I'm sure others have already commented on this, but I find it interesting that they take this decision while SCO have a representative (to say the least) around. Okay, he's not visiting them, but I think it relevant.
I'd be interested to see a breakdown of the TCO (or operating costs - is there a difference?)
I'd really love to see some technical details of the solution as soon as they are available.
it pays to learn C and Java as your first structured and OO languages,
Just to clarify, you aren't claiming that C is OO, are you - you mean "structured and OO language, respectively" right? That's okay then... Yeah, I'll go with that, although C++ is pretty damn good as an OO language, especially for someone who knows C.
following up with VB
Why would people move from good, useful languages that they have the hang of, to use VB? I'm not trying to MS-Bash here, but what use is VB if you are a competent coder in pretty much any other language? And don't say RAD - you can get RAD tools for C++, Jave, Object Pascal, and others.
Re-usable craft are (in theory) safer, potentially cost-saving (although they haven't been so far), have tended to be more spacious, and have a significant psychological effect, which should not be discounted.
On an entirely personal note, I would like to say that I hope things pan out well for all of the world's space programmes. There is so much to be gained, both obviously and potentially, from exploration and exploitation of our near space and solar system.
However, safety and quality of equipment must be a primary concern. I hope NASA (and maybe other agencies around the world) are researching new forms of reusable craft...
It is mentioned in the article, and in some comments before mine, that the DOJ seems to be scared of Microsoft. Indeed, the behaviour even seems to suggest it - they are behaving very trepidatiously, despite their obvious power within the US.
My question is, why are they scared? What have they to be scared of?
Of course, the 'last mile' of this plan is quite a difficult hurdle too - an area of the radio spectrum isn't free until the relevant authorities in an area say so. I am willing to bet that they won't say so until there is negligible use of the band by the 'old' use, either.
This is a sign of a step towards greater availability, but still a long way off. Good show though, and I hope it makes its way there sooner or later. Unfortunately widespread adoption of new radio technology (such as DAB) always seems to be slow. I'm not old enough to remember the introduction of FM, but was that slow too?
Confuse the meaning of the word 'Unix'. Everything I have read on this topic - the OSI position paper, extracts of the original SCO suit, and all the SCO PR makes it sound like SCO are claiming that anything unix derives ultimately from their IP. Would there be any validity to that? I doubt it, personally.
This will obviously come and bite them in the backside before too long
It implies that either SCO stole from linux, linux from SCO, or they mutually copied from a third party - could as easily be any of the three.
Re:Very nice, humane, but...
on
Chicken Run
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Sure electrocution is not the best way to do it, but I guess we just have to hope that some creative person can think of a way.
Just to point out - the electric shock does not kill them, merely hurt like hell and stun them so the corpse doesn't keep moving.
The chickens aren't really alive after beheading, when they run around, just certain bits of muscle and nervous system keep going on inertia. The chicken no longer perceives pain. The only reason not to behead without the shock is to make the execution easier and thus cheaper.
Re:Very nice, humane, but...
on
Chicken Run
·
· Score: 1
Just to pretend you put that more politely, I will reply to the valid question (in case people aren't familiar with the idea of humane slaughter).
If you were (or indeed are) in a country/state with the death penalty, would you rather be hung, gassed, put in the electric chair, or killed by lethal injection? Tip: one is far less painful than the others. In just the same way, there is no good reason to cause an animal more pain than necessary when slaughtering it for food. Lethal-injection equivalents are obviously out, as they tend to be expensive, and make the meat poisonous. However, there are usually better solutions than those that are currently practiced.
Very nice, humane, but...
on
Chicken Run
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
I personally would like to see more effort and ingenuity go into finding ways to kill the birds more humanely. I for one wouldn't want to go by being dipped in electrified water *then* beheaded. Just the beheading will do me, if it has to be done.
Don't get me wrong - I support the eating of meat, for those who choose to (like me) - I just wish we could do it in more sensible, humane ways.
Ah but he does very much exist...
Andy Serkis is a graduate of my very own Lancaster University and did a very marvelous job of portraying gollum.
The animators used actual footage of Serkis acting out the role in a silly skintight body stocking, and the voice is all him. I am particularly impressed by gollum's dialogue with himself
The look of the graphics looks to me like an attempt to recover as much, stylistically speaking, from the original NES game as possible.
However, ignoring timelines for a moment, Super Metroid on the SNES rather struck me as an extended remake of the original Metroid anyway - how much scope is there to do this again?
Looking back to timelines, then it strikes me that this could go either way - it could sort out the minor hiccups in the timeline, *or* it could confuse it more. Just have to wait and see.
Isn't it both a matter of study and anecdotal evidence that corporations (and sometimes individuals) generally try and stifle competition in a new industry, to their ultimate disadvantage?
For one, do you really expect Microsoft to admit publicly to any underhand tactics - unless you count halloween documents.
For two, it's been a reasonably popular view that SCO are a Microsoft Puppet for some time. I can't say whether it's true or not - I don't know. All I can say is that it seems to fit the evidence quite well.
What else is new?
on
Gator Examined
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Well, we did all kinda know that gator was obnoxious, especially those of us who inadvertently installed it when it was quite new. While what it does is obnoxious, it really isn't as bad as how it gets on peoples systems in the first place.
My experience was that the user was forced to swallow gator along with software that they actually want, and was not told accurately or fully what gator would actually do. Just a nice little flowery version that makes it sound like a good thing.
I will read the Spamhaus response, when I can actually get to it.
In any case, one can only hope that this somehow bites the spammers on the butt more than if they hadn't bothered in the first place. And why does everyone act as if the US courts have global jurisdiction?
I was in fact attempting to stop any reader who does not appreciate the distinction from receiving an incorrect idea. If it came across as distortion, or as pedantism, then I failed to express myself clearly.
Linux as an operating system, or kernel, is not aimed at any graphical work, and allows for it in no user-level manner. It merely allows other systems, such as X, or framebuffer consoles, or SVGAMode or whatever to access the hardware to do such things. So I dislike seeing someone criticise a system for the failure of something that is merely a commom addon.
And yes, I do regularly use linux systems without any sort of GUI. Unless you count screen, in which case you are entitled to your opinion...
when are we going to see Windows and Apple stealing important UI features from Linux?
Probably never, as linux has no user interface, being a kernel and nothing to do with the user.
So they can steel things from X, as the windowing system itself, or KDE and GNOME as desktop environments, or from kwm, enlightenment, fvwm, openbox, or even twm as Window Managers.
But may I congratulate you on what I assume is a very skillful troll, such that to a casual reader it appears to be a valid point:)
It really does come down to market economics. As the workplace shrinks, what used to be an employees market becomes an employers market - there are more suitable persons per job. Ergo it is harder to get a job, you have to be better qualified in all sense, and you get paid less.
And there isn't much one can do about. A votre sante and good luck.
As a coder, this is how I see the role of management in my workplace - they shield me from the ignorance of the world, and represent me to the outside. So I can get on coding.
Or at least, that's how it should work, when management are good, but that's beside the point. It is definitely true that the opensource/free software community(ies) needs management-style representation. Not to tell us what to do, but to be our buffer against the outside world, translating back and forth. This is why, IMO, such representatives should not be highly active contributors to the codebase. They are blinded by the coding, to a certain extent.
Please, feel free to disagree with me - this is just my interpretation from my own experience.
Slashdot Mirror
Even if you don't think the Atari 800 is a very pretty box, I think this conversion deserves full points for originality and style.
My only question is usability.
Just to clarify, you aren't claiming that C is OO, are you - you mean "structured and OO language, respectively" right? That's okay then... Yeah, I'll go with that, although C++ is pretty damn good as an OO language, especially for someone who knows C.
Why would people move from good, useful languages that they have the hang of, to use VB? I'm not trying to MS-Bash here, but what use is VB if you are a competent coder in pretty much any other language? And don't say RAD - you can get RAD tools for C++, Jave, Object Pascal, and others.
Re-usable craft are (in theory) safer, potentially cost-saving (although they haven't been so far), have tended to be more spacious, and have a significant psychological effect, which should not be discounted.
On an entirely personal note, I would like to say that I hope things pan out well for all of the world's space programmes. There is so much to be gained, both obviously and potentially, from exploration and exploitation of our near space and solar system.
However, safety and quality of equipment must be a primary concern. I hope NASA (and maybe other agencies around the world) are researching new forms of reusable craft...
It is mentioned in the article, and in some comments before mine, that the DOJ seems to be scared of Microsoft. Indeed, the behaviour even seems to suggest it - they are behaving very trepidatiously, despite their obvious power within the US.
My question is, why are they scared? What have they to be scared of?
Of course, the 'last mile' of this plan is quite a difficult hurdle too - an area of the radio spectrum isn't free until the relevant authorities in an area say so. I am willing to bet that they won't say so until there is negligible use of the band by the 'old' use, either.
This is a sign of a step towards greater availability, but still a long way off. Good show though, and I hope it makes its way there sooner or later. Unfortunately widespread adoption of new radio technology (such as DAB) always seems to be slow. I'm not old enough to remember the introduction of FM, but was that slow too?
Confuse the meaning of the word 'Unix'. Everything I have read on this topic - the OSI position paper, extracts of the original SCO suit, and all the SCO PR makes it sound like SCO are claiming that anything unix derives ultimately from their IP. Would there be any validity to that? I doubt it, personally.
This will obviously come and bite them in the backside before too long
It implies that either SCO stole from linux, linux from SCO, or they mutually copied from a third party - could as easily be any of the three.
Sure electrocution is not the best way to do it, but I guess we just have to hope that some creative person can think of a way.
Just to point out - the electric shock does not kill them, merely hurt like hell and stun them so the corpse doesn't keep moving.
The chickens aren't really alive after beheading, when they run around, just certain bits of muscle and nervous system keep going on inertia. The chicken no longer perceives pain. The only reason not to behead without the shock is to make the execution easier and thus cheaper.
Just to pretend you put that more politely, I will reply to the valid question (in case people aren't familiar with the idea of humane slaughter).
If you were (or indeed are) in a country/state with the death penalty, would you rather be hung, gassed, put in the electric chair, or killed by lethal injection? Tip: one is far less painful than the others. In just the same way, there is no good reason to cause an animal more pain than necessary when slaughtering it for food. Lethal-injection equivalents are obviously out, as they tend to be expensive, and make the meat poisonous. However, there are usually better solutions than those that are currently practiced.
I personally would like to see more effort and ingenuity go into finding ways to kill the birds more humanely. I for one wouldn't want to go by being dipped in electrified water *then* beheaded. Just the beheading will do me, if it has to be done.
Don't get me wrong - I support the eating of meat, for those who choose to (like me) - I just wish we could do it in more sensible, humane ways.
Ah but he does very much exist... Andy Serkis is a graduate of my very own Lancaster University and did a very marvelous job of portraying gollum.
The animators used actual footage of Serkis acting out the role in a silly skintight body stocking, and the voice is all him. I am particularly impressed by gollum's dialogue with himself
The look of the graphics looks to me like an attempt to recover as much, stylistically speaking, from the original NES game as possible.
However, ignoring timelines for a moment, Super Metroid on the SNES rather struck me as an extended remake of the original Metroid anyway - how much scope is there to do this again?
Looking back to timelines, then it strikes me that this could go either way - it could sort out the minor hiccups in the timeline, *or* it could confuse it more. Just have to wait and see.
Isn't it both a matter of study and anecdotal evidence that corporations (and sometimes individuals) generally try and stifle competition in a new industry, to their ultimate disadvantage?
For one, do you really expect Microsoft to admit publicly to any underhand tactics - unless you count halloween documents.
For two, it's been a reasonably popular view that SCO are a Microsoft Puppet for some time. I can't say whether it's true or not - I don't know. All I can say is that it seems to fit the evidence quite well.
Well, we did all kinda know that gator was obnoxious, especially those of us who inadvertently installed it when it was quite new. While what it does is obnoxious, it really isn't as bad as how it gets on peoples systems in the first place.
My experience was that the user was forced to swallow gator along with software that they actually want, and was not told accurately or fully what gator would actually do. Just a nice little flowery version that makes it sound like a good thing.
It is more technically defined as "if two animals can interbreed and produce viable (ie fertile) offspring, they are the same species".
I will read the Spamhaus response, when I can actually get to it.
In any case, one can only hope that this somehow bites the spammers on the butt more than if they hadn't bothered in the first place. And why does everyone act as if the US courts have global jurisdiction?
I was in fact attempting to stop any reader who does not appreciate the distinction from receiving an incorrect idea. If it came across as distortion, or as pedantism, then I failed to express myself clearly.
Linux as an operating system, or kernel, is not aimed at any graphical work, and allows for it in no user-level manner. It merely allows other systems, such as X, or framebuffer consoles, or SVGAMode or whatever to access the hardware to do such things. So I dislike seeing someone criticise a system for the failure of something that is merely a commom addon.
And yes, I do regularly use linux systems without any sort of GUI. Unless you count screen, in which case you are entitled to your opinion...
Probably never, as linux has no user interface, being a kernel and nothing to do with the user.
So they can steel things from X, as the windowing system itself, or KDE and GNOME as desktop environments, or from kwm, enlightenment, fvwm, openbox, or even twm as Window Managers.
But may I congratulate you on what I assume is a very skillful troll, such that to a casual reader it appears to be a valid point
Has anyone compared this to a broadly equivalent mini-itx setup, in cost or spec? It just seems that an xbox probably has some unnecessary systems...
It really does come down to market economics. As the workplace shrinks, what used to be an employees market becomes an employers market - there are more suitable persons per job. Ergo it is harder to get a job, you have to be better qualified in all sense, and you get paid less.
And there isn't much one can do about. A votre sante and good luck.
As a coder, this is how I see the role of management in my workplace - they shield me from the ignorance of the world, and represent me to the outside. So I can get on coding.
Or at least, that's how it should work, when management are good, but that's beside the point. It is definitely true that the opensource/free software community(ies) needs management-style representation. Not to tell us what to do, but to be our buffer against the outside world, translating back and forth. This is why, IMO, such representatives should not be highly active contributors to the codebase. They are blinded by the coding, to a certain extent.
Please, feel free to disagree with me - this is just my interpretation from my own experience.
Which means that you are, or at least were, synesthetic.