The reason hard disks etc are seperate devices is because they have mechanical parts that require motors etc to work. If this is going to be replaced by memory chips then why not just integrate the whole lot on the motherboard as just another plug in memory module? Why make it slower by passing it through SCSI or ATA not to mention the extra cost of including the interface electronics?
"people take reams of printer paper home. it happens. ditto blank CD's, pens, you-name-it. computer monitors, desk chairs, all these things go home with people."
printer paper , pens etc sure. But computer monitors and chairs? C'mon , how the hell would you walk out of the building with one of those without someone noticing?? Besides , if that did happen it would move from being minor pilfering to genuine theft and anyone who got caught would be fired on the spot. Hardly worth it for a $50 chair.
It is bloatware. It takes a HUGE amount of disk space and runs like a dog. WHat other definition do you need? And a desktop enviroment is nothing more than a common look and feel, a few fancy toys with a common method of app communication. Ie its a window manager with knobs on. And before anyone thinks I'm talking out my arse I've written my own WM (which I can post a link for if anyones interested).
You can't say that! It might be true! And as we know , truth and political correctness are not happy bedfellows. Don't forget that liberals don't live in the same world as normal people , they inhabit Planet Headinthesand which means the only orifice they have left to communicate out of is their arses.
I mean seeing and having to worry about sexism and racism everywhere , boy your life must be one big bag of fun. And I bet you're a real fun guy to be around too. Don't forget , if you're really hacked off with being a man and having a penis , well , you can always go get the snip snip and really experience what being a woman is like then you can be a fully paid up member of the Poor Lil Me I'm A Victim association with perhaps an honourary membership of the Banging My Drum society.
"society at large treats women like property, stupid and unthinking, and expects them to act that way,"
Which society? Certainly most muslim societies and lots of backwards countries like in africa but most western countries are more enlightened. IMO the real reason is that women in general are less interested in technology than men , just as men are less interested in clothes and hair than women. You can argue whether its nurture or nature but anyone who has kids knows nature has a LOT to do with it.
Or does it still suck up disk and cpu like its going out of fashion? Until the teams at KDE and Gnome can write efficient code as well as they can write bloatware then I'm sticking with Afterstep. Still , they wanted to emulate Windows and they've done it in more ways than many people thought they would.
Yeah , mod me down as a troll if you will but lots of other people I know who use linux and BSD are of the same opinion.
Implying that an MCSE is a path to a career in programming or computer science is like saying that a certificate in oil and air filter changing from Micks auto shop is a stepping stone into car engineering and design! Sorry , I'm not trying to be anti MS but MCSEs are just mickey mouse qualifications (and frankly a lot of other companys in house certs arn't much better). Learning to do A,B or C if X,Y or Z happens is NOT computer science!
"More and more of Earth's communications use cable and satellites, with no radio-frequency leakage to space"
What , you mean like GSM, 3G , Wi-Fi, Bluetooth etc etc. Ok , these are relatively low power but I think if anything MORE data is going over radio that ever before albeit perhaps the *percentage* of total data over air is going down.
...it won't work if the X server doesn't support it. AFAIK XFree doesn't though I haven't been keeping up recently. Perhaps X.org will add the functionality? You can simulate transparent windows at the Xlib layer but by god its slow if done this way especially if the X server and client are on different machines if you want the window to be transparent when being dragged around the screen in realtime then forget it.
This is one of the reasons I use Slackware. I want the genuine kernel , not some bastardised version hacked about by some kernel team wannabe in some backroom at Deadrat or whereever who thinks he can do better than the real kernel hackers. Screw that.
I am a british citizen and as far as I'm concerned the legal parasites who run the UK courts have not the slightest bit of interest in the rights of the ordinary citizen as they've demonstrated over and over again. All they're interested in is cuddling up to big business and various politically correct pressure groups. If you want an example a bunch of afghan aircraft hijackers have recently been given political asylum. Yes thats right HIJACKERS! I'm sorry if this seems like a troll , its not meant to be , I'm just someone who feels like big brother is rapily descending in this country and we don't have the power to do anything about it. This example with the mod chips is just another small example.
"won't be going anywhere near the critical systems you list"
Yet! Since when has MS ever stopped short of trying to corner a whole market if at all possible? Windows for Vehicles might be a bit of a gag now but don't bet it won't ever happen since car ECUs are just another embedded system and MS already have WinNT embedded to play with.
"Smalltalk has the tendency to empower both end user and programmer."
Oh please! Yet another evangalist for yet another computer language. Sorry friend , but there is NO computer language on a normal Von Neumann computer that exists that gives ANY more power to a user than assembly code. I don't mean this to be a troll but as we all know anything that can be done in a high level language by definition is possible in assembler/machine code. All a high level language does is make it EASIER to do , it does not ENABLE it in the first place. I do think some people when promoting their language-of-them-month do seem to think that it brings something to the table that has never been possible before. The ONLY way that can happen is by using fundamantaly different hardware designs , it CANNOT be done just by changing the software (ie the programming language).
"Some things that could never have existed without computers"
True , but I think you could have picked better examples than a paint mixer and a car ECU! As for truly portable music , umm , well I hate to point it out to you but that was available back in the 70s. It just happened to use cassette tape and some simple analogue electronics. MP3 players in their concept are no different whatsoever from the first Sony walkman and in fact are simply re-inventing the wheel in a much more complex and expensive (if slightly more convenient) way.
"The whole point of the X-prize competition is to encourage the development of rocket vehicles that would be capable of spaceflight, "
Indeed , and because of that its a very laudable endeavour. My point is simply that Spaceship One is not (yet) a spaceship. One day it or its descendents probably will be but its just premature to call it one now. The mans achievement is impressive but I do get the feeling that he's claiming he's running before he's really even walked. Though as usual on slashdot if you're not 100% for something then you must be 100% against in the kind of adolescent logic that prevails on here and hence it gets modded as a troll by some 14 year old half wit moderator.
Is it? Well in that case they won't need to modify it at all to into orbit will they? Whats that? It can't do it? But you just said its a proper spacecraft. So its a spacecraft that can't stay in space. Make your mind up.
Its an aircraft with a rocket motor attached. Real spaceships can't use wings to slow themselves down and manuouveaure because there is no air to do it in! I'm sorry if I sound churlish but this whole enterprise to me smacks more of someones ego than anything practical. When they've solved the problems of manourveuring in a vacuum , long duration human life support (an O2 cylinder doesn't really count) , proper re-entry from near orbital speeds (which are required for any useful flights other than just oooh-isn't-it-pretty quick hops) involving heat shields and all the other necessaties than the US & Russia spent BILLIONS on developing THEN I'll be impressed. But a small plane with a rocket shoved up its backside? Umm no , sorry , its not a spacecraft.
Does anyone know how hard it is to upgrade to the 2.6 kernel if you go for the standard 2.4 install with this dist? Do the seperate installs literally just install different kernels or does it install different versions of libraries too which would need to updated on a manual upgrade?
"Many words are similar in English and French as both languages evolved along side each other "
Actually it has more to do with the Normans invading england in 1066 and dumping literally thousands of french words into the english language. English is an unusual language in that its actually a true amalgamation of a number of languages (anglosaxon , norman french and old norse with a few others thrown into the mix too). Generally (linguists don't flame me ok) it has germanic verbs & nouns + norman french nouns and scandinavian grammar (eg verb comes before object in sentence)
Slashdot Mirror
The reason hard disks etc are seperate devices is because they have mechanical parts that require motors etc to work. If this is going to be replaced by memory chips then why not just integrate the whole lot on the motherboard as just another plug in memory module? Why make it slower by passing it through SCSI or ATA not to mention the extra cost of including the interface electronics?
"people take reams of printer paper home. it happens. ditto blank CD's, pens, you-name-it. computer monitors, desk chairs, all these things go home with people."
printer paper , pens etc sure. But computer monitors and chairs? C'mon , how the hell would you walk out of the building with one of those without someone noticing?? Besides , if that did happen it would move from being minor pilfering to genuine theft and anyone who got caught would be fired on the spot. Hardly worth it for a $50 chair.
I've been out with enough women to know what they're generally interested in. You're the exception to the rule. When were you a man last?
It is bloatware. It takes a HUGE amount of disk space and runs like a dog. WHat other definition do you need? And a desktop enviroment is nothing more than a common look and feel, a few fancy toys with a common method of app communication. Ie its a window manager with knobs on. And before anyone thinks I'm talking out my arse I've written my own WM (which I can post a link for if anyones interested).
Laugh if you will. But try getting even a job in a lot of arab countries if you're a woman.
You can't say that! It might be true! And as we know , truth and political correctness are not happy bedfellows. Don't forget that liberals don't live in the same world as normal people , they inhabit Planet Headinthesand which means the only orifice they have left to communicate out of is their arses.
I mean seeing and having to worry about sexism and racism everywhere , boy your life must be one big bag of fun. And I bet you're a real fun guy to be around too. Don't forget , if you're really hacked off with being a man and having a penis , well , you can always go get the snip snip and really experience what being a woman is like then you can be a fully paid up member of the Poor Lil Me I'm A Victim association with perhaps an honourary membership of the Banging My Drum society.
"society at large treats women like property, stupid and unthinking, and expects them to act that way,"
Which society? Certainly most muslim societies and lots of backwards countries like in africa but most western countries are more enlightened. IMO the real reason is that women in general are less interested in technology than men , just as men are less interested in clothes and hair than women. You can argue whether its nurture or nature but anyone who has kids knows nature has a LOT to do with it.
Or does it still suck up disk and cpu like its going out of fashion? Until the teams at KDE and Gnome can write efficient code as well as they can write bloatware then I'm sticking with Afterstep. Still , they wanted to emulate Windows and they've done it in more ways than many people thought they would.
Yeah , mod me down as a troll if you will but lots of other people I know who use linux and BSD are of the same opinion.
Implying that an MCSE is a path to a career in programming or computer science is like saying that a certificate in oil and air filter changing from Micks auto shop is a stepping stone into car engineering and design! Sorry , I'm not trying to be anti MS but MCSEs are just mickey mouse qualifications (and frankly a lot of other companys in house certs arn't much better). Learning to do A,B or C if X,Y or Z happens is NOT computer science!
"More and more of Earth's communications use cable and satellites, with no radio-frequency leakage to space"
What , you mean like GSM, 3G , Wi-Fi, Bluetooth etc etc. Ok , these are relatively low power but I think if anything MORE data is going over radio that ever before albeit perhaps the *percentage* of total data over air is going down.
...it won't work if the X server doesn't support it. AFAIK XFree doesn't though I haven't been keeping up recently. Perhaps X.org will add the functionality? You can simulate transparent windows at the Xlib layer but by god its slow if done this way especially if the X server and client are on different machines if you want the window to be transparent when being dragged around the screen in realtime then forget it.
This is one of the reasons I use Slackware. I want the genuine kernel , not some bastardised version hacked about by some kernel team wannabe in some backroom at Deadrat or whereever who thinks he can do better than the real kernel hackers. Screw that.
I am a british citizen and as far as I'm concerned the legal parasites who run the UK courts have not the slightest bit of interest in the rights of the ordinary citizen as they've demonstrated over and over again. All they're interested in is cuddling up to big business and various politically correct pressure groups. If you want an example a bunch of afghan aircraft hijackers have recently been given political asylum. Yes thats right HIJACKERS! I'm sorry if this seems like a troll , its not meant to be , I'm just someone who feels like big brother is rapily descending in this country and we don't have the power to do anything about it. This example with the mod chips is just another small example.
"won't be going anywhere near the critical systems you list"
Yet! Since when has MS ever stopped short of trying to corner a whole market if at all possible? Windows for Vehicles might be a bit of a gag now but don't bet it won't ever happen since car ECUs are just another embedded system and MS already have WinNT embedded to play with.
"Smalltalk has the tendency to empower both end user and programmer."
Oh please! Yet another evangalist for yet another computer language. Sorry friend , but there is NO computer language on a normal Von Neumann computer that exists that gives ANY more power to a user than assembly code. I don't mean this to be a troll but as we all know anything that can be done in a high level language by definition is possible in assembler/machine code. All a high level language does is make it EASIER to do , it does not ENABLE it in the first place. I do think some people when promoting their language-of-them-month do seem to think that it brings something to the table that has never been possible before. The ONLY way that can happen is by using fundamantaly different hardware designs , it CANNOT be done just by changing the software (ie the programming language).
"Some things that could never have existed without computers"
True , but I think you could have picked better examples than a paint mixer and a car ECU! As for truly portable music , umm , well I hate to point it out to you but that was available back in the 70s. It just happened to use cassette tape and some simple analogue electronics. MP3 players in their concept are no different whatsoever from the first Sony walkman and in fact are simply re-inventing the wheel in a much more complex and expensive (if slightly more convenient) way.
"You were looking to pick a fight."
Thats your interpretation. It happened to be something known as an "opinion"
"Stop posting like a troll and you'll stop getting modded as a troll"
And how about you stop being such a jerk? Now THATS picking a fight.
"The whole point of the X-prize competition is to encourage the development of rocket vehicles that would be capable of spaceflight, "
Indeed , and because of that its a very laudable endeavour. My point is simply that Spaceship One is not (yet) a spaceship. One day it or its descendents probably will be but its just premature to call it one now. The mans achievement is impressive but I do get the feeling that he's claiming he's running before he's really even walked. Though as usual on slashdot if you're not 100% for something then you must be 100% against in the kind of adolescent logic that prevails on here and hence it gets modded as a troll by some 14 year old half wit moderator.
"You mean like the space shuttle?"
If it had all the things the space shuttle has then yes. But it doesn't. Your point is?
"You actually think the only acceptible first demo would have been a fully-staffed ship doing a few orbits then a nice firey re-entry?"
Yes. Otherwise its like the Wright Brothers flying their 50 yards then saying how they've just invented the first transcontinental flight.
"You never even heard of the X-prize until last week, did you?."
Oh come on , even you could have come up with a better sign-off putdown than that. Thats a ten out of ten on the lame-ometer.
"It's a spacecraft"
Is it? Well in that case they won't need to modify it at all to into orbit will they? Whats that? It can't do it? But you just said its a proper spacecraft. So its a spacecraft that can't stay in space. Make your mind up.
Its an aircraft with a rocket motor attached. Real spaceships can't use wings to slow themselves down and manuouveaure because there is no air to do it in! I'm sorry if I sound churlish but this whole enterprise to me smacks more of someones ego than anything practical. When they've solved the problems of manourveuring in a vacuum , long duration human life support (an O2 cylinder doesn't really count) , proper re-entry from near orbital speeds (which are required for any useful flights other than just oooh-isn't-it-pretty quick hops) involving heat shields and all the other necessaties than the US & Russia spent BILLIONS on developing THEN I'll be impressed. But a small plane with a rocket shoved up its backside? Umm no , sorry , its not a spacecraft.
Does anyone know how hard it is to upgrade to the 2.6 kernel if you go for the standard 2.4 install with this dist? Do the seperate installs literally just install different kernels or does it install different versions of libraries too which would need to updated on a manual upgrade?
They conquered england. They didn't exactly make much headway in wales until the next century and never made it far into scotland.
"Many words are similar in English and French as both languages evolved along side each other "
Actually it has more to do with the Normans invading england in 1066 and dumping literally thousands of french words into the english language. English is an unusual language in that its actually a true amalgamation of a number of languages (anglosaxon , norman french and old norse with a few others thrown into the mix too). Generally (linguists don't flame me ok) it has germanic verbs & nouns + norman french nouns and scandinavian grammar (eg verb comes before object in sentence)