Europeans dare to judge us unfairly just because our country (and Britian) has the cojones to oppose evil in the world.
Noblesse oblige me to correct you, sir.
We dare to judge you just because (the government of) your country and (the government of) Britain are the cojones who claim to oppose "evil" in the world.
The Karma of it all...
on
Linus Interviewed
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Linux has been named after Linus Torvalds.
Linus Torvalds has been named after Linus Carl Pauling.
Now, besides pronunciation issues (you should ask Pauling's family how they called their late wonderboy!), it's enlightening to observe:
Linus Carl Pauling (LCP) is the only man who won two Nobel prizes in two totally unrelated fields: chemistry (1954 - discoveries on chemical bond's nature) and peace (1962 - battle to ban nuclear experiments). He also won the Lenin prize and the Gandhi prize.
LCP died in San Francisco in 1994. The same year Linus released Linux 1.0.
LCP directed (since 1936) the "Gates and Crellin" labs, in Pasadena, CA. Not too distant from where Linus first went working in US (Transmeta). And the name of the labs... Ah, the irony.
LCP was born in... yep, you got that... Portland, OR, 1901. Where our kernel benevolent dictator lives right now.
Especially impressive because it was pretty much Berkley defending itself. There were no industry players coming to bat.
Well... When you have a great Law School around, and you're backed up by the richest State of the Union, you really don't need an industry player coming to bat.
Messing with the Regents is messing with a 1600-pounds gorilla...
It was April 2000, when I first heard of Speakeasy. I had to move to Cali (bay area) for seven months with my wife, and while at it I wanted to give a try to this new "DSL" technology everyone was talking about.
Some ISP-shopping later, I settled with a 640k/160k RADSL Speakeasy+Covad solution, with modem rental, $60/mo.
First and foremost, when in september the price of my account type dropped from $60 to $50, they lowered the actual bill to match the new offer - and that's pretty unique.
Second, they wanted a full year of contract, but after I told them I had to go back in Italy (I'm italian) after only 7 months, they replied: "Ok, no problem: as long as you don't switch to our competitors, you can stay with us even two weeks, if you wish so". Pretty darn cool, if you ask me.
Last but not least, when I had to return in my native country, and I needed to arrange the return of the rented modem, they indulged in saying the shipping cost for the modem would have been way too high for them to care, and that I could have kept the modem "as a gift for having been their customer". I was speechless.
Right now, I'm connected to the 'Net thru a local, italian DSL provider, but the modem is still the dear old Speakeasy's Efficient SpeedStream (with a power adapter, you know, 110V/220V).
Can you name the provider I will look for if/when I will return in the US?
The one who provided me with a "human" experience. This "you can share your band, if this makes you happier" attitude isn't really new to me.
Oh, my, this is not even calculus. This is basic math!!!
4e6 = 2'048, hardly anywhere near four millions.
Maybe the editor wanted to write 4*10e6 (4 * 1'000'000) or (4e6)e2 (2'048 * 2'048 ~= 4'000'000), but, damn, he's an editor, not a mathematician nor a true nerd - he'd have learned the scientific notation way before starting to write on a website.
I wonder why they keep putting "news for nerds" in the subtitle...
Ok, let's put down the Linux fanboy suit, and look more deeply at this.
EU is (slowly) getting out of the shadow of the former superpower. Euro, 9/11, New Economy burst, US & Japan economic crisis, all "helped" the Union to find back their unity, identity, pride and strength.
I won't debate the good or bad of these events, I'm not up to it.
But, I'd like to point out that in such "self awareness" phenomenon, the last thing you'd want to concede to your competitors is to have one of their major companies practically rule the information and communication infrastructure of your own national system(s).
Would any american citizen rather have all of their phone lines be run by a German monopolistic private company? Or all of their power plants run by a French monopolistic private company? Or all of their run by monopolistic private company?
So why so many arms thrown up when we Europeans start looking around for other suppliers of (most of) our government and in the end strategic IT infrastructure?
I believe if we in the EU had a powerhouse software firm similar in size to M$, we'd be already switched over it. Proprietary or not, it'd not matter (much) from a strategic point of view.
Cost is a factor, but not as much as putting your own computer-related balls in the hands of a private company of an allied-but-competing country.
Good Enough (tm)
on
LCD Round-up
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I read many posts saying that LCD will never catch up a good CRT, that LCD still have a long way to go, that numbers don't lie, etc. at least wrt fast moving things on-screen and action packed games.
All valid points, I concede, but I want to give my experience. With my workmates, we usually give up the lunch break, have a quick sandwich, and fire up Unreal Tournament on our laptops. One year old stuff, mind you, nothing groundbreaking (Asus L8400 and Acer 212TX). Original UT, not UT2003 - the latter doesn't even install on the machines!
Well, just today we totalled a 20-0 CTF, with our lame LCDs. We were four, against four "godlike" (= max difficulty level) bots. I know that bots, even max skill, aren't a match for human creativity, but still, we managed to wind up a nice score on LCDs.
Are we really good (I dearly doubt that), or actually a slow-refreshing LCD isn't an unsurmountable obstacle in fast action playing?
"You are kidding yourself if you believe that most people using mod chips on the PSX (I can't speak for the PS2) were using it to run their own 'backup' games...maybe someone else's 'backup' games. "
Yes, my post was ironic. The qouted "backup" meant that: burned copies of the games, bought at street corners or swapped at schools for one handful of pennies.
"Additionally, I don't think Microsoft is making any claim that the hardware will not be hacked...it is just to raise the bar so that it doesn't become as common as it did with the PSX..."
Nor the platform as successful as PSX either. That's was my whole point: no pirated games allowed -> smaller market
> Frustrated consumers are probably less likely
> to spend money on modifications after they
> find some mods don't work (because they are
> meant for a different version of the XBox)
...And even less likely to bother buying a console that can't run "backup" games.
Ok, so basically RMS/Kuhn say that developers (or "power holders") should grant utmost freedom to the users of their products. Agree, disagree, it's your call.
There's a way to make him happy. Put every product I, you, FSF, RedHat, M$ write into public domain. "It was mine, now it's yours - do what you want with it". Freedom? Here's freedom.
I can take "White Christmas", play it in public, in private, modify it, release the modifications, keep the modifications, translate in ancient greek, rap it, reggae it, s/Christmas/Cowabunga/ it, and everyone else will be still free to do the same with his/her copy of White Christmas.
PD the world? That's the utmost freedom.
Is this what we (me, you, RMS, ESR, Bill) want? Maybe yes, maybe no. Go in front of a mirror and say "I want my work to be seriously and deeply free for every other man on this planet". Repeat and rinse until convinced.
Then come back and start the sermon again, thanks.
Slashdot Mirror
In that timespan, the U.S. [...] invented the telephone
Really?
Europeans dare to judge us unfairly just because our country (and Britian) has the cojones to oppose evil in the world.
Noblesse oblige me to correct you, sir.
We dare to judge you just because (the government of) your country and (the government of) Britain are the cojones who claim to oppose "evil" in the world.
A. Moore's Law...
B. The relationship...
B. Magnetic storage...
What about learning the alphabet?
Linux has been named after Linus Torvalds.
:)
Linus Torvalds has been named after Linus Carl Pauling.
Now, besides pronunciation issues (you should ask Pauling's family how they called their late wonderboy!), it's enlightening to observe:
Linus Carl Pauling (LCP) is the only man who won two Nobel prizes in two totally unrelated fields: chemistry (1954 - discoveries on chemical bond's nature) and peace (1962 - battle to ban nuclear experiments). He also won the Lenin prize and the Gandhi prize.
LCP died in San Francisco in 1994. The same year Linus released Linux 1.0.
LCP directed (since 1936) the "Gates and Crellin" labs, in Pasadena, CA. Not too distant from where Linus first went working in US (Transmeta). And the name of the labs... Ah, the irony.
LCP was born in... yep, you got that... Portland, OR, 1901. Where our kernel benevolent dictator lives right now.
Isn't Karma doing wonders?
Funny. I thought Ferrari was sold there too.
Ah, you don't know that Ferrari is a brand of the Fiat group?
Now you know.
Yes, getting better, but it is still only 15 years ago the military opened fire on civilians in the centre of Beijing.
As opposed to 15 or so days ago, when US military opened fire on civilians in a wedding ceremony in the center of Baghdad?
Nice to see that civilians aren't civilians, unless coming from the same country as the soldiers who fire on them.
*ahem*! :)
Linux for PS2
Nethack, rogue, moria, angband, ADOM...
Seems like you found your console.
UT2004 on my Debian box with WineX
:)
UT2004 has a linux client right in the box. Why another layer?
The linux client doesn't even require the play disc to be in the reader all the time - differently from windows client.
Check the linux_installer.sh script on the install disc.
Especially impressive because it was pretty much Berkley defending itself. There were no industry players coming to bat.
Well... When you have a great Law School around, and you're backed up by the richest State of the Union, you really don't need an industry player coming to bat.
Messing with the Regents is messing with a 1600-pounds gorilla...
It was April 2000, when I first heard of Speakeasy. I had to move to Cali (bay area) for seven months with my wife, and while at it I wanted to give a try to this new "DSL" technology everyone was talking about.
Some ISP-shopping later, I settled with a 640k/160k RADSL Speakeasy+Covad solution, with modem rental, $60/mo.
First and foremost, when in september the price of my account type dropped from $60 to $50, they lowered the actual bill to match the new offer - and that's pretty unique.
Second, they wanted a full year of contract, but after I told them I had to go back in Italy (I'm italian) after only 7 months, they replied: "Ok, no problem: as long as you don't switch to our competitors, you can stay with us even two weeks, if you wish so". Pretty darn cool, if you ask me.
Last but not least, when I had to return in my native country, and I needed to arrange the return of the rented modem, they indulged in saying the shipping cost for the modem would have been way too high for them to care, and that I could have kept the modem "as a gift for having been their customer". I was speechless.
Right now, I'm connected to the 'Net thru a local, italian DSL provider, but the modem is still the dear old Speakeasy's Efficient SpeedStream (with a power adapter, you know, 110V/220V).
Can you name the provider I will look for if/when I will return in the US?
The one who provided me with a "human" experience. This "you can share your band, if this makes you happier" attitude isn't really new to me.
The 'solution' from MS in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS02-065 recommends that you remove MS from the list of Trusted Publishers."
Trustworthy Computing!
Yeah, sure... And then they recommend to be removed from the trustworthy list...
Apparently, I'm good for editing too! :)
4e6 = 4'096, not 2'048.
"set up 4000000(4e6) domino pieces"
4e6???
Oh, my, this is not even calculus. This is basic math!!!
4e6 = 2'048, hardly anywhere near four millions.
Maybe the editor wanted to write 4*10e6 (4 * 1'000'000) or (4e6)e2 (2'048 * 2'048 ~= 4'000'000), but, damn, he's an editor, not a mathematician nor a true nerd - he'd have learned the scientific notation way before starting to write on a website.
I wonder why they keep putting "news for nerds" in the subtitle...
The Hurd has concepts that are actually innovative.
Which ones? The 2GB partitions or support for 16550A's speeds?
Linux was "obsoleted" by Tanenbaum upon inception. Hurd is conceptually innovative. Duke Nukem Forever is to be released real soon now. News at 11.
*yawn*
Avidly against. Yeah, sure!
I thought they must have had a /. clause in there somewhere.
What's the problem?
Timothy simply didn't agree to the terms of service!
Voila'!
..."think about a Beowulf cluster of these" posts floating around.
:)
This effort is actually a loose application of those posts.
So this post shouldn't be funny at all!
Ok, let's put down the Linux fanboy suit, and look more deeply at this.
EU is (slowly) getting out of the shadow of the former superpower. Euro, 9/11, New Economy burst, US & Japan economic crisis, all "helped" the Union to find back their unity, identity, pride and strength.
I won't debate the good or bad of these events, I'm not up to it.
But, I'd like to point out that in such "self awareness" phenomenon, the last thing you'd want to concede to your competitors is to have one of their major companies practically rule the information and communication infrastructure of your own national system(s).
Would any american citizen rather have all of their phone lines be run by a German monopolistic private company? Or all of their power plants run by a French monopolistic private company? Or all of their run by monopolistic private company?
So why so many arms thrown up when we Europeans start looking around for other suppliers of (most of) our government and in the end strategic IT infrastructure?
I believe if we in the EU had a powerhouse software firm similar in size to M$, we'd be already switched over it. Proprietary or not, it'd not matter (much) from a strategic point of view.
Cost is a factor, but not as much as putting your own computer-related balls in the hands of a private company of an allied-but-competing country.
I read many posts saying that LCD will never catch up a good CRT, that LCD still have a long way to go, that numbers don't lie, etc. at least wrt fast moving things on-screen and action packed games.
All valid points, I concede, but I want to give my experience. With my workmates, we usually give up the lunch break, have a quick sandwich, and fire up Unreal Tournament on our laptops. One year old stuff, mind you, nothing groundbreaking (Asus L8400 and Acer 212TX). Original UT, not UT2003 - the latter doesn't even install on the machines!
Well, just today we totalled a 20-0 CTF, with our lame LCDs. We were four, against four "godlike" (= max difficulty level) bots. I know that bots, even max skill, aren't a match for human creativity, but still, we managed to wind up a nice score on LCDs.
Are we really good (I dearly doubt that), or actually a slow-refreshing LCD isn't an unsurmountable obstacle in fast action playing?
Can I say "just good enough"?
"You are kidding yourself if you believe that most people using mod chips on the PSX (I can't speak for the PS2) were using it to run their own 'backup' games...maybe someone else's 'backup' games. "
Yes, my post was ironic. The qouted "backup" meant that: burned copies of the games, bought at street corners or swapped at schools for one handful of pennies.
"Additionally, I don't think Microsoft is making any claim that the hardware will not be hacked...it is just to raise the bar so that it doesn't become as common as it did with the PSX..."
Nor the platform as successful as PSX either. That's was my whole point: no pirated games allowed -> smaller market
> to spend money on modifications after they
> find some mods don't work (because they are
> meant for a different version of the XBox)
Need a proof? What about PSX/PS2?
Ok, so basically RMS/Kuhn say that developers (or "power holders") should grant utmost freedom to the users of their products. Agree, disagree, it's your call.
There's a way to make him happy. Put every product I, you, FSF, RedHat, M$ write into public domain. "It was mine, now it's yours - do what you want with it". Freedom? Here's freedom.
I can take "White Christmas", play it in public, in private, modify it, release the modifications, keep the modifications, translate in ancient greek, rap it, reggae it, s/Christmas/Cowabunga/ it, and everyone else will be still free to do the same with his/her copy of White Christmas.
PD the world? That's the utmost freedom.
Is this what we (me, you, RMS, ESR, Bill) want? Maybe yes, maybe no. Go in front of a mirror and say "I want my work to be seriously and deeply free for every other man on this planet". Repeat and rinse until convinced.
Then come back and start the sermon again, thanks.