girls to be adopted by another country...
People have mentioned in a few other posts that DB2 is "only" $700. People then mention that MySQL is $500. I would argue that this isn't the case. I would say that MySQL and PostgreSQL are free and DB2 starts at $700, but that cost is just the beginning. What happens if you run a processor with multiple cores? How much does it cost if you migrate off of X86 to Sparc? How much if you want to run it on one of their mainframes? It is my experience that Oracle and IBM tend to "give" away some of their products, but they do that to hook you in to the upgrades. In short, IBM and Oracle are not stupid companies and they want nothing more than to get their hooks in to your company. Given that the database is generally the cornerstone of the companies data, it is a great place for them to start. Then when your company "needs" a feature that isn't supported in the "standard" package the cost will go WAY WAY WAY up.
This isn't the case with PostgreSQL or MySQL. You never get that "drug pusher" type of attitude.
1st. Sony AND Nintendo make a profit on their consoles. Only the Xbox is sold at a loss, and that is hard to tell because Microsoft hides the xbox sales in a division of the company that sells other stuff.
2nd. People seem to be missing the point that to run todays games at 1600X1200 resolution, you need far more than the posted $300 computer. You need a $300 to $500 video card. You "might" be able to get by with a $1,000 machine, but that won't last you long in the PC world. you will have to upgrade very soon. Hense there lies the rub with game developers on PC's. yes there are a lot of them, but the base keeps changing and their support cost keep going up because of all the different hardware out there. The consoles couldn't compete with graphics, given yesterdays TV's so they where in a bind. That is all about to change with the new consoles. All will do 720P and the PS3 will do 1080P and 1080i. Given the cost of these new consoles AND the graphics upgrade they will see; this will be the time game developers will start dumping development for the PC. Again, the last advantage the PC had is going away, while the developers get a "stable" platform to develop on.
3rd. Once you start to take games out of the discussion. The "sun guy's" point start to make a little sense.
Can office be a web application? yes.
Can your banking be done? yes.
Can your email be done? yes.
I think his main point is that you can start to do more stuff without a traditional PC. That means Microsoft Windows.
However, I agree that there are some applications that currently can't be done and would need to be addressed. They are.
Video Editing.
Picture scanning and editing.
Could those be replaced with some other type of internet appliance or does it make sense to just keep the PC? Time and cost will tell. I personally think the PC will be here for a long time, but it will no longer be the king of video games in the house.
Oh for the love of God man.
Heck put in anything in your sentence and it tells the story of any I.T. project.
Lets see.
"Indeed. I've given up even trying to install XXXX now; the conflicts in version were costing much more time and effort than the ability to run YYYY apps could pay back."
Now substitute just about any technology for XXXX.
I have developed in quite a few languages and can say that Java, without a doubt is the best cross platform language. Is it perfect? Nope, nothing is. Will the new JDK 1.5 run 99.999% of the older code out there? Yes.
Let me say again, that I am an Apple fan. I wish them the best.
Apple is abandoning the PPC. It is doing this as fast as it can. After a year or so, 2007ish, Apple will not be producing ANY PPC Macintoshes. If you look at their future products they don't mention PPC at all. That says it all doesn't it? I hope that the "Fat binaries" work out for them, but I have a feeling that this migration will be a difficult as the 68040 to PPC one and that one took years to get flush out. I lived it and hope and pray they don't have the same type issues they had back then. In short, this migration will kill their sales in the short time frame, but might help them a ton later. I hope so. I think it will be great to better compare Apple, Linux and Windows on the same hardware.
Yes a few users are still onl older OS'es. But I say again, ask your ISP for their stats. I believe you will find that 95% are Windows, and a ton of those are now XP. Granted it took this long for XP to become the dominate player.... and that gives strong hope to Linux and Apple.
You ask who will throw out a dual G5 just because a new X86 comes out. It is my hope that the new X86 Macs rock and are awesome, but history tells me that they will be significantly slower than the fastest Macs today. So we agree that nobody is going to toss out their Macintosh for a slower system. The issue for Apple will be that during this "migration" period those same Apple people will start seeing two things.
1. The software that works great on their Mac get better and better on other platforms (Windows). Specifically Quark, Photoshop and others... I know for a fact that one MAJOR company that has always supported Apple has decided that they probably won't do "fat" binaries, and just support the PPC for the next few years. Then "if" the X86 Macintosh gains enough support they will produce a n X86 version. The issue isn't so much a "fat" binary as it is spending resources tesing and debugging for multiple platforms. I will quote a person in this company "My Name, why would we want to have yet another platform to support for 1% marketshare?" His point was that they now support OSX 10.3 and Windows. Their sales for Windows is over 80% of their business. Did I mention that this company use to product software for ONLY the Macintosh! So they are going to take a very long "wait and see" attitude on X86 Apple.
2. Those users would want to purchase another machine, but it will run most of their current software slower than what they have. This is similar to what happened with the 68000 to PPC migration. The 601 chip sucked at running old applications and nobody had new apps written yet. So just when everyone got over the sting of that, Apple came out with OSX. Everyone had to migrate their apps again.... Well this time some of those people will look at another migration, and "if" Apple can't pull this off quickly, then they will probabably migrate to Windows. Granted "if" Adobe and Macromedia and a few others supported Linux, then a few would migrate there.
Lastly, I want to say again. I hope and pray that Apple does this correct and it all works out. I just have serious doubts given their history.