>> Since the 19th century, mathematicians have known that the sphere is the only bounded two-dimensional space with this property, but what about higher dimensions?
>> IBM Software and its Lotus Software Group have built J2EE-based spreadsheet, document and presentation graphics "applications" that will be bundled for free with the company's WebSphere portal
At first I thought "What has a desktop Office suite to do with Java2EE, which is a server side technology?"
In fact the slashdot story text is misleading. In the IBM announcement is used a little bit different term - "spreadsheet and word processing 'applications'", where applications is quoted. It comes from Lotus and Java2EE is involved, so it looks like a collection of collaboration tools. Most probably the documents live on the server and the office "applications" are Java thin clients that can show and edit them. Really nice application for Java2EE, though.
What is not nice is that they have bundled the suite with the WebSphere portal, which is a beast of extreme size, both financially and technically. It may be a nice solution for "IBM only" shops, but to little use to other people.
We can only hope that the software is not tightly coupled with WebSphere, but is generally Java2EE compatible, so it can be used with any J2EE server.
This is plain stupid (at least from my European point of view)
If the law wants to be consistent, then these and these guys should also be arrested as they sell "protection circumventing devices".
Selling a tool which allows to break the law should not be punished, only breaking the law should be.
>> The leaked key codes cast an unexpected shadow over the launch of Windows Server 2003 later this month. Microsoft is banking on the thrice-delayed operating system to increase its penetration into the enterprise. But the stolen codes show the difficulty the company faces in protecting its valuable intellectual property and potential sales from thieves.
Microsoft tactics again, nothing else. They currently need to enter the server market and push Linux out of there. So they will try with all means to increase the instaled base of the WinServer 2003 - it doesn't matter with or without licence. Later they will come with BSA and collect the fees, no doubt. The current statement has a double purpose - first to show to the world how much Microsoft is losing on piracy and second to inform the people that they can install Server 2003 without paying. The first one is typical Microsoft FUD - "We are weak, pirates rob us constantly", this will help them also in the monopoly trial. The second one says generally "Hey there is a key on the wild, just get it and install WinServer if you need it"
Are the MS executives stupid enough to beleive that a sysadmin that has received a key for installing a bunch of WinServer-s 2003 will not leak it on the Internet? No, they are smarter than anyone else when it comes to money, just the target is different - to get a maximum number of installations, become monopoly on the server market, and then... fire-up BSA, colect the missing licences, charge as much as they want for new installation and so on.
The same story is repeating again and again, they can not give WinServer 2003 for free (like InternetExplorer) because the DoJ will nail them immediately, thay can only play the "illegal but free" game and hope that the sysadmins will byte - and may will, especially in the poorer contries. So I beleave the fixed keys are built into the code exactly with the purpose to allow the "widespread piracy". Why does WinXP does not have such fixed keys? MS officials may say "Because it is a client OS, it is not installed in volumes". Bzzzzt - wrong, the clients are usually installed in volumes, the servers are usually 1 to 10 compared to the clients. The answer is because MS has already monopoly on the client side, they do not need new installations, they need money for the existing ones. The server market is different, MS needs "piracy" in order to become the de-facto standard on the server.
The space elevator seems to be the most promising alternative to the Shuttle program. The biggest problem are the carbon-nanotubes, it is not clear yet, how they are to be produced and a BIG quantity of them will be necessary for the project.
The site seems to be slashdotted already - 3 minutes, this should be a Slashdot record. On the other side it indicates the interest to the subject... or the poor connection of the server... I hope for the first.
Yes, it is a dupe - no doubt. But why so fast, the old story is still on the FRONT page. In fact it is ONLY 3 stories below this one.
Ahem, long live the slashdot editors that provide us constantly with interesting stuff to read! The latest trend is to post old stories as often as possible so that we do not need to scroll down the front page. Long live!!!
>> In engineering there are just new things added on, but the correct way to do things rarely changes.
>> Also the methods are the same. Pen and Paper math doesn't change and the formulas used are the same.
About the only way you could do soemthing for compsci is to have people learn every language and have a defined only way of doing things for everything. Have fun with that
Not very correct - a good and a crappy program can be created in any language. The tools do not matter so much. The software development methodology is generally clear:
A. Think before you do
B. Design and prove that the design is bulletproof
C. Implement
D. Prove that the implementation meets the design
E. Sign the program and take responsibility when it breaks.
F. When making changes, evaluate the scope of the changes and prove the mplementation again, sometimes go back to point A.
It is that simple and it requires no special knowledge of a special language or tool.
One real problem is that software is very complex so applying the methodology directly COSTS A LOT - both in time and money. So most developers try to shortcut it by relying on intuition (the human brain is incredibly powerful parallel computer), post-fixing design bugs and so on.
AFAIK the space shuttle software was designed in this way. Development costed a lot, but it was bulletproof. There were, I think, 13 errors found for 20 years of development and all of them were found while in the testing phase, no one reached a real mission.
>> I Must be an engineer because Microsoft and Novell both say so! Take that Texas.
The Microsoft certification should not give anyone the right to call himself an engineer. It just certifies that the person have learned a bunch of answers for a bunch of predefined questions (nothing personal, you may know your stuff).
There is nothing about experience, applied knowledge or responsibility stated. I know (hehe) some paper MCSE-s that do not know where is the PC power switch. Their motto is "I can learn that later in the company that is going to hire me because of my MCSE certification". I mean the people REALLY have never used a PC outside of Word/IE (they need to type their resume after all so that it looks nice:)
The Novell tests are probably better.
A mechanical engineer normally should pass strict tests, produce something working (diploma work) and generally prove that he knows how to do his work. When practicing, he TAKES RESPONSIBILITY for the things he created. If a plane falls down, the persons that designed it, produced it and certified it for flying are held responsible with consequences for them if an design/production/certification error was found.
If a software program crashes because of design error and I lose money or reputation because of this, usually no one cares. The software developer may just hide behind the EULA and that's it. It's a wild-wild-west.
So, enginner is a title that needs to be earned, so that the people know on who they may rely, otherwise it loses its value. It is the same as MD and PhD.
The real revolution will start when the MicroATX boards start coming in consumer devices, without the customer knowing it. So your next DVD player may have one of these inside, run Linux and be able to play Ogg, DivX, Quake, Freecell and Minesweeper.
Cheating is part of the "hacker" fun. However it is normally directed against the machine.
If somebody cheats in a single-player game it is a clever hack, if he cheats in a multiplayer game, it is cheating against the other people and it may be considered abusive.
There is something in the idea that the machines are stupid and may be cheated, but not the people. Maybe because the machines can not respond back?
-- You human clever? You human smart cheater? I computer reformat you hard disk!!!
It makes sense. What Sun is trying to produce is a Linux/Java/Gnome/KDE based desktop that is a low-cost alternative to the Microsoft desktop.
In other words the same thing that all the Linux entusiasts have been doing for years.
It may catch in India, as they are well oriented towards low-cost computing even if it is not very feature-rich. Remember the simputer
The government also seems to be Linux oriented even after some MS attempts to win the indian developers.
Our current product has one quite official backdoor. It is designed to be used only by support people and because we have direct ISDN connection to all of our clients and their servers are not visible to the Internet, there is little risk at all. The main purpose of the backdoor is to allow the support people to enter the system with full rights and without a licence. The client licences are floating so the support people does not use one of the licences and can log on even if there are no free licences left. A password however is always required, so that the authentication is guaranteed.
Internally there is another little hack, only the support people can see the full list of users, including the other support people. The normal users can not see and modify the accounts of the support.
Only the size of the Linux KERNEL is currently about 5 mln lines, while the size of the WHOLE Win NT is about 50 mln. lines. This includes the whole GUI, OLE/ActiveX/COM+/InternetExplorer/OpenGL/DirectX and so on shebang, and also a myriad of printer/camera/scanner/etc drivers included in the default install.
The size of the WinNT kernel is nowhere near the 5 mln lines of code, I believe it is well below 1 mln. lines.
The WinNT is also only compiled for Intel platform, so it does not include code for other platforms.
No, I have never been in US, what about being a US citizen myself, and of course English is not my default language (I know a few other languages). And by the way my keyboard is not very reliable and misses some hits, which was the reason for the patern.
This is offtopic
Perfect. That means that the PDA will auto-scroll when the user walks slowly and adjust the scrolling speed with his walking speed. If you want to go to the previous page just walk backwards.
If you want to go to the start page, just run backwards 2 miles.
Also good for security documents, they can be read only in the secret room, when you get out, they scroll aside.
I can see the people walking in complex paterns on their way to work, in order to read the morning e-mails.
Slashdot Mirror
>> Since the 19th century, mathematicians have known that the sphere is the only bounded two-dimensional space with this property, but what about higher dimensions?
Do they mean the sphere is 2-dimensional?
>> IBM Software and its Lotus Software Group have built J2EE-based spreadsheet, document and presentation graphics "applications" that will be bundled for free with the company's WebSphere portal
At first I thought "What has a desktop Office suite to do with Java2EE, which is a server side technology?"
In fact the slashdot story text is misleading. In the IBM announcement is used a little bit different term - "spreadsheet and word processing 'applications'", where applications is quoted. It comes from Lotus and Java2EE is involved, so it looks like a collection of collaboration tools. Most probably the documents live on the server and the office "applications" are Java thin clients that can show and edit them.
Really nice application for Java2EE, though. What is not nice is that they have bundled the suite with the WebSphere portal, which is a beast of extreme size, both financially and technically. It may be a nice solution for "IBM only" shops, but to little use to other people.
We can only hope that the software is not tightly coupled with WebSphere, but is generally Java2EE compatible, so it can be used with any J2EE server.
The sample URL-s should read:
liquid_1.exe
liquid_2.exe
indy.exe
pinball.exe
snowboard.exe
Slashdot inserts a space in the URL-s if they are not specified as links
This is plain stupid (at least from my European point of view)
If the law wants to be consistent, then these and these guys should also be arrested as they sell "protection circumventing devices".
Selling a tool which allows to break the law should not be punished, only breaking the law should be.
>> The leaked key codes cast an unexpected shadow over the launch of Windows Server 2003 later this month. Microsoft is banking on the thrice-delayed operating system to increase its penetration into the enterprise. But the stolen codes show the difficulty the company faces in protecting its valuable intellectual property and potential sales from thieves.
... fire-up BSA, colect the missing licences, charge as much as they want for new installation and so on.
Microsoft tactics again, nothing else. They currently need to enter the server market and push Linux out of there. So they will try with all means to increase the instaled base of the WinServer 2003 - it doesn't matter with or without licence. Later they will come with BSA and collect the fees, no doubt. The current statement has a double purpose - first to show to the world how much Microsoft is losing on piracy and second to inform the people that they can install Server 2003 without paying. The first one is typical Microsoft FUD - "We are weak, pirates rob us constantly", this will help them also in the monopoly trial. The second one says generally "Hey there is a key on the wild, just get it and install WinServer if you need it"
Are the MS executives stupid enough to beleive that a sysadmin that has received a key for installing a bunch of WinServer-s 2003 will not leak it on the Internet? No, they are smarter than anyone else when it comes to money, just the target is different - to get a maximum number of installations, become monopoly on the server market, and then
The same story is repeating again and again, they can not give WinServer 2003 for free (like InternetExplorer) because the DoJ will nail them immediately, thay can only play the "illegal but free" game and hope that the sysadmins will byte - and may will, especially in the poorer contries. So I beleave the fixed keys are built into the code exactly with the purpose to allow the "widespread piracy". Why does WinXP does not have such fixed keys? MS officials may say "Because it is a client OS, it is not installed in volumes". Bzzzzt - wrong, the clients are usually installed in volumes, the servers are usually 1 to 10 compared to the clients. The answer is because MS has already monopoly on the client side, they do not need new installations, they need money for the existing ones. The server market is different, MS needs "piracy" in order to become the de-facto standard on the server.
The space elevator seems to be the most promising alternative to the Shuttle program. The biggest problem are the carbon-nanotubes, it is not clear yet, how they are to be produced and a BIG quantity of them will be necessary for the project.
... or the poor connection of the server ... I hope for the first.
The site seems to be slashdotted already - 3 minutes, this should be a Slashdot record. On the other side it indicates the interest to the subject
>> Note that I am looking for ethical dilemmas, e.g. 'Is Activity X moral?'
I would recommend 'Is ActiveX moral?'
The good thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.
To be read: "I don't care if C# is standard if it is a crappy language"
It is a TRIPLICATE!!!
Ok Taco, you win. I will subscribe if you promise that I will NOT see the duplicates anymore.
Yes, it is a dupe - no doubt. But why so fast, the old story is still on the FRONT page. In fact it is ONLY 3 stories below this one.
Ahem, long live the slashdot editors that provide us constantly with interesting stuff to read! The latest trend is to post old stories as often as possible so that we do not need to scroll down the front page. Long live!!!
>> Nobody would hire a Chemical Engineer to build a bridge and nobody would hire an MSCE to do it either.
I woldn't have hired the MSCE to do anything for me, if I am in my right mind!
>> In engineering there are just new things added on, but the correct way to do things rarely changes.
>> Also the methods are the same. Pen and Paper math doesn't change and the formulas used are the same. About the only way you could do soemthing for compsci is to have people learn every language and have a defined only way of doing things for everything. Have fun with that
Not very correct - a good and a crappy program can be created in any language. The tools do not matter so much. The software development methodology is generally clear:
A. Think before you do
B. Design and prove that the design is bulletproof
C. Implement
D. Prove that the implementation meets the design
E. Sign the program and take responsibility when it breaks.
F. When making changes, evaluate the scope of the changes and prove the mplementation again, sometimes go back to point A.
It is that simple and it requires no special knowledge of a special language or tool.
One real problem is that software is very complex so applying the methodology directly COSTS A LOT - both in time and money. So most developers try to shortcut it by relying on intuition (the human brain is incredibly powerful parallel computer), post-fixing design bugs and so on.
AFAIK the space shuttle software was designed in this way. Development costed a lot, but it was bulletproof. There were, I think, 13 errors found for 20 years of development and all of them were found while in the testing phase, no one reached a real mission.
>> I Must be an engineer because Microsoft and Novell both say so! Take that Texas.
:)
The Microsoft certification should not give anyone the right to call himself an engineer. It just certifies that the person have learned a bunch of answers for a bunch of predefined questions (nothing personal, you may know your stuff).
There is nothing about experience, applied knowledge or responsibility stated. I know (hehe) some paper MCSE-s that do not know where is the PC power switch. Their motto is "I can learn that later in the company that is going to hire me because of my MCSE certification". I mean the people REALLY have never used a PC outside of Word/IE (they need to type their resume after all so that it looks nice
The Novell tests are probably better.
A mechanical engineer normally should pass strict tests, produce something working (diploma work) and generally prove that he knows how to do his work. When practicing, he TAKES RESPONSIBILITY for the things he created. If a plane falls down, the persons that designed it, produced it and certified it for flying are held responsible with consequences for them if an design/production/certification error was found.
If a software program crashes because of design error and I lose money or reputation because of this, usually no one cares. The software developer may just hide behind the EULA and that's it. It's a wild-wild-west.
So, enginner is a title that needs to be earned, so that the people know on who they may rely, otherwise it loses its value. It is the same as MD and PhD.
The real revolution will start when the MicroATX boards start coming in consumer devices, without the customer knowing it. So your next DVD player may have one of these inside, run Linux and be able to play Ogg, DivX, Quake, Freecell and Minesweeper.
I have never seen the Eclipse.org server to be so slow. Normally it makes 80k/ses without problems, now is crawling with 2-3.
Even the IBM Internet connection can not keep with the Slashdot power.
Cheating is part of the "hacker" fun. However it is normally directed against the machine.
If somebody cheats in a single-player game it is a clever hack, if he cheats in a multiplayer game, it is cheating against the other people and it may be considered abusive.
There is something in the idea that the machines are stupid and may be cheated, but not the people. Maybe because the machines can not respond back?
-- You human clever? You human smart cheater? I computer reformat you hard disk!!!
It makes sense. What Sun is trying to produce is a Linux/Java/Gnome/KDE based desktop that is a low-cost alternative to the Microsoft desktop. In other words the same thing that all the Linux entusiasts have been doing for years.
It may catch in India, as they are well oriented towards low-cost computing even if it is not very feature-rich. Remember the simputer
The government also seems to be Linux oriented even after some MS attempts to win the indian developers.
Why is this marked Offtopic?
It is absolutely ontopic, and funny at the same time.
ps. The whole message is 2 words, the first mentions PHP and the second mentions Wrox, there is no way to be more ontopic than that.
Our current product has one quite official backdoor. It is designed to be used only by support people and because we have direct ISDN connection to all of our clients and their servers are not visible to the Internet, there is little risk at all.
:-)
The main purpose of the backdoor is to allow the support people to enter the system with full rights and without a licence. The client licences are floating so the support people does not use one of the licences and can log on even if there are no free licences left. A password however is always required, so that the authentication is guaranteed.
Internally there is another little hack, only the support people can see the full list of users, including the other support people. The normal users can not see and modify the accounts of the support.
It is so simple
Only the size of the Linux KERNEL is currently about 5 mln lines, while the size of the WHOLE Win NT is about 50 mln. lines. This includes the whole GUI, OLE/ActiveX/COM+/InternetExplorer/OpenGL/DirectX and so on shebang, and also a myriad of printer/camera/scanner/etc drivers included in the default install.
The size of the WinNT kernel is nowhere near the 5 mln lines of code, I believe it is well below 1 mln. lines.
The WinNT is also only compiled for Intel platform, so it does not include code for other platforms.
A still working URL for the screenshots can be found here
Tell me about it. I have 640MB RAM, and Windoze still grinds away at the swap file all the time.
640 KB should be enough for everyone!
Does it work better than ZIP???
No, I have never been in US, what about being a US citizen myself, and of course English is not my default language (I know a few other languages). And by the way my keyboard is not very reliable and misses some hits, which was the reason for the patern. This is offtopic
Perfect. That means that the PDA will auto-scroll when the user walks slowly and adjust the scrolling speed with his walking speed. If you want to go to the previous page just walk backwards.
If you want to go to the start page, just run backwards 2 miles.
Also good for security documents, they can be read only in the secret room, when you get out, they scroll aside.
I can see the people walking in complex paterns on their way to work, in order to read the morning e-mails.