Interesting point. Why don't linux distributions use the BSA and such organizations to combat piracy? I'm sure there are a lot of GPL violations around. Of course the cost of membership for these organizations is probably very high, but perhaps IBM could join and have the BSA send Microsoft reminders to make sure all the GPL code they use is licensed properly.
What do you mean, "if possible use a mirror.". Use a mirror. The only time it isn't possible is when, say, the main server gets slashdotted and there ARE no mirrors.
It's really quite sick. In some perverted way I can understand viruses that delete files, email files and torture my web server. I mean we've all been young, drunk and stupid.
But calling 911? That is something I can't understand. I only had to call 911 once in my life but if it had been busy I would have been horrified. Luckilly the people at 911 are extremely professional and are likely very well prepared for prank calls.
Well Unisys was allowed to do it, so it's not surprising. Until someone in American government does something to disallow this kind of patent entrapment it will not end.
It matters little how feasible their patent claim is. The very threat of a possible lawsuit is enough to make most companies roll over and cough up licensing fees.
The cnet article on the QT6 release also mentions that the MPEG group will be releasing new MPEG4 licensing terms. The main change is that free mpeg4 streams will not be charged. This is great news!
This is completely off topic, but isn't you're signature, "The internet is the greatest source of biased information in the history of mankind." just as easily written, "The internet is the greatest source of information in the history of mankind."?
Whatever kind of information you want, there's more of it on the Internet than anywhere else.
Still disappointed with the ending
on
The Chronoliths
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I read Chronoliths and my favorite part was the beginning. The ending was my least favorite part, which probably means I didn't "get it". While enjoyed the concept of the book it didn't live up to my expectations.
The entire book leads up to the arrival of the unkown conqueror Kuin. The pace increases with each new Chronolith. However when the date foretold on the first Chronolith arrives the book dries up and decides that it wasn't so interested in dealing with Kuin at all. I was disappointed.
As far as the Hugos go my favorite this year is American Gods. I thought I'd hate the book, judging from its title and the fact that I'm not American at all. I nearly didn't read it, but in the end decided I couldn't make a fair judge of the other Hugo nominees without reading it. I am very glad I did. The American in the title refers to being of all of America, not just the USA.
Neil Gaiman's Coraline just came out as well, and my copy's already in the mail.
No, the favicon works in Mozilla too, and probably others.
Re:Reasonable Interface?! Have you used Blender?
on
Blender Goes Open Source
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· Score: 2, Informative
I think that once learned it is easy, yes. I think there are still points wrong with the interface such as incredibly small widgets (the sliders) and unexplained button coloring.
Also object creation is debatable - I much prefer MAX's method to blender/truespace's create then scale approach.
One of the great things about blender's UI is how small it makes the binary. I highly doubt blender would be so small if native widgets had been used. Then again a native file selector would be far easier and more powerful than Blender's 80sesque implementation.
I finally bought a nice new PC for gaming instead of my trusty (yet older) mac, and am told I might have Nimda? I have Gamespy Arcade 1.09 installed! I feel like I've just been burned by unprotected sex.
And like an STD I think Gamespy does have a responsibility to alert all their users to the potential infection.
Xiph needs to realise they don't know how to name things. A good name is part of marketting. It doesn't matter if you and all your geek buddies can talk about Ogg Vorbis without feeling akward if all the other kids think it sounds like Klingon. Is it any surprise DivX is so widely used when the name was basically stolen off a product that had commercial marketting?
VP3 is a great name. Most people can even imagine what it stands for - video mp3 - which they would be very comfortable talking about. Why change it?
I'm not sure you mean Corel Draw or Wordperfect, but I used to beta test for CorelDraw and saw this happen. Version 7 had a really, really good interface. There was room for improvement but nothing major, just efficiency improvements like redraw while scrolling and live updating of fills and such. While these features have eventually been added each new version, 8, 9 and 10, has had a nearly completely new interface.
However, CorelDraw's saving grace is that the interface is completely customizable. So instead of relearning the *default* interface of each version my frustration was in making it behave like the old one. This is something I wish I could do for Adobe products (Ctrl-U is ungroup, damn it!). Draw even lets you save your interface to share and reuse. It also comes with presets to make the interface behave more like other drawing programs (for you Ctrl-Shift-G wackos).
Isn't a user customizable interface a good way to get around this problem?
This case is a big deal here in Saskatoon. Your facts are incorrect: it was shown that the seeds could not have blown off a truck. An engineer here at the U of S showed, in court, that the seeds could not have been distributed in such a way.
I've got a 5GB iPod. I love the idea of a swappable hard drive.
Currently about 2gig of space on the iPod is used for a bootable OS X install. When any of the Macs in the office go down - which, admittedly isn't really that often, but there's always the geek factor - I can boot off the iPod to fix the problem.
With a removable hard drive I could have multiple bootable OSs, perhaps a Mandrake PPC install, or even have images of all our install CDs, which always seem to go missing just when they're needed.
I'm surprised that no one has blamed the tools developers must use as one source of the problem. Obviously no single thing is to blame for the current state of software. There are quite a few problems, mostly because software development is new and all the kinks in the process haven't been worked out yet.
I'm mostly just a web developer and most of the projects I work on are quite small, but even so there are several times I've noticed that certain tools - launguages, mostly - greatly influence the quality of the end product.
I usually write in PHP or Python. Once I had to write a cgi in C (don't ask). I'm no great C programmer so I spent a lot of extra time to make sure it was working right. Despite my efforts the cgi didn't just have a few bugs, it even segfaulted from time to time. None of my PHP or Python apps have ever done that.
From the article, "Instead of meticulously planning code, programmers stayed up in caffeinated all-night hacking sessions, constantly bouncing results off the compiler." This seems to imply that if a compiler were better at having ideas bounced off it then the code might be improved. I think this is true, as some compliers are more useful. Python for example gives excellent errors, at least compared to PHP. Imagine if a compiler could warn you about potential memory leaks or such? This reliance on the compiler not as a tool but an assistant may be why the pair programming of extreme programming works so well.
I really don't want to start a language war, but I think there is a strong case for the suggestion that some languages help the programmer produce a more reliable end product. I know that C will be faster than Python, but as the article says, processing power is cheap. If Microsoft really wanted to make their operating system more reliable wouldn't they stop coding so much of it in C++?
UFS under Mac OS X does have type/creator info. It uses the AppleDouble hack that uses hidden files to store the mac resource fork.
The main problem that desktop apps will have with UFS is its case sensitivity. Many apps expect to be able to ask for a file in any case and get a like-named but differently cased file.
Personally, I would be surprised if any program as robust as Office had this problem.
But I have to mention Python's DB API2. It works very well also. Moving between compliant DBs is quite easy - I've moved from MySQL to Postgres twice now with very little effort.
I won't pretend to know the best way to learn a new language but one of the better ideas to be more than mearly good is to read code. Find an open source project written in your language and read it. That's one of the best sources of wow! factor ideas.
The only problem I've had with this method is picking a good example project. All too often stuff on sourceforge is made by people that don't know their language that expertly or that don't write very nice code. Popularity certainly isn't the best way to pick an example project.
Slashdot Mirror
Interesting point. Why don't linux distributions use the BSA and such organizations to combat piracy? I'm sure there are a lot of GPL violations around. Of course the cost of membership for these organizations is probably very high, but perhaps IBM could join and have the BSA send Microsoft reminders to make sure all the GPL code they use is licensed properly.
What do you mean, "if possible use a mirror.". Use a mirror. The only time it isn't possible is when, say, the main server gets slashdotted and there ARE no mirrors.
When will you ever learn?
I wouldn't say you're second until it's actually released. Wild speculation about Apple's next Powermac release says USB 2 might be there as well.
It's really quite sick. In some perverted way I can understand viruses that delete files, email files and torture my web server. I mean we've all been young, drunk and stupid.
But calling 911? That is something I can't understand. I only had to call 911 once in my life but if it had been busy I would have been horrified. Luckilly the people at 911 are extremely professional and are likely very well prepared for prank calls.
the linux community is in an uproar.
Hmm, are you sure? This doesn't sound like much of an uproar to me. Sure, you're worked up about it but everyone else seems pretty level headed.
BTW - I'm expecting a being modded down
Rightly so. Your post is little more relevant than the other trolls.
Well Unisys was allowed to do it, so it's not surprising. Until someone in American government does something to disallow this kind of patent entrapment it will not end.
It matters little how feasible their patent claim is. The very threat of a possible lawsuit is enough to make most companies roll over and cough up licensing fees.
The cnet article on the QT6 release also mentions that the MPEG group will be releasing new MPEG4 licensing terms. The main change is that free mpeg4 streams will not be charged. This is great news!
This is completely off topic, but isn't you're signature, "The internet is the greatest source of biased information in the history of mankind." just as easily written, "The internet is the greatest source of information in the history of mankind."?
Whatever kind of information you want, there's more of it on the Internet than anywhere else.
I read Chronoliths and my favorite part was the beginning. The ending was my least favorite part, which probably means I didn't "get it". While enjoyed the concept of the book it didn't live up to my expectations.
The entire book leads up to the arrival of the unkown conqueror Kuin. The pace increases with each new Chronolith. However when the date foretold on the first Chronolith arrives the book dries up and decides that it wasn't so interested in dealing with Kuin at all. I was disappointed.
As far as the Hugos go my favorite this year is American Gods. I thought I'd hate the book, judging from its title and the fact that I'm not American at all. I nearly didn't read it, but in the end decided I couldn't make a fair judge of the other Hugo nominees without reading it. I am very glad I did. The American in the title refers to being of all of America, not just the USA.
Neil Gaiman's Coraline just came out as well, and my copy's already in the mail.
This latest move doesn't suprise me. Their beer sucks, so nothing seems beneath them.
One might ask what took so long.
One might ask what it took so long for Slashdot to mention it - it's been on the Python home page for quite a while.
No, the favicon works in Mozilla too, and probably others.
I think that once learned it is easy, yes. I think there are still points wrong with the interface such as incredibly small widgets (the sliders) and unexplained button coloring.
Also object creation is debatable - I much prefer MAX's method to blender/truespace's create then scale approach.
One of the great things about blender's UI is how small it makes the binary. I highly doubt blender would be so small if native widgets had been used. Then again a native file selector would be far easier and more powerful than Blender's 80sesque implementation.
I finally bought a nice new PC for gaming instead of my trusty (yet older) mac, and am told I might have Nimda? I have Gamespy Arcade 1.09 installed! I feel like I've just been burned by unprotected sex.
And like an STD I think Gamespy does have a responsibility to alert all their users to the potential infection.
Xiph needs to realise they don't know how to name things. A good name is part of marketting. It doesn't matter if you and all your geek buddies can talk about Ogg Vorbis without feeling akward if all the other kids think it sounds like Klingon. Is it any surprise DivX is so widely used when the name was basically stolen off a product that had commercial marketting?
VP3 is a great name. Most people can even imagine what it stands for - video mp3 - which they would be very comfortable talking about. Why change it?
I'm going to be in the market for another PC soon, and have been watching the prices drop and the power go up over the years.
You're kidding. How long has that been going on?
I'm not sure you mean Corel Draw or Wordperfect, but I used to beta test for CorelDraw and saw this happen. Version 7 had a really, really good interface. There was room for improvement but nothing major, just efficiency improvements like redraw while scrolling and live updating of fills and such. While these features have eventually been added each new version, 8, 9 and 10, has had a nearly completely new interface.
However, CorelDraw's saving grace is that the interface is completely customizable. So instead of relearning the *default* interface of each version my frustration was in making it behave like the old one. This is something I wish I could do for Adobe products (Ctrl-U is ungroup, damn it!). Draw even lets you save your interface to share and reuse. It also comes with presets to make the interface behave more like other drawing programs (for you Ctrl-Shift-G wackos).
Isn't a user customizable interface a good way to get around this problem?
This case is a big deal here in Saskatoon. Your facts are incorrect: it was shown that the seeds could not have blown off a truck. An engineer here at the U of S showed, in court, that the seeds could not have been distributed in such a way.
I've got a 5GB iPod. I love the idea of a swappable hard drive.
Currently about 2gig of space on the iPod is used for a bootable OS X install. When any of the Macs in the office go down - which, admittedly isn't really that often, but there's always the geek factor - I can boot off the iPod to fix the problem.
With a removable hard drive I could have multiple bootable OSs, perhaps a Mandrake PPC install, or even have images of all our install CDs, which always seem to go missing just when they're needed.
I'm surprised that no one has blamed the tools developers must use as one source of the problem. Obviously no single thing is to blame for the current state of software. There are quite a few problems, mostly because software development is new and all the kinks in the process haven't been worked out yet.
I'm mostly just a web developer and most of the projects I work on are quite small, but even so there are several times I've noticed that certain tools - launguages, mostly - greatly influence the quality of the end product.
I usually write in PHP or Python. Once I had to write a cgi in C (don't ask). I'm no great C programmer so I spent a lot of extra time to make sure it was working right. Despite my efforts the cgi didn't just have a few bugs, it even segfaulted from time to time. None of my PHP or Python apps have ever done that.
From the article, "Instead of meticulously planning code, programmers stayed up in caffeinated all-night hacking sessions, constantly bouncing results off the compiler." This seems to imply that if a compiler were better at having ideas bounced off it then the code might be improved. I think this is true, as some compliers are more useful. Python for example gives excellent errors, at least compared to PHP. Imagine if a compiler could warn you about potential memory leaks or such? This reliance on the compiler not as a tool but an assistant may be why the pair programming of extreme programming works so well.
I really don't want to start a language war, but I think there is a strong case for the suggestion that some languages help the programmer produce a more reliable end product. I know that C will be faster than Python, but as the article says, processing power is cheap. If Microsoft really wanted to make their operating system more reliable wouldn't they stop coding so much of it in C++?
The black looks good, but it should really be glossy and not matte. The matte looks like it was made by Dell, not Apple.
UFS under Mac OS X does have type/creator info. It uses the AppleDouble hack that uses hidden files to store the mac resource fork.
The main problem that desktop apps will have with UFS is its case sensitivity. Many apps expect to be able to ask for a file in any case and get a like-named but differently cased file.
Personally, I would be surprised if any program as robust as Office had this problem.
Perl's DBI is very nice.
But I have to mention Python's DB API2. It works very well also. Moving between compliant DBs is quite easy - I've moved from MySQL to Postgres twice now with very little effort.
All I need now is a good mod_python, or the like.
I won't pretend to know the best way to learn a new language but one of the better ideas to be more than mearly good is to read code. Find an open source project written in your language and read it. That's one of the best sources of wow! factor ideas.
The only problem I've had with this method is picking a good example project. All too often stuff on sourceforge is made by people that don't know their language that expertly or that don't write very nice code. Popularity certainly isn't the best way to pick an example project.
Perhaps an all to convenient misprint?