From the Slashdot story: "... it's insurance -- insurance that they can do so if they must to meet a production deadline."
In actuality, we are all in the same situation, not just movie studios. We all need insurance that the software we use won't become useless to us because of decisions by companies over which we have no control. Open source is necessary insurance, not optional.
To all the not-so-smart U.S. voters out there: For reasons no one understands, we aren't all intelligent. When it comes time to vote for a presidential candidate, however, if you aren't intelligent, please don't vote for someone like yourself! A presidential candidate needs to have powers of analysis, for example.
When Chinese worked on U.S. government atomic warheads, China soon had a design very much like it. Now that Microsoft is showing its source code, does that mean that there will soon be a Chinese version of Microsoft Windows, not owned by Microsoft?
Will Bill Li soon be the richest man in the world and complain about governments stifling innovation?
Will Bill Gates then say that it doesn't really matter?
From the parent post: "Anyway, slashdot is the wrong place to be looking for serious solutions to problems like yours."
Maybe so, but Slashdot is a great place to get ideas. Many times Slashdot readers have extremely useful comments because they have unique experiences and are willing to share them.
You said, "There wasn't anything particularly special about Linux in the
beginning either, until Linus gathered his tribe and showed the quality of his
leadership."
That, to me, is the most important thing you said. I realize I took it out of
context.
Maybe the beginning of a new X Windows is humble, but at least, like Linux was
years ago, it is a beginning.
I'm not qualified to judge all issues surrounding X Windows. However, it has
become clear to me that it must be re-written. Linux should have a GUI system
as excellent as that of Apple's OS X.
I consider this a priority project. Governments and industry should pay for
it, and it should be done professionally as soon a possible. The whole issue
of making GUI-based programs is at present a mess.
The social problem appears to be that programmers are not good at loving
themselves. They make do with very little sometimes. Programmers should band
together and make sure the fundamental tools are available.
It is completely unacceptable that a government would use proprietary products that may do hidden things.
MOD PARENT UP!! He's right, HTML-Kit is the choice of even those who use Dreamweaver MX, because Dreamweaver does not respect the formatting of your HTML. HTML coders use HTML Tidy and HTML-Kit to clean up Dreamweaver HTML output, and you-know-who's HTML output, of course, which is so disrespectful it would stomp on your toes if it could.
I don't know much about the subject. I only know that something should be done. Are the problems unfixable? Can these features be added: "subpixel cursor positioning, anti-aliasing, and 3d"?
Sivaram, I really appreciated your comment showing your knowledge of U.S. politics, in another Slashdot story. Could you contact me? I'd like to talk about improving my articles.
Michael Jennings
futurepower@ NOT THIS myrealbox.com
Froogle, Froogle.google.com does NOT compete with Amazon. It tends to put Amazon out of business. Froogle is the best way to find the price and vendor of anything you want to buy. Google makes no money from showing the vendors and prices, only from the ads on the right side.
I, for one, don't see need for our new Amazoogle overlords.
Amazon is known (at least to me) for tricks like charging frequent customers more.
What have you done to discuss gov. corruption?
on
TIA Project to End
·
· Score: 2, Troll
I've read all the posts up to this one, and everyone has had the same
reaction: The U.S. government is lying when it says it has stopped its plan to
spy on U.S. citizens. But where is the intensity? Everyone seems to be taking
it a little too calmly.
If a government does not serve its citizens, that government is corrupt. If a
government lies to its citizens, that government is corrupt.
I'm doing my part to discuss the mistakes of the U.S. government. For example,
I collected this information: History
surrounding the U.S. war with Iraq: Four short stories. Basically, when a
government allows some of its departments to act in secret, that government
quickly begins to have problems with corruption.
Here's another contribution. It's not perfect, but it is something:
Lies about the U.S. -- Iraq War
Violence is a good way to end violence.
Americans should kill Iraqis to make them more peaceful.
Before Saddam Hussein, there was no violence in Iraq. When Mr. Hussein is
no longer in power, Iraq will become a peaceful place.
Killing Iraqis and destroying the infrastructure of that very poor country will have simple consequences. Killing people is an entirely clean social event, like on TV. Killing people has no effect on future relationships, or on the trust people put in those relationships.
Americans are superior people who should decide the way the world should be run.
Private oil companies should be allowed to take on unprofitable operations if U.S. taxpayers can be convinced to pay part of the cost so that the oil companies can make money.
The comic strip Sylvia for today, Friday, September 26, 2003 accuses U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft of conflict of interest and mismanagement. The Sylvia comic normally jokes about women. If Sylvia can talk about U.S. government corruption, you should not feel shy about making your own contribution.
My idea about love of country: You don't really love your country unless you are willing to look at and understand areas where your country needs improvement. The same principle applies elsewhere. You don't really love your wife if you turn your back when she is having serious, difficult-to-understand problems. And, you don't really love yourself unless you try to understand and resolve your own inner conflict.
As I said, what I have written here is not perfect, but it IS something.
Complicated reasons for Microsoft's problems are given in the CyberINsecurity
report. However, it seems to me that the security vulnerabilities in Microsoft
software may be due to Microsoft pressuring programmers to finish and go on to
new projects before they have had enough time to clean up their code.
On 11 September 2003, there were 31 unpatched
vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. On December 9, 2002, there were 19
security vulnerabilities. So vulnerabilities are being found faster than they
are being fixed.
Certainly this is embarrassing for Microsoft. Presumably Microsoft would fix
these problems if it could. However, maybe IE is a mountain of sloppy code,
and it is expensive to fix. Maybe Microsoft is no longer able to hire
programmers who are skilled enough to find the bugs.
Who uses the vulnerabilities before they are fixed? Do the U.S. government's
CIA and NSA and FBI departments use them to spy on foreign governments? Is
that why there are allowed to be so many?
Whatever the reason for the vulnerabilities, it is remarkable that there are
31 known and publicly documented security risks in just one computer program,
particularly when that program is the most widely used program to connect to
the Internet.
The CyberINsecurity report is almost a Microsoft love fest, because it only
talks about one kind of shortcoming. I think my paper, Windows XP Shows the Direction
Microsoft is Going is a bit better balanced.
Cygwin doesn't completely solve the problem. PostgreSQL under Cygwin has some behavior that you and I very readily understand. However, it is beyond the understanding or interest of a Windows user who just wants a database.
If there is a native Windows PostgreSQL version, then there will be more users, and with more users there will be benefits to every user, including those who run it under Linux anyway.
No, we should have taken action long, long before Hitler became powerful. Billions for violence, little for diplomacy doesn't make sense, in my opinion.
Vim is great for keyboard re-configuration. However, it has a quirky way of operating that would be difficult to teach, and would apparently never operate correctly with Control-key editing commands.
What other WordStar-like control-key command editors are there? I find that not having to take my hands off the home row of keys saves about 15% of editing time. I also find that Vi (Vim) is too complicated and quirky to teach my customers.
I would like to see the authors of the Scintilla editor make control-key commands available, perhaps with a way to change modes between control-key commands and the present shortcut key commands.
To use the control-key commands, the control key should be just to the left of the A key. This program converts the Caps Lock key to a Control key: Ctrl2cap.
Here are a few Control-key editing commands. Anyone who is interested in this subject should contact me for the complete list. (The list formatting is damaged by Slashdot.)
Some Control-Key Editor Commands (Save about 15% of editing time.)
Name of Command Primary Sequence Secondary Sequence
Character left <Left> <^S> Character right <Right> <^D> Word left <^Left> <^A> Word right <^Right> <^F> Cursor to left side
<Home> <^Q><^S> Cursor to right side <End> <^Q><^D> Line up <Up> <^E> Line down <Down> <^X> Scroll up <^W> Scroll down <^Z> Page up <PgUp> <^R> Page down <PgDn> <^C>
Top of file
<^PgUp> <^Q><^R> End of file <^PgDn> <^Q><^C> Top of window <^Home> <^Q><^E> Bottom of window <^End> <^Q><^X> Up to equal indent <^J><^B> Down to equal indent <^J><^E> Go to line <^J><^L> Go to column <^J><^C> Go to byte <^J><^A> Previous cursor position <^Q><^P> Match braces forward <^Q><^[>
Match braces backward <^Q><^]>
New line <Enter> Insert line <^N> Insert control char <^P> Delete current character <Del> <^G> Delete left character <BkSp> <^BkSp> Delete right word <^T> Delete line right <^Q><^Y> Delete line <^Y>
Slashdot Mirror
Mod parent UP!! One more point. Great insight.
From the Slashdot story: "... it's insurance -- insurance that they can do so if they must to meet a production deadline."
In actuality, we are all in the same situation, not just movie studios. We all need insurance that the software we use won't become useless to us because of decisions by companies over which we have no control. Open source is necessary insurance, not optional.
To all the not-so-smart U.S. voters out there: For reasons no one understands, we aren't all intelligent. When it comes time to vote for a presidential candidate, however, if you aren't intelligent, please don't vote for someone like yourself! A presidential candidate needs to have powers of analysis, for example.
When Chinese worked on U.S. government atomic warheads, China soon had a design very much like it. Now that Microsoft is showing its source code, does that mean that there will soon be a Chinese version of Microsoft Windows, not owned by Microsoft?
Will Bill Li soon be the richest man in the world and complain about governments stifling innovation? Will Bill Gates then say that it doesn't really matter?
From the parent post: "Anyway, slashdot is the wrong place to be looking for serious solutions to problems like yours."
Maybe so, but Slashdot is a great place to get ideas. Many times Slashdot readers have extremely useful comments because they have unique experiences and are willing to share them.
Jon,
You said, "There wasn't anything particularly special about Linux in the beginning either, until Linus gathered his tribe and showed the quality of his leadership."
That, to me, is the most important thing you said. I realize I took it out of context.
Maybe the beginning of a new X Windows is humble, but at least, like Linux was years ago, it is a beginning.
I'm not qualified to judge all issues surrounding X Windows. However, it has become clear to me that it must be re-written. Linux should have a GUI system as excellent as that of Apple's OS X.
I consider this a priority project. Governments and industry should pay for it, and it should be done professionally as soon a possible. The whole issue of making GUI-based programs is at present a mess.
The social problem appears to be that programmers are not good at loving themselves. They make do with very little sometimes. Programmers should band together and make sure the fundamental tools are available.
It is completely unacceptable that a government would use proprietary products that may do hidden things.
Michael
MOD PARENT UP!! He's right, HTML-Kit is the choice of even those who use Dreamweaver MX, because Dreamweaver does not respect the formatting of your HTML. HTML coders use HTML Tidy and HTML-Kit to clean up Dreamweaver HTML output, and you-know-who's HTML output, of course, which is so disrespectful it would stomp on your toes if it could.
I don't know much about the subject. I only know that something should be done. Are the problems unfixable? Can these features be added: "subpixel cursor positioning, anti-aliasing, and 3d"?
Read the paper. It is of shockingly good quality, both in the writing and the completeness of ideas. The writer is a college senior!
Sivaram, I really appreciated your comment showing your knowledge of U.S. politics, in another Slashdot story. Could you contact me? I'd like to talk about improving my articles.
Michael Jennings
futurepower@ NOT THIS myrealbox.com
Froogle, Froogle.google.com does NOT compete with Amazon. It tends to put Amazon out of business. Froogle is the best way to find the price and vendor of anything you want to buy. Google makes no money from showing the vendors and prices, only from the ads on the right side.
I, for one, don't see need for our new Amazoogle overlords.
Amazon is known (at least to me) for tricks like charging frequent customers more.
I've read all the posts up to this one, and everyone has had the same reaction: The U.S. government is lying when it says it has stopped its plan to spy on U.S. citizens. But where is the intensity? Everyone seems to be taking it a little too calmly.
If a government does not serve its citizens, that government is corrupt. If a government lies to its citizens, that government is corrupt.
I'm doing my part to discuss the mistakes of the U.S. government. For example, I collected this information: History surrounding the U.S. war with Iraq: Four short stories. Basically, when a government allows some of its departments to act in secret, that government quickly begins to have problems with corruption.
Here's another contribution. It's not perfect, but it is something:
Lies about the U.S. -- Iraq War
- Violence is a good way to end violence.
- Americans should kill Iraqis to make them more peaceful.
- Before Saddam Hussein, there was no violence in Iraq. When Mr. Hussein is
no longer in power, Iraq will become a peaceful place.
- Killing Iraqis and destroying the infrastructure of that very poor country will have simple consequences. Killing people is an entirely clean social event, like on TV. Killing people has no effect on future relationships, or on the trust people put in those relationships.
- Americans are superior people who should decide the way the world should be run.
- Private oil companies should be allowed to take on unprofitable operations if U.S. taxpayers can be convinced to pay part of the cost so that the oil companies can make money.
The comic strip Sylvia for today, Friday, September 26, 2003 accuses U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft of conflict of interest and mismanagement. The Sylvia comic normally jokes about women. If Sylvia can talk about U.S. government corruption, you should not feel shy about making your own contribution.My idea about love of country: You don't really love your country unless you are willing to look at and understand areas where your country needs improvement. The same principle applies elsewhere. You don't really love your wife if you turn your back when she is having serious, difficult-to-understand problems. And, you don't really love yourself unless you try to understand and resolve your own inner conflict.
As I said, what I have written here is not perfect, but it IS something.
Complicated reasons for Microsoft's problems are given in the CyberINsecurity report. However, it seems to me that the security vulnerabilities in Microsoft software may be due to Microsoft pressuring programmers to finish and go on to new projects before they have had enough time to clean up their code.
On 11 September 2003, there were 31 unpatched vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. On December 9, 2002, there were 19 security vulnerabilities. So vulnerabilities are being found faster than they are being fixed.
Certainly this is embarrassing for Microsoft. Presumably Microsoft would fix these problems if it could. However, maybe IE is a mountain of sloppy code, and it is expensive to fix. Maybe Microsoft is no longer able to hire programmers who are skilled enough to find the bugs.
Who uses the vulnerabilities before they are fixed? Do the U.S. government's CIA and NSA and FBI departments use them to spy on foreign governments? Is that why there are allowed to be so many?
Whatever the reason for the vulnerabilities, it is remarkable that there are 31 known and publicly documented security risks in just one computer program, particularly when that program is the most widely used program to connect to the Internet.
The CyberINsecurity report is almost a Microsoft love fest, because it only talks about one kind of shortcoming. I think my paper, Windows XP Shows the Direction Microsoft is Going is a bit better balanced.
Yah, BeOS trolls are rare and prized.
Cygwin doesn't completely solve the problem. PostgreSQL under Cygwin has some behavior that you and I very readily understand. However, it is beyond the understanding or interest of a Windows user who just wants a database.
If there is a native Windows PostgreSQL version, then there will be more users, and with more users there will be benefits to every user, including those who run it under Linux anyway.
Big, big question: When will PostgreSQL have a Windows version?
It would be great to vastly expand the number of users. A Windows version would help some people with testing, too.
No, we should have taken action long, long before Hitler became powerful. Billions for violence, little for diplomacy doesn't make sense, in my opinion.
From the parent comment: "... Microsoft keeps making, er, crappy software
I just want to say that I appreciate the tactfulness, sensitivity, restraint, and diplomacy of that remark.
Excellent!
Another tricky saying, but not as general: Arabs think of Americans as superior and are happy to let Americans decide which Arabs live and which die.
From the sig of the parent comment: "I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing."
The war on violence is by far the biggest failure. Kill Iraqis to make them more peaceful?
Vim is great for keyboard re-configuration. However, it has a quirky way of operating that would be difficult to teach, and would apparently never operate correctly with Control-key editing commands.
Turbo-Powered Editor (do a search) has all the control-key commands listed in F1 help. The latest version of TPE is 3.4, but I can't find that online.
It's terrible that this technology was lost whe GUI editors were made. Control-key commands save 15% in editing time, and they are easy to teach.
What other WordStar-like control-key command editors are there? I find that not having to take my hands off the home row of keys saves about 15% of editing time. I also find that Vi (Vim) is too complicated and quirky to teach my customers.
I would like to see the authors of the Scintilla editor make control-key commands available, perhaps with a way to change modes between control-key commands and the present shortcut key commands.
To use the control-key commands, the control key should be just to the left of the A key. This program converts the Caps Lock key to a Control key: Ctrl2cap.
Here are a few Control-key editing commands. Anyone who is interested in this subject should contact me for the complete list. (The list formatting is damaged by Slashdot.)
Some Control-Key Editor Commands (Save about 15% of editing time.)
Name of Command Primary Sequence Secondary Sequence
Character left <Left> <^S>
Character right <Right> <^D>
Word left <^Left> <^A>
Word right <^Right> <^F>
Cursor to left side <Home> <^Q><^S>
Cursor to right side <End> <^Q><^D>
Line up <Up> <^E>
Line down <Down> <^X>
Scroll up <^W>
Scroll down <^Z>
Page up <PgUp> <^R>
Page down <PgDn> <^C>
Top of file <^PgUp> <^Q><^R>
End of file <^PgDn> <^Q><^C>
Top of window <^Home> <^Q><^E>
Bottom of window <^End> <^Q><^X>
Up to equal indent <^J><^B>
Down to equal indent <^J><^E>
Go to line <^J><^L>
Go to column <^J><^C>
Go to byte <^J><^A>
Previous cursor position <^Q><^P>
Match braces forward <^Q><^[>
Match braces backward <^Q><^]>
New line <Enter>
Insert line <^N>
Insert control char <^P>
Delete current character <Del> <^G>
Delete left character <BkSp> <^BkSp>
Delete right word <^T>
Delete line right <^Q><^Y>
Delete line <^Y>
MOD PARENT UP!!! for obvious reasons.