There exists the concept of slap-suit, or nuisance suit. This is where a large company goes after a smaller company with a lawsuit that both parties know shouldn't hold up, but with the expectation that the smaller company will lack the fiscal means of mounting the necessary challenge.
Unfortunately, there exists little effective recourse against such behavior.
...which is where the next point comes in. I should start an investement fund. I'd invest my money and lawyers in defending small fry against slap suits from big fish. If I win, I countersue for compensation and damages, both of which I get to keep a very large portion of.
This is clearly related to taking cases on a pro-bono basis, but I've only ever heard it happen in cases where prosecution (or whatever it's called in civil cases) lacks financial means, not the defences (op cit). Any ideas why?
In a way, the problem here is that there are inherent difficulties in treating electricity as a commodity, because the consumers are unable to buy power-line usage directly.
That is the real stickler here. Intel wants to buy power. Utah (off the top of my head) has power to sell at a price Intel likes. However, the difficulty of getting that power to intel makes the deal hard to close. But that is clearly the way to go.
I understood that the power companies got the deal they wanted. They just bet the farm on the wrong horse. Serves them right to go out of business then, no?
Every time I read about enviromental concerns and proposed legislated conservation, I have to add my canned opinon to the fray:
the problem is one of economics. Adam Smith had it pegged thousands of years ago (well, almost). It is the tradgedy of the commons. Basically, power generation is too cheap because it fails to pay for its impact on the environment (the commons in this case).
Likewise, driving your car is too cheap because burning gasoline doesn't pay for its use of the commons.
Instead of conservation, price these goods (by eco-tax) so that their true costs on everyone is reflected in their price. Then the market can decide whether it is better to conserve or exploit.
Of course, this all assumes that we can accurately and unbiasadly asses the cost to the e commons for all these resources.
Have you included the monitor in those 500W? Does a power supply rated at 300W always draw that, or is it the peak consumption before it blows a fuse?
But, appart from that, I tend to agree, although I wouldn't be suprised to hear that MAE-WEST draws a but-load of power. At least a couple of 10s of Kilowatts. Still, that's not much amortised over the computers it serves.
In planetary mechanics, timing is everything. The earlier you push, the less force you need.
It betcha that if the same money were spent on a massive detection system and a puny deflection system versus the opposite case, the massive detection system would be x times more effective.
where x is an impressively large number. And the system could be used for scientific purposes as well. Of course, that wouldn't give us an excuse to build Really Large Nukes, so there you go.
In file systems, one thing, and one thing alone is paramount: data integrity. Performance and efficiency is irrelevant. You need a very esoteric application before this is no longer true.
ext2 is proven code. reiserFS just isn't as proven.
The big question is whether the additional integrity reiserFS gains from journalling outweighs its lack of stress testing.
Currently, I'm still more comfortable with ext2, but reiserFS is rapidly catching up. I figure I'll let another 100000 kids on the block install it first, and if they survive, I'll join too.
The thin layer approach wins in this situation -- your distate aside -- as it is easier to prove to yourself that you aren't violating the proven code's assumptions in the thin layer than it is to prove that you've successfully re-implemented the stability in a new architecture.
Eventually we do need to re-architect, but those re-implementation are to be viewed with extreme suspicion. So I'm paranoid, but I don't have any backups.
Kludge or no, it seems to basically be the sort of implementation I like; a thin layer ontop of proven code.
Ob. Disclaimer: I haven't looked at more than the readme,
but if you think about what the problem ext3 is out to solve (long fsck times) it is not obvious that it is competeing with reiserFS at all. RFS is really out to slay the many-small-files beast, only incidentally happens to include journalling. ext3 is a small extension to ext2: just provide quick fsck.
So, as far as I can tell, the way ext3 chooses to do this is to pre-emptively log meta-data changes, so that a special purpose fsck can be performed quickly by re-playing those changes. Am I correct in assuming that ext3 does not protect against data loss any more than ext2 does? Unlike say JFS (the non-linux version), which I understand can have the plug pulled mid write and pick up from there.
Daisy chaining 10base2! (or whatever the coax ethernet was called) I always thought that it was weird that I needed a hub for a technology based on shared medium. Now, bridges and routers I understand, but hubs are just plain weird.
Good point. Reading and writing jpgs (and mpgs even more so) is eminently suited to a linear medium like digital magnetic tape. The only thing not supported would be erasing pictures whilst in the field, as tape likely wouldn't support any sort of block-allocation.
The technology is mature and reliable; just what the doctor ordered, and the HUGE capacities makes the lack of edit functionality a moot point.
Supersonic free fall, eh? Could it be a case of the free faller attaining a subsonic speed in the high atmosphere (where the speed of sound is high?) that turns out to be supersonic at lower alititudes (where the SoS is lower)?
Ie, the barrier slowing down to be passed by the objects' speed, rather than the other way around...
I don't have a specific recommendation, but some guidelines- buy your equipment in this order, skimping on the latter to improve the former:
I would go for a pair of really good front speakers. They will be more flexible for normal music listening.
Then get a good amp.
lastly, get the sourround speakers and front unit. These only come into play in situations when audiophile quality is unimportant (you notice the fact that T-Rex is behind you, not that her footsteps are perfectly reproduced).
Likewise, the front unit is mostly for speech, also a lo-fi application.
I wonder to what extent it is possible to fall faster than mach at all. Regardless of streamlining, I expect that the sonic boom pressure wave would keep you from ever reaching mach 1. However, you might be able to come close if you are extremely streamlined.
Can anyone discuss what pressure the leading wave has?
sometimes you gotta stop, look, and listen before you correct someone. The previous poster is pointing out that a prime number is obviously not factorisable (by definition of prime), so the article must have meant factor into primes.
RSA does infact rely on the two factors being relatively prime (I believe this is used in the chinese remainder theorem, but I looked into that a very long time ago). I don't know if they have to be absolutely prime, or whether the exponent needs to be either. I don't think so.
Demographics; it's a consequence of where Macs and PCs are deployed, not their users.
Microsoft has spent alot of time and money selling PCs to schools and corporations, while macs have always been strong in art and communications. This explains everything appart from the 45 YO mac users. I would have guessed mid thirties.
both Bochs and plex86 need to emulate some hardware platform (video card, network), even though they approach executing instructions in differing ways.
Is there any possible reuse bewteen the projects there? How feasable would it be to use a common hardware emulation infrastructure, so that the provided hardware becomes as rich as possible. This is of course an issue as each device you want to use in a hosted OS needs to be emulated as well.
anyone who tries to architect a complex software system in VB is choosing the wrong tool for the job. As is anyone who writes a small GUI app in C++ (or maybe eiffel -- I don't know it well enough to say).
Knowing to choose the right tool for the job is arguably more important than being a master of one and only one. Even if you are able to use your hammer as a chisel, wouldn't a plane be better? Not to bad mouth Eiffel or Java (or Scheme), but VB and Python are very well suited for some jobs.
This is why multiple language implementation for the JVM and the language interoperability you get for free are such important concepts. They allow you to avoid implementing a partial and incorrect LISP interpreter just because you're implementing a large system (with apologies to Philip Greenspun).
As to whether multiple inheritance is the panacea it is sometimes made out to be, I don't know. It is one of these issues that touches every part of the language. From what I've seen from Eiffel, it seems well integrated, but you know that SUN have some smart people on the design team, and they left it out of Java for a reason.
Slashdot Mirror
There exists the concept of slap-suit, or nuisance suit. This is where a large company goes after a smaller company with a lawsuit that both parties know shouldn't hold up, but with the expectation that the smaller company will lack the fiscal means of mounting the necessary challenge.
Unfortunately, there exists little effective recourse against such behavior.
...which is where the next point comes in. I should start an investement fund. I'd invest my money and lawyers in defending small fry against slap suits from big fish. If I win, I countersue for compensation and damages, both of which I get to keep a very large portion of.
This is clearly related to taking cases on a pro-bono basis, but I've only ever heard it happen in cases where prosecution (or whatever it's called in civil cases) lacks financial means, not the defences (op cit). Any ideas why?
but which patent? Lots of hits for "dna" AND "pet food". So which one?
In a way, the problem here is that there are inherent difficulties in treating electricity as a commodity, because the consumers are unable to buy power-line usage directly.
That is the real stickler here. Intel wants to buy power. Utah (off the top of my head) has power to sell at a price Intel likes. However, the difficulty of getting that power to intel makes the deal hard to close. But that is clearly the way to go.
I understood that the power companies got the deal they wanted. They just bet the farm on the wrong horse. Serves them right to go out of business then, no?
Every time I read about enviromental concerns and proposed legislated conservation, I have to add my canned opinon to the fray:
the problem is one of economics. Adam Smith had it pegged thousands of years ago (well, almost). It is the tradgedy of the commons. Basically, power generation is too cheap because it fails to pay for its impact on the environment (the commons in this case).
Likewise, driving your car is too cheap because burning gasoline doesn't pay for its use of the commons.
Instead of conservation, price these goods (by eco-tax) so that their true costs on everyone is reflected in their price. Then the market can decide whether it is better to conserve or exploit.
Of course, this all assumes that we can accurately and unbiasadly asses the cost to the e commons for all these resources.
Have you included the monitor in those 500W? Does a power supply rated at 300W always draw that, or is it the peak consumption before it blows a fuse?
But, appart from that, I tend to agree, although I wouldn't be suprised to hear that MAE-WEST draws a but-load of power. At least a couple of 10s of Kilowatts. Still, that's not much amortised over the computers it serves.
Johan
When I was a kid, still programming applesoft basic, I remember reading about the first documented case of a computer related psychological disorder.
This kid (not me, eh?) apparently got so obsessed with programming that he spoke only in basic ("10 get out of bed. 20 get dressed").
A casual google search didn't turn up any links tho. Anyone care to supplement?
In planetary mechanics, timing is everything. The earlier you push, the less force you need.
It betcha that if the same money were spent on a massive detection system and a puny deflection system versus the opposite case, the massive detection system would be x times more effective.
where x is an impressively large number. And the system could be used for scientific purposes as well. Of course, that wouldn't give us an excuse to build Really Large Nukes, so there you go.
In file systems, one thing, and one thing alone is paramount: data integrity. Performance and efficiency is irrelevant. You need a very esoteric application before this is no longer true.
ext2 is proven code. reiserFS just isn't as proven.
The big question is whether the additional integrity reiserFS gains from journalling outweighs its lack of stress testing.
Currently, I'm still more comfortable with ext2, but reiserFS is rapidly catching up. I figure I'll let another 100000 kids on the block install it first, and if they survive, I'll join too.
The thin layer approach wins in this situation -- your distate aside -- as it is easier to prove to yourself that you aren't violating the proven code's assumptions in the thin layer than it is to prove that you've successfully re-implemented the stability in a new architecture.
Eventually we do need to re-architect, but those re-implementation are to be viewed with extreme suspicion. So I'm paranoid, but I don't have any backups.
as fot the presentation:
Look at all those $100 Millions. Wow. This must be a great movie.
... I dunno. Why are they throwing these megabucks at us? Or is this site aimed at movie money-men?
Kludge or no, it seems to basically be the sort of implementation I like; a thin layer ontop of proven code.
Ob. Disclaimer: I haven't looked at more than the readme,
but if you think about what the problem ext3 is out to solve (long fsck times) it is not obvious that it is competeing with reiserFS at all. RFS is really out to slay the many-small-files beast, only incidentally happens to include journalling. ext3 is a small extension to ext2: just provide quick fsck.
So, as far as I can tell, the way ext3 chooses to do this is to pre-emptively log meta-data changes, so that a special purpose fsck can be performed quickly by re-playing those changes. Am I correct in assuming that ext3 does not protect against data loss any more than ext2 does? Unlike say JFS (the non-linux version), which I understand can have the plug pulled mid write and pick up from there.
Daisy chaining 10base2! (or whatever the coax ethernet was called) I always thought that it was weird that I needed a hub for a technology based on shared medium. Now, bridges and routers I understand, but hubs are just plain weird.
Good point. Reading and writing jpgs (and mpgs even more so) is eminently suited to a linear medium like digital magnetic tape. The only thing not supported would be erasing pictures whilst in the field, as tape likely wouldn't support any sort of block-allocation.
The technology is mature and reliable; just what the doctor ordered, and the HUGE capacities makes the lack of edit functionality a moot point.
Supersonic free fall, eh? Could it be a case of the free faller attaining a subsonic speed in the high atmosphere (where the speed of sound is high?) that turns out to be supersonic at lower alititudes (where the SoS is lower)?
Ie, the barrier slowing down to be passed by the objects' speed, rather than the other way around...
just a thought
I don't have a specific recommendation, but some guidelines- buy your equipment in this order, skimping on the latter to improve the former:
I would go for a pair of really good front speakers. They will be more flexible for normal music listening.
Then get a good amp.
lastly, get the sourround speakers and front unit. These only come into play in situations when audiophile quality is unimportant (you notice the fact that T-Rex is behind you, not that her footsteps are perfectly reproduced).
Likewise, the front unit is mostly for speech, also a lo-fi application.
I wonder to what extent it is possible to fall faster than mach at all. Regardless of streamlining, I expect that the sonic boom pressure wave would keep you from ever reaching mach 1. However, you might be able to come close if you are extremely streamlined.
Can anyone discuss what pressure the leading wave has?
? I don't get it. *woosh* sound of jet flying over my head.
sometimes you gotta stop, look, and listen before you correct someone. The previous poster is pointing out that a prime number is obviously not factorisable (by definition of prime), so the article must have meant factor into primes.
RSA does infact rely on the two factors being relatively prime (I believe this is used in the chinese remainder theorem, but I looked into that a very long time ago). I don't know if they have to be absolutely prime, or whether the exponent needs to be either. I don't think so.
Demographics; it's a consequence of where Macs and PCs are deployed, not their users.
Microsoft has spent alot of time and money selling PCs to schools and corporations, while macs have always been strong in art and communications. This explains everything appart from the 45 YO mac users. I would have guessed mid thirties.
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/12/05/telex /index.html
whadaya mean, patent fees?
Pantone's gone and patented COLOR?
Or could you expand a bit, please?
:-(
unfortunately that's still theft, and it would be even if the furniture was stolen from your house to begin with.
Falls under vigilateism, and is generally frowned upon by the forces that be.
both Bochs and plex86 need to emulate some hardware platform (video card, network), even though they approach executing instructions in differing ways.
Is there any possible reuse bewteen the projects there? How feasable would it be to use a common hardware emulation infrastructure, so that the provided hardware becomes as rich as possible. This is of course an issue as each device you want to use in a hosted OS needs to be emulated as well.
anyone who tries to architect a complex software system in VB is choosing the wrong tool for the job. As is anyone who writes a small GUI app in C++ (or maybe eiffel -- I don't know it well enough to say).
Knowing to choose the right tool for the job is arguably more important than being a master of one and only one. Even if you are able to use your hammer as a chisel, wouldn't a plane be better? Not to bad mouth Eiffel or Java (or Scheme), but VB and Python are very well suited for some jobs.
This is why multiple language implementation for the JVM and the language interoperability you get for free are such important concepts. They allow you to avoid implementing a partial and incorrect LISP interpreter just because you're implementing a large system (with apologies to Philip Greenspun).
As to whether multiple inheritance is the panacea it is sometimes made out to be, I don't know. It is one of these issues that touches every part of the language. From what I've seen from Eiffel, it seems well integrated, but you know that SUN have some smart people on the design team, and they left it out of Java for a reason.
Jeff Merkley sucks.
(the reason the link was broken was that slash hates linebreaks inside tags. I thought it was just a preview misfeature)