I agree with you, but I think the parent poster was referring to languages like Python, not VB or Java.
What we really need is a C library with no strpy(), gets(), etc. A mostly or completely redesigned C library would be nice. --------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
Yep. And try telling people that, too! They start flipping out and arguing with all sorts of pitiful excuses. It's really irritating. --------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
Actually, a lot of people (like me) don't pay because they don't have a credit card, chequing account, etc, and haven't been given the means to pay online.
With things like PayPal, this is slowly changing, but it still needs improvement. --------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
DRI is nothing like KGI! Read some of the specs before you complain about it. KGI was essentially an fbdev system (ie. no hardware acceleration, or at least not 3d), while DRI is essentially *only* 3d acceleration for X. Not exactly the same.
As for release dates, you should have come to expect open-source-style lack-of-release-dates by now. What he "announced" was a *projection*, not a promise. That's why it's different from when Microsoft misses a release date.
I don't agree with everything Linus does either, but if you're going to complain, say something valid. --------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
Having another OS become mainstream is a Good Thing(tm). It would be a shame to replace one OS monopoly with another, but it would be quite excellent if a large number of binary-incompatible, source-compatible operating systems became popular. Soon, the only way to distribute software could be in source form. I don't mind that one bit. After all, proprietary-with-source is just one word away from free-with-source. --------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
Let's face it, we're a special interest group. We have no lobbyists; We have very little money, authority, and influence; We don't have an advertising campaign. We can't kill this type of thing on our own.
We need the help of those with money, authority and influence. As things stand, I don't see anything we can do, directly, about the MPAA. However, as we have started to notice, musicians are getting very, very tired of the RIAA, and for good reason: Of all the millions of dollars the music industry generates, the musicians -- the ones actually causing the income -- are getting very little. These musicians are very influential. If enough of the best musicians band together, they could form their own record company that does things in their and their fans' interests (ie. mixing cheap internet distribution with conventional radio/TV/CD/concerts ). This would liberate them from the RIAA, not to mention giving the musicians much more wealth, and hopefully this would sway public opinion in the process.
Once the RIAA is not in a monopoly position, it would have to play fair, or be abandoned. This would also set a precedent for the MPAA, pressuring it to conform.
To make a long speech shorter: we can't do it alone, but we can do it with help. --------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
If enough people do this, it'll stop happening. If enough people don't do this (the likely case), we deserve what we get.
No, one of the functions of government is to protect the people so they don't have to pay attention to this kind of crap. It's not up to the consumer to determine which things marketed as "food" are not poisonous, nor which things marketed as "motor vehicles" will not explode within 5 days of use. That's the government's job. That's why we're paying politicians. If a government is not protecting its citizens, that government should be replaced. Same goes with a social or political system. --------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
I'm not suggesting the average programmer go into cryptographic systems engineering, but that the reason why things like sendmail, which are not supposed to provide privileged access to *anyone*, are security problems is because of bad coding practices.
Buffer overflows in web/mail servers and the like shouldn't need to be watched by security auditors; The auditors should only really have to look at things like login, ssh, ftpd, nfs -- services that provide privileged access to authorized users. --------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
You're making excuses for lazy programming. The fact remains that every function of every program should be well-planned, written once, error-proof, bulletproof and bombproof, and should be outright perfect. All the best programmers (the ones who can program in hex when they have to) do this, but it's not a popular practice.
It is a political problem, but it's more of a problem of impatient, undisciplined programmers who take no pride in their work, than of economics and bad upstairs management. Impatient programmers are why Microsoft code crashes a lot, and GNU/Linux is disorganized.
Remember: for each function, spend 70% of your time planning the code, only 10% of your time writing it, and 20% of your time making damn sure it's bulletproof. Implement every bloody check you can think of, then put in an #ifdef PARANOID for the stuff you think is really overkill. Do not refuse to write a check because "it's overkill". Do it anyway!
Also, be prepared to toss every line of the code you've just written, if it sucks. Get an outsider's opinion, preferrably an outsider who is nicknamed "The Code Nazi":-). If there is no Code Nazi in your area, it is your duty to become the local Code Nazi.
If every programmer on a project follows the above advice, and is generally very patient and disciplined, then the product they produce will do what it does perfectly. The only imperfect thing will be a lack of features, because the planning team failed to put them into the requirements document.
People make mistakes, but those mistakes should never, ever get shipped.
P.S. Yes, I am a programmer, and I do the things I've said. --------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
Exactly. Which is why it's best if we don't impact environ. too much in the first place, so we don't risk "fixing" it the wrong way. --------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
Stack Overflowx's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not
dwon@zed:~$ nix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not
Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not
Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not
Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not
Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not
Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not
Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not
Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not
Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not
Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
You name one standard *nix that has a login program that displays asterisks when you type in a password. I haven't seen any. --------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
BUT you don't have have to remove all the oxygen to kill the planet. For the most part, the species of this planet are very delicate when it comes to elements that have been constant for millions of years (like oxygen/pollutant content of the air, chemistry of the water, food chain, etc). You make too many "slight" changes, and the entire ecosystem goes out with a bang (or a slow wheeze).
What I'd like to see is less of those liberal-minded 60s vegetarians with highly abrasive personalities discrediting the rest of us who have reasonable environmental concerns.
Remember: if you don't know what you're talking about, shut the hell up. (Not flaming you, just people who are idiots, in general.) --------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
Put it this way: for the purposes of a simple explanation, you need to say how many Hz it is. That's as
much detail as most people want or need to know. What is that number?
No, when I'm being told the *technical details* about something, I demand accuracy! It infuriates me when some techie tells me that "I don't need to know" or that "I don't want to do that". --------
Slashdot Mirror
I agree with you, but I think the parent poster was referring to languages like Python, not VB or Java.
What we really need is a C library with no strpy(), gets(), etc. A mostly or completely redesigned C library would be nice.
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
Yep. And try telling people that, too! They start flipping out and arguing with all sorts of pitiful excuses. It's really irritating.
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
The difference is we trust the BIND team. We don't trust MS.
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
Actually, a lot of people (like me) don't pay because they don't have a credit card, chequing account, etc, and haven't been given the means to pay online.
With things like PayPal, this is slowly changing, but it still needs improvement.
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
> My A500 is STILL faster than a 486Dx66.
And it's still BETTER (design-wise) than an Athlon 700.
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
DRI is nothing like KGI! Read some of the specs before you complain about it. KGI was essentially an fbdev system (ie. no hardware acceleration, or at least not 3d), while DRI is essentially *only* 3d acceleration for X. Not exactly the same.
As for release dates, you should have come to expect open-source-style lack-of-release-dates by now. What he "announced" was a *projection*, not a promise. That's why it's different from when Microsoft misses a release date.
I don't agree with everything Linus does either, but if you're going to complain, say something valid.
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
And make sure those e-mail addresses aren't at the dyingcompany.com !
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
IMHO, if this guy doesn't want me there, I'm not interested in what he has to say.
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
... or BSD ... or Solaris ... or Amiga ... or Mac ...
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
Having another OS become mainstream is a Good Thing(tm). It would be a shame to replace one OS monopoly with another, but it would be quite excellent if a large number of binary-incompatible, source-compatible operating systems became popular. Soon, the only way to distribute software could be in source form. I don't mind that one bit. After all, proprietary-with-source is just one word away from free-with-source.
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
Let's face it, we're a special interest group. We have no lobbyists; We have very little money, authority, and influence; We don't have an advertising campaign. We can't kill this type of thing on our own.
We need the help of those with money, authority and influence. As things stand, I don't see anything we can do, directly, about the MPAA. However, as we have started to notice, musicians are getting very, very tired of the RIAA, and for good reason: Of all the millions of dollars the music industry generates, the musicians -- the ones actually causing the income -- are getting very little. These musicians are very influential. If enough of the best musicians band together, they could form their own record company that does things in their and their fans' interests (ie. mixing cheap internet distribution with conventional radio/TV/CD/concerts ). This would liberate them from the RIAA, not to mention giving the musicians much more wealth, and hopefully this would sway public opinion in the process.
Once the RIAA is not in a monopoly position, it would have to play fair, or be abandoned. This would also set a precedent for the MPAA, pressuring it to conform.
To make a long speech shorter: we can't do it alone, but we can do it with help.
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
No, one of the functions of government is to protect the people so they don't have to pay attention to this kind of crap. It's not up to the consumer to determine which things marketed as "food" are not poisonous, nor which things marketed as "motor vehicles" will not explode within 5 days of use. That's the government's job. That's why we're paying politicians. If a government is not protecting its citizens, that government should be replaced. Same goes with a social or political system.
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
I'm not suggesting the average programmer go into cryptographic systems engineering, but that the reason why things like sendmail, which are not supposed to provide privileged access to *anyone*, are security problems is because of bad coding practices.
Buffer overflows in web/mail servers and the like shouldn't need to be watched by security auditors; The auditors should only really have to look at things like login, ssh, ftpd, nfs -- services that provide privileged access to authorized users.
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
'Nuff said.
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
It is a political problem, but it's more of a problem of impatient, undisciplined programmers who take no pride in their work, than of economics and bad upstairs management. Impatient programmers are why Microsoft code crashes a lot, and GNU/Linux is disorganized.
Remember: for each function, spend 70% of your time planning the code, only 10% of your time writing it, and 20% of your time making damn sure it's bulletproof. Implement every bloody check you can think of, then put in an #ifdef PARANOID for the stuff you think is really overkill. Do not refuse to write a check because "it's overkill". Do it anyway!
Also, be prepared to toss every line of the code you've just written, if it sucks. Get an outsider's opinion, preferrably an outsider who is nicknamed "The Code Nazi" :-). If there is no Code Nazi in your area, it is your duty to become the local Code Nazi.
If every programmer on a project follows the above advice, and is generally very patient and disciplined, then the product they produce will do what it does perfectly. The only imperfect thing will be a lack of features, because the planning team failed to put them into the requirements document.
People make mistakes, but those mistakes should never, ever get shipped.
P.S. Yes, I am a programmer, and I do the things I've said.
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
Exactly. Which is why it's best if we don't impact environ. too much in the first place, so we don't risk "fixing" it the wrong way.
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
At least you're not waiting for 4.0 like I am...
What? I have long-term goals!
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
Don't forget about Alan, Andrea, Rik, David, Chris, Oliver...
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
Stack Overflowx's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not
dwon@zed:~$ nix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not
Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not
Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not
Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not
Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not
Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not
Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not
Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not
Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not
Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix's Not Unix
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
You name one standard *nix that has a login program that displays asterisks when you type in a password. I haven't seen any.
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
BUT you don't have have to remove all the oxygen to kill the planet. For the most part, the species of this planet are very delicate when it comes to elements that have been constant for millions of years (like oxygen/pollutant content of the air, chemistry of the water, food chain, etc). You make too many "slight" changes, and the entire ecosystem goes out with a bang (or a slow wheeze).
What I'd like to see is less of those liberal-minded 60s vegetarians with highly abrasive personalities discrediting the rest of us who have reasonable environmental concerns.
Remember: if you don't know what you're talking about, shut the hell up. (Not flaming you, just people who are idiots, in general.)
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
Perhaps you'll like to visit my web site. It's all HTML 4.01 validated and compliant.
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
No, when I'm being told the *technical details* about something, I demand accuracy! It infuriates me when some techie tells me that "I don't need to know" or that "I don't want to do that".
--------
Why shouldn't I say, "I need some kleenexes"?
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.
Imagine Glimmer + DDD + glade + a lisp interpreter all integrated. IMHO, linux lacks a really good IDE that can do everything you need.
It seems to me this kid has never seen emacs.
--------
Genius dies of the same blow that destroys liberty.