"For real? You actively try to dislike things that are popular, simply because they're popular? You must miss out on an awful lot of good stuff in life, then."
He's not the only one. I do too. In a world where what's popular is reality tv and big, bland brands, I decided many years ago that popular didn't mean good. It means mediocre at best, lowest common denominator drivel more usually.
If something popular is actually any good then it'll stick around a while, and maybe I can try it then.
That said, Ubuntu is pretty ace, and Ubuntu's kind of popularity doesn't even register on the scale compared to the cultural things I do avoid (Harry Potter, Britney Spears etc)
"More applications are arguably illegal to run on Linux than on Windows due to patent encumbrance."
Not quite true.
Same apps suffer from the same stuff on both platforms. It's just that on MS you are more likely to find a commercial version that you have to pay for that has actually licensed the patents.
SOme you may get free with your PC, like a DVD playing app, but that doesn't mean much.
"In other words, for the type of *real programmer* who isn't on a team and does everything from Requirements Gathering to QA (and everything in between) your job is STILL threatened by outsourcing."
What sort of a real programmer isn't on a team these days?
Any serious sized project has a team. And believe me, good software engineers are still very sought after.
I'd quite like an iPod, probably a classic because of the high capacity, but if they're gonna break interop just because they feel like it then never mind eh?
Not just that, but there's also now some sort of crypto signature on the index files the newer iPods create/read. If it's not present then the iPod refuses to recognise any of the music.
This seems to be there solely to destroy interoperability with any non-iTunes software (Amarok). Great, thanks Apple.
(Sightly OT - as linux user, with a 40+ GB music collection, mostly in mp3 format, what is the best current high capacity media player? 32GB Xen X-fi with an additional SD Card? Or is there anything else non-Apple that can store all my music?)
Interesting turn of phrase. I wouldn't call the desire not to be screwed over in secret by a cabal of politicians and business interests a fringe belief.
As for my cynical credentials - well I don't have any faith in humanity to do anything useful or in its own best interests, which I think fits pretty well.
"Can we look back in four years time and think of George Bush as a benevolent caretaker in light of the atrocities commited by the new administration?"
So far, no.
There have been no new wars, no warrantless wiretapping scandals, very little outright idiocy. It's going to take eight years of consistent underhandedness, deviousness and violence before anyone else can get close to the bush administration.
Err, right, so a European travelling to the US on business doesn't count as an example of software engineers travelling, but an American going to europe would.
Fail?
I also know lots of Americans that travel frequently on business. It all depends on your priorities and picking the right job, if it's something you want to do. Frankly I find business travel a little overrated, but I do enjoy it.
Well, if international travel is a goal anyway. I'm a uk based software engineer and in my 9 years I've been sent on assignments to France and Sweden, knowledge transfer operations to San Francisco for a month at time, conferences in Florida and four months of secondment to Dallas, TX. I'm hoping to get out to Malaysia at some point soon.
All depends on your priorities, and who you work for (and how much they trust you to be the face of their tech organisation).
Still, I had three years experience before any of that happened.
Again, if you get a supported card then it really does just work. If you don't then you might have to resort to NDISwrapper. On 4 different laptops now I've had "it just works" with a variety of different wireless hardware. And with network-manager you don't even have to screw around with supplicant settings any more.
pushed performance to the next level, featuring Wireless MMX2, floating point support, and compliance with both the ARMv5 and Intel XScale architectures.
Sheeva is the next generation from these and should be pretty quick, operating at over 1GHz and with FP.
When it's compiled into the kernel or linked with other code, you have to take the whole system into account. If you distribute GPL binaries you must be able to distribute source, and those you distribute it to must be able to do the same with no more restrictions than the GPL provides.
But it needs an interface made for non-programmers (not going to happen anytime soon) and a new name. Then it can stand a chance against Photoshop
1. There was a project to do this, gimpshop, but I don't know how successful it was. 2. This little topic always makes me slightly angry. How many of the people saying "Gimp is no photoshop" actually paid for photoshop?
It must be one of the most widely pirated apps out there, yet somehow every man and his dog seem to complain it's one of the things stopping them moving to Linux. Always confused me. When the choice is FOSS or piracy, I personally prefer the FOSS option, even with worse interface. Though I'm pretty sure Adobe see the rampant piracy as a (microsoftian) mechanism to maintain dominance, and won't go after it too harshly.
(I am aware that if you use it professionally then the license allows you to have a home copy as well, I just don't think that anywhere near as many people use it professionally or pay for it as claim it's important to them).
Slashdot Mirror
"For real? You actively try to dislike things that are popular, simply because they're popular? You must miss out on an awful lot of good stuff in life, then."
He's not the only one. I do too. In a world where what's popular is reality tv and big, bland brands, I decided many years ago that popular didn't mean good. It means mediocre at best, lowest common denominator drivel more usually.
If something popular is actually any good then it'll stick around a while, and maybe I can try it then.
That said, Ubuntu is pretty ace, and Ubuntu's kind of popularity doesn't even register on the scale compared to the cultural things I do avoid (Harry Potter, Britney Spears etc)
The tools are just different.
What, you don't think UNIX admins have been doing that stuff since before windows even existed?
"More applications are arguably illegal to run on Linux than on Windows due to patent encumbrance."
Not quite true.
Same apps suffer from the same stuff on both platforms. It's just that on MS you are more likely to find a commercial version that you have to pay for that has actually licensed the patents.
SOme you may get free with your PC, like a DVD playing app, but that doesn't mean much.
Because they don't really believe and haven't had time to consider and come to terms with their own mortality.
Dammit, there was supposed to be a "" tag in there, but slashdot ate it.
Hey, don't forget that IBM open sourced UNIX in the form of Linux!!
1.5 != 3*0.65
And was I comparing it to a macbook air?
No, I was comparing it to this offering from Dell, which is slower, probably doesn't have much in the way of a 3D chip and isn't really that light.
It's a nice piece of hardware. The touchpad seems to have settled down into working pretty consistently now too...
Yeah, I know folks hate sony, never did actually care about that. My ethics are questionable i guess.
My one and a half year old vaio SZ weighs less than that (about 3 pounds) and isn't all that thick.
"In other words, for the type of *real programmer* who isn't on a team and does everything from Requirements Gathering to QA (and everything in between) your job is STILL threatened by outsourcing."
What sort of a real programmer isn't on a team these days?
Any serious sized project has a team. And believe me, good software engineers are still very sought after.
And that makes it good!?!
I'd quite like an iPod, probably a classic because of the high capacity, but if they're gonna break interop just because they feel like it then never mind eh?
Not just that, but there's also now some sort of crypto signature on the index files the newer iPods create/read. If it's not present then the iPod refuses to recognise any of the music.
This seems to be there solely to destroy interoperability with any non-iTunes software (Amarok). Great, thanks Apple.
(Sightly OT - as linux user, with a 40+ GB music collection, mostly in mp3 format, what is the best current high capacity media player? 32GB Xen X-fi with an additional SD Card? Or is there anything else non-Apple that can store all my music?)
"Fringe beliefs"
Interesting turn of phrase. I wouldn't call the desire not to be screwed over in secret by a cabal of politicians and business interests a fringe belief.
As for my cynical credentials - well I don't have any faith in humanity to do anything useful or in its own best interests, which I think fits pretty well.
"Can we look back in four years time and think of George Bush as a benevolent caretaker in light of the atrocities commited by the new administration?"
So far, no.
There have been no new wars, no warrantless wiretapping scandals, very little outright idiocy. It's going to take eight years of consistent underhandedness, deviousness and violence before anyone else can get close to the bush administration.
As a jaded cynic I have just this to say -
You voted for one of the Republicans or the Democrats and you expected a change?
Ha!!! Best scam ever!!! You were duped my friend.
Err, right, so a European travelling to the US on business doesn't count as an example of software engineers travelling, but an American going to europe would.
Fail?
I also know lots of Americans that travel frequently on business. It all depends on your priorities and picking the right job, if it's something you want to do. Frankly I find business travel a little overrated, but I do enjoy it.
Oh dear.
I think I might be a narcissist too.
A better one than you, mind.
Couldn't agree more, mid-range hotels are mid-range hotels, software labs/offices are much the same wherever you are.
However expenses are only paid when you're in on business travel :)
Ur doin it wrong!
Well, if international travel is a goal anyway. I'm a uk based software engineer and in my 9 years I've been sent on assignments to France and Sweden, knowledge transfer operations to San Francisco for a month at time, conferences in Florida and four months of secondment to Dallas, TX. I'm hoping to get out to Malaysia at some point soon.
All depends on your priorities, and who you work for (and how much they trust you to be the face of their tech organisation).
Still, I had three years experience before any of that happened.
WiFi hard?
Again, if you get a supported card then it really does just work. If you don't then you might have to resort to NDISwrapper. On 4 different laptops now I've had "it just works" with a variety of different wireless hardware. And with network-manager you don't even have to screw around with supplicant settings any more.
There's still high demand for good ones.
True, "I can shove a web-page together" is no longer qualification, but good skills (as in any technical profession) are hard to find and valuable.
Interesting that that post is from 2007.
Marvell's canned history of their processor line states that in 2007 they released a core which -
Sheeva is the next generation from these and should be pretty quick, operating at over 1GHz and with FP.
Who's talking about the vfat driver?
When it's compiled into the kernel or linked with other code, you have to take the whole system into account. If you distribute GPL binaries you must be able to distribute source, and those you distribute it to must be able to do the same with no more restrictions than the GPL provides.
Any license deal gets in the way of this.
But it needs an interface made for non-programmers (not going to happen anytime soon) and a new name. Then it can stand a chance against Photoshop
1. There was a project to do this, gimpshop, but I don't know how successful it was.
2. This little topic always makes me slightly angry. How many of the people saying "Gimp is no photoshop" actually paid for photoshop?
It must be one of the most widely pirated apps out there, yet somehow every man and his dog seem to complain it's one of the things stopping them moving to Linux. Always confused me. When the choice is FOSS or piracy, I personally prefer the FOSS option, even with worse interface. Though I'm pretty sure Adobe see the rampant piracy as a (microsoftian) mechanism to maintain dominance, and won't go after it too harshly.
(I am aware that if you use it professionally then the license allows you to have a home copy as well, I just don't think that anywhere near as many people use it professionally or pay for it as claim it's important to them).
Um no.
ARMv4 lacks the FPU. The newer Marvell chips certainly have FPUs now. ARM is great!