Even though this is slashdot, I read the articles, but I didn't see any mention of Pascal. It's probably me, but where did you see that Half Life is in Pascal?
Why are you talking in the past sense? It still exists. For example, on a Belgian keyboard you need to press it to get | (AltGr-1), @ (AltGr-2), (AltGr-E), # (AltGr-3), ^ (AltGr-6), { (AltGr-9), } (AltGr-0), [, ], \, ~, , `.
Somewhat annoying when programming C/C++/Perl.
I know, it bugs me too lots of times. I know I can workaround by clicking in the document to place the cursor in the new position, but I often forget about it.
Every time this issue comes up, and somebody proposes to abandon the use of K = 1024, people react saying that would be bad, because K = 1000 doesn't fit with power-of-2-based storage in computers.
That may very well be, but that's not the point. We can still use binary prefixes. But it doesn't make any sense to use the same prefix with different meanings. It makes perfect sense to use different prefixes, and to use different symbols for them. That way there is no confusion.
I never understood this really. CS is, of all fields, a field where it is important to be unambiguous. One byte wrong, or even one bit, and the computer doesn't understand it, or misunderstands it. Yet where it comes to defining storage units, we hijack the established 'kilo' and make it mean 1024 instead of 1000. Not even always: 1kbps is never 1024 bits per second, always 1000 bits per second.
I say, where it makes sense to use binary prefixes, let's do it. And let's be clear about it. The current 'Look ma, I'm using binary prefixes but I made them look exactly like the usual decimal prefixes so I can create confusion and./ religious wars' should be stopped. And I think it will: ifconfig, for example, already reports bytes transmitted/received as GiB, MiB,...
Well, it's not a good idea to set up an SPF server at home since I have a dynamic address (though it doesn't change very often), so that would mean my web hosting company should provide it for me, and for its other customers as well.
That would actually not be bad indeed.
I have my own domain, and I like to use an email address from that domain. My ISP disallows me to directly send or receive mail: port 25 is blocked in both directions. Currently that is not a problem, since I can sent mail trough their SMTP server, even using my own email address. That wouldn't work anymore with this scheme.
A few years ago, I loosely followed Plex86 development. One of the things I saw mentioned on the mailing list was something about scanning; Google turned up with http://systems.cs.colorado.edu/ComputerArchitectur e/Bochs/plex86/PIG/c10.html. That's were I got the idea about the code scanning. I didn't study any of this in any detail, so you might very well be right.
Yes, but VMWare still needs to make concessions for each supported OS. Yes, you can install and run Solaris/86, pre-v6 Netware versions, plan9, and BeOS under VMWare (with varying success), but they're not supported. They need to tweak VMWare for each OS.
I could be wrong, but I didn't think so. Not supported means they don't support it, not that it doesn't work. The tweaking that is done when you select a specific OS only concerns the configuration, such as amount of memory and stuff. Things you can easily adjust yourself.
I'm unsure why Xen needs guest OS mods, vs the way VMWare and Plex86 do things. I only skimmed the paper, so I might have missed something.
VMWare and Plex86 need to trap priviledged instructions in running code and replace them with their own. I believe they do this by literally scanning code-to-be-executed, which slows down the virtual machine of course.
Xen solves this by replacing all such instructions with Xen system calls; somewhat the same as User Mode Linux, where low level instructions are replaced with system calls to the host kernel.
I regularly run pan remotely over X, and it works very good. And that's over a 128kbps link. Sometimes I run mozilla remotely, and it certainly runs fast enough.
It's true though that X doesn't allow to store at the server instead of the client.
The argument is very much similar to the argument against the English system. Both systems are used because you want simple conversions. I have 1,000 fluid drams of something. How many fluid ounces is that? Likewise, if you always end up with 1024 units of something, why would you use 1000 as your base instead of 1024? Does it make more sense to have all of your data coming in multiples of 1.024 or in multiples of 1?
(I think multiples of 1 is most convenient)
Seriously, there's a huge difference: when the metric system was introduced, they didn't copy the names from the imperial system. A meter is about as long as a yard, but the metric system decided to invent a new name.
That's what should have happened in the computer world too. As you argue, it was convenient to introduce a system based on powers of two as opposed to the existing system based on the powers of ten. But the decision to use the same prefixes in their new system was a very bad decision.
I don't know if we will ever be able to get rid of all the inconsistency, but I sure hope so. Many people argue that powers of two are much easier to deal with in contexts of computer storage, and they're right. But that's not an excuse to hijack the SI prefixes.
As an (almost) unrelated aside, another concert peeve of mine - Volume. I went to a concert this past weekend (Tori Amos in Boston) where the performer did well, the set list appealed to me, and the environment in general seemed just about perfect. However, even with earplugs (a must for anyone who actually goes to concerts to enjoy the music), they had the volume cranked so high that the bass completely distorted everything else (as in, I could audibly detect clipping of the vocals at every new bass note or percussive event). This does NOT make for satisfied (much less "happy") concert-goers.
I experience exactly the same thing at concerts, only I thought I was more or less the exception. Other people never seem to notice the distortions. Sometimes it ruins the whole experience for me.
OTOH I haven't tried with earplugs yet, I should really do that sometimes. Ideally I would like some with builtin equalizer...
The character "omega" is substituted for "w", because it looks like a Latin w, and there is no w in Greek; also AFAIK there is no letter o.
Actually the Greek have two letters for 'o': omicron (written as 'o') and omega. The first is short, the latter is long, as you could have guessed from the names.
When one of my hard drives a while back was dying, Windows 2000 had put SMART warnings in the system log. Third-party monitor not required, apparently.
Slashdot Mirror
Even though this is slashdot, I read the articles, but I didn't see any mention of Pascal. It's probably me, but where did you see that Half Life is in Pascal?
Why are you talking in the past sense? It still exists. For example, on a Belgian keyboard you need to press it to get | (AltGr-1), @ (AltGr-2), (AltGr-E), # (AltGr-3), ^ (AltGr-6), { (AltGr-9), } (AltGr-0), [, ], \, ~, , `. Somewhat annoying when programming C/C++/Perl.
I know, it bugs me too lots of times. I know I can workaround by clicking in the document to place the cursor in the new position, but I often forget about it.
if I'm going to buy a 120 GB hard drive, I expect there to be 120 * 10^9 = 120,000,000,000 bytes on the drive.
The hard drive I got had 113 GB (113*2^30 = 121,332,826,112 bytes).
The hard drive I got had 113 GiB (113 * 2^30 = 121,332,826,112 bytes).
That is a difference of 7,516,192,768 bytes (7 GB).
That is a difference of - 1,332,826,112 bytes... actually there were more bytes than you should have expected.
Yes, but it's double as few!
Every time this issue comes up, and somebody proposes to abandon the use of K = 1024, people react saying that would be bad, because K = 1000 doesn't fit with power-of-2-based storage in computers.
./ religious wars' should be stopped. And I think it will: ifconfig, for example, already reports bytes transmitted/received as GiB, MiB, ...
That may very well be, but that's not the point. We can still use binary prefixes. But it doesn't make any sense to use the same prefix with different meanings. It makes perfect sense to use different prefixes, and to use different symbols for them. That way there is no confusion.
I never understood this really. CS is, of all fields, a field where it is important to be unambiguous. One byte wrong, or even one bit, and the computer doesn't understand it, or misunderstands it. Yet where it comes to defining storage units, we hijack the established 'kilo' and make it mean 1024 instead of 1000. Not even always: 1kbps is never 1024 bits per second, always 1000 bits per second.
I say, where it makes sense to use binary prefixes, let's do it. And let's be clear about it. The current 'Look ma, I'm using binary prefixes but I made them look exactly like the usual decimal prefixes so I can create confusion and
Well, it's not a good idea to set up an SPF server at home since I have a dynamic address (though it doesn't change very often), so that would mean my web hosting company should provide it for me, and for its other customers as well. That would actually not be bad indeed.
I have my own domain, and I like to use an email address from that domain. My ISP disallows me to directly send or receive mail: port 25 is blocked in both directions. Currently that is not a problem, since I can sent mail trough their SMTP server, even using my own email address. That wouldn't work anymore with this scheme.
A few years ago, I loosely followed Plex86 development. One of the things I saw mentioned on the mailing list was something about scanning; Google turned up with http://systems.cs.colorado.edu/ComputerArchitectur e/Bochs/plex86/PIG/c10.html. That's were I got the idea about the code scanning. I didn't study any of this in any detail, so you might very well be right.
Xen solves this by replacing all such instructions with Xen system calls; somewhat the same as User Mode Linux, where low level instructions are replaced with system calls to the host kernel.
You can configure Explorer so that it always uses the Details view:
Open Explorer
Select the Detailed view
Tools->Folder Options->View->Like Current Folder.
While you're there, check 'Display the full path in the address bar' and uncheck 'Hide file extensions for known file types'.
That's what I do on every PC I use for any significant amount of time.
I regularly run pan remotely over X, and it works very good. And that's over a 128kbps link. Sometimes I run mozilla remotely, and it certainly runs fast enough.
It's true though that X doesn't allow to store at the server instead of the client.
So you're trying to tell us, on /. no less, that Windows is not broken after all??
Or should I have followed the link? This is /., you know.
Seriously, there's a huge difference: when the metric system was introduced, they didn't copy the names from the imperial system. A meter is about as long as a yard, but the metric system decided to invent a new name.
That's what should have happened in the computer world too. As you argue, it was convenient to introduce a system based on powers of two as opposed to the existing system based on the powers of ten. But the decision to use the same prefixes in their new system was a very bad decision.
I don't know if we will ever be able to get rid of all the inconsistency, but I sure hope so. Many people argue that powers of two are much easier to deal with in contexts of computer storage, and they're right. But that's not an excuse to hijack the SI prefixes.
http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/P/PHB.html
Heineken? Don't you have Stella over there? If you give me 10 Heinekens for free or 1 Stella for $ 10, I'd choose the Stella any day.
But wasn't Cairo the codename for Windows 95 during its development?
OTOH I haven't tried with earplugs yet, I should really do that sometimes. Ideally I would like some with builtin equalizer...
For SCO, running Linux doesn't create legal problems, not even in their own extraterrestrial view of the whole thing.
It's a play on a scene of "A Few Good Men".
I would hope they are in the handbook, because without these 'tricks' I think the ports system would be a pretty dumb package management system.
When one of my hard drives a while back was dying, Windows 2000 had put SMART warnings in the system log. Third-party monitor not required, apparently.