I remember some all (well 90% or something) Java applications, like the original JBuilder, that made me want to claw my eyeballs out when using them.
Valid point... for 1999. But Java has been through a lot of changes since "the original JBuilder" came out. There have been three major changes to the class libraries (1.2, 1.4, and the 5.0).
Honestly, I understand why people are down on Java -- it's because there have always been two strengths to the Java "platform":
It provides a simple programming model (single inheritance, indirect memory management,...)
A rich class library for specific tasks that are easy to learn (but difficult to master, obviously).
...and early implementations weren't able to keep up with native code in any way, shape or form.
That said, I think you hit the nail ont the head -- people are still thinking in terms of 1999 and not 2005 when they think of Java -- at least on Slashdot. But the typical Java developer is busy writing enterprise apps, not writing kernel code, device drivers, or anything else that requires C/C++.
It astounds me when I look at the performance/economy figures for American cars. An example is the new Ford Mustang (a tasty looking car, BTW). The 4L model gets around 200bhp, and about 19/28mpg. My Fiat Coupe is comparible, but gets 260bhp from a 2L engine, and more than 50mpg outside town (I don't live in a city). Hybrids are only there to keep the PR good. Whats needed is a fundamental modernisation of US cars.
I have to say that bench racing isn't the best way to measure the cars, though. For one thing, the larger displacement engines typically produce a lot more torque (re: acceleration). The only mitigating factor there is that the Mustang may very well be a bit "fatter" because it probably weights more than the Fiat, so it needs the torque to get moving and keep moving.
Another factor is fuel economy -- I own a Chevrolet Corvette with a 5.7L engine pumping out 350hp. When I bought it, I was toying with the idea of buying a Honda S2000, which was a 2.0L engine putting out 240hp at the time... Not only was the Honda slower (to be expected), but it got comparable fuel economy. In fact, in practice, I've found that I get comparable mileage to folks I know with a Honda S2000.
American engine technology may be compared to the x86 architecture -- it's not fancy, it's not "modern", but it seems to remain competitive with all of the new designs. Heck, if you want to see an example of this -- consider the new Corvette Z06.
It's obvious to me what Microsoft gets out of this -- a way to sell Windows Server licenses with a cheap (actually zero cost) application server. It also allows them to go in to shops that are J2EE centric (running on IBM, Sun, and HP boxes that are not running Windows in any way, shape, or form) and pitch their product.
The curious thing from where I sit is -- what is JBoss really getting out of this? The press release implies they'll have access to information within Microsoft to provide greater interoperability with Microsoft products. Of course, the thing is -- Microsoft has absolutely no vested interest in keeping folks on JBoss/J2EE for the long term. They'd love for people to buy Windows Server (which incidentally, can run.NET applications just fine out of the box), use JBoss, and then... move over to.NET. Something they can't do on, say, a Power box running WebSphere or a SPARC box running WebLogic.
Lynxpro, you hit the nail on the head... Intel may openly bless HD-DVD, but Apple's support of Blu-Ray, coupled with Apple's partnership with Intel means that Intel is going to wind up supporting Blu-Ray in some capacity -- at least as a supplier to Apple.
Pretty good advertising by IBM...
on
Keeping the Lights On
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· Score: 4, Interesting
Disclaimer: I work for a company that competes with IBM. But then again, don't we all?
IBM encourages older workers to stick around and keep mainframe systems running. Of course they do. The maintenance contracts that IBM is paid on for these mainframes (and the IBM Global Services guys who sit on-site to babysit these applications) are priceless. I was part of a team of consultants that was involved in moving a major mainframe-only app to Unix/J2EE and IBM did everything possible to forestall and prevent it. When we were done, we were saving our customer almost $500k a month on the costs associated with maintaining that (admittedly simple) legacy application.
I know this is blasphemy on Slashdot, but when companies like IBM get in bed with open-source and with technologies we (okay, that I) favor (in my case Java & J2EE), you have to remember they are *not* a product company in these spaces -- they are a consulting company. Sure, they sell their hardware by pitching it's flexibility (a good thing), but they slash prices in order to place their consultants in your organization to "help out".
This is not to say they are evil or bad. But only that all of this is wonderfully self-serving and really doesn't pass for news...
...and all this hand-wringing over their choice of chip vendor ignores one interesting fact:
Dell does just fine using only Intel chips, despite flirting with AMD whenever they want to negotiate a sweet deal with Intel.
Anyone who thinks Apple will be unable ot sell every Mac they make (before and after the Intel switch).
Also, consider this -- do you think the ramifications of switching to AMD instead of Intel would have made all the investors who keep inching up Apple's stock happy?
I realize Apple is really doing well on the Wall Street because of the iPod... but computers (and the retail stores) account for about 50% of their business.
I agree that relocation is going to be necessary for many of the victims of Katrina... and providing them the option to take over a free farm is a nice idea. It's not a bad idea, as long as it is not forced upon folks.
That makes no sense. When a song is hot, that's precisely the time when the record companies would have a vested interest in distributing it as widely as possible, rather than limiting the release ot 10,000 or 20,000 copies.
I'd bet on the second explanation... see below excerpt:
In September 1752 the Julian calendar was replaced with the Gregorian calendar in Great Britain and its American colonies. The Julian calendar was 11 days behind the Gregorian calendar, so 14 September got to follow 2 September on the day of the change. The result was that between 3 and 13 September, absolutely nothing happened!
It's commercial speech that is forced upon us... Forced in the sense that the speaker is asking you to pay for the infrastructure and the resources required for them to speak.
I have no issues at all with free speech. However, I do have an issue with someone's speech not being free (as in beer) for the recipient. This is why Junk Faxes are illegal.
Driving faster causes more accidents and uses more gas.
Both of those assertions are suspect.
First of all, I'd argue that bad drives are more likely to be the root cause of accidents. Since bad drivers can't maintain proper control of their cars, when they speed, it can be dangerous. But don't tell me that a good driver in a capable car can't handle it.
As for using more gas by speed, that's more a function of engine speed rather than actual speed. I recently made a 560 mile roundtrip drive between Washington, D.C. and Blacksburg, VA (Virginia Tech) in a 350 horsepower sports car... and averaged 28 mpg. Not exactly a Prius, but proper gear selection allowed me to keep the revs down so that I was able to average 78mph.
Don't blame "speed" for the problem. Blame the real cause -- bad drivers.
t was a while back. I think it was about 2 years ago, but it could have been a bit more. Anyway, I ran into UI glitches and bugs all over the place...
Two years is a long time. To be fair, why not give it a whirl before beating it over old problems? Heck, two years ago Firefox wasn't exactly the kick-ass product it is now!
If life were intelligently designed, it would by definition have been designed intelligently. Stupid random leftover useless cruft like appendixes and remnents of tail skeleton would not be present, especially in any species singled out for special attention. And boy, human eyes and noses could sure be a hell of a lot better than they are.
By that definition, I've never used a piece of software that has been intelligently designed.
Interesting possibility in the long term... but given that the software industry still has trouble dealing with localizing text-based applications, it may be a while before we see localization of movie content.
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The MCP-T chipset is real. It's the name of the NForce2 chipset.
You're absolutely right. And we can see how well that is working for Palm right now!
Let's face it -- THAT is scary.
Valid point... for 1999. But Java has been through a lot of changes since "the original JBuilder" came out. There have been three major changes to the class libraries (1.2, 1.4, and the 5.0).
Honestly, I understand why people are down on Java -- it's because there have always been two strengths to the Java "platform":
That said, I think you hit the nail ont the head -- people are still thinking in terms of 1999 and not 2005 when they think of Java -- at least on Slashdot. But the typical Java developer is busy writing enterprise apps, not writing kernel code, device drivers, or anything else that requires C/C++.
(The article is appropriately titled -- "Monkeys Pay to See Female Monkey Bottoms")
I have to say that bench racing isn't the best way to measure the cars, though. For one thing, the larger displacement engines typically produce a lot more torque (re: acceleration). The only mitigating factor there is that the Mustang may very well be a bit "fatter" because it probably weights more than the Fiat, so it needs the torque to get moving and keep moving.
Another factor is fuel economy -- I own a Chevrolet Corvette with a 5.7L engine pumping out 350hp. When I bought it, I was toying with the idea of buying a Honda S2000, which was a 2.0L engine putting out 240hp at the time... Not only was the Honda slower (to be expected), but it got comparable fuel economy. In fact, in practice, I've found that I get comparable mileage to folks I know with a Honda S2000.
American engine technology may be compared to the x86 architecture -- it's not fancy, it's not "modern", but it seems to remain competitive with all of the new designs. Heck, if you want to see an example of this -- consider the new Corvette Z06.
It's obvious to me what Microsoft gets out of this -- a way to sell Windows Server licenses with a cheap (actually zero cost) application server. It also allows them to go in to shops that are J2EE centric (running on IBM, Sun, and HP boxes that are not running Windows in any way, shape, or form) and pitch their product.
The curious thing from where I sit is -- what is JBoss really getting out of this? The press release implies they'll have access to information within Microsoft to provide greater interoperability with Microsoft products. Of course, the thing is -- Microsoft has absolutely no vested interest in keeping folks on JBoss/J2EE for the long term. They'd love for people to buy Windows Server (which incidentally, can run .NET applications just fine out of the box), use JBoss, and then... move over to .NET. Something they can't do on, say, a Power box running WebSphere or a SPARC box running WebLogic.
You don't play fantasy football, do you? :-)
Lynxpro, you hit the nail on the head... Intel may openly bless HD-DVD, but Apple's support of Blu-Ray, coupled with Apple's partnership with Intel means that Intel is going to wind up supporting Blu-Ray in some capacity -- at least as a supplier to Apple.
Disclaimer: I work for a company that competes with IBM. But then again, don't we all?
IBM encourages older workers to stick around and keep mainframe systems running. Of course they do. The maintenance contracts that IBM is paid on for these mainframes (and the IBM Global Services guys who sit on-site to babysit these applications) are priceless. I was part of a team of consultants that was involved in moving a major mainframe-only app to Unix/J2EE and IBM did everything possible to forestall and prevent it. When we were done, we were saving our customer almost $500k a month on the costs associated with maintaining that (admittedly simple) legacy application.
I know this is blasphemy on Slashdot, but when companies like IBM get in bed with open-source and with technologies we (okay, that I) favor (in my case Java & J2EE), you have to remember they are *not* a product company in these spaces -- they are a consulting company. Sure, they sell their hardware by pitching it's flexibility (a good thing), but they slash prices in order to place their consultants in your organization to "help out".
This is not to say they are evil or bad. But only that all of this is wonderfully self-serving and really doesn't pass for news...
Dell does just fine using only Intel chips, despite flirting with AMD whenever they want to negotiate a sweet deal with Intel.
Anyone who thinks Apple will be unable ot sell every Mac they make (before and after the Intel switch).
Also, consider this -- do you think the ramifications of switching to AMD instead of Intel would have made all the investors who keep inching up Apple's stock happy?
I realize Apple is really doing well on the Wall Street because of the iPod... but computers (and the retail stores) account for about 50% of their business.
I agree that relocation is going to be necessary for many of the victims of Katrina... and providing them the option to take over a free farm is a nice idea. It's not a bad idea, as long as it is not forced upon folks.
I've been sent from the future to tell you that time machines are the source of all the dupes we've been seeing on Slashdot.
It's not Windows-only. It runs fine on my Mac.
That makes no sense. When a song is hot, that's precisely the time when the record companies would have a vested interest in distributing it as widely as possible, rather than limiting the release ot 10,000 or 20,000 copies.
It's easy. They are like banks with ATMs.
Originally, using an ATM was free. Why? Because it helped the banks cut back on hiring more tellers.
Now, we're expected to pay for the privilege of helping them streamline their operations and cut back on service.
Go figure!
You do realize you totally missed the sarcasm, right?
I'd bet on the second explanation... see below excerpt:
In September 1752 the Julian calendar was replaced with the Gregorian calendar in Great Britain and its American colonies. The Julian calendar was 11 days behind the Gregorian calendar, so 14 September got to follow 2 September on the day of the change. The result was that between 3 and 13 September, absolutely nothing happened!
It's commercial speech that is forced upon us... Forced in the sense that the speaker is asking you to pay for the infrastructure and the resources required for them to speak.
I have no issues at all with free speech. However, I do have an issue with someone's speech not being free (as in beer) for the recipient. This is why Junk Faxes are illegal.
EXACTLY what I was thinking!!!
Both of those assertions are suspect.
First of all, I'd argue that bad drives are more likely to be the root cause of accidents. Since bad drivers can't maintain proper control of their cars, when they speed, it can be dangerous. But don't tell me that a good driver in a capable car can't handle it.
As for using more gas by speed, that's more a function of engine speed rather than actual speed. I recently made a 560 mile roundtrip drive between Washington, D.C. and Blacksburg, VA (Virginia Tech) in a 350 horsepower sports car... and averaged 28 mpg. Not exactly a Prius, but proper gear selection allowed me to keep the revs down so that I was able to average 78mph.
Don't blame "speed" for the problem. Blame the real cause -- bad drivers.
Two years is a long time. To be fair, why not give it a whirl before beating it over old problems? Heck, two years ago Firefox wasn't exactly the kick-ass product it is now!
That was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away. eBay now runs on Sun.
By that definition, I've never used a piece of software that has been intelligently designed.
Interesting possibility in the long term... but given that the software industry still has trouble dealing with localizing text-based applications, it may be a while before we see localization of movie content.