I started using GNU/Linux with RedHat 5. I used RedHat at work and home through RedHat release 8. I like RedHat. It's easy to install and use. But the distro size keeps growing. I have DSL and no CD burner, so it is a pain to download 3 ISOs and get them burned.
Recently, my RedHat machine got hacked (I left my machine on with about 300 services I wasn't using and hadn't applied security patches in about 40 years and the machine was a DMZ host to my firewall... damn those Romainians with RootKit;) ) so I decided to download RedHat 9 for my immenent reinstall. But after about an hour of trying to find a download site that wasn't swamped, I talked to a colleage who uses Debian and he convinced me to try it. I downloaded 4 floppy disk images and installed the other packages from the Internet using dselect. It was a painless install and I am very happy with it. I didn't have to install a single thing that I didn't need.
All this to say, even if Debian keeps the install that it has now, I'll still be using it for years to come. Its economy of size is a greater benefit to me than ease of install (though I had no problems installing it).
Another major benefit that it has is that you don't need a CD drive at all. A lot of people use old hardware to run Linux, old hardware that might have had the CD drive removed for a newer machine. With Debian, it is no problem. Even with RedHat, after you get the OS installed you usually end up downloading either the binaries or source for the new programs you want to install.
One of life's simple pleasures
on
Pure Math, Pure Joy
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· Score: 4, Interesting
Reading this article reminded me off all the math courses I have taken from primay school through university. I can remember feeling frustrated while dueling with especially hard problems, but the satisfaction of solving them quickly made me forget the pain.
This article also reminded me of a good book (story wise, not much math) that a lot of you have probably read. It's called Fermat's Enigma. If you haven't read it you should. It's a really good book and an easy read. I might even make you want to read a real math book again;)
IPv6 will allow an expansion from the Internet's current limitation of 4 billion addresses (to a new limit of 380,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0, which is a number so great it could supply each person living today with more than 4 billion addresses each).
Too bad I have to type http://132.122.21.123.155.135.132.152.132.122.221. 123.15.23.32.52 to get to my computer that I don't have a domain name for.
I've seen a lot of comments that say the reason MS in trouble for this is for releasing an incompatible version of Java. Is there something wrong with doing that (legally, I mean. Obviously it makes writing Java more painful)?
That's why there are more developers using Java than any other language.
Are you sure about that? I heard somewhere that there are more VB programmers than anything, that is, if you consider VB a programming language;). I tried to find more info on the web about the most widely used language, but nothing authoritative turned up.
I get your joke (and think it is funny) but in fairness to Microsoft neither NT 4.0 nor XP need to be rebooted once per day. In fact, I used to run NT 4.0 at work and the only times I had to reboot was when I installed software (but not because the system became unstable... well, maybe 3 times over 2 years I got the BSOD). I now run XP and it is also very stable (only got the BSOD immediately after I installed a driver that the OS warned me about).
However, now that I think about it, maybe Microsoft releases their updates at specific intervals to try and force a reboot at least every couple of weeks without making it look like the system is unstable... hmmmm, hand't thought of that.
Anyways, don't hate on me, I also run Linux, I mean GNU/Linux (I make RMS proud), at work and at home. Also, I don't think this was a wise move for the Army. Like others have said, they coulda contributed a hell of a lot of funding to OSS. They could have just opened up their own shop and hired some great OSS people to work fulltime on their own projects. Oh well, would have been nice.
However, I can address the broader issue of such situations. In a community of over half a million developers, we can hardly expect that there will never be plagiarism. But it is no disaster; we discard that material and move on. If there is material in Linux that was contributed without legal authorization, the Linux developers will learn what it is and replace it.
While SCO's claims are certainly annoying, they don't pose much of a threat to the open source community since the code in question (if it exists and is ever revealed) can be removed.
I did some quick price research and have determined that you are right, you can't get all that on a PC for under $1500. My apologies for speaking out of my ass.
On another note: wtf? How did I get flamebait for my post? I may have been inaccurate, but flamebait? Obviously a Mac./er was seriously annoyed to waste their moderation point on my lame article.
If you haven't already, you need to read the hate mail section. It is hilarious. Here is an excerpt:
Hate Mail:
Oh no! Apple produces kick ass machines once again and someone wants to piss on our parade.
Response:
I apologize for pulling you out of your wet dream and bringing you back to reality.
For 3000 bucks, you'd have to compare the G5 against 2 or 3 P4 based systems. Otherwise it's like AMD comparing an Athlon based system against a Pentium Pro based system.
Waaaaaaa! I released something GPL and didn't get paid for it! Waaaaaaa!
Let me guess, you were one of the ones who voted "I've heard of it, but not read it".
Paaahleeese. Many kernel and gcc hackers did a lot of work to even allow you to start the LRP. Do you think all (or even most) of them get paid?
Why don't you buck up and be a man? Be glad you live in a country were you can get paid decently or, if you have real balls, start something yourself. Stop looking for a handout. You obviously have skills, so do something with them.
...when you give European bureaucrats $200 million per year and tell them to do something useful. There is a European history of stupid government leadership: most Popes, Napoleon, Mussolini, Hitler, Chirac (j/k, don't flame me all you French./ers), and finally, all united Europe type bodies (like the EU, UN, KKK, Black Panthers, and Teamsters).
Europe is like the United States. The only main differences being: U.S. economy is dominate, U.S. military is dominate, U.S. uses 1 main language compared to Europes many, the U.S. has actually defeated England in a war within the last 500 years, the U.S. Constitution has remained relavent for 200+ years, U.S. citizens value freedom and will kick ass to maintain it, the U.S. is very ethnically diverse (the U.S. being the country of immigrants that it is), and, finally (and my personal favorite), the U.S. has lower taxes that most (if not all) of Europe.
I know that many Europeans (read German/Swiss)
believe that they are intellectually superior to Americans, many (read French) believe they are more unique than Americans, many (read eastern Eurpoean basketball players) believe that they "got game" or have "skills", many (read all) believe that Americans are fat (true), and many (read Finnish) believe that Linux was invented in Finland (when in fact it was invented by Al Gore working closely with Larry Ellison). While this all may be true, you still can't say so if I critize you on my blog in the U.S.
I can afford cable, but I don't think it is worth it. I'm not going to pay the $40 - $50 bucks a month that it is in my area just to waste more of my time in front of the television. If I want to waste time I'll play video games, thank you very much (free or cheap ones, that is, like America's Army). But I still want my free network TV and wonderful PBS though, so that I can watch the occational Michael Jackson special or new spin off of the Bachelor.
I try not to buy from Amazon.com, since they apply for many stupid patents. Also, I noticed that Amazon.com says the list price is $35 dollars, but they sell it to you for a 30 percent discount - so you only pay $24.50. However, if you look inside the cover of the book the actual list price is $25. So really, Amazon.com is lying to you about a 30 percent discount and is really only giving you a 2 percent discount. Also, note that you miss free shipping by 50 cents.
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Most of those groups use AKs as their main rifle, not M-16s.
Come on, man, haven't you ever played Counter Strike? ;)
I agree. I won't support a patented format (MP3) when I have the option of using a patent free one (Ogg Vorbis).
Welcome to my world.
Steve Jobs.
Recently, my RedHat machine got hacked (I left my machine on with about 300 services I wasn't using and hadn't applied security patches in about 40 years and the machine was a DMZ host to my firewall... damn those Romainians with RootKit ;) ) so I decided to download RedHat 9 for my immenent reinstall. But after about an hour of trying to find a download site that wasn't swamped, I talked to a colleage who uses Debian and he convinced me to try it. I downloaded 4 floppy disk images and installed the other packages from the Internet using dselect. It was a painless install and I am very happy with it. I didn't have to install a single thing that I didn't need.
All this to say, even if Debian keeps the install that it has now, I'll still be using it for years to come. Its economy of size is a greater benefit to me than ease of install (though I had no problems installing it).
Another major benefit that it has is that you don't need a CD drive at all. A lot of people use old hardware to run Linux, old hardware that might have had the CD drive removed for a newer machine. With Debian, it is no problem. Even with RedHat, after you get the OS installed you usually end up downloading either the binaries or source for the new programs you want to install.
This article also reminded me of a good book (story wise, not much math) that a lot of you have probably read. It's called Fermat's Enigma. If you haven't read it you should. It's a really good book and an easy read. I might even make you want to read a real math book again ;)
Oh wait, they do that in the U.S. too.
OMG! My skin is going to be exposed to the same dosage of radiation that heats our solar system!
...when you can get your testicles blasted by Backscatter X-rays?
Too bad I have to type http://132.122.21.123.155.135.132.152.132.122.221. 123.15.23.32.52 to get to my computer that I don't have a domain name for.
Yeah, right! Come out of the closet. You like Microsoft! This guy can't be trusted ;)
I've seen a lot of comments that say the reason MS in trouble for this is for releasing an incompatible version of Java. Is there something wrong with doing that (legally, I mean. Obviously it makes writing Java more painful)?
Are you sure about that? I heard somewhere that there are more VB programmers than anything, that is, if you consider VB a programming language ;). I tried to find more info on the web about the most widely used language, but nothing authoritative turned up.
However, now that I think about it, maybe Microsoft releases their updates at specific intervals to try and force a reboot at least every couple of weeks without making it look like the system is unstable... hmmmm, hand't thought of that.
Anyways, don't hate on me, I also run Linux, I mean GNU/Linux (I make RMS proud), at work and at home. Also, I don't think this was a wise move for the Army. Like others have said, they coulda contributed a hell of a lot of funding to OSS. They could have just opened up their own shop and hired some great OSS people to work fulltime on their own projects. Oh well, would have been nice.
While SCO's claims are certainly annoying, they don't pose much of a threat to the open source community since the code in question (if it exists and is ever revealed) can be removed.
On another note: wtf? How did I get flamebait for my post? I may have been inaccurate, but flamebait? Obviously a Mac ./er was seriously annoyed to waste their moderation point on my lame article.
Hate Mail: Oh no! Apple produces kick ass machines once again and someone wants to piss on our parade.
Response: I apologize for pulling you out of your wet dream and bringing you back to reality.
You have obviously never used Oracle.
I have no idea (cough, cough!) what you are talking about! How can you call adding 12 different abstractions layers pointless? That's just ignorant.
For 3000 bucks, you'd have to compare the G5 against 2 or 3 P4 based systems. Otherwise it's like AMD comparing an Athlon based system against a Pentium Pro based system.
The 5-4 decision was the affirmative action decision.
Let me guess, you were one of the ones who voted "I've heard of it, but not read it".
Paaahleeese. Many kernel and gcc hackers did a lot of work to even allow you to start the LRP. Do you think all (or even most) of them get paid?
Why don't you buck up and be a man? Be glad you live in a country were you can get paid decently or, if you have real balls, start something yourself. Stop looking for a handout. You obviously have skills, so do something with them.
Europe is like the United States. The only main differences being: U.S. economy is dominate, U.S. military is dominate, U.S. uses 1 main language compared to Europes many, the U.S. has actually defeated England in a war within the last 500 years, the U.S. Constitution has remained relavent for 200+ years, U.S. citizens value freedom and will kick ass to maintain it, the U.S. is very ethnically diverse (the U.S. being the country of immigrants that it is), and, finally (and my personal favorite), the U.S. has lower taxes that most (if not all) of Europe.
I know that many Europeans (read German/Swiss) believe that they are intellectually superior to Americans, many (read French) believe they are more unique than Americans, many (read eastern Eurpoean basketball players) believe that they "got game" or have "skills", many (read all) believe that Americans are fat (true), and many (read Finnish) believe that Linux was invented in Finland (when in fact it was invented by Al Gore working closely with Larry Ellison). While this all may be true, you still can't say so if I critize you on my blog in the U.S.
Bring on the layoffs, I'll get another career :)
I can afford cable, but I don't think it is worth it. I'm not going to pay the $40 - $50 bucks a month that it is in my area just to waste more of my time in front of the television. If I want to waste time I'll play video games, thank you very much (free or cheap ones, that is, like America's Army). But I still want my free network TV and wonderful PBS though, so that I can watch the occational Michael Jackson special or new spin off of the Bachelor.
I try not to buy from Amazon.com, since they apply for many stupid patents. Also, I noticed that Amazon.com says the list price is $35 dollars, but they sell it to you for a 30 percent discount - so you only pay $24.50. However, if you look inside the cover of the book the actual list price is $25. So really, Amazon.com is lying to you about a 30 percent discount and is really only giving you a 2 percent discount. Also, note that you miss free shipping by 50 cents.
Yes, I am an Amazon hater. (Amazon Sucks!)
You can find it at buy.com instead. I'm not a buy.com lover, just an Amazon.com hater.