I find it disturbing that anyone would take such comments seriously.
As if Section 31 would permit such information to appear on the FNS newsfeeds... I'm sure hard information on the workings of the Celestial Temple are classified...
What Dvorak doesn't understand is that no one is issuing membership cards to a "Linux Community." And there is no tollgate on Linux Island, so the barrier to entry is pretty low.
In any event I've met quite a few Microsoft Loonies on the net, and the only thing interesting about them is they are not just insane, they are usually on the mild end of retarded.
Crackpots and ignorant teens are going to be around, there's nothing we can do about it. Here let me try: "Crackpots, get out!" Hmm, nothing happened. Maybe if we all shout it at once "Crackpots begone!" Hmm.
I'm sure O'Gara and other people that put themselves out in the limelight end up taking the good with the bad as far as reader comments. It goes with the business. But O'Gara's stuff was way off the reservation, and if that sort of thing didn't garner an uptick in threats and hatemail, what would?
But threats/hatemail are wrong, period. Sorry there's nothing those of us that aren't doing it can do about it. Welcome to a free society.
So (theoretically) I rent this movie from Blockbuster, and it needs to be returned so I make a copy in order to watch it at a more convenient time. Heck, several more convenient times... no distribution involved, but illegal.
Yes, Tivo and BitTorrent are doing different things, but it's rarely cut and dried what's right vs. wrong.
Huh? The writing on DS-9 was fantastic. But yeah, Voyager was 100% cheese.
Enterprise was always decent and in the last season, really good.
Most of the comments on Enterprise stories on/. are just ads for BSG which while very good is not Star Trek, period. So it is no more relevant in the context of ST than Star Wars, or bloody Firefly or Buffy, etc.
My personal opinion is that it wasn't the writers that killed Enterprise, but too many of the actual fans gave up on it too early. Come on-- TNG totally sucked when it first started, but picked up as it went on. DS-9 was the only series to really get off to a running start. Watch the first few episodes -- these guys knew their characters, and the writers in general knew where they were going.
Linus wanted to keep the status quo, as in he was happy with the tool and wanted to continue using it. If nobody rocked the boat, that could have continued.
Tridge knew McVoy's position on reverse engineering BitKeeper, and that OSDL's license would be pulled as a result. So he forced the situation by reverse engineering the tool.
That's what I mean by 'the boot.' No matter how much Linus wanted to continue using the tool, given McVoy's policy, Tridge had the power to force the kernel onto a different CMS and that's what he did.
Well I'm offended by Linus stance on reverse engineering. He should stop talking about that.
I see the situation a bit differently: Linus wanted to continue to use Bitkeeper for its practical utility. McVoy has made it clear over time that he will do everything he can to prevent reverse engineering bitkeeper. Many do not like using the closed source tools.
My theory is that Tridge didn't like having to get his hands dirty with bitkeeper, so he executed a strategy that would end up getting McVoy to pull the plug. Technically he did nothing wrong in the process. His hands are clean on the specifics. But did he knowingly making a violent sort of action, that would force other's hands? I think so.
So this forcing of the situation is what is actually underlying Torvald's position.
No one likes a boot on their neck, and that's what happened to Torvalds here.
Wouldn't the majority of the time spent switching from one high-ram-usage app to another be spent paging data in and out to disk (virtual memory)?
Sounds I/O bound to me. Extra RAM will make more of a difference than dual cores, since you avoid paging as much stuff.
Now if the stupid app is recalculating everything just because it got window focus... hmm, I'd call that a crappy application.
Re:Hubble is obsolete
on
Hope for Hubble
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
You're ignoring the aspects of time and matter.
A better telescope could be placed in to orbit, sure.
But time on the telescope is a finite resource. If you want to look at something, you have to create a proposal, and get time scheduled on the device, get it pointed, etc.
If the Hubble still has some significant utility, and the cost to repair it is worth that additional utility, than it should be repaired.
But just being "obsolete" doesn't make it worthless, and I don't see this as a "sentimental" argument.
Actually, short of violating a license agreement/contract, or breaking some kind of DRM (possible DMCA violation), reverse engineering a binary is not illegal or in any way unfair either. It's OK to look under the hood of your car to see how it works before building another.
The problem with reverse engineering binaries, is that there is always the question of whether you copied the code outright. If by process you can show in court that you never needed to look at the code and never did look at the code, when by chance it turns out to be close to identical by accident, you have a reasonable defense.
It's a practical legal consideration not a right/wrong, illegal/legal issue.
Someone using your code and not giving anything back does not really cause you any kind of loss 0 - 0 = 0. So, No impact.
But if someone improves your code and releases it (contractors, for example, or anyone who understands and participates in this barter system) you can take advantage of that. That's a net gain. The GPL doesn't require release of source unless you redistribute binaries or source. But the GPL has real teeth, due to the fact that software is quite often distributed. And even when the GPL doesn't require it, there are real advantages to giving changes back, chiefly being, not having to maintain those fixes all by yourself in a new branch.
There are plenty examples of both.
Code can be worth something, but if you're not in the software business, it may not be worth it for you to try to sell it. That doesn't mean the code is worthless. It may just mean it's not your line of business. You can be in every line of business, you usually focus on one product or a few lines of products.
Obviously, if your code is worthless, no one will want it, or giveanything back, don't waste your time releasing it. I think you may be missing my point on that one...
OSS is a barter system. Many give things away not because they are Jesus, but because they want something in return.
For example, if the software is some fantastic cost accounting system, for example, and you release it, other contractors could "squat" on the code, and make their own competitive businesses supporting it. Then you would have some choices about outside contractors to go to when you need extensions.
Also, you may get bugfixes, and other contributions from the community of contractors and users.
You minimize the advantage of using standard batteries as though it doesn't matter. That's a big part of the reason I still use a Palm IIIxe and my Tandy Model 102.
Well there are distros targeted to educational software like Debian Jr.
But as you say there are also lots of websites that work fine under Firefox+Flash plugin, and older games like Lemmings should run under DOS machine emulators.
So I wouldn't say there's nothing there accessible from Linux. And certainly the flash games and emulated stuff should run as well as anywhere else.
I have one of those as well. The 200LX is a good ultra-portable DOS machine. But it has a calculator style keyboard, so I find I only use it in situation where I would normally use a calculator.
The Model 100 actually gets 20 hours operational life off of 4 AA's. I never did any rigorous testing but I don't think the 200lx will run for a week unless that includes time when the unit is off.
I have a special battery pack for the M100 that will run it for 200 hours of operational time: just a battery pack w/ 4 D-cells, plugged into the power jack. Some people have also used solar panels to power it. This kind of scheme should work for the 200lx as well.
Another interesting tidbit... the CPU (8085) in 100/102/200 is the same as in Mars Pathfinder rover...
I think the analogy is more along the lines that the Model 100 isn't the first laptop, it was just the first really succesful truly usable/portable laptop made. Tandy sold millions of these things.
The Model T automobile can be described similarly, skipping the "portable" aspect.
It really depends on where you're at. Community colleges in California are aligned with the state university system. So, you can do your first two years at the community college and transfer to a cal state school.
It's really not an either-or proposition. Sure the CC also offers purely applied vocational stuff, but they are also a great springboard for getting into the state university system. Get your intro computer science, data structures, assembly language, math, science, english, etc. at community college and transfer to state university. Much cheaper.
And this stuff about university just teaching you how to think is crap. It should do both... teach you how to think and expect you to apply it on a daily basis. It really doesn't hurt anything if they actually provide such instruction in classrooms... in fact it helps.
I think attitudes like that should have died out with Aristotle. The man was so damned afraid of doing actual work himself, that he didn't make any proper experiments. Seriously slowed the progress of science in my opinion...
Slashdot Mirror
I find it disturbing that anyone would take such comments seriously.
As if Section 31 would permit such information to appear on the FNS newsfeeds... I'm sure hard information on the workings of the Celestial Temple are classified...
I had no idea using RedHat was still that bad! Is it really still as unpleasant as it was 5 years ago?
Quick, switch to Debian Unstable, or some variant of it.
-- John.
What Dvorak doesn't understand is that no one is issuing membership cards to a "Linux Community." And there is no tollgate on Linux Island, so the barrier to entry is pretty low.
In any event I've met quite a few Microsoft Loonies on the net, and the only thing interesting about them is they are not just insane, they are usually on the mild end of retarded.
Crackpots and ignorant teens are going to be around, there's nothing we can do about it. Here let me try: "Crackpots, get out!" Hmm, nothing happened. Maybe if we all shout it at once "Crackpots begone!" Hmm.
I'm sure O'Gara and other people that put themselves out in the limelight end up taking the good with the bad as far as reader comments. It goes with the business. But O'Gara's stuff was way off the reservation, and if that sort of thing didn't garner an uptick in threats and hatemail, what would?
But threats/hatemail are wrong, period. Sorry there's nothing those of us that aren't doing it can do about it. Welcome to a free society.
My position on SSN's is that a SSN is a name, and therefore should be 100% public.
What's the point of a name that isn't public?
The big mistake is in attempting to use a name (which by definition is public) as a password of all things.
Why can't people understand this?
So (theoretically) I rent this movie from Blockbuster, and it needs to be returned so I make a copy in order to watch it at a more convenient time. Heck, several more convenient times... no distribution involved, but illegal.
Yes, Tivo and BitTorrent are doing different things, but it's rarely cut and dried what's right vs. wrong.
Not all men are intimidated by strong women.
As if it weren't obvious, I meant Star Trek fans, not Enterprise fans.
Use of the word 'meh' instantly identifies you as annoying, and to be ignored.
It is on the level of "talk to the hand" or "what-ev-er."
Please, in the interest of not annoying me, stop.
Huh? The writing on DS-9 was fantastic. But yeah, Voyager was 100% cheese.
/. are just ads for BSG which while very good is not Star Trek, period. So it is no more relevant in the context of ST than Star Wars, or bloody Firefly or Buffy, etc.
Enterprise was always decent and in the last season, really good.
Most of the comments on Enterprise stories on
My personal opinion is that it wasn't the writers that killed Enterprise, but too many of the actual fans gave up on it too early. Come on-- TNG totally sucked when it first started, but picked up as it went on. DS-9 was the only series to really get off to a running start. Watch the first few episodes -- these guys knew their characters, and the writers in general knew where they were going.
-- John.
You're looking for a Lisp or Forth variant, I think...
-- John.
Using OO sucks in C++
At least in C your bugs are all yours.
-- John.
Linus wanted to keep the status quo, as in he was happy with the tool and wanted to continue using it. If nobody rocked the boat, that could have continued.
Tridge knew McVoy's position on reverse engineering BitKeeper, and that OSDL's license would be pulled as a result. So he forced the situation by reverse engineering the tool.
That's what I mean by 'the boot.' No matter how much Linus wanted to continue using the tool, given McVoy's policy, Tridge had the power to force the kernel onto a different CMS and that's what he did.
Reminds me of high school "Fight!Fight!Fight!"
Such a debate would just be more heat and light.
This isn't *really* about reverse engineering.
It's about putting your boot on someone's neck and asking if they like it. Turns out there are two sets of boots involved (McVoy's and Tridge's).
Tridge didn't like McVoy's boot on his neck so he did something about it. But in the process, Linus got Tridge's treads on his neck too.
Simple human drama. Nothing more to see here, really.
Well I'm offended by Linus stance on reverse engineering. He should stop talking about that.
I see the situation a bit differently: Linus wanted to continue to use Bitkeeper for its practical utility. McVoy has made it clear over time that he will do everything he can to prevent reverse engineering bitkeeper. Many do not like using the closed source tools.
My theory is that Tridge didn't like having to get his hands dirty with bitkeeper, so he executed a strategy that would end up getting McVoy to pull the plug. Technically he did nothing wrong in the process. His hands are clean on the specifics. But did he knowingly making a violent sort of action, that would force other's hands? I think so.
So this forcing of the situation is what is actually underlying Torvald's position.
No one likes a boot on their neck, and that's what happened to Torvalds here.
-- John.
Wouldn't the majority of the time spent switching from one high-ram-usage app to another be spent paging data in and out to disk (virtual memory)?
Sounds I/O bound to me. Extra RAM will make more of a difference than dual cores, since you avoid paging as much stuff.
Now if the stupid app is recalculating everything just because it got window focus... hmm, I'd call that a crappy application.
You're ignoring the aspects of time and matter.
A better telescope could be placed in to orbit, sure.
But time on the telescope is a finite resource. If you want to look at something, you have to create a proposal, and get time scheduled on the device, get it pointed, etc.
If the Hubble still has some significant utility, and the cost to repair it is worth that additional utility, than it should be repaired.
But just being "obsolete" doesn't make it worthless, and I don't see this as a "sentimental" argument.
-- John.
It didn't happen here, but...
Actually, short of violating a license agreement/contract, or breaking some kind of DRM (possible DMCA violation), reverse engineering a binary is not illegal or in any way unfair either. It's OK to look under the hood of your car to see how it works before building another.
The problem with reverse engineering binaries, is that there is always the question of whether you copied the code outright. If by process you can show in court that you never needed to look at the code and never did look at the code, when by chance it turns out to be close to identical by accident, you have a reasonable defense.
It's a practical legal consideration not a right/wrong, illegal/legal issue.
-- John.
Someone using your code and not giving anything back does not really cause you any kind of loss 0 - 0 = 0. So, No impact.
But if someone improves your code and releases it (contractors, for example, or anyone who understands and participates in this barter system) you can take advantage of that. That's a net gain. The GPL doesn't require release of source unless you redistribute binaries or source. But the GPL has real teeth, due to the fact that software is quite often distributed. And even when the GPL doesn't require it, there are real advantages to giving changes back, chiefly being, not having to maintain those fixes all by yourself in a new branch.
There are plenty examples of both.
Code can be worth something, but if you're not in the software business, it may not be worth it for you to try to sell it. That doesn't mean the code is worthless. It may just mean it's not your line of business. You can be in every line of business, you usually focus on one product or a few lines of products.
Obviously, if your code is worthless, no one will want it, or giveanything back, don't waste your time releasing it. I think you may be missing my point on that one...
"Why would we give it away for free?"
Perhaps because you're not a software company?
OSS is a barter system. Many give things away not because they are Jesus, but because they want something in return.
For example, if the software is some fantastic cost accounting system, for example, and you release it, other contractors could "squat" on the code, and make their own competitive businesses supporting it. Then you would have some choices about outside contractors to go to when you need extensions.
Also, you may get bugfixes, and other contributions from the community of contractors and users.
-- John.
You minimize the advantage of using standard batteries as though it doesn't matter. That's a big part of the reason I still use a Palm IIIxe and my Tandy Model 102.
Well there are distros targeted to educational software like Debian Jr.
But as you say there are also lots of websites that work fine under Firefox+Flash plugin, and older games like Lemmings should run under DOS machine emulators.
So I wouldn't say there's nothing there accessible from Linux. And certainly the flash games and emulated stuff should run as well as anywhere else.
I have one of those as well. The 200LX is a good ultra-portable DOS machine. But it has a calculator style keyboard, so I find I only use it in situation where I would normally use a calculator.
The Model 100 actually gets 20 hours operational life off of 4 AA's. I never did any rigorous testing but I don't think the 200lx will run for a week unless that includes time when the unit is off.
I have a special battery pack for the M100 that will run it for 200 hours of operational time: just a battery pack w/ 4 D-cells, plugged into the power jack. Some people have also used solar panels to power it. This kind of scheme should work for the 200lx as well.
Another interesting tidbit... the CPU (8085) in 100/102/200 is the same as in Mars Pathfinder rover...
I think the analogy is more along the lines that the Model 100 isn't the first laptop, it was just the first really succesful truly usable/portable laptop made. Tandy sold millions of these things.
The Model T automobile can be described similarly, skipping the "portable" aspect.
Sometimes you just need the right technology for the job at hand.
http://www.planetnz.com/palmheads/tandy.php
-- John.
It really depends on where you're at. Community colleges in California are aligned with the state university system. So, you can do your first two years at the community college and transfer to a cal state school.
It's really not an either-or proposition. Sure the CC also offers purely applied vocational stuff, but they are also a great springboard for getting into the state university system. Get your intro computer science, data structures, assembly language, math, science, english, etc. at community college and transfer to state university. Much cheaper.
And this stuff about university just teaching you how to think is crap. It should do both... teach you how to think and expect you to apply it on a daily basis. It really doesn't hurt anything if they actually provide such instruction in classrooms... in fact it helps.
I think attitudes like that should have died out with Aristotle. The man was so damned afraid of doing actual work himself, that he didn't make any proper experiments. Seriously slowed the progress of science in my opinion...