I do not agree with the original comment that KDE just copies window's GUI and it has nothing original. However, I must say that your arguments against KDE not being original are quite lame. You refute it by saying that it can copy the look of a number of other OS/Desktop environment. Well, copying is hardly "original".
I have been using KDE for nearly 4 years now. And, I do think that KDE is highly original and it's interface/environment is really different than anything else out there. Here are my reasons:
1. Using the power of Karamba, SuperKaramba - some of the most interesting looks, original interfaces are possible in KDE. Just check out some of these at kde-look.org and kde-apps.org. For example, see
Cool desktop. There are some other such desktops there too.
2. Network transperancy built into KDE using all KIO slaves create really unique and original interfaces - that is intuitive and available to all KDE applications. Try to "open a file for editing" on a remote machine via ftp/ssh from your favorite editor in windows xp and you will know what I mean.
3. Some of the newer features of integration of Kontact PIM suite with IM services and Konqueror and feeds are cool original features that I haven't found in other OSes - to the best of my knowledge.
4. Ksysguard's stand-alone application and also the panel applet is one of the cool "KDE-only" original feature that I have seen.
This is exactly what has been requested by many Qt/KDE developers over many years. This will bring about a flourish of new applications being ported from linux to windows (whether you like that or not). This will heat up the Gtk vs. Qt arguments as a major argument against Qt no longer holds. This will also help push KDE Enterprise efforts as many enterprise concerns will be resolved by this move. Good move Trolltech!
You got it wrong. The puzzle is to move top-left to top-right . You solved the puzzle of moving from top-left to bottom-right (which is trivial).
Try to solve it here (the link is from someone else's post)
http://www.puzzleworld.org/SlidingBlockPuzzles/quz zle.htm
Osho
Actually, even if the hardware is implemented completely in FPGA - the principles of open source software do not apply. Why?
Say you have open source software and your friend wants to use it - you just give him a copy of your source, he compiles it and he uses it. The cost to provide the software to a new user - almost zero.
Now, suppose you have the open source hardware graphics card and your friends wants to use it. You have the source for programming FPGAs but you can not just give that to your friend. He will also need to get an FPGA from somewhere - which is not cheap. Not to say the PCI/AGP/PCI-Express circuit board on which the FPGA will need to be mounted.
Many people contribute to open source software because their contributions can make difference to themselves and to hundreds of people directly and with a very little or no cost. This is what brings many developers together so everyone benefits from each other. This is what builds community. And that is what makes open source software successful.
Unless the hardware is as cheap as cents, there just will not be a big enough community of people all hacking it up.
Whoever is doing this isn't in their right state of mind. Open source concepts and advantages simply do not apply to hardware. The reason is very simple: To make a copy of software so that one more user can use it - you just have to download it. To make a copy of hardware so that one more user can use it - you have to actually manufacture a piece of hardware. This fundamental difference just makes it impossible to realistically have a really open source/open specifications hardware. There is a reason why none of the open source hardwares at opencores.org have never been as successful as open-source software.
"More interestingly, there are theories that some of the universe's fundamental dimensionless constants may have changed by a parts in a million over the last 10 billion years or so. These clocks are so accurate that they should be able to detect these changes over a year or two"
If these constants change over a year or two, they are not so fundamental right?
In the not too distant past, we were seeing many stories where non-H1-B workers in US are unemployed for months and months and can't find a programmer's job despite willing to take a hit in the salary. There are still companies wanting H1-B workers. What does this mean?
I think this proves that companies go for H1-B workers primarily for low-wages is a myth. There are many unemployed Us-programmers who would gladly work a programming job for what is typically termed "H1-B wages'. I mean it is better than sitting at home unemployed or flipping burgers in macdonald.
The crux of the matter is that there is a shortage of the "right" skill-set. And, this skill-set keeps on changing as years go which makes it harder for non-adaptive workers (H1-B or non-H1-B) to survive.
I have been participating in our group's efforts to hire 3 new engineers. We worked diligently for many months to find people with the right set of background (not the job skills I remind you) who did not require H1-B. Sure, we have tons of resume but no real candidate we would like to make an offer. After many phone and in-person interviews, we finally found one right candidate just to find that this person required H1-B!! We are trying to figure out what we can do about this candidate but still can't figure out how to fill the other two positions.
The bottom line is that if you want to survive in the current and future climate - keep on acquiring new skills. That is , some may say unfortunately, the only way.
That sounds highly suspect. The sharp dropoff at that depth seems very unlikely, and there is plenty of background radiation even underground. In fact, unless you design specifically to prevent it, background radiation is likely to increase due to radioactive decay in the surrounding rock producing radon. Not as energetic as cosmic rays, but enough to make some noise in electrical circuits. (Disclaimer: I'm not a particle physicist...)
Here is a summary of IBM's 15 year experiments with cosmic rays:
The cosmic ray intensity is greatest at high terrestrial altitudes, and approaches zero under extensive shielding. IBM has conducted extensive field testing3 of components at high altitudes (10,000 ft), at moderate altitudes (5000 ft), at sea level, and under shielding of 50 ft of concrete. All elevated-altitude tests showed cosmic-ray-induced fails in electronic components.
In all tests, the observed fail rate scaled directly with the cosmic ray intensity, over a total observed change of more than 1000× .
Cosmic rays are of some real practical significance in the world of computers. Cosmic rays are attributed as a reason (among others) for why sometimes we see unexplained behavior in Computers - mainly memory (RAM) where suddenly 0 bits become 1 and 1 bits become 0. These heavily charged extremely small particles have the property that they change the capacitance of parts of semiconductors when passed through them. This could change certain bits 0 and 1 (which are all stored as capacitance inside RAM and other places in computers) into 1 and 0.
This has, along with semi-conductor material and process defects etc., led to the whole field of Error Correcting Codes in computers - where such kind of errors can be prevented by things such as parity bits and what not. This works on the presumption that the probability of such bitswaps occurring on two bits is very small compared to just 1 bit. So, high-reliability computing servers etc. always tend to use memories with good ECC.
I have heard anecdotal evidence that IBM did some thourough testing of how such a behavior of bit-flipping due to cosmic rays changes at different elevation. When the elevation was high (7000 feet or so) - it occurred far more often then at the sea level. They did such tests below the surface of the earth and as they went deeper into the earth - such cosmic rays bit-flipping effect decreased but still remained. Only, after they went something like 40 feet or so below the surface of the earth - such behavior completley went away.
So, next time you wonder why you are paying more for ECC-RAM - think of cosmic rays (and material defect and what not...)
Suse already does this, but partially. Suse sends out patches for ascii configurations etc. and probably some non-ascii stuff as well. But, for things like kernel upgrade, KDE version upgrade etc. (where the diff is really needed due to the large size) - this is not done.
I do not know why it is not done. It is either that it is not really feasible to do a binary diff across kernel version or KDE version changes or the technology is just not in place yet.
Osho
Please don't underestimate the living creature who is said to have the highest chances of surviving an all nuclear war break-out?
Intelligence is not merely defined as "processing power" where processing is making calculations involving numbers, scientific formulas etc. Intelligence encompasses much more than that.
Nasa would make itself proud if they can really build a robot who, like a cockroach, can see what's ahead and around of it, determine a route of access and follow it. The one that will have the ability to sense an incoming danger and very quickly (in a franction of second) determine it's nature, determine the direction it is coming from and then manuever itself to evade the danger. And possibly attack the source of danger to eliminate it. One intelligenet enough to figure out where to hide from danger and how taking into account the nature of danger. One who could the visual data to identify objects, their nature, their shape, their type, whether it's living or not and whether it is interesting for whatever purpose they have in mind.
Cockroaches are capable of a lot more "intelligenet" behavior than I can elaborate in the margin of this comment:). But you get my point.
Slashdot Mirror
"Why do all the Linux desktops emulate the Windows interface? Can't they come up with something more original?"
Now, What part of "Can't they come up with something more original?" do you need help understanding with?
Osho
I have been using KDE for nearly 4 years now. And, I do think that KDE is highly original and it's interface/environment is really different than anything else out there. Here are my reasons:
1. Using the power of Karamba, SuperKaramba - some of the most interesting looks, original interfaces are possible in KDE. Just check out some of these at kde-look.org and kde-apps.org. For example, see Cool desktop. There are some other such desktops there too.
2. Network transperancy built into KDE using all KIO slaves create really unique and original interfaces - that is intuitive and available to all KDE applications. Try to "open a file for editing" on a remote machine via ftp/ssh from your favorite editor in windows xp and you will know what I mean.
3. Some of the newer features of integration of Kontact PIM suite with IM services and Konqueror and feeds are cool original features that I haven't found in other OSes - to the best of my knowledge.
4. Ksysguard's stand-alone application and also the panel applet is one of the cool "KDE-only" original feature that I have seen.
I can go on but I think the point has been made.
Osho
And Bill is paying some marketing folks big bucks for that?
This is exactly what has been requested by many Qt/KDE developers over many years. This will bring about a flourish of new applications being ported from linux to windows (whether you like that or not). This will heat up the Gtk vs. Qt arguments as a major argument against Qt no longer holds. This will also help push KDE Enterprise efforts as many enterprise concerns will be resolved by this move. Good move Trolltech!
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Isn't it ironic?
I like GPL as much as any other slashdot open-source enthusiast - however I find that this is just very shameless self-advertisement..
You got it wrong. The puzzle is to move top-left to top-right . You solved the puzzle of moving from top-left to bottom-right (which is trivial). Try to solve it here (the link is from someone else's post) http://www.puzzleworld.org/SlidingBlockPuzzles/quz zle.htm
Osho
is to divert the comet's trajectory just enough so that it lands on earth on bin laden's head. but of course they won't say it!
Say you have open source software and your friend wants to use it - you just give him a copy of your source, he compiles it and he uses it. The cost to provide the software to a new user - almost zero.
Now, suppose you have the open source hardware graphics card and your friends wants to use it. You have the source for programming FPGAs but you can not just give that to your friend. He will also need to get an FPGA from somewhere - which is not cheap. Not to say the PCI/AGP/PCI-Express circuit board on which the FPGA will need to be mounted.
Many people contribute to open source software because their contributions can make difference to themselves and to hundreds of people directly and with a very little or no cost. This is what brings many developers together so everyone benefits from each other. This is what builds community. And that is what makes open source software successful.
Unless the hardware is as cheap as cents, there just will not be a big enough community of people all hacking it up.
Osho
Osho
So, when do we start seeing phone with camcorder?
If these constants change over a year or two, they are not so fundamental right?
Osho
I think this proves that companies go for H1-B workers primarily for low-wages is a myth. There are many unemployed Us-programmers who would gladly work a programming job for what is typically termed "H1-B wages'. I mean it is better than sitting at home unemployed or flipping burgers in macdonald.
The crux of the matter is that there is a shortage of the "right" skill-set. And, this skill-set keeps on changing as years go which makes it harder for non-adaptive workers (H1-B or non-H1-B) to survive.
I have been participating in our group's efforts to hire 3 new engineers. We worked diligently for many months to find people with the right set of background (not the job skills I remind you) who did not require H1-B. Sure, we have tons of resume but no real candidate we would like to make an offer. After many phone and in-person interviews, we finally found one right candidate just to find that this person required H1-B!! We are trying to figure out what we can do about this candidate but still can't figure out how to fill the other two positions.
The bottom line is that if you want to survive in the current and future climate - keep on acquiring new skills. That is , some may say unfortunately, the only way.
First, they ignore you.
Then, they laugh at you.
Then, they discredit you.
Then, they compete with you.
Then, you win.
I think MS IE is at step three.
Osho
I am selling the linux source code for $50000 Just mail me your check and I will send you a link to download it from :)
cheers,
Osho
Here is a summary of IBM's 15 year experiments with cosmic rays:
IBM's research on cosmic rays
I quote from this:
The cosmic ray intensity is greatest at high terrestrial altitudes, and approaches zero under extensive shielding. IBM has conducted extensive field testing3 of components at high altitudes (10,000 ft), at moderate altitudes (5000 ft), at sea level, and under shielding of 50 ft of concrete. All elevated-altitude tests showed cosmic-ray-induced fails in electronic components. In all tests, the observed fail rate scaled directly with the cosmic ray intensity, over a total observed change of more than 1000× .
There is also another related article at IBM.
IBM's research on cosmic ray densities at different places on earth
Osho
This has, along with semi-conductor material and process defects etc., led to the whole field of Error Correcting Codes in computers - where such kind of errors can be prevented by things such as parity bits and what not. This works on the presumption that the probability of such bitswaps occurring on two bits is very small compared to just 1 bit. So, high-reliability computing servers etc. always tend to use memories with good ECC.
I have heard anecdotal evidence that IBM did some thourough testing of how such a behavior of bit-flipping due to cosmic rays changes at different elevation. When the elevation was high (7000 feet or so) - it occurred far more often then at the sea level. They did such tests below the surface of the earth and as they went deeper into the earth - such cosmic rays bit-flipping effect decreased but still remained. Only, after they went something like 40 feet or so below the surface of the earth - such behavior completley went away.
So, next time you wonder why you are paying more for ECC-RAM - think of cosmic rays (and material defect and what not ...)
Osho
Let me guess, microsoft will be the first officially US government sanctioned spy agency?
Osho
So, what exactly, if anything, was decided about KDE 4 at aKademy? Osho
Suse already does this, but partially. Suse sends out patches for ascii configurations etc. and probably some non-ascii stuff as well. But, for things like kernel upgrade, KDE version upgrade etc. (where the diff is really needed due to the large size) - this is not done. I do not know why it is not done. It is either that it is not really feasible to do a binary diff across kernel version or KDE version changes or the technology is just not in place yet. Osho
To read about a utility that does not allow you to read Slashdot on Slashdot or To work ?
:).
Life is full about little dilemmas.
Osho
Please don't underestimate the living creature who is said to have the highest chances of surviving an all nuclear war break-out?
:). But you get my point.
Intelligence is not merely defined as "processing power" where processing is making calculations involving numbers, scientific formulas etc. Intelligence encompasses much more than that.
Nasa would make itself proud if they can really build a robot who, like a cockroach, can see what's ahead and around of it, determine a route of access and follow it. The one that will have the ability to sense an incoming danger and very quickly (in a franction of second) determine it's nature, determine the direction it is coming from and then manuever itself to evade the danger. And possibly attack the source of danger to eliminate it. One intelligenet enough to figure out where to hide from danger and how taking into account the nature of danger. One who could the visual data to identify objects, their nature, their shape, their type, whether it's living or not and whether it is interesting for whatever purpose they have in mind.
Cockroaches are capable of a lot more "intelligenet" behavior than I can elaborate in the margin of this comment
Osho
Now, if only they can make it as death-resistant as cockroaches that would be something..
someone out there has too much free time to waste... aaarrrrgggghhhh
So where do I buy American Libraries Association's cookies???