Instead of complaining about losing their jobs or bitching about lower salaries, people should look at it another way. "Hey for a while I was able to live like a king and take home stupid amounts of money and perks".
Let's face it folks, the crazy days of "dot.com" when you got a fat sign-on bonus and a sportscar and insane benefits/packages were not a sustainable real world. They were not the norm. They were a fantasy that was sure to dry up. To get a job with a huge pay then was just too easy. I know a lot of very stupid people and bad programmers that got far more than they deserved.
This fantasy existence could not last and we got "dot.bomb". Hype fed jobs went first, but a lot of good programmers got hurt too. In essence this was an over correction.
Now things are seeming to come on track again with realistic remuneration and a desire for good programmers. Some jobs will stay in the US and some will go offshore and a balance will be found. This is good for the industry in the long run.
There's very little evidence that GPS is being used by terrorists, though they could no doubt (eg. pack a Piper cub full of dynamite & control with GPS). However, these guys have contacts and could undoubtedly secure a military GPS if required.
GPS was hardly used in Sept 11th. See big building, fly into it. No GPS required.
By the time the US knows they're under attack, it is too late the damage is done. Turning off GPS will instead cause huge confusion. What gets used to track/monitor/control fire trucks, clean up crews,..? Yup commercial grade GPS. What gets used to synchronise the phone systems and internet backbones and all the comms stuff required to execute the clean up?? Yup, commercial grade GPS.
Shutting down GPS will not stop terrorists, it would just make things worse. Perhaps though it would make Joe Sixpack feel that the military is doing its best.
IMHO there's far too much emphasis on computer based education - especially with kids. Real world education is far better for true learning.
Go outside with a protractor and a tape measure and figure out the height of a tree. Then follow up by climbing the tree to see if the answer is right. If the kid falls out of the tree, well (s)he gets to learn about gravity as a bonus.
Which kid learns more about frogs? The one who plays the Microsoft Magic Schoolbus game where you get to be a frog or the kid who goes down to the river with a net and a pail and caatches frogs and falls in the river etc etc?
My thoughts exactly. Why does strained silicon suddenly turn up as news? Perhaps the real news is about "stained silicon"? Perhaps it is just reposting Reg news without any editorial skill.
Re:54 hippy architectures ... because no GPL?
on
NetBSD 2.0 Released
·
· Score: 0, Troll
Yes these are both ARM cpus and ARM cpus are supported, but the on-chip peripherals etc are not.
If I wanted to use NetBSD on OMAP I'd still have to do the chip support stuff (or pay to get it done). PXA250 is an obsolete part - where's the support for current PXA27x parts which are very different.
With Linux I can download OMAP and PXA27x support off the www.
NetBSD has some ports to VAX and Apollo - both 1980's hardware. Very useful I'm sure.
NetBSD isn't under GPL which I guess is a good reason why ports to things like OMAP and PXA27x are not in the public domain.
Damn stupid name for some software. It was fine when Flash (the software) was PC only since PCs only have flash memory BIOSs. Terms like "flash file system" and "upgrade flash" are going to cause a lot of headscratching. I can't wait for someone to call some software "128MB RAM".
I find it interesting that a grep on the page of supported architectures does not get any hits for some of the more mainstream "modern" architectures being used in mobile space. No hits for OMAP or PXA families which are well supported by Linux. Sure there are some old boards (eg StrongARM) but this hardly suggests an OS that is being adopted in mainstream usage in mobile space like Linux is.
The patent is on the OS transport and loading, not on the OS itself. It particularly mentions Linux as an OS that can be loaded.
If you buy one of these people's gizzmos to store Linux then this is OK. If you manufactured an equivalent gizzmo and tried to sell thet then that would not be OK.
There's also an ego thing "We're more inventive than xxxx because we generate more patents".
One way to fix this is with the "patent pending" status that was (and perhaps still is) used in some countries. A pending patent has this standing for a year and can be challenged relatively easily diring this stage. However, there are so many patents being issued in the states that this process just breaks down.
I recently switched to Windows. To show I know a lot about this cutting edge technology I went to a singles bar and tried to pick up a babe. "Say, baby do you want to come to my place and scandisk?".
OK, this is a bit of a generalisation, but how is it that the people with the money tend to be college drop out-types. Even Bill Gates who is/was the richest guy in the world dropped out. What do they do to our brains in there?
Once people are happy with what they have (and most people **are** happy with Microslop), then they are not motivated to buy more. I know a few people who still use Win95 because it is enough. I still use Win98 for the kids games (but with no internet access).
So how do you force people to buy the new stuff? Break the old stuff.
Spending does not equate to results or quality. "We spend more on xxx" means nothing. American salaries are higher, building costs are higher etc etc. A homeless person in NYC probably spends more than a wealthy person in many countries.
I find it interesting that practical applied math is a better teaching tool than abstract math. This makes sense and fits with my experiences as a math tutor. A real tangible example is far more easy to understand and absorb than an abstract approach. For example: (a x b) = (b x a) is really easy to demonstrate with a dozen egg-box. 6x2 is obviously the same as 2x6.
IBM makes quite a few breakthoughs in the lab but they never seem to generate much successful product. Sure they make (or made) RAM chips, microprocessors etc, but they soon get overtaken by other manufacturers. I doubt they ever make money on the silicon they sell. Perhaps they make money when they license their patents etc.
Slashdot Mirror
Most Linux devices won't run an ISO image.
Instead of voting, you run a web plugin from www.diebold.com which looks at the stuff on your hard drive and makes a selection for you.
Let's face it folks, the crazy days of "dot.com" when you got a fat sign-on bonus and a sportscar and insane benefits/packages were not a sustainable real world. They were not the norm. They were a fantasy that was sure to dry up. To get a job with a huge pay then was just too easy. I know a lot of very stupid people and bad programmers that got far more than they deserved.
This fantasy existence could not last and we got "dot.bomb". Hype fed jobs went first, but a lot of good programmers got hurt too. In essence this was an over correction.
Now things are seeming to come on track again with realistic remuneration and a desire for good programmers. Some jobs will stay in the US and some will go offshore and a balance will be found. This is good for the industry in the long run.
GPS was hardly used in Sept 11th. See big building, fly into it. No GPS required.
By the time the US knows they're under attack, it is too late the damage is done. Turning off GPS will instead cause huge confusion. What gets used to track/monitor/control fire trucks, clean up crews,..? Yup commercial grade GPS. What gets used to synchronise the phone systems and internet backbones and all the comms stuff required to execute the clean up?? Yup, commercial grade GPS.
Shutting down GPS will not stop terrorists, it would just make things worse. Perhaps though it would make Joe Sixpack feel that the military is doing its best.
So if your box get 0wned the lights go dim?
What really frustrated the military and Busg about Sept 11 is that they had nobody to point the might of aircraft carriers at.
Nothing shuts up the kids better than computer games etc. Seems to me that inplane internet will make more peace than war.
There are already payphones built into plane seats. Why should cellphones be worse?
When people "scratch an itch", useful things happen.
Still, to get this far is a great effort.
Court orders that ban people from driving very seldom actually stop people from driving.
Court orders that ban people from going near someone they were harrassing/assualting/stalking seldom work.
Go outside with a protractor and a tape measure and figure out the height of a tree. Then follow up by climbing the tree to see if the answer is right. If the kid falls out of the tree, well (s)he gets to learn about gravity as a bonus.
Which kid learns more about frogs? The one who plays the Microsoft Magic Schoolbus game where you get to be a frog or the kid who goes down to the river with a net and a pail and caatches frogs and falls in the river etc etc?
My thoughts exactly. Why does strained silicon suddenly turn up as news? Perhaps the real news is about "stained silicon"? Perhaps it is just reposting Reg news without any editorial skill.
If I wanted to use NetBSD on OMAP I'd still have to do the chip support stuff (or pay to get it done). PXA250 is an obsolete part - where's the support for current PXA27x parts which are very different.
With Linux I can download OMAP and PXA27x support off the www.
NetBSD has some ports to VAX and Apollo - both 1980's hardware. Very useful I'm sure.
NetBSD isn't under GPL which I guess is a good reason why ports to things like OMAP and PXA27x are not in the public domain.
Damn stupid name for some software. It was fine when Flash (the software) was PC only since PCs only have flash memory BIOSs. Terms like "flash file system" and "upgrade flash" are going to cause a lot of headscratching. I can't wait for someone to call some software "128MB RAM".
I find it interesting that a grep on the page of supported architectures does not get any hits for some of the more mainstream "modern" architectures being used in mobile space. No hits for OMAP or PXA families which are well supported by Linux. Sure there are some old boards (eg StrongARM) but this hardly suggests an OS that is being adopted in mainstream usage in mobile space like Linux is.
If you buy one of these people's gizzmos to store Linux then this is OK. If you manufactured an equivalent gizzmo and tried to sell thet then that would not be OK.
One way to fix this is with the "patent pending" status that was (and perhaps still is) used in some countries. A pending patent has this standing for a year and can be challenged relatively easily diring this stage. However, there are so many patents being issued in the states that this process just breaks down.
Maybe I should go back to *nix.
OK, this is a bit of a generalisation, but how is it that the people with the money tend to be college drop out-types. Even Bill Gates who is/was the richest guy in the world dropped out. What do they do to our brains in there?
Once people are happy with what they have (and most people **are** happy with Microslop), then they are not motivated to buy more. I know a few people who still use Win95 because it is enough. I still use Win98 for the kids games (but with no internet access).
So how do you force people to buy the new stuff? Break the old stuff.
I find it interesting that practical applied math is a better teaching tool than abstract math. This makes sense and fits with my experiences as a math tutor. A real tangible example is far more easy to understand and absorb than an abstract approach. For example: (a x b) = (b x a) is really easy to demonstrate with a dozen egg-box. 6x2 is obviously the same as 2x6.
IBM makes quite a few breakthoughs in the lab but they never seem to generate much successful product. Sure they make (or made) RAM chips, microprocessors etc, but they soon get overtaken by other manufacturers. I doubt they ever make money on the silicon they sell. Perhaps they make money when they license their patents etc.
Ones are physically smaller aren't they?
Drive any slower or faster and everything turns to shit. I can't wait to do my 60km commute using this system.