And let me be one of the few people to thank you for your insightful response to the criticisms. Anyone who's been around code a few years knows you probably have a good feel for what is and isn't a good specification for the storage of spreadsheet data.
We may or may not all like each others' work, but you've got a head on your shoulders and just as I'd defer to John Carmack about what makes a good 3D video card, I'll defer to you on what makes for a good spreadsheet XML spec.
I suggest everyone else forget this is a Microsoft spec and read it and the responses in light of what it is -- a document that may or may not help or suck for that matter.
I too am canadian, and I shop at stores specializing in the products I'm looking for. Go to your local nursery for plants, or kitchen store for kitchen supplies, or whatever. Its called the local Yellow Pages, try browsing a section and look how many local suppliers there are for things other than Walmart.
If you don't know how to shop properly, its not Walmart's fault.
Several people have lost lawsuits for posting links to sites that had links to software that was deemed illegal. Yeah, double indirection and the court still ruled against them. I wouldn't be surprised if an american court was willing to find you guilty for thinking about linking to a torrent linking to pieces of a file.
Its annoying isn't it? Rootkits are software that allow administrative access to a computer without permission, typically remotely.
Many computer programs, since longer ago than I've been alive have used various obscure methods of trying to hide themselves or 'protect' themselves from users and other software.
Now try not to be all Sony-hating for a moment -- if you were handling the number of tech support requests Sony does for people who uninstall the software that lets them access their "secure" memory stick files, wouldn't you try to make it unremovable? Its not like Microsoft provides a "this software is system software and really shouldn't be removed" option in the API or anything.
There's no valuable password data in/etc/passwd at all and in fact many programs read/etc/passwd to get username -> uid mapping information as well as the location of your home directory. It is because/etc/passwd is frequently read by programs that the password data is stored (on any modern *nix) in/etc/shadow instead. strace all the major software on Linux and you'll find any number of them read/etc/passwd for various reasons. This is NOT a security issue, in any way, move along.
"You're an idiot, your hard drives can't achieve gigabit speeds" (actually, they come damn close -- thanks RAID0) or "Buy a new network card."
I love these people in forums -- they liven up the conversation and scare away the new users and experts alike (yeah, that was sarcasm).
My Linux box with software RAID-5 on serial ATA regularly transfers upward of 132MiB/s per drive, which is well over gigabits of data individually and even more combined. People who use cheap or incapable or just old hardware shouldn't assume everyone else does.
A) Sony isn't doing any such thing, read the article
B) Microsoft, (the people who make Windows and the 360) really do believe this about your PC.
Yeah, go read that license agreement on Windows. The right to terminate it at any time, the fact that you bought a license to use the software as they see fit, and not the software itself, who believe all computers sold without an OS are going to be used to pirate Windows, etc.
That's Microsoft you're channeling, not Sony. Sure, Sony Music would probably like to have that kind of control over how you use their content on your PC, but Microsoft actually asserts such rights over how you use it.
Here's a clue or two to mull over: Microsoft really is as evil as you think Sony is, Sony Music actually recanted on their rootkit when it did happen and hasn't done that kind of thing since, and this article admitted as much within it, and Sony Computer Entertainment of (America/Europe/Japan) is not Sony Music.
Not to reply to myself or anything but "It seems like the PS3 is the new Emacs: It's a good all-around computer, the only thing missing is good games!" got moderated +5 Funny and my legitimate response got moderated as flamebait? Gotta love moderation. Sure, the original is funny, and also wrong, and also flamebait. My reply on the other hand simply points out how its wrong.
Well as I roll my eyes in disbelief I'll go back to playing _games_ that I've logged over 200 hours on since March on my PS3.
More power to you. I believe that's the MIT or BSD license you're looking for.
This is about GPL violations, which is as much about guaranteeing the future freedom of the code as it is the freedom to tinker with the code in the first place.
If you don't like it, that's fine, use something else.
UAVs are not weapons. In fact, many UAVs are simply reconnaissance vehicles. A UAV could be used to deliver the mail for that matter. Some UAVs are weapons, just like some people are soldiers, but it doesn't make them all weapons like say 'guns' or 'tanks'.
How about you learn to actually be a critical thinker before you leap? This is not a rootkit in any way, it simply uses a similar technique for keeping users from deleting its key files to how some rootkits keep from being deleted.
This is tantamount to calling a compiler a virus because it has in-memory self-modifying code.
Of course the fan thing is silly. Then again, I have 12 PS3-exclusive games for my PS3 right now and I enjoy them greatly as do my friends and family. There are at least 15 more coming out by Christmas that I'd like to get my hands on too (yes, exclusive titles).
Does it make sense to buy a PS3 to play a $70 copy of Oblivion when the 360's version is half that these days? Of course not. What I don't understand though is why anti-Sony people forget that unlike MS, Sony didn't totally screw over its customers and is publishing more games for the PS2 this year than for the PS3 and is still selling the PS2 at a very competitive rate.
Sure, like some people say, there are games that will fit on a DVD and don't need HD output, and they're being published for the PS2 which costs less than any of the current gen hardware and does a great job of playing those games. You can also play them upscaled on a PS3 of course, alongside the exclusive BD and Playstation Network based games. Personally I can't imagine why I'd want a 360, but to each their own.
Okay, I'll bite, Mr. Troll. What's wrong with the PS3 as a blu-ray disc player? Price obviously isn't it, support for 24fps isn't either, how about audio format support? oh its got those too, on HDMI for PCM 7.1 and optical for dts/DD/pcm 2channel. What exactly mr. troll is wrong with the PS3 as a BD player? The only negative comment I've seen by a major reviewer (since the forced 24fps option came out) is that they didn't like the lack of integrated IR (although the PS2 IR receiver works fine with a PS2->PS3 controller adapter).
A) get a desktop environment or window manager that includes easy one or two-click access to killing applications visually B) at least I can list processes and kill them at all C) at least I can process the output of lists of processes and then manipulate those lists without building bug-prone VB scripts
Try doing something like $ find/tmp -uid 1052 -name ".ssh*" -exec rm -vf "{}" ";" in Windows.
Many people rent their water heaters from oil and gas providers. Many people purchase furnaces through oil and gas providers. Many people also do in fact purchase a router through their ISP (for managed services).
Way to troll Slashdot, clap clap. Wanna go look up how many _good_ games were out for the 360 in the first 6-8 months after release? Okay, now do the same for the PS3. No, seriously, actually check. Some are ports, just like a lot of Xbox games are PC ports, and some are exclusives, you might want to look into that, they're actually good games.
Here's a clue -- Resistance is amazing, Motorstorm is a lot of fun, and Dark Kingdom was short but intense -- and those were launch titles.
In case you haven't been paying attention, its summer and almost nobody releases new games in the summer, they hold off until nearer the Christmas season for some reason. There are a lot of new games for the PS3 coming out this fall and winter, quite a few exclusives too.
How about everyone who keeps saying the PS3 has no games admit to how many they've played and go count the number available before they talk?
We tell our customers regularly not to assume that E-mails get to their customers or suppliers and to verify out of band. For one E-mailing system I agreed to configure we E-mailed the recipients a link to a secure web page hosted by the company in question with the information in it instead of just E-mailing the data. This way we could verify receipt using the web server and any unclicked links could be followed up on.
I'm sorry for my original phrasing -- I meant that audio engineers shouldn't be compressing the !@# out of the "music", not that they shouldn't use dynamic range compression at all.
Of course, I rip my music (to FLAC files) and apply comparative loudness data to equalize the loudness of all my tracks when playing them back (using Replay Gain). I tend to remix my tracks onto CDs with the gain data applied so that the tracks have even loudness to each other. Its amazing how multiple CDs from the same artist can have differing loudnesses (Nickelback comes rapidly to mind).
Now, the question to anyone who really understood that... assuming we are not just seeing the high pass filter ringing, and it still has some effect with flat peaks as short as 10 samples or so... Where is the information coming from to do this?
The information is coming from valid assumptions about musical waveforms that we already know. It wouldn't work at all on some sounds (take a Nine Inch Nails track, peak it out, then try your trick -- it'll sound completely different), but on sounds that have original waveform patterns the high pass filter ends up creating, it should work (more or less).
Of course, this is similar to how lossy audio/video compression works in the first place -- make (hopefully valid) assumptions about how the ear/eye work, and then remove information that can be rebuilt more or less accurately later without actually storing that data (on top of all the other actual compression algorithm work).
I saw articles in the New York Times in the last few years written by an author who admitted in their own segment that they only used their neighbour's open wireless for Internet access. She'd gotten a new laptop with wireless and it just worked. She wasn't sure, she said in the article, whose Internet access it was, but it worked and she used it regularly, and thanks to whomever it was.
In apartment buildings with overlapping wireless signals I'd rather see people sharing than trying to overpower each others' signals anyway.
The complaint isn't that dynamic range compression is bad, simply that it shouldn't be done when making the music but when playing the music. Its very simple to compress dynamic range electronically and it should be done by your music player or stereo system, not by the recording engineer.
In other words, if you listen to music in a noisy environment, adjust the output to match, don't ruin MY music experience too by adjusting the recording itself.
Slashdot Mirror
And let me be one of the few people to thank you for your insightful response to the criticisms. Anyone who's been around code a few years knows you probably have a good feel for what is and isn't a good specification for the storage of spreadsheet data.
We may or may not all like each others' work, but you've got a head on your shoulders and just as I'd defer to John Carmack about what makes a good 3D video card, I'll defer to you on what makes for a good spreadsheet XML spec.
I suggest everyone else forget this is a Microsoft spec and read it and the responses in light of what it is -- a document that may or may not help or suck for that matter.
I too am canadian, and I shop at stores specializing in the products I'm looking for. Go to your local nursery for plants, or kitchen store for kitchen supplies, or whatever. Its called the local Yellow Pages, try browsing a section and look how many local suppliers there are for things other than Walmart.
If you don't know how to shop properly, its not Walmart's fault.
Several people have lost lawsuits for posting links to sites that had links to software that was deemed illegal. Yeah, double indirection and the court still ruled against them. I wouldn't be surprised if an american court was willing to find you guilty for thinking about linking to a torrent linking to pieces of a file.
Its annoying isn't it? Rootkits are software that allow administrative access to a computer without permission, typically remotely.
Many computer programs, since longer ago than I've been alive have used various obscure methods of trying to hide themselves or 'protect' themselves from users and other software.
Now try not to be all Sony-hating for a moment -- if you were handling the number of tech support requests Sony does for people who uninstall the software that lets them access their "secure" memory stick files, wouldn't you try to make it unremovable? Its not like Microsoft provides a "this software is system software and really shouldn't be removed" option in the API or anything.
"... good thing I installed it in a virtual machine then."
There's no valuable password data in /etc/passwd at all and in fact many programs read /etc/passwd to get username -> uid mapping information as well as the location of your home directory. It is because /etc/passwd is frequently read by programs that the password data is stored (on any modern *nix) in /etc/shadow instead. strace all the major software on Linux and you'll find any number of them read /etc/passwd for various reasons. This is NOT a security issue, in any way, move along.
I love these people in forums -- they liven up the conversation and scare away the new users and experts alike (yeah, that was sarcasm).
My Linux box with software RAID-5 on serial ATA regularly transfers upward of 132MiB/s per drive, which is well over gigabits of data individually and even more combined. People who use cheap or incapable or just old hardware shouldn't assume everyone else does.
A) Sony isn't doing any such thing, read the article
B) Microsoft, (the people who make Windows and the 360) really do believe this about your PC.
Yeah, go read that license agreement on Windows. The right to terminate it at any time, the fact that you bought a license to use the software as they see fit, and not the software itself, who believe all computers sold without an OS are going to be used to pirate Windows, etc.
That's Microsoft you're channeling, not Sony. Sure, Sony Music would probably like to have that kind of control over how you use their content on your PC, but Microsoft actually asserts such rights over how you use it.
Here's a clue or two to mull over: Microsoft really is as evil as you think Sony is, Sony Music actually recanted on their rootkit when it did happen and hasn't done that kind of thing since, and this article admitted as much within it, and Sony Computer Entertainment of (America/Europe/Japan) is not Sony Music.
Not to reply to myself or anything but "It seems like the PS3 is the new Emacs: It's a good all-around computer, the only thing missing is good games!" got moderated +5 Funny and my legitimate response got moderated as flamebait? Gotta love moderation. Sure, the original is funny, and also wrong, and also flamebait. My reply on the other hand simply points out how its wrong.
Well as I roll my eyes in disbelief I'll go back to playing _games_ that I've logged over 200 hours on since March on my PS3.
More power to you. I believe that's the MIT or BSD license you're looking for.
This is about GPL violations, which is as much about guaranteeing the future freedom of the code as it is the freedom to tinker with the code in the first place.
If you don't like it, that's fine, use something else.
UAVs are not weapons. In fact, many UAVs are simply reconnaissance vehicles. A UAV could be used to deliver the mail for that matter. Some UAVs are weapons, just like some people are soldiers, but it doesn't make them all weapons like say 'guns' or 'tanks'.
I've been known to wish that 'dc' was available on Windows :-)
Sure I could install it on cygwin but I'm just saying I much prefer RPN to the Windows calculator app.
How about you learn to actually be a critical thinker before you leap? This is not a rootkit in any way, it simply uses a similar technique for keeping users from deleting its key files to how some rootkits keep from being deleted.
This is tantamount to calling a compiler a virus because it has in-memory self-modifying code.
Of course the fan thing is silly. Then again, I have 12 PS3-exclusive games for my PS3 right now and I enjoy them greatly as do my friends and family. There are at least 15 more coming out by Christmas that I'd like to get my hands on too (yes, exclusive titles).
Does it make sense to buy a PS3 to play a $70 copy of Oblivion when the 360's version is half that these days? Of course not. What I don't understand though is why anti-Sony people forget that unlike MS, Sony didn't totally screw over its customers and is publishing more games for the PS2 this year than for the PS3 and is still selling the PS2 at a very competitive rate.
Sure, like some people say, there are games that will fit on a DVD and don't need HD output, and they're being published for the PS2 which costs less than any of the current gen hardware and does a great job of playing those games. You can also play them upscaled on a PS3 of course, alongside the exclusive BD and Playstation Network based games. Personally I can't imagine why I'd want a 360, but to each their own.
Okay, I'll bite, Mr. Troll. What's wrong with the PS3 as a blu-ray disc player? Price obviously isn't it, support for 24fps isn't either, how about audio format support? oh its got those too, on HDMI for PCM 7.1 and optical for dts/DD/pcm 2channel. What exactly mr. troll is wrong with the PS3 as a BD player? The only negative comment I've seen by a major reviewer (since the forced 24fps option came out) is that they didn't like the lack of integrated IR (although the PS2 IR receiver works fine with a PS2->PS3 controller adapter).
A) get a desktop environment or window manager that includes easy one or two-click access to killing applications visually
/tmp -uid 1052 -name ".ssh*" -exec rm -vf "{}" ";"
B) at least I can list processes and kill them at all
C) at least I can process the output of lists of processes and then manipulate those lists without building bug-prone VB scripts
Try doing something like
$ find
in Windows.
Many people rent their water heaters from oil and gas providers.
Many people purchase furnaces through oil and gas providers.
Many people also do in fact purchase a router through their ISP (for managed services).
Way to troll Slashdot, clap clap. Wanna go look up how many _good_ games were out for the 360 in the first 6-8 months after release? Okay, now do the same for the PS3. No, seriously, actually check. Some are ports, just like a lot of Xbox games are PC ports, and some are exclusives, you might want to look into that, they're actually good games.
Here's a clue -- Resistance is amazing, Motorstorm is a lot of fun, and Dark Kingdom was short but intense -- and those were launch titles.
In case you haven't been paying attention, its summer and almost nobody releases new games in the summer, they hold off until nearer the Christmas season for some reason. There are a lot of new games for the PS3 coming out this fall and winter, quite a few exclusives too.
How about everyone who keeps saying the PS3 has no games admit to how many they've played and go count the number available before they talk?
We tell our customers regularly not to assume that E-mails get to their customers or suppliers and to verify out of band. For one E-mailing system I agreed to configure we E-mailed the recipients a link to a secure web page hosted by the company in question with the information in it instead of just E-mailing the data. This way we could verify receipt using the web server and any unclicked links could be followed up on.
Articles like this should have their link removed from the Slashdot summary to punish the author.
I'm sorry for my original phrasing -- I meant that audio engineers shouldn't be compressing the !@# out of the "music", not that they shouldn't use dynamic range compression at all.
Of course, I rip my music (to FLAC files) and apply comparative loudness data to equalize the loudness of all my tracks when playing them back (using Replay Gain). I tend to remix my tracks onto CDs with the gain data applied so that the tracks have even loudness to each other. Its amazing how multiple CDs from the same artist can have differing loudnesses (Nickelback comes rapidly to mind).
The information is coming from valid assumptions about musical waveforms that we already know. It wouldn't work at all on some sounds (take a Nine Inch Nails track, peak it out, then try your trick -- it'll sound completely different), but on sounds that have original waveform patterns the high pass filter ends up creating, it should work (more or less).
Of course, this is similar to how lossy audio/video compression works in the first place -- make (hopefully valid) assumptions about how the ear/eye work, and then remove information that can be rebuilt more or less accurately later without actually storing that data (on top of all the other actual compression algorithm work).
I went from Pine to Mutt personally, I like its configurability and options as well as how it handles attachments and gpg signatures.
I might take a look at alpine too though.
I saw articles in the New York Times in the last few years written by an author who admitted in their own segment that they only used their neighbour's open wireless for Internet access. She'd gotten a new laptop with wireless and it just worked. She wasn't sure, she said in the article, whose Internet access it was, but it worked and she used it regularly, and thanks to whomever it was.
In apartment buildings with overlapping wireless signals I'd rather see people sharing than trying to overpower each others' signals anyway.
The complaint isn't that dynamic range compression is bad, simply that it shouldn't be done when making the music but when playing the music. Its very simple to compress dynamic range electronically and it should be done by your music player or stereo system, not by the recording engineer.
In other words, if you listen to music in a noisy environment, adjust the output to match, don't ruin MY music experience too by adjusting the recording itself.