What about iFolder? Looking at the spec's I think it's missing serverless/hiving (which could be provided by any of the normal p2p people), file history... not understanding your database object comment.
Speaking of which, what about freenet? The only thing it's missing is "guaranteed availability of critical business data", eh? And I hear it might have some performance problems.;^)
2003 Salon Article on Dan/i Bunten, (creator of M.U.L.E.) with some commentary by Mr. Meier. (via wikipedia article on mule)
--Robert
Your Inspirations?
on
Ask Sid Meier
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
According to wikipedia's bio you started designing games in the 80's, and there seems to be a common element of deliberation or strategy in many of them (less twitch, more think).
What games or game designers inspired you? I've not played MULE, but I'd guess you might have played it. What about board games? Chess, Go?
Since you make games for a living, what do you do "for fun"?:^)
It's the "analog hole" in reverse. Radio == "A way to get music on your iPod without buying it from the Apple Store(tm)"... by intentionally eliminating that way of "leaking music" into your headphones, iPod owners are that much more of a captive audience when buying music online (since you can't effectively buy MP3's or AAC from other online vendors... instead only DRM WMA's, etc).
This is why engineers != business people != marketing people.:^)
Term I seem to recall is "quantitative" comparision of audio quality (vs. "qualitative"... ie: "it sounds better").
When doing audio "optimization" there are a few types of tests, one that can be done by computers (comparing data and formulas to other data), and the other that has to be done by people.
If you only did the "computer" type tests, you might have something that is as close to accurate as possible, but would still sound "off" in the "wrong way" to human ears (ie: the computer might have "optimized out" all the bass in order to be more accurate on the treble, but few people would accept "qualitatively" the results of that compression, even though quantitatively it might be "closer to accurate" than the other).
Anyway, I am not an audio researcher, but you might start there.
My head almost exploded, as you spelled both "too", and "loose" correctly for the first time in such close proximity on/. I actually had a tough time understanding you for a sec. mod_gramar == off ; brainctl graceful!:^)
What's preventing someone from breaking your shiny glass windows right now, stealing your stuff, and driving off with it. Why aren't windows made of chicken-wire, plastic, and cut-resistant steel?...(please, engage your brain and think about it, I'll wait)...
Now, why do you expect your software to be built the same way?
Fundamentally, it's a question of cost / benefit, and has a lot to do with the ambient state of affairs. For all the/. "P2P is l33t", if the 'net were more highly enforced (ie: don't be a jackass, don't DDoS people, don't hack people, spread viruses, trojans, don't download illegally, etc) the same way the USian streets are monitored and enforced it would be a lot "safer", and lower-quality (cost?) software wouldn't be as big of an issue or risk as it is. (ie: same reason that glass is still a reasonably acceptable theft-prevention device with cars).
Now, maybe you could argue (bad metaphors, of course), that network-facing ports are the "roll-cage / crumple-zones" of the automotive industry. Yeah, the windows are made of glass and can break (safety glass, mind you)... but we're really going to require crumple-zones and roll-cages because even though you should be a really safe driver, we know accidents happen.
Network ports should be hardened (no remote exploits, no remote root exploits, no local exploits, no local privelege escalation exploits), and you could make that a requirement or standard (government regulation?) or let the market sort it out?
As a 0.5 yr. Powerbook user (and former 5yr Linux user), I'll play devil's advocate with these:
(1) Desktop Linux distros come with hundreds of quality desktop applications
OSX comes with 3-4 high quality applications that you really need (iPhoto, iTunes). What I use most often extra: OO.org (actually, NeoOffice), FireFox.
(2) Linux will run on a TON of hardware, including old hardware
Good point, but Mac hardware is "better"? Powermac 12" v. some cheap-o taiwan windows laptop? No comparison.
For people who want to be a part of the open source movement, Linux (or BSDs) is the natural choice.
Look at Linus (who uses a powerbook formfactor, if not OSX itself). Nothing is prohibiting you from developing software under the license you choose. Agreed that the OS and applications are not (all) open, and that can be a dealbreaker.
(4) Linux, as a kernel, is hyper-configurable. You can strip it down or compile everything in.
OSX "just works". It's actually quite nice, especially since I've been trying to configure wlan adapters on Linux and it's about as far away from the ideal as possible. (through no fault of linux developers).
(5) The "slick GUI" advantage of OS X will rapidly disappear...I look forward to it.
(6)...it's just as simple to install major server apps as other apps.
Installation in OSX is drag and drop (or the winders "click-click-click"), I'm sure server applications behave similarly.
(7) The typical Linux environment is highly, highly scriptable.
Automator. I've tried using it, and it mostly stinks (or I can't figure out good ways to use it), but you can still drop to #!/bin/sh if necessary, and apple is pretty good about making things command-line accessible (ie: mdfind is command-line interface to spotlight. man mdfind does just what you'd expect).
I'm also a fan of the gummy-bear model, and regular, working customer demonstrations. Provide value as early in the process as possible, not as late as possible. If you don't have your deliverables specified, you'll never know when you're done. Thus, Nail down your deliverables, break them into equal sized chunks, complete them and demo them to your customer, and determine your project's velocity after 2-3 iterations of doing the above.
I'm sure I'm not the first to say this, but try the following:
<html><head> <style>.red { color: red; }.big { font-size: 2em; }/* in A's, big means something different */ a.big { font-size: 5em; } #blah { color: pink; } </style> </head><body>
<span class="big">whee</span> <hr> <span class="red">whee</span> <hr> <span class="big red">whee</span> <hr> <a href="#"><span class="big red">whee</span></a> <hr> <div id="blah">This is styling a specific tag based on ID</div>
</body> </html>...that's what's known as "the cascade", and also class combinations. Go forth, enjoy.
I agree with the parent poster about doing something non-computer related. If you wanted to be more interactive, you might do the standard "make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich"... (WITH PLASTIC KNIVES, otherwise the retarded teacher-drones will freak out).
Have little boxes drawn on a piece of poster board labeled box 1, 2, etc), and put the jelly, bread, etc in each of the different boxes.
Have 2-3 kids writing down instructions, and another take the instructions one at a time and read / execute them.
If you must involve computers, you might show Guido Van Robot, a python version of classic "karel the robot" that I learned in the beginning of pascal.:^)
A friend of mine's engineering lackey was having problems with a particular scenario in some software he was tasked with implementing.
"""The background to understand his problem. This is a sealed bid auction. Contingency bidding means that you only win 1 auction if you won all auctions in your Contingency Bid."""
I noted that it looked a lot like Condorcet Voting, which is not something you'd learn (generally) in a strict CS/Math/Eng school. Not much of a point, but in general, beware of over-specialization. Specialization is for Insects.
We actually did this at my last place of work (http://www.sell.com) for any listings you put for sale on the site. It would only be a matter of time before you started getting sell.com/crap, sell.com/shit, etc.
If I would have been thinking even more when writing the item translation function, I would have omitted not just vowels, but similar letters / numbers that are open to misinterpretation (1, 5, S, L/l) since we wanted people to advertise their item codes in "the real world" as well.
Your arms (or keyboards) aren't broken, are they? If you think it would be a good investment then get to work on it (code, testing, doc, etc) or pitch in some $$$ to convince someone to do so.
This is a good thing (IMHO, IANA-SysAdmin). If an ISP gets their mailserver blacklisted because their customers computers are full of crap, it encourages ISP's to take more responsibility for the traffic that's flowing through their network.
Actually, that's a really bad thing, but 90% of people are stupid, and 90% of windows installs (IMHO) are crap so it's not always the end user's fault. Maybe it's this OSX-like influence seeping in to me, but if all you want to do is check email and browse the web, your computer shouldn't catch random viruses and explode.
I'm on their "level 3" plan, $20/mo, great email support, 3 real live telephone callbacks PER MONTH (never had to use it), great web panel, web email, etc. Full shell, ssh (passwordless!), mysql, php, c-compilers, etc. Really well run shop. 8gb storage, 200gb transfer, 15 domains, 75 subdomains, countably infinite # of email addresses, etc, etc, etc.
I really can't emphasize enough the type of support they give. They got my issues with crontab sorted out (some unix-y crontab guy sent me some tips), passwordless SSH issues (permissions problem), checked their mailqueues when I was experiencing slow delivery, answered my questions about changing the default mailing list configurations, responded to questions about a (rare) database outage, fixed dollar amount ordering on user-contribution pages, fixed initial setup issues that I had in the first day (and more importantly, updated their scripts so future setups wouldn't cause problems). Really first-class support, usually less than 24 hour email turnaround service and you get in touch with "the right person" and I always feel like they've done the best they can do to resolve the issues. (Thank you all dreamhost employees, especially ops and support!)
If you're feeling generous, go ahead and click my referral link before you sign up, I think I'll get some money from that if you sign up (at least it's not a free iPod;^)
I have to agree. I'm currently making Dominoes as an online board game. I've been programming professionally for ~5 years now, have 4 years of college, 2 years of High School, and 4-5 years of self-study in programming. Programming a complete working version of anything can be difficult, so keep it simple. As an example of what you might end up facing, here's a dump of my latest directory structure:
WRITE YOUR TESTS! Notice almost 50% of my code is tests (and I feel that it's not enough, I currently got ahead of myself and need to catch up on my tests before I feel comfortable adding more functionality).
I would do a lot of thinking about what the parent poster said, specifically: Start Simple. Think About Your Win/Lose Conditions.
I'd like to add the note: Write Tests. To continue the blackjack example, what happens when a user has an "A, J" in their hand? (blackjack). How can you test that? Write a test for it. What happens when they have "J, K, Q" in their hand? (bust) How can you test for that? Write a test for it. What happens when they run out of money? What happens when they try to bet too much money? A negative amount of money? Write tests and repeat as necessary.
A whirlwind tour of my dominoes layout (this is to back-up the parent poster about the game libraries, and mechanics, etc):
domino - a single domino
dominoesHand - hand containing many dominoes
dominoesBoard - all the dominoes that have been played
dominoesGame - all the win conditions, lose conditions, points, drawing, etc (game logic)
dominoesGui - mostly HTML, and a lot of drawing functions
dominoes.php - what the user ends up interacting with (mostly passes off to dominoesGame)
test_* - a bunch of tests that load up the other files, use them, and print out "pass/fail" for each situation
For the GUI code, it's mostly HTML text to display stuff to the user, which is why it's so big. But even then, recognize that the bulk of the work is in stuff that the user doesn't even see (Board, Game)... good luck! Ask questions to your teachers, and WRITE YOUR TESTS!:^)
Nothing more, nothing less. After that, the goal is to factor out the document creation device (OpenOffice / AbiWord / KWord v. MS Word). Basically: "It doesn't matter what software you use, but the results that you produce".
On the surface that works, but it only solves a portion of the problem.
Data => XML.
XML == large (lots of verbose tags)
XML == slow (have to parse it all [dom], or
build big stacks [sax] to get at data)
Solution:
XML =>.xml.gz
You've solved (kindof) the large problem, but you still keep the slow problem.
What they're suggesting is nothing more than:
XML =>.xml.gzxml
Basically using a specialized compression schemes that understand the ordered structure of XML, tags, etc, and probably has some indexes to say "here's the locations of all the [blah] tags", attributes so you can just fseek() instead of having to do domwalking or stack-building. This is important for XML selectors (XQuery), and for "big iron" junk, it makes a lot of sense and can save a lot of processing power. Consider that Zip/Tar already do something similar by providing a file-list header as part of their specifications (wouldn't it suck to have completely to unzip a zip file when all you wanted was to be able to pull out a list of the filenames / sizes?)
"Consumer"/Desktop applications already do compress XML (look at star-office as a great example, even JAR is just zipped up stuff which can include XML configs, etc). It's the stream-based data processors that really benefit from a standardized binary-transmission format for XML with some convenient indexes built in.
"""No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."""
That's the 5th amendment, by the way. Now, I'm not suggesting that this is what applies to their situation, but cases / crimes involving the military sometimes do have special rules (treason for preventing the army from completing their stated mission of recruitment for the defense of american interests? hang the wallhackers!;^). Also note:
1- Hacking computers is illegal. No if's and's, or but's. And don't tell me "I tripped while walking along the sidewalk and broke a car window and the car stereo just happened to leap out and into my hands, I swear officer". In "cyberspace", it's all packets and programs, but illegal is illegal and intent / result is usually an important component of wrongdoing (IANAL), whether you "really meant it", whether you wrote the program or are just using the program, etc.
2- You agreed with their TOS if you're on there. At the very least they can boot you (account removal) for that.
3- *If* you're making threats, DOS'ing equipment, etc, that's probably also against some law.
I for one welcome the black apache helicoptors with team delta-force surrounding some script-kiddie's home for being an asshat on the internet.
Slashdot Mirror
What about iFolder? Looking at the spec's I think it's missing serverless/hiving (which could be provided by any of the normal p2p people), file history ... not understanding your database object comment.
;^)
Speaking of which, what about freenet? The only thing it's missing is "guaranteed availability of critical business data", eh? And I hear it might have some performance problems.
--Robert
2003 Salon Article on Dan/i Bunten, (creator of M.U.L.E.) with some commentary by Mr. Meier. (via wikipedia article on mule)
--Robert
According to wikipedia's bio you started designing games in the 80's, and there seems to be a common element of deliberation or strategy in many of them (less twitch, more think).
:^)
What games or game designers inspired you? I've not played MULE, but I'd guess you might have played it. What about board games? Chess, Go?
Since you make games for a living, what do you do "for fun"?
--Robert
It's the "analog hole" in reverse. Radio == "A way to get music on your iPod without buying it from the Apple Store(tm)" ... by intentionally eliminating that way of "leaking music" into your headphones, iPod owners are that much more of a captive audience when buying music online (since you can't effectively buy MP3's or AAC from other online vendors... instead only DRM WMA's, etc).
:^)
This is why engineers != business people != marketing people.
--Robert
Talk to the ogg-vorbis people, and check their mailing list archives. I believe they have some tools that do the moral equivalent of:
i s+quantitative&btnG=Search
... ie: "it sounds better").
$ compress foo.wav > foo.ogg
$ compare foo.wav foo.ogg
18% different
Some interesting quick googling turned up the following: http://www.abde.net/projects/ogg_mp3/
Original google search:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=ogg+vorb
Term I seem to recall is "quantitative" comparision of audio quality (vs. "qualitative"
When doing audio "optimization" there are a few types of tests, one that can be done by computers (comparing data and formulas to other data), and the other that has to be done by people.
If you only did the "computer" type tests, you might have something that is as close to accurate as possible, but would still sound "off" in the "wrong way" to human ears (ie: the computer might have "optimized out" all the bass in order to be more accurate on the treble, but few people would accept "qualitatively" the results of that compression, even though quantitatively it might be "closer to accurate" than the other).
Anyway, I am not an audio researcher, but you might start there.
--Robert
BSD is clearly too loose
/. I actually had a tough time understanding you for a sec. mod_gramar == off ; brainctl graceful! :^)
My head almost exploded, as you spelled both "too", and "loose" correctly for the first time in such close proximity on
--Robert
What's the worst pickup lines you've seen?
.... because it's always increasing."
"My love for you is like y=x^3
--Robert
Let's look at the automobile / car.
...(please, engage your brain and think about it, I'll wait)...
/. "P2P is l33t", if the 'net were more highly enforced (ie: don't be a jackass, don't DDoS people, don't hack people, spread viruses, trojans, don't download illegally, etc) the same way the USian streets are monitored and enforced it would be a lot "safer", and lower-quality (cost?) software wouldn't be as big of an issue or risk as it is. (ie: same reason that glass is still a reasonably acceptable theft-prevention device with cars).
... but we're really going to require crumple-zones and roll-cages because even though you should be a really safe driver, we know accidents happen.
What's preventing someone from breaking your shiny glass windows right now, stealing your stuff, and driving off with it. Why aren't windows made of chicken-wire, plastic, and cut-resistant steel?
Now, why do you expect your software to be built the same way?
Fundamentally, it's a question of cost / benefit, and has a lot to do with the ambient state of affairs. For all the
Now, maybe you could argue (bad metaphors, of course), that network-facing ports are the "roll-cage / crumple-zones" of the automotive industry. Yeah, the windows are made of glass and can break (safety glass, mind you)
Network ports should be hardened (no remote exploits, no remote root exploits, no local exploits, no local privelege escalation exploits), and you could make that a requirement or standard (government regulation?) or let the market sort it out?
Hrm?
--Robert
As a 0.5 yr. Powerbook user (and former 5yr Linux user), I'll play devil's advocate with these:
...I look forward to it.
...it's just as simple to install major server apps as other apps.
(1) Desktop Linux distros come with hundreds of quality desktop applications
OSX comes with 3-4 high quality applications that you really need (iPhoto, iTunes). What I use most often extra: OO.org (actually, NeoOffice), FireFox.
(2) Linux will run on a TON of hardware, including old hardware
Good point, but Mac hardware is "better"? Powermac 12" v. some cheap-o taiwan windows laptop? No comparison.
For people who want to be a part of the open source movement, Linux (or BSDs) is the natural choice.
Look at Linus (who uses a powerbook formfactor, if not OSX itself). Nothing is prohibiting you from developing software under the license you choose. Agreed that the OS and applications are not (all) open, and that can be a dealbreaker.
(4) Linux, as a kernel, is hyper-configurable. You can strip it down or compile everything in.
OSX "just works". It's actually quite nice, especially since I've been trying to configure wlan adapters on Linux and it's about as far away from the ideal as possible. (through no fault of linux developers).
(5) The "slick GUI" advantage of OS X will rapidly disappear
(6)
Installation in OSX is drag and drop (or the winders "click-click-click"), I'm sure server applications behave similarly.
(7) The typical Linux environment is highly, highly scriptable.
Automator. I've tried using it, and it mostly stinks (or I can't figure out good ways to use it), but you can still drop to #!/bin/sh if necessary, and apple is pretty good about making things command-line accessible (ie: mdfind is command-line interface to spotlight. man mdfind does just what you'd expect).
Just some thoughts.
--Robert
Do some reading on Ward's Wiki:
...specifically "Velocity":
t y ...and maybe take a look at X-Planner type software.
http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?WelcomeVisitors
http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?MeasuringProjectVeloci
http://www.xplanner.org/screenshots.html
I'm also a fan of the gummy-bear model, and regular, working customer demonstrations. Provide value as early in the process as possible, not as late as possible. If you don't have your deliverables specified, you'll never know when you're done. Thus, Nail down your deliverables, break them into equal sized chunks, complete them and demo them to your customer, and determine your project's velocity after 2-3 iterations of doing the above.
--Robert
Call me a recycler, but this was discussed on /. before, it's clear that GIMP is a direct competitor to MS.
--Robert
I'm sure I'm not the first to say this, but try the following:
.red { color: red; } .big { font-size: 2em; } /* in A's, big means something different */ .big { font-size: 5em; }
...that's what's known as "the cascade", and also class combinations. Go forth, enjoy.
<html><head>
<style>
a
#blah { color: pink; }
</style>
</head><body>
<span class="big">whee</span>
<hr>
<span class="red">whee</span>
<hr>
<span class="big red">whee</span>
<hr>
<a href="#"><span class="big red">whee</span></a>
<hr>
<div id="blah">This is styling a specific tag based on ID</div>
</body>
</html>
--Robert
I agree with the parent poster about doing something non-computer related. If you wanted to be more interactive, you might do the standard "make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich" ... (WITH PLASTIC KNIVES, otherwise the retarded teacher-drones will freak out).
:^)
Have little boxes drawn on a piece of poster board labeled box 1, 2, etc), and put the jelly, bread, etc in each of the different boxes.
Have 2-3 kids writing down instructions, and another take the instructions one at a time and read / execute them.
If you must involve computers, you might show Guido Van Robot, a python version of classic "karel the robot" that I learned in the beginning of pascal.
Good luck!
--Robert
A friend of mine's engineering lackey was having problems with a particular scenario in some software he was tasked with implementing.
"""The background to understand his problem. This is a sealed bid auction. Contingency bidding means that you only win 1 auction if you won all auctions in your Contingency Bid."""
I noted that it looked a lot like Condorcet Voting, which is not something you'd learn (generally) in a strict CS/Math/Eng school. Not much of a point, but in general, beware of over-specialization. Specialization is for Insects.
--Robert
Where is the +5 Hilarious option?
--Robert
We actually did this at my last place of work (http://www.sell.com) for any listings you put for sale on the site. It would only be a matter of time before you started getting sell.com/crap, sell.com/shit, etc.
If I would have been thinking even more when writing the item translation function, I would have omitted not just vowels, but similar letters / numbers that are open to misinterpretation (1, 5, S, L/l) since we wanted people to advertise their item codes in "the real world" as well.
Just another data point...
--Robert
Your arms (or keyboards) aren't broken, are they? If you think it would be a good investment then get to work on it (code, testing, doc, etc) or pitch in some $$$ to convince someone to do so.
;^)
Welcome to Open Source.
--Robert
This is a good thing (IMHO, IANA-SysAdmin). If an ISP gets their mailserver blacklisted because their customers computers are full of crap, it encourages ISP's to take more responsibility for the traffic that's flowing through their network.
Actually, that's a really bad thing, but 90% of people are stupid, and 90% of windows installs (IMHO) are crap so it's not always the end user's fault. Maybe it's this OSX-like influence seeping in to me, but if all you want to do is check email and browse the web, your computer shouldn't catch random viruses and explode.
--Robert
ROR! -- "Using PHP & MySQL to Build a Database Driven S"
;^)
quickly changed to: "Build a Database Driven Site -- Quick"
MMmmmmmh @ Perl + Mysql.
--Robert
Dreamhost (or their comparison chart). 'nuff said.
;^)
I'm on their "level 3" plan, $20/mo, great email support, 3 real live telephone callbacks PER MONTH (never had to use it), great web panel, web email, etc. Full shell, ssh (passwordless!), mysql, php, c-compilers, etc. Really well run shop. 8gb storage, 200gb transfer, 15 domains, 75 subdomains, countably infinite # of email addresses, etc, etc, etc.
I really can't emphasize enough the type of support they give. They got my issues with crontab sorted out (some unix-y crontab guy sent me some tips), passwordless SSH issues (permissions problem), checked their mailqueues when I was experiencing slow delivery, answered my questions about changing the default mailing list configurations, responded to questions about a (rare) database outage, fixed dollar amount ordering on user-contribution pages, fixed initial setup issues that I had in the first day (and more importantly, updated their scripts so future setups wouldn't cause problems). Really first-class support, usually less than 24 hour email turnaround service and you get in touch with "the right person" and I always feel like they've done the best they can do to resolve the issues. (Thank you all dreamhost employees, especially ops and support!)
If you're feeling generous, go ahead and click my referral link before you sign up, I think I'll get some money from that if you sign up (at least it's not a free iPod
--Robert
I haven't ever watched the O.C., but why are everyones legs so wide, and why are there so many arrows pointing towards them?
--Robert
domino.php --- 1k
dominoes.php --- 3k
dominoesBoard.php --- 10k
dominoesGame.php --- 13k
dominoesGui.php --- 18k
dominoesHand.php --- 2k
opHandler.php --- 3k
rules.php --- 2k
test_domino.php --- 1k
test_dominoes.php --- 1k
test_dominoesBoard.php --- 9k
test_dominoesGame.php --- 10k
test_dominoesHand.php --- 10k
WRITE YOUR TESTS! Notice almost 50% of my code is tests (and I feel that it's not enough, I currently got ahead of myself and need to catch up on my tests before I feel comfortable adding more functionality).
I would do a lot of thinking about what the parent poster said, specifically: Start Simple. Think About Your Win/Lose Conditions.
I'd like to add the note: Write Tests. To continue the blackjack example, what happens when a user has an "A, J" in their hand? (blackjack). How can you test that? Write a test for it. What happens when they have "J, K, Q" in their hand? (bust) How can you test for that? Write a test for it. What happens when they run out of money? What happens when they try to bet too much money? A negative amount of money? Write tests and repeat as necessary.
A whirlwind tour of my dominoes layout (this is to back-up the parent poster about the game libraries, and mechanics, etc):
For the GUI code, it's mostly HTML text to display stuff to the user, which is why it's so big. But even then, recognize that the bulk of the work is in stuff that the user doesn't even see (Board, Game)
--Robert
I wrote up something on this the last time the conversation came up. It applies just as well to Evolution as it does to Open Office.
The goal is to factor out the operating system.
Nothing more, nothing less. After that, the goal is to factor out the document creation device (OpenOffice / AbiWord / KWord v. MS Word). Basically: "It doesn't matter what software you use, but the results that you produce".
--Robert
On the surface that works, but it only solves a portion of the problem.
.xml.gz
.xml.gzxml
Data => XML.
XML == large (lots of verbose tags)
XML == slow (have to parse it all [dom], or
build big stacks [sax] to get at data)
Solution:
XML =>
You've solved (kindof) the large problem, but you still keep the slow problem.
What they're suggesting is nothing more than:
XML =>
Basically using a specialized compression schemes that understand the ordered structure of XML, tags, etc, and probably has some indexes to say "here's the locations of all the [blah] tags", attributes so you can just fseek() instead of having to do domwalking or stack-building. This is important for XML selectors (XQuery), and for "big iron" junk, it makes a lot of sense and can save a lot of processing power. Consider that Zip/Tar already do something similar by providing a file-list header as part of their specifications (wouldn't it suck to have completely to unzip a zip file when all you wanted was to be able to pull out a list of the filenames / sizes?)
"Consumer"/Desktop applications already do compress XML (look at star-office as a great example, even JAR is just zipped up stuff which can include XML configs, etc). It's the stream-based data processors that really benefit from a standardized binary-transmission format for XML with some convenient indexes built in.
That is all.
--Robert
"""No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."""
;^). Also note:
That's the 5th amendment, by the way. Now, I'm not suggesting that this is what applies to their situation, but cases / crimes involving the military sometimes do have special rules (treason for preventing the army from completing their stated mission of recruitment for the defense of american interests? hang the wallhackers!
1- Hacking computers is illegal. No if's and's, or but's. And don't tell me "I tripped while walking along the sidewalk and broke a car window and the car stereo just happened to leap out and into my hands, I swear officer". In "cyberspace", it's all packets and programs, but illegal is illegal and intent / result is usually an important component of wrongdoing (IANAL), whether you "really meant it", whether you wrote the program or are just using the program, etc.
2- You agreed with their TOS if you're on there. At the very least they can boot you (account removal) for that.
3- *If* you're making threats, DOS'ing equipment, etc, that's probably also against some law.
I for one welcome the black apache helicoptors with team delta-force surrounding some script-kiddie's home for being an asshat on the internet.
--Robert