Although I had good experiences ordering a couple games from LGP, I had one bad experience which has me on the fence now. I pre-ordered Gorky 17 in February of 2004, saw no updates for over a year, assumed the project was dead, and wanted either a refund or a different game. When I pre-order something, I assume it is at least nearing completion. If I had thought otherwise, I would not have pre-ordered.
When I emailed Tux Games with this request, I was given the run-around about a bad employee, and a story about flooding. Gorky 17 is (as of 5 minutes ago) listed with no projected release date, and has had no updates on its project page since shortly after I pre-ordered. What do I need to do to either get a refund or a different game? I think 18 months between ordering and expecting to receive a product is being patient enough.
"The Firefox browser I'm typing this into is a result of TCATB, I believe."
Yes it is, though indirectly. TCatB was cited by Netscape Corporation as a primary reason that the Netscape browser source code was released. The Netscape source code sucked so badly, though, that it was eventually discarded in its entirely (I suspect the same thing would happen if Microsoft released the Internet Explorer source code).
The result of the complete rewrite is what used to be the Mozilla suite (the programs have now been unbundled into separate projects). And finally, Firefox is a fork of the Mozilla browser.
"Yes, but would you have said the same thing if you had replaced the word firefox with the word windows in that sentence?"
No, and for two reasons:
1) Windows is too unmaintainable to do something like this reliably. Ballmer himself said so as a reason to stop supporting NT (and yes, XP is still the same old NT crap regardless of what Microsoft PR would have you believe).
2) The Mozilla developers are trustworthy to do the right thing. Microsoft is not.
"His cathedral and bazaar paper was a bunch of pot smoking nonsense."
Of everything ESR has done, for better or for worse, "The Cathedral and The Bazaar" is probably his best work. It was very good, solid writing. Calling it "pot smoking nonsense" indicates you either haven't read it, or just don't understand it.
Using Mandrake 9.2, installing new RPM software is a matter of:
K-Menu | Configuration | Packaging | Install Software [enter root password] [browse or search for program] [check the one(s) I want] [click install]
In actuality, I use urpmi from the command line. It's just faster than navigating the menus. The GUI system uses urpmi under the hood anyway.
Mandrake automatically resolves all the dependencies, automatically downloads the RPMs it needs if they aren't already on the system or distribution CDs, installs the RPMs in the correct order, done.
The RPM packaging system works wonderfully. Whether or not any given RPM installs successfully depends entirely on whether the packager did his job right.
The PostgreSQL RPMs of versions >=8.02 for Red Hat 9.x were badly packaged, as the packager(s) did not change the dependency information from 7.3. The failure of those RPMs to install correctly is a safety feature, not a flaw in the package manager. Not installing is the correct and desired behavior.
I suggest, if you're having this much trouble with manually installing RPMs, to use a newbie-friendly distribution like Mandriva that does it for you.
This non-sequitur makes no sense. Massachusetts using OpenOffice.org has zero impact on your choice of operating systems, as OO.o runs on both.
If you want to run it on Windows, then run it on Windows. If you want to run it on Linux, then run it on Linux. That's the great thing about cross platform applications like OO.o.
Given the recent behavior of the new Litigious Bastards, I will be passing on this, and every other, Blizzard game. There are plenty of game makers who don't think that suing their customer base is a good business plan. I'll buy their games instead.
Linus' historic attitude has been that anyone is free to use the term Linux for legitimate products and services without fee. As such, your TVLinux production (assuming it is a pro-Linux endeavor) will probably be except from the trademark fee.
The whole trademark licensing move seems aimed at those business like LinuxInsider that exist to smear the Linux name. I suspect that this move to enforce the trademark is being made to build history for future cease and desist actions against such companies.
As I understand trademarks, all that is necessary to make a trademark hold up in a court case like this is evidence of active commercial use of the trademark by the holder, and evidence that the holder made efforts to protect the mark. This kind of action by Linus and his representatives builds that body of evidence, even if he allows most of us to use the name without charge.
I white list my cookies with Konqueror. Any site not on the list doesn't get to set cookies. If I go to a site I like or need, and cookies make the site more friendly (auto login and stored preferences), the site goes on the white list.
I have 14 cookies on the system I've been using for the last couple years. This works well since I don't usually surf or browse the web. I use the web because I want something specific. The only exception is a search result from Google when I'm looking for something specific. Then I'll visit sites I've never seen before. They don't get to set cookies either unless I'm sure I'll be returning frequently.
"If you are having anything like multiple hangs per day you should REALLY audit your code."
I wish I could have, but it was a fresh install of NT 5 using nothing but Microsoft software (NT 5, IIS, Microsoft ODBC driver). It was impossible to audit since Microsoft doesn't make its source available. There was nothing else but a simple query+display ASP script. Everything else was simple static HTML. The NT 5 machine would plateau at 100% CPU (both CPUs) 2-3 times per day, and leak 1GB of RAM at those times. This was with only 4 simultaneous web users on a barely tapped T1. We had many other problems with it that eventually broke the Director's will to use it any further.
We replaced Windows with an old version of Red Hat, I rewrote the one ASP script in PHP, and all of our web problems evaporated. Once we got away from Windows, and onto a stable platform, we were able to provide web services that were never able to get past the, "wouldn't this be great" stage on Windows.
We have since been putting all new services on Linux boxes. Linux has been, and will continue, replacing both Windows and Unix in our server room.
Just like Windows Security, Windows Stability is a bad joke. Every single one of our Windows machines (up to and including XP and NT 6 [Win2003]) has to be rebooted at least weekly, while our Linux machines keep running until either kernel upgrades or hardware failures require a shutdown.
"...most of the world does not use google. They use whatever is default from their browser: msn"
The problem with that theory is that people have easy access to both, and they quickly find that MSN (and all the other search engines) suck badly compared to Google.
Google's name spreads like wildfire to even the newest computer users, and they almost can't help themselves but use Google even if their home pages are set to MSN.
Most of the world does use Google because it is vastly superior to everything that exists today.
You are right that people don't care about anything but good results, and that is exactly why so few people use anything but Google.
By the way, your rant about software freedom and Open Source have exactly nothing to do with search engines, and Google represents neither. The Google source code is completely closed and proprietary.
I think it's very unlikely that Google has less than 70% of search engine mindshare.
"Personally I can't remember the last time I used something other than Google for a search...."
The only time I used anything other than Google was when seeing which search engine would list my personal web site (Yahoo and MSN do, Google doesn't). Aside from that, nobody else comes even remotely close to the result relevence of Google.
I think the reason my site doesn't appear on Google (even using exact naming and quotes) is because Google doesn't list sites that it hasn't encountered for a least one year. My site is just now crossing the one year threshold, so I'll see if Google starts picking it up.
"Except... W... T... F! is he blathering on about?!?"
Don't feel too bad, as Martin Taylor doesn't know what Martin Taylor is blathering on about either. Never forget that he is a marketer, not a developer. He has zero idea what causes a buffer overrun. He doesn't even know what a buffer overrun is.
That's because the article applies the inappropriate term of "desktop license" to the software. The software license is the GPL. Period.
What the school is paying for is support. If the school wanted to support its own desktops, then there would be no money that would have to be paid to Novell regardless of the number of copies the school installed on their desktops.
Repeat after me: The software is licensed under the GPL. There is no per-copy licensing fee for the software.
"Goodbye to all those who just wanted to get rich quick. I look forward to working with you brave students who are chosing your career based on a love of technology."
I agree completely. While it's just barely more complex than this, the layoffs and outsourcing we're seeing now and in the past few years are natural consequences of a vast oversupply of human capital in a glutted industry. We are merely seeing the market venting overcapacity.
Unfortunately, the venting process doesn't always differentiate between talentless hacks and skilled artisans, so there are periods of over-venting where people who really belong in the industry get carried away with those who don't.
Almost every class I took in college (I went late in life; long story) was filled with people who hated the entire software development process, but were lured by the promise of big money. These people have thankfully all abandoned the industry (willingly or not).
Now we're left with the type of people we had before the hype -- the people who have a passion for the process, and they number far fewer than the number of people we had when the bubble burst. And that's great news.
"Millions of people now HAVE to buy new TVs. Is it time to invest in Sony?"
No. If you had read the story, you would have seen the part that said a digital to analog converter box can be had for (currently) $50. By 2009, the price of that box will go down to something around $35. What you will see is one of three things to keep analog TVs working:
1) People with analog TVs will go out and buy the converter for their existing TVs.
2) People will buy new analog TVs with the converter box already integrated into the set.
3) People will buy a new analog TV and external converter box.
Analog TVs are still about 10 times less expensive than most digital TVs, and are not going away until TVs as a whole are relegated to history.
I wish I could mod you as "+10, It's about frickin' time". This urban legend that keyboarding causes RSI has been eating away at my last ragged nerve for a long time now.
Studies or no studies, it should be plainly obvious that keyboards do not cause cause injuries unless you feed them after dark.
While I'm on the subject, split keyboards not only do not keep my wrists straight, they do just the opposite. In order to type of one of those monsters, I have to bend my wrists in an unnatural and highly uncomfortable position. The person who designed those needs to:
1) Have his Crack pipe confiscated. 2) Be taken out and shot.
On a slight tangent, in response to a different poster, if hitting those oddly placed keys a lot makes you contort your wrists, making your wrists hurt, then use another technique to hit those keys.
There is nothing wrong with using a stronger, longer finger to hit the '1' key, for example. Formal typing, way back when I was forced to take a formal typing class, said to use the little finger to hit that key. That's just impractical and hard. I find it much easier to twist my wrist ever so slightly so I can hit that key with my middle finger.
Formal typing also says that the wrists should hover above the keyboard, which is psychotic and painful. I have always rested my wrists on the edge of the table while typing. I type for ten hours a day on average, rotating my wrists periodically, and have done so for the last 20 years. I have had absolutely zero problems with wrist pain.
The bottom line is to find a typing position and style that suit you and are comfortable for you, and realize that there is nothing significantly wrong with the standard keyboard layout or the keyboards themselves.
Re:Now that the copyright issues have been sorted
on
The New C Standard
·
· Score: 1
"...and the GPL was finally successfully tested in court."
The GPL has been specifically enforced by a judge in at least the German court system. In the U.S. court system, even SCO eventually agreed to the legitimacy of the GPL in court filings to save its ass from IBM's countersuit. GPL violators in the United States have been hit with court injunctions to compel them to abide by its terms.
The notion that the GPL needs to be tested in court is history, as it has been vindicated many times by actual court actions.
"I believe that developers comprehend code just like a computer, one line at a time."
Coders that are responsible for a relatively minor program or portion of such a program may think this way. Developers who are developing, rather than just coding, cannot possibly succeed this way.
Developers have to be able to think in terms of the big picture, even when coding a specific section of a program. Trying to develop a large application by focusing one line at a time is like trying to navigate around the world by only viewing the map in one-inch chunks. Both will get nowhere fast.
Slashdot Mirror
"Locking children into boxes and not giving them any privileges or responsibilities is not a good way to prepare them for the real world."
It will prepare about 10% of Americans for the real world. Or at least the real world as they are going to know it.
Although I had good experiences ordering a couple games from LGP, I had one bad experience which has me on the fence now. I pre-ordered Gorky 17 in February of 2004, saw no updates for over a year, assumed the project was dead, and wanted either a refund or a different game. When I pre-order something, I assume it is at least nearing completion. If I had thought otherwise, I would not have pre-ordered.
When I emailed Tux Games with this request, I was given the run-around about a bad employee, and a story about flooding. Gorky 17 is (as of 5 minutes ago) listed with no projected release date, and has had no updates on its project page since shortly after I pre-ordered. What do I need to do to either get a refund or a different game? I think 18 months between ordering and expecting to receive a product is being patient enough.
It's not music downloads that get a person into trouble. It's music uploads.
"The Firefox browser I'm typing this into is a result of TCATB, I believe."
Yes it is, though indirectly. TCatB was cited by Netscape Corporation as a primary reason that the Netscape browser source code was released. The Netscape source code sucked so badly, though, that it was eventually discarded in its entirely (I suspect the same thing would happen if Microsoft released the Internet Explorer source code).
The result of the complete rewrite is what used to be the Mozilla suite (the programs have now been unbundled into separate projects). And finally, Firefox is a fork of the Mozilla browser.
"Yes, but would you have said the same thing if you had replaced the word firefox with the word windows in that sentence?"
No, and for two reasons:
1) Windows is too unmaintainable to do something like this reliably. Ballmer himself said so as a reason to stop supporting NT (and yes, XP is still the same old NT crap regardless of what Microsoft PR would have you believe).
2) The Mozilla developers are trustworthy to do the right thing. Microsoft is not.
"His cathedral and bazaar paper was a bunch of pot smoking nonsense."
Of everything ESR has done, for better or for worse, "The Cathedral and The Bazaar" is probably his best work. It was very good, solid writing. Calling it "pot smoking nonsense" indicates you either haven't read it, or just don't understand it.
[install Hell snipped]
Using Mandrake 9.2, installing new RPM software is a matter of:
K-Menu | Configuration | Packaging | Install Software
[enter root password]
[browse or search for program]
[check the one(s) I want]
[click install]
In actuality, I use urpmi from the command line. It's just faster than navigating the menus. The GUI system uses urpmi under the hood anyway.
Mandrake automatically resolves all the dependencies, automatically downloads the RPMs it needs if they aren't already on the system or distribution CDs, installs the RPMs in the correct order, done.
The RPM packaging system works wonderfully. Whether or not any given RPM installs successfully depends entirely on whether the packager did his job right.
The PostgreSQL RPMs of versions >=8.02 for Red Hat 9.x were badly packaged, as the packager(s) did not change the dependency information from 7.3. The failure of those RPMs to install correctly is a safety feature, not a flaw in the package manager. Not installing is the correct and desired behavior.
I suggest, if you're having this much trouble with manually installing RPMs, to use a newbie-friendly distribution like Mandriva that does it for you.
This non-sequitur makes no sense. Massachusetts using OpenOffice.org has zero impact on your choice of operating systems, as OO.o runs on both.
If you want to run it on Windows, then run it on Windows. If you want to run it on Linux, then run it on Linux. That's the great thing about cross platform applications like OO.o.
Graphics, sounds, videos, and OO.o OLE objects are all options on the OO.o 1.1.0 insertion menu.
The introduction implied that it was a Blizzard game:
"Like most of the games that Blizzard has produced...."
If it's not a Blizzard game, then I may change my mind.
"...your bandwidth costs are through the roof."
Probably not. Most places that big, at least in the States, pay a fixed (but large) monthly fee for unmetered broadband and guaranteed throughput.
Given the recent behavior of the new Litigious Bastards, I will be passing on this, and every other, Blizzard game. There are plenty of game makers who don't think that suing their customer base is a good business plan. I'll buy their games instead.
Linus' historic attitude has been that anyone is free to use the term Linux for legitimate products and services without fee. As such, your TVLinux production (assuming it is a pro-Linux endeavor) will probably be except from the trademark fee.
The whole trademark licensing move seems aimed at those business like LinuxInsider that exist to smear the Linux name. I suspect that this move to enforce the trademark is being made to build history for future cease and desist actions against such companies.
As I understand trademarks, all that is necessary to make a trademark hold up in a court case like this is evidence of active commercial use of the trademark by the holder, and evidence that the holder made efforts to protect the mark. This kind of action by Linus and his representatives builds that body of evidence, even if he allows most of us to use the name without charge.
I white list my cookies with Konqueror. Any site not on the list doesn't get to set cookies. If I go to a site I like or need, and cookies make the site more friendly (auto login and stored preferences), the site goes on the white list.
I have 14 cookies on the system I've been using for the last couple years. This works well since I don't usually surf or browse the web. I use the web because I want something specific. The only exception is a search result from Google when I'm looking for something specific. Then I'll visit sites I've never seen before. They don't get to set cookies either unless I'm sure I'll be returning frequently.
"If you are having anything like multiple hangs per day you should REALLY audit your code."
I wish I could have, but it was a fresh install of NT 5 using nothing but Microsoft software (NT 5, IIS, Microsoft ODBC driver). It was impossible to audit since Microsoft doesn't make its source available. There was nothing else but a simple query+display ASP script. Everything else was simple static HTML. The NT 5 machine would plateau at 100% CPU (both CPUs) 2-3 times per day, and leak 1GB of RAM at those times. This was with only 4 simultaneous web users on a barely tapped T1. We had many other problems with it that eventually broke the Director's will to use it any further.
We replaced Windows with an old version of Red Hat, I rewrote the one ASP script in PHP, and all of our web problems evaporated. Once we got away from Windows, and onto a stable platform, we were able to provide web services that were never able to get past the, "wouldn't this be great" stage on Windows.
We have since been putting all new services on Linux boxes. Linux has been, and will continue, replacing both Windows and Unix in our server room.
Just like Windows Security, Windows Stability is a bad joke. Every single one of our Windows machines (up to and including XP and NT 6 [Win2003]) has to be rebooted at least weekly, while our Linux machines keep running until either kernel upgrades or hardware failures require a shutdown.
"...most of the world does not use google. They use whatever is default from their browser: msn"
The problem with that theory is that people have easy access to both, and they quickly find that MSN (and all the other search engines) suck badly compared to Google.
Google's name spreads like wildfire to even the newest computer users, and they almost can't help themselves but use Google even if their home pages are set to MSN.
Most of the world does use Google because it is vastly superior to everything that exists today.
You are right that people don't care about anything but good results, and that is exactly why so few people use anything but Google.
By the way, your rant about software freedom and Open Source have exactly nothing to do with search engines, and Google represents neither. The Google source code is completely closed and proprietary.
I think it's very unlikely that Google has less than 70% of search engine mindshare.
"Personally I can't remember the last time I used something other than Google for a search...."
The only time I used anything other than Google was when seeing which search engine would list my personal web site (Yahoo and MSN do, Google doesn't). Aside from that, nobody else comes even remotely close to the result relevence of Google.
I think the reason my site doesn't appear on Google (even using exact naming and quotes) is because Google doesn't list sites that it hasn't encountered for a least one year. My site is just now crossing the one year threshold, so I'll see if Google starts picking it up.
"Except... W... T... F! is he blathering on about?!?"
Don't feel too bad, as Martin Taylor doesn't know what Martin Taylor is blathering on about either. Never forget that he is a marketer, not a developer. He has zero idea what causes a buffer overrun. He doesn't even know what a buffer overrun is.
That's because the article applies the inappropriate term of "desktop license" to the software. The software license is the GPL. Period.
What the school is paying for is support. If the school wanted to support its own desktops, then there would be no money that would have to be paid to Novell regardless of the number of copies the school installed on their desktops.
Repeat after me: The software is licensed under the GPL. There is no per-copy licensing fee for the software.
"Goodbye to all those who just wanted to get rich quick. I look forward to working with you brave students who are chosing your career based on a love of technology."
I agree completely. While it's just barely more complex than this, the layoffs and outsourcing we're seeing now and in the past few years are natural consequences of a vast oversupply of human capital in a glutted industry. We are merely seeing the market venting overcapacity.
Unfortunately, the venting process doesn't always differentiate between talentless hacks and skilled artisans, so there are periods of over-venting where people who really belong in the industry get carried away with those who don't.
Almost every class I took in college (I went late in life; long story) was filled with people who hated the entire software development process, but were lured by the promise of big money. These people have thankfully all abandoned the industry (willingly or not).
Now we're left with the type of people we had before the hype -- the people who have a passion for the process, and they number far fewer than the number of people we had when the bubble burst. And that's great news.
"Millions of people now HAVE to buy new TVs. Is it time to invest in Sony?"
No. If you had read the story, you would have seen the part that said a digital to analog converter box can be had for (currently) $50. By 2009, the price of that box will go down to something around $35. What you will see is one of three things to keep analog TVs working:
1) People with analog TVs will go out and buy the converter for their existing TVs.
2) People will buy new analog TVs with the converter box already integrated into the set.
3) People will buy a new analog TV and external converter box.
Analog TVs are still about 10 times less expensive than most digital TVs, and are not going away until TVs as a whole are relegated to history.
I wish I could mod you as "+10, It's about frickin' time". This urban legend that keyboarding causes RSI has been eating away at my last ragged nerve for a long time now.
Studies or no studies, it should be plainly obvious that keyboards do not cause cause injuries unless you feed them after dark.
While I'm on the subject, split keyboards not only do not keep my wrists straight, they do just the opposite. In order to type of one of those monsters, I have to bend my wrists in an unnatural and highly uncomfortable position. The person who designed those needs to:
1) Have his Crack pipe confiscated.
2) Be taken out and shot.
On a slight tangent, in response to a different poster, if hitting those oddly placed keys a lot makes you contort your wrists, making your wrists hurt, then use another technique to hit those keys.
There is nothing wrong with using a stronger, longer finger to hit the '1' key, for example. Formal typing, way back when I was forced to take a formal typing class, said to use the little finger to hit that key. That's just impractical and hard. I find it much easier to twist my wrist ever so slightly so I can hit that key with my middle finger.
Formal typing also says that the wrists should hover above the keyboard, which is psychotic and painful. I have always rested my wrists on the edge of the table while typing. I type for ten hours a day on average, rotating my wrists periodically, and have done so for the last 20 years. I have had absolutely zero problems with wrist pain.
The bottom line is to find a typing position and style that suit you and are comfortable for you, and realize that there is nothing significantly wrong with the standard keyboard layout or the keyboards themselves.
"...and the GPL was finally successfully tested in court."
The GPL has been specifically enforced by a judge in at least the German court system. In the U.S. court system, even SCO eventually agreed to the legitimacy of the GPL in court filings to save its ass from IBM's countersuit. GPL violators in the United States have been hit with court injunctions to compel them to abide by its terms.
The notion that the GPL needs to be tested in court is history, as it has been vindicated many times by actual court actions.
"I believe that developers comprehend code just like a computer, one line at a time."
Coders that are responsible for a relatively minor program or portion of such a program may think this way. Developers who are developing, rather than just coding, cannot possibly succeed this way.
Developers have to be able to think in terms of the big picture, even when coding a specific section of a program. Trying to develop a large application by focusing one line at a time is like trying to navigate around the world by only viewing the map in one-inch chunks. Both will get nowhere fast.
"OK, so if vendor support has gotten better, then which vendors does this CIO recommend?"
The story says that Red Hat and IBM were the vendors used, and that they did very well in the crisis. I'm guessing that he's recommending both.
In any event, the CIO said that he is definitely staying with Red Hat Linux, as it's extremely dependable.