Phase 2: after a couple years of this "pointless" MS tech being used, find out that it's actually not that bad and perhaps even better than a competing "kosher" technology (see SAMBA vs NFS), and start making a Linux implementation.
Samba is for Windows interoperatibility, not for copying something that allegedly works better on Windows. This is demonstrated by the fact that for pure Unix-to-Unix file sharing with end-to-end authentication/authorization etc., the Samba people themselves recommend *not* to use Samba, but something like AFS (which predates SMB by several years).
It's hard to argue against what Microsoft is doing, because the good guys (IBM, Sun, or choose your own definition of a good guy) do this too. These companies use patents to protect themselves from patents held by other companies.
If that is the only motivation, then why is it that M$, IBM & co. heavily lobby for the introduction of SW patents all over the world? After all, the best protection against other company's software patents would be a legislation that does not allow software patents.
So there you have it: Protection against other company's patents is only one motivation -- the other one is keeping newcomers (who don't own a "competitive" amount of patents) off the market.
If only, we could have that here. Hold on. I have to pay for internet access. They usually want my name and some other identifying infomation such as address. I don't tend to use internet cafes though. I'm speaking of home internet. Why shouldn't they be required to write their name, age, and drivers license number here? What if the FBI came knocking on the door with printouts and said we know the guy that was here 2 nights ago at this IP and computer name is planning a bombing we need all the info. you have on him, now! It would be useful if you could provide a Name and Address.
Yeah, right. What terrorist would walk into an internet cafe, give the owner his real name, age, and driver's license number, and then meet his colleagues on the net to plan their next bomb attack?
Two of the people he cared about most shared his home with him, for the last 20 years or so of his life. His younger sister, whom he was very much devoted to, also lived in the same house until she died (a few years before Einstein's death). He had close friends (Fantova was only one of them).
I know many elderly people who live in much greater solitude than that.
Fill a class with water then freeze it in your freezer. Take the glass out of the refrigerator and mark the level with a pen.
The analogy doesn't hold -- the oceans are not completely frozen.
It's just ignorant to keep shouting that the coast are going to flood. They won't.
That's plain wrong -- the sea level rises mainly because the overall temperature of the oceans increases, causing them to occupy more volume (thermal expansion), and because ice that was on *landmasses* before (e.g. glaciers, the ice covering Greenland or Antarctica) might melt and flow into the oceans.
Re:New Ice Age is old news, really
on
A New Ice Age?
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Four facts for you:
The global mean temperature did increase over the last 100 years, most prominently over the last 30 years or so. The reasons are not totally clear.
Watching local weather reports regularly for less than two decades or so may not indicate this, since there is indeed a superimposed cyclic temperature change (related to solar activity). Moreover, there are regions where a systematic *decrease* of mean temperatures was observed over the last decades.
So it appears the Mercali scale would be much better suited for accurately quantifying the "stress" an earthquake puts on a particular city/inhabited region? Then why is it that one only hears about the Richter scale in the news reports about earthquakes? Would the Richter scale value in combination with the distance to the epicenter be sufficiently accurate?
The "Seismic Effects" values seem contradictory to me. See this example:
Distance from Impact: 4000.00 km = 2484.00 miles [...]
Seismic Effects:
The major seismic shaking will arrive at approximately 800.0 seconds. Richter Scale Magnitude: 9.1 (This is greater than any shaking in recorded history) Mercalli Scale Intensity at a distance of 4000 km:
I. Not felt. Marginal and long-period effects of large earthquakes.
II. Felt by persons at rest, on upper floors, or favorably placed.
Huh? Richter Scale Magnitude 9.1 and "Not Felt"? Am I missing something?
Seriously, couldn't this have been handled by an additional group in the microsoft.* usenet hierarchy? Including automatic replication to servers all over the world -- for free...
In file included from interp.h:61, from memory_mgr.c:57: parser.h:91: field `code_data' has incomplete type In file included from memory_mgr.c:57: interp.h:89: field `stack' has incomplete type make[1]: *** [memory_mgr.o] Error 1
The offending line looks like this:
code_t code_data[];
Is that ANSI C? I would've written it like "code_t *code_data"...
No-one's going to force you to use it, unless you want to run their software. That seems fair enough to me.
Well, if you really think that it's "fair enough" to enable the respective vendors to put an end to Samba, open-source hardware drivers, MSWord import/export filters in OpenOffice/Aplixware/etc., alternative implementations of browsers, mail/groupware clients, messaging clients etc., or the possibility for users to control/read/decrypt network streams originating on their own machine, then we're fundamentally at odds here.
Rule #1: May I remind you that said unsafe data is also manipulated by the kernel and glibc. Are you suggesting those get converted in Java too?
Considering all the latest "forgot to check the return value" (read: "I want exceptions") flaws resulting in local root exploits in Linux alone, writing it in something other than C (not really Java, but how about Ada or... Lisp maybe?:) ) might be a viable option...
Was this really a shooting star, or just a streak caused by a too long exposure time? Normal orbiting satelites don't appear as shooting stars, but as bright dots moving straight across the sky (and even that only when they're in direct sunlight). Shooting stars are objects burning up in the upper athmosphere. How likely would it be that Spirit just accidentally witnessed the burn-up of a man-made object that had been orbiting Mars for the past 25 years?
The filesystem access is encapsulated as a dynamically loaded module;
What will gtk_file_selection_get_filename() return if the user selected a file in the VFS tree that doesn't correspond to a file in the filesystem? Copying to a temporary behind-the-scenes and returning the temporary's name would be cheating. Returning the VFS path name would require the whole filesystem access in GTK+ to be "encapsulated as a module" as well (at which point you're better of just writing a filesystem driver for the kernel, which might be a better idea anyway).
You could always blindly elect not to support the companies that are locking you out of the BIOS and
I don't think you can run a successful business if you can't even persuade your employees to leave their workstation's BIOSes alone.
other DRM technologies. Or look into what they are trying to accomplish.
As a Sysadmin for a corperation these kind of tools are great,
...until the ISP or some software vendor's certificate server goes offline, bringing all your IP infrastructure to a screeching halt. The legal department starts hyperventilating...
We get called. Tech is yelling, my guys are smirking(but still polite on phone) Management, myself, and tech gets on conference. Tech starts berating me. Management starts berating me. I pull out magic email and fax with all my system recquirements, suggestions for optimal use. Hey, guess what I was write. Wait a minute, shouldn't I know best since I work for the company that writes and support the product?
Having slow user space graphics drivers was not good for this, so putting them in kernel space was the only answer.
GDI != graphics drivers
Nobody (AFAICT) argues against putting the graphics drivers into kernel space.
In Windows, however, all the GDI and window/widget handling stuff, which is (or should be) completely hardware-independent, has been put into kernel space too.
4) Finally SCO Group GmbH is prohibited to threaten to sue Linux users unless they bought SCO Linux or Caldera Linux.
I asked a couple of others who speak German to make sure this last was an accurate translation,
It is not. (the verbalization is a bit ambiguous indeed, even in the english translation, AFAICT. Natural languages are no programming languages)
even holding off on the story for half a day, because it still sounds a bit odd. Evidently, they can sue their own customers in Germany if they feel like it.
Last, but not least, darf die SCO Group GmbH nicht mehr behaupten, Kaufer von Linux-Betriebssystemen hatten eine Strafverfolgung zu befurchten, es sei denn, es handelte sich bei den gekauften Betriebssystemen um SCO Linux oder Caldera Linux. . . .
This says that, before the latest settlement, SCO used to claim that buyers of Linux OSes had to fear prosecution unless they bought SCO Linux or Caldera Linux. SCO is no longer allowed to say that.
The point is folders only allow a single hierarchy of data.
In *ix filesystems, directories are just collections of named pointers to files, and a file can be pointed to by as many pointers as you want (hard links). There are symlinks too. Not exactly a "single hierarchy".
Sure you can make a Wedding Photos folder. But what if you also want a folder with all the pictures of Uncle Bob from multiple events, a folder with 5-star photos from multiple events, a folder with night photos, a folder with wild partying photos, and a folder with photos of centerpieces.
You symlink your images into the respective folders? Or create a databases that indexes your images...
It is, needless a good idea and where file systems are heading in the future.
There have been attempts to do this, with vague results. It appears that it is not necessarily pratical to make whole filesystems look like databases...
Disengaging the boosters early (while they're still running) isn't possible. There are a number of "abort modes" once the boosters have burned out though; see this link.
Slashdot Mirror
Samba is for Windows interoperatibility, not for copying something that allegedly works better on Windows. This is demonstrated by the fact that for pure Unix-to-Unix file sharing with end-to-end authentication/authorization etc., the Samba people themselves recommend *not* to use Samba, but something like AFS (which predates SMB by several years).
If that is the only motivation, then why is it that M$, IBM & co. heavily lobby for the introduction of SW patents all over the world? After all, the best protection against other company's software patents would be a legislation that does not allow software patents.
So there you have it: Protection against other company's patents is only one motivation -- the other one is keeping newcomers (who don't own a "competitive" amount of patents) off the market.
Yeah, right. What terrorist would walk into an internet cafe, give the owner his real name, age, and driver's license number, and then meet his colleagues on the net to plan their next bomb attack?
I know many elderly people who live in much greater solitude than that.
The analogy doesn't hold -- the oceans are not completely frozen.
It's just ignorant to keep shouting that the coast are going to flood. They won't.
That's plain wrong -- the sea level rises mainly because the overall temperature of the oceans increases, causing them to occupy more volume (thermal expansion), and because ice that was on *landmasses* before (e.g. glaciers, the ice covering Greenland or Antarctica) might melt and flow into the oceans.
The global mean temperature did increase over the last 100 years, most prominently over the last 30 years or so. The reasons are not totally clear.
Watching local weather reports regularly for less than two decades or so may not indicate this, since there is indeed a superimposed cyclic temperature change (related to solar activity). Moreover, there are regions where a systematic *decrease* of mean temperatures was observed over the last decades.
CO2 does not cause holes in the ozone layer
Antarctica is not a volcano
So it appears the Mercali scale would be much better suited for accurately quantifying the "stress" an earthquake puts on a particular city/inhabited region? Then why is it that one only hears about the Richter scale in the news reports about earthquakes? Would the Richter scale value in combination with the distance to the epicenter be sufficiently accurate?
Huh? Richter Scale Magnitude 9.1 and "Not Felt"? Am I missing something?
Seriously, couldn't this have been handled by an additional group in the microsoft.* usenet hierarchy? Including automatic replication to servers all over the world -- for free...
Thought so...
OK, I've corrected the two lines, and compiled succesfully, but then...
Why is there no "-1 lengthy incoherent blather" mod?
Is that ANSI C? I would've written it like "code_t *code_data"...
gcc 3.3.
Well, if you really think that it's "fair enough" to enable the respective vendors to put an end to Samba, open-source hardware drivers, MSWord import/export filters in OpenOffice/Aplixware/etc., alternative implementations of browsers, mail/groupware clients, messaging clients etc., or the possibility for users to control/read/decrypt network streams originating on their own machine, then we're fundamentally at odds here.
I don't dare :). The FAQ keeps me off...
Actually, I don't think I'm competent enough. Yet. Not until I've digged through the kernel hacker's guide and some nontrivial kernelspace code. :-)
Considering all the latest "forgot to check the return value" (read: "I want exceptions") flaws resulting in local root exploits in Linux alone, writing it in something other than C (not really Java, but how about Ada or... Lisp maybe? :) ) might be a viable option...
Was this really a shooting star, or just a streak caused by a too long exposure time? Normal orbiting satelites don't appear as shooting stars, but as bright dots moving straight across the sky (and even that only when they're in direct sunlight). Shooting stars are objects burning up in the upper athmosphere. How likely would it be that Spirit just accidentally witnessed the burn-up of a man-made object that had been orbiting Mars for the past 25 years?
What will gtk_file_selection_get_filename() return if the user selected a file in the VFS tree that doesn't correspond to a file in the filesystem? Copying to a temporary behind-the-scenes and returning the temporary's name would be cheating. Returning the VFS path name would require the whole filesystem access in GTK+ to be "encapsulated as a module" as well (at which point you're better of just writing a filesystem driver for the kernel, which might be a better idea anyway).
I don't think you can run a successful business if you can't even persuade your employees to leave their workstation's BIOSes alone.
other DRM technologies. Or look into what they are trying to accomplish.
As a Sysadmin for a corperation these kind of tools are great,
Wow. When will you publish your memoirs?
GDI != graphics drivers
Nobody (AFAICT) argues against putting the graphics drivers into kernel space.
In Windows, however, all the GDI and window/widget handling stuff, which is (or should be) completely hardware-independent, has been put into kernel space too.
I asked a couple of others who speak German to make sure this last was an accurate translation,
It is not. (the verbalization is a bit ambiguous indeed, even in the english translation, AFAICT. Natural languages are no programming languages)
even holding off on the story for half a day, because it still sounds a bit odd. Evidently, they can sue their own customers in Germany if they feel like it.
Last, but not least, darf die SCO Group GmbH nicht mehr behaupten, Kaufer von Linux-Betriebssystemen hatten eine Strafverfolgung zu befurchten, es sei denn, es handelte sich bei den gekauften Betriebssystemen um SCO Linux oder Caldera Linux. . . .
This says that, before the latest settlement, SCO used to claim that buyers of Linux OSes had to fear prosecution unless they bought SCO Linux or Caldera Linux. SCO is no longer allowed to say that.
In *ix filesystems, directories are just collections of named pointers to files, and a file can be pointed to by as many pointers as you want (hard links). There are symlinks too. Not exactly a "single hierarchy".
Sure you can make a Wedding Photos folder. But what if you also want a folder with all the pictures of Uncle Bob from multiple events, a folder with 5-star photos from multiple events, a folder with night photos, a folder with wild partying photos, and a folder with photos of centerpieces.
You symlink your images into the respective folders? Or create a databases that indexes your images...
It is, needless a good idea and where file systems are heading in the future.
There have been attempts to do this, with vague results. It appears that it is not necessarily pratical to make whole filesystems look like databases...
Sub-pixel rendering was (probably) first implemented by Apple in the 70s. Which didn't keep M$ from trying to patent it 20 years later...
Disengaging the boosters early (while they're still running) isn't possible. There are a number of "abort modes" once the boosters have burned out though; see this link.
We were talking about Challenger in this thread. Well, at least I was.