Intel did this a few years back, I think '95 or '96. They sold TV tuner cards that would give you web pages from the scanlines. They had MTV and PBS lined up to send relevent web pages with their shows, but it never caught on. TV tuner cards have never been hot sellers, they wind up being more niche devices, that's probably what killed them. --
The law you're refering to is the law of economics. Designing and developing a game is an expensive prospect. If a software house going to plunk down the money to create a game, do they choose to release it for the OS that has 5-10% market share or the OS that has upwards of 80% market share? After the game is developed, porting it to another OS is simply a matter of programming.
It's expensive to create original games, and you want the highest return on investment you can get. Release the game running under Windows. Then, if you want a little more market share, start looking at other OS's.
BTW, there are some original games for Linux, but those are being programmed by open source programmers, not the big software houses. I don't want to start a holy war, but you'll find that there's a lot more creative people involved developing (read not programming, but coming up with concepts and stories) closed source games than open. --
If colleges are losing bandwidth to Napster, it's their own fault. Routers support QoS routing, allowing them to give preference to whatever traffic they like.
Just set up your router to give preference to DNS and mail, then outgoing web traffic, then telnet/ssh, then everything else. That way, you allow the people using the bandwidth for "serious academic pursuits" to do what they're supposed to, but then utilize the rest of the bandwidth for the things that make students into humans.
I'm sick of people complaining about Napster traffic slowing down their Internet traffic, when it doesn't need to be that way. --
I agree with all your points, but I'm still thinking about buying one. I think that selling these things below cost and then locking their users into one ISP is anti-competitive. I can't say that their ISP is good or bad, but if it's bad, there's no recourse for most of the people using this. If we destroy their business, it's because it wasn't a good business model in the first place. --
With this latest in a string of stories about Amazon and their evil "1-click patent". Not to mention the numerous stories about the evils of software patents, why do we still find this in the book reviews section:
The books here are brought to us in Partnership with Amazon.com.
Uh, because you're looking at really old stories? Ever since Amazon started being stupid (and maybe even before then), Slashdot has been using other vendors. Seriously, if you don't believe me, look for yourself. I saw a few Think Geek links (not surprising, since they're owned by Andover) and a few Fat Brain links.
I'm amazed this post has a score 4, considering it seems to have even less fact checking than your average/. story. --
My previous impressions of Gore have been that his policies on the internet are not very similar to that of the internet populace.
Also, on a note about Gore, how can the internet populace vote for a candidate who is pro-censorship?
Remember that the internet populace is a very large thing, and has a lot of diverse views. Just because all of us on/. are against censorship (and not even everyone on/. is), doesn't mean that the entire Internet is against it. Remember that the soccer moms trying to "protect the children" are part of the internet populace.
The views of the internet populace reflects the views of the people on it; the views of the american internet populace reflects the views of most americans (minus some of the lower income brackets and technophobic). Remember, the PMRC got their stickers on music because they had the support of some of the american people, now those same americans are on the internet. --
Does not engaging in promiscuous browsing mean that I can't use Dug Song's Webspy program? Or does it mean that I should just stop looking at all this pr0n? I'm so confused. --
It won't really smooth over the transition from Windows to Linux for anyone. Remember, 95% of Windows users have the hardware to run Linux. The main transitional problem is that Linux has is that it has different (some might say more complex) interface then Windows. To change your network settings, you have to run ifconfig instead of Right-clicking on Network, going to properties, blah blah blah. This discussion has been had a thousand times, and expect to hear it again. I don't really feel like going into the whole simplicity vs. power debate, but suffice it to say a different processor won't change much.
Another of your arguments was that it would be easier to switch between different OSs. There really won't be much difference between the current way and the Crusoe way. Remember, Linux, BSD, Be, Java, etc, all run under the x86 platform. Unless the Cruesoe lets you open up multiple emulated processors, which I don't think is the case, you'll still have to reboot and repartition, just like you have to under x86. The only multiple OS benefit I see is the possibility of running Windows and MacOS on the same computer.
I agree that the Crusoe looks cool and all, but I don't see it revoltionizing the way we compute. --
My Eastpak "PC Pak'r" is a pretty nice bag. It's got a laptop pouch in the main compartment, which ties down with a velcro strap. Plenty of room for O'reilly books along with your laptop. There's a nice little side pouch, perfect for a cellphone or a Palm Pilot. It also has an easy to access disk carrier, which holds six 3 1/2" or zip disks.
The handle on top is nice for carrying it, and the shoulder straps are really nice, because they're coated with some grip-tape like substance. Oh, and the back is padded, so you don't feel your laptop on your spine constantly. I'm pretty happy with my purchase, and I've got a couple friends who got the same bag, and seem to be equally pleased. Check around your local Target for it, I got mine for $50 there, $15 less then the price on Eastpak's website. --
3Com doesn't claim to have invented graffiti. The history of graffiti is a little more sorid.
Remember the old 1990's Doonsbury cartoons that made fun of the Apple Newton's handwriting recognition? Well they were pretty true. So Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinski, along with the rest of their software firm wrote a program called Graffiti. The magic of this program was that instead of trying to interpret normal handwriting, Graffiti 'forced' you to write a certain way, and handwriting recognition went way up, but not enough to save the Newton from terminal failure.
But Jeff and Donna still believed in the PDA, so Jeff decided that a PDA should fit in the shirt pocket, and they went from there. Hence Palm Computing, the Palm Pilot, and the whole hullabaloo that is the current PalmOS scene.
My 10 second analysis is that they are fairly similar, but Xerox filed this in October 1995 and I'm pretty sure Grafitti for the Newton was out in 93, but I'm nowhere near certain, so take this with a grain of salt. --
I'm glad Rob posted this one. I imagine a good portion of us read comic books (the nice thing about the word 'read' is that its past- and present-tenses are spelled the same). Spiderman is well documented as a breakaway success because Parker was a average-joe, with girl problems, school problems, etc. He was someone comic book readers could connect with.
This is news for nerds, and I hope more stuff like this gets posted. The fact that this almost wasn't posted is yet another reason to clamor for a open and moderated submission queue. --
I think the "coming back to life" thing was integral to the plot. For one thing, it was about mysticism as much as technology. The Oracle (or maybe she was just a database ), prophesies, all that stuff has little or nothing to do with technology. When Neo came back to life, that was representing that he had truely gained control of the matrix. --
The CEO of Macromedia had these things to say about opening Flash: "I get a nice flamey email about once a week from some ass who calls me a hypocrite and slams me for not getting out a new release. My usual response is to tell them that I delay the release by 24 hours each time someone asks me when a new Flash tarball will be out. " ... "It's really easy for someone to complain that I didn't release a new version of the source code every week. Its also easy to forget that in the last 6 months we've doubled in traffic and we've had to optimize our code and hardware to handle that. A new source release is secondary: Our job is running Macromedia. We want to release new versions of Flash, but it is a definite second priority to keeping Macromedia moving." ... "Finally, it's coming soon. It'll be out when its finished. And if you ask me again I'll postpone it again."
Here's a scenerio: Company A is worried about looking stupid on 1/1/00, because they're afraid their webpage will say the year is 19100. So they change the Perl source to not run any script that doesn't add 1900 to any variable that gets assigned the year. Company A put some pocket change towards this "fix"; they are unenlightened and insulted by the idea that they would give away their changes for free. If their lawyers told them they were legally forced to give away their changes, Company A would stop using Perl fairly quickly. --
I've heard that the most stressful job is President of the United States. I've also heard that dentists have the highest suicide rate. Then again, it's my word against yours, and since no cite-able facts are involved, it makes no difference. --
I can't get the script to work. I've tried everything! I downloaded it from the site, and named it 'ender' in my home directory. I typed 'ender' and it said 'bash: ender: command not found' So I realized . wasn't in my $PATH, so I typed './ender' and it said 'bash:./ender: Permission denied' So I typed 'chmod 700 ender', ran it again and it said './ender: EXT: command not found' So I opened up the file and added a #! before EXT, thinking that EXT might be the shell it needs, but I don't have EXT installed on my system.
So my questions are: a) What is this EXT shell that the script was written in? b) How can I get this script to run under Linux? c) What does this script do?
Maybe I'll just stick to compiled languages, scripting languages seem like more pain than their worth!
Oi! Why wouldn't they use an unsigned for the time? Seems like Ken Thomson and Dennis Ritchie were planning on negitive times;)
Wait a sec (pun intended) 0111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 would incriment to 1000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 then 1000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0001 which are -0 and -1 respectively, right? -1 would be 12:59:59PM 12/31/69, right? So wouldn't it be counting backwards towards 1901? --
Actually, the clocks will roll over to 1970, not 1901. Unix and unix-like systems measure time in seconds since the "epoch," 12:00:00AM on 1/1/1970. 32 bit Unices, surprisingly enough, store this in a 32 bit register. A little math for a segue: 2^31 = 2147483648 (we use 2^31 because we start counting at 0) 2147483648 seconds = 35791394 minutes, 8 seconds = 596523 hours, 14 minutes, 8 seconds = 24855 days, 3 hours, 14 minutes, 8 seconds = 68 non-leap years, 35 days, 3 hours, 14 minutes, 8 seconds. Subtract 17 leap days (68/4) and we get a zeroing of the unix time every 68 years, 18 days, 3 hours, 14 minutes and 8 seconds.
The next one should come along at 3:14:08AM on 1/19/2038, followed by another one at 6:28:16AM on 2/06/2106. Assuming my math (and windows calc.exe) is correct. Maybe I should have just copied and pasted from one of the many FAQs out there that explain this in better detail. --
Slashdot Mirror
Intel did this a few years back, I think '95 or '96. They sold TV tuner cards that would give you web pages from the scanlines. They had MTV and PBS lined up to send relevent web pages with their shows, but it never caught on. TV tuner cards have never been hot sellers, they wind up being more niche devices, that's probably what killed them.
--
The law you're refering to is the law of economics. Designing and developing a game is an expensive prospect. If a software house going to plunk down the money to create a game, do they choose to release it for the OS that has 5-10% market share or the OS that has upwards of 80% market share? After the game is developed, porting it to another OS is simply a matter of programming.
It's expensive to create original games, and you want the highest return on investment you can get. Release the game running under Windows. Then, if you want a little more market share, start looking at other OS's.
BTW, there are some original games for Linux, but those are being programmed by open source programmers, not the big software houses. I don't want to start a holy war, but you'll find that there's a lot more creative people involved developing (read not programming, but coming up with concepts and stories) closed source games than open.
--
A unix system is like an orgasm. When you have one, you'll know it.
--
If colleges are losing bandwidth to Napster, it's their own fault. Routers support QoS routing, allowing them to give preference to whatever traffic they like.
Just set up your router to give preference to DNS and mail, then outgoing web traffic, then telnet/ssh, then everything else. That way, you allow the people using the bandwidth for "serious academic pursuits" to do what they're supposed to, but then utilize the rest of the bandwidth for the things that make students into humans.
I'm sick of people complaining about Napster traffic slowing down their Internet traffic, when it doesn't need to be that way.
--
I agree with all your points, but I'm still thinking about buying one. I think that selling these things below cost and then locking their users into one ISP is anti-competitive. I can't say that their ISP is good or bad, but if it's bad, there's no recourse for most of the people using this. If we destroy their business, it's because it wasn't a good business model in the first place.
--
What do we have here? The Linside Track, Search Linsider, Company Index and Linvestor Summary.
Shouldn't that be Company Linudex? It's not as annoying as the rest of them.
--
-- an animation player for QT-style movies (these might exist fpr Palm, but I haven't seen them)
/. kept adding a space in my </a>)
Check
-- a Web browser with GIF and JPG support
Check
(BTW, if the links are messed up, it's because
--
I'm amazed this post has a score 4, considering it seems to have even less fact checking than your average /. story.
--
The views of the internet populace reflects the views of the people on it; the views of the american internet populace reflects the views of most americans (minus some of the lower income brackets and technophobic). Remember, the PMRC got their stickers on music because they had the support of some of the american people, now those same americans are on the internet.
--
Does not engaging in promiscuous browsing mean that I can't use Dug Song's Webspy program? Or does it mean that I should just stop looking at all this pr0n? I'm so confused.
--
It won't really smooth over the transition from Windows to Linux for anyone. Remember, 95% of Windows users have the hardware to run Linux. The main transitional problem is that Linux has is that it has different (some might say more complex) interface then Windows. To change your network settings, you have to run ifconfig instead of Right-clicking on Network, going to properties, blah blah blah. This discussion has been had a thousand times, and expect to hear it again. I don't really feel like going into the whole simplicity vs. power debate, but suffice it to say a different processor won't change much.
Another of your arguments was that it would be easier to switch between different OSs. There really won't be much difference between the current way and the Crusoe way. Remember, Linux, BSD, Be, Java, etc, all run under the x86 platform. Unless the Cruesoe lets you open up multiple emulated processors, which I don't think is the case, you'll still have to reboot and repartition, just like you have to under x86. The only multiple OS benefit I see is the possibility of running Windows and MacOS on the same computer.
I agree that the Crusoe looks cool and all, but I don't see it revoltionizing the way we compute.
--
http://cgi.ebay.co m/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=239850613
Gentlemen (and women) start your bidding.
--
My Eastpak "PC Pak'r" is a pretty nice bag. It's got a laptop pouch in the main compartment, which ties down with a velcro strap. Plenty of room for O'reilly books along with your laptop. There's a nice little side pouch, perfect for a cellphone or a Palm Pilot. It also has an easy to access disk carrier, which holds six 3 1/2" or zip disks.
The handle on top is nice for carrying it, and the shoulder straps are really nice, because they're coated with some grip-tape like substance. Oh, and the back is padded, so you don't feel your laptop on your spine constantly. I'm pretty happy with my purchase, and I've got a couple friends who got the same bag, and seem to be equally pleased. Check around your local Target for it, I got mine for $50 there, $15 less then the price on Eastpak's website.
--
3Com doesn't claim to have invented graffiti. The history of graffiti is a little more sorid.
Remember the old 1990's Doonsbury cartoons that made fun of the Apple Newton's handwriting recognition? Well they were pretty true. So Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinski, along with the rest of their software firm wrote a program called Graffiti. The magic of this program was that instead of trying to interpret normal handwriting, Graffiti 'forced' you to write a certain way, and handwriting recognition went way up, but not enough to save the Newton from terminal failure.
But Jeff and Donna still believed in the PDA, so Jeff decided that a PDA should fit in the shirt pocket, and they went from there. Hence Palm Computing, the Palm Pilot, and the whole hullabaloo that is the current PalmOS scene.
For those interested, the patent is at http://www.patents.ibm.com/detai ls?pn=US05596656__.
My 10 second analysis is that they are fairly similar, but Xerox filed this in October 1995 and I'm pretty sure Grafitti for the Newton was out in 93, but I'm nowhere near certain, so take this with a grain of salt.
--
I'm glad Rob posted this one. I imagine a good portion of us read comic books (the nice thing about the word 'read' is that its past- and present-tenses are spelled the same). Spiderman is well documented as a breakaway success because Parker was a average-joe, with girl problems, school problems, etc. He was someone comic book readers could connect with.
This is news for nerds, and I hope more stuff like this gets posted. The fact that this almost wasn't posted is yet another reason to clamor for a open and moderated submission queue.
--
also on my birthday
It will be my 21st birthday. Too bad I have jury duty Jan 21st, so it'll be a very dry night.
--
I think the "coming back to life" thing was integral to the plot. For one thing, it was about mysticism as much as technology. The Oracle (or maybe she was just a database ), prophesies, all that stuff has little or nothing to do with technology. When Neo came back to life, that was representing that he had truely gained control of the matrix.
--
So much for an attempt at humor....
--
The CEO of Macromedia had these things to say about opening Flash:
"I get a nice flamey email about once a week from some ass who calls me a hypocrite and slams me for not getting out a new release. My usual response is to tell them that I delay the release by 24 hours each time someone asks me when a new Flash tarball will be out. "
...
"It's really easy for someone to complain that I didn't release a new version of the source code every week. Its also easy to forget that in the last 6 months we've doubled in traffic and we've had to optimize our code and hardware to handle that. A new source release is secondary: Our job is running Macromedia. We want to release new versions of Flash, but it is a definite second priority to keeping Macromedia moving."
...
"Finally, it's coming soon. It'll be out when its finished. And if you ask me again I'll postpone it again."
--
"Thank you to my CTO who said 'Work New Year's Eve or don't bother coming in the next day.'
I would hope you wouldn't come in on New Year's Day, and a Saturday to boot!
--
Here's a scenerio:
Company A is worried about looking stupid on 1/1/00, because they're afraid their webpage will say the year is 19100. So they change the Perl source to not run any script that doesn't add 1900 to any variable that gets assigned the year. Company A put some pocket change towards this "fix"; they are unenlightened and insulted by the idea that they would give away their changes for free. If their lawyers told them they were legally forced to give away their changes, Company A would stop using Perl fairly quickly.
--
I've heard that the most stressful job is President of the United States. I've also heard that dentists have the highest suicide rate. Then again, it's my word against yours, and since no cite-able facts are involved, it makes no difference.
--
I can't get the script to work. I've tried everything! I downloaded it from the site, and named it 'ender' in my home directory. ./ender: Permission denied'
I typed 'ender' and it said 'bash: ender: command not found'
So I realized . wasn't in my $PATH, so I typed './ender' and it said 'bash:
So I typed 'chmod 700 ender', ran it again and it said './ender: EXT: command not found'
So I opened up the file and added a #! before EXT, thinking that EXT might be the shell it needs, but I don't have EXT installed on my system.
So my questions are:
a) What is this EXT shell that the script was written in?
b) How can I get this script to run under Linux?
c) What does this script do?
Maybe I'll just stick to compiled languages, scripting languages seem like more pain than their worth!
--
Oi! Why wouldn't they use an unsigned for the time? Seems like Ken Thomson and Dennis Ritchie were planning on negitive times ;)
Wait a sec (pun intended)
0111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111
would incriment to
1000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
then
1000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0001
which are -0 and -1 respectively, right? -1 would be 12:59:59PM 12/31/69, right? So wouldn't it be counting backwards towards 1901?
--
Actually, the clocks will roll over to 1970, not 1901. Unix and unix-like systems measure time in seconds since the "epoch," 12:00:00AM on 1/1/1970. 32 bit Unices, surprisingly enough, store this in a 32 bit register. A little math for a segue:
2^31 = 2147483648 (we use 2^31 because we start counting at 0)
2147483648 seconds = 35791394 minutes, 8 seconds
= 596523 hours, 14 minutes, 8 seconds
= 24855 days, 3 hours, 14 minutes, 8 seconds
= 68 non-leap years, 35 days, 3 hours, 14 minutes, 8 seconds.
Subtract 17 leap days (68/4) and we get a zeroing of the unix time every 68 years, 18 days, 3 hours, 14 minutes and 8 seconds.
The next one should come along at 3:14:08AM on 1/19/2038, followed by another one at 6:28:16AM on 2/06/2106. Assuming my math (and windows calc.exe) is correct. Maybe I should have just copied and pasted from one of the many FAQs out there that explain this in better detail.
--