Problem is that it's impossible to make a good-looking icon using vector graphics. You absolutely have to use a bitmap. Mac OS X uses 128-pixel bitmaps and scales them with interpolation in real time. Better solution than vector graphics.
Like so many things out there that people try to link to certain behaviours there is a certain amount of truth to it.
Be it music, TV, games, whatever, they all have some effect on most people and more of an effect on others. So if someone has tendencies towards violence then violent games may help fuel that fire. Not that they wouldn't be violent without the game, but the game probably doesn't help.
I remember my teenage years and I remember thinking that such-and-such doesn't effect me. However, looking back I can see that certain things helped justify unhealthy behavious and so I continued to do things that ended up hurting me in the end. Again, this is not to say that I would not have ever done anything like that anyway but having those fuels definately made it easier.
It would be better if people could take notice of what effects them and not do those things (be it alcohol, violent games, whatever). But people are just too stupid to do that so maybe we do need rules. Isn't that why we have laws in the first place? Too many stupid people.
Bzzt, sorry but it's still not a real BSD licensed piece of software. Anybody that wanted to release a closed-source version would still need to purchase a QT license.
2. b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License.
So you can't use the free version of QT to make proprietary software. Big deal. Get over it.
Eh? Read what I wrote. I want to write some open-source free software and release it under a BSD-like license. Can't use QT without a commercial license...
Erm, there are things like Gtkmm which is quite a bit better designed than the QT/moc hell.
Although QT is pretty nice, KDE has an insanely bloated, bogged down feel to it. Like when it starts up. GNOME doesn't feel that way.
QT works betters on all platforms. Gtk is still mostly an X11 toolkit (eg. it's slow on Windows and looks funky on OS X).
Don't get me started on wxWindows. Ugh... might as well write a native version of your app for each platform and #ifdef it yourself (really not much different than wxWindows but more flexible).
The kicker for me is the price of QT. Too much, as much as a Universal MSDN subscription which includes every damn thing MS makes. And the "free" version isn't really free because I can't release anything under a non-GPL license (like a BSD type).
"Features added in this edition include generics support, autoboxing of primitives, syntactic sugar for loops, enumerated types, variable arguments, sharing of memory between multiple VMs and a bunch of other bugfixes, enchancements, etc."
So essentially it's become C++...... decades late.:)
Why do I have to unplug and replug the firewire cable several times every time I reboot? It gets timeout errors and all sorts of problems. Often all the devices are not detected (I have 3 hard-drives and a DVD-R in the chain).
I think we need a new person working on the SBP2 stuff. It has been broken for so freaking long it's not even funny.
Maybe it's because I install apt-rpm on the Red Hat boxes to make them just as easy to manage as the Debian ones
I'm not trolling here, but curious. I've seen a few references to this apt-rpm thing which sounds pretty nice if it's like apt-get. I tend to try Red-Hat every couple years and the one thing that always got me was that there just were not as many readily accessible packages for Red-Hat compared to Debian. Sure, there's probably a RPM for everything but they were always scattered all over the place and I didn't have a simple single-point interface to intall anything I wanted. I had to go on RPM searches which absolutely sucked (not to mention the dependency nightmare).
Debian on the other hand has just about everything under the sun available with a simple apt-get and it's easy to add new package sources.
Is there more stuff available now with the apt-rpm type system? I assume it handles and grabs dependencies?
Some good points, but there are a ton of worse examples where this is not true. And a lot of devices have no Linux support at all. Many USB scanners for example. And again, my Wacom tablet doesn't work and it gets worse if I attach it via USB hub. Works fine in Windows.
I don't know about your printer example. I've found Linux to be buggy with my setup. Especially when plugging and unplugging USB printers. I have two hooked up, a LaserJet and a PhotoSmart. They work flawlessly under Windows and only sometimes under Linux. A lot of times the USB bus appears to get hung up or something in Linux. I usually end up using Windows (often from VMware).
I agree about the system tray crap though. However, I use what works. Linux wouldn't needs to load all that stuff, just the main printer driver(s).
a "driver" is a piece of software that communicates with a piece of hardware at a low level and translates higher level system calls into stuff the hardware can understand.
I think you're splitting hairs here. A driver could mean lots of things. What you call true Windows drivers are nothing more than DLL's themselves (.sys files in Win2k,.vxd files, etc). Yes, they may communicate with hardware but this is not some mystical system that can't be worked with.
no, they use a subset of wine to load the.dlls. they've implemented what is, in essence, a meta-codec that handles the windows codec and directshow apis. this comes with a not-insignificant performance penalty, i might add.
Right, and that's what I'm talking about for all drivers. It might not be great for a video driver but video drivers are a small fraction of all drivers. How about my Wacom tablet? Printer drivers? Scanner drivers? Modem drivers? Other USB devices? Sound drivers? None of those use much CPU and again, that's just a fraction of all drivers out there. I don't see the problem.
I don't see why the drivers would have to bring the system down. That's the advantage of using Linux it can protect itself from bad drivers. Note, these don't have to be "core" drivers that can bring down the system.
Things like scanner drivers, printer drivers, Wacom drivers, etc wouldn't need to destabilize the kernel at all.
first off: it would likely be impossible to directly use most windows drivers in linux. the architectual design is entirely different, and you'd essentially need to emulate the win32 substructure - kind of self defeating. What we need, quite simply, is vendor support of their products.
Wrong. You know why? Because we already have some Windows "drivers" under Linux. Those wireless-LAN drivers (is that Centrino or something?).
Some things like video drivers might be more difficult (I don't know) but there are a ton of simple devices that could use the Windows drivers. USB devices like printers and scanners for example.
I don't see what the big deal is.
second: wtf does windows media player (this is what you're talking about, no?) have to with drivers? If you're talking about media codecs, you can use straight codecs from windows without a problem with both xine and mplayer in linux.
Uh, yeah. You're using a Windows media format "driver" under Linux. What's so special? Well it doesn't "just work" in Xine and MPlayer, they built a capatibility bridge for Windows drivers. In theory you could do the same thing for many different drivers.
Meh, it depends. Wacom actually gave out lots of information on their product and the Linux drivers still don't work.
SBP2/Firewire may be a similar situation. Although I'm not sure. Since it's a standard arn't these specs available?
Anyway, paying someone to do something can go a long ways in the motivation department.:) That's why some manufacturer's drivers are way better than any OSS version.
Sometimes you have to pay for specs or NDA. I just want my devices to work and if a company wants to publish binary-only drivers, fine. I'll even pay for them.
But, the huge desktop market is made up of mostly Wintel machines.
I would rather have a choice. The same stuff would work as it does now. It's not like there are tons of manufacturers supporting all the various architectures out there. I mean, in theory you would still use your VIA micro-ITX Windows drivers under Linux.
The stuff that wouldn't work doesn't work in Windows anyway. So you would basically be in the same situation you're in now. I don't see the problem.
As I've said before, native drivers would start flowing if lots of users were using Linux. The manufacturers would still have to support other architectures, but they either do that or not, just like they do now. I don't think having Windows driver support in Linux would hurt the other architectures.
For one, I believe that much of the Windows driver API is an industry secret.
Nah, get a MSDN subscription (or just the DDK). Not everyone that writes drivers works for Microsoft. The device developers kit contains everything you need to know.
Second, people won't write Linux drivers anymore, and requests for native drivers will be responded with "You can just use the Windows drivers!"
Frankly, I don't see a problem with that. If it works, it works. You're still running Linux. When enough people start using Linux then they can create real native Linux drivers. It will happen, given enough time. You can't just expect a company to drop everything to support some niche market where they won't make money or will lose money. We need a bridge, even if only temporarily.
Third, Linux and Windows have very different driver models, meaning incompatibility and having to code it in bug-for-bug.
Bah, there are so many crappy, incomplete, or just plain missing Linux drivers. Something is better than nothing. I have not noticed any superiority of any Linux driver over its Windows conterpart. The nVidia drivers are sometimes a bit faster in Linux but guess what? Those are made by the manufacturer not some wannabe college student Linux programmer. Not all the time, but very often the best software is a result of someone getting paid to write it. It works because they simply must finish it or they will get fired (or not payed). Plus generally the management listens to the customers (the users), and stuff gets done (enhanced or fixed) because money is at stake.
Plus, how can you ensure that the Windows drivers won't trample over the Linux ones, or are you going to isolate them, reducing their effectiveness?
It's just code. It's not that terribly complicated except for the undocumented Microsoft crap, but believe it or not, drivers have well defined interfaces. That's how all those 3rd parties create Windows drivers in the first place.
However, an operating system kernel is not the place for untrusted code that depends on a lot of stuff working at the right time.
Um... whatever, you want to eliminate all binary drivers? Sorry, but that isn't going to happen. Linux will always be behind if it doesn't allow binary drivers. Companies have to make a living.
I want to second this opinion. One of my major problem areas with Linux has been the drivers or lack of.
I know the die-hards will nay-say this, but being able to use native Windows drivers would be absolutely great. Now, maybe you don't use MPlayer (and the other "native" driver apps) but there are a hell of a lot of us that do and love it. The same thing should be done for all drivers. Video, USB, firewire, PCI, whatever... Make it so we can use Windows drivers in Linux because there are way too many half-assed reverse engineered Linux drivers that just don't work right. I mean, when in the hell will my Wacom Intuos2 tablet finally work correctly?! (I this is not just a kernel problem but XFree too) Yes, yes, I know about those patches here and there, but try to get them to work with XFree 4.3 and kernel 2.6... Ain't gonna happen. Just let me use the Windows drivers please.
I don't give a crap about some utopian vison of Linux greatness because all manufacturers support Linux. It isn't happening any time soon and I have real work to do.
With that said, my #1 greatist wish for 2.7/8 would be to get the damn SBP2 Firewire drivers working correctly. Dammit, that thing has been broken since it was introduced. Nearly every time I boot my system I have to plug and unplug the firewire cable (sometimes several times) to get the devices reset and loaded properly so I can access them (I'm using kernel 2.6, but has always been broken like this). The read/write/timeout errors have gotten better but they still occur with large drives. I'm absolutely terrified that one day I'll have to fschk my 90 GB partition on my firewire drive again. The last couple times I had to do that it toasted the partition every time (I/O errors and timeouts).
Any intelligent developer would tie the invitee to the account that sent the invite.
If they notice a whole bunch of crap going on all they have to do it shut off that account and everyone who was invited by that account (and so on... if you think of the invitation chain as a tree). Damage control would be simple eh?
For better security, I would suggest automating the whole process a bit further, get out of the room and see the results when done... but may be I'm just paranoid...
Pffft, and you're the kind that never played with fireworks, right? "Safe" is relative and if you're careful you can push the boundaries.
Getting in your car and riding around is more dangerous since you're trusting other morons not to kill you.
Aerogel is cool stuff. I've recently been experimenting with aerogel capacitors. These suckers can hold a huge amount of energy. Right in front of me I have two 2.5V 50-farad (yes farads, not microfarads) capacitors.
Fun for robotic projects and such. Many common devices are using super-capacitors like these. Those tiny remote control cars and those battery-free flashlights are a couple examples.
Some people use these small machines for more than just games. Duh...
For example, with a PCI slot you can make a nice MythTV box (a TiVo-like system if you're not in the know). This type of equipment begs to be made smaller and especially quieter. The USB video capture stuff really sucks compared to the PCI hardware and is better supported in alternative operating systems like Linux and BSD.
Plus there are a ton of users who only game occasionally and this box would have plenty of power (hell, DX8 is still supported).
I'd rather strike up a conversation on the stupidity of using an ATI chipset instead of nVidia.
To be honest I liked STNG once it got going and watched most of the episodes. However, I've never watched a single re-run of any STNG episode.
DS9, Voyager, B5, Farsacpe, SG-1 all suck(ed) royally. I liked the SG movie but I don't like the series at all.
Believe it or not I think Enterprise is OK. I've seen most of the episodes. I mean, it's not the greatest thing ever but for some reason it's watchable (which is saying a lot since I hardly watch TV at all).
Meh, maybe I'm not nerdy enough to appreciate crappy TV.
Slashdot Mirror
Problem is that it's impossible to make a good-looking icon using vector graphics. You absolutely have to use a bitmap. Mac OS X uses 128-pixel bitmaps and scales them with interpolation in real time. Better solution than vector graphics.
Oh like these incredibly shitty icons.
Like so many things out there that people try to link to certain behaviours there is a certain amount of truth to it.
Be it music, TV, games, whatever, they all have some effect on most people and more of an effect on others. So if someone has tendencies towards violence then violent games may help fuel that fire. Not that they wouldn't be violent without the game, but the game probably doesn't help.
I remember my teenage years and I remember thinking that such-and-such doesn't effect me. However, looking back I can see that certain things helped justify unhealthy behavious and so I continued to do things that ended up hurting me in the end. Again, this is not to say that I would not have ever done anything like that anyway but having those fuels definately made it easier.
It would be better if people could take notice of what effects them and not do those things (be it alcohol, violent games, whatever). But people are just too stupid to do that so maybe we do need rules. Isn't that why we have laws in the first place? Too many stupid people.
Bzzt, sorry but it's still not a real BSD licensed piece of software. Anybody that wanted to release a closed-source version would still need to purchase a QT license.
Sure... If I never want to release a binary of any sort. In fact, no one could distribute a binary. Nice. ;)
I highly recommend actually reading the GPL.
For the lazy:
2. b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License.
Anything using GPL'd software must also be GPL'd.
So you can't use the free version of QT to make proprietary software. Big deal. Get over it.
Eh? Read what I wrote. I want to write some open-source free software and release it under a BSD-like license. Can't use QT without a commercial license...
Read it again if you have to.
Erm, there are things like Gtkmm which is quite a bit better designed than the QT/moc hell.
Although QT is pretty nice, KDE has an insanely bloated, bogged down feel to it. Like when it starts up. GNOME doesn't feel that way.
QT works betters on all platforms. Gtk is still mostly an X11 toolkit (eg. it's slow on Windows and looks funky on OS X).
Don't get me started on wxWindows. Ugh... might as well write a native version of your app for each platform and #ifdef it yourself (really not much different than wxWindows but more flexible).
The kicker for me is the price of QT. Too much, as much as a Universal MSDN subscription which includes every damn thing MS makes. And the "free" version isn't really free because I can't release anything under a non-GPL license (like a BSD type).
Mark my words. All of that will come in time.
See, Java started out like so many projects. "We'll do it better because the current stuff is too complex."
Then they learn, like everyone always does, it's complex for a reason.
"Features added in this edition include generics support, autoboxing of primitives, syntactic sugar for loops, enumerated types, variable arguments, sharing of memory between multiple VMs and a bunch of other bugfixes, enchancements, etc."
... decades late. :)
So essentially it's become C++...
HELLO?! Ben Collins, SBP2 is still broken.
Why do I have to unplug and replug the firewire cable several times every time I reboot? It gets timeout errors and all sorts of problems. Often all the devices are not detected (I have 3 hard-drives and a DVD-R in the chain).
I think we need a new person working on the SBP2 stuff. It has been broken for so freaking long it's not even funny.
Maybe it's because I install apt-rpm on the Red Hat boxes to make them just as easy to manage as the Debian ones
I'm not trolling here, but curious. I've seen a few references to this apt-rpm thing which sounds pretty nice if it's like apt-get. I tend to try Red-Hat every couple years and the one thing that always got me was that there just were not as many readily accessible packages for Red-Hat compared to Debian. Sure, there's probably a RPM for everything but they were always scattered all over the place and I didn't have a simple single-point interface to intall anything I wanted. I had to go on RPM searches which absolutely sucked (not to mention the dependency nightmare).
Debian on the other hand has just about everything under the sun available with a simple apt-get and it's easy to add new package sources.
Is there more stuff available now with the apt-rpm type system? I assume it handles and grabs dependencies?
Some good points, but there are a ton of worse examples where this is not true. And a lot of devices have no Linux support at all. Many USB scanners for example. And again, my Wacom tablet doesn't work and it gets worse if I attach it via USB hub. Works fine in Windows.
I don't know about your printer example. I've found Linux to be buggy with my setup. Especially when plugging and unplugging USB printers. I have two hooked up, a LaserJet and a PhotoSmart. They work flawlessly under Windows and only sometimes under Linux. A lot of times the USB bus appears to get hung up or something in Linux. I usually end up using Windows (often from VMware).
I agree about the system tray crap though. However, I use what works. Linux wouldn't needs to load all that stuff, just the main printer driver(s).
a "driver" is a piece of software that communicates with a piece of hardware at a low level and translates higher level system calls into stuff the hardware can understand.
.vxd files, etc). Yes, they may communicate with hardware but this is not some mystical system that can't be worked with.
.dlls. they've implemented what is, in essence, a meta-codec that handles the windows codec and directshow apis. this comes with a not-insignificant performance penalty, i might add.
I think you're splitting hairs here. A driver could mean lots of things. What you call true Windows drivers are nothing more than DLL's themselves (.sys files in Win2k,
no, they use a subset of wine to load the
Right, and that's what I'm talking about for all drivers. It might not be great for a video driver but video drivers are a small fraction of all drivers. How about my Wacom tablet? Printer drivers? Scanner drivers? Modem drivers? Other USB devices? Sound drivers? None of those use much CPU and again, that's just a fraction of all drivers out there. I don't see the problem.
I don't see why the drivers would have to bring the system down. That's the advantage of using Linux it can protect itself from bad drivers. Note, these don't have to be "core" drivers that can bring down the system.
Things like scanner drivers, printer drivers, Wacom drivers, etc wouldn't need to destabilize the kernel at all.
first off: it would likely be impossible to directly use most windows drivers in linux. the architectual design is entirely different, and you'd essentially need to emulate the win32 substructure - kind of self defeating. What we need, quite simply, is vendor support of their products.
Wrong. You know why? Because we already have some Windows "drivers" under Linux. Those wireless-LAN drivers (is that Centrino or something?).
Some things like video drivers might be more difficult (I don't know) but there are a ton of simple devices that could use the Windows drivers. USB devices like printers and scanners for example.
I don't see what the big deal is.
second: wtf does windows media player (this is what you're talking about, no?) have to with drivers? If you're talking about media codecs, you can use straight codecs from windows without a problem with both xine and mplayer in linux.
Uh, yeah. You're using a Windows media format "driver" under Linux. What's so special? Well it doesn't "just work" in Xine and MPlayer, they built a capatibility bridge for Windows drivers. In theory you could do the same thing for many different drivers.
Meh, it depends. Wacom actually gave out lots of information on their product and the Linux drivers still don't work.
:) That's why some manufacturer's drivers are way better than any OSS version.
SBP2/Firewire may be a similar situation. Although I'm not sure. Since it's a standard arn't these specs available?
Anyway, paying someone to do something can go a long ways in the motivation department.
Sometimes you have to pay for specs or NDA. I just want my devices to work and if a company wants to publish binary-only drivers, fine. I'll even pay for them.
But, the huge desktop market is made up of mostly Wintel machines.
I would rather have a choice. The same stuff would work as it does now. It's not like there are tons of manufacturers supporting all the various architectures out there. I mean, in theory you would still use your VIA micro-ITX Windows drivers under Linux.
The stuff that wouldn't work doesn't work in Windows anyway. So you would basically be in the same situation you're in now. I don't see the problem.
As I've said before, native drivers would start flowing if lots of users were using Linux. The manufacturers would still have to support other architectures, but they either do that or not, just like they do now. I don't think having Windows driver support in Linux would hurt the other architectures.
For one, I believe that much of the Windows driver API is an industry secret.
Nah, get a MSDN subscription (or just the DDK). Not everyone that writes drivers works for Microsoft. The device developers kit contains everything you need to know.
Second, people won't write Linux drivers anymore, and requests for native drivers will be responded with "You can just use the Windows drivers!"
Frankly, I don't see a problem with that. If it works, it works. You're still running Linux. When enough people start using Linux then they can create real native Linux drivers. It will happen, given enough time. You can't just expect a company to drop everything to support some niche market where they won't make money or will lose money. We need a bridge, even if only temporarily.
Third, Linux and Windows have very different driver models, meaning incompatibility and having to code it in bug-for-bug.
Bah, there are so many crappy, incomplete, or just plain missing Linux drivers. Something is better than nothing. I have not noticed any superiority of any Linux driver over its Windows conterpart. The nVidia drivers are sometimes a bit faster in Linux but guess what? Those are made by the manufacturer not some wannabe college student Linux programmer. Not all the time, but very often the best software is a result of someone getting paid to write it. It works because they simply must finish it or they will get fired (or not payed). Plus generally the management listens to the customers (the users), and stuff gets done (enhanced or fixed) because money is at stake.
Plus, how can you ensure that the Windows drivers won't trample over the Linux ones, or are you going to isolate them, reducing their effectiveness?
It's just code. It's not that terribly complicated except for the undocumented Microsoft crap, but believe it or not, drivers have well defined interfaces. That's how all those 3rd parties create Windows drivers in the first place.
However, an operating system kernel is not the place for untrusted code that depends on a lot of stuff working at the right time.
Um... whatever, you want to eliminate all binary drivers? Sorry, but that isn't going to happen. Linux will always be behind if it doesn't allow binary drivers. Companies have to make a living.
I want to second this opinion. One of my major problem areas with Linux has been the drivers or lack of.
I know the die-hards will nay-say this, but being able to use native Windows drivers would be absolutely great. Now, maybe you don't use MPlayer (and the other "native" driver apps) but there are a hell of a lot of us that do and love it. The same thing should be done for all drivers. Video, USB, firewire, PCI, whatever... Make it so we can use Windows drivers in Linux because there are way too many half-assed reverse engineered Linux drivers that just don't work right. I mean, when in the hell will my Wacom Intuos2 tablet finally work correctly?! (I this is not just a kernel problem but XFree too) Yes, yes, I know about those patches here and there, but try to get them to work with XFree 4.3 and kernel 2.6... Ain't gonna happen. Just let me use the Windows drivers please.
I don't give a crap about some utopian vison of Linux greatness because all manufacturers support Linux. It isn't happening any time soon and I have real work to do.
With that said, my #1 greatist wish for 2.7/8 would be to get the damn SBP2 Firewire drivers working correctly. Dammit, that thing has been broken since it was introduced. Nearly every time I boot my system I have to plug and unplug the firewire cable (sometimes several times) to get the devices reset and loaded properly so I can access them (I'm using kernel 2.6, but has always been broken like this). The read/write/timeout errors have gotten better but they still occur with large drives. I'm absolutely terrified that one day I'll have to fschk my 90 GB partition on my firewire drive again. The last couple times I had to do that it toasted the partition every time (I/O errors and timeouts).
Any intelligent developer would tie the invitee to the account that sent the invite.
If they notice a whole bunch of crap going on all they have to do it shut off that account and everyone who was invited by that account (and so on... if you think of the invitation chain as a tree). Damage control would be simple eh?
For better security, I would suggest automating the whole process a bit further, get out of the room and see the results when done... but may be I'm just paranoid...
Pffft, and you're the kind that never played with fireworks, right? "Safe" is relative and if you're careful you can push the boundaries.
Getting in your car and riding around is more dangerous since you're trusting other morons not to kill you.
These PowerStor 50F versions I have are around 1.5" tall and 0.75" in diameter. Very small for the capacity.
You can get them from places like Digi-Key and Mouser for pretty cheap. Fun stuff.
Aerogel is cool stuff. I've recently been experimenting with aerogel capacitors. These suckers can hold a huge amount of energy. Right in front of me I have two 2.5V 50-farad (yes farads, not microfarads) capacitors.
Fun for robotic projects and such. Many common devices are using super-capacitors like these. Those tiny remote control cars and those battery-free flashlights are a couple examples.
Some people use these small machines for more than just games. Duh...
For example, with a PCI slot you can make a nice MythTV box (a TiVo-like system if you're not in the know). This type of equipment begs to be made smaller and especially quieter. The USB video capture stuff really sucks compared to the PCI hardware and is better supported in alternative operating systems like Linux and BSD.
Plus there are a ton of users who only game occasionally and this box would have plenty of power (hell, DX8 is still supported).
I'd rather strike up a conversation on the stupidity of using an ATI chipset instead of nVidia.
I'm with you.
To be honest I liked STNG once it got going and watched most of the episodes. However, I've never watched a single re-run of any STNG episode.
DS9, Voyager, B5, Farsacpe, SG-1 all suck(ed) royally. I liked the SG movie but I don't like the series at all.
Believe it or not I think Enterprise is OK. I've seen most of the episodes. I mean, it's not the greatest thing ever but for some reason it's watchable (which is saying a lot since I hardly watch TV at all).
Meh, maybe I'm not nerdy enough to appreciate crappy TV.