Automatic variable initialization is not automatic variable declaration. Automatic variable initialization is when you declare an int and it gets initialized to "0", a pointer gets initialized to "null", a string to "" and so forth.
Alice is a rapid prototyping system for virtual reality software. Alice programs are written in an object-oriented, interpreted language which allows programmers to immediately see the effects of changes. As an Alice program executes, the author can update the current state either by interactively evaluating program code fragments, or by manipulating GUI tools. Although the system is extremely flexible at runtime, we are able to maintain high interactive frame rates (typically, 20-50 fps) by transparently decoupling simulation and rendering. We have been using Alice internally at Virginia for over two years, and we are currently porting a "desktop" version of Alice to Windows 95. We will distribute desktop Alice freely to all universities via the World Wide Web;
What is so remarkable about Alice is the degree to which it brings 3D graphics programming down from on high and puts it in the hands of non-computer scientists. With very little assistance, my 7 year-old son created programs in hours that would have taken me, a professional 3D graphics programmer, days to write using OpenGL.
Yes, there could be a truly interoperable "rich text format" used by every word processor and based upon XML.
It hasn't been done for a variety of reasons:
developing it would be a non-trivial exercise.
most people in the "XML world" are more interested in generic markup than in WYSIWYG word processor formats. This means that the presentation is dicatated by a complex stylesheet which adds a level of complexity. This makes the problem even harder to solve (we've been working on it for more than ten years!) Some people would actively oppose a common word processing format based on the principle of direct WYSIWYG application of style.
HTML+CSS is "good enough" for some subset of people which takes away some of the impetus.
Microsoft would probably not go along. This means that 90% of the world's word processor users would still be left behind.
The competing word processor vendors are so small and weak that the development would actually incur a sizeable cost.
Word processors internally have very different ways of thinking about the organization of text and formatting. A common data format might inadvertantly lead to a common "look and feel" which would hurt vendors who charge extra for their extra features.
The feature set of word processors is not entirely congruent so you get into a typical "Lowest Common Denominator" versus "Extensible Pseudo-Standard" situation.
There are ostensibly already a few (failed) international standards in this area like ODA.
Of course people in the opens source software world are motivated differently than those in the software sales business so if a standard was to arise it would probably arise out of cooperation among those groups. Still, it would take a lot of hard work and cooperation.
I once proposed that the existing XSL Formatting Objects could be leveraged in this way once, but was shouted down by those who felt that any move away from generic markup is inherently a step backwards.
Your "extra" money is going to the Dell shareholders to reward them for owning shares in a company with the intelligence to pre-install a free operating system. Hopefully the shareholders of Dell's competitors will demand the same treatment. When this is no longer a "new idea", that bonus will disappear.
In short, you are paying the "early adopter" tax. I would gladly have payed that tax if I could get back the two days that I spent installing Linux on a freaking CPX two weeks ago...argh!
What is the VCR or photocopier equivalent of Napster? How many people can you "serve" with a single video tape?
The ease and cost of duplication and distribution has dropped to near zero. Someone in the system is going to be cut out and it is perfectly natural (if not necessarily acceptable) for that person to use every tool at his or her disposal to delay the change.
A Windows operating system monopoly would work closely with smaller vendors like Corel in order to drive down office prices so that they could compete with the free office suites on Linux. Hell, they might even help port those free suites.
An office suite monopoly would port to Linux in order to maximize profit by covering the widest possible range of operating systems.
A development tools monopoly would work to make tools that were multiplatform and compatible with the component, object and scripting models used by all of the office suites.
Three monopolies is indeed better than one because they would all *undermine each other* by treating their old partners as ordinary ISVs.
Support for XML itself (the core spec) is trivial. Both Netscape and IE do well there.
Support for the DOM (the API to XML/HTML used by JavaScript) is harder. I believe both will have mostly equivalent DOM1 support when Mozilla is released.
Mozilla will do better with CSS/XML integration because they will do better with CSS standards compliance in general.
Mozilla is supposed to have XSLT support. It doesn't now but the code is under active development. The XSLT engine works standalone but now must be integrated with the browser. If they get this right, then their XSLT support will be one year more modern (read: standards compliant) than Microsoft's.
Netscape wins in use of XML for "other stuff" like menu customization, news feeds and so forth. That XUL stuff is butt-ugly but it is still XML!
All in all, I think that the XML picture is pretty positive for Mozilla and will become even better once more cooks get into the kitchen.
note that multinationals are generally operated locally by local citizens--in fact, most multinationals simply act as holding companies for companies incorporated in the nation where they do business.
Most of the people in high positions at Shell Nigeria are in fact foreigners, not Nigerians. My uncle was involved with the industry there so I know quite a bit about it. The people who lead the Nigerian subsidiary are mostly a mix of English, Dutch and American. Of course the people laying down the pipes are going to be mostly Nigerian.
Ask yourself, had oil not been found in Nigeria, do you think the Nigerian Dictatorships that have repressed its people would have never formed, or would have turned power over to a Democracy? Absolutely not.
You don't know that. Criminals go where the money is. In Nigeria it is possible for a nasty strong man to become a multi-millionare through the barrel of a gun. In most other countries there are easier ways to get rich than become politicians. Nigeria's economy is so dominated by oil (especially now) that the only way to get really rich is to control the oil or be "associated" with someone who does. The only way to control the oil is to run the government.
If foreign companies refused to invest, the monetary advantage would be gone and the dictator might decide to go do something more profitable. Or they might not. Some dictators are happy to rule over rubble -- others are in it for the dough.
We could play "what if" all day but it seems pretty clear to me that it is wrong to give a government large checks when you know that those checks will be used to buy weapons to oppress people.
Don't you think?
As far as Americans versus Dutch? Who cares: either government (or populace) could have influenced the situation through sanctions. The US loves sanctions whenever American interests are at stake...
Of course there is a HUGE difference between *supporting* evil elsewhere and *engaging in evil* at home. I have spent a big chunk of my life protesting (on street corners, when necessary) Westerner's behavior in Nigeria but I don't think it is as bad as Tiannamen Square or the recent arrests of "cult" members.
note that multinationals are generally operated locally by local citizens--in fact, most multinationals simply act as holding companies for companies incorporated in the nation where they do business.
Most of the people in high positions at Shell Nigeria are in fact foreigners, not Nigerians. My uncle was involved with the industry there so I know quite a bit about it. The people who lead the Nigerian subsidiary are mostly a mix of English, Dutch and American. Of course the people laying down the pipes are going to be mostly Nigerian.
Ask yourself, had oil not been found in
Nigeria, do you think the Nigerian Dictatorships that have repressed its people would have never formed, or would have turned power over to a Democracy? Absolutely not.
You don't know that. Criminals go where the money is. In Nigeria it is possible for a nasty strong man to become a multi-millionare through the barrel of a gun. In most other countries there are easier ways to get rich than become politicians. Nigeria's economy is so dominated by oil (especially now) that the only way to get really rich is to control the oil or be "associated" with someone who does. The only way to control the oil is to run the government.
If foreign companies refused to invest, the monetary advantage would be gone and the dictator might decide to go do something more profitable. Or they might not. Some dictators are happy to rule over rubble -- others are in it for the dough.
We could play "what if" all day but it seems pretty clear to me that it is wrong to give a government large checks when you know that those checks will be used to buy weapons to oppress people.
Don't you think?
As far as Americans versus Dutch? Who cares: either government (or populace) could have influenced the situation through sanctions. The US loves sanctions whenever American interests are at stake...
Of course there is a HUGE difference between *supporting* evil elsewhere and *engaging in evil* at home. I have spent a big chunk of my life protesting (on street corners, when necessary) Westerner's behavior in Nigeria but I don't think it is as bad as Tiannamen Square or the recent arrests of "cult" members.
The POINT is that the same technologies that allow us to become incrementally more free will also allow those who are fundamentally enslaved to become free one day. It is pro-technology, not anti-technology. Expect it to be reprinted in Wired soon.
My wife has many of the same problems, but it isn't with web sites. It is with office documents sent by co-workers, friends and families. Those formats are explicitly proprietary and much harder to crack or work around.
Micro~1 has had a vested interest in bullying Intel into keeping the x86 architecture, since they're experts at writing assembler and not at writing portable operating systems. However, Linux presents a way out of this trap, and _that_ is why Intel likes Linux.
You've got it exactly backwards. If Linux helps people to move to other Intel CPUs it also helps them to move to non-Intel CPUs like PPC, Alpha and MIPS. Intel's greatest intellectual property is its intimate knowledge of optimization techniques for x86 opcodes. If they had to compete purely on performance with Alpha, PPC etc., they would be in a much worse position.
My guess is that the key is stored in some proprietary server. That means that control of expiration is out of the hands of the client software. Unless it explicitly makes a copy, the information will disappear on the server's schedule.
In text mode, Linux is great for "serial multiusers" in that one person can log in on one virtual TTY and another can login on another and you can switch back and forth without interrupting each other.
Can I do that with Berlin or X(free)? It doesn't seem so incredibly difficult to implement. You swap out one person's graphic memory and swap in another person's. It might not be instantaneous but it also shouldn't take a heinous amount of time?
How is it more convenient to go an buy a CD at a store rather than having it sent to your computer by a friend? In a few years we will all have CD-Recordable drives and it will only take four or five mouse clicks to save the file to the disk.
In the long run, convenience argues FOR electronic, free distribution.
Slashdot Mirror
Automatic variable initialization is not automatic variable declaration. Automatic variable initialization is when you declare an int and it gets initialized to "0", a pointer gets initialized to "null", a string to "" and so forth.
Paul
Dude.
Can someone post an HTML or PDF version?
Thanks Dude.
Alice:
Testimonial
Paul Prescod
The scripting language in their toolkit is the open source scripting language Python:
i t_overview.htm
http://developer.intel.com/technology/efi/toolk
Yes, there could be a truly interoperable "rich text format" used by every word processor and based upon XML.
It hasn't been done for a variety of reasons:
Of course people in the opens source software world are motivated differently than those in the software sales business so if a standard was to arise it would probably arise out of cooperation among those groups. Still, it would take a lot of hard work and cooperation.
I once proposed that the existing XSL Formatting Objects could be leveraged in this way once, but was shouted down by those who felt that any move away from generic markup is inherently a step backwards.
Your "extra" money is going to the Dell shareholders to reward them for owning shares in a company with the intelligence to pre-install a free operating system. Hopefully the shareholders of Dell's competitors will demand the same treatment. When this is no longer a "new idea", that bonus will disappear.
In short, you are paying the "early adopter" tax. I would gladly have payed that tax if I could get back the two days that I spent installing Linux on a freaking CPX two weeks ago...argh!
Paul Prescod
What is the VCR or photocopier equivalent of Napster? How many people can you "serve" with a single video tape?
The ease and cost of duplication and distribution has dropped to near zero. Someone in the system is going to be cut out and it is perfectly natural (if not necessarily acceptable) for that person to use every tool at his or her disposal to delay the change.
Paul Prescod
A Windows operating system monopoly would work closely with smaller vendors like Corel in order to drive down office prices so that they could compete with the free office suites on Linux. Hell, they might even help port those free suites.
An office suite monopoly would port to Linux in order to maximize profit by covering the widest possible range of operating systems.
A development tools monopoly would work to make tools that were multiplatform and compatible with the component, object and scripting models used by all of the office suites.
Three monopolies is indeed better than one because they would all *undermine each other* by treating their old partners as ordinary ISVs.
Paul Prescod
http://support.dell.com/us/en/kb/document.asp?DN=F A1012146
Support for XML itself (the core spec) is trivial. Both Netscape and IE do well there.
Support for the DOM (the API to XML/HTML used by JavaScript) is harder. I believe both will have mostly equivalent DOM1 support when Mozilla is released.
Mozilla will do better with CSS/XML integration because they will do better with CSS standards compliance in general.
Mozilla is supposed to have XSLT support. It doesn't now but the code is under active development. The XSLT engine works standalone but now must be integrated with the browser. If they get this right, then their XSLT support will be one year more modern (read: standards compliant) than Microsoft's.
Netscape wins in use of XML for "other stuff" like menu customization, news feeds and so forth. That XUL stuff is butt-ugly but it is still XML!
All in all, I think that the XML picture is pretty positive for Mozilla and will become even better once more cooks get into the kitchen.
Paul Prescod
Most of the people in high positions at Shell Nigeria are in fact foreigners, not Nigerians. My uncle was involved with the industry there so I know quite a bit about it. The people who lead the Nigerian subsidiary are mostly a mix of English, Dutch and American. Of course the people laying down the pipes are going to be mostly Nigerian.
You don't know that. Criminals go where the money is. In Nigeria it is possible for a nasty strong man to become a multi-millionare through the barrel of a gun. In most other countries there are easier ways to get rich than become politicians. Nigeria's economy is so dominated by oil (especially now) that the only way to get really rich is to control the oil or be "associated" with someone who does. The only way to control the oil is to run the government.
If foreign companies refused to invest, the monetary advantage would be gone and the dictator might decide to go do something more profitable. Or they might not. Some dictators are happy to rule over rubble -- others are in it for the dough.
We could play "what if" all day but it seems pretty clear to me that it is wrong to give a government large checks when you know that those checks will be used to buy weapons to oppress people.
Don't you think?
As far as Americans versus Dutch? Who cares: either government (or populace) could have influenced the situation through sanctions. The US loves sanctions whenever American interests are at stake...
Of course there is a HUGE difference between *supporting* evil elsewhere and *engaging in evil* at home. I have spent a big chunk of my life protesting (on street corners, when necessary) Westerner's behavior in Nigeria but I don't think it is as bad as Tiannamen Square or the recent arrests of "cult" members.
Paul Prescod
Most of the people in high positions at Shell Nigeria are in fact foreigners, not Nigerians. My uncle was involved with the industry there so I know quite a bit about it. The people who lead the Nigerian subsidiary are mostly a mix of English, Dutch and American. Of course the people laying down the pipes are going to be mostly Nigerian.
You don't know that. Criminals go where the money is. In Nigeria it is possible for a nasty strong man to become a multi-millionare through the barrel of a gun. In most other countries there are easier ways to get rich than become politicians. Nigeria's economy is so dominated by oil (especially now) that the only way to get really rich is to control the oil or be "associated" with someone who does. The only way to control the oil is to run the government.
If foreign companies refused to invest, the monetary advantage would be gone and the dictator might decide to go do something more profitable. Or they might not. Some dictators are happy to rule over rubble -- others are in it for the dough.
We could play "what if" all day but it seems pretty clear to me that it is wrong to give a government large checks when you know that those checks will be used to buy weapons to oppress people.
Don't you think?
As far as Americans versus Dutch? Who cares: either government (or populace) could have influenced the situation through sanctions. The US loves sanctions whenever American interests are at stake...
Of course there is a HUGE difference between *supporting* evil elsewhere and *engaging in evil* at home. I have spent a big chunk of my life protesting (on street corners, when necessary) Westerner's behavior in Nigeria but I don't think it is as bad as Tiannamen Square or the recent arrests of "cult" members.
Paul Prescod
The POINT is that the same technologies that allow us to become incrementally more free will also allow those who are fundamentally enslaved to become free one day. It is pro-technology, not anti-technology. Expect it to be reprinted in Wired soon.
Paul Precod
My wife has many of the same problems, but it isn't with web sites. It is with office documents sent by co-workers, friends and families. Those formats are explicitly proprietary and much harder to crack or work around.
Micro~1 has had a vested interest in bullying Intel into keeping the x86 architecture, since they're experts at writing assembler and not at writing portable operating systems. However, Linux presents a way out of this trap, and _that_ is why Intel likes Linux.
You've got it exactly backwards. If Linux helps people to move to other Intel CPUs it also helps them to move to non-Intel CPUs like PPC, Alpha and MIPS. Intel's greatest intellectual property is its intimate knowledge of optimization techniques for x86 opcodes. If they had to compete purely on performance with Alpha, PPC etc., they would be in a much worse position.
My guess is that the key is stored in some proprietary server. That means that control of expiration is out of the hands of the client software. Unless it explicitly makes a copy, the information will disappear on the server's schedule.
Paul Prescod
http://www.cdrom.com/pub/mng/
In text mode, Linux is great for "serial multiusers" in that one person can log in on one virtual TTY and another can login on another and you can switch back and forth without interrupting each other.
Can I do that with Berlin or X(free)? It doesn't seem so incredibly difficult to implement. You swap out one person's graphic memory and swap in another person's. It might not be instantaneous but it also shouldn't take a heinous amount of time?
Paul
How is it more convenient to go an buy a CD at a store rather than having it sent to your computer by a friend? In a few years we will all have CD-Recordable drives and it will only take four or five mouse clicks to save the file to the disk.
In the long run, convenience argues FOR electronic, free distribution.