FICS is not better on the timestamping front though. Their own algorithm, called timeseal is not any more secure than timestamping. I know because I wrote a client for both ICC and FICS.
No - I was trying to make a point that wiggling doesn't help here. There is simply no meaning in talking about percentages of infinite sets. At least none that I know of:-)
Imagine you arrive at a party and see that some number of men and women are dancing in pairs - each woman is dancing with one man and each man with one woman. You can immediately observe, without counting the actual number of men and women that there is an equal amount of them, right? The same idea is applied to sets (even infinite ones) - if you can pair each element in set A to an element in set B in such a way that each element in B has a pair in A then the two sets have the same "amount" (cardinality is the mathematical term) of elements.
Now, let's take A to be the set of all natural numbers and B to be the set of all even natural numbers. I will then pair each natural number n, to an even number - 2*n. Now, each even number N has a pair - N/2, so we conclude that the "amount" of even numbers equals the "amount" of natural numbers (100% of them, by the naive definition).
You might conclude from this that any two infinite sets have the same "amount" of elements, which seems true at first glance - after all, infinity is infinite, so surely there will be enough elements in any infite set to pair to the elements of another infinite set! This, however, turns out to be wrong. For example, there are "more" real numbers than there are natural numbers. That is, there exists no one-to-one and onto function (Bijection) from the set of natural numbers to the set of real numbers.
Exactly, which is why that definition is no good either - there is an infinite amount of numbers which are a power of 2, so saying their percentage is 0% makes no sense, or conveys no interesting information. By that definition, an empty, a finite and even an infinite set could be 0% of all natural numbers.
It's equally possible that a certain finite number of primes differ by two, not an infinite percentage of primes.
Talking about infinite percentages is meaningless. Think about this question - what percentage of all natural numbers are even? On the one hand, it seems that since every second number is even, there would be 50%, right? But what if I pair each and every natural number to an even number so that two different numbers are paired to different even numbers (a one-to-one map)? Would that mean that 100% of all natural numbers are even? But it is done easily - I would pair each number n to 2*n.
You could try and wiggle out of this problem by defining the infinite percentage to be the limit of the normal percentage until N when N goes to infinity. This would work for some sets, like the even numbers and would even give you a seemingly reasonable answer - 50%. But then consider this question - what percentage of all natural numbers are powers of 2 by this definition? I'll leave that as an exercise to the reader:-)
...the misconception that JAVA is very slow. 1.1 was pretty darn slow sure, but...
This is actually not true. The various 1.1 JVMs were fairly slow (at interpreting bytecode) - true. But the graphics were very responsive. In fact, Swing under MS VM is still more responsive than even JDK 1.5. The reason for this is the addition of Java2D (java.awt.Graphics2D and friends) in 1.2. Before Java2D, all the drawing routines were hardware accelerated - after, most of them were done in software (at least initially - in 1.2).
Check out my graphical client for chess servers for a proof. It is 1.1 compatible, so you can compare how it runs in MS VM (or actually any 1.1 implementation) and in the latest VMs. The jin.exe in the windows "version" runs MS VM, if you have it.
Well, prove me wrong, then - give some examples of serious, moderately complex applications in Flash. Also, I didn't say it can't be replaced by other, better, technologies, only that such either don't currently exist or aren't deployed as widely.
Why not check before saying? It's easy - just click the link in my post.
The SDK is around 40MB and the website references in my first post, java.com, is the end-user Java website - it doesn't even link to the SDK. The developers' website is java.sun.com.
Now for the more serious matter. You better stop developing applets. They are almost dead. Look at the webstart stuff.
While WebStart is sweet, Java 1.1 (what Windows ships with) compatible applets are still the only practical way to deliver moderately complex applications via the browser to about 95% of the users. And before you say Flash - it is suitable for pretty graphics and animations, not serious things.
Re:Or was it the Vogon Constructor Fleet? (Score:4, Insightful)
by Stile 65 (722451) on Thursday March 18, @11:29PM (#8603357)
(http://www.freestateproject.org/) Remember your towel!
I always wonder whether the "It's accelerating so it'll drift apart in the end" folks understand basic calculus. The rate of expansion accelerating doesn't mean it will continue accelerating - the third derivative of x(t) could be negative, or the fourth, and then the fifth could be positive again. You need to know all of the derivatives to know the function itself (and even that isn't true for some functions - e^(-1/x^2) IIRC).
Also here are some snapshots of the new and improved Metal Look&Feel and of the GTK+ Look&Feel. You can also see how much antialiasing of bright text on dark backgrounds has improved from (unreadable) 1.4 to (rather decent) 1.5.
Also, Swing seems to be much more responsive! It is therefore my humble opinion that this release is going rock Java.
Just to brag, I (and one other guy) wrote the client side software of the maps at MapMinder. The company who wrote the whole thing is Telmap, which was founded by me and a highschool friend of mine:-) Took me about 2 months to get the maps to look as great as they do.
I wonder how many non-intentional (I'd use the word accidental, but it seems inappropriate) 911 calls are going to be made with that design. It's like those stupid computer cases with the reset button sticking out from the front which you keep bumping against accidentally.
Available from MapMinder, is a mapping service developed by Telmap. The map itself is beautiful (especially compared to MapQuest and Yahoo! Maps).The client is in Java, and works on all platforms with a Java Virtual Machine, but the website itself is sometimes broken on various browsers - if you decide to test it, I suggest going straight for the map after registering (they have a 30 day free account). The map on this particular website is only for the UK, but the underlying technology is (obviously) not limited to it, and as soon as other websites start using it...
Disclaimer: I'm one of Telmap's founders and of the original developers of the service.
Slashdot Mirror
They always were, unless you're on your free week (or on the force list, which forces you to use Blitzin).
FICS is not better on the timestamping front though. Their own algorithm, called timeseal is not any more secure than timestamping. I know because I wrote a client for both ICC and FICS.
The article says that no unix chess client comes with integrated timestamping, which is a good reason to plug mine - Jin, which does.
Also, I'm an ICC admin and I can tell you that we're looking into the issue and will probably publish an official response later.
No - I was trying to make a point that wiggling doesn't help here. There is simply no meaning in talking about percentages of infinite sets. At least none that I know of :-)
I'll explain it like my prof. did :-)
Imagine you arrive at a party and see that some number of men and women are dancing in pairs - each woman is dancing with one man and each man with one woman. You can immediately observe, without counting the actual number of men and women that there is an equal amount of them, right? The same idea is applied to sets (even infinite ones) - if you can pair each element in set A to an element in set B in such a way that each element in B has a pair in A then the two sets have the same "amount" (cardinality is the mathematical term) of elements.
Now, let's take A to be the set of all natural numbers and B to be the set of all even natural numbers. I will then pair each natural number n, to an even number - 2*n. Now, each even number N has a pair - N/2, so we conclude that the "amount" of even numbers equals the "amount" of natural numbers (100% of them, by the naive definition).
You might conclude from this that any two infinite sets have the same "amount" of elements, which seems true at first glance - after all, infinity is infinite, so surely there will be enough elements in any infite set to pair to the elements of another infinite set! This, however, turns out to be wrong. For example, there are "more" real numbers than there are natural numbers. That is, there exists no one-to-one and onto function (Bijection) from the set of natural numbers to the set of real numbers.
Exactly, which is why that definition is no good either - there is an infinite amount of numbers which are a power of 2, so saying their percentage is 0% makes no sense, or conveys no interesting information. By that definition, an empty, a finite and even an infinite set could be 0% of all natural numbers.
It's equally possible that a certain finite number of primes differ by two, not an infinite percentage of primes.
Talking about infinite percentages is meaningless. Think about this question - what percentage of all natural numbers are even? On the one hand, it seems that since every second number is even, there would be 50%, right? But what if I pair each and every natural number to an even number so that two different numbers are paired to different even numbers (a one-to-one map)? Would that mean that 100% of all natural numbers are even? But it is done easily - I would pair each number n to 2*n.
You could try and wiggle out of this problem by defining the infinite percentage to be the limit of the normal percentage until N when N goes to infinity. This would work for some sets, like the even numbers and would even give you a seemingly reasonable answer - 50%. But then consider this question - what percentage of all natural numbers are powers of 2 by this definition? I'll leave that as an exercise to the reader :-)
See Cardinality
Now I wasted 4 secs on a registration dialog
And 20 more on posting :-)
This is actually not true. The various 1.1 JVMs were fairly slow (at interpreting bytecode) - true. But the graphics were very responsive. In fact, Swing under MS VM is still more responsive than even JDK 1.5. The reason for this is the addition of Java2D (java.awt.Graphics2D and friends) in 1.2. Before Java2D, all the drawing routines were hardware accelerated - after, most of them were done in software (at least initially - in 1.2).
Check out my graphical client for chess servers for a proof. It is 1.1 compatible, so you can compare how it runs in MS VM (or actually any 1.1 implementation) and in the latest VMs. The jin.exe in the windows "version" runs MS VM, if you have it.
Well, prove me wrong, then - give some examples of serious, moderately complex applications in Flash. Also, I didn't say it can't be replaced by other, better, technologies, only that such either don't currently exist or aren't deployed as widely.
You're looking at the full SDK
Why not check before saying? It's easy - just click the link in my post.
The SDK is around 40MB and the website references in my first post, java.com, is the end-user Java website - it doesn't even link to the SDK. The developers' website is java.sun.com.
The current JVM is around 5MB and installs without much of a problem on Windows.
Actually, it's 15MB
Now for the more serious matter. You better stop developing applets. They are almost dead. Look at the webstart stuff.
While WebStart is sweet, Java 1.1 (what Windows ships with) compatible applets are still the only practical way to deliver moderately complex applications via the browser to about 95% of the users. And before you say Flash - it is suitable for pretty graphics and animations, not serious things.
Re:Or was it the Vogon Constructor Fleet? (Score:4, Insightful)
:-)
by Stile 65 (722451) on Thursday March 18, @11:29PM (#8603357)
(http://www.freestateproject.org/)
Remember your towel!
Only on slashdot
I always wonder whether the "It's accelerating so it'll drift apart in the end" folks understand basic calculus. The rate of expansion accelerating doesn't mean it will continue accelerating - the third derivative of x(t) could be negative, or the fourth, and then the fifth could be positive again. You need to know all of the derivatives to know the function itself (and even that isn't true for some functions - e^(-1/x^2) IIRC).
How do you enable antialiasing in konsole? I already have it enabled in some apps, like Opera and GAIM, but not in konsole for some reason.
What you see on the screenshots is the KDE Alloy Theme, not the Java Alloy Look&Feel.
Hmm, I guess I'll need to check that, but with what I installed a month ago I have:
So at least the VM seems to think it's a beta ;-)
Also here are some snapshots of the new and improved Metal Look&Feel and of the GTK+ Look&Feel. You can also see how much antialiasing of bright text on dark backgrounds has improved from (unreadable) 1.4 to (rather decent) 1.5.
Also, Swing seems to be much more responsive! It is therefore my humble opinion that this release is going rock Java.
Actually, 1.5 beta has been available for a few months now, but the link wasn't on the main java.sun.com page.
Here are some highly unscientific benchmarks of startup time I just ran on my Athlon XP 2000+ under Mandrake 9.2:
These are relatively consistent over multiple runs.
LaTeX was fine - I was a little disappointed that after decades of popularity there was still not even the simplest wysiwyg apps for it
Not What You See Is What You Get, but a What You See Is What You Mean editor.
Why does the website with the HyperSoar article have the Netscape icon as its site icon?
Just to brag, I (and one other guy) wrote the client side software of the maps at MapMinder. The company who wrote the whole thing is Telmap, which was founded by me and a highschool friend of mine :-) Took me about 2 months to get the maps to look as great as they do.
I wonder how many non-intentional (I'd use the word accidental, but it seems inappropriate) 911 calls are going to be made with that design. It's like those stupid computer cases with the reset button sticking out from the front which you keep bumping against accidentally.
So when the Oracle told Neo he had a connection to the source, she meant the source code?
Available from MapMinder, is a mapping service developed by Telmap. The map itself is beautiful (especially compared to MapQuest and Yahoo! Maps).The client is in Java, and works on all platforms with a Java Virtual Machine, but the website itself is sometimes broken on various browsers - if you decide to test it, I suggest going straight for the map after registering (they have a 30 day free account). The map on this particular website is only for the UK, but the underlying technology is (obviously) not limited to it, and as soon as other websites start using it...
Disclaimer: I'm one of Telmap's founders and of the original developers of the service.