And I would buy a day of cnn.com access for a quarter, if I can browse the headlines on the "front page" first and the purchase is as easy as dropping a quarter into a slot. Sure, newspapers still have advertisements, but they also have to pay for paper, printing and delivery.
I am downloading about $50 worth of songs from Apple music store right at this moment. I can only assume that the myth that people won't pay for content is spread by people who don't have anything worth paying to offer, as an excuse to their shareholders.
Sure, there are challenges, like offering cheap or free content to people in developing countries or poor people in US. This should be written into the law, just like access for disabled people. But the benefit of having an honest relationship with your customers is well worth it.
Hold on. Slashdot has so many people experiences in social engineering. Why not give Epixtar a call and sell them some choice beachfront property in Arizona? Then if they don't pay, present them with a recorded conversation. After defending their strategy in court they wouldn't be able to just back out of it.
Better yet, try it on the next telemarketer that calls you. Should be fun and legal, since they called your "business" to "inquire about your services" themselves.
I guess I should be more specific. I am talking about a society without copyrights and patents. Other, forms of IP, like person/company names or anti-plagarism rules could still exist. Yes, these too could be abused and this would have to be dealt with by passing and enforcing laws. But more broad IP laws do not automatically follow.
Let's say there is no IP, but there is no program that satisfies my needs. There is however a website that says I can put down $100 and either get a program with specified feature list within 6 months or get $110 back. If the price and "interest" are chosen correctly, I will be motivated to invest if and only if I need the software. Freeloaders will be able to use the software, but they will not get any customer support unless they buy it, and they will not be compensated for waiting. In the same spirit, manufacturers of "cheap knockoffs" will chip in to produce innovations. Or, fans of an artist will pay him/her to record a song.
Sure, this system has it's own problems. For example, some independent expert will be needed to verify that the new program fulfills the promise made to investors. Or, companies would have to establish their reputation. But the current patent/copyright system has problems as well.
Basically, without IP rights, inventors or engineers will still be compensated for their innovation, but the amount will drop off over time and nobody will be able to live off 20 year old inventions. They would have to keep innovating. The result could well be better for an average user/listener/consumer.
Sounds like a formidable punishment to me. If I had a choice of a quick death or 23 years in prison, I am not sure what I would decide. As for the notion that polititian's life matters more than waiter's, it's kind of scary, although understandable.
Just ask terrorist states for money! According to DAPRA, they'll jump to invest in better security for their nuclear physics research, party secrets, encrypted messages to sleeper cells and other evil deeds. With BSD license, they will be able to examine the code and see that there are no loopholes. And, OpenBSD project will be more ethical than before, since it will be taking money away from terrorists rather than aiding them for free.
On the other hand, terrorist states might point out that OpenBSD will empower domestic opposition to create social unrest in secret. Then just take their statements back to DAPRA and ask them to fund OpenBSD as a form of information warfare. At the usual price that government pays for munitions. Then, OpenBSD project can easily buy RIAA and provide bored sysadmins of secure systems with some BSD-licensed entertainment.
People with more than two hands might ponder if exporting Microsoft software to terrorist states is a better form of information warfare.
Well, Apple users still have it, IE vs Safari vs Camino. And as a result, browsers are fast, have popup blockers, download managers and tabbed browsing and about anything users ask for. Anyone who thinks they might sell stuff to Mac users designs their website properly. Just think about how much more lean and stable windows browsers would be if MS didn't kill off serious competition. Typing this in Safari.
But people would rather pay a reasonable price than be robbed of their limited free time. Just charge a quarter per video clip or per hour of audio stream and nobody will bother to steal your stuff. Arcades, movie theaters, Blockbuster or Karaoke studios are not suffering from lack of business even with MAME or DivX.
Bandwidth might be expensive now, but multicast (you wait for 30 seconds for users to gather up and then send the file to many addresses) and location-sensitive P2P can address the problem. By the same token, credit card companies can come up with a low-cost model to process small payments.
By contrast DRM or invasive advertisement may work right away but only for short time. People will get burned trying to migrate their media collection to another PC. Or just get tired of putting up with all the boring junk to get to your stuff. Either way, they'll turn to something else for entertainment of information.
If you want security, write in Java. You will never get overflow attacks, will be able to restict access of potentially buggy code to files, network and so on and will greatly reduce the chance that your server will crash because of memory corruption. If you want top performance, write raw C code. If you want both, use JNI for tasks other than processing network data or a C++ class library with bound checking.
The overflow checker only makes a difference when compiling buggy code. And in this case it leaves every single bug exploitable in another way, by changing function's local variables rather than return address. Your network deamon might find itself writting log messages to/etc/passwd. At the very least, the process will be still crashed by bad input.
I don't think "trusted Debian" name is justified, since the method used only gives a slight increase in security.
So your passwords are mostly digits, with maybe 3 other characters mixed in. Can be brute forced in no time. Better change your slashdot and wso.williams.edu passwords before anyone here gets an idea.
Dragonball can only address 16M of RAM. Of course now that Palm uses ARM, they probably didn't have to do anything besides insert a larger memory chip.
Still, they'll need to come up with multitasking and other features of modern OS to use so much memory effectively. Now, it's basically DOS style programming, complete with malloc() limit of 64K. Embedded Linux running old apps in a silver box anyone?
Free-for-all is not the only way to go with clones. Apple could specify the standards and license fees to ship a clone and then put checks in MacOSX to only allow it to boot on approved hardware. Yes, someone will hack it, but the result will not be sold in CompUSA. Apple doesn't have much to loose, when they'll still get money from anyone who competes well with their own hardware.
Surely, there is no reasonable connection between making free phone calls, giving an academic presentation and watching your DVD under Linux. Bank robber may be responsible for a lot of things, but not government's decision to outlaw cars. This kind of laws were passed because big companies exagerated hacker/piracy threat to get unreasonable control over what their customers do. Or, in the most optimistic case, because lawmakers do not understand technology and are not aware of the side effects that the laws have.
How about I find a whistle from a cerial box that makes your TV jump out of the house and start showing me free programs?
There is a natural human tendency to fiddle with various objects they can get their hands on. This tendency is more pronounced when it comes to smart people and objects with mysterious, complicated behavior (phone, internet-connected terminal, XBox). But it is a very natural behaviour that didn't even start with human species. Just watch my cats. If you read the website, you'll see that Cap'n'Crunch first just dialed various unused extensions and tried to understand various mysterious tones he got.
This tendency must be adressed by making sure those objects do not behave in untoward ways in simple cases and adressing other cases as the need arises. The alternative will leave us with dull, unimaginative consumers who will not be able to invent the next generation of the gadgets they are using.
I want to pirate using a cell phone
on
DMCA, Auf Deutsch
·
· Score: 1
Can anyone from germany teach you how to do it. After all, you guys must do something to get your tax worth.
When the network is down, other things might grind to a halt but there is no reason my word processing should. Also, what if your server is up but/.'ed? Do I have to wait 15 minutes for my file to save when I have a perfectly good hard drive to hold it? Not to mention that I might want to unplug my notebook and use the same apps on a flight.
The only way it makes sense is if you can also install a local "server" on your PC and synchronize your documents with the real server when network is up. We have a project like that (webtogo, which is part of Oracle Lite) to run servlets a local PC, with access to replicated data in a local database. The same approach could be used for office applications.
Yes, however most products advertised in spam are shipped from a US address and you can make the company responsible for spam, or at least responsible for revealing which advertisement agency would get a payment if people click on a link in the e-mail. For non-US spammers it's still possible to block web sites/e-mail servers on backbone routers and ask credit card companies to not process payments to the merchants in violation.
I agree that technical solutions like a secure e-mail addresses tracable to an actual person should play a bigger role than laws. But then, someone still needs to regulate ISPs who may cooperate with spammers and issue disposable e-mail addresses.
DMCA regulates something that is strictly my own business, like do I watch my DVD under Windows or under Linux? If you send spam, you are making it a million people's business.
I tend to talk to people I know on the phone and just check my e-mail once per week to see if anyone sent a message about my programs. Even if you are right, I have to sit for 14 minutes doing nothing except deciding which messages with "Hi, Oleg" subject to open. And I deleted quite a few legitimate messages because I didn't recognize the address.
By the same token, if I went to sleep at 4am I won't want to have a chat with a telemarketer at 9. So I end up turning off my phone until I wake up and possibly missing calls from friends. And I don't want my physical mailbox to overflow just because I went on a one week trip during the holiday season. But spam is definitely the worst.
Communication between people is good. I should be able to publish my postal address, my phone number and by e-mail on the web and invite people to contact me if they looked at my stuff and want to chat. Remember when shareware came with a README file with all kind of contact information to send $15? I actually got a few nice snail mail letters with checks.
Spam has destroyed our ability for this kind of casual communication. People sending it or selling the products advertized make very little money compared to the value of our time or forced changes in our behaviour. It's time to stop them using technological, political or cultural methods, whatever works best.
Wouldn't speech synthesis be easier?
on
Braille PDA/Phone
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· Score: 1
I assume that this is device for the users that can hear, otherwise it wouldn't have a headset. Then wouldn't it be easier if the phone just read memos, appointments, SMS messages and so on?
On the other hand, people who are both deaf and blind probably need a pager rather than a cell phone.
I also feel CE.net is an overkill for what the device is doing. Think about it, most of CE code is *visual* user interface.
A lot of concepts in Java may have existed before. Perhaps there were other VM-based languages with garbage collection, reflection API, comprehensive cross platform UI, language-based security model, RMI and so on. But none of them really took off. Not to the point that big companies started using them for important applications.
I think it's natural that new concepts first appear in research languages that are barely usable and production languages mostly just package existing ideas nicely. It doesn't mean that such a language is an evolutionary dead end. C is not that much different from Fortran or Pascal, just more pleasant to use. But it inspired C++ and Objective C, which in turn inspired Java and Java itself inspired JavaScript. There is no reason why a future language can not be based on Java.
Basically, Java has a lot to offer to evoluton, just not to revolution (== discarding many old concepts and replacing them with things never tried before).
A string is a unit of human language. It has methods, starting from trim(), spellCheck() and speak() (yes, you have that in Cocoa today) and leading to things like translateToLanguage() and undestandAndExecute() in future. These methods will be very confusing for a list. Just like square root will be a strange concept for a number represented as a list.
The article kind of sucks. It makes a lot of unfounded claims, like that Java will not influence the future, but Python will. It fails to flash out any interesting things we'll be able to do. If anything, it's talking about the future of academic research languages which tend to be minimalist. By contrast, good real world languages are feature-rich, but the features are hidden away until you need them.
So I bet a future language will have numbers, strings and lists. Object-oriented programming will florish in the sense that you will address real-life objects as instances of language types and you will be able to program in new types.
One difference is that you will be able to give names to your objects and collections of objects and also speak to them in a human language rather than only refering to them in a program. Like, "All window blinds, please open". Also, an object will not just refuse to run an unknown method. If you ask your pet robot to cook a meatloaf, it will ask you questions or watch you, or another robot do the task once and after that robot.cookMeatLoaf(int weight) will be fully implemented and available.
In general, programs will not be visible as text, or a formula in most cases. You will lay down a program by speaking to the computer in natural language first. This will create a very imprecise, buggy program that will be executable as a best guess using AI and fuzzy logic. Then you will need to continue clarifying it, like telling your robot that cleaning the floor doesn't mean removing guests until you feel the result is good enough. However, the computer will remember your previous programs and clarifications and try to apply them to the new one automatically. But, to make very precise qualifications, you will still switch from human speech to plain old programming.
BUT, this will only apply to programming for high-level, every day tasks. To solve a square equation, you will still write, or type a square equation. Mathematics and physics applications will still have access to programming languages much like the ones today, except executed at a great speed and still using AI to detect possible bugs. So will programs for very precise control, like spaceship navigation or mass manufacturing. If paper survived for hundred years, even with radio, TV and Internet, so can a traditional, equation-based programming language - for use when you are thinking about equations.
Then you will give a fortune for tools/platforms that don't make you do it for 11th time. Don't tell me you enjoy laying out screens of your applications by using absolute coordinates.
I am working on a database engine for Palm it wouldn't be practical to maintain the code written directly on top the OS that doesn't even fully implement ANSI C library.
So I had the fun of implementing higher-level abstractions. Now I have a full ANSI C library in optimized 68K assembler. I have a shared library engine that supports multiple segments, global varables, and all C++ features. Shared libraries avoid using any dynamic heap by storing their global variables and relocation tables in persistent chunks. On top of that, there are equivalents of java.lang, java.io and java.net in C++, with a hash table that supports hash["Life"] = 42. There are green threads, although I still need to debug Net.lib preemption. I have a mostly portable library that accurately emulates C++ exceptions on top of other language features to port stupid MS compiler on CE.
Finally, on top of that I have some interesting applications like a SQL listener and HTTP server with plugin support, that actually see practical use although I kind of stretched the neccessity of doing things this way.
I just wished we sold those things directly. Well, if you want to roll out your own, just consider that MemSemaphoreReserve(true) unprotects persistent store and MemSemaphoreRelease(true) will re-protect it. EvtGetEvent will hang when you are holding a semaphore though, and that includes implicit use by FrmCustomAlert, Net.lib connect dialog and so on. So you can't just always hold it. As for shared libraries, just look at CodeWarrior MSL startup code. It does most of the program loading for 1.0 devices. You can load the libraries yourself in a similar fashion. Just switch A5 register when you call another module. If you just make a few calls and overhead is not critical, you can just do SysAppLaunch with sysAppLaunchNewGlobals instead.
So anyway, I had lots of fun doing it, but now I am asked to port my code to BREW. Oh shit. I would have to reverse-engineer binary format to support global variabes. AGAIN. Port an ANSI C library on top of a crippled, proprietory API. AGAIN. Write UI tools with a half-broken form editor and lots of hardcoded switch statements if not coordinates. AGAIN. Please, can't I do a nice Zaurus port instead?
Of course, there are always unique low level puzzles that are enjoyable to solve. Like, what's the fastest way to get positions of all the set bits in the bitmap? But, you still get those in a high-level language. So low-level programming is a great thing to do for 1 year, but not for 10 years. Just imagine what a great thing you could create using high-level tools and the same effort. Of course, I am talking about nice, easy to use tools like Java, Cocoa or QT, not MFC,COM,XML and other high-complexity tools
Not to mention, how many students start off pirating software and later in life buy lots of stuff from familiar companies at work and at home. If all they can "pirate" are RedHat ISOs, they just might get hooked into Linux, OpenOffice and Mozilla and not buy anything besides ports of dated games.
BSA members like Microsoft should also consider how cutting back on piracy will cause people to switch from MSOffice to cheaper products and later convince their wealthier friends to switch as well.
Hmmm... Doesn't so bad for majority of users and for small companies, as opposed to a few monopolies! Maybe its us who should be fighting piracy, not BSA.
Slashdot Mirror
And I would buy a day of cnn.com access for a quarter, if I can browse the headlines on the "front page" first and the purchase is as easy as dropping a quarter into a slot. Sure, newspapers still have advertisements, but they also have to pay for paper, printing and delivery.
I am downloading about $50 worth of songs from Apple music store right at this moment. I can only assume that the myth that people won't pay for content is spread by people who don't have anything worth paying to offer, as an excuse to their shareholders.
Sure, there are challenges, like offering cheap or free content to people in developing countries or poor people in US. This should be written into the law, just like access for disabled people. But the benefit of having an honest relationship with your customers is well worth it.
Hold on. Slashdot has so many people experiences in social engineering. Why not give Epixtar a call and sell them some choice beachfront property in Arizona? Then if they don't pay, present them with a recorded conversation. After defending their strategy in court they wouldn't be able to just back out of it.
Better yet, try it on the next telemarketer that calls you. Should be fun and legal, since they called your "business" to "inquire about your services" themselves.
Seems artists are not anxious to get 100%. What gives?
I guess I should be more specific. I am talking about a society without copyrights and patents. Other, forms of IP, like person/company names or anti-plagarism rules could still exist. Yes, these too could be abused and this would have to be dealt with by passing and enforcing laws. But more broad IP laws do not automatically follow.
Let's say there is no IP, but there is no program that satisfies my needs. There is however a website that says I can put down $100 and either get a program with specified feature list within 6 months or get $110 back. If the price and "interest" are chosen correctly, I will be motivated to invest if and only if I need the software. Freeloaders will be able to use the software, but they will not get any customer support unless they buy it, and they will not be compensated for waiting. In the same spirit, manufacturers of "cheap knockoffs" will chip in to produce innovations. Or, fans of an artist will pay him/her to record a song.
Sure, this system has it's own problems. For example, some independent expert will be needed to verify that the new program fulfills the promise made to investors. Or, companies would have to establish their reputation. But the current patent/copyright system has problems as well.
Basically, without IP rights, inventors or engineers will still be compensated for their innovation, but the amount will drop off over time and nobody will be able to live off 20 year old inventions. They would have to keep innovating. The result could well be better for an average user/listener/consumer.
Sounds like a formidable punishment to me. If I had a choice of a quick death or 23 years in prison, I am not sure what I would decide. As for the notion that polititian's life matters more than waiter's, it's kind of scary, although understandable.
Just ask terrorist states for money! According to DAPRA, they'll jump to invest in better security for their nuclear physics research, party secrets, encrypted messages to sleeper cells and other evil deeds. With BSD license, they will be able to examine the code and see that there are no loopholes. And, OpenBSD project will be more ethical than before, since it will be taking money away from terrorists rather than aiding them for free.
On the other hand, terrorist states might point out that OpenBSD will empower domestic opposition to create social unrest in secret. Then just take their statements back to DAPRA and ask them to fund OpenBSD as a form of information warfare. At the usual price that government pays for munitions. Then, OpenBSD project can easily buy RIAA and provide bored sysadmins of secure systems with some BSD-licensed entertainment.
People with more than two hands might ponder if exporting Microsoft software to terrorist states is a better form of information warfare.
Well, Apple users still have it, IE vs Safari vs Camino. And as a result, browsers are fast, have popup blockers, download managers and tabbed browsing and about anything users ask for. Anyone who thinks they might sell stuff to Mac users designs their website properly. Just think about how much more lean and stable windows browsers would be if MS didn't kill off serious competition. Typing this in Safari.
But people would rather pay a reasonable price than be robbed of their limited free time. Just charge a quarter per video clip or per hour of audio stream and nobody will bother to steal your stuff. Arcades, movie theaters, Blockbuster or Karaoke studios are not suffering from lack of business even with MAME or DivX.
Bandwidth might be expensive now, but multicast (you wait for 30 seconds for users to gather up and then send the file to many addresses) and location-sensitive P2P can address the problem. By the same token, credit card companies can come up with a low-cost model to process small payments.
By contrast DRM or invasive advertisement may work right away but only for short time. People will get burned trying to migrate their media collection to another PC. Or just get tired of putting up with all the boring junk to get to your stuff. Either way, they'll turn to something else for entertainment of information.
If you want security, write in Java. You will never get overflow attacks, will be able to restict access of potentially buggy code to files, network and so on and will greatly reduce the chance that your server will crash because of memory corruption. If you want top performance, write raw C code. If you want both, use JNI for tasks other than processing network data or a C++ class library with bound checking.
/etc/passwd. At the very least, the process will be still crashed by bad input.
The overflow checker only makes a difference when compiling buggy code. And in this case it leaves every single bug exploitable in another way, by changing function's local variables rather than return address. Your network deamon might find itself writting log messages to
I don't think "trusted Debian" name is justified, since the method used only gives a slight increase in security.
So your passwords are mostly digits, with maybe 3 other characters mixed in. Can be brute forced in no time. Better change your slashdot and wso.williams.edu passwords before anyone here gets an idea.
Dragonball can only address 16M of RAM. Of course now that Palm uses ARM, they probably didn't have to do anything besides insert a larger memory chip.
Still, they'll need to come up with multitasking and other features of modern OS to use so much memory effectively. Now, it's basically DOS style programming, complete with malloc() limit of 64K. Embedded Linux running old apps in a silver box anyone?
Free-for-all is not the only way to go with clones. Apple could specify the standards and license fees to ship a clone and then put checks in MacOSX to only allow it to boot on approved hardware. Yes, someone will hack it, but the result will not be sold in CompUSA. Apple doesn't have much to loose, when they'll still get money from anyone who competes well with their own hardware.
Surely, there is no reasonable connection between making free phone calls, giving an academic presentation and watching your DVD under Linux. Bank robber may be responsible for a lot of things, but not government's decision to outlaw cars. This kind of laws were passed because big companies exagerated hacker/piracy threat to get unreasonable control over what their customers do. Or, in the most optimistic case, because lawmakers do not understand technology and are not aware of the side effects that the laws have.
How about I find a whistle from a cerial box that makes your TV jump out of the house and start showing me free programs? There is a natural human tendency to fiddle with various objects they can get their hands on. This tendency is more pronounced when it comes to smart people and objects with mysterious, complicated behavior (phone, internet-connected terminal, XBox). But it is a very natural behaviour that didn't even start with human species. Just watch my cats. If you read the website, you'll see that Cap'n'Crunch first just dialed various unused extensions and tried to understand various mysterious tones he got. This tendency must be adressed by making sure those objects do not behave in untoward ways in simple cases and adressing other cases as the need arises. The alternative will leave us with dull, unimaginative consumers who will not be able to invent the next generation of the gadgets they are using.
Can anyone from germany teach you how to do it. After all, you guys must do something to get your tax worth.
When the network is down, other things might grind to a halt but there is no reason my word processing should. Also, what if your server is up but /.'ed? Do I have to wait 15 minutes for my file to save when I have a perfectly good hard drive to hold it? Not to mention that I might want to unplug my notebook and use the same apps on a flight.
The only way it makes sense is if you can also install a local "server" on your PC and synchronize your documents with the real server when network is up. We have a project like that (webtogo, which is part of Oracle Lite) to run servlets a local PC, with access to replicated data in a local database. The same approach could be used for office applications.
Yes, however most products advertised in spam are shipped from a US address and you can make the company responsible for spam, or at least responsible for revealing which advertisement agency would get a payment if people click on a link in the e-mail. For non-US spammers it's still possible to block web sites/e-mail servers on backbone routers and ask credit card companies to not process payments to the merchants in violation.
I agree that technical solutions like a secure e-mail addresses tracable to an actual person should play a bigger role than laws. But then, someone still needs to regulate ISPs who may cooperate with spammers and issue disposable e-mail addresses.
DMCA regulates something that is strictly my own business, like do I watch my DVD under Windows or under Linux? If you send spam, you are making it a million people's business.
I tend to talk to people I know on the phone and just check my e-mail once per week to see if anyone sent a message about my programs. Even if you are right, I have to sit for 14 minutes doing nothing except deciding which messages with "Hi, Oleg" subject to open. And I deleted quite a few legitimate messages because I didn't recognize the address.
By the same token, if I went to sleep at 4am I won't want to have a chat with a telemarketer at 9. So I end up turning off my phone until I wake up and possibly missing calls from friends. And I don't want my physical mailbox to overflow just because I went on a one week trip during the holiday season. But spam is definitely the worst.
Communication between people is good. I should be able to publish my postal address, my phone number and by e-mail on the web and invite people to contact me if they looked at my stuff and want to chat. Remember when shareware came with a README file with all kind of contact information to send $15? I actually got a few nice snail mail letters with checks.
Spam has destroyed our ability for this kind of casual communication. People sending it or selling the products advertized make very little money compared to the value of our time or forced changes in our behaviour. It's time to stop them using technological, political or cultural methods, whatever works best.
I assume that this is device for the users that can hear, otherwise it wouldn't have a headset. Then wouldn't it be easier if the phone just read memos, appointments, SMS messages and so on?
On the other hand, people who are both deaf and blind probably need a pager rather than a cell phone.
I also feel CE.net is an overkill for what the device is doing. Think about it, most of CE code is *visual* user interface.
A lot of concepts in Java may have existed before. Perhaps there were other VM-based languages with garbage collection, reflection API, comprehensive cross platform UI, language-based security model, RMI and so on. But none of them really took off. Not to the point that big companies started using them for important applications.
I think it's natural that new concepts first appear in research languages that are barely usable and production languages mostly just package existing ideas nicely. It doesn't mean that such a language is an evolutionary dead end. C is not that much different from Fortran or Pascal, just more pleasant to use. But it inspired C++ and Objective C, which in turn inspired Java and Java itself inspired JavaScript. There is no reason why a future language can not be based on Java.
Basically, Java has a lot to offer to evoluton, just not to revolution (== discarding many old concepts and replacing them with things never tried before).
A string is a unit of human language. It has methods, starting from trim(), spellCheck() and speak() (yes, you have that in Cocoa today) and leading to things like translateToLanguage() and undestandAndExecute() in future. These methods will be very confusing for a list. Just like square root will be a strange concept for a number represented as a list.
The article kind of sucks. It makes a lot of unfounded claims, like that Java will not influence the future, but Python will. It fails to flash out any interesting things we'll be able to do. If anything, it's talking about the future of academic research languages which tend to be minimalist. By contrast, good real world languages are feature-rich, but the features are hidden away until you need them.
So I bet a future language will have numbers, strings and lists. Object-oriented programming will florish in the sense that you will address real-life objects as instances of language types and you will be able to program in new types.
One difference is that you will be able to give names to your objects and collections of objects and also speak to them in a human language rather than only refering to them in a program. Like, "All window blinds, please open". Also, an object will not just refuse to run an unknown method. If you ask your pet robot to cook a meatloaf, it will ask you questions or watch you, or another robot do the task once and after that robot.cookMeatLoaf(int weight) will be fully implemented and available.
In general, programs will not be visible as text, or a formula in most cases. You will lay down a program by speaking to the computer in natural language first. This will create a very imprecise, buggy program that will be executable as a best guess using AI and fuzzy logic. Then you will need to continue clarifying it, like telling your robot that cleaning the floor doesn't mean removing guests until you feel the result is good enough. However, the computer will remember your previous programs and clarifications and try to apply them to the new one automatically. But, to make very precise qualifications, you will still switch from human speech to plain old programming.
BUT, this will only apply to programming for high-level, every day tasks. To solve a square equation, you will still write, or type a square equation. Mathematics and physics applications will still have access to programming languages much like the ones today, except executed at a great speed and still using AI to detect possible bugs. So will programs for very precise control, like spaceship navigation or mass manufacturing. If paper survived for hundred years, even with radio, TV and Internet, so can a traditional, equation-based programming language - for use when you are thinking about equations.
Then you will give a fortune for tools/platforms that don't make you do it for 11th time. Don't tell me you enjoy laying out screens of your applications by using absolute coordinates.
I am working on a database engine for Palm it wouldn't be practical to maintain the code written directly on top the OS that doesn't even fully implement ANSI C library.
So I had the fun of implementing higher-level abstractions. Now I have a full ANSI C library in optimized 68K assembler. I have a shared library engine that supports multiple segments, global varables, and all C++ features. Shared libraries avoid using any dynamic heap by storing their global variables and relocation tables in persistent chunks. On top of that, there are equivalents of java.lang, java.io and java.net in C++, with a hash table that supports hash["Life"] = 42. There are green threads, although I still need to debug Net.lib preemption. I have a mostly portable library that accurately emulates C++ exceptions on top of other language features to port stupid MS compiler on CE.
Finally, on top of that I have some interesting applications like a SQL listener and HTTP server with plugin support, that actually see practical use although I kind of stretched the neccessity of doing things this way.
I just wished we sold those things directly. Well, if you want to roll out your own, just consider that MemSemaphoreReserve(true) unprotects persistent store and MemSemaphoreRelease(true) will re-protect it. EvtGetEvent will hang when you are holding a semaphore though, and that includes implicit use by FrmCustomAlert, Net.lib connect dialog and so on. So you can't just always hold it. As for shared libraries, just look at CodeWarrior MSL startup code. It does most of the program loading for 1.0 devices. You can load the libraries yourself in a similar fashion. Just switch A5 register when you call another module. If you just make a few calls and overhead is not critical, you can just do SysAppLaunch with sysAppLaunchNewGlobals instead.
So anyway, I had lots of fun doing it, but now I am asked to port my code to BREW. Oh shit. I would have to reverse-engineer binary format to support global variabes. AGAIN. Port an ANSI C library on top of a crippled, proprietory API. AGAIN. Write UI tools with a half-broken form editor and lots of hardcoded switch statements if not coordinates. AGAIN. Please, can't I do a nice Zaurus port instead?
Of course, there are always unique low level puzzles that are enjoyable to solve. Like, what's the fastest way to get positions of all the set bits in the bitmap? But, you still get those in a high-level language. So low-level programming is a great thing to do for 1 year, but not for 10 years. Just imagine what a great thing you could create using high-level tools and the same effort. Of course, I am talking about nice, easy to use tools like Java, Cocoa or QT, not MFC,COM,XML and other high-complexity tools
Microsoft: We put F in MFC
Darwin awards are for people who switch to MacOSX.
Not to mention, how many students start off pirating software and later in life buy lots of stuff from familiar companies at work and at home. If all they can "pirate" are RedHat ISOs, they just might get hooked into Linux, OpenOffice and Mozilla and not buy anything besides ports of dated games. BSA members like Microsoft should also consider how cutting back on piracy will cause people to switch from MSOffice to cheaper products and later convince their wealthier friends to switch as well. Hmmm... Doesn't so bad for majority of users and for small companies, as opposed to a few monopolies! Maybe its us who should be fighting piracy, not BSA.