YEah, I'm in the Seattle area, and there's a lot of these in the Eastside. I like them as a driver because they use them instead of stoplights in neighborhoods, which are particularly nice because if there aren't any pedestrians, you don't have to stop at all. At intersections in these areas they usually stop one direction, but not the artery, so if you stick with arterial routes you can usually get through areas pretty quickly.
In most places in the US, pedestrians only have the right of way on crosswalks, and in some places only if the light is in their direction.
Most universities gives pedestrians the right of way, and here in the state of WA pedestrians always have the right of way, and you're not even allowed to drive by a pedestrian who's crossing the street but they're in the lane next to yours. You have to wait. Not that anybody does...
I tend to think that pedestrian right-of-way laws are silly. Mark specific areas for them to cross and give them lights as part of the traffic rotation. That's fine for me. As a driver, I expect to be able to reasonably expect no pedestrians unless there's a marked crosswalk. As a pedestrian, I expect to take my own life in my hands when I cross without the aid of a light.
In the end I only acknowledge those who write more code than manifestos and open letters as being the true promoters of open source.
I just read "Just for fun", actually, and one of the more interesting points Linus makes is that there's a lot more than just coding to this thing. If you really want open source to succeed, you need promoters that don't code, but instead spend their time promoting. If coding is all that was needed to get something out there and used by all, then no corporation would have Marketing and Sales departments. They wouldn't be needed.
Luckily, your tunnel vision won't hurt us at all.:) Because you can go on coding while others go on promoting, and you'll benefit from our promotions just like we'll benefit from your code. Like it or hate it, that's the way it is.
The question is, does going completely open source make sense for Sun? Since I've never founded or run a multi-million dollar business, my opinion is probably a bit suspect but it seems like it makes sense to me. In fact, it seems like Sun's only hope is something along those lines. Their current course is simply going to continue them along their slow slide into obscurity.
Well, to answer that question, let's look at the problem.
Sun used to sell workstations, iirc. I seem to remember that that was all they sold for a long time, and then when commodity hardware beat them out of that market they went to servers. Someone correct me here if I'm wrong.
In any case, Sun has never been in the really high-end server business. That position has been owned by IBM and Cray and a few others. The low-end server business is being eaten up by Microsoft and Linux, with Linux taking a rise because it has all the advantages of Windows on the low end servers and none of the disadvantages (the advantages being the hardware platform:) ).
Lately, Microsoft and Linux have both been working into the mid-range server business, and Linux has been taking a bit of a hold in the high-end computing business, although the 2.6 kernel is supposed to open up the high-end server business, Linux is being deployed on supercomputers now. Or rather, it has, but it's getting even more popular.
IBM's gone with Linux, and you can expect IBM to stay in the high-end server business. IN fact, they do end-to-end integration, so they're all over the market. I'm expecting IBM to make a decent showing in the desktop business market as well, but that is still a ways out, I suspect. NOW, unlike before Microsoft started into the server business, right now we also have HP (who've been there for a little while) and Dell working through the server business, so the big players in servers are IBM, Dell, HP, and Sun. Oh yeah, and Microsoft, but they're not a hardware company, right?
Of the big players, IBM, Dell, and HP are all supposed to be moving to open source stuff. Of them, IBM is the only real development house, Dell and HP just rebrand other people's stuff. On the proprietary side, you have Microsoft and Sun. We have all seen how Microsoft devours proprietary companies like there's no tomorrow, and we've also seen that they can't hurt open source companies. They might be able to drive one or two out of business, only to find new ones springing up, and the technology is always growing. In the past, Microsoft could devour a proprietary company and in the process move ahead in the market. Now, if they devour an open source company, they don't go anywhere in the market by doing so. So they're forced to compete in other ways.
So that's what Sun is looking at right now. If they remain proprietary, they have to compete with open source just like Microsoft. The writing on the walls says that Microsoft will fail, ultimately, although it'll probably kick around the same way IBM kept kicking around through the 90s. And maybe Microsoft will make a comeback, but it'll never be as dominant as it was 5 years ago. If Sun goes open source, they have to compete on hardware with IBM and the others. IBM is moving to commodity hardware and many of its servers are built on commodity hardware, with the fancy stuff only available if it's absolutely necessary. Dell and HP are sticking with commodity stuff completely, apparently, and are making their own inroads. So even if Sun does go open source with software, how will they compete with hardware? Their hardware is NOT commodity hardware.
So Sun has two choices, really. "Do we keep our software proprietary?" They've tried to say 'no, we go open source', but are throwing around a very mixed message. Also, "Do we keep our hardware proprietary to ourselves?" If they want to stick with the SPARC thing, can't they go PPC and still do their special Sun magic? That would allow them to collaborate with IBM and Apple, and Apple is poise
Shut the fuck up about Wicket. We can with a lot LESS return of the jedi and a LOT MORE WILLOW.
Speaking as a die hard star wars freak. Jedi sucked hard balls. Makes any movie look good, by comparison. If I were Warwick Davis, I'd much rather be remembered in Time Bandits, geek boy.
You thought you were a geek, I bet you haven't even heard of Time Bandits, have you?
And, interestingly enough, David Prowse was Hotblack's Body Guard in the Hitchhiker TV Series.
Well, in that case I think it's pretty obvious that as much as I like the little guy, David Prowse needs to play Marvin, speak all the lines and so forth, while James Earl Jones does the voice.
Marvin needs a deep voice, like Eeyore (like he has in the tv series, and I think the radio one, but it's been awhile since I heard that). NOT a whiny high-pitched voice.
Here is what to do if you want to get a lift from a Vogon: forget it. They are one of the most unpleasant races in the Galaxy--not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous. They wouldn't even lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal without orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycles as firelighters. Search your feelings, Luke, for you know it to be true.
And "shortcuts", as compelling as they sound to command-line hackers and programmers, are really just GUI aids. They are implemented as LNK files, which contain nothing more than info about icons, etc.
But why create these "shortcuts" in the first place? THey had Xenix! So presumably they already knew about symlinks, right? Why not just make symlinks? If I make a 'shortcut' in KDE, I get a symlink. Makes sense, right?
I suppose I don't need to extoll the virtues of symlinks here, do I?;)
The light from an LCD will still stimulate your eyes, which in turn stimulates your brain, but yeah, the effect is much lesser. I actually read off my palm with dim lighting in the room. If I read it in darkness, the light from the little LCD is too much stimulation, but if I read in dim lighting, it works like a charm. Same with my computer, for that matter, since I've got an LCD monitor rather than a CRT.
But the CRTs stimulate your eyes a whole bunch, because of the refresh. Your eyes register it, even if your conscious brain doesn't. And it's extremly intense stimulation.
I did not know that different stages of sleep repaired differents areas of the body. But I do find this information very interesting being that I suffer from sleep deprivation and insomnia. Also, some days I feel as though I'm not very cognitive after I've had a good eight hours of sleep (I'm only 27). At least, I thought they might be good hours. Maybe there is something with my sleep state that isn't helping my brain repair itself or something.
I suppose I could try sleeping pills for a week. I just hope it's the solution. If not, then caffeine my be my only best hope to counter my sluggish mind.
Sleeping pills don't work. Most sleeping pills use the same active ingredient as Benadryl (the name escapes me at the moment). Recall that Benadryl says "Makes you drowsy, do not operate heavy machinery"? They use the same shit in sleeping pills in order to make you drowsy and fall asleep. They just don't work, is all.:) Well, if you get sleepy from Benadryl, then you might try it.
Instead, google for sleeping disorders and read a few of the sites.:) I've done some fairly lengthy googling and found some pretty reputable sites about sleeping disorders (I have a few problems along those lines).
Frequent insomnia is usually a symptom of something else, like depression. So take some Valium instead.;) It's also a symptom of that particular disorder where your circadian is off by two hours or so from the rest of the world. This is usually mistaken for insomnia.
If you do any of the following things, stop doing them 4-5 hours before you go to bed, and you'll see an immediate difference, if not a cure:
Smoking
Drink caffeine or other stimulants
Computer usage
Recall that the monitor operating at any refresh setting is stimulating your brain whether you feel it or not. Don't eat within 4-5 hours of going to bed also, but don't go to bed with an empty stomach. Your body digesting will actually generate energy that'll prevent you from going to sleep, and if you're hungry your body signals that you need to eat instead of sleep. Also, try reading within the last half hour or so before going to bed under a dim light, 25 watts or so.
The other two things I find that work are hard work throughout the day (or exercise if you live a sedentary lifestyle, which I don't anymore) and drinking milk within an hour of going to bed. THere's a hormone linked to sleep, I forget what it's called, but drinking milk and exercise both stimulate production of that hormone. That's why the old mom's cure of warm milk actually works, except that it doesn't matter if it's warm milk or cold milk.
A loose analogy would be that I can hold my breath for ten seconds 30 times over the course of a day without any danger, but if I tried to do it all at once the results would probably be pretty harmful.
Worst case, you'd pass out and your brain's autonomic functions would take over, you'd start breathing again, and continue to live. PRobably wake up in a minute or two and wonder why the fuck did I try a stupid thing like that?
There's a reason music falls under the legal term "creative works". Since when does a person get to appoint themselves an artist? What makes someone an artist? And what the fuck makes them so goddamn special that they have the priviledge to extort money from the population at large for some work they did once upon a time for the rest of their lives?
Nothing at all, in my book. But if you perform one of my songs, please at least credit me. I'm not asking for much.
The prostitue may well be providing a service, but it is not a service that she invented or created or otherwise used some creative process to develop.
You've obviously never had sex. If you had, you would know that sex is much more like music than you seem to be saying, here.
No musician currently making music invented music. Just as certainly as no prostitute invented sex. Furthermore, music occurs in nature, and man-made music is just an extension of that.
Any musician will never perform the music the same way twice. A musical performance requires participation from the audience. So the quality of a given performance is dependent on both the quality of the musician's individual performance and the quality of the audience's participation.
Since you've never had sex, I'll explain to you that sex is exactly the same. Assume for a moment you're with a prostitute. The quality of the sex you are paying for is dependent on her abilities and also on the quality of your participation.
I find it maddenning that musicians whine about people wanting "free" stuff while trying to create nothing short of protectionist state welfare for themselves. At a great expense to the progress of technology, freedom of speech and perversion of laws. Some seriously inflated egos there.
I think we went wrong when we let those damn musicians get away with calling themselves artists. No artist is ever self-appointed to the job, sorry. You can't just decide to be an artist. You either are, or you aren't. If you are, then most everything you do will be artistic, because it's just the way you are. If you aren't, well, tough shit.
Once upon a time, we called musicians "performers" and "entertainers". That's what they are, and that's what their job is.
I'm not an artist, and after you download my music you'll probably agree:)
Slashdot Mirror
YEah, I'm in the Seattle area, and there's a lot of these in the Eastside. I like them as a driver because they use them instead of stoplights in neighborhoods, which are particularly nice because if there aren't any pedestrians, you don't have to stop at all. At intersections in these areas they usually stop one direction, but not the artery, so if you stick with arterial routes you can usually get through areas pretty quickly.
In most places in the US, pedestrians only have the right of way on crosswalks, and in some places only if the light is in their direction.
Most universities gives pedestrians the right of way, and here in the state of WA pedestrians always have the right of way, and you're not even allowed to drive by a pedestrian who's crossing the street but they're in the lane next to yours. You have to wait. Not that anybody does...
I tend to think that pedestrian right-of-way laws are silly. Mark specific areas for them to cross and give them lights as part of the traffic rotation. That's fine for me. As a driver, I expect to be able to reasonably expect no pedestrians unless there's a marked crosswalk. As a pedestrian, I expect to take my own life in my hands when I cross without the aid of a light.
Easy enough, right? :)
Java should just get replaced
By?
Python
In the end I only acknowledge those who write more code than manifestos and open letters as being the true promoters of open source.
I just read "Just for fun", actually, and one of the more interesting points Linus makes is that there's a lot more than just coding to this thing. If you really want open source to succeed, you need promoters that don't code, but instead spend their time promoting. If coding is all that was needed to get something out there and used by all, then no corporation would have Marketing and Sales departments. They wouldn't be needed.
Luckily, your tunnel vision won't hurt us at all. :) Because you can go on coding while others go on promoting, and you'll benefit from our promotions just like we'll benefit from your code. Like it or hate it, that's the way it is.
The question is, does going completely open source make sense for Sun? Since I've never founded or run a multi-million dollar business, my opinion is probably a bit suspect but it seems like it makes sense to me. In fact, it seems like Sun's only hope is something along those lines. Their current course is simply going to continue them along their slow slide into obscurity.
Well, to answer that question, let's look at the problem.
Sun used to sell workstations, iirc. I seem to remember that that was all they sold for a long time, and then when commodity hardware beat them out of that market they went to servers. Someone correct me here if I'm wrong.
In any case, Sun has never been in the really high-end server business. That position has been owned by IBM and Cray and a few others. The low-end server business is being eaten up by Microsoft and Linux, with Linux taking a rise because it has all the advantages of Windows on the low end servers and none of the disadvantages (the advantages being the hardware platform :) ).
Lately, Microsoft and Linux have both been working into the mid-range server business, and Linux has been taking a bit of a hold in the high-end computing business, although the 2.6 kernel is supposed to open up the high-end server business, Linux is being deployed on supercomputers now. Or rather, it has, but it's getting even more popular.
IBM's gone with Linux, and you can expect IBM to stay in the high-end server business. IN fact, they do end-to-end integration, so they're all over the market. I'm expecting IBM to make a decent showing in the desktop business market as well, but that is still a ways out, I suspect. NOW, unlike before Microsoft started into the server business, right now we also have HP (who've been there for a little while) and Dell working through the server business, so the big players in servers are IBM, Dell, HP, and Sun. Oh yeah, and Microsoft, but they're not a hardware company, right?
Of the big players, IBM, Dell, and HP are all supposed to be moving to open source stuff. Of them, IBM is the only real development house, Dell and HP just rebrand other people's stuff. On the proprietary side, you have Microsoft and Sun. We have all seen how Microsoft devours proprietary companies like there's no tomorrow, and we've also seen that they can't hurt open source companies. They might be able to drive one or two out of business, only to find new ones springing up, and the technology is always growing. In the past, Microsoft could devour a proprietary company and in the process move ahead in the market. Now, if they devour an open source company, they don't go anywhere in the market by doing so. So they're forced to compete in other ways.
So that's what Sun is looking at right now. If they remain proprietary, they have to compete with open source just like Microsoft. The writing on the walls says that Microsoft will fail, ultimately, although it'll probably kick around the same way IBM kept kicking around through the 90s. And maybe Microsoft will make a comeback, but it'll never be as dominant as it was 5 years ago. If Sun goes open source, they have to compete on hardware with IBM and the others. IBM is moving to commodity hardware and many of its servers are built on commodity hardware, with the fancy stuff only available if it's absolutely necessary. Dell and HP are sticking with commodity stuff completely, apparently, and are making their own inroads. So even if Sun does go open source with software, how will they compete with hardware? Their hardware is NOT commodity hardware.
So Sun has two choices, really. "Do we keep our software proprietary?" They've tried to say 'no, we go open source', but are throwing around a very mixed message. Also, "Do we keep our hardware proprietary to ourselves?" If they want to stick with the SPARC thing, can't they go PPC and still do their special Sun magic? That would allow them to collaborate with IBM and Apple, and Apple is poise
Um, Darl would fit better as Number One on the B Ark.
"Sir, I just got a message from Number One."
"What is it?"
"He says he has captured some prisoners."
"Oh good, he's always wanted some of those."
You could have pointed out that he was the gang leader of the midgets that stole THE MAP!
RETURN THE MAP! RETURN THAT WHICH YOU HAVE STOLEN!
Best midget movie ever made. :)
Shut the fuck up about Wicket. We can with a lot LESS return of the jedi and a LOT MORE WILLOW.
Speaking as a die hard star wars freak. Jedi sucked hard balls. Makes any movie look good, by comparison. If I were Warwick Davis, I'd much rather be remembered in Time Bandits, geek boy.
You thought you were a geek, I bet you haven't even heard of Time Bandits, have you?
Yeah, you don't know who you're dealing with!
And, interestingly enough, David Prowse was Hotblack's Body Guard in the Hitchhiker TV Series.
Well, in that case I think it's pretty obvious that as much as I like the little guy, David Prowse needs to play Marvin, speak all the lines and so forth, while James Earl Jones does the voice.
Marvin needs a deep voice, like Eeyore (like he has in the tv series, and I think the radio one, but it's been awhile since I heard that). NOT a whiny high-pitched voice.
Well, it's like this. It's real simple what you can expect.
Remember Max Headroom?
'nuff said.
(purposely not mentioning the American version of the Red Dwarf pilot for fear it'll scare ya to death)
Screw that, Patrick Stewart as the Vogon captain!
Failing that, Patrick Stewart as the captain of the B ark!
James Earl Jones would be good,
Bloody fucking hell.
James Earl Jones as The Book:
Here is what to do if you want to get a lift from a Vogon: forget it. They are one of the most unpleasant races in the Galaxy--not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous. They wouldn't even lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal without orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycles as firelighters. Search your feelings, Luke, for you know it to be true.
Anyone know if there is a way to use subversion for automatic canonization of code style?
Yeah, host a python repository with it.
And "shortcuts", as compelling as they sound to command-line hackers and programmers, are really just GUI aids. They are implemented as LNK files, which contain nothing more than info about icons, etc.
But why create these "shortcuts" in the first place? THey had Xenix! So presumably they already knew about symlinks, right? Why not just make symlinks? If I make a 'shortcut' in KDE, I get a symlink. Makes sense, right?
I suppose I don't need to extoll the virtues of symlinks here, do I? ;)
The light from an LCD will still stimulate your eyes, which in turn stimulates your brain, but yeah, the effect is much lesser. I actually read off my palm with dim lighting in the room. If I read it in darkness, the light from the little LCD is too much stimulation, but if I read in dim lighting, it works like a charm. Same with my computer, for that matter, since I've got an LCD monitor rather than a CRT.
But the CRTs stimulate your eyes a whole bunch, because of the refresh. Your eyes register it, even if your conscious brain doesn't. And it's extremly intense stimulation.
I shave with a bowie knife.
Bah, that's not shaving. I use a two-handed executioner's axe for shaving.
I get all that AND I use an electric blanket at night....top that!
I like to microwave my balls periodically.
(If Kilmer played President Kennedy, you wouldn't give Kilmer credit for saying, "Ask not what your country can do for you...")
I would. Val Kilmer rules.
Has anyone done a study on the effects of inhaling hydrocarbon propellents from shaving foam?
Uhhhhhhhhh, yeah, I did, ummmmmmm, just a little while ago. Uhhhhhhhhhh, what were we talking about again?
I did not know that different stages of sleep repaired differents areas of the body. But I do find this information very interesting being that I suffer from sleep deprivation and insomnia. Also, some days I feel as though I'm not very cognitive after I've had a good eight hours of sleep (I'm only 27). At least, I thought they might be good hours. Maybe there is something with my sleep state that isn't helping my brain repair itself or something.
I suppose I could try sleeping pills for a week. I just hope it's the solution. If not, then caffeine my be my only best hope to counter my sluggish mind.
Sleeping pills don't work. Most sleeping pills use the same active ingredient as Benadryl (the name escapes me at the moment). Recall that Benadryl says "Makes you drowsy, do not operate heavy machinery"? They use the same shit in sleeping pills in order to make you drowsy and fall asleep. They just don't work, is all. :) Well, if you get sleepy from Benadryl, then you might try it.
Instead, google for sleeping disorders and read a few of the sites. :) I've done some fairly lengthy googling and found some pretty reputable sites about sleeping disorders (I have a few problems along those lines).
Frequent insomnia is usually a symptom of something else, like depression. So take some Valium instead. ;) It's also a symptom of that particular disorder where your circadian is off by two hours or so from the rest of the world. This is usually mistaken for insomnia.
If you do any of the following things, stop doing them 4-5 hours before you go to bed, and you'll see an immediate difference, if not a cure:
Recall that the monitor operating at any refresh setting is stimulating your brain whether you feel it or not. Don't eat within 4-5 hours of going to bed also, but don't go to bed with an empty stomach. Your body digesting will actually generate energy that'll prevent you from going to sleep, and if you're hungry your body signals that you need to eat instead of sleep. Also, try reading within the last half hour or so before going to bed under a dim light, 25 watts or so.
The other two things I find that work are hard work throughout the day (or exercise if you live a sedentary lifestyle, which I don't anymore) and drinking milk within an hour of going to bed. THere's a hormone linked to sleep, I forget what it's called, but drinking milk and exercise both stimulate production of that hormone. That's why the old mom's cure of warm milk actually works, except that it doesn't matter if it's warm milk or cold milk.
A loose analogy would be that I can hold my breath for ten seconds 30 times over the course of a day without any danger, but if I tried to do it all at once the results would probably be pretty harmful.
Worst case, you'd pass out and your brain's autonomic functions would take over, you'd start breathing again, and continue to live. PRobably wake up in a minute or two and wonder why the fuck did I try a stupid thing like that?
Music is Art.
There's a reason music falls under the legal term "creative works". Since when does a person get to appoint themselves an artist? What makes someone an artist? And what the fuck makes them so goddamn special that they have the priviledge to extort money from the population at large for some work they did once upon a time for the rest of their lives?
Nothing at all, in my book. But if you perform one of my songs, please at least credit me. I'm not asking for much.
The prostitue may well be providing a service, but it is not a service that she invented or created or otherwise used some creative process to develop.
You've obviously never had sex. If you had, you would know that sex is much more like music than you seem to be saying, here.
No musician currently making music invented music. Just as certainly as no prostitute invented sex. Furthermore, music occurs in nature, and man-made music is just an extension of that.
Any musician will never perform the music the same way twice. A musical performance requires participation from the audience. So the quality of a given performance is dependent on both the quality of the musician's individual performance and the quality of the audience's participation.
Since you've never had sex, I'll explain to you that sex is exactly the same. Assume for a moment you're with a prostitute. The quality of the sex you are paying for is dependent on her abilities and also on the quality of your participation.
This analogy is dead on.
FWIW yes I read that you said we have legal mechanisms and that IS the only reason it's property, but how else would you regard trade secrets?
Pure, unadulterated evil.
I find it maddenning that musicians whine about people wanting "free" stuff while trying to create nothing short of protectionist state welfare for themselves. At a great expense to the progress of technology, freedom of speech and perversion of laws. Some seriously inflated egos there.
I think we went wrong when we let those damn musicians get away with calling themselves artists. No artist is ever self-appointed to the job, sorry. You can't just decide to be an artist. You either are, or you aren't. If you are, then most everything you do will be artistic, because it's just the way you are. If you aren't, well, tough shit.
Once upon a time, we called musicians "performers" and "entertainers". That's what they are, and that's what their job is.
I'm not an artist, and after you download my music you'll probably agree :)