> Webblogging will reach its limits soon, since not everyone is eager to put something out there.
As of today, blogging population is quite small (considering the size of the general internet users). But what if blogging becomes one of common features that free directory service offers? Typical directory service today is just email and maybe address book you might get home page address, but that's it. No blogging (typically). What if blogging becomes widely available? AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, and all these crap providers offer blogging? People want to express their thoughts and opinions. It's just that stuff like making web page was too damn hard for most people to express their thoughts and opinions and also it was difficult to communicate with others. Blogging is much easier. It has potential (I think).
> I'm curious, why would I want to use Blackdown or IBM's Java over Sun's Java? Am I missing some wondrous features or something?
I doubt it. Also Sun's technologies from Java to UltraSparc are well specified and designed so that their technologies are more open (standard) than open source, so we don't really have to go for Blackdown.
But from Computer Software Ideology stand point of view, it is nice to see that Java spec is well defined and has good license terms so that other vendors can implement their own version (production level quality right?) and distribute it legally and freely. That has been proved by Blackdown today.
Personally, I'd stick to Sun's Java (even though some claim that it's not best Java), but announcements like this makes Java even more attractive to me (than... dot something).
> After reading the article on Watt and his steam engine, I am even more convinced that most of this patenting process is mostly contrived to feed lawyers.
Interesting view. John Grisham wrote a novel "The King of Torts" and it's just published. In that he briefly describes how the hell the litigation industry has gotten so big and powerful (by writing a story of once a good lawyer trying to do good for people but going after serious money in the end). This IP issue might just become another big boost for the litigation industry.
I agree; sounds nothing but trollish.
on
The Faded Sun
·
· Score: 4, Informative
>> Anyone care to confirm the facts mentioned?
This is a troll like you said; there are too many things that I can disclaim, but I just list a couple as follows.
> Sun has no real technical leadership. (from the article)
Just to name a few... Billy Joy? James Gosling? John Gage? Aren't they three of greatest leaders in IT (and science in general) in our generation?
> Sun did not invent the engineering workstation, but they certainly perfected it. (from the article)
Sometimes, only perfection (or 90% complete) can claim invention. For example, Apple did not create GUI (Xerox should claim that right), but they perfected it; they have a right to say that Apple invented GUI. In that sense, Sun invented workstation.
> At that rate, the company has at most five years to live. (from the article)
No one can tell what's going to happen in this arena. You've got "only" five years, so you are dead. That sounds too premature. Anything can happen in five years in IT industry. As the author claims, Sun might be gone; on the other hand, Sun might be ruling the world by then.
I can point out many more, but one of things that the author Robert X. Cringely seems to misunderstand is that Microsoft, IBM, and Sun are doing the same thing and competing in exactly the same market, which is not true. Also it is important to note that Sun is a technology company. Companies like Microsoft are becoming a technology company (and some never will be). Looking at PC sales and saying "Oh, Sun is doing horrible in this environment, they are going Sayonara" is premature and... I'm sorry to say this, but Robert X. Cringely seems to lack the foundation of technical journalist. Who knows he's the one who'll be gone in five (or less than five years)?
At Oracle AppWorld, one person asked Larry Ellison if Oracle plans to provide solutions to cutting edge science research such as Molecular Dymics Simulation. His answer was No, though Oracle plans to support science research in some other way (he puts a lot of money in medical research personally).
Hearing this Q&A, I get the impression that Oracle is an enterprise software developer and they continue to be that way, but the stuff that they do is not kind of computing that requires 1024 64bit processors running simultaneously. Linux is good enough; Linux has matured enough so that it can handle enterprise software level computing, though it might not do Molecular Dynamics Simulation (yet).
So, sure, this all makes sense. Linux does what it needs to do to run an enterprise software, and certainly cheaper than Sun UltraSparc+Solaris and IBM mainframes. One thing that Linux supposedly lacks is Label, Certificate, an official Statement that says "Linux is a good OS". Oracle wants it to push Linux to corporate gulf players because these gulf players want to see "Linux Approved" stamp. Once Oracle accomplishes it, they've got all the tools to conquer the world of Enterprise Software.
> "Strong or Weak Typing doesn't make good programs. Good programmers make good programs."
That's probably true, but my wild guess is that the majority of so called programmers are not good programmers. Knowing that, what tool (programming language) should be provided to programmers to write a better (not necessarily good) programs? I think that's the question to be asked.
I just took a look at the application briefly. My goodness... This is how Microsoft rules the world. But seriously... who would read this and... grant patent or whatever? For example, the following is just one sentence:
"... and selecting a top level identifier and prefixing the name of each group with the top level identifier so that the types in each group are referenced by a hierarchical name that includes the selected top level identifier prefixed to the name of the group containing the type..." (from 43)
I confess. I do not understand what they are talking about, and I don't get how anyone can read and interpret what it means and grant a patent. Am I the only one who feel like that?
> The "czar" of the project often refuses to apply these fixes or doesn't do so in a timely manner.
I personally don't see any problem of "czar". Maybe not czar, but I believe that open source project needs to have a benevolent competent dictator to really move the project with speech and power. For example, we have Linus Torvalds in Linux. Billy Joy was the benevolent dictator in BSD. Larry Wall has been leading Perl, and the list goes on. So to respond to your post, I don't think that the real problem is your "czar".
However, I do see a problem in your project and also Shared Source. Shared Source says that your brilliant idea (even if it really is brilliant), you can never ever test it legally, and that stifles innovation. Everyone in shared source project is captured in prison and can never ever escape. (On the other hand, open source allows new ideas (even if they are wrong) to be tested, which truly facilitates innovation).
> I doubt the EU will be as lenient as the US has been...
MS has been spending a lot of time and $ and lobbying in Washington to handle the anti trust suit domestically, and they've been very successful. However, apparently, even with that money and power MS can't handle European politics.
>... whose past victims include General Electric Co.'s legendary former chairman Jack Welch (from the article)
The article is talking about Honeywell acquisition right? MS is becoming a big player in Washington, but I'm guessing that GE is still a bigger player in Washington and the world politics. They couldn't make EU to say "Yes", so it'll be tough for MS. Of course, it's not that I'm taking their (MS) side though.
Slashdot Mirror
> Webblogging will reach its limits soon, since not everyone is eager to put something out there.
As of today, blogging population is quite small (considering the size of the general internet users). But what if blogging becomes one of common features that free directory service offers? Typical directory service today is just email and maybe address book you might get home page address, but that's it. No blogging (typically). What if blogging becomes widely available? AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, and all these crap providers offer blogging? People want to express their thoughts and opinions. It's just that stuff like making web page was too damn hard for most people to express their thoughts and opinions and also it was difficult to communicate with others. Blogging is much easier. It has potential (I think).
> I'm curious, why would I want to use Blackdown or IBM's Java over Sun's Java? Am I missing some wondrous features or something?
... dot something).
I doubt it. Also Sun's technologies from Java to UltraSparc are well specified and designed so that their technologies are more open (standard) than open source, so we don't really have to go for Blackdown.
But from Computer Software Ideology stand point of view, it is nice to see that Java spec is well defined and has good license terms so that other vendors can implement their own version (production level quality right?) and distribute it legally and freely. That has been proved by Blackdown today.
Personally, I'd stick to Sun's Java (even though some claim that it's not best Java), but announcements like this makes Java even more attractive to me (than
> After reading the article on Watt and his steam engine, I am even more convinced that most of this patenting process is mostly contrived to feed lawyers.
Interesting view. John Grisham wrote a novel "The King of Torts" and it's just published. In that he briefly describes how the hell the litigation industry has gotten so big and powerful (by writing a story of once a good lawyer trying to do good for people but going after serious money in the end). This IP issue might just become another big boost for the litigation industry.
>> Anyone care to confirm the facts mentioned?
... I'm sorry to say this, but Robert X. Cringely seems to lack the foundation of technical journalist. Who knows he's the one who'll be gone in five (or less than five years)?
This is a troll like you said; there are too many things that I can disclaim, but I just list a couple as follows.
> Sun has no real technical leadership. (from the article)
Just to name a few... Billy Joy? James Gosling? John Gage? Aren't they three of greatest leaders in IT (and science in general) in our generation?
> Sun did not invent the engineering workstation, but they certainly perfected it. (from the article)
Sometimes, only perfection (or 90% complete) can claim invention. For example, Apple did not create GUI (Xerox should claim that right), but they perfected it; they have a right to say that Apple invented GUI. In that sense, Sun invented workstation.
> At that rate, the company has at most five years to live. (from the article)
No one can tell what's going to happen in this arena. You've got "only" five years, so you are dead. That sounds too premature. Anything can happen in five years in IT industry. As the author claims, Sun might be gone; on the other hand, Sun might be ruling the world by then.
I can point out many more, but one of things that the author Robert X. Cringely seems to misunderstand is that Microsoft, IBM, and Sun are doing the same thing and competing in exactly the same market, which is not true. Also it is important to note that Sun is a technology company. Companies like Microsoft are becoming a technology company (and some never will be). Looking at PC sales and saying "Oh, Sun is doing horrible in this environment, they are going Sayonara" is premature and
At Oracle AppWorld, one person asked Larry Ellison if Oracle plans to provide solutions to cutting edge science research such as Molecular Dymics Simulation. His answer was No, though Oracle plans to support science research in some other way (he puts a lot of money in medical research personally).
Hearing this Q&A, I get the impression that Oracle is an enterprise software developer and they continue to be that way, but the stuff that they do is not kind of computing that requires 1024 64bit processors running simultaneously. Linux is good enough; Linux has matured enough so that it can handle enterprise software level computing, though it might not do Molecular Dynamics Simulation (yet).
So, sure, this all makes sense. Linux does what it needs to do to run an enterprise software, and certainly cheaper than Sun UltraSparc+Solaris and IBM mainframes. One thing that Linux supposedly lacks is Label, Certificate, an official Statement that says "Linux is a good OS". Oracle wants it to push Linux to corporate gulf players because these gulf players want to see "Linux Approved" stamp. Once Oracle accomplishes it, they've got all the tools to conquer the world of Enterprise Software.
> "Strong or Weak Typing doesn't make good programs. Good programmers make good programs."
That's probably true, but my wild guess is that the majority of so called programmers are not good programmers. Knowing that, what tool (programming language) should be provided to programmers to write a better (not necessarily good) programs? I think that's the question to be asked.
I just took a look at the application briefly. My goodness... This is how Microsoft rules the world. But seriously... who would read this and ... grant patent or whatever? For example, the following is just one sentence:
..." (from 43)
"... and selecting a top level identifier and prefixing the name of each group with the top level identifier so that the types in each group are referenced by a hierarchical name that includes the selected top level identifier prefixed to the name of the group containing the type
I confess. I do not understand what they are talking about, and I don't get how anyone can read and interpret what it means and grant a patent. Am I the only one who feel like that?
> The "czar" of the project often refuses to apply these fixes or doesn't do so in a timely manner.
I personally don't see any problem of "czar". Maybe not czar, but I believe that open source project needs to have a benevolent competent dictator to really move the project with speech and power. For example, we have Linus Torvalds in Linux. Billy Joy was the benevolent dictator in BSD. Larry Wall has been leading Perl, and the list goes on. So to respond to your post, I don't think that the real problem is your "czar".
However, I do see a problem in your project and also Shared Source. Shared Source says that your brilliant idea (even if it really is brilliant), you can never ever test it legally, and that stifles innovation. Everyone in shared source project is captured in prison and can never ever escape. (On the other hand, open source allows new ideas (even if they are wrong) to be tested, which truly facilitates innovation).
This year's George Orwell award is going to whoever built this system? Well, congratulation!
> I doubt the EU will be as lenient as the US has been...
... whose past victims include General Electric Co.'s legendary former chairman Jack Welch (from the article)
MS has been spending a lot of time and $ and lobbying in Washington to handle the anti trust suit domestically, and they've been very successful. However, apparently, even with that money and power MS can't handle European politics.
>
The article is talking about Honeywell acquisition right? MS is becoming a big player in Washington, but I'm guessing that GE is still a bigger player in Washington and the world politics. They couldn't make EU to say "Yes", so it'll be tough for MS. Of course, it's not that I'm taking their (MS) side though.