The original purpose of patents was to protect inventions and thus provide incentives to innovate. This would improve productivity, as what is the point of working if someone is going to steal your idea? Patents were a good idea at the time, and for many things still are a good idea.
Software patents are an example of the protectionist mentality that seems to abound in many first-world countries. Business: "We can't compete with country X, we're going to have to fire people." Government: "Uh oh, can't have that, here's lots of money." or "We'll tax the imports so much that you can charge more and get away with it." Such behaviour is the opposite of the original purpose of patents. Further, it's bad for the consumer as (for example) US sugar is a lot more expensive than Australian sugar. If we were truly productive we wouldn't need a Free Trade Agreement - international competition would be the norm. Most of our primary industries would probably relocate to third-world countries, I don't deny that, but there are plenty of tertiary (services) industry jobs out there and that is where the first world should focus. Instead, we protect our "rights" to be inefficient and to take money from our own pockets to put into the pockets of the corporations. It's crazy!
I can actually understand this patent, though. There are worse ones out there (and don't even get me started on the extension of copyright). In this case, Amazon has come up with a way to encourage you to buy more stuff, by basically doing targeted advertising. It's really rather clever, and the algorithm they use probably should be patented (assuming you accept the idea of software patents... I accept some and not others). The actual idea, however? Has K-Mart patented the layout of their shelves? No! And they'd probably be laughed at if they even tried. So what's with this "business methods" nonsense? Just another way for businesses to be inefficient.
Nope. Studies indicate that breastfeeding (which implies having children) reduces a woman's risk of certain types of cancer.
Menopause happens whether you have children or not, and a lot of things go screwy after that.
As for guys... biologically, having children doesn't make a lick of difference. Mentally, having someone to visit you in your dotage will probably keep you from tipping over the edge into insanity. Or it will send you crazy, if your children are that way inclined;)
Your mobile phone number is your unique identifier. Given out to lots of people and you keep it because changing numbers is a *pain*. If anyone really wanted to track you, all they need is the number and access to various companies' records.
He already stated higher up the page that this isn't necessarily to watch the babysitter. He does have to work, you know. Wouldn't it be nice for a working dad to be able to connect to a webserver for a peek at his sleeping baby during the afternoon nap?
Sheesh, don't be so fast to judge, people!
I was thrilled to see this discussion, since my husband and I want to do the same thing. Why? Because our families are at least 6 hours driving time away, some are about 2000 kms (1200 miles) away, and it would be nice for them to be able to catch glimpses of our baby from time-to-time.
I have to agree here. In Australia they recently did a show where they built a "fairy garden" for a little girl who is seriously ill. It was beautiful, and quite frankly I couldn't care less about the product placement. More of this, thanks!
That said, all those Survivor-type shows and these new "Swapping spouses" shows just bug me.
It's also your population that has made you so powerful, and as someone has said below your natural resources. The US population is approaching 300 million (293 million, in fact), the third highest in the world. Only 11 countries make it over 100 million, only 4 make it over 200 million, and only two (China and India) make it over a billion. Combine that with the fact that China and India are still playing catch-up with modern technology and economics, and the US clearly has the largest population BY FAR. In contrast, Australia is slightly below 20 million (19.91) in population. The US still has a much larger GDP, about 1.75 times the size, adjusting for population, so I will concede that something appears to be going right. Note that GDP is only a measure of production, though, and not of the overall economy (imports vs exports and so forth). At the moment the US is a cornerstone of financial markets. Whether this will last is yet to be seen.
It's very difficult to compare countries of different populations, histories and resources, and what you measure will affect the result. But I do know that poverty in the US is rising. Economic strength only tells you that at least some people are filthy rich. It doesn't give you the big picture. There are enough unemployed IT workers in the US to present a picture that's a lot less pretty. With the biggest economy in the world, why are American children starving?
In Australia most good IT workers are on reasonable money (not always spectacular, but reasonable) and work ordinary 9-5 hours. There was certainly an IT downturn here, but it's not as bad anymore. I have friends in a global company, and when they fly to the US to work on projects over there they can't believe how little gets done in your 70 hours. I think a lot of the difference is in work-ethic. I'm told that in the US most people work away individually at their tasks. I'm told that people don't ask each other for help because it affects their likelihood of promotion. Over here, asking for help with a problem you're having difficulty with is expected and encouraged.
There must be decent work in the US somewhere, and if it's not in IT then maybe too many people did IT degrees. That's not the government's fault, and even if it is they're not going to do anything about it. So either move overseas, re-educate, or find a way to differentiate yourself. Be the person who makes sure projects get done on time, even if you have to ask for help sometimes.
*sigh* The world isn't broken up into Linux and Microsoft. This is "News for Nerds"... not every 'nerd' uses Linux. Some use Macs, some use FreeBSD, and a very large proportion use MS products. If you want a Linux-specific news site, look elsewhere. It also says "NEWS" not "TECH NEWS". You can find that all over the place. There are more stories on/. than make the front page, particularly some of the more esoteric tech ones - have a look in the appropriate sections.
I shouldn't really need to point out why this is relevant to/. readers, particularly those after Linux news, but I will. This is relevant because the more it can be demonstrated that Linux is a viable alternative the more commercial funding it will receive. More commercial funding == more developers == better products. And because Linux is GPLed, that's always better for all the users. Take a look at some of the journaled filesystems as an example. AFAIK, none of them would have been developed without commercial (eg JFS) or military (ReiserFS) funding.
And to clarify (also watching the event) the US divers had the most perfect synchronisation in the event. They both pulled out of their (beautiful) dives late, and in perfect unison entered the water with their legs about 30 degrees from vertical. Oops!
Thanks to them, Australia won a bronze medal. We usually suck at the diving, so it's much appreciated:)
I'm not sure how insurance works in the US, but in Australia your insurance generally won't go up if it's the other driver's fault. If your policy doesn't say that, then CHANGE IT. We have 40 (km, not mile, so 25 mph) zones around schools. Yes, you may have some bastard running up your butt. In fact, you usually do. Personally I'd rather get rear-ended than have a dead child on my conscience.
It's the "but everyone else does it" argument that causes problems. You merge dangerously into a small gap, because "everyone else" won't let you in unless you do. Suddenly you have an accident. Some drivers are crazy. They recently did a survey of Australian drivers and found that 80% thought they were above-average drivers. Makes me worry about the other 20%!
I'm in favour of this, but I do agree with the parent that there should be specific reasons why it can be accessed, and limitations on *who* can access it.
All that said, I'm not against speeding in the middle-of-nowhere. There's a lot of middle-of-nowhere in Australia:) Authorities need to focus more on unsafe driving (weaving, chatting on mobile phones, serviced cars) and less on speeding. Let's face it, no matter how fast you're going you're not going to miss that child if you're too busy on the phone to pay attention to the road.
Well, have pity on we Australians then. X-Box games come out at $89.95 - $99.95, PC games rarely come out for under $79.95. I'm not sure what Doom III is going for, but I bet it's around the $90 mark.
I agree on the price point, there are very few games I will ever pay full price for (NWN was a rather disappointing exception, but Diablo II is still proving its worth time and time again). Pay what you think it's worth. If getting it 6 months earlier is worth $20 to you, then pay full price. Me, I can wait (not that my computer would do anything other than choke on it). Of course, I'm the same with hardware. That's why I bought an X-Box when they got cheap. No hardware upgrades:)
Give him a break - you have to think to post anonymously (so be thinking about karma whoring to remember not to). He probably just didn't think about it.
Unless you live in Queensland, Australia, where 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) is considered cold too! We like our weather at about 26 (79) degrees, and hot is when it gets over 35 (95):)
Java is not necessarily slow. Badly coded Java can be, but Java itself tends to be quite fast. I know companies that are writing essential services with 5 9s reliability in Java because it's fast enough and a lot easier to maintain.
IIRC, it's not the BSD developer's fault. The BSD kernel has a different license than the GPL, and it's a lot more liberal. If they compile ReiserFS into the FreeBSD kernel they must GPL the kernel to comply with the licensing. The alternative is to license ReiserFS separately, which is expensive.
Keep in mind, too, that FreeBSD is not just a kernel, it's an Operating System. You cannot simply have a Linux and a FreeBSD kernel and boot between them, you really do need a full dual-boot system.
It's that kind of arrogance that makes many people across the rest of the world resent the US. The US only got involved with WW2 when Japan bombed Pearl Harbour. Until that time they were quite happy to sit back and let the world fight it out.
The US has a high GDP because of the large number of international companies with head offices in the US. If they all went offshore the GDP would plummet.
The US is an international bully. Don't get me wrong; I have met several Americans and in general they are good people. But as a country, you have WMD yourself but heaven forbid if someone else develops them! You have economic clout that is used to benefit the US at the cost of other countries, including third world countries. Studies have already shown that the *only way* Americans can continue their current lifestyle is to keep the third world in poverty. There simply are not enough resources in the world to support that lifestyle if the third world catches up.
Sure, you live in a pretty good country. But don't think that makes you better than the rest of the world. You're not God's chosen people, or at least no more so than the rest of us.
Incidentally, I wonder sometimes when Americans will wake up and realise that you live in a Capitalist society, not a Democracy. Some of the laws over there (the DCMA comes to mind) only benefit the large corporations. Great for their hip pockets, terrible for the people. Some democracy.
Gee I'm glad I'm not American, I like my leisure time... I work 36.25 hours a week. That's it. Flat. If I am asked to work more, I get the time off in lieu later or I get paid overtime. Admittedly I work at a Uni, but the same was true for my husband in the corporate world.
Funnily enough, Australians have a reputation for being some of the most productive workers in the world. Perhaps when you don't work insanely long hours you're less likely to waste time.
Bring the tech companies over here instead! I could use the work:)
Seriously, though, I can't believe what you guys call "freedom". We don't technically have "freedom of speech" over here, so it's not legal to insult people all over the place, but I haven't had a problem with that yet. And you can always call your politicians a bunch of bastards over here and everyone will laugh and agree with you. Besides, voting is compulsory. You think that's a bad thing? It's against the law to not be allowed out of work to vote. Everyone gets their say, because they have to. You might not like that, I think it's fantastic.
Of course, Australia's been grovelling to the US a lot lately. Bunch of Tall Poppies, the lot of you!:P
Don't mod me down, making fun of people is the Australian way! It's fun!:)
In fact, quite the opposite is true in some parts of the world. Here in Australia, for example, the only reason our population isn't *decreasing* is that we have a lot of immigrants. Few families have more than 2 or 3 children, and it is becoming quite normal and accepted for couples to not have a family at all. In my case, as someone who intends to have 3 or 4 children, I get jaws dropping all over the place. "Oh my God, 4 children! That's so many!" Err.. if you say so.
Society is changing, and reproducing is not necessarily the purpose of a woman's (or man's, for that matter) existance anymore. So you'll find it's slowing down.
Research has shown that the Earth can support a population of about 12 billion if we stop wasting so much. It is quite common for farmers in certain first world countries to throw out produce rather than lower prices. Crazy, but there's capitalism for you. So assuming that lobsterGun's data is correct, we can all live happily together on this planet. If we don't blow ourselves up first of course.
How about if you're not using a package manager? There are plenty of programs out there that are still only available as binaries or source code, not as packages. RPM isn't the answer to everything. I realise that you can build your own packages, but sometimes you don't want to.
I do agree, however, that files that need to be writable probably shouldn't be on/usr, though you then have/usr/local/etc to be concerned about. The/var partition was created for this kind of thing. I'm not sure why this doesn't go in/var/cron myself.
An interesting development is the long term plans of ReiserFS. They have a concept of multiple filesystems being mounted at the one point. So, for example, you first mount the system/etc read-write, then you mount a NFS filesystem to/etc read-only for central configs, then you mount another local filesystem to/etc read-write as a user logs in, which contains that user's own configuration files. All programs would then know that configs go in/etc, and no more ~/.everything type directories. In fact, this would allow for separation of configuration from home directories, so that you could have your home directory mounted at whichever workstation you sit down at, but have different configurations depending on what workstation you are on. The filesystem would handle mounting any number of filesystems to/etc, and transparently handle the permissions on the different filesystems mounted at that point.
I haven't made it through much of the documentation on the website yet, but it's a very interesting read.
I agree. I've been enjoying his books about Kirk after Generations (The Return, Spectre... um, haven't read the next lot yet). They're nice light reading. Go pick one up some time. Start with Ashes of Eden.
My first introduction to Star Trek was ST4: The Voyage Home (the one where they go back to 1986). It was the Kirk/Spock/McCoy trio that really hooked me on Star Trek to begin with. Lay off the guy. I'll admit he's not the world's best actor, but I never noticed while I was watching Trek. I took it as part of the character, and that was fine by me.
Some of those questions were almost rude, and didn't warrant a detailed answer anyway. And as someone has pointed out, at least he was willing to do an interview for a non-standard group like slashdot! We're all a bunch of cynics, so I rather doubt he was doing this to improve his image, but rather just because someone asked. Thanks, Bill, for taking the time.
I have a SunBlade 100 right in front of me... and I love it. It's quiet and as fast (if not faster) than I need. Admittedly we upped the RAM to 512 straight up.
load average: 0.21, 0.13, 0.09
It only gets higher than about 0.4 when I'm doing a major compile or patching (or running xlock, damn that must be bloated). I'm happily running mozilla, and it crashes less often than my last Linux box. Which is to say not in my memory. I've had X crash on me once or twice when I was still running Solaris 8, but that was usually because I did something stupid. (I'm a FreeBSD convert now, but Solaris 9 is what we're running at work).
I have a PC card inside (which is unfortunately rather noisy. Damn PCs) with an external monitor. I run VNC software so I can use Windows XP and Solaris 9 almost as if it's one dual-headed machine. Roll the mouse to the right I'm in Windows, roll it to the left I'm in Solaris. I find it a very productive setup for the work I do, which is sysadmin with some Java & Python development thrown in, and some need for MS-specific applications (not just Office, though that is certainly one - several? - of them).
I haven't used an Ultra-2, so I don't have a comparison, but it's a major improvement on my old Ultra-5.
Slashdot Mirror
The original purpose of patents was to protect inventions and thus provide incentives to innovate. This would improve productivity, as what is the point of working if someone is going to steal your idea? Patents were a good idea at the time, and for many things still are a good idea.
... I accept some and not others). The actual idea, however? Has K-Mart patented the layout of their shelves? No! And they'd probably be laughed at if they even tried. So what's with this "business methods" nonsense? Just another way for businesses to be inefficient.
Software patents are an example of the protectionist mentality that seems to abound in many first-world countries. Business: "We can't compete with country X, we're going to have to fire people." Government: "Uh oh, can't have that, here's lots of money." or "We'll tax the imports so much that you can charge more and get away with it." Such behaviour is the opposite of the original purpose of patents. Further, it's bad for the consumer as (for example) US sugar is a lot more expensive than Australian sugar. If we were truly productive we wouldn't need a Free Trade Agreement - international competition would be the norm. Most of our primary industries would probably relocate to third-world countries, I don't deny that, but there are plenty of tertiary (services) industry jobs out there and that is where the first world should focus. Instead, we protect our "rights" to be inefficient and to take money from our own pockets to put into the pockets of the corporations. It's crazy!
I can actually understand this patent, though. There are worse ones out there (and don't even get me started on the extension of copyright). In this case, Amazon has come up with a way to encourage you to buy more stuff, by basically doing targeted advertising. It's really rather clever, and the algorithm they use probably should be patented (assuming you accept the idea of software patents
Nope. Studies indicate that breastfeeding (which implies having children) reduces a woman's risk of certain types of cancer.
... biologically, having children doesn't make a lick of difference. Mentally, having someone to visit you in your dotage will probably keep you from tipping over the edge into insanity. Or it will send you crazy, if your children are that way inclined ;)
Menopause happens whether you have children or not, and a lot of things go screwy after that.
As for guys
Your mobile phone number is your unique identifier. Given out to lots of people and you keep it because changing numbers is a *pain*. If anyone really wanted to track you, all they need is the number and access to various companies' records.
They did a Sleeping Beauty sequel? Oh dear, even for Disney that's low.
He already stated higher up the page that this isn't necessarily to watch the babysitter. He does have to work, you know. Wouldn't it be nice for a working dad to be able to connect to a webserver for a peek at his sleeping baby during the afternoon nap?
Sheesh, don't be so fast to judge, people!
I was thrilled to see this discussion, since my husband and I want to do the same thing. Why? Because our families are at least 6 hours driving time away, some are about 2000 kms (1200 miles) away, and it would be nice for them to be able to catch glimpses of our baby from time-to-time.
I have to agree here. In Australia they recently did a show where they built a "fairy garden" for a little girl who is seriously ill. It was beautiful, and quite frankly I couldn't care less about the product placement. More of this, thanks!
That said, all those Survivor-type shows and these new "Swapping spouses" shows just bug me.
It's also your population that has made you so powerful, and as someone has said below your natural resources. The US population is approaching 300 million (293 million, in fact), the third highest in the world. Only 11 countries make it over 100 million, only 4 make it over 200 million, and only two (China and India) make it over a billion. Combine that with the fact that China and India are still playing catch-up with modern technology and economics, and the US clearly has the largest population BY FAR. In contrast, Australia is slightly below 20 million (19.91) in population. The US still has a much larger GDP, about 1.75 times the size, adjusting for population, so I will concede that something appears to be going right. Note that GDP is only a measure of production, though, and not of the overall economy (imports vs exports and so forth). At the moment the US is a cornerstone of financial markets. Whether this will last is yet to be seen.
It's very difficult to compare countries of different populations, histories and resources, and what you measure will affect the result. But I do know that poverty in the US is rising. Economic strength only tells you that at least some people are filthy rich. It doesn't give you the big picture. There are enough unemployed IT workers in the US to present a picture that's a lot less pretty. With the biggest economy in the world, why are American children starving?
In Australia most good IT workers are on reasonable money (not always spectacular, but reasonable) and work ordinary 9-5 hours. There was certainly an IT downturn here, but it's not as bad anymore. I have friends in a global company, and when they fly to the US to work on projects over there they can't believe how little gets done in your 70 hours. I think a lot of the difference is in work-ethic. I'm told that in the US most people work away individually at their tasks. I'm told that people don't ask each other for help because it affects their likelihood of promotion. Over here, asking for help with a problem you're having difficulty with is expected and encouraged.
There must be decent work in the US somewhere, and if it's not in IT then maybe too many people did IT degrees. That's not the government's fault, and even if it is they're not going to do anything about it. So either move overseas, re-educate, or find a way to differentiate yourself. Be the person who makes sure projects get done on time, even if you have to ask for help sometimes.
*sigh* The world isn't broken up into Linux and Microsoft. This is "News for Nerds" ... not every 'nerd' uses Linux. Some use Macs, some use FreeBSD, and a very large proportion use MS products. If you want a Linux-specific news site, look elsewhere. It also says "NEWS" not "TECH NEWS". You can find that all over the place. There are more stories on /. than make the front page, particularly some of the more esoteric tech ones - have a look in the appropriate sections.
/. readers, particularly those after Linux news, but I will. This is relevant because the more it can be demonstrated that Linux is a viable alternative the more commercial funding it will receive. More commercial funding == more developers == better products. And because Linux is GPLed, that's always better for all the users. Take a look at some of the journaled filesystems as an example. AFAIK, none of them would have been developed without commercial (eg JFS) or military (ReiserFS) funding.
I shouldn't really need to point out why this is relevant to
Well, he did say that the keyboard was "quaint". Maybe he had a hobby that we don't know about :)
And to clarify (also watching the event) the US divers had the most perfect synchronisation in the event. They both pulled out of their (beautiful) dives late, and in perfect unison entered the water with their legs about 30 degrees from vertical. Oops!
:)
Thanks to them, Australia won a bronze medal. We usually suck at the diving, so it's much appreciated
I'm not sure how insurance works in the US, but in Australia your insurance generally won't go up if it's the other driver's fault. If your policy doesn't say that, then CHANGE IT. We have 40 (km, not mile, so 25 mph) zones around schools. Yes, you may have some bastard running up your butt. In fact, you usually do. Personally I'd rather get rear-ended than have a dead child on my conscience.
:) Authorities need to focus more on unsafe driving (weaving, chatting on mobile phones, serviced cars) and less on speeding. Let's face it, no matter how fast you're going you're not going to miss that child if you're too busy on the phone to pay attention to the road.
It's the "but everyone else does it" argument that causes problems. You merge dangerously into a small gap, because "everyone else" won't let you in unless you do. Suddenly you have an accident. Some drivers are crazy. They recently did a survey of Australian drivers and found that 80% thought they were above-average drivers. Makes me worry about the other 20%!
I'm in favour of this, but I do agree with the parent that there should be specific reasons why it can be accessed, and limitations on *who* can access it.
All that said, I'm not against speeding in the middle-of-nowhere. There's a lot of middle-of-nowhere in Australia
Well, have pity on we Australians then. X-Box games come out at $89.95 - $99.95, PC games rarely come out for under $79.95. I'm not sure what Doom III is going for, but I bet it's around the $90 mark.
:)
I agree on the price point, there are very few games I will ever pay full price for (NWN was a rather disappointing exception, but Diablo II is still proving its worth time and time again). Pay what you think it's worth. If getting it 6 months earlier is worth $20 to you, then pay full price. Me, I can wait (not that my computer would do anything other than choke on it). Of course, I'm the same with hardware. That's why I bought an X-Box when they got cheap. No hardware upgrades
Give him a break - you have to think to post anonymously (so be thinking about karma whoring to remember not to). He probably just didn't think about it.
Unless you live in Queensland, Australia, where 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) is considered cold too! We like our weather at about 26 (79) degrees, and hot is when it gets over 35 (95) :)
Java is not necessarily slow. Badly coded Java can be, but Java itself tends to be quite fast. I know companies that are writing essential services with 5 9s reliability in Java because it's fast enough and a lot easier to maintain.
b enchmar k.html
Benchmarks here:
http://www.idiom.com/~zilla/Computer/javaC
IIRC, it's not the BSD developer's fault. The BSD kernel has a different license than the GPL, and it's a lot more liberal. If they compile ReiserFS into the FreeBSD kernel they must GPL the kernel to comply with the licensing. The alternative is to license ReiserFS separately, which is expensive.
Keep in mind, too, that FreeBSD is not just a kernel, it's an Operating System. You cannot simply have a Linux and a FreeBSD kernel and boot between them, you really do need a full dual-boot system.
It's that kind of arrogance that makes many people across the rest of the world resent the US. The US only got involved with WW2 when Japan bombed Pearl Harbour. Until that time they were quite happy to sit back and let the world fight it out.
The US has a high GDP because of the large number of international companies with head offices in the US. If they all went offshore the GDP would plummet.
The US is an international bully. Don't get me wrong; I have met several Americans and in general they are good people. But as a country, you have WMD yourself but heaven forbid if someone else develops them! You have economic clout that is used to benefit the US at the cost of other countries, including third world countries. Studies have already shown that the *only way* Americans can continue their current lifestyle is to keep the third world in poverty. There simply are not enough resources in the world to support that lifestyle if the third world catches up.
Sure, you live in a pretty good country. But don't think that makes you better than the rest of the world. You're not God's chosen people, or at least no more so than the rest of us.
Incidentally, I wonder sometimes when Americans will wake up and realise that you live in a Capitalist society, not a Democracy. Some of the laws over there (the DCMA comes to mind) only benefit the large corporations. Great for their hip pockets, terrible for the people. Some democracy.
Gee I'm glad I'm not American, I like my leisure time ... I work 36.25 hours a week. That's it. Flat. If I am asked to work more, I get the time off in lieu later or I get paid overtime. Admittedly I work at a Uni, but the same was true for my husband in the corporate world.
Funnily enough, Australians have a reputation for being some of the most productive workers in the world. Perhaps when you don't work insanely long hours you're less likely to waste time.
Bring the tech companies over here instead! I could use the work :)
:P
:)
Seriously, though, I can't believe what you guys call "freedom". We don't technically have "freedom of speech" over here, so it's not legal to insult people all over the place, but I haven't had a problem with that yet. And you can always call your politicians a bunch of bastards over here and everyone will laugh and agree with you. Besides, voting is compulsory. You think that's a bad thing? It's against the law to not be allowed out of work to vote. Everyone gets their say, because they have to. You might not like that, I think it's fantastic.
Of course, Australia's been grovelling to the US a lot lately. Bunch of Tall Poppies, the lot of you!
Don't mod me down, making fun of people is the Australian way! It's fun!
I'm not sure if you're kidding or not, but a modcase is exactly what it looks like - a way of making those ugly bricks look cool.
In fact, quite the opposite is true in some parts of the world. Here in Australia, for example, the only reason our population isn't *decreasing* is that we have a lot of immigrants. Few families have more than 2 or 3 children, and it is becoming quite normal and accepted for couples to not have a family at all. In my case, as someone who intends to have 3 or 4 children, I get jaws dropping all over the place. "Oh my God, 4 children! That's so many!" Err .. if you say so.
Society is changing, and reproducing is not necessarily the purpose of a woman's (or man's, for that matter) existance anymore. So you'll find it's slowing down.
Research has shown that the Earth can support a population of about 12 billion if we stop wasting so much. It is quite common for farmers in certain first world countries to throw out produce rather than lower prices. Crazy, but there's capitalism for you. So assuming that lobsterGun's data is correct, we can all live happily together on this planet. If we don't blow ourselves up first of course.
How about if you're not using a package manager? There are plenty of programs out there that are still only available as binaries or source code, not as packages. RPM isn't the answer to everything. I realise that you can build your own packages, but sometimes you don't want to. I do agree, however, that files that need to be writable probably shouldn't be on /usr, though you then have /usr/local/etc to be concerned about. The /var partition was created for this kind of thing. I'm not sure why this doesn't go in /var/cron myself.
An interesting development is the long term plans of ReiserFS. They have a concept of multiple filesystems being mounted at the one point. So, for example, you first mount the system /etc read-write, then you mount a NFS filesystem to /etc read-only for central configs, then you mount another local filesystem to /etc read-write as a user logs in, which contains that user's own configuration files. All programs would then know that configs go in /etc, and no more ~/.everything type directories. In fact, this would allow for separation of configuration from home directories, so that you could have your home directory mounted at whichever workstation you sit down at, but have different configurations depending on what workstation you are on. The filesystem would handle mounting any number of filesystems to /etc, and transparently handle the permissions on the different filesystems mounted at that point.
I haven't made it through much of the documentation on the website yet, but it's a very interesting read.
I agree. I've been enjoying his books about Kirk after Generations (The Return, Spectre ... um, haven't read the next lot yet). They're nice light reading. Go pick one up some time. Start with Ashes of Eden.
My first introduction to Star Trek was ST4: The Voyage Home (the one where they go back to 1986). It was the Kirk/Spock/McCoy trio that really hooked me on Star Trek to begin with. Lay off the guy. I'll admit he's not the world's best actor, but I never noticed while I was watching Trek. I took it as part of the character, and that was fine by me.
Some of those questions were almost rude, and didn't warrant a detailed answer anyway. And as someone has pointed out, at least he was willing to do an interview for a non-standard group like slashdot! We're all a bunch of cynics, so I rather doubt he was doing this to improve his image, but rather just because someone asked. Thanks, Bill, for taking the time.
I have a SunBlade 100 right in front of me ... and I love it. It's quiet and as fast (if not faster) than I need. Admittedly we upped the RAM to 512 straight up.
load average: 0.21, 0.13, 0.09
It only gets higher than about 0.4 when I'm doing a major compile or patching (or running xlock, damn that must be bloated). I'm happily running mozilla, and it crashes less often than my last Linux box. Which is to say not in my memory. I've had X crash on me once or twice when I was still running Solaris 8, but that was usually because I did something stupid. (I'm a FreeBSD convert now, but Solaris 9 is what we're running at work).
I have a PC card inside (which is unfortunately rather noisy. Damn PCs) with an external monitor. I run VNC software so I can use Windows XP and Solaris 9 almost as if it's one dual-headed machine. Roll the mouse to the right I'm in Windows, roll it to the left I'm in Solaris. I find it a very productive setup for the work I do, which is sysadmin with some Java & Python development thrown in, and some need for MS-specific applications (not just Office, though that is certainly one - several? - of them).
I haven't used an Ultra-2, so I don't have a comparison, but it's a major improvement on my old Ultra-5.