The only reason that unsigned datatypes matter one iota is in interfacing with someone else's code that does use an unsigned datatype, in which case nasty conversions must be done.
Sometimes you need bigger numbers than signed data types can hold, and fitting them into small unsigned data types is an efficient way of doing things. C can fit the number 50,000 into 2 bytes. Java can't.
I find it amusing that you disregard issues of efficiency like this and at the same time claim that Java runs quickly.
The primary reason Java is "so slow" is that most of the people claiming that haven't used it in years.
I've got a quick little test I like to use on various compilers and languages. Impliment the quicksort algorithm and run it on a randomly-generated-once 100,000 element array.
Here are the results: C compiled by GCC 3.2: 15.38 seconds. C++ compiled by GCC 3.2: 18.56 seconds. Java compiled by Sun JDK 1.4.1: 1 minute, 8.93 seconds.
And just for a larf... C++ compiled by MS VC++ 6.0: 33.70 seconds.
No special optimization flags are being passed to any of these compilers.
Java is still slow, and always will be. It's a virtual machine; you're simply never going to see native speeds until they make a native processor to run it on. That said, speed is not java's strong point and was never meant to be.
Yeah yeah. It's a dupe. Funny that not a single reader emailed me in almost 2 hours to tell me.
We've come to accept the fact that you're a lost cause. We're reclaiming the resources for project "educate Taco" and using them in project "timothy de-taco-fication".
Wow, the trolls are out in force tonight. Read a book before you go confusing mod-points with nuclear physics.
Plutonium is enriched uranium. This is the whole point.
Heavy water will allow a reactor to react natural uranium, producing plutonium (or "enriched" uranium) as a byproduct. While this could be used in bombs, commercial plants typically re-use this enriched uranium in an ordinary water reactor core.
The enriched unranium reverts back to its original state, minus some mass as a result of the second law of thermodynamics. The cycle can then repeat. This is referred to as a "breeder" reactor for this very reason. It continually "breeds" new fuel.
Eventually the fuel rods shrink too far and lack the surface area needed to produce enough neutrons to continue the reaction. Since it's far too dangerous to try to combine spent rods (you'd have to heat-form them together outside of the mediating water, which risks an uncontrolled chain reaction), they're put into radiation-proof containers and sealed away in nuclear waste sites.
It's used as a mediator for decaying uranium because it has a higher specific heat than ordinary water (it takes more energy to raise its temperature). It's not as easy to boil off on you and leave the uranium to decay uncontrolled (boom).
Heavy water is used in nuclear plants now. They just put the generated energy to use as their primary focus, rather than harvesting the plutonium waste that results from uranium decay (which they do also do).
Mozilla even has a download "manager" interface now, which you can use instead of individual progress dialogs.
It's pretty reliable at resuming interrupted downloads, whereas triggering a resume by "overwriting" an unfinished file seems to be mostly hit and miss.
It's not exactly fully-featured PDA software due to technical limitations of the GBA. It can't write to to the flash-memory cartridge you put it on; it can only read from flash while saving soley to battery-backed sram (I have heard that it's possible for running software to write to flash. I expect it's a battery-killer, though). Navigation is done with the GBA's buttons since there is no touchscreen. Text entry requires using complex combinations of those few buttons.
Not everyone can read the articles, as they become unreachable more often than not. That's not to say jumping to conclusions is an acceptable practice, though.
The GBA's specs are actually pretty awful compared to what was possible for a $100 device when it was released.
It has a 32-bit mutant (ARM/THUMB) processor running at 16.78MHz. The processor's THUMB mode is actually 16bit, and is used extensively because the instructions are smaller and the data bus is only 16 bits wide anyway.
Ram is critically low (only 288kb work ram, 32kb of which is inside the processor), so every byte counts. Moving data across the 16bit bus in 32bit mode would just be a waste, as well. You have to wait two cycles to get 32 bits of data no matter what you do. The cpu's 32bit mode is basically only used when working purely in RAM, which is scarce enough that 32bit mode isn't as common as you'd expect.
You'll find some beautiful and engaging games and demos for the GBA, but their technical merit is not the result of powerful hardware. It's due to very clever and efficient code.
At the same time, you'll find a lot of abysmally terrible games (the bulk of the GBA library, really). In these, the game design and code is not very clever and far from efficient.
The automobile doesn't move because it's held in place by a frictional force. No such force acts on a starship to keep it in place. While a large mass would give it enough inertia to make it very difficult to accelerate, it wouldn't sit absolutely still when it's partially stuck to another moving object.
The tangled mass of metal would probably have given way before long, but not instantly as there is still a lot of friction to deal with. Those were some nasty gouge marks.
It's NiCad batteries that have the memory effect, not NiMH. NiMH will just discharge themselves down to zero within days if you don't use up the charge.
Besides, the thinkpads use Li-Ion batteries. They don't exhibit the memory effect and have better energy density than NiMH, but they're expensive and do degrade with use. Cutting corners on the cells will bring down the cost, but they're apt to degrade quickly.
Anybody who has studied this topic at all would immediately cite reasons to strongely disagree with you.
Wouldn't the fact that you don't cite reasons mean that you haven't studied the topic at all, then? In which case, wouldn't that make you the one trolling?:-P How much research have YOU personally done in that field?
Rationalizing theft. I probably won't win anyone over by arguing about that, so I won't bother.
It isn't theft. It's copyright infringement. It doesn't make it right, but the distinction is very important. It also invalidates all the arguments that will no doubt litter the discussion (1/4 of content by weight, I'd wager) about stealing physical goods due to dislike of pricing.
The members of the RIAA also charge their artists for all production costs, as well as a loan (I think it's interest-free and not actually called a loan, but don't quote me on that) for living expenses during the production and release of albums. They insulate themselves from losses quite well this way, and need only put signifigant resources into promoting artists that seem to be attracting interest.
I'd say the RIAA members have a very good grasp of economics. PR however, they seem to be terrible at lately and it's hurting them.
Microwaves use directional beams and they aren't fired towards the front window. If they were, the screen wouldn't do a very good job at stopping the radiation anyway. It's high-energy EM radiation, not unlike the lower-energy light that escapes just fine.
The screen's only there to waylay concerns about radiation from the consumers, most of whom don't understand how the microwave works.
We *need* the average user to feel *more* comfortable working at a Linux desktop than a Windows machine
This is just an issue of familiarity- We're creatures of habit. If they're used to a Windows machine, then of course they're going to feel more comfortable with one rather than that alien Linux that doesn't do everything quite the same. The only way to make them comfortable as you seem to be hinting is to copy every little UI element from Windows, which is the wrong idea IMHO.
My own brother has never used anything but Unix. From Solaris workstations at work to his box at home, it's what he's used to, and you can't get him to use a Windows box. Nothing is where it should be or works the way it should. He hates windows filesharing/network browsing and thinks it's the worst design ever. He considers it an aggrivating OS and often says he can't understand why people use it. Every time I say "games", he tells me that's what consoles are for. Creatures of habit.
Most of them have formatting problems, cannot handle inline images (properly or at all). Table support from Word 2000 is lacking.
Not sure what you're talking about here. OO.org Writer has never skewed images or tables on me in Word documents.
You're not Joe Sixpack. "How come it says I cannot save my file in/bin? Huh? I didn't log in as root, whoever that is.
Now you're just being silly. Apps default to saving files in the user's home directory, and Joe Sixpack is the last person who's going to bother backing out a couple directory levels to find/bin and then try to save there. That would be like trying to save in C:\WINNT as a normal user, which Windows XP will also stop you from doing.
whereas a 1-900-DRONE would calmly answer, explain, and the user would be supported.
Microsoft won't give you support unless you've registered your OS with them. In which case, you only get support for a short time before you have to start paying for it. The commercial Linux distros do exactly the same thing, including supplying support phone numbers. There's no reason Joe Sixpack can't call up for support just like he can with Windows. In fact, Joe will get his application support in most instances from the exact same place. Convenient.
KMail is great, the only programming complaint I've had with it is that it silently dies if it runs out of disk space. But the spellchecker is right out of 1995
I haven't found KMail to be all that great; adequate for a quick mail check/send, maybe. How is a spellchecker "right out of 1995"? Is it missing "axe" as a synonym for "ask"? Evolution has been working fine for me using precompiled binaries, and has consistently shown itself to be at least as responsive as Outlook on systems with similar or identical specs. If Evolution was too slow to be usable on any given system, so was Outlook. Also, it has thus far shown no deficiencies in the spellchecker.
Again, I have to say: I'm not sure what you're talking about.
delete your JRE without telling Mozilla, then try to use a website infected with applets; it crashes with no warning
Actually, no, it doesn't. It displays a plugin icon for you to click on and go get a JRE if you want one.
lack of ability to send a mailto: link to anything other than Mozilla's mail client
It can do this just fine. It sends to whatever happens to be your default mail client. You can set a default mail client in both Windows and Linux. Mailtos currently go to Evolution on my machine.
and the inability to tailor the browser string to be whatever I want without recompiling
It's at this point I've finished my coffee and started checking your trolling history, because this is simply wrong. Mozilla can be configured to do this without a recompile by way of the userPrefs.js file. A neat little GUI component is also available at XUL Planet with an easy to use in-browser installer.
Microsoft's browser certainly can't do this, nor could you modify and recompile it to make it do so. It's less of a problem of course, but only because of very bad web design tailored to IE. Microsoft certainly won't help you out with a UA spoofing GUI for any IE-hostile sites out there, though.
It remains that the purchase price is a very, very small part of the total cost of ownership.
Until it comes time to renew the subscription on your "purchase"?
let's stop kidding ourselves about it being ready
Who's kidding who here? You've failed to even keep your facts straight about the deficiencies you cite.
Don't even bother sending me flames telling me that vi is the greatest word processor ever
Now I know you're kidding. I'd only sic vi on people I hate.:)
I'm certain Linux has deficiencies on the desktop for some people, but nothing like you've covered. The real problems are ingrained user habits that have become their source of comfort in using a particular OS, and for some people, functionality that is completely missing from Linux's software library....and the latter isn't as common as people seeking exact duplicates of Outlook and Microsoft Word would make it seem.
Maybe there's so many that they can't choose; like kids in a candy store.:)
The majority of malicious attacks tend to come from script kiddies, as well... The large number of security flaws also means that automated 'l33t' tools haven't been created for each and every flaw, leaving them unexploitable by the main body of malicious exploiters.
2 AA cells will power a gamepark 32 for 12 hours, so 8 will get you a total of 48 hours of play time. This battery life is pretty consistent thanks to the GP32's 8mb of RAM.
Those sprite tricks the GBA does are not terribly cpu-intensive to do in software. While the GBA's graphics display modes offset some load by making assumptions about the data in video memory, they can also cause headaches (I'm sorry, but mode7 results in unadulterated ugliness in practice). Though when you've only got 16mhz to play with, you take all the help you can get.
This does mean that GP32 games will require a bit more cpu power because they must perform their own sprite-handling (if they're using sprites at all, anyway), but since the video is just a dumb framebuffer, that also means they have a lot more control over the display.
On the topic of processor power, the GP32 is four times as powerful as the GBA when the cpu is running code from RAM (67mhz) and 8x as fast when running code from cache (130mhz). It's perfectly capable of performing some surprisingly sophisticated 3D. 2D performance is a non-issue.
All that said, you'll probably be happier with a GBA if you don't understand Korean or aren't a coder. The official titles are all in Korean as can be expected since that's the only place the GP32 is marketed. Quite frankly, the games are mediocre for the most part. None of them even try to tap the GP32's capabilities. The most impressive displays of what the GP32 can do are all homebrew.
I'm afraid it is you who are mistaken about a great many things.
It only runs off with your IP if you integrate GPL code into your proprietary code. If you don't want that to happen, keep them seperate and do the work yourself. It really isn't complicated. You use it where appropriate and you benefit.
There's nothing stopping Oracle or Palm from using it with and for other things while keeping their proprietary code to themselves. For instance, Palm could use GPL code to speed up the development of apps they intend to give away with palmOS, or to create portable client software for desktops. Garnering the goodwill of the geek community and even getting some free labour for said open apps is just a nice side-effect. It doesn't even have to have anything to do with their vertical market. Maybe they'd just want to improve the capabilities of their websites by submitting patches to Apache.
A lot of people misunderstand how the GPL works (some intentionally misinterperet, but that's another matter entirely) and are afraid that if they even consider it, it'll sneak into their houses, shave their pets and glue "kick me" signs to their backs.
Actually, the blank media levies in Canada have changed all that.
We are now legally permitted to copy media we borrow, because we have already paid for it by paying the "tax" on blank media. <sarcasm>Since we're all obviously criminals by default</sarcasm>, the recording industry lobbied to have levies attached to the sale of blank media. I don't think they realized that this would mean we have already paid for our "crimes" and can go ahead and "commit" them. I'm not surprised you didn't know this, though. It wouldn't be in the industry's best interests to let everyone know.
We can't distribute or share a-la P2P, but we can lend our media to others, who may make copies for themselves and still be permitted to use their copy after returning the original media. They can even turn around and lend their copies out the same way.
We also don't have the DMCA, so feel free to break any copy protection you need to in order to do the copying you're legally entitled to.
Slashdot Mirror
The only reason that unsigned datatypes matter one iota is in interfacing with someone else's code that does use an unsigned datatype, in which case nasty conversions must be done.
Sometimes you need bigger numbers than signed data types can hold, and fitting them into small unsigned data types is an efficient way of doing things.
C can fit the number 50,000 into 2 bytes. Java can't.
I find it amusing that you disregard issues of efficiency like this and at the same time claim that Java runs quickly.
but please get your criticisms right.
Indeed.
The primary reason Java is "so slow" is that most of the people claiming that haven't used it in years.
I've got a quick little test I like to use on various compilers and languages. Impliment the quicksort algorithm and run it on a randomly-generated-once 100,000 element array.
Here are the results:
C compiled by GCC 3.2: 15.38 seconds.
C++ compiled by GCC 3.2: 18.56 seconds.
Java compiled by Sun JDK 1.4.1: 1 minute, 8.93 seconds.
And just for a larf... C++ compiled by MS VC++ 6.0: 33.70 seconds.
No special optimization flags are being passed to any of these compilers.
Java is still slow, and always will be. It's a virtual machine; you're simply never going to see native speeds until they make a native processor to run it on. That said, speed is not java's strong point and was never meant to be.
You know, you can use alt-printscrn to capture just the active window and avoid us seeing your pirated software. :-P
Yeah yeah. It's a dupe. Funny that not a single reader emailed me in almost 2 hours to tell me.
We've come to accept the fact that you're a lost cause. We're reclaiming the resources for project "educate Taco" and using them in project "timothy de-taco-fication".
Wow, the trolls are out in force tonight. Read a book before you go confusing mod-points with nuclear physics.
Plutonium is enriched uranium. This is the whole point.
Heavy water will allow a reactor to react natural uranium, producing plutonium (or "enriched" uranium) as a byproduct. While this could be used in bombs, commercial plants typically re-use this enriched uranium in an ordinary water reactor core.
The enriched unranium reverts back to its original state, minus some mass as a result of the second law of thermodynamics. The cycle can then repeat. This is referred to as a "breeder" reactor for this very reason. It continually "breeds" new fuel.
Eventually the fuel rods shrink too far and lack the surface area needed to produce enough neutrons to continue the reaction. Since it's far too dangerous to try to combine spent rods (you'd have to heat-form them together outside of the mediating water, which risks an uncontrolled chain reaction), they're put into radiation-proof containers and sealed away in nuclear waste sites.
It's used as a mediator for decaying uranium because it has a higher specific heat than ordinary water (it takes more energy to raise its temperature). It's not as easy to boil off on you and leave the uranium to decay uncontrolled (boom).
Heavy water is used in nuclear plants now. They just put the generated energy to use as their primary focus, rather than harvesting the plutonium waste that results from uranium decay (which they do also do).
Mozilla even has a download "manager" interface now, which you can use instead of individual progress dialogs.
It's pretty reliable at resuming interrupted downloads, whereas triggering a resume by "overwriting" an unfinished file seems to be mostly hit and miss.
Or they can just do like Nvidia did...
Make a kernel interface module that's open, and the actual closed software (driver, in Nvidia's case) interfaces with that.
You mean pogoshell?
It's not exactly fully-featured PDA software due to technical limitations of the GBA. It can't write to to the flash-memory cartridge you put it on; it can only read from flash while saving soley to battery-backed sram (I have heard that it's possible for running software to write to flash. I expect it's a battery-killer, though). Navigation is done with the GBA's buttons since there is no touchscreen. Text entry requires using complex combinations of those few buttons.
It does look and behave a lot like a PDA, though.
Not everyone can read the articles, as they become unreachable more often than not. That's not to say jumping to conclusions is an acceptable practice, though.
The GBA's specs are actually pretty awful compared to what was possible for a $100 device when it was released.
It has a 32-bit mutant (ARM/THUMB) processor running at 16.78MHz. The processor's THUMB mode is actually 16bit, and is used extensively because the instructions are smaller and the data bus is only 16 bits wide anyway.
Ram is critically low (only 288kb work ram, 32kb of which is inside the processor), so every byte counts. Moving data across the 16bit bus in 32bit mode would just be a waste, as well. You have to wait two cycles to get 32 bits of data no matter what you do. The cpu's 32bit mode is basically only used when working purely in RAM, which is scarce enough that 32bit mode isn't as common as you'd expect.
You'll find some beautiful and engaging games and demos for the GBA, but their technical merit is not the result of powerful hardware. It's due to very clever and efficient code.
At the same time, you'll find a lot of abysmally terrible games (the bulk of the GBA library, really). In these, the game design and code is not very clever and far from efficient.
The automobile doesn't move because it's held in place by a frictional force. No such force acts on a starship to keep it in place. While a large mass would give it enough inertia to make it very difficult to accelerate, it wouldn't sit absolutely still when it's partially stuck to another moving object.
The tangled mass of metal would probably have given way before long, but not instantly as there is still a lot of friction to deal with. Those were some nasty gouge marks.
It's NiCad batteries that have the memory effect, not NiMH. NiMH will just discharge themselves down to zero within days if you don't use up the charge.
Besides, the thinkpads use Li-Ion batteries. They don't exhibit the memory effect and have better energy density than NiMH, but they're expensive and do degrade with use. Cutting corners on the cells will bring down the cost, but they're apt to degrade quickly.
Anybody who has studied this topic at all would immediately cite reasons to strongely disagree with you.
:-P
Wouldn't the fact that you don't cite reasons mean that you haven't studied the topic at all, then? In which case, wouldn't that make you the one trolling?
How much research have YOU personally done in that field?
Rationalizing theft. I probably won't win anyone over by arguing about that, so I won't bother.
It isn't theft. It's copyright infringement. It doesn't make it right, but the distinction is very important. It also invalidates all the arguments that will no doubt litter the discussion (1/4 of content by weight, I'd wager) about stealing physical goods due to dislike of pricing.
The members of the RIAA also charge their artists for all production costs, as well as a loan (I think it's interest-free and not actually called a loan, but don't quote me on that) for living expenses during the production and release of albums. They insulate themselves from losses quite well this way, and need only put signifigant resources into promoting artists that seem to be attracting interest.
I'd say the RIAA members have a very good grasp of economics. PR however, they seem to be terrible at lately and it's hurting them.
Microwaves use directional beams and they aren't fired towards the front window. If they were, the screen wouldn't do a very good job at stopping the radiation anyway. It's high-energy EM radiation, not unlike the lower-energy light that escapes just fine.
The screen's only there to waylay concerns about radiation from the consumers, most of whom don't understand how the microwave works.
My girlfriend uses it every time she comes
That's really weird. My girlfriend usually just smokes a cigarette.
We *need* the average user to feel *more* comfortable working at a Linux desktop than a Windows machine
/bin? Huh? I didn't log in as root, whoever that is.
/bin and then try to save there. That would be like trying to save in C:\WINNT as a normal user, which Windows XP will also stop you from doing.
:)
...and the latter isn't as common as people seeking exact duplicates of Outlook and Microsoft Word would make it seem.
This is just an issue of familiarity- We're creatures of habit. If they're used to a Windows machine, then of course they're going to feel more comfortable with one rather than that alien Linux that doesn't do everything quite the same. The only way to make them comfortable as you seem to be hinting is to copy every little UI element from Windows, which is the wrong idea IMHO.
My own brother has never used anything but Unix. From Solaris workstations at work to his box at home, it's what he's used to, and you can't get him to use a Windows box. Nothing is where it should be or works the way it should. He hates windows filesharing/network browsing and thinks it's the worst design ever. He considers it an aggrivating OS and often says he can't understand why people use it.
Every time I say "games", he tells me that's what consoles are for. Creatures of habit.
Most of them have formatting problems, cannot handle inline images (properly or at all). Table support from Word 2000 is lacking.
Not sure what you're talking about here. OO.org Writer has never skewed images or tables on me in Word documents.
You're not Joe Sixpack. "How come it says I cannot save my file in
Now you're just being silly. Apps default to saving files in the user's home directory, and Joe Sixpack is the last person who's going to bother backing out a couple directory levels to find
whereas a 1-900-DRONE would calmly answer, explain, and the user would be supported.
Microsoft won't give you support unless you've registered your OS with them. In which case, you only get support for a short time before you have to start paying for it. The commercial Linux distros do exactly the same thing, including supplying support phone numbers. There's no reason Joe Sixpack can't call up for support just like he can with Windows. In fact, Joe will get his application support in most instances from the exact same place. Convenient.
KMail is great, the only programming complaint I've had with it is that it silently dies if it runs out of disk space. But the spellchecker is right out of 1995
I haven't found KMail to be all that great; adequate for a quick mail check/send, maybe.
How is a spellchecker "right out of 1995"? Is it missing "axe" as a synonym for "ask"?
Evolution has been working fine for me using precompiled binaries, and has consistently shown itself to be at least as responsive as Outlook on systems with similar or identical specs. If Evolution was too slow to be usable on any given system, so was Outlook. Also, it has thus far shown no deficiencies in the spellchecker.
Again, I have to say: I'm not sure what you're talking about.
delete your JRE without telling Mozilla, then try to use a website infected with applets; it crashes with no warning
Actually, no, it doesn't. It displays a plugin icon for you to click on and go get a JRE if you want one.
lack of ability to send a mailto: link to anything other than Mozilla's mail client
It can do this just fine. It sends to whatever happens to be your default mail client. You can set a default mail client in both Windows and Linux. Mailtos currently go to Evolution on my machine.
and the inability to tailor the browser string to be whatever I want without recompiling
It's at this point I've finished my coffee and started checking your trolling history, because this is simply wrong. Mozilla can be configured to do this without a recompile by way of the userPrefs.js file. A neat little GUI component is also available at XUL Planet with an easy to use in-browser installer.
Microsoft's browser certainly can't do this, nor could you modify and recompile it to make it do so. It's less of a problem of course, but only because of very bad web design tailored to IE. Microsoft certainly won't help you out with a UA spoofing GUI for any IE-hostile sites out there, though.
It remains that the purchase price is a very, very small part of the total cost of ownership.
Until it comes time to renew the subscription on your "purchase"?
let's stop kidding ourselves about it being ready
Who's kidding who here? You've failed to even keep your facts straight about the deficiencies you cite.
Don't even bother sending me flames telling me that vi is the greatest word processor ever
Now I know you're kidding. I'd only sic vi on people I hate.
I'm certain Linux has deficiencies on the desktop for some people, but nothing like you've covered. The real problems are ingrained user habits that have become their source of comfort in using a particular OS, and for some people, functionality that is completely missing from Linux's software library.
Maybe there's so many that they can't choose; like kids in a candy store. :)
The majority of malicious attacks tend to come from script kiddies, as well... The large number of security flaws also means that automated 'l33t' tools haven't been created for each and every flaw, leaving them unexploitable by the main body of malicious exploiters.
But they wouldn't see it coming on account of all the fog machines working on overload.
2 AA cells will power a gamepark 32 for 12 hours, so 8 will get you a total of 48 hours of play time. This battery life is pretty consistent thanks to the GP32's 8mb of RAM.
Those sprite tricks the GBA does are not terribly cpu-intensive to do in software. While the GBA's graphics display modes offset some load by making assumptions about the data in video memory, they can also cause headaches (I'm sorry, but mode7 results in unadulterated ugliness in practice). Though when you've only got 16mhz to play with, you take all the help you can get.
This does mean that GP32 games will require a bit more cpu power because they must perform their own sprite-handling (if they're using sprites at all, anyway), but since the video is just a dumb framebuffer, that also means they have a lot more control over the display.
On the topic of processor power, the GP32 is four times as powerful as the GBA when the cpu is running code from RAM (67mhz) and 8x as fast when running code from cache (130mhz). It's perfectly capable of performing some surprisingly sophisticated 3D. 2D performance is a non-issue.
All that said, you'll probably be happier with a GBA if you don't understand Korean or aren't a coder. The official titles are all in Korean as can be expected since that's the only place the GP32 is marketed. Quite frankly, the games are mediocre for the most part. None of them even try to tap the GP32's capabilities.
The most impressive displays of what the GP32 can do are all homebrew.
I'm afraid it is you who are mistaken about a great many things.
It only runs off with your IP if you integrate GPL code into your proprietary code. If you don't want that to happen, keep them seperate and do the work yourself. It really isn't complicated. You use it where appropriate and you benefit.
There's nothing stopping Oracle or Palm from using it with and for other things while keeping their proprietary code to themselves. For instance, Palm could use GPL code to speed up the development of apps they intend to give away with palmOS, or to create portable client software for desktops.
Garnering the goodwill of the geek community and even getting some free labour for said open apps is just a nice side-effect.
It doesn't even have to have anything to do with their vertical market. Maybe they'd just want to improve the capabilities of their websites by submitting patches to Apache.
A lot of people misunderstand how the GPL works (some intentionally misinterperet, but that's another matter entirely) and are afraid that if they even consider it, it'll sneak into their houses, shave their pets and glue "kick me" signs to their backs.
My .02, Limekiller
Personally, I'd hold out for at least five bucks.
I am the assclown! Witness the hilarity that is my garishly painted butt!
Actually, the blank media levies in Canada have changed all that.
We are now legally permitted to copy media we borrow, because we have already paid for it by paying the "tax" on blank media. <sarcasm>Since we're all obviously criminals by default</sarcasm>, the recording industry lobbied to have levies attached to the sale of blank media. I don't think they realized that this would mean we have already paid for our "crimes" and can go ahead and "commit" them.
I'm not surprised you didn't know this, though. It wouldn't be in the industry's best interests to let everyone know.
We can't distribute or share a-la P2P, but we can lend our media to others, who may make copies for themselves and still be permitted to use their copy after returning the original media. They can even turn around and lend their copies out the same way.
We also don't have the DMCA, so feel free to break any copy protection you need to in order to do the copying you're legally entitled to.