"IMHO, Red Hat would like to "differentiate" itself and be the dominant Linux vendor. SUSE is aiming to be the best among cooperating organisations."
This is so laughable. Novell's been pushing to get lock everyone into Netware and Groupwise. I can see you've never actually been to one of their real-life presentations before.
Red Hat, OTOH, came off totally differently in real-life. Very dedicated, willing to take on all comers while still staying true to the GNU dream.
Man, how dare they give me: 1. Half-Life 2 2. Battlefield 2 3. Freespace 2 4. Civilization 2 and 3 5. Jagged Alliance 2 6. Descent 3 7. Quake 3 (bad example?) 8. Unreal Tournament 2004... and, you get the point. The idea that because a game is a sequel means it's "unoriginal" and unfun is kind of stupid.
"My point is that the same thing is happening to virtual machine software. It was a niche market to begin with, and it's coming to an end, that simple."
VMWare's product is not just what Xen is doing. I suggest you read up on their server products, which, as I understand it, is where the real money is.
It _might_ kill the desktop product. Might, but only if the graphical tools for Xen progress quite a bit further than they already have.
"But I think VmWare/EMC is probably in trouble as these other projects become more mature, especially Xen since it will take advantage of hardware support for virtualization."
I love how people assume that VMWare is just going to sit still and die. I read an article somewhere (Anandtech or Tom's Hardware, I think) that had _pictures_ of VMWare running Windows using hardware virtualization (I vaguely recall that it was VT). They're not worried because they HAVE THE CAPABILITY.
Saying Xen is going to kill VMWare is laughably naive. Xen is nowhere near that point, and is going to have to run _much_ faster to win that particular race. And I say this as someone who's specifically waiting for dual core Athlons with Pacifica to come out before upgrading, just so I can run Xen with them.
Stand still and die is how stupid companies bite the dust. VMWare is obviously not stupid.
"There is no way a private company could build their own infrastructure to match that."
You mean like the fiber optic lines that Verizon is laying down at a stunningly high pace around here? Sorry, sir, but that argument isn't going to fly.
"Only two balls, but Right to Privacy and Freedom of Speech are awfully hard to juggle.."
My copy of the Constitution doesn't have "right to privacy" anywhere in it. It's something that was basically derived from the stuff about unlawful search and seizure along the way. Not saying that's a bad thing, but where "freedom of speech" and "right to privacy" collide, it's pretty obvious that a judge who actually cared about the Constitution would side with the former.
This principle (well, idea) was affirmed with the recent ruling against laws prohibiting interstate shipment of alcohol on a state level (ie, the state makes the law). And, in fact, that was an amendment (states can regulate alcohol) vs. an original clause (interstate commerce). There's no way "something we think is implied" should trump something which is explictly stated.
It doesn't actually work. It is slowly (VERY SLOWLY) but surely moving off, because the leap month isn't adjusting exactly how much it needs to. I was surprised when I heard this, too - but someone I know programmed one of the Hebrew calendars (it uses GPS coords to calculate exact sunset - quite nice), and showed me the math. Turns out things end up misaligning ala the Islamic calendar, but only after a very long time from now.
Now, the reason it _used_ to work is that the rabbinical court ("beis din") in Jerusalem would just not listen to witnesses about the sighting of the new moon until they felt like it - and if things were starting to get dicey, they'd just not hear it until the next day or something.
The Jewish calendar is lunar _based_. It is not actually a strict lunar calendar due to the human intervention possible in it. I don't think it's a great choice for system time-keeping.
"The bottom line is that Lynn is a whistle blower, and the FBI should be investigating Cisco for innappropiate conduct by trying to hide (not fix) a serious vunrability that could effect the entire country."
What law did Cisco break? I mean, I'm sick and tired of hearing/.'ers everywhere scream "freedom of speech", yet beg for Cisco to be indicted for some unknown law.
"The main reason is that they sell the only 64-bit consumer chip."
This is just plain wrong. Intel's 6XX series of Pentium4's has the EMT64 (aka, AMD64) instructions as well. Both AMD and Intel are selling 64-bit CPUs now.
"From my stint at a pharma college focused on research, I can tell you that the most advanced and groundbreaking research was being done by Chinese professors. And the field of doctoral candidates was dominated by Chinese and Indian nationals."
So, really, what the US government needs to do is figure out how to make it worthwhile for them to stay.
$350 is _dirt cheap_ for what's being offered. It slaughters the Zaurus in basically every way, except for not having a keyboard. I do admit that's something of a shortcoming, but the 770 isn't targetting the PDA market. As a portable Linux machine, it's kick-ass.
"In my living room, I have a very nice 32 inch TV and some comfortable chairs. Why would I want to watch TV sitting at a computer desk?"
1. Not everyone has a separate TV already, or one that's bigger than their monitor. People just graduating from college come to mind. 2. A Dell 2405FPW can be found for $900 or so. Try finding a 1080p TV of any size for that. It's cheaper and more efficient than having a separate TV, especially for those of us who live in small apartments. 3. IPTV is more convienient for those of us who spend lots of time at the computer. I can watch/listen to the news while pounding out some code, for instance. 4. Potentially, you could use this to stream TV _anywhere_ - to your laptop on the plane, or to the TV in your living room.
What's funny is that I don't like any of those, save Knoppix (which is really not all that amazing compared to Anaconda). 1. Portage is hugely inefficient, usually forcing you to recompile tons and tons of stuff. RPM is "compile once, run everywhere similar". 2. I just don't appreciate the rc.scripts stuff in Slackware. The stuff normal distros come with are much more intuitive - at least from my experience. I like the idea of runlevels! 3. Mandriva 2005LE's installer was the worst graphical installer I've ever used - FC4 owns it in every way, especially if you want to do RAID partitioning.
It's a shame, because you don't seem to get how this works. The actual list is controlled by the government, which, de facto, means they control the servers, too. It's like saying you "control the servers' hardware" when you've got no access to the software - it's really rather meaningless, since you don't control the functionality of the server itself. You could turn it off, I guess, but the actual root list is under US control.
So, perhaps I misspoke myself slightly. However, you have no idea what you're talking about, and this is fairly obvious, because _the list is controlled by the US government_. The root DNS server system _is_ controlled by a single entity.
But, I'd also recommend you look up the definition of "arrogant". Nothing I wrote in the previous post was arrogant. Redefining negative terms arbitrarily so they fit people you disagree with is pretty immature.
"I agree with that last paragraph of yours, i probably should have described how i think or feel in a less rude way. If that means anything, i didn't realise that its that harsh."
Maybe there's hope for Slashdot yet. I think what you're missing here is that most Americans don't _want_ a world government. Ergo, taking actions to increase the power of "world bodies" is diametrically opposed to their interests.
If the US government had a bad track record with the root domain servers, maybe more Americans would feel differently about this topic. But, let's face it: the US government is doing a fine job of managing them right now. If they ever stop doing such a good job, _then_ it's time to complain. And, seeing as how so many Americans are dependent on the Internet for parts of their lives, they'd probably listen.
So, consider this: to some Americans, having the rest of the world demand the root DNS servers (that, by the way, they created originally) from them for no apparent reason is actually a _reduction_ of American sovereignty. The rest of the world may see it as their rightful inheritance, but you've got to take a global perspective - and that does include understanding the American perspective, and not just discounting it as "it's just those arrogant Americans who just don't understand".
I can only wonder if you understand that you basically toss away any and all credibility with that statement. You come off like the very same arrogant, stereotypical jerk that you accuse Americans of being.
Seriously: think before you write. Are you really effectively communicating ideas to convince others? Or are you just waiting for the steady stream of anti-American comments to come in, reassuring you that you're indeed in the majority?
I mean, let's face it: you need to convince _Americans_ that the course of their government is incorrect. Do you really believe insulting them at the beginning of your comment is going to make them more receptive to your ideas?
"(The USA, consuming at its present insanely wasteful rate, would only need 45 tons per year)"
Wait a sec - the US has more than twice the number of people as Japan. If the US only needs 45 tons, and the Japanese need 30 tons, yet the US has more than 2.5 times the people of Japan, who's being wasteful again?
"But now when they are merging with other Linux companies, it seems that they have got new blood in their veins."
I would worry, a lot. Mergers tend to end very badly - just look at, say, AOL-TW. Two companies that were reasonably good at what they did - yet history will judge the results of their (unholy!) union unfavorably.
I should also point out that none of these are huge, successful Linux distributions. Lycoris is a bit player. Connectiva has a small following in South America. Mandrake was a player, but nearly died in bankruptcy. A bunch of small, relatively unsuccessful people getting together doesn't make for a sure-fire win in my eyes.
Did you, or did you not, miss where I explained to you how the Supreme Court _does not_ concur with your reasoning?
From a strictly literal reading of the Constitution, extending it to a larger finite amount of time is still a limited term, because finite numbers are limited. There is no Constitutional issue with making this number ever larger (again, given a strict reading).
You may not like that - that's fine. But right now, precedent is against you, no matter how unescapable you think your logic is. I'm not a big fan, either - but my point was not to convince you you were wrong, only to point out that your interpretation of the Constitution is not the one being used currently.
I repeat: Eldred argued _exactly_ what you are arguing, and he lost in the Supreme Court.
If this is true, and they write some reasonable accelerated X drivers, they've more or less sold me on the PS3. Why?
One reason: MythTV frontend. It's hard to justify spending $350 on a console. Spending $350-$400 on a console that replaces a $250-$300 mini-ITX box... that's much easier to justify. You gotta figure that MythTV will be ported pretty fast to it, if the video and audio drivers are reasonable. I also rather like the idea of using MythGame to emulate other systems - really makes for an all-in-one entertainment system.
X-BOX 360 was definitely a competitor for my cash and home media network, but I just can't bring myself to deal with MCE. For all its benefits (easy setup, well-supported), it has niggling annoyances (lack of friendly open formats, multiple tuner issues, proprietary extenders).
The Supreme Court disagrees with you, sir. Check out the Eldred vs. Ashcroft decision, where they rule that repeated extensions are _not_ the same as unlimited, since they are still define a finite (if not long) time.
Fortunately or unfortunately, that is indeed a reasonable interpretation of the Constitution, too.
"Is putting some kind of ownership label on the inside cover really 'adding to the text'?"
There are huge, hand-written scrolls. There's no inside cover, and, no, you can't buy them at the bookstore. They cost 50 grand new, for crying out loud!
"Once it is recoevered, it isn't in pristine condition anymore."
Assuming we're only talking about problems from bad storage conditions, they're almost always fixable. Since fixing a Torah always cost less than writing a new one, this isn't as big a deal as you'd think. And, if they're going to sell the thing, you'd figure they're going to take at least a little care of it.
Torahs "go bad" from everyday use. My family, for instance, has a sefer Torah that we have on loan to a local synagogue. Every so often, they find a letter that's chipped off a bit (the ink is the worst culprit), and it has to be taken and repaired. It's not a big deal.
I think what I'm saying is, "pristine condition" is pretty unusual. Most synagogues will settle for just "kosher", and be happy with it.
Most of the time, slowness with Yum is actually slowness of the mirror being used. Most people who install apt are only using _one_ server, and said server tends to be on the above average side.
Slashdot Mirror
"IMHO, Red Hat would like to "differentiate" itself and be the dominant Linux vendor. SUSE is aiming to be the best among cooperating organisations."
This is so laughable. Novell's been pushing to get lock everyone into Netware and Groupwise. I can see you've never actually been to one of their real-life presentations before.
Red Hat, OTOH, came off totally differently in real-life. Very dedicated, willing to take on all comers while still staying true to the GNU dream.
-Erwos
Man, how dare they give me: ... and, you get the point. The idea that because a game is a sequel means it's "unoriginal" and unfun is kind of stupid.
1. Half-Life 2
2. Battlefield 2
3. Freespace 2
4. Civilization 2 and 3
5. Jagged Alliance 2
6. Descent 3
7. Quake 3 (bad example?)
8. Unreal Tournament 2004
-Erwos
"My point is that the same thing is happening to virtual machine software. It was a niche market to begin with, and it's coming to an end, that simple."
VMWare's product is not just what Xen is doing. I suggest you read up on their server products, which, as I understand it, is where the real money is.
It _might_ kill the desktop product. Might, but only if the graphical tools for Xen progress quite a bit further than they already have.
-Erwos
"But I think VmWare/EMC is probably in trouble as these other projects become more mature, especially Xen since it will take advantage of hardware support for virtualization."
I love how people assume that VMWare is just going to sit still and die. I read an article somewhere (Anandtech or Tom's Hardware, I think) that had _pictures_ of VMWare running Windows using hardware virtualization (I vaguely recall that it was VT). They're not worried because they HAVE THE CAPABILITY.
Saying Xen is going to kill VMWare is laughably naive. Xen is nowhere near that point, and is going to have to run _much_ faster to win that particular race. And I say this as someone who's specifically waiting for dual core Athlons with Pacifica to come out before upgrading, just so I can run Xen with them.
Stand still and die is how stupid companies bite the dust. VMWare is obviously not stupid.
-Erwos
"There is no way a private company could build their own infrastructure to match that."
You mean like the fiber optic lines that Verizon is laying down at a stunningly high pace around here? Sorry, sir, but that argument isn't going to fly.
-Erwos
"Yet look how prudish the US society has become since the 60s and early 70s."
I don't actually think this is true. Back then, an interracial _kiss_ was daring and controversial.
-Erwos
"Only two balls, but Right to Privacy and Freedom of Speech are awfully hard to juggle.."
My copy of the Constitution doesn't have "right to privacy" anywhere in it. It's something that was basically derived from the stuff about unlawful search and seizure along the way. Not saying that's a bad thing, but where "freedom of speech" and "right to privacy" collide, it's pretty obvious that a judge who actually cared about the Constitution would side with the former.
This principle (well, idea) was affirmed with the recent ruling against laws prohibiting interstate shipment of alcohol on a state level (ie, the state makes the law). And, in fact, that was an amendment (states can regulate alcohol) vs. an original clause (interstate commerce). There's no way "something we think is implied" should trump something which is explictly stated.
Maybe I'm misreading things, though.
-Erwos
"The hebrew calendar works"
It doesn't actually work. It is slowly (VERY SLOWLY) but surely moving off, because the leap month isn't adjusting exactly how much it needs to. I was surprised when I heard this, too - but someone I know programmed one of the Hebrew calendars (it uses GPS coords to calculate exact sunset - quite nice), and showed me the math. Turns out things end up misaligning ala the Islamic calendar, but only after a very long time from now.
Now, the reason it _used_ to work is that the rabbinical court ("beis din") in Jerusalem would just not listen to witnesses about the sighting of the new moon until they felt like it - and if things were starting to get dicey, they'd just not hear it until the next day or something.
The Jewish calendar is lunar _based_. It is not actually a strict lunar calendar due to the human intervention possible in it. I don't think it's a great choice for system time-keeping.
-Erwos (who's a for-real Orthodox Jew)
"The bottom line is that Lynn is a whistle blower, and the FBI should be investigating Cisco for innappropiate conduct by trying to hide (not fix) a serious vunrability that could effect the entire country."
/.'ers everywhere scream "freedom of speech", yet beg for Cisco to be indicted for some unknown law.
What law did Cisco break? I mean, I'm sick and tired of hearing
-Erwos
"The main reason is that they sell the only 64-bit consumer chip."
This is just plain wrong. Intel's 6XX series of Pentium4's has the EMT64 (aka, AMD64) instructions as well. Both AMD and Intel are selling 64-bit CPUs now.
-Erwos
"From my stint at a pharma college focused on research, I can tell you that the most advanced and groundbreaking research was being done by Chinese professors. And the field of doctoral candidates was dominated by Chinese and Indian nationals."
So, really, what the US government needs to do is figure out how to make it worthwhile for them to stay.
-Erwos
$350 is _dirt cheap_ for what's being offered. It slaughters the Zaurus in basically every way, except for not having a keyboard. I do admit that's something of a shortcoming, but the 770 isn't targetting the PDA market. As a portable Linux machine, it's kick-ass.
-Erwos
"In my living room, I have a very nice 32 inch TV and some comfortable chairs. Why would I want to watch TV sitting at a computer desk?"
1. Not everyone has a separate TV already, or one that's bigger than their monitor. People just graduating from college come to mind.
2. A Dell 2405FPW can be found for $900 or so. Try finding a 1080p TV of any size for that. It's cheaper and more efficient than having a separate TV, especially for those of us who live in small apartments.
3. IPTV is more convienient for those of us who spend lots of time at the computer. I can watch/listen to the news while pounding out some code, for instance.
4. Potentially, you could use this to stream TV _anywhere_ - to your laptop on the plane, or to the TV in your living room.
-Erwos
What's funny is that I don't like any of those, save Knoppix (which is really not all that amazing compared to Anaconda).
1. Portage is hugely inefficient, usually forcing you to recompile tons and tons of stuff. RPM is "compile once, run everywhere similar".
2. I just don't appreciate the rc.scripts stuff in Slackware. The stuff normal distros come with are much more intuitive - at least from my experience. I like the idea of runlevels!
3. Mandriva 2005LE's installer was the worst graphical installer I've ever used - FC4 owns it in every way, especially if you want to do RAID partitioning.
My point is, "the best" is not so easily defined.
-Erwos
It's a shame, because you don't seem to get how this works. The actual list is controlled by the government, which, de facto, means they control the servers, too. It's like saying you "control the servers' hardware" when you've got no access to the software - it's really rather meaningless, since you don't control the functionality of the server itself. You could turn it off, I guess, but the actual root list is under US control.
So, perhaps I misspoke myself slightly. However, you have no idea what you're talking about, and this is fairly obvious, because _the list is controlled by the US government_. The root DNS server system _is_ controlled by a single entity.
But, I'd also recommend you look up the definition of "arrogant". Nothing I wrote in the previous post was arrogant. Redefining negative terms arbitrarily so they fit people you disagree with is pretty immature.
-Erwos
"I agree with that last paragraph of yours, i probably should have described how i think or feel in a less rude way. If that means anything, i didn't realise that its that harsh."
Maybe there's hope for Slashdot yet. I think what you're missing here is that most Americans don't _want_ a world government. Ergo, taking actions to increase the power of "world bodies" is diametrically opposed to their interests.
If the US government had a bad track record with the root domain servers, maybe more Americans would feel differently about this topic. But, let's face it: the US government is doing a fine job of managing them right now. If they ever stop doing such a good job, _then_ it's time to complain. And, seeing as how so many Americans are dependent on the Internet for parts of their lives, they'd probably listen.
So, consider this: to some Americans, having the rest of the world demand the root DNS servers (that, by the way, they created originally) from them for no apparent reason is actually a _reduction_ of American sovereignty. The rest of the world may see it as their rightful inheritance, but you've got to take a global perspective - and that does include understanding the American perspective, and not just discounting it as "it's just those arrogant Americans who just don't understand".
-Erwos
" This thing with you americans again. "
I can only wonder if you understand that you basically toss away any and all credibility with that statement. You come off like the very same arrogant, stereotypical jerk that you accuse Americans of being.
Seriously: think before you write. Are you really effectively communicating ideas to convince others? Or are you just waiting for the steady stream of anti-American comments to come in, reassuring you that you're indeed in the majority?
I mean, let's face it: you need to convince _Americans_ that the course of their government is incorrect. Do you really believe insulting them at the beginning of your comment is going to make them more receptive to your ideas?
-Erwos
"(The USA, consuming at its present insanely wasteful rate, would only need 45 tons per year)"
Wait a sec - the US has more than twice the number of people as Japan. If the US only needs 45 tons, and the Japanese need 30 tons, yet the US has more than 2.5 times the people of Japan, who's being wasteful again?
-Erwos
"But now when they are merging with other Linux companies, it seems that they have got new blood in their veins."
I would worry, a lot. Mergers tend to end very badly - just look at, say, AOL-TW. Two companies that were reasonably good at what they did - yet history will judge the results of their (unholy!) union unfavorably.
I should also point out that none of these are huge, successful Linux distributions. Lycoris is a bit player. Connectiva has a small following in South America. Mandrake was a player, but nearly died in bankruptcy. A bunch of small, relatively unsuccessful people getting together doesn't make for a sure-fire win in my eyes.
-Erwos
Did you, or did you not, miss where I explained to you how the Supreme Court _does not_ concur with your reasoning?
From a strictly literal reading of the Constitution, extending it to a larger finite amount of time is still a limited term, because finite numbers are limited. There is no Constitutional issue with making this number ever larger (again, given a strict reading).
You may not like that - that's fine. But right now, precedent is against you, no matter how unescapable you think your logic is. I'm not a big fan, either - but my point was not to convince you you were wrong, only to point out that your interpretation of the Constitution is not the one being used currently.
I repeat: Eldred argued _exactly_ what you are arguing, and he lost in the Supreme Court.
-Erwos
If this is true, and they write some reasonable accelerated X drivers, they've more or less sold me on the PS3. Why?
One reason: MythTV frontend. It's hard to justify spending $350 on a console. Spending $350-$400 on a console that replaces a $250-$300 mini-ITX box... that's much easier to justify. You gotta figure that MythTV will be ported pretty fast to it, if the video and audio drivers are reasonable. I also rather like the idea of using MythGame to emulate other systems - really makes for an all-in-one entertainment system.
X-BOX 360 was definitely a competitor for my cash and home media network, but I just can't bring myself to deal with MCE. For all its benefits (easy setup, well-supported), it has niggling annoyances (lack of friendly open formats, multiple tuner issues, proprietary extenders).
-Erwos
The Supreme Court disagrees with you, sir. Check out the Eldred vs. Ashcroft decision, where they rule that repeated extensions are _not_ the same as unlimited, since they are still define a finite (if not long) time.
Fortunately or unfortunately, that is indeed a reasonable interpretation of the Constitution, too.
-Erwos
"Is putting some kind of ownership label on the inside cover really 'adding to the text'?"
There are huge, hand-written scrolls. There's no inside cover, and, no, you can't buy them at the bookstore. They cost 50 grand new, for crying out loud!
-DMZ
"Once it is recoevered, it isn't in pristine condition anymore."
Assuming we're only talking about problems from bad storage conditions, they're almost always fixable. Since fixing a Torah always cost less than writing a new one, this isn't as big a deal as you'd think. And, if they're going to sell the thing, you'd figure they're going to take at least a little care of it.
Torahs "go bad" from everyday use. My family, for instance, has a sefer Torah that we have on loan to a local synagogue. Every so often, they find a letter that's chipped off a bit (the ink is the worst culprit), and it has to be taken and repaired. It's not a big deal.
I think what I'm saying is, "pristine condition" is pretty unusual. Most synagogues will settle for
just "kosher", and be happy with it.
-Erwos
Most of the time, slowness with Yum is actually slowness of the mirror being used. Most people who install apt are only using _one_ server, and said server tends to be on the above average side.