Yeah, the song was, IIRC, was "Serious JUJU", by Sammy Hagar. That episode also featured Marshall writing a Pong game, in assembler, in KDE. I have the entire second season on Video CD, but I'm too tired right now to look though them to find the number and title.:P
I guess you didn't read the documentation. This is a "feature". It breaks the C ABI, forcing you to recompile all libraries used in the program, including glibc.
Sorry, I just couldn't resist the urge to indert a plug for Gentoo.:P
On Gentoo, doing this is a time-consuming, but rather trivial task. Type emerge -e world, go on vacation for a few days, and find everything working again.
Let me reiterate an earlier comment by Alan Partridge: it's idiots who think that a less-than-one-percent difference in performance is significant. (Whether you the shoe fits you is something you have to decide for yourself.) What benchmark articles don't tell you is the spread of results they obtain through multiple testing cycles. When I was doing benchmark testing at InfoWorld, it was common for me to see trial-to-trial spreads of three percent in CPU benchmarks, and broader spreads than that with hard-disk benchmarks. Editors were unwilling to admit to readers that results were collected that formed a "cloud" -- they wanted a SINGLE number to put in print. ("Don't confuse the reader with facts, I want to make the point and move on.") I see that in the years since I was doing this full-time that editors are still insisting on "keep it simple" even when it's wrong.
Easy solution: print 2 numbers: a score, and the standard deviation. How hard would that be?
Really?? Then why am I sitting in the building right now, working away?
HA! I call your bluff! Obviously you are posting on Slashdot, not "working away"! Or...whoa...maybe you get paid to post on Slashdot? I want to work for Apple!
Thank you for mentioning SuperKaramba, I was about to do so myself. Karamba is old news. I quote from here:
I had a talk with the author of super-Karamba about this..
The original karamba is dead.. the author did all he wanted to do with it. All new development will be done in SuperKaramba.. Next major version (0.18) will have taskbar support:)
SuperKaramba really moves Karamba beyond just displaying info on your desktop. Here's a snippet from the front page:
Here are just some examples of the things that can be done:
* Display system information such as CPU Usage, MP3 playing, etc.
* Create cool custom toolbars that work any way imaginable
* Create little games or virtual pets that live on your desktop
* Display information from the internet, such as weather and headlines
The possibilities really are endless!
If anybody has ever used ObjectDesktop for Windows, some of this is bound to seem familier... since OD was one of the things I liked best about Windows, I am really glad to see this project.
Someone is going to get on that machine, go to Start -> Programs looking for "Microsoft Excel" and feel like an idiot or be completely frustrated because they couldn't find it.
NO ONE has complained that people stay away from OS X "because it doesn't look like Windows." WHY are we trying to pretend that's the reason people don't try Linux?
I fully agree with you. The Windows UI might be nice, but if you don't offer full Windows functionality it can get confusing. In fact, one of the first things I get after installing KDE was change everything around until I found a style that suits me, which happens to be a hybrid of OS X and Windows, with a little bit of BeOS thrown in, and some of my own special magic.
Ditch 3 of the 4 programs that do the same thing. Seriously. Why do I need 4 CD-R burning programs? Just give me the one that works the best, that's *all I care about* - and make sure it's labeled "CD Burner" so I don't have to decipher "gkdesbUISO." Contrary to what people here may think, we do NOT need to include every single Web Browser available. Don't put every alternative in the "Programs" menu - you hide the extra versions, and it only comes out when someone says they are an "advanced" user.
Except for the fact that Gentoo is really only for "advanced users", it fits the bill pretty well. By forcing you to manually install everything you want, it cuts WAY down on bloat.
Since I got the OEM Athlon XP 2100+, that means I'm safe with Arctic Silver 3, a ThermalRight SLK-800, and a ThermalTake SmartFan 2, right? 'Cause it would kind of suck if my $50 colling equipment voided the warranty.:)
1) Next chance you get, vote all of these clowns out of office. And for those you can't vote out of office since they are appointed (Ashcroft), vote against those that appointed them.
The problem here is that, with our current political system, we can never vote the clowns out of office, unless we choose to vote nobody in, and that can't happen. Sure, maybe Gore would've been a better president than Bush. In some ways. But in other ways, he would've been worse. The point is, unless we get a candidate who isn't a clown, we'll never have a chance to vote the clowns out.
Now, _I_, personally, would like to see RMS as president. That would be interesting.;)
Seriously, though, 95%+ of the games I play, even on Windows, are old games with an emulator. The only PC game I regularly play anymore is Age of Empires 2.
Just about all I use is zSNES, MAME, and for Windows, N64 and PSX stuff.
Oh, and bit of trivia: somewhere in the manpage for zSNES is the name The Khan Artist as the original author. That's me.;)
Re:A full DirectX Win32 wrapper?
on
Winex 3.0 Released
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Any Windows replacement must run Windows applications
The dependency is not so much on Microsoft Windows as it is on Windows applications. Boxed off-the-shelf applications, games, in-house applications, vertical market applications, are what prevents users, companies and governments from switching to another operating system. Even if 90% of the needs of most users are taken care of if you can provide them with an office suite, an email client, a browser, and a media player, then there will still be a remaining 10% of their needs, potentially critical needs, that are not met. Unfortunately these remaining 10% are spread across a wide spectrum of applications: thousands of applications running the gamut from games to specialized accounting software for French farms, via Italian encyclopedias, German tax software, child education software, banking software, in-house software representing years of development, etc. It is the availability of all this software that makes Windows so compelling and its monopoly so strong. No platform will become mainstream unless it runs a significant portion of that software and lets individuals, companies and governments preserve their investments in that software.
Chicken-and-egg problem for Linux on the desktop
This brings us to the chicken and egg issue of Linux on the desktop. Until Linux can provide equivalents for the above applications, its marketshare on the desktop will stagnate. But until the marketshare of Linux on the desktop rises, no vendor will develop applications for Linux. How does one break this vicious circle?
Again, Wine can provide an answer. By letting users reuse the Windows applications they have invested time and money in, Wine dramatically lowers the barrier that prevents users from switching to Linux. This then makes it possible for Linux to take off on the desktop, which increases its market share in that segment. In turn, this makes it viable for companies to produce Linux versions of their applications, and for new products to come out just for the Linux market.
This reasoning could be dismissed easily if Wine was only capable of running Solitaire. However now it can run Microsoft Office, multi-media applications such as QuickTime and Windows Media Player, and even games such as Max Payne or The SIMS.
Almost any other complex application can be made to run well given a bit of time. And each time that work is done to add one application to this list, many other applications benefit from this work and become usable too.
And now for one of the myths:
Myth 2: "Wine is bad for Linux"
One undeniable fact exists: there is a vast software library that works with Microsoft's operating systems. Many of these applications already have Linux equivalents, however for most people there remains a handful of programs keeping them tied to Windows. Some of these programs have almost no chance of getting ported to Linux (e.g. Microsoft Office), others simply can't be ported because they've become abandonware (e.g. Turbotax 1999). Would I want to have Windows just because someday I may need to access an old tax program?
The fact that Wine exists won't prevent companies from porting their software, but having less than a few percentage points of marketshare will. Wine puts more free software into the hands of people who would otherwise not use it. In turn, history has repeatedly shown that larger marketshare leads to more commercial development. More commercial development has always led to more efforts to develop better free software equivalents.
And Windows "hardware acceleration" is vulnerable to the exact same bottleneck as XF86: drivers. I have had three systems now where I installed Windows XP, and noticed they seemed quite sluggish. Athlon XP 1800+s, mind you. Since they were business machines, they didn't have a fancy-schmancy video board in them, it was a ATi Rage 128. I finally found that by turning _off_ the hardware acceleration for bitmap drawing, everything started going as smooth as possible. The card is more than capable of 2D acceleration - it's just that the WIndows GDI drivers sucked.
I saw the "plug my own site bit" and glanced up to sheck what your site was... http://www.rtcwclans.com/, OK. "bookmarked by most schools, and considered one the best kid related sites for volcanoes..." OK...:P
For example, a traditional BIOS is space-limited, so most are programmed in compact, low-level "machine language," which is notoriously difficult to do well--in fact, very few engineers are proficient in machine language.
That's right: legacy-free engineers use assembler.
Also, you didn't happen to aquire the IP rights on Evil(TM) as well, did you? If so, what are your licencing fees for that one? I don't want to get sued over here.
I'm assuming you didn't know about Microsoft's purchase of evil. I highly doubt they would sell it to SCO, but they might license.
Ooh, something just occured to me. What would MS Evil (TM) after Microsoft "embraced and extended" it?
1) The term is ROM image, not ROM. A ROM is a microchip.
2) According to Nintendo (the bastards), ROM Images are illegal even IF you own the original cartridge. Here's what they have to say:
Can I Download a Nintendo ROM from the Internet if I Already Own the Authentic Game?
There is a good deal of misinformation on the Internet regarding the backup/archival copy exception. It is not a "second copy" rule and is often mistakenly cited for the proposition that if you have one lawful copy of a copyrighted work, you are entitled to have a second copy of the copyrighted work even if that second copy is an infringing copy. The backup/archival copy exception is a very narrow limitation relating to a copy being made by the rightful owner of an authentic game to ensure he or she has one in the event of damage or destruction of the authentic. Therefore, whether you have an authentic game or not, or whether you have possession of a Nintendo ROM for a limited amount of time, i.e. 24 hours, it is illegal to download and play a Nintendo ROM from the Internet.
Even though that makes no sense. Are they saying carts are indestructible? Hell, I'm gonna keep on using zSNES and Project 64. They can sue me if they want.
Actually, yes. mod_php even works quite well. Been running our company web server on Apache2/PHP4/mod_php for a little over a year now, with _zero_ problems. Current setup is Apache 2.0.44/PHP4.3.1/mod_php.
1) Navigator section, Internet Search subsection Set "Search Using" to Google
2) Nav section, Smart Browsing subsection Turn on "Location Bar Autocomplete" Press the Advanced button Check "Show internet search engine"
Now, instead of using the Google bar, you can type someting into the location bar, press the up arrow key, and press enter. When you hit Ctrl-T to open a new tab, the focus goes into the location bar by default, so this can save a lot of time.
Granted, it's not quite the same league as using Knoppix as a Debian installer, but you can use Knoppix to install Gentoo Linux as well, so you can actually use your PC while compiling stuff, instead of having it useless for a couple of days. Pretty sweet, I must say.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, the song was, IIRC, was "Serious JUJU", by Sammy Hagar. That episode also featured Marshall writing a Pong game, in assembler, in KDE. I have the entire second season on Video CD, but I'm too tired right now to look though them to find the number and title. :P
I guess you didn't read the documentation. This is a "feature". It breaks the C ABI, forcing you to recompile all libraries used in the program, including glibc.
:P
Sorry, I just couldn't resist the urge to indert a plug for Gentoo.
On Gentoo, doing this is a time-consuming, but rather trivial task. Type emerge -e world, go on vacation for a few days, and find everything working again.
Let me reiterate an earlier comment by Alan Partridge: it's idiots who think that a less-than-one-percent difference in performance is significant. (Whether you the shoe fits you is something you have to decide for yourself.) What benchmark articles don't tell you is the spread of results they obtain through multiple testing cycles. When I was doing benchmark testing at InfoWorld, it was common for me to see trial-to-trial spreads of three percent in CPU benchmarks, and broader spreads than that with hard-disk benchmarks. Editors were unwilling to admit to readers that results were collected that formed a "cloud" -- they wanted a SINGLE number to put in print. ("Don't confuse the reader with facts, I want to make the point and move on.") I see that in the years since I was doing this full-time that editors are still insisting on "keep it simple" even when it's wrong.
Easy solution: print 2 numbers: a score, and the standard deviation. How hard would that be?
In other words: "If something is not explicitly allowed by the law, it must be illegal".
Hmm, I think I've heard of that before. Isn't it called fascism?
Really?? Then why am I sitting in the building right now, working away?
HA! I call your bluff! Obviously you are posting on Slashdot, not "working away"! Or...whoa...maybe you get paid to post on Slashdot? I want to work for Apple!
Thank you for mentioning SuperKaramba, I was about to do so myself. Karamba is old news. I quote from here:
:)
I had a talk with the author of super-Karamba about this..
The original karamba is dead.. the author did all he wanted to do with it. All new development will be done in SuperKaramba.. Next major version (0.18) will have taskbar support
SuperKaramba really moves Karamba beyond just displaying info on your desktop. Here's a snippet from the front page:
Here are just some examples of the things that can be done:
* Display system information such as CPU Usage, MP3 playing, etc.
* Create cool custom toolbars that work any way imaginable
* Create little games or virtual pets that live on your desktop
* Display information from the internet, such as weather and headlines
The possibilities really are endless!
If anybody has ever used ObjectDesktop for Windows, some of this is bound to seem familier... since OD was one of the things I liked best about Windows, I am really glad to see this project.
I still use a 3Dfx Voodoo 5 5500, bought 3 months ago for $70.
;)
Interestingly, nVidia claimed that the new cards included 3Dfx technology, hence the FX moniker. I sill like the Voodoo 5 better.
Forget copying the Windows UI, that's absurd.
Someone is going to get on that machine, go to Start -> Programs looking for "Microsoft Excel" and feel like an idiot or be completely frustrated because they couldn't find it.
NO ONE has complained that people stay away from OS X "because it doesn't look like Windows." WHY are we trying to pretend that's the reason people don't try Linux?
I fully agree with you. The Windows UI might be nice, but if you don't offer full Windows functionality it can get confusing. In fact, one of the first things I get after installing KDE was change everything around until I found a style that suits me, which happens to be a hybrid of OS X and Windows, with a little bit of BeOS thrown in, and some of my own special magic.
Ditch 3 of the 4 programs that do the same thing. Seriously. Why do I need 4 CD-R burning programs? Just give me the one that works the best, that's *all I care about* - and make sure it's labeled "CD Burner" so I don't have to decipher "gkdesbUISO." Contrary to what people here may think, we do NOT need to include every single Web Browser available. Don't put every alternative in the "Programs" menu - you hide the extra versions, and it only comes out when someone says they are an "advanced" user.
Except for the fact that Gentoo is really only for "advanced users", it fits the bill pretty well. By forcing you to manually install everything you want, it cuts WAY down on bloat.
Hmm... seems my ISP is just being flaky.
http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/
They are working on it, the project is called Qemu, but it seems the site is down right now.
Since I got the OEM Athlon XP 2100+, that means I'm safe with Arctic Silver 3, a ThermalRight SLK-800, and a ThermalTake SmartFan 2, right? 'Cause it would kind of suck if my $50 colling equipment voided the warranty. :)
Dammit, I forgot the opening tag. :P
1) Next chance you get, vote all of these clowns out of office. And for those you can't vote out of office since they are appointed (Ashcroft), vote against those that appointed them.
The problem here is that, with our current political system, we can never vote the clowns out of office, unless we choose to vote nobody in, and that can't happen. Sure, maybe Gore would've been a better president than Bush. In some ways. But in other ways, he would've been worse. The point is, unless we get a candidate who isn't a clown, we'll never have a chance to vote the clowns out.
Now, _I_, personally, would like to see RMS as president. That would be interesting.
Seriously, though, 95%+ of the games I play, even on Windows, are old games with an emulator. The only PC game I regularly play anymore is Age of Empires 2.
;)
Just about all I use is zSNES, MAME, and for Windows, N64 and PSX stuff.
Oh, and bit of trivia: somewhere in the manpage for zSNES is the name The Khan Artist as the original author. That's me.
Here are a few tasty snippets from Wine HQ - Why Wine is so important and Wine HQ - Debunking Wine Myths which I feel answer you better than I can:
From the first page:
Any Windows replacement must run Windows applications
The dependency is not so much on Microsoft Windows as it is on Windows applications. Boxed off-the-shelf applications, games, in-house applications, vertical market applications, are what prevents users, companies and governments from switching to another operating system. Even if 90% of the needs of most users are taken care of if you can provide them with an office suite, an email client, a browser, and a media player, then there will still be a remaining 10% of their needs, potentially critical needs, that are not met. Unfortunately these remaining 10% are spread across a wide spectrum of applications: thousands of applications running the gamut from games to specialized accounting software for French farms, via Italian encyclopedias, German tax software, child education software, banking software, in-house software representing years of development, etc. It is the availability of all this software that makes Windows so compelling and its monopoly so strong. No platform will become mainstream unless it runs a significant portion of that software and lets individuals, companies and governments preserve their investments in that software.
Chicken-and-egg problem for Linux on the desktop
This brings us to the chicken and egg issue of Linux on the desktop. Until Linux can provide equivalents for the above applications, its marketshare on the desktop will stagnate. But until the marketshare of Linux on the desktop rises, no vendor will develop applications for Linux. How does one break this vicious circle?
Again, Wine can provide an answer. By letting users reuse the Windows applications they have invested time and money in, Wine dramatically lowers the barrier that prevents users from switching to Linux. This then makes it possible for Linux to take off on the desktop, which increases its market share in that segment. In turn, this makes it viable for companies to produce Linux versions of their applications, and for new products to come out just for the Linux market.
This reasoning could be dismissed easily if Wine was only capable of running Solitaire. However now it can run Microsoft Office, multi-media applications such as QuickTime and Windows Media Player, and even games such as Max Payne or The SIMS.
Almost any other complex application can be made to run well given a bit of time. And each time that work is done to add one application to this list, many other applications benefit from this work and become usable too.
And now for one of the myths:
Myth 2: "Wine is bad for Linux"
One undeniable fact exists: there is a vast software library that works with Microsoft's operating systems. Many of these applications already have Linux equivalents, however for most people there remains a handful of programs keeping them tied to Windows. Some of these programs have almost no chance of getting ported to Linux (e.g. Microsoft Office), others simply can't be ported because they've become abandonware (e.g. Turbotax 1999). Would I want to have Windows just because someday I may need to access an old tax program?
The fact that Wine exists won't prevent companies from porting their software, but having less than a few percentage points of marketshare will. Wine puts more free software into the hands of people who would otherwise not use it. In turn, history has repeatedly shown that larger marketshare leads to more commercial development. More commercial development has always led to more efforts to develop better free software equivalents.
And Windows "hardware acceleration" is vulnerable to the exact same bottleneck as XF86: drivers. I have had three systems now where I installed Windows XP, and noticed they seemed quite sluggish. Athlon XP 1800+s, mind you. Since they were business machines, they didn't have a fancy-schmancy video board in them, it was a ATi Rage 128. I finally found that by turning _off_ the hardware acceleration for bitmap drawing, everything started going as smooth as possible. The card is more than capable of 2D acceleration - it's just that the WIndows GDI drivers sucked.
Apple has shown a history of giving out every other upgrade for free. 10.1 was free, 10.2 wasn't, 10.3 prly will be. IMEO, anyway.
I saw the "plug my own site bit" and glanced up to sheck what your site was... http://www.rtcwclans.com/, OK. "bookmarked by most schools, and considered one the best kid related sites for volcanoes..." OK... :P
For example, a traditional BIOS is space-limited, so most are programmed in compact, low-level "machine language," which is notoriously difficult to do well--in fact, very few engineers are proficient in machine language.
:)
That's right: legacy-free engineers use assembler.
Also, you didn't happen to aquire the IP rights on Evil(TM) as well, did you? If so, what are your licencing fees for that one? I don't want to get sued over here.
I'm assuming you didn't know about Microsoft's purchase of evil. I highly doubt they would sell it to SCO, but they might license.
Ooh, something just occured to me. What would MS Evil (TM) after Microsoft "embraced and extended" it?
1) The term is ROM image, not ROM. A ROM is a microchip.
2) According to Nintendo (the bastards), ROM Images are illegal even IF you own the original cartridge. Here's what they have to say:
Can I Download a Nintendo ROM from the Internet if I Already Own the Authentic Game?
There is a good deal of misinformation on the Internet regarding the backup/archival copy exception. It is not a "second copy" rule and is often mistakenly cited for the proposition that if you have one lawful copy of a copyrighted work, you are entitled to have a second copy of the copyrighted work even if that second copy is an infringing copy. The backup/archival copy exception is a very narrow limitation relating to a copy being made by the rightful owner of an authentic game to ensure he or she has one in the event of damage or destruction of the authentic. Therefore, whether you have an authentic game or not, or whether you have possession of a Nintendo ROM for a limited amount of time, i.e. 24 hours, it is illegal to download and play a Nintendo ROM from the Internet.
Even though that makes no sense. Are they saying carts are indestructible? Hell, I'm gonna keep on using zSNES and Project 64. They can sue me if they want.
As a proud student of the German language, I qould like to point out that the proper way of writing that is Scheiße.
Actually, yes. mod_php even works quite well. Been running our company web server on Apache2/PHP4/mod_php for a little over a year now, with _zero_ problems. Current setup is Apache 2.0.44/PHP4.3.1/mod_php.
If you like the Google bar, try this:
In the Prefs box:
1) Navigator section, Internet Search subsection
Set "Search Using" to Google
2) Nav section, Smart Browsing subsection
Turn on "Location Bar Autocomplete"
Press the Advanced button
Check "Show internet search engine"
Now, instead of using the Google bar, you can type someting into the location bar, press the up arrow key, and press enter. When you hit Ctrl-T to open a new tab, the focus goes into the location bar by default, so this can save a lot of time.
Granted, it's not quite the same league as using Knoppix as a Debian installer, but you can use Knoppix to install Gentoo Linux as well, so you can actually use your PC while compiling stuff, instead of having it useless for a couple of days. Pretty sweet, I must say.
See here for details.