I tried the test and I think the problem is basically caused by the HTTP referrer field (as another post mentioned below). This isn't exactly a new exploit (from my understanding) but a function of the the HTT-Protocol that not many people seem to know about.
If you've got a windows machine machine you can get the AgnitumOutpost firewall. Not only is it a good firewall (Zonealarm screwed up my machine) but it can block ads , content (based on what sites you tell it to block) and can block referrers. You can also write plugins for the firewall to do other functions. (PS I don't work for these people - i just use and like the firewall)
Try a Minidisc for this kind of stuff - it is slower to transfer music to the minidisc itself rather than with MP3 players, but more durable than hard disks on the run. The discs themselves are quite cheap so are probably a better bet than solid state MP3 players. The new NetMD thing (faster recording ability) might be a problem on *nixes, but an analogue hookup (or digital via the SP/DIF cables) are pretty good for recording music, but only in real time. The recorders also have the additional benefit of being dictaphones if you really need one (or for recording concerts etc.). If you use pdas a lot you might consider a SD card/memory stick bases solution just for being able to move stuff between your pda/digital camera/portable player etc.
Here's a link to
Sony's Walkman page.
Hit the link at the top right of the page (its a pop-up mind) which says S2 Sports - they have their own dedicated line of sports products including NetMD minidisc recorder/player.
I'm wondering why there can't be databases for use in gnutella. When downloading a file, a client searches for all copies of the file. When it has found the copies it can tell the servers it is downloading from that it has found other places to download from and give them the list. Would this not allow better searching?
Why not also a centralised database system for files (like napster) on a passworded basis - it would not have to be mandatory (so gnutella could work without it) but having it enabled could allow faster searches. All searches from the client could go to the database which could house the results so in other searches it would be faster. Different databases (run by different people) could hold info on different types of files (e.g. music, software, pron etc.), with a p2p network of just databases allowing search results to propogate easily.
This makes sense to me, but since IANA expert on gnutella, I may be talking out of my arse.
Hey. This is amazing news for the people who needed Quicken on Linux. Hopefully I can migrate all my stuff (from MSMoney) into Quicken over to Linux now.
This should be good for people who want to use Linux, especially where the only choice is MsMoney and Quicken both on Windows (Quicken for Mac not being available in the UK, and Moneydance's dev seeming to have stalled).
OK, I know there's GnuCash, but it looks a bit intimidating, and the big notice on its homepage telling me about dependency hell really does put me off. Some people mentioned Kapital, but I haven't checked it out yet. Does anybody know if Gnucash or Kapital do seamless imports on Microsoft Money files (and not as.qifs as my files have significantly more info than that).
Give tex9 a little bit of leeway. You've got to feed yourself somehow, so why not allow them to sell the plug-in (if there's a demand people will buy). They're giving away the main player free anyway.
For open source to really work you need someway to make money from it. Here's one business model. Ximian does this as well with their Outlook-like product (have to pay for plug-in to access Exchange servers), so I can't see what the fuss is about.
Seeing that all the download servers are swamped, I'm wondering why nobody uses a P2P server (i.e. gnutella) to allow people to download the game. As more people download the game, and if they feel generous enough to share, there are more servers available to download from. This would allow easier access to getting the game files. All (i think) would be needed is a central program which can verify the file has not been tampered with (md5 checksum?).
With all this banging on about illegal p2p, i wish somebody would put it to good use. What would be better than gnutella is that p2p system mention here a wee bit back (can't be bothered linking). This allows people to download off another user while they are still downloading. I'm sure it would solve a lot of the downloading problems at the moment.
On the game itself, I haven't tried downloading it yet (with it being a 200MB file, and me having a dial-up) but it was a bit crazy of them to only have a couple of servers. I think they might release the servers with the full-game, as I think the RECON version is a beta of some sort. But it should be good (and its free!!).
What this commentary period is for is allowing the UK patent office to hear your views. So rather than having the EU ignore you, the hope is to get the UK government/patent office to apply pressure by proxy.
I'm a bit disappointed that more people aren't interested in this, with the longest post I've seen being a troll in German. I'm sure there are a lot of people in the UK (and the EU) who must have an interest in this. Even if you're from the USA or Canada, I would still say put a post in.
If you are reading this, make an effort to read what is going in. Remember democracy doesn't work if you don't participate, so don't start bitching later when laws you don't like are passed.
Some of these mobile java games look quite good actually. They have the golden oldies, as well as some other games - Street Fighter on your mobile anyone? Games seem quite basic, but i'm sure they'll get better over time.
Seriously, J2ME looks very useful; i think i'll have to download the kit to see how it works. Some of the stuff is very useful, considering I have my phone with me practically all the time. A portable graphical calculator, a note pad, games, a dictionary/language translator, and currency convertors? This'll really cut down on all the stuff you have to carry round. Hopefully charges for connecting to the internet via mobile phones will come down so it is cost-effective to use this kind of stuff.
P.S. Look under >graphics>adult for a *very* useful applet for your phone. Although it will be distracting to use when getting into those complicated positions;-)
If Fast Track/Kazaa really did kick Morpheus off their network then they just committed suicide because given the choice between closed source spyware and open source, assumming both products work equally well, people will go for the open source version.
I have the opinion that instead of people going for the open source version, people will instead go for what is more convenient for them. When you say "people" I am taking that you mean non-techie people who do not know much about computers. They really will not care about the debate over open/closed source. They will just see that the new Morpheus is nothing compared to the old one.
These people want easy access to the their pirate MP3s, not having to wait ages for a Gnutella download to start. I've seen loads of people criticise the new Morpheus without really seeing what is going on regarding the Kazaa owner's in the background (oh yeah, i think that Kazaa had something to do with the morpheus blackout).
It would be good if people would stay with gnutella and help refine the system so that the downloading does become as good as the Fasttrack system is. But everyone is looking for short term gain - when Kazaa screws them over I'm sure they'll whine. They'll probably still not care over the open/closed source debate.
I got the new Morpehus client and it does seem to be a less "polished" client (proabably as it is a knocked off version of Gnutella shipped out in a hurry). The system seems quite good (as I have not used Gnutella much) but I think it will take a few days for traffic to pick up to its usual levels. The UI needs to be changed a wee bit as it is slightly confusing. I'm sure multi-source downloads are in (although you can't tell what each source is doing like before) but I'm not sure if their supernode feature is still there. They need the quick filter system in where you can select what media to search for (e.g. music, video, documents).
One thing that is lacking in Gnutella is metadata - when downloading songs you can't tell how long they are, what album they are from (important when there are many different versions of a song - radio/street/2 step edits etc.), and comments about this. Hopefully this can be added to a new spec of the Gnutella network so all companies using the standard can have a common format.
I think this will be good for p2p and gnutella: an open standard, which will (hopefully) become better over time. If musiccity really GPLs their work with Gnucleus, everyone should be a winner.
I have to say that spam is destroying the internet. I've given up trying to complain to administrators (it takes too much of my time up) so any spam i get i just delete immediately. I have one email address (with spam filters), forward me email to another address with more spam filters before I pick up my mail. This is the state I've got to in just reading my email.
Some spam is also too hard to track down. I wish someone would come up with a system to trash mail with invalid headers (e.g. from somebody@sasd.sdada - I've had stuff like this).
Like I said, spam is destroying the internet - something needs to be done about it. It wastes the time of everyone who gets it (and even spam you can read would be good - no use if it is in an Asian language I don't understand), plus wastes bandwidth.
I don't know much about chips, but if it is comaptible with the GameCube hardware, I suppoes it would have to use a powerPC chip. That's the only way I can see an advantage for nintendo here.
I can't remember nintendo doing arcade games (apart from Super Nintendo's mated with coin slots to make an arcade jukebox machine) so I speculate the reason why they're doing this is so they can port arcade to gamecube easily.
I have to go and see if extremetech have an article between the PowerPC and MIPS chips. I've been under the (maybe false) impression that the PowerPC chips were amazing. BTW, motorola also make PowerPC chips.
There does seem to be some enlightment in the FAQ:
Would the Amazon "one-click" shopping cart ordering model be patentable under the Commission proposal?
The European Patent Office has yet to come to a decision on the related European application, so it would not be appropriate to comment on whether there is any patentable subject-matter in the application as a whole. However, a patent with the breadth of claims which has been granted in the United States would be highly unlikely to be considered to make a "technical contribution" in the EU under the terms of the proposed Directive.
It might not be as bad if the EPO can be brought to heel. However as much effort as possible should be put into this to make legislators understand the negative points of the legislation from our point of view. Myabe then they can reassess the impact of this (proposeds) legisation and can either scrap or amend it accordingly.
Why not a romantic dinner? Or a trip to Paris, the city of love? If you want to see the real thing, apparently both Dublin, Ireland and Glasgow, Scotland have remains of St' Valentine in churches. They're both great cities (hey, the shopping in its good as well when you've got the spare time).
Hello. I have to say that I can't even favour use of the internet for elections (and I mean elections in voting for your government sense). I have to admit here I'm actually someone who would resist the technology.
People are saying voting over the internet, but I would say this was insecure. I believe voting for the government is so important that you really have to minimise the security risks. There are problems with manual voting as it is. But i'm still happier with it than internet voting. When I think voting, I'm now assuming all the computer are ones owned by the government kept in central locations for public voting. I can't see voting from home being too good.
I'm going to throw some ideas out here - if you can find a reason against them, i would love to here (this isn't a challenge, but I'd love to see if someone could put my mind at ease over voting).
(1) I would think that the internet was insecure that you had to use a VPN to allow proper voting. Even then I would still like a closed system where all the power is in government hands.
(2) The system has to have power backups just in case someone starts to tamper with the election. This would be essential in "unstable" areas which are about to vote.
(3) Who controls the system? I would say it would have to be open and free (yeaahhh! - obligatory slashdot herd cheer) with anyone, and I mean anyone, being able to get to the source code. That leaves the fact that the binary produced from the code has to be verified. You'll need qualified people to do this, which costs even more cash.
I also thought about electoral lists, but either way (computer or manual voting) they can still be tampered, although it might be easier on a computer. I just think that allowing people to see the process prevents as much tampering as could be done if people managed to attack the "box" which controls the lists. When i say a "box" I don't mean the central lists, but the one PC which contains the list at the local school where voting could take place.
I do want to believe, but something keeps on telling me that we should keeps things as they are for the now, and restrict this kind of voting to places where it doesn't make too much of a difference. If they could test it in school polls and then corporate polls, and it was shown to be foolproof I wouldn't mind, but I'm very skeptical (the theme of this whole post). I wouldn't mind if they tested this in government opinion polls, where they realise that error could occur, and that it might not make too much of an impression on the governing of the country (i.e. discard the poll if the results are within 5% of each other or something).
coupled with the hard-as-nails win2k/xp combination
OK, you might have some bad experiences with win2k/xp, but although i've had my problems, it is nothing compared to win9x which really did my head in. Win2k really doesn't f**k up as much as 9x did, and when apps do screw up, they tend not to take down your whole system (although it has happened to me before). This is where the hard-as-nails reference comes - it is amazingly good for normal work/office use without crashing when you've got something important on it
dominant desktop
Each to their own, my friend. The desktop if very useable for most tasks. And when I said dominant i meant dominant as in marketshare and mindshare. That's why improving java to the C# standard would be good - its multiplatform.
can't see the difference between Java and C# Got me there - although I was referring to its uses - and hopefully the FSF project will make C# multiplatform.
to gte910h, making c# safe by default will help prevent the vb trash destorying the world with their awfulness;-)
Yep, I think the guy's getting quite jealous of MS. Love or hate these people, the.net programming specification look very powerful, and coupled with the hard-as-nails win2k/xp combination, they will be quite hard to compete against.
What Sun should really do is get off there behinds and match C# for features. From what I understand (not much admittedly), the Java VM just has to be extended to give it the breadth of additional languages that the CLI has (in terms of being able to use unsafe methods if the programmer wishes, so allowing C to work through it). The problem with Java has MS has the dominant desktop (and a good one it is now - really this is fact if you have to use them all day long), and they have the "standard" tools for programming. This will generate massive mindshare, and might get everyone from VB to C# (at least being "safe" might be good for programs knocked up at home).
On an unrelated topic, I think cloning the fundamentals of C# to a open-source basis is a very good idea. I might not agree how ximian are going about it, but at least the FSF has a parallel project that can bring the new language to the world - it could persuade casual safe programming, while allowing the breadth of accessing the OS directly.
When it comes to web services, I honestly can't see the difference between Java and C# (apart from the fact everyone will use C# as the MS-sponsored dominant language). It's all down to FUD: the.net services are basically going to be the same as before - just with a.net after them, and maybe re-written in C# now.
Java is great, but Bill Joy think he should go get it optimised - working faster, able to compete effectively with C#.
Sorry, but I think that's slightly naive. Remember, don't believe everything that you read. Philips may own the trademark, but what chances are there that they really will piss on all the other companies out there who want to "protect their investment".
Even if they do, how is this going to matter to consumers. CD has become a bit generic (its a shiny round thing with a hole in it which ha music), so they could probably put a "compatible with most CD players" on it. Even then a lot of CD's that I've seen have no easily visible compact disc logo on it. Consumers just buy the thing and expect it to work (unless it has DVD plastered all over it). Sorry to rant but the industry is not going to stop because they can't get a logo on their stuff - they'll just make a new standard up.
I remember this from a few years ago, and even then it was expensive. It is a technology that nobody was interested in, and probably still aren't. I remember someting about the system being able to record 8-streams simultaneously (so 8 different tv channels, although at lower quality I would assume). The system did seem quite good as (A) it was recordable (unlike DVD), (B)it was backwards compatible. However I think the 8-stream system was crippled (guess who wanted this), and there was no support for the system. I don't think this has much chance this time round: I mean normal VHS recorders are dirt cheap.
This actually sounds quite bad for importing DVDs. It states that imported PS2 games are illegal to play in the UK. It claims this as it makes an unauthorised copy of the game in memory. I'm sure that if you really wanted this could be stretched to include DVDs (as the article says). As IANAL, I am wondering if this ruling could be taken as legal precedent? Hopefully this bit can be overturned soon.
Another thing I'm wondering about it copying data to memory can be considered "illegal copying". If this is the case for imported games, I do not see how this would make it "not illegal" (for lack of a better phrase) to load PS2 games of your home region (as it is still copying). As "copying" is an integral function of all consoles, I'm wondering what unexpected side-effects there will be. I think the whole thing is a minefield, and the sooner we get a knowledgable expert posting here the better. The whole thing about licensing only for a certain region bothers me - I really can't see why we're not allowed to play import games (or DVDs). OK, its their technology, but still there is "fair use". Hopefully the EU can check into this as well when it's doing its investigation of the legality of DVD regions.
Read this article over at Extremetech. It shows how the 8bit chips are used more than any other type in real world applications. The 68k type, although old, are still used.
Slashdot Mirror
I tried the test and I think the problem is basically caused by the HTTP referrer field (as another post mentioned below). This isn't exactly a new exploit (from my understanding) but a function of the the HTT-Protocol that not many people seem to know about.
If you've got a windows machine machine you can get the Agnitum Outpost firewall. Not only is it a good firewall (Zonealarm screwed up my machine) but it can block ads , content (based on what sites you tell it to block) and can block referrers. You can also write plugins for the firewall to do other functions. (PS I don't work for these people - i just use and like the firewall)
Try a Minidisc for this kind of stuff - it is slower to transfer music to the minidisc itself rather than with MP3 players, but more durable than hard disks on the run. The discs themselves are quite cheap so are probably a better bet than solid state MP3 players. The new NetMD thing (faster recording ability) might be a problem on *nixes, but an analogue hookup (or digital via the SP/DIF cables) are pretty good for recording music, but only in real time. The recorders also have the additional benefit of being dictaphones if you really need one (or for recording concerts etc.). If you use pdas a lot you might consider a SD card/memory stick bases solution just for being able to move stuff between your pda/digital camera/portable player etc.
Here's a link to Sony's Walkman page.
Hit the link at the top right of the page (its a pop-up mind) which says S2 Sports - they have their own dedicated line of sports products including NetMD minidisc recorder/player.
I'm wondering why there can't be databases for use in gnutella. When downloading a file, a client searches for all copies of the file. When it has found the copies it can tell the servers it is downloading from that it has found other places to download from and give them the list. Would this not allow better searching?
Why not also a centralised database system for files (like napster) on a passworded basis - it would not have to be mandatory (so gnutella could work without it) but having it enabled could allow faster searches. All searches from the client could go to the database which could house the results so in other searches it would be faster. Different databases (run by different people) could hold info on different types of files (e.g. music, software, pron etc.), with a p2p network of just databases allowing search results to propogate easily.
This makes sense to me, but since IANA expert on gnutella, I may be talking out of my arse.
Hey. This is amazing news for the people who needed Quicken on Linux. Hopefully I can migrate all my stuff (from MSMoney) into Quicken over to Linux now.
.qifs as my files have significantly more info than that).
This should be good for people who want to use Linux, especially where the only choice is MsMoney and Quicken both on Windows (Quicken for Mac not being available in the UK, and Moneydance's dev seeming to have stalled).
OK, I know there's GnuCash, but it looks a bit intimidating, and the big notice on its homepage telling me about dependency hell really does put me off. Some people mentioned Kapital, but I haven't checked it out yet. Does anybody know if Gnucash or Kapital do seamless imports on Microsoft Money files (and not as
Sorry - bad link. Just go to Amazon.co.uk and search the video (i.e. not dvd) section for Narnia.
The BBC already made a couple of movies of the Narnia series - quite good, but it's been a while since i've seen them.
Try this link.
Give tex9 a little bit of leeway. You've got to feed yourself somehow, so why not allow them to sell the plug-in (if there's a demand people will buy). They're giving away the main player free anyway.
For open source to really work you need someway to make money from it. Here's one business model. Ximian does this as well with their Outlook-like product (have to pay for plug-in to access Exchange servers), so I can't see what the fuss is about.
Seeing that all the download servers are swamped, I'm wondering why nobody uses a P2P server (i.e. gnutella) to allow people to download the game. As more people download the game, and if they feel generous enough to share, there are more servers available to download from. This would allow easier access to getting the game files. All (i think) would be needed is a central program which can verify the file has not been tampered with (md5 checksum?).
With all this banging on about illegal p2p, i wish somebody would put it to good use. What would be better than gnutella is that p2p system mention here a wee bit back (can't be bothered linking). This allows people to download off another user while they are still downloading. I'm sure it would solve a lot of the downloading problems at the moment.
On the game itself, I haven't tried downloading it yet (with it being a 200MB file, and me having a dial-up) but it was a bit crazy of them to only have a couple of servers. I think they might release the servers with the full-game, as I think the RECON version is a beta of some sort. But it should be good (and its free!!).
My god!!! John Katz was right!! You can browse the internet using a commodore 64 in afghanistan!!
Hi!
What this commentary period is for is allowing the UK patent office to hear your views. So rather than having the EU ignore you, the hope is to get the UK government/patent office to apply pressure by proxy.
I'm a bit disappointed that more people aren't interested in this, with the longest post I've seen being a troll in German. I'm sure there are a lot of people in the UK (and the EU) who must have an interest in this. Even if you're from the USA or Canada, I would still say put a post in.
If you are reading this, make an effort to read what is going in. Remember democracy doesn't work if you don't participate, so don't start bitching later when laws you don't like are passed.
Some of these mobile java games look quite good actually. They have the golden oldies, as well as some other games - Street Fighter on your mobile anyone? Games seem quite basic, but i'm sure they'll get better over time.
;-)
Seriously, J2ME looks very useful; i think i'll have to download the kit to see how it works. Some of the stuff is very useful, considering I have my phone with me practically all the time. A portable graphical calculator, a note pad, games, a dictionary/language translator, and currency convertors? This'll really cut down on all the stuff you have to carry round. Hopefully charges for connecting to the internet via mobile phones will come down so it is cost-effective to use this kind of stuff.
P.S. Look under >graphics>adult for a *very* useful applet for your phone. Although it will be distracting to use when getting into those complicated positions
These people want easy access to the their pirate MP3s, not having to wait ages for a Gnutella download to start. I've seen loads of people criticise the new Morpheus without really seeing what is going on regarding the Kazaa owner's in the background (oh yeah, i think that Kazaa had something to do with the morpheus blackout).
It would be good if people would stay with gnutella and help refine the system so that the downloading does become as good as the Fasttrack system is. But everyone is looking for short term gain - when Kazaa screws them over I'm sure they'll whine. They'll probably still not care over the open/closed source debate.
I got the new Morpehus client and it does seem to be a less "polished" client (proabably as it is a knocked off version of Gnutella shipped out in a hurry). The system seems quite good (as I have not used Gnutella much) but I think it will take a few days for traffic to pick up to its usual levels. The UI needs to be changed a wee bit as it is slightly confusing. I'm sure multi-source downloads are in (although you can't tell what each source is doing like before) but I'm not sure if their supernode feature is still there. They need the quick filter system in where you can select what media to search for (e.g. music, video, documents).
One thing that is lacking in Gnutella is metadata - when downloading songs you can't tell how long they are, what album they are from (important when there are many different versions of a song - radio/street/2 step edits etc.), and comments about this. Hopefully this can be added to a new spec of the Gnutella network so all companies using the standard can have a common format.
I think this will be good for p2p and gnutella: an open standard, which will (hopefully) become better over time. If musiccity really GPLs their work with Gnucleus, everyone should be a winner.
I have to say that spam is destroying the internet. I've given up trying to complain to administrators (it takes too much of my time up) so any spam i get i just delete immediately. I have one email address (with spam filters), forward me email to another address with more spam filters before I pick up my mail. This is the state I've got to in just reading my email.
Some spam is also too hard to track down. I wish someone would come up with a system to trash mail with invalid headers (e.g. from somebody@sasd.sdada - I've had stuff like this).
Like I said, spam is destroying the internet - something needs to be done about it. It wastes the time of everyone who gets it (and even spam you can read would be good - no use if it is in an Asian language I don't understand), plus wastes bandwidth.
I don't know much about chips, but if it is comaptible with the GameCube hardware, I suppoes it would have to use a powerPC chip. That's the only way I can see an advantage for nintendo here.
I can't remember nintendo doing arcade games (apart from Super Nintendo's mated with coin slots to make an arcade jukebox machine) so I speculate the reason why they're doing this is so they can port arcade to gamecube easily.
I have to go and see if extremetech have an article between the PowerPC and MIPS chips. I've been under the (maybe false) impression that the PowerPC chips were amazing. BTW, motorola also make PowerPC chips.
It might not be as bad if the EPO can be brought to heel. However as much effort as possible should be put into this to make legislators understand the negative points of the legislation from our point of view. Myabe then they can reassess the impact of this (proposeds) legisation and can either scrap or amend it accordingly.
I like everyone else, would like to say congratulations, and I hope you have a very happy future together...
Why not a romantic dinner? Or a trip to Paris, the city of love? If you want to see the real thing, apparently both Dublin, Ireland and Glasgow, Scotland have remains of St' Valentine in churches. They're both great cities (hey, the shopping in its good as well when you've got the spare time).
Hello. I have to say that I can't even favour use of the internet for elections (and I mean elections in voting for your government sense). I have to admit here I'm actually someone who would resist the technology.
People are saying voting over the internet, but I would say this was insecure. I believe voting for the government is so important that you really have to minimise the security risks. There are problems with manual voting as it is. But i'm still happier with it than internet voting. When I think voting, I'm now assuming all the computer are ones owned by the government kept in central locations for public voting. I can't see voting from home being too good.
I'm going to throw some ideas out here - if you can find a reason against them, i would love to here (this isn't a challenge, but I'd love to see if someone could put my mind at ease over voting).
(1) I would think that the internet was insecure that you had to use a VPN to allow proper voting. Even then I would still like a closed system where all the power is in government hands.
(2) The system has to have power backups just in case someone starts to tamper with the election. This would be essential in "unstable" areas which are about to vote.
(3) Who controls the system? I would say it would have to be open and free (yeaahhh! - obligatory slashdot herd cheer) with anyone, and I mean anyone, being able to get to the source code. That leaves the fact that the binary produced from the code has to be verified. You'll need qualified people to do this, which costs even more cash.
I also thought about electoral lists, but either way (computer or manual voting) they can still be tampered, although it might be easier on a computer. I just think that allowing people to see the process prevents as much tampering as could be done if people managed to attack the "box" which controls the lists. When i say a "box" I don't mean the central lists, but the one PC which contains the list at the local school where voting could take place.
I do want to believe, but something keeps on telling me that we should keeps things as they are for the now, and restrict this kind of voting to places where it doesn't make too much of a difference. If they could test it in school polls and then corporate polls, and it was shown to be foolproof I wouldn't mind, but I'm very skeptical (the theme of this whole post). I wouldn't mind if they tested this in government opinion polls, where they realise that error could occur, and that it might not make too much of an impression on the governing of the country (i.e. discard the poll if the results are within 5% of each other or something).
Anyway, that's my rant over for the day. Later
coupled with the hard-as-nails win2k/xp combination
;-)
OK, you might have some bad experiences with win2k/xp, but although i've had my problems, it is nothing compared to win9x which really did my head in. Win2k really doesn't f**k up as much as 9x did, and when apps do screw up, they tend not to take down your whole system (although it has happened to me before). This is where the hard-as-nails reference comes - it is amazingly good for normal work/office use without crashing when you've got something important on it
dominant desktop
Each to their own, my friend. The desktop if very useable for most tasks. And when I said dominant i meant dominant as in marketshare and mindshare. That's why improving java to the C# standard would be good - its multiplatform.
can't see the difference between Java and C#
Got me there - although I was referring to its uses - and hopefully the FSF project will make C# multiplatform.
to gte910h, making c# safe by default will help prevent the vb trash destorying the world with their awfulness
Yep, I think the guy's getting quite jealous of MS. Love or hate these people, the .net programming specification look very powerful, and coupled with the hard-as-nails win2k/xp combination, they will be quite hard to compete against.
.net services are basically going to be the same as before - just with a .net after them, and maybe re-written in C# now.
What Sun should really do is get off there behinds and match C# for features. From what I understand (not much admittedly), the Java VM just has to be extended to give it the breadth of additional languages that the CLI has (in terms of being able to use unsafe methods if the programmer wishes, so allowing C to work through it). The problem with Java has MS has the dominant desktop (and a good one it is now - really this is fact if you have to use them all day long), and they have the "standard" tools for programming. This will generate massive mindshare, and might get everyone from VB to C# (at least being "safe" might be good for programs knocked up at home).
On an unrelated topic, I think cloning the fundamentals of C# to a open-source basis is a very good idea. I might not agree how ximian are going about it, but at least the FSF has a parallel project that can bring the new language to the world - it could persuade casual safe programming, while allowing the breadth of accessing the OS directly.
When it comes to web services, I honestly can't see the difference between Java and C# (apart from the fact everyone will use C# as the MS-sponsored dominant language). It's all down to FUD: the
Java is great, but Bill Joy think he should go get it optimised - working faster, able to compete effectively with C#.
Sorry, but I think that's slightly naive. Remember, don't believe everything that you read. Philips may own the trademark, but what chances are there that they really will piss on all the other companies out there who want to "protect their investment".
Even if they do, how is this going to matter to consumers. CD has become a bit generic (its a shiny round thing with a hole in it which ha music), so they could probably put a "compatible with most CD players" on it. Even then a lot of CD's that I've seen have no easily visible compact disc logo on it. Consumers just buy the thing and expect it to work (unless it has DVD plastered all over it). Sorry to rant but the industry is not going to stop because they can't get a logo on their stuff - they'll just make a new standard up.
I remember this from a few years ago, and even then it was expensive. It is a technology that nobody was interested in, and probably still aren't. I remember someting about the system being able to record 8-streams simultaneously (so 8 different tv channels, although at lower quality I would assume). The system did seem quite good as (A) it was recordable (unlike DVD), (B)it was backwards compatible. However I think the 8-stream system was crippled (guess who wanted this), and there was no support for the system. I don't think this has much chance this time round: I mean normal VHS recorders are dirt cheap.
This actually sounds quite bad for importing DVDs. It states that imported PS2 games are illegal to play in the UK. It claims this as it makes an unauthorised copy of the game in memory. I'm sure that if you really wanted this could be stretched to include DVDs (as the article says). As IANAL, I am wondering if this ruling could be taken as legal precedent? Hopefully this bit can be overturned soon.
Another thing I'm wondering about it copying data to memory can be considered "illegal copying". If this is the case for imported games, I do not see how this would make it "not illegal" (for lack of a better phrase) to load PS2 games of your home region (as it is still copying). As "copying" is an integral function of all consoles, I'm wondering what unexpected side-effects there will be. I think the whole thing is a minefield, and the sooner we get a knowledgable expert posting here the better. The whole thing about licensing only for a certain region bothers me - I really can't see why we're not allowed to play import games (or DVDs). OK, its their technology, but still there is "fair use". Hopefully the EU can check into this as well when it's doing its investigation of the legality of DVD regions.
Read this article over at Extremetech. It shows how the 8bit chips are used more than any other type in real world applications. The 68k type, although old, are still used.