Hmmm, when did this change? Last I heard, which was a few months ago, our MS rep told us that W2K was going to EOL in Dec 2003. Although I thought 4 years was kind of short for a life cycle, I guess it's a lot better then some other vendors (I think Oracle is really quick to EOL some of their products).
If they make it 2005, then actually that's pretty damn good.
Guys, remember: Never say no to your boss. That's the quickest way to get fired, as shown by the several responses from other slashdotters.
Instead, always say "Yes, sure I'll do it."
Then, come back after 1/2 an hour and say, "Hey boss, I was just looking into it, and I have a feeling that if I try to delete that one e-mail, it's linked to an entire thread of other e-mails, and it could affect hundreds of other people.... I don't think it's possible..."
Think of some really highly technical answer why you can't do it. Do you really think that your CEO/manager is going to know that you are bullshitting? If he is that technical, then give him the root password, let him do it himself, and change the password later on.
But I'll bet anything that it'll be easy to just overwhelm him with technobabble that will quiet him down.
If he brings someone else to do it, just play dumb... "Really? Are you sure about it? But what about this...." and put up a little bit of a fight as to why you don't think it's technically possible, not ethically possible, and then let the other guy do it.
What really matters to the CEO is you intention, and what really matters to you is your action. This way, atleast to your CEO/manager it looked like you wanted to help him, but you weren't smart enough. This isn't nearly as bad as you being so arrogant as to refuse his request.
First off, I wonder how long the scientists around the world would bicker and argue over what signal to send back. This may take years based on all the egos I have seen in academia.
Then we would have to wait for the signal to be sent and then reach the aliens. Since we can't determine how far away the aliens are just from their signal, how long would we, as humans, wait for a return signal? If it from the Andromeda Galaxy which is like 1000 light years away, the aliens would probably have stopped listening after 2000 years of waiting!
Even if they did get the signal, would we as humans be willing to wait for their return signal?
If seti@home is getting funding problems after ~10 years of funding, can we even dream that they would be around 50 years from now? I bet even after receiving the signal, after 20 years, most people would probably have concluded it was some type of a glitch, and moved on or stopped listening altogether, leaving the hardcore, ham-radio/X-files geeks waiting for another sign.
Anyone notice the Tivo add for Best Buy at the end of the article?
"This product really sucks and is going to die soon. Anyone want to buy one?
I guess that's what happens when you let computers determine what ads to place where....
He said it is "unbreakable" against brute-force attacks?
Huh? You can't be unbreakable against brute-force attacks because brute-force is guaranteed to work, as long as you have enough time! Brute force means that you try every single possible key! What is he talking about?
He also says that One-Time pads are vulnerable against known-plaintext attacks.
Huh??? The whole point of one-time pads is that you do not have any known plaintext because it's a one-time pad!!! It's used once and then discarded!!!
I have a feeling we're talking to an encryption rookie that really doesn't know what he's doing.
This is an easy question. When you're young and you have the stamina and motivation, work your ass off and try to get as much money as possible.
Once you get older, and need the stability, and don't have the drive, then go work in the public sector.
I used to work in semi-public sector companies when I after I graduated, and I could get away with working 6 hour days. Everyone there had "lifer" attitudes. Then I moved to Silicon Valley, and have been working 14 hour days and I love it because I'm actually doing something. But I know that I won't be able to keep this pace forever, so I'm looking into getting back into the public sector once I start heading over 40 years of age. But I can probably leverage my experience in the private sector substatially if I do, atleast I'm hoping that I can.
I don't know where you are shopping for dvds, son, but I buy mine at Fry's, here in California. I would say that $9.99-$15.99 USD is the price range for 75% of all DVDs, and 90% of all newly released DVDs.
If you're paying $20-30 per DVD, you're getting ripped off. Maybe you're in Canada? That would be about right, then, given the exchange rate (1:1.55). You can also get those Columbia House deals that actually work out to be not that bad.
Once it's patented, then yes, it's up to you to do the due diligence to see if your "new" technology has not been patented. That is why you pay IP lawyers truckloads of money to make sure that you can actually release this product.
However, the situation that you present is a typical technique that some companies use, however it's not a terrible as it seems. I believe there is a 6 year statute of limitations, so it somewhat limits the damages.
In any case, I believe Ogg has a royalty-free license, which means that anyone who uses it doesn't have to pay anything.
But this does severely hurt open source programmers. If you decide to release a new piece of software, you need to make sure you're not violating any previous patents, otherwise you will be liable, much like the article last week regarding patents and the Linux Kernel
You are comparing strategies that are used by ambulance chasers and two-bit lawyers to real patent attorneys when making lawsuits.
In fact, companies with patents have a different motivation or strategy when it comes to patent litigation. They don't think "Who can I sue to maximize my payout" they think "Who can I sue to protect my intellectual property". The fact that Linus has no money to give in terms of damages means nothing. They will want to get their patented technology out of Linux, lest they risk having this free technology outmarket their own products and in the end hit their bottom line.
So you are totally wrong. Linus will most certainly get sued if patented, non-licensed technology is added to the Linux kernel because he is the maintainer of the Linux kernel. Because he has publicly stated that he has contempt for patents, he will most likely be found in willful violation, especially if he knows what he is adding is patented.
Even if he didn't know, he is still liable for damages, and probably the court costs/lawyers fees of the company. The fact that he would have to hire lawyers for himself, and ultimately pay something to the infringed company will undoubtably ruin him financially.
Make no mistake, if he adds patented technology that has no prior art, he will absolutely be infringing the patent.
They will probably try to make an example out of Linus, to intimidate others from even thinking about doing the same thing.
Again, I don't believe that this is right, but it's reality.
Linus, this isn't Europe. By publicizing your opinions on the Internet, and since you are the maintainer that sees what goes into the codebase for Linux, you are probably personally liable for any patent infringement.
You are completely exposed to this liability and to the courts, it's a clear cut as if you went and robbed someone with 10 witnesses plus video tape. What if Microsoft bought the patents, and then sued Linus? This would be a perfect way of killing off Linux as we know it.
Unless you moved yourself and the code back to Europe where I believe there are no patents on software (yet...) I believe that you MUST follow the rules for US patent law.
Actually, this might be a good case for why Europe should not adopt software patents. If Linus were to publicize the problems that he encountered because of software patents and especially American software patents, maybe that would stop the Europeans from implementing them. This is because Americans have had a leg-up on the Europeans due to the already-patented software patents, and could use all the patents they currently have to block European software development, much like Linux kernel development is being blocked by patents. Maybe this is just the thing we need!
No. There is no such "out" for independent discovery, especially if it is something as widely publicized as the Linux code.
If you were to "invent" something yourself, and kept it as a private hobby, you are fine, but once you start distributing it, you are in clear violation of patent law.
Ridiculous. The patent holders can sue you for the time that you had the code in place. This clearly and unambiguously patent violation and if you are found in willful violation, I believe it is treble (triple) damages. This would probably amount in the multi-millions, plus lawyers fees. Do you think Linus can afford that?
This is as clear-cut as any violation of patent law. To just simply code until a problem comes up is like saying I'll commit a crime until the cops find me, and then figure things out then. Once they catch/sue you and the whole thing goes before a court of law, it is obvious that you will be ruled against because you have zero defense.
Do I believe that patents on code or business processes should exist? Absolutely not. But it's a reality of our world today, unless we vote in Ralph Nader, so until that time, we have to abide by the rules, otherwise you are exposing yourself to horrible consequences.
Don't get me wrong, skills are very important, but you do not, under any circumstances want to forgo skills for personality.
To be a good programmer you need to be:
1) easy to work with. 2) No Prima Donna attitudes. 3) passion 4) smart
There are some people that I have worked with that were really good at bug fixing. One co-worker would spends hours and days until she found really really tough bugs so she was really useful. Because she was good at fixing bugs, she thought she was a great programmer. WRONG! Fixing bugs is easy, it's generating your own code from scratch that is hard. This bitch thought she was too good for code reviews so she never did it, and changed code whenever she wanted and wreaked havoc on our products. Whenever you even mentioned some of her code she would get defensive and on a couple of occassions started crying because she thought we were attacking her. No dumbass, we're just trying to fix a bug in the program. Anyway, believe me, you do NOT want to hire people like that.
Brain teasers are the stupidest things to ask during an interview. Figuring out problems is only half the solution when it comes to programming.... you also have to worry about maintainability and coding style because in the long run, this is what matters most.
When I start conducting interviews again, I will
1) ask some technical questions to see if they can talk the talk 2) go for lunch with them and just shoot the shit to see what their personality is like 3) give them an overnight somewhat challenging coding project and have them e-mail me their code the next day. This lets them code in their most comfortable location, gives them all the reference materials they need (who they hell knows all the syntaxes off the top of their head) and I can take a look at their coding style.
The other thing I have learned for myself is that the next job I take, I'm going to require them to show me a sample of their code for their products. I will not take a job where the previous coders left a piling of steaming shit and then I have to come in and either clean up their mess, or code through hoops because everyone is too afraid to touch it because it might break everything.
At $22,000 per carat, you could just go out and buy a 1 ct diamond for $7000 and say it's your dearly departed, and make an instant $15,000. Since you can't do DNA analysis to determine if the diamond is actually the person, what's to stop them from just doing that???
We tested porting our company's software to Linux and MySQL.... we kept the Linux port but we couldn't use MySQL because our application does a lot of reading and writing, and from what I understand vanilla MySQL does not support transactions but instead locks the entire table.
I think there are some mods to MySQL that support transactions but without it fully supporting transactions I just don't think that major companies will ever move to it. It is perfect for Web sites where the ratio between reading and writing is heavily skewed towards reading, but for applications that need to do both, I don't think MySQL is an option... yet.
Some people in the company, however, swear by MySQL and say it is heads-and-tails faster than all the "enterprise" dbs like Oracle. Certainly it is not a resource hog like Oracle.
I think the term is either Telco or Telecom, but not Telcom.
As a side note, remember way back when you could actually dial a number, and it would ring your phone? I think it was something like 057-and then your phone number, or something like that.
We had a rotary phone in our house until it was fashionable for people to have those new fandangled cordless phones.
Some movies are just not better with additional footage.
Appocalyse Now: Redux has additional scenes that were simply boring beyond belief. Star Wars had the stupid computer graphics additions, and the ridiculous scene where they are driving through the city in Tatooine, which was simply George Lucas jerking off over how great the CGI was at the time, but it really killed the flow of the movie.
I am personally going to wait and actually *see* the 30 minutes of footage to see if it's worth the extra cash. I have no qualms in spending the cash if the movie just to collect it, but once you've seen a documentary, how many times will you actually put that disc in after the first time? Otherwise, I'll just buy the cheapest version for the sake of posterity.
Doubtful that it's a good military reconaissance.... it just tells the enemy that you are within a limited range. If you're in the heat of battle you don't need them because your guys are already there, and if you're doing reconnaisance, you don't want them to know that you're there.
Maybe if it held a bomb, but it would need to be pretty big just to hold a grenade, but then why not just use mor
Iron Chef and Good Eats are the only two good shows on the Food Network.
The dubs on Iron Chef are pretty darn good, but they tend to use the same phrases over and over again. How many times does someone use, "It's sooo luxurious!" in normal conversation? I guess maybe because the judges are dumb actors? Why do they have an actors as food judges? Or politicians or a fortune teller? That bitch is a complete idiot. I would rather see that Jamaican woman on TV that reads tarot cards up there. I hate that "scholar" old dude the most. He is so arrogant, and full of bs it's incredible.
"I see what you are trying to say when you mixed the foie gras in with the sake. I appreciate the subtle message in the harmonious blending and it truly accentuates the key ingredient."
You guys have purposefully ignored the passing of Gene Kan! Why? He did more for current computing with his relentless evangelism of Gnutella/P2P than anyone, yet his passing wasn't even worth a slashback!
This article is a waste of time. All he is suggesting is minor semantics when he should have addressed more important issues.
I believe Java needs to address the garbage collection issue a lot more aggressively. If you want to develop an high-performance server-type application, and if you come from a C background, you want the ability to immediately free memory, not just mark it ready for garbage collection. I guess coming from a C background, I inherently don't trust things that say, "OK, trust me, I promise to free this ASAP".
We have transitioned some of our applications to Java, but the biggest hurdle we have consistently come up against is memory management. Memory tends to blow out really quickly, and it makes us nervous. Even worse, Java begets lazy programming where programmers code without any regards to memory management, making it hard to go back and fix things even if a better memory manager were implemented. They have designed themselves into a corner for that one.
EXACTLY! This is what I was thinking as well. I personally would be more comfortable:
IF (AND ONLY IF) you enable Automatic Updates, THEN you acknowledge and agree that Microsoft may automatically check the version of the OS Product and/or its components that you are utilizing and may provide upgrades or fixes to the OS Product that will be automatically downloaded to your computer.
Instead, they have created a Trojaned EULA that makes it seem as though this is only for Automatically Updating, but it's legal ramifications are MUCH MUCH larger. They can use it for anything, those motherfuckers. I hope all the Microsoft lawyers die of stomach cancer. That's it, I'm officially through with Windows. I'm not installing SP3, and switching over my main machine to Linux. Fuck you, Microsoft.
I have 9 computers at home, but only 1 floppy drive. On my main machines that I use all the time I never need them, so they are usually on the systems that are in the middle of reformatting, or troubleshooting. I don't need it but sometimes my gf brings home a floppy disk and tell me "I need this printed", and it takes me around 15 minutes to get the floppy drive on a system that is connected to my network.
For updating BIOS it was the same way until I finally bit the bullet and made a bootable CD with an image of the Win98 startup disk. Every other floppy disk that I've ever used (usually older drivers for network cards, etc) I've copied onto a networked directory and seperate CD, so things have been much more convenient since then.
What they need to do is have a CD-RW standard on the system, and make copying to CD-RWs as easy as copying to a floppy. Then we can really get rid of those for good. The fact that you need to "burn" using a seperate program is probably what throws off most of the masses.
I wonder how many years it'll take for there to be an article about CD-ROMs not being included in the systems because they are legacy....
Slashdot Mirror
Hmmm, when did this change? Last I heard, which was a few months ago, our MS rep told us that W2K was going to EOL in Dec 2003. Although I thought 4 years was kind of short for a life cycle, I guess it's a lot better then some other vendors (I think Oracle is really quick to EOL some of their products).
If they make it 2005, then actually that's pretty damn good.
Instead, always say "Yes, sure I'll do it."
Then, come back after 1/2 an hour and say, "Hey boss, I was just looking into it, and I have a feeling that if I try to delete that one e-mail, it's linked to an entire thread of other e-mails, and it could affect hundreds of other people.... I don't think it's possible..."
Think of some really highly technical answer why you can't do it. Do you really think that your CEO/manager is going to know that you are bullshitting? If he is that technical, then give him the root password, let him do it himself, and change the password later on.
But I'll bet anything that it'll be easy to just overwhelm him with technobabble that will quiet him down.
If he brings someone else to do it, just play dumb... "Really? Are you sure about it? But what about this...." and put up a little bit of a fight as to why you don't think it's technically possible, not ethically possible, and then let the other guy do it.
What really matters to the CEO is you intention, and what really matters to you is your action. This way, atleast to your CEO/manager it looked like you wanted to help him, but you weren't smart enough. This isn't nearly as bad as you being so arrogant as to refuse his request.
Again, never, ever, EVER tell your manager "No".
What would happen?
First off, I wonder how long the scientists around the world would bicker and argue over what signal to send back. This may take years based on all the egos I have seen in academia.
Then we would have to wait for the signal to be sent and then reach the aliens. Since we can't determine how far away the aliens are just from their signal, how long would we, as humans, wait for a return signal? If it from the Andromeda Galaxy which is like 1000 light years away, the aliens would probably have stopped listening after 2000 years of waiting!
Even if they did get the signal, would we as humans be willing to wait for their return signal?
If seti@home is getting funding problems after ~10 years of funding, can we even dream that they would be around 50 years from now? I bet even after receiving the signal, after 20 years, most people would probably have concluded it was some type of a glitch, and moved on or stopped listening altogether, leaving the hardcore, ham-radio/X-files geeks waiting for another sign.
Anyone notice the Tivo add for Best Buy at the end of the article? "This product really sucks and is going to die soon. Anyone want to buy one? I guess that's what happens when you let computers determine what ads to place where....
He said it is "unbreakable" against brute-force attacks? Huh? You can't be unbreakable against brute-force attacks because brute-force is guaranteed to work, as long as you have enough time! Brute force means that you try every single possible key! What is he talking about? He also says that One-Time pads are vulnerable against known-plaintext attacks. Huh??? The whole point of one-time pads is that you do not have any known plaintext because it's a one-time pad!!! It's used once and then discarded!!! I have a feeling we're talking to an encryption rookie that really doesn't know what he's doing.
This is an easy question. When you're young and you have the stamina and motivation, work your ass off and try to get as much money as possible.
Once you get older, and need the stability, and don't have the drive, then go work in the public sector.
I used to work in semi-public sector companies when I after I graduated, and I could get away with working 6 hour days. Everyone there had "lifer" attitudes. Then I moved to Silicon Valley, and have been working 14 hour days and I love it because I'm actually doing something. But I know that I won't be able to keep this pace forever, so I'm looking into getting back into the public sector once I start heading over 40 years of age. But I can probably leverage my experience in the private sector substatially if I do, atleast I'm hoping that I can.
I don't know where you are shopping for dvds, son, but I buy mine at Fry's, here in California. I would say that $9.99-$15.99 USD is the price range for 75% of all DVDs, and 90% of all newly released DVDs.
If you're paying $20-30 per DVD, you're getting ripped off. Maybe you're in Canada? That would be about right, then, given the exchange rate (1:1.55). You can also get those Columbia House deals that actually work out to be not that bad.
Once it's patented, then yes, it's up to you to do the due diligence to see if your "new" technology has not been patented. That is why you pay IP lawyers truckloads of money to make sure that you can actually release this product.
However, the situation that you present is a typical technique that some companies use, however it's not a terrible as it seems. I believe there is a 6 year statute of limitations, so it somewhat limits the damages.
In any case, I believe Ogg has a royalty-free license, which means that anyone who uses it doesn't have to pay anything.
But this does severely hurt open source programmers. If you decide to release a new piece of software, you need to make sure you're not violating any previous patents, otherwise you will be liable, much like the article last week regarding patents and the Linux Kernel
Again, completely faulty logic.
You are comparing strategies that are used by ambulance chasers and two-bit lawyers to real patent attorneys when making lawsuits.
In fact, companies with patents have a different motivation or strategy when it comes to patent litigation. They don't think "Who can I sue to maximize my payout" they think "Who can I sue to protect my intellectual property". The fact that Linus has no money to give in terms of damages means nothing. They will want to get their patented technology out of Linux, lest they risk having this free technology outmarket their own products and in the end hit their bottom line.
So you are totally wrong. Linus will most certainly get sued if patented, non-licensed technology is added to the Linux kernel because he is the maintainer of the Linux kernel. Because he has publicly stated that he has contempt for patents, he will most likely be found in willful violation, especially if he knows what he is adding is patented.
Even if he didn't know, he is still liable for damages, and probably the court costs/lawyers fees of the company. The fact that he would have to hire lawyers for himself, and ultimately pay something to the infringed company will undoubtably ruin him financially.
Make no mistake, if he adds patented technology that has no prior art, he will absolutely be infringing the patent.
They will probably try to make an example out of Linus, to intimidate others from even thinking about doing the same thing.
Again, I don't believe that this is right, but it's reality.
You are completely exposed to this liability and to the courts, it's a clear cut as if you went and robbed someone with 10 witnesses plus video tape. What if Microsoft bought the patents, and then sued Linus? This would be a perfect way of killing off Linux as we know it.
Unless you moved yourself and the code back to Europe where I believe there are no patents on software (yet...) I believe that you MUST follow the rules for US patent law.
Actually, this might be a good case for why Europe should not adopt software patents. If Linus were to publicize the problems that he encountered because of software patents and especially American software patents, maybe that would stop the Europeans from implementing them. This is because Americans have had a leg-up on the Europeans due to the already-patented software patents, and could use all the patents they currently have to block European software development, much like Linux kernel development is being blocked by patents. Maybe this is just the thing we need!
If you were to "invent" something yourself, and kept it as a private hobby, you are fine, but once you start distributing it, you are in clear violation of patent law.
This is as clear-cut as any violation of patent law. To just simply code until a problem comes up is like saying I'll commit a crime until the cops find me, and then figure things out then. Once they catch/sue you and the whole thing goes before a court of law, it is obvious that you will be ruled against because you have zero defense.
Do I believe that patents on code or business processes should exist? Absolutely not. But it's a reality of our world today, unless we vote in Ralph Nader, so until that time, we have to abide by the rules, otherwise you are exposing yourself to horrible consequences.
Don't get me wrong, skills are very important, but you do not, under any circumstances want to forgo skills for personality.
To be a good programmer you need to be:
1) easy to work with.
2) No Prima Donna attitudes.
3) passion
4) smart
There are some people that I have worked with that were really good at bug fixing. One co-worker would spends hours and days until she found really really tough bugs so she was really useful. Because she was good at fixing bugs, she thought she was a great programmer. WRONG! Fixing bugs is easy, it's generating your own code from scratch that is hard. This bitch thought she was too good for code reviews so she never did it, and changed code whenever she wanted and wreaked havoc on our products. Whenever you even mentioned some of her code she would get defensive and on a couple of occassions started crying because she thought we were attacking her. No dumbass, we're just trying to fix a bug in the program. Anyway, believe me, you do NOT want to hire people like that.
Brain teasers are the stupidest things to ask during an interview. Figuring out problems is only half the solution when it comes to programming.... you also have to worry about maintainability and coding style because in the long run, this is what matters most.
When I start conducting interviews again, I will
1) ask some technical questions to see if they can talk the talk
2) go for lunch with them and just shoot the shit to see what their personality is like
3) give them an overnight somewhat challenging coding project and have them e-mail me their code the next day. This lets them code in their most comfortable location, gives them all the reference materials they need (who they hell knows all the syntaxes off the top of their head) and I can take a look at their coding style.
The other thing I have learned for myself is that the next job I take, I'm going to require them to show me a sample of their code for their products. I will not take a job where the previous coders left a piling of steaming shit and then I have to come in and either clean up their mess, or code through hoops because everyone is too afraid to touch it because it might break everything.
At $22,000 per carat, you could just go out and buy a 1 ct diamond for $7000 and say it's your dearly departed, and make an instant $15,000. Since you can't do DNA analysis to determine if the diamond is actually the person, what's to stop them from just doing that???
We tested porting our company's software to Linux and MySQL.... we kept the Linux port but we couldn't use MySQL because our application does a lot of reading and writing, and from what I understand vanilla MySQL does not support transactions but instead locks the entire table. I think there are some mods to MySQL that support transactions but without it fully supporting transactions I just don't think that major companies will ever move to it. It is perfect for Web sites where the ratio between reading and writing is heavily skewed towards reading, but for applications that need to do both, I don't think MySQL is an option... yet. Some people in the company, however, swear by MySQL and say it is heads-and-tails faster than all the "enterprise" dbs like Oracle. Certainly it is not a resource hog like Oracle.
I think the term is either Telco or Telecom, but not Telcom.
As a side note, remember way back when you could actually dial a number, and it would ring your phone? I think it was something like 057-and then your phone number, or something like that.
We had a rotary phone in our house until it was fashionable for people to have those new fandangled cordless phones.
Some movies are just not better with additional footage. Appocalyse Now: Redux has additional scenes that were simply boring beyond belief. Star Wars had the stupid computer graphics additions, and the ridiculous scene where they are driving through the city in Tatooine, which was simply George Lucas jerking off over how great the CGI was at the time, but it really killed the flow of the movie. I am personally going to wait and actually *see* the 30 minutes of footage to see if it's worth the extra cash. I have no qualms in spending the cash if the movie just to collect it, but once you've seen a documentary, how many times will you actually put that disc in after the first time? Otherwise, I'll just buy the cheapest version for the sake of posterity.
Doubtful that it's a good military reconaissance.... it just tells the enemy that you are within a limited range. If you're in the heat of battle you don't need them because your guys are already there, and if you're doing reconnaisance, you don't want them to know that you're there. Maybe if it held a bomb, but it would need to be pretty big just to hold a grenade, but then why not just use mor
Iron Chef and Good Eats are the only two good shows on the Food Network.
The dubs on Iron Chef are pretty darn good, but they tend to use the same phrases over and over again. How many times does someone use, "It's sooo luxurious!" in normal conversation? I guess maybe because the judges are dumb actors? Why do they have an actors as food judges? Or politicians or a fortune teller? That bitch is a complete idiot. I would rather see that Jamaican woman on TV that reads tarot cards up there. I hate that "scholar" old dude the most. He is so arrogant, and full of bs it's incredible.
"I see what you are trying to say when you mixed the foie gras in with the sake. I appreciate the subtle message in the harmonious blending and it truly accentuates the key ingredient."
You guys have purposefully ignored the passing of Gene Kan! Why? He did more for current computing with his relentless evangelism of Gnutella/P2P than anyone, yet his passing wasn't even worth a slashback!
This article is a waste of time. All he is suggesting is minor semantics when he should have addressed more important issues. I believe Java needs to address the garbage collection issue a lot more aggressively. If you want to develop an high-performance server-type application, and if you come from a C background, you want the ability to immediately free memory, not just mark it ready for garbage collection. I guess coming from a C background, I inherently don't trust things that say, "OK, trust me, I promise to free this ASAP". We have transitioned some of our applications to Java, but the biggest hurdle we have consistently come up against is memory management. Memory tends to blow out really quickly, and it makes us nervous. Even worse, Java begets lazy programming where programmers code without any regards to memory management, making it hard to go back and fix things even if a better memory manager were implemented. They have designed themselves into a corner for that one.
EXACTLY! This is what I was thinking as well. I personally would be more comfortable: IF (AND ONLY IF) you enable Automatic Updates, THEN you acknowledge and agree that Microsoft may automatically check the version of the OS Product and/or its components that you are utilizing and may provide upgrades or fixes to the OS Product that will be automatically downloaded to your computer. Instead, they have created a Trojaned EULA that makes it seem as though this is only for Automatically Updating, but it's legal ramifications are MUCH MUCH larger. They can use it for anything, those motherfuckers. I hope all the Microsoft lawyers die of stomach cancer. That's it, I'm officially through with Windows. I'm not installing SP3, and switching over my main machine to Linux. Fuck you, Microsoft.
I thought the DMCA was only used to protect any circumventing of technologies that protect copyrighted materials....
Since the circumvention is related to a security system that doesn't protect a copyrighted material, can they even use the DMCA????
Can you boot up on a floppy with this USB floppy drive?
I have 9 computers at home, but only 1 floppy drive. On my main machines that I use all the time I never need them, so they are usually on the systems that are in the middle of reformatting, or troubleshooting. I don't need it but sometimes my gf brings home a floppy disk and tell me "I need this printed", and it takes me around 15 minutes to get the floppy drive on a system that is connected to my network.
For updating BIOS it was the same way until I finally bit the bullet and made a bootable CD with an image of the Win98 startup disk. Every other floppy disk that I've ever used (usually older drivers for network cards, etc) I've copied onto a networked directory and seperate CD, so things have been much more convenient since then.
What they need to do is have a CD-RW standard on the system, and make copying to CD-RWs as easy as copying to a floppy. Then we can really get rid of those for good. The fact that you need to "burn" using a seperate program is probably what throws off most of the masses.
I wonder how many years it'll take for there to be an article about CD-ROMs not being included in the systems because they are legacy....