Yeah, but this is even worse! Do the math -- a universal data tax at the rate of $.01 per meg would be a huge additional expense. With bandwidth on virtual servers selling in bulk for less than $10 per gig, this would more than double the cost of bandwith. Further, look at their 1996 projections. $70 bil in revenue from this tax. And that's 1996. 1999 is way more than that. That 70 bil has to come from somewhere and taking 70 bil even out of the entire global economy has a big impact.
Yes, but if X were halfway decent, it would detect this and free them itself. That's like saying that there should be memory leaks in the kernel because apps forget to free() all of their memory. Everywhere else in Unix, once the process dies, all its resources are freed.
Everyone should stop whining about MS not making the Office formats available. They have been available for quite some time (not long after Office 97 was released IIRC). To get them (instructions copied from the MSWordView homepage):
How to Obtain Microsoft Office File Formats
The MS Office file formats (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Office Binder and Office Drawing) are all freely available from the MS web site provided you are a member of the MS Developer Network (MSDN). Joining MSDN is free to gain access to these specifications Simply go to the following address: http://msdn.microsoft.com From the list on the left of the screen select MSDN library online If you are not a member of the MS Developer Network you will need to join - it's free. Once you have subscribed to the MSDN, you can obtain online copies of the file formats. To do this, follow these steps: 1.On the MSDN World Wide Web site, click MSDN Library Online. 2.Under Member Area, click the Library Online tab. 3.Double-click Microsoft Office Development. 4.Double-click Office. 5.Double-click Microsoft Office 97 Binary File Formats. 6.Select the format you are interested in (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.)
If you use the same key for both, maybe. If you use a different key for each, then no way. Think about it -- if that were true then the first thing the spooks would do to make it easier to decrypt would be to encrypt it again. Does that make any sense?
The problem is that the distributed.net people don't seem to care about hyping a worthwhile project. Look at all of their banner ads which are talking about RC5-64. RC5-64 is at this point a worthless project. All it will prove once they finally do get the key (if they do) is that 64 bit crypto is crackable but pretty hard without specialized hardware. How much computing power it takes to crack RC5-64 using brute-force is known. The only thing which was unknown was how much power a bunch of people on the internet could cobble together. That is now known. Therefore distributed projects such as this should concentrate on using their massive computing throughput to do something useful such as SETI, Gulomb rulers, or Mersene Primes. (or anything else which will produce useful results) I can see why the SETI people didn't want to use distributed.net -- they didn't want to play second fiddle in hype to RC5-64. It's unfortunate that they're wasting cycles like this, but I can completely understand why they didn't want to use distributed.net.
Ok, for clarity: SGI is releasing XFS under some yet-to-be-disclosed open source license
Sun is releasing some HPC stuff under their "Community License." Sun has not claimed anywhere that this constitutes "Open Source." "Open Source" is not mentioned anywhere in their press release.
This kind of stuff already exists in the form of X-10 computer interfaces. The solution is to use optoisloators. These are basically IR LED/detector combos facing each other in a sealed plastic shell. You mount one of these on a board, and if the high voltage portion of the circut fries, the IR LED burns out, but no high voltage signal leaks to the other side. You can use things like fuses too, but those aren't 100% reliable especally for quick spikes.
I agree. I think that the KDE WM model is a good one -- have a single window manager that ships with KDE (kwm), but have an open spec so others can make their own KDE compiliant window managers (such as Window Maker). This way for the newbie, configuration is easy as it is all integrated in the KDE control center, yet still allows as much configurability as is desired.
Well, I suppose enabling asserts slows down the code a fair bit, but on my machine, the highlight can't even keep up with the mouse on the menus. Web pages take 3x as long to load as on Netscape, and it takes forever to load all of the images on an image-heavy page. If this the "Raptor" I was looking forward to,I must say I'm underwhelmed.
Actually, the reason that it's so expensive is that the Palm.net service (before they were bought out, RAM mobile data) runs at about 100Mhz. This is great for in-building coverage because the lower frequencies really penetrate well. The downside is that first, that spectrum is very valuable and therefore will be priced accordingly. Second, data rates achievable are limited by low frequency. Third, data rates are further limited by low s/n ratio on that portion of the spectrum. BellSouth has a pretty sparse tower setup, perhaps they could install more, but I'm pretty sure that the max datarate (per tower) is less than 9600bps. The future of wireless data is CDMA and I don't believe that BSWD is going to be able to expand their network's capacity to be a major player. With CDMA you can get a 14.4k connection all to yourself for about $.10 per minute. Real web browsing can be done at those speeds.
Re:Computing power, and Linux apps
on
The KDE Future
·
· Score: 1
I understand your concern, however technology marches on. A 386 can still be used as a router or IPMasq server (in fact I am doing just that), it can still run console apps, and older X apps. I don't think further development for these machines should be a priority for the major desktop projects. If it's not too hard to make them faster by turning off features then fine, do it. Recognise though that hardly anyone on any other platform is targetting a 486 or 040 now as a viable computer. If you have such a computer, you can use apps that were developed when that computer was a modern machine. The Linux kernel, X, and older apps will probably always run fine on a 486. Especally with today's PC prices, there's no real reason to continue to use a 486 as a desktop machine if you value your time at all. If you already have a monitor (if you have a 486 you should), you can buy a $400 computer (even cheaper if you buy used or recycle some of your old parts). I really don't think that the few people who still want to use such machines for their desktop should be holding back the development of new apps.
Concentrating on bloat will not get us anywhere
on
The KDE Future
·
· Score: 1
Although I understand the frustration in many of you who have low-end computers, think about what you want out of your computer. The primary reasons I use Linux over Windows are: XEmacs, good command line and super-stable. Although it's neat to be able to say that you can use a 486 and still run modern apps, at what cost? Some may say that writing "bloated" programs like KDE or GNOME is pandering to those of us who have fast computers. I would argue that not writing such programs is pandering to the low end. If I buy a brand new Pentium III 550, I want it to make a difference in my use of the computer. If I were using FVWM and simple apps, it probably would only make a difference on compiles, and probably a marginal one at that. Since most people have a good deal of processing power (I have a PPro 200, and I suspect that the majority of/. readers have something better), we should put that power to good use in the user's everyday experience of the computer. This means ease of use, and faster completion of everyday tasks. One poster before suggested that KDE should perhaps allow users to disable some features that take up more CPU. I think that if this is feasable that this is a very good idea. Ideally the low-end and the high-end should be able to use the same apps with varying levels of capablity. Unfortunately, there are a number of structural aspects of KDE such as CORBA which I believe will inherently slow down the system. Optimization is definitely warranted in these areas as much as is reasonable, but developers have to remember that optimizing excessively when you could be adding features is about as bad as writing slow software. Those who dislike features should stick with FVWM and their old apps. The simple fact is that if we never made programs which traded more features for less speed, we would still be running assembly language text mode programs without an operating system. Every advance comes at a price, but it is a price we can afford since computer power is increasing quickly.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, but this is even worse! Do the math -- a universal data tax at the rate of $.01 per meg would be a huge additional expense. With bandwidth on virtual servers selling in bulk for less than $10 per gig, this would more than double the cost of bandwith. Further, look at their 1996 projections. $70 bil in revenue from this tax. And that's 1996. 1999 is way more than that. That 70 bil has to come from somewhere and taking 70 bil even out of the entire global economy has a big impact.
I thought Stallman announced when the QPL was released that it qualified as free software. Wouldn't this mean that it is compatable with the GPL?
Yes, but if X were halfway decent, it would detect this and free them itself. That's like saying that there should be memory leaks in the kernel because apps forget to free() all of their memory. Everywhere else in Unix, once the process dies, all its resources are freed.
The new StarOffice opens all common Word file formats including 97. It even does a pretty accurate conversion.
Everyone should stop whining about MS not making the Office formats available. They have been available for quite some time (not long after Office 97 was released IIRC). To get them (instructions copied from the MSWordView homepage):
How to Obtain Microsoft Office File Formats
The MS Office file formats (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Office Binder and Office Drawing) are all freely available from the MS web site provided you are a member of the MS Developer Network (MSDN). Joining MSDN is free to gain access to these specifications
Simply go to the following address:
http://msdn.microsoft.com
From the list on the left of the screen select MSDN library online
If you are not a member of the MS Developer Network you will need to join - it's free.
Once you have subscribed to the MSDN, you can obtain online copies of the file formats. To do this, follow these steps:
1.On the MSDN World Wide Web site, click MSDN Library Online.
2.Under Member Area, click the Library Online tab.
3.Double-click Microsoft Office Development.
4.Double-click Office.
5.Double-click Microsoft Office 97 Binary File Formats.
6.Select the format you are interested in (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.)
If you use the same key for both, maybe. If you
use a different key for each, then no way. Think
about it -- if that were true then the first thing
the spooks would do to make it easier to decrypt
would be to encrypt it again. Does that make any
sense?
The problem is that the distributed.net people don't seem to care about hyping a worthwhile project. Look at all of their banner ads which are talking about RC5-64. RC5-64 is at this point a worthless project. All it will prove once they finally do get the key (if they do) is that 64 bit crypto is crackable but pretty hard without specialized hardware. How much computing power it takes to crack RC5-64 using brute-force is known. The only thing which was unknown was how much power a bunch of people on the internet could cobble together. That is now known. Therefore distributed projects such as this should concentrate on using their massive computing throughput to do something useful such as SETI, Gulomb rulers, or Mersene Primes. (or anything else which will produce useful results) I can see why the SETI people didn't want to use distributed.net -- they didn't want to play second fiddle in hype to RC5-64. It's unfortunate that they're wasting cycles like this, but I can completely understand why they didn't want to use distributed.net.
Dork.
Ok, for clarity:
SGI is releasing XFS under some yet-to-be-disclosed open source license
Sun is releasing some HPC stuff under their "Community License." Sun has not claimed anywhere that this constitutes "Open Source." "Open Source" is not mentioned anywhere in their press release.
This kind of stuff already exists in the form of X-10 computer interfaces. The solution is to use optoisloators. These are basically IR LED/detector combos facing each other in a sealed plastic shell. You mount one of these on a board, and if the high voltage portion of the circut fries, the IR LED burns out, but no high voltage signal leaks to the other side. You can use things like fuses too, but those aren't 100% reliable especally for quick spikes.
I agree. I think that the KDE WM model is a good one -- have a single window manager that ships with KDE (kwm), but have an open spec so others can make their own KDE compiliant window managers (such as Window Maker). This way for the newbie, configuration is easy as it is all integrated in the KDE control center, yet still allows as much configurability as is desired.
Well, I suppose enabling asserts slows down the code a fair bit, but on my machine, the highlight can't even keep up with the mouse on the menus. Web pages take 3x as long to load as on Netscape, and it takes forever to load all of the images on an image-heavy page. If this the "Raptor" I was looking forward to,I must say I'm underwhelmed.
Actually, the reason that it's so expensive is that the Palm.net service (before they were bought out, RAM mobile data) runs at about 100Mhz. This is great for in-building coverage because the lower frequencies really penetrate well. The downside is that first, that spectrum is very valuable and therefore will be priced accordingly. Second, data rates achievable are limited by low frequency. Third, data rates are further limited by low s/n ratio on that portion of the spectrum. BellSouth has a pretty sparse tower setup, perhaps they could install more, but I'm pretty sure that the max datarate (per tower) is less than 9600bps. The future of wireless data is CDMA and I don't believe that BSWD is going to be able to expand their network's capacity to be a major player. With CDMA you can get a 14.4k connection all to yourself for about $.10 per minute. Real web browsing can be done at those speeds.
I understand your concern, however technology marches on. A 386 can still be used as a router or IPMasq server (in fact I am doing just that), it can still run console apps, and older X apps. I don't think further development for these machines should be a priority for the major desktop projects. If it's not too hard to make them faster by turning off features then fine, do it. Recognise though that hardly anyone on any other platform is targetting a 486 or 040 now as a viable computer. If you have such a computer, you can use apps that were developed when that computer was a modern machine. The Linux kernel, X, and older apps will probably always run fine on a 486. Especally with today's PC prices, there's no real reason to continue to use a 486 as a desktop machine if you value your time at all. If you already have a monitor (if you have a 486 you should), you can buy a $400 computer (even cheaper if you buy used or recycle some of your old parts). I really don't think that the few people who still want to use such machines for their desktop should be holding back the development of new apps.
Although I understand the frustration in many of you who have low-end computers, think about what you want out of your computer. The primary reasons I use Linux over Windows are: XEmacs, good command line and super-stable. Although it's neat to be able to say that you can use a 486 and still run modern apps, at what cost? Some may say that writing "bloated" programs like KDE or GNOME is pandering to those of us who have fast computers. I would argue that not writing such programs is pandering to the low end. If I buy a brand new Pentium III 550, I want it to make a difference in my use of the computer. If I were using FVWM and simple apps, it probably would only make a difference on compiles, and probably a marginal one at that. Since most people have a good deal of processing power (I have a PPro 200, and I suspect that the majority of /. readers have something better), we should put that power to good use in the user's everyday experience of the computer. This means ease of use, and faster completion of everyday tasks. One poster before suggested that KDE should perhaps allow users to disable some features that take up more CPU. I think that if this is feasable that this is a very good idea. Ideally the low-end and the high-end should be able to use the same apps with varying levels of capablity. Unfortunately, there are a number of structural aspects of KDE such as CORBA which I believe will inherently slow down the system. Optimization is definitely warranted in these areas as much as is reasonable, but developers have to remember that optimizing excessively when you could be adding features is about as bad as writing slow software. Those who dislike features should stick with FVWM and their old apps. The simple fact is that if we never made programs which traded more features for less speed, we would still be running assembly language text mode programs without an operating system. Every advance comes at a price, but it is a price we can afford since computer power is increasing quickly.