What GTK+ did was create an entirely new way of getting a file system dialogue. The old system simply could not be extended, and this new one is much better.
However, it _did not_ break binary compat. The interface for the old file selector is still in there.
I totally agree. XFCE is pretty much the ONLY choice for a computer 200mhz 128mb RAM. GNOME and KDE absolutely crawl, and just TRY opening Mozilla with them. You'll be lucky if you don't overflow your swap space and crash X.
I think you're missing the point the parent was trying to make. Programming languages shouldn't allow you to make these kinds of mistakes, PERIOD. I think that's an interesting idea, and it's quite similar to what you get taught in any decent HCI course with regards to GUI design - "the user is always right, and the programmer is always wrong". That is to say, in a perfect world, there should be no opportunity to screw up.
If it requires a compile time option, well, there's one more thing to screw up on. Sure, it's easy - but then again, so is checking the damned data to begin with. AFAIK, there's no option in Java to turn off array bounds checking. Sure, it removes some speed from you (and, really, is it all that much in this day and age to check bounds?), but then again, the stupidly common buffer overflow isn't ever going to happen if you write in Java. I believe that's what the parent was getting at.
I know this is going to sound sarcastic, but I mean the following in the most sincere way possible:
That was easily one of the most insightful posts I've ever seen about programming languages and network security that I've ever seen. I don't know a single thing about you personally, but you're obviously a man of some intellect. Thanks for your comment - it's what makes/. so worthwhile, when I can sometimes find that diamond in the rough.
The Supreme Court just ruled on the law. Sorry, pal, but that's pretty much the definition of what's constitutional or not.
You also have a funny definition of "regulating interstate commerce". They can regulate it to be forbidden, too, to my line of thinking. Your interpretation is just that - an interpretation.
As for "banding together and fighting THE MAN", no one's stopping the citizens from doing so. They simply cannot involve their government. Let them form a non-profit and do it from there.
Why can't they? It's the exact same argument people make in favor of Kazaa.
"Well, I know 95% of the traffic on Kazaa is violating someone's IP, but, hey, 5% of that _is_ legal, so there is substantial non-infringing use! RIAA IS TEH SUCK LONG LIEV KAZAA FREE MUSIC!"
And, please, this is not about _freedom of speech_. I love it when people argue by exaggeration. No one's taking away your ability to argue. They're, at worst, taking away your fair use "rights" (which, incidentally, are mostly in your head anyways).
I'm not welcoming TCPA with open arms, either, but let's keep this in perspective.
What you're missing is, what happens if software patents _do_ become legal in the EU? There is still some genuine fear about this, from what I can see.
So let me get this straight: 1. Microsoft has to pay pocket cash to pay the fine. 2. Microsoft can't bundle Windows Media Player. 3. Microsoft can now lock out all open-source projects trying to attain API compatibility. Good-bye WINE, Samba, et al.
Forgive me, but any EU decision which ends up doing significant damage to the free software movement and does minimal damage to Microsoft can't really be considered a "win" for the consumer.
That's not to mention that, compared to the DoJ ruling, this does NOTHING to reign in their monopolist tendencies. If the DoJ was a slap on the wrist, this was a loving pat on the rump. At least the DoJ got Microsoft to stop abusing OEMs who tried to give choice - all the EU ruling did was protect Real and get some money from a US corporation. If this was a big win for the EU, I can only imagine what a big defeat would be.
But, just like in previous break-ins to other systems (Gentoo, Debian, Savannah), they're taking the correct actions by shutting everything down and BEING CAREFUL. I often wonder if commercial companies are always this fastidious.
You can't beat all the crackers, but handling a bad situation correctly should be commended. Good job, GNOME team!
That's because it's _not_ called X-Windows. I point you to look at their website, where they say VERY specifically that it is not to be called X-Windows. X, XFree86, XF86, all are the names they want you to use.
-Erwos
Re:Any commerical companies using these?
on
GTK 2.4.0 Released
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· Score: 1
That might be a valid argument for Qt, but GTK+ is licensed under the LGPL. There's no issues linking your closed-source code to it, providing you provide the source to the LGPL code used.
However, I really wouldn't raise my nose at GTKmm - it's actually VERY nicely done, and for someone who was raised on C++ and the STL (ie, most coders coming out of college now), it's much more intuitive than some other toolkits.
A very good point, and one that people sometimes forget. I love it when stores post signs saying "we're not responsible for blah blah". They can SAY that, but just saying it does not make it true.
So, as you said, making backups of your own ROMs only become illegal when Nintendo wins a court case against someone. What they say about the matter only tells you whether they would file suit or not in the first place.
However, I would caution you against ranting about your fair-use "rights" as though it's part of the Constitution. Fair use rights are entirely at the court's interpretation of what is "fair" or not. What you think is fair may not jive with the court's interpretation.
I'm not arguing that downloading ROMs of cartridges you own isn't fair use, only cautioning against making "fair use rights" arguments - because the default opinion of the court is going to be for the copyright holder, unless you can make an extremely good argument. In this case, I think you could, though.
I'm not sure if I 100% agree. In a modern CPU, simple caching mechanisms will cause non-deterministic behavior, or so I've heard. IIRC, this was the reason that some RTOSes don't use cache even if your computer has it - you can't stop RIGHT THE HELL NOW if your computer might have to take a nanosecond or two to do some caching activity.
However, on a macro level, I agree - if there's a problem with crashing, there's some combination of causes causing it to happen (duh).
IIRC: Americans work the most hours on average, but are NOT the most productive on average per hour worked - they rank 3rd there, I think. The researchers explained it with some relatively simple logic: after X number of hours, you start to lose some productivity. Sounds reasonable to me. They still win the overall productivity per worker prize, which isn't too shabby.
And, BTW, you look like a fool when you say "USian" (I am NOT calling you a fool, only saying you appear as one to someone who doesn't know you, such as myself). People who live in the USA are "Americans". People who live in North Americans are called "North Americans". People who live in South America are called "South Americans". There is no continent called "America", last time I checked, and thus there is no reason to get confused unless you're a total moron. By the same token, calling Mexicans "Americans" is idiotic, too, because they're not. They're "North Americans".
Sorry about that, but it's a pet peeve. Just refer to residents of the United States as that ("residents of the US"), if you can't bear to bring yourself to say the hated term "American" (which, you know, is accurate: "United States of America". Hence, "American", for the last word).
... is that, today, it's much easier to write a simple piece of interactive fiction than ever before, yet it's far less popular nowadays. I personally like TADS, but I'm sure there are other excellent systems.
A point I'd like to make, though:
As someone who's done a LOT of serious area writing on diverse MUDs (both RP-enforced and hack and slash) and has dabbled in IF, I must stress that writing IF and writing on a MUD are two completely different things. I know someone's going to compare the two and claim IF's still alive and well in the form of MUDs, but it's not even close to the same thing. Your skill set in creating a MUD area doesn't automatically map to IF, and vica versa.
Good IF requires FAR more attention to detail than the average MUD. On a typical MUD, you can get away with only one or two levels of details because the players are busy interacting with other people. In IF, you've got to really hammer in those details to bring out a convincing world (usually - that Arabian Nights-esque game that was in the IF Comp a year or two ago was basically choose your own adventure, yet was extremely good), because the world is all there is.
IF != MUDs. That is all I want to point out, before someone claims it's so.
Microsoft doesn't need a hard drive on the X-Box2. Why not? Because you've got one on your computer, and, presumably, it should not be hard to network said computer with the X-Box2 and use THAT hard drive. Think how much easier it would be to share saved games ("Yeah, Bob, it's in/pub, go grab it.")
It doesn't seem like a bad solution, especially if it allows them to chop down on the end cost of the console. Maybe they could include 802.11b/g connectivity? That'd make it easier to network in general, AND would let you do multiple X-Box parties without having to have everyone in the same room.
Yes, because we know an organization composed of crypto-geeks and engineers is completely equipped to make you disappear.
NSA's not in the business of making people disappear. The program is public. Do you think they make every concerned citizen disappear? Please. Don't take movies as documentaries.
In fact, NSA tends to be one of the more non-threatening agencies when it comes to dealing with protestors. Remember the infamous tea party, when they just met the protestors at the fence, gave them some tea, and asked them about any specific issues they had? They're not quite that loose anymore, but I'd really be more concerned with Homeland Security than NSA.
I did think of that, but dismissed it because I figured the average/.'er would then just argue that it's not probable cause.
"Lots of cops get grief from people because lots of cops start out talking to people in "confront" mode."
Lots of people get grief from cops because lots of people start out talking to cops in "confront" mode. I was only trying to say that we should just try to be a little more respectful to each other. It needn't start with the police.
The problem with this wonderful idea is that there's no certain way for you (the questioned person" to know whether there's probable cause. Sure, you don't think you did anything suspicious, but perhaps the police officer over there may have interpreted your actions differently. So, at best, such a law would be totally ineffective, since there's a 50/50 chance they might actually have probable cause.
Of course, if you just gave your damn name and acted friendly to the police officer, maybe we'd all live in a nicer society. I can almost understand why the cops act all pissed off sometimes - they've got to deal with morons who make their jobs a living hell.
Slashdot Mirror
AFAIK, this isn't true.
What GTK+ did was create an entirely new way of getting a file system dialogue. The old system simply could not be extended, and this new one is much better.
However, it _did not_ break binary compat. The interface for the old file selector is still in there.
-Erwos
I totally agree. XFCE is pretty much the ONLY choice for a computer 200mhz 128mb RAM. GNOME and KDE absolutely crawl, and just TRY opening Mozilla with them. You'll be lucky if you don't overflow your swap space and crash X.
-Erwos
I think you're missing the point the parent was trying to make. Programming languages shouldn't allow you to make these kinds of mistakes, PERIOD. I think that's an interesting idea, and it's quite similar to what you get taught in any decent HCI course with regards to GUI design - "the user is always right, and the programmer is always wrong". That is to say, in a perfect world, there should be no opportunity to screw up.
If it requires a compile time option, well, there's one more thing to screw up on. Sure, it's easy - but then again, so is checking the damned data to begin with. AFAIK, there's no option in Java to turn off array bounds checking. Sure, it removes some speed from you (and, really, is it all that much in this day and age to check bounds?), but then again, the stupidly common buffer overflow isn't ever going to happen if you write in Java. I believe that's what the parent was getting at.
-Erwos
I know this is going to sound sarcastic, but I mean the following in the most sincere way possible:
/. so worthwhile, when I can sometimes find that diamond in the rough.
That was easily one of the most insightful posts I've ever seen about programming languages and network security that I've ever seen. I don't know a single thing about you personally, but you're obviously a man of some intellect. Thanks for your comment - it's what makes
-Erwos
The Supreme Court just ruled on the law. Sorry, pal, but that's pretty much the definition of what's constitutional or not.
You also have a funny definition of "regulating interstate commerce". They can regulate it to be forbidden, too, to my line of thinking. Your interpretation is just that - an interpretation.
As for "banding together and fighting THE MAN", no one's stopping the citizens from doing so. They simply cannot involve their government. Let them form a non-profit and do it from there.
-Erwos
Why can't they? It's the exact same argument people make in favor of Kazaa.
"Well, I know 95% of the traffic on Kazaa is violating someone's IP, but, hey, 5% of that _is_ legal, so there is substantial non-infringing use! RIAA IS TEH SUCK LONG LIEV KAZAA FREE MUSIC!"
And, please, this is not about _freedom of speech_. I love it when people argue by exaggeration. No one's taking away your ability to argue. They're, at worst, taking away your fair use "rights" (which, incidentally, are mostly in your head anyways).
I'm not welcoming TCPA with open arms, either, but let's keep this in perspective.
-Erwos
What you're missing is, what happens if software patents _do_ become legal in the EU? There is still some genuine fear about this, from what I can see.
-Erwos
So let me get this straight:
1. Microsoft has to pay pocket cash to pay the fine.
2. Microsoft can't bundle Windows Media Player.
3. Microsoft can now lock out all open-source projects trying to attain API compatibility. Good-bye WINE, Samba, et al.
Forgive me, but any EU decision which ends up doing significant damage to the free software movement and does minimal damage to Microsoft can't really be considered a "win" for the consumer.
That's not to mention that, compared to the DoJ ruling, this does NOTHING to reign in their monopolist tendencies. If the DoJ was a slap on the wrist, this was a loving pat on the rump. At least the DoJ got Microsoft to stop abusing OEMs who tried to give choice - all the EU ruling did was protect Real and get some money from a US corporation. If this was a big win for the EU, I can only imagine what a big defeat would be.
-Erwos
But, just like in previous break-ins to other systems (Gentoo, Debian, Savannah), they're taking the correct actions by shutting everything down and BEING CAREFUL. I often wonder if commercial companies are always this fastidious.
:)
You can't beat all the crackers, but handling a bad situation correctly should be commended. Good job, GNOME team!
I'm eagerly awaiting 2.6, too, I may add!
-Erwos
I've seen more people using Linux and BSD on their laptops at my university than Apple laptops. Your anecdotal evidence is just that.
-Erwos
That's because it's _not_ called X-Windows. I point you to look at their website, where they say VERY specifically that it is not to be called X-Windows. X, XFree86, XF86, all are the names they want you to use.
-Erwos
That might be a valid argument for Qt, but GTK+ is licensed under the LGPL. There's no issues linking your closed-source code to it, providing you provide the source to the LGPL code used.
QT == GPL
GTK+ == LGPL
-Erwos
And the bootable CD will immediately break when hardware not supported by it is released. Sorry, but it's not a scalable solution.
Yes, you still do.
However, I really wouldn't raise my nose at GTKmm - it's actually VERY nicely done, and for someone who was raised on C++ and the STL (ie, most coders coming out of college now), it's much more intuitive than some other toolkits.
Trust me - GTKmm is no sacrifice at all.
-Erwos
A very good point, and one that people sometimes forget. I love it when stores post signs saying "we're not responsible for blah blah". They can SAY that, but just saying it does not make it true.
So, as you said, making backups of your own ROMs only become illegal when Nintendo wins a court case against someone. What they say about the matter only tells you whether they would file suit or not in the first place.
However, I would caution you against ranting about your fair-use "rights" as though it's part of the Constitution. Fair use rights are entirely at the court's interpretation of what is "fair" or not. What you think is fair may not jive with the court's interpretation.
Two relevant links:
http://www.eff.org/IP/eff_fair_use_faq.html
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/
I'm not arguing that downloading ROMs of cartridges you own isn't fair use, only cautioning against making "fair use rights" arguments - because the default opinion of the court is going to be for the copyright holder, unless you can make an extremely good argument. In this case, I think you could, though.
-Erwos
"Video samples provided on the site as well, so see for yourself."
/. Good one!
Yeah, as if there was any chance of THAT happening after you submitted that site to
-Erwos
I'm not sure if I 100% agree. In a modern CPU, simple caching mechanisms will cause non-deterministic behavior, or so I've heard. IIRC, this was the reason that some RTOSes don't use cache even if your computer has it - you can't stop RIGHT THE HELL NOW if your computer might have to take a nanosecond or two to do some caching activity.
However, on a macro level, I agree - if there's a problem with crashing, there's some combination of causes causing it to happen (duh).
-Erwos
IIRC:
Americans work the most hours on average, but are NOT the most productive on average per hour worked - they rank 3rd there, I think. The researchers explained it with some relatively simple logic: after X number of hours, you start to lose some productivity. Sounds reasonable to me. They still win the overall productivity per worker prize, which isn't too shabby.
And, BTW, you look like a fool when you say "USian" (I am NOT calling you a fool, only saying you appear as one to someone who doesn't know you, such as myself). People who live in the USA are "Americans". People who live in North Americans are called "North Americans". People who live in South America are called "South Americans". There is no continent called "America", last time I checked, and thus there is no reason to get confused unless you're a total moron. By the same token, calling Mexicans "Americans" is idiotic, too, because they're not. They're "North Americans".
Sorry about that, but it's a pet peeve. Just refer to residents of the United States as that ("residents of the US"), if you can't bear to bring yourself to say the hated term "American" (which, you know, is accurate: "United States of America". Hence, "American", for the last word).
-Erwos
And the best part: you can cheat by reading the straight Lisp code. I must confess I had to do it once, just for some syntax.
Dunnet is actually quite fun, and I'd recommend people who like IF to give it a shot.
-Erwos
... is that, today, it's much easier to write a simple piece of interactive fiction than ever before, yet it's far less popular nowadays. I personally like TADS, but I'm sure there are other excellent systems.
A point I'd like to make, though:
As someone who's done a LOT of serious area writing on diverse MUDs (both RP-enforced and hack and slash) and has dabbled in IF, I must stress that writing IF and writing on a MUD are two completely different things. I know someone's going to compare the two and claim IF's still alive and well in the form of MUDs, but it's not even close to the same thing. Your skill set in creating a MUD area doesn't automatically map to IF, and vica versa.
Good IF requires FAR more attention to detail than the average MUD. On a typical MUD, you can get away with only one or two levels of details because the players are busy interacting with other people. In IF, you've got to really hammer in those details to bring out a convincing world (usually - that Arabian Nights-esque game that was in the IF Comp a year or two ago was basically choose your own adventure, yet was extremely good), because the world is all there is.
IF != MUDs. That is all I want to point out, before someone claims it's so.
-Erwos
Microsoft doesn't need a hard drive on the X-Box2. Why not? Because you've got one on your computer, and, presumably, it should not be hard to network said computer with the X-Box2 and use THAT hard drive. Think how much easier it would be to share saved games ("Yeah, Bob, it's in /pub, go grab it.")
It doesn't seem like a bad solution, especially if it allows them to chop down on the end cost of the console. Maybe they could include 802.11b/g connectivity? That'd make it easier to network in general, AND would let you do multiple X-Box parties without having to have everyone in the same room.
-Erwos
Unemployment is nowhere near an all-time high. Unless "all-time" only includes "height of dot-com boom levels".
But, it was a nice troll up until that point.
-Erwos
Yes, because we know an organization composed of crypto-geeks and engineers is completely equipped to make you disappear.
NSA's not in the business of making people disappear. The program is public. Do you think they make every concerned citizen disappear? Please. Don't take movies as documentaries.
In fact, NSA tends to be one of the more non-threatening agencies when it comes to dealing with protestors. Remember the infamous tea party, when they just met the protestors at the fence, gave them some tea, and asked them about any specific issues they had? They're not quite that loose anymore, but I'd really be more concerned with Homeland Security than NSA.
-Erwos
I did think of that, but dismissed it because I figured the average /.'er would then just argue that it's not probable cause.
"Lots of cops get grief from people because lots of cops start out talking to people in "confront" mode."
Lots of people get grief from cops because lots of people start out talking to cops in "confront" mode. I was only trying to say that we should just try to be a little more respectful to each other. It needn't start with the police.
-Erwos
The problem with this wonderful idea is that there's no certain way for you (the questioned person" to know whether there's probable cause. Sure, you don't think you did anything suspicious, but perhaps the police officer over there may have interpreted your actions differently. So, at best, such a law would be totally ineffective, since there's a 50/50 chance they might actually have probable cause.
Of course, if you just gave your damn name and acted friendly to the police officer, maybe we'd all live in a nicer society. I can almost understand why the cops act all pissed off sometimes - they've got to deal with morons who make their jobs a living hell.
-Erwos