What about a shop that purchases a couple support Red Hat subscriptions, one for each of their hardware architectures, and then runs CentOS on the dozens or hundreds of similar servers sitting in the same server room? These shops leverage their single subscription to get technical support with all their servers, at a fraction of the "legitimate" price.
I would additionally recommend looking at the discussion of that page, where the neutrality of the article is disputed.
"The content of this article is far from random-- It is deliberate propaganda. The Bible-Bangers who control this article have decided that the purpose of this page is to argue that the Dark Ages weren't really all that dark, because Christian beliefs were widespread."
While what you said is true, the fact in question is where is the largest economy, which is the EU. I linked to the Wikipedia article that backs up this fact.
An Urban Myth??? Listen, Try searching Adobe's support forum instead. Once there, you will quickly see that Flash Player is not supported under Windows or Linux 64-bit operating systems. Any hack you do in order to wedge it into functionality does not make it a supported solution. I can run old Amiga applications through an emulator program, but I don't run around saying that Amiga applications not running on x86 hardware is an Urban Myth!
There is still a question on keeping a power supply for tens-of-thousands of years, even if humans somehow transfer themselves and become sentient circuit boards.
> Travelling to other stars is possible with current technology, but the real question is economic.
You've responded to my comment with a contradictory statement, yet offer no rebuttal. The question is economic? What about the question of sustaining power / sustaining human life for thousands of years. And where did you get the idea that it will only take 100-1000 years to get to the nearest Earth-like planet? I gave some calculations in my comments that it would take 40,000 to 50,000 years, but you're saying it will take 100-1000 just as a matter of fact.
Any "off site backup" would need to survive during the duration of time which the Earth is unlivable. That's thousands of years with nuclear or meteoric devastation. Do not hope a simple dome on Mars which needs supplies from Earth can hold up any longer than the poor, doomed Earthlings.
Is the 640k or the other analogies really fair? One is a limitation of physics, the very real limit of the speed of light, and the others are limits of the imagination. It is not conceivable we could build near light speed ships, since it requires a whole new science of physics. Without NLS ships, you have a tens-of-thousand year voyage across an absolute void - no power - nothing - that you leave out from your galactic colonization plans.
Yeap -- right there with you. Set up self-sustaining arcs, like the ISS, except much much further away? We already have got to send supplies up to the ISS every three or four months, now imagine doing the same thing out to Mars.... Away from the magnetic shield that repels most of the Sun's radiation and 50-100 million km away.
I'm all for space exploration -- but we are doing a great job with robotic probes! Let's continue research and make them fully autonomous. We can send up hundreds more for the price we'll pay for one manned mission.
Thank you for posting one intelligent post in the discussion. What no one seems to grasp, possibly because of television shows like Star Trek, are the fantastic times required for reaching even our nearest nearby star, obviously besides our Sun. Beyond the Centauri cluster, the scale of time required get longer almost exponentially. All these arguments whether it is worthwhile to travel to other solar systems, yet no one is asking whether it is even physically possible. It's not. I wrote up my comments the last time this inane topic was raised, just a couple weeks ago. I'll summarize in saying: 50,000 years is a long time. Even your hope that an electronic device could one day make the trip is questionable, but at least it is not a physically impossible goal like putting together a self-sustaining arc capable of supporting humans. Step away from the fantasy books, guys, and spend a few minutes punching some numbers on a calculator.
This is going to have far reaching imprecations, in America. Other state-level IT departments will point to this when they rationalize why they will stick with Microsoft formats, specifically the open-format advocate getting sacked. For file formats or any other technology, no state or federal IT employee is going to risk termination, since they likely chose a government position for health benefits or career longevity. Technology decision makers will assume that since an open initiative was not able to be pushed through there, in the backyard of MIT, Richard Stallman, EFF organization and FSF organization, that there's no way it is going to get pushed through in their own community.
The issue at hand is the promotion of space projects. Space geeks can agree that a expansion of space exploration would be a good thing, the question is the path to get there. In one camp, you have the "First Steps" people who have a romantic notion that someone must be physically present to plant their foot into the ice/dust/rocks. They often justify this with the "first steps to the stars", a refrain I hear more and more these days. These weasel-words compose a phrase that turns my stomach. These "first human steps" people are living in the past and/or a science fiction novel because they are ignoring today's science, in keeping with their 1960s notions.
People need to get their heads around the fact that (A) humans are never getting out of the solar system, and (B) humans are not going to use other planets around us as a genesis of new intergalactic civilization.
We have this one Earth and when it is dead, so are we.
Consider: (i) Right now we cannot generate a self-sustaining, enclosed bio-sphere colony even on Earth, where resources are available to set perfect conditions. (ii) Our fastest probe, using planetary catapulting (obtaining our fastest realistic speeds), would take 40,000-50,000 years to get to our nearest neighboring star. Theoretical Near Light Speed ships are nice in theory but they do not hold up in practice. (iii) No energy source is going to survive for the duration of time required for the flight to another star. How will the human crew survive thousands of years (assuming travel reduced to a fraction of current practical time)? (iv) Putting a colony on any planet or moon is equivalent to building the Space Station much, much further away. The colony will still require the same cargo rotation from Earth. (v) While iv. is debatable, it is less debatable that any terrible thing that happens to Earth will likely result in other colonies perishing as well, especially considering how long before the Earth is habitable again.
So, while we have a culture of space geeks hoping for indications that we're headed toward a Buck Rogers & Star Trek future, they are overlooking the real potentials of robotic exploration that is based on science fact. For example, the USA deciding they will focus on putting men on the Mars, while their robotics explorers of Mars are already proven, is about as frustrating as seeing the US Department of Energy decide to invest in fuel-cells and Ethanol for cars when solar and hybrid technology is proving itself in the field. It is frustrating to see one proven technology not being perfected, while a less viable option is pursued.
No, it's not a zero-sum game, but the "hard" science fiction fans have never seen eye-to-eye with the "fantasy" science fiction fans anyway, even though there are a lot of books out there! Sometimes you just have to call a duck a duck when you see it.
Actually, it seems to be very much in line with how the American language has developed in the last 200-250 years. Abbreviations of common words have been the way things were written especially in colonial days. Mr. Benjamin Franklin was even a strong supporter of the time savings of abbreviation, and he spends a good section of his autobiography discussing the topic.
I won't dispute whether you find it irritating or who might agree with you, but what he is doing is not unlike what many have attempted to do before him. Not only was it common in American history, but we continue to use many of those shortcuts today. What's the reason you don't object to IBM corp., or RMS from MA? Do you have a B.A. in CS from UCLA or something? You'd best talk to Senator Joseph A. Smith (R-Minn.).
Imagine if were an area where Linux user groups could work hand-in-hand with Microsoft: Turning the screws on local business by strengthening software copyright and by enforcing laws against illegal software distribution.
Companies who compare Linux to pirated Windows look at the cost: $0 to $0, having the source code likely does not factor into the equation. But, when Microsoft users are forced off pirated Microsoft products, Linux advocates can accept these Window refugees with open arms, thus expanding the Linux operating system market.
With stricter the copy protection enforcement, the more popular Free Software solutions. Take a look at those "ClusrMaps" applets found on some websites. For example, there is more interest in Linux websites from Spain than Mexico. Why? They both speak the same language, they both have similar GDPs... but I suspect there are tighter controls on software piracy in Spain than Mexico. Note: The GDP per person is much higher in Spain. Yes, this could be a factor. It is hard to say for sure, because the level of wealth and the level of piracy seems proportional, so how can you say whether it is one or the other. Even so, you would think those who could afford computers would be making these same decisions.
I see what you are saying. In the past, powerful corporations might say, "We cannot do actions that might put us in a poor light, because public opinion would turn against us." Now, they can instead measure public opinion closely and watch web-trends based on RSS keywords. They can measure their actions by the result of the "blogosphere" and then gauge their next nefarious action accordingly.
In reality, however, I think the common practice of spider-intelligence-gathering is simply another tool for marketing departments. They measure what trends are rising and what trends are ebbing, in near real-time. Plus, they can measure the "buzz" regarding their products, again in near real-time.
Like any new technology, there are circumstances when it will be used for ill, but mostly it will simply be used to make us all more efficient. The hardest part is just getting our minds wrapped around all the new possibilities!
Linux's 64-bit support isn't up to much either. Whatever OS you use, experimenting with 64-bit is a trail of tears, and of no use to most users.
This is very much untrue, as I can attest. I have been running a 64-bit OS since 2003, and it runs like a dream. I can't address all the technical reasons why, but I can say that I have no 32-bit libraries and I'm up and running. No tears here.
Classic "short-term / long-term" distraction argument. Why worry about preparing for the future, when there is something other bad happening right now?
The answer is: If we postpone improvements until there is no killing or until there is religious harmony, then we would never do anything.
A computer beating a 5-den would be a huge accomplishment for computational AI.
Other successes in chess and checkers, only prove the improvements in memory and CPU. While there are technical challenges, computers are simply using brute force in calculating every possible move to find every path to victory.
To use brute force a win against a 5-den, we will either need much, much more powerful computers than present, or (more significantly) computer algorithms with insight into spacial concepts that humans take for granted.
Don't be so easily discouraged. You're better off asking for help in a more private forum, since people are sensitive about getting shown up here on Slashdot. There are some distributions with "LiveCDs" where you throw a disk into your computer, reboot, and take Linux for a test spin. Ubuntu is built from the ground-up for new users, like yourself. Give it a shot. You've got nothing to lose, because you just eject the CD-ROM, reboot, and you're back in Windows (operating system untouched).
A whole article on statistics, yet no where does it say what is the confidence level. Is the percent error +/- 10% ? If so, then this is a bogus story. Since it doesn't bother to even say, then this reporting is rubbish. Where's your love for mathematics, Slashdot editors?
His timing could not have been better, since Roswell is hosting the 60th anniversary of the crash in a couple months! That's right, folks, UFO theories may have died down due to the Internet, but with these new, unprovable sources, you'll want to come right down to the heart of it. Visit the International UFO Museum Center there, and be sure to stay at the "Little A'Le'Inn". Folks, bring the kids because they eat free Crash Site Cafe. That's highway forty, folks, exit Yakima Road. Bring your wallets!
Agreed! What a turn of perspective from Slashdot. So, is this action an indication of a more general trend? Sorry, but it appears I left my mod points in my other jacket.
Slashdot Mirror
She's laughing because of nervousness. What you are saying is racist and degrading to her.
What about a shop that purchases a couple support Red Hat subscriptions, one for each of their hardware architectures, and then runs CentOS on the dozens or hundreds of similar servers sitting in the same server room? These shops leverage their single subscription to get technical support with all their servers, at a fraction of the "legitimate" price.
I would additionally recommend looking at the discussion of that page, where the neutrality of the article is disputed.
"The content of this article is far from random-- It is deliberate propaganda. The Bible-Bangers who control this article have decided that the purpose of this page is to argue that the Dark Ages weren't really all that dark, because Christian beliefs were widespread."
> Noob! How could you ignore Natalie Portman and Petrification?
He must have been pouring hot grits down his pants to forget those.
> United States is a country by itself.
While what you said is true, the fact in question is where is the largest economy, which is the EU. I linked to the Wikipedia article that backs up this fact.
> Sure, Americans work crazily hard but the United States is the world's strongest economy.
Sorry, actually the European Union has been the world's strongest economy, since it's inception.
An Urban Myth??? Listen, Try searching Adobe's support forum instead. Once there, you will quickly see that Flash Player is not supported under Windows or Linux 64-bit operating systems. Any hack you do in order to wedge it into functionality does not make it a supported solution. I can run old Amiga applications through an emulator program, but I don't run around saying that Amiga applications not running on x86 hardware is an Urban Myth!
There is still a question on keeping a power supply for tens-of-thousands of years, even if humans somehow transfer themselves and become sentient circuit boards.
> Travelling to other stars is possible with current technology, but the real question is economic.
You've responded to my comment with a contradictory statement, yet offer no rebuttal. The question is economic? What about the question of sustaining power / sustaining human life for thousands of years. And where did you get the idea that it will only take 100-1000 years to get to the nearest Earth-like planet? I gave some calculations in my comments that it would take 40,000 to 50,000 years, but you're saying it will take 100-1000 just as a matter of fact.
Any "off site backup" would need to survive during the duration of time which the Earth is unlivable. That's thousands of years with nuclear or meteoric devastation. Do not hope a simple dome on Mars which needs supplies from Earth can hold up any longer than the poor, doomed Earthlings.
Is the 640k or the other analogies really fair? One is a limitation of physics, the very real limit of the speed of light, and the others are limits of the imagination. It is not conceivable we could build near light speed ships, since it requires a whole new science of physics. Without NLS ships, you have a tens-of-thousand year voyage across an absolute void - no power - nothing - that you leave out from your galactic colonization plans.
Yeap -- right there with you. Set up self-sustaining arcs, like the ISS, except much much further away? We already have got to send supplies up to the ISS every three or four months, now imagine doing the same thing out to Mars. ... Away from the magnetic shield that repels most of the Sun's radiation and 50-100 million km away.
I'm all for space exploration -- but we are doing a great job with robotic probes! Let's continue research and make them fully autonomous. We can send up hundreds more for the price we'll pay for one manned mission.
Thank you for posting one intelligent post in the discussion. What no one seems to grasp, possibly because of television shows like Star Trek, are the fantastic times required for reaching even our nearest nearby star, obviously besides our Sun. Beyond the Centauri cluster, the scale of time required get longer almost exponentially. All these arguments whether it is worthwhile to travel to other solar systems, yet no one is asking whether it is even physically possible. It's not. I wrote up my comments the last time this inane topic was raised, just a couple weeks ago. I'll summarize in saying: 50,000 years is a long time. Even your hope that an electronic device could one day make the trip is questionable, but at least it is not a physically impossible goal like putting together a self-sustaining arc capable of supporting humans. Step away from the fantasy books, guys, and spend a few minutes punching some numbers on a calculator.
This is going to have far reaching imprecations, in America. Other state-level IT departments will point to this when they rationalize why they will stick with Microsoft formats, specifically the open-format advocate getting sacked. For file formats or any other technology, no state or federal IT employee is going to risk termination, since they likely chose a government position for health benefits or career longevity. Technology decision makers will assume that since an open initiative was not able to be pushed through there, in the backyard of MIT, Richard Stallman, EFF organization and FSF organization, that there's no way it is going to get pushed through in their own community.
The issue at hand is the promotion of space projects. Space geeks can agree that a expansion of space exploration would be a good thing, the question is the path to get there. In one camp, you have the "First Steps" people who have a romantic notion that someone must be physically present to plant their foot into the ice/dust/rocks. They often justify this with the "first steps to the stars", a refrain I hear more and more these days. These weasel-words compose a phrase that turns my stomach. These "first human steps" people are living in the past and/or a science fiction novel because they are ignoring today's science, in keeping with their 1960s notions.
People need to get their heads around the fact that (A) humans are never getting out of the solar system, and (B) humans are not going to use other planets around us as a genesis of new intergalactic civilization.
We have this one Earth and when it is dead, so are we.
Consider: (i) Right now we cannot generate a self-sustaining, enclosed bio-sphere colony even on Earth, where resources are available to set perfect conditions. (ii) Our fastest probe, using planetary catapulting (obtaining our fastest realistic speeds), would take 40,000-50,000 years to get to our nearest neighboring star. Theoretical Near Light Speed ships are nice in theory but they do not hold up in practice. (iii) No energy source is going to survive for the duration of time required for the flight to another star. How will the human crew survive thousands of years (assuming travel reduced to a fraction of current practical time)? (iv) Putting a colony on any planet or moon is equivalent to building the Space Station much, much further away. The colony will still require the same cargo rotation from Earth. (v) While iv. is debatable, it is less debatable that any terrible thing that happens to Earth will likely result in other colonies perishing as well, especially considering how long before the Earth is habitable again.
So, while we have a culture of space geeks hoping for indications that we're headed toward a Buck Rogers & Star Trek future, they are overlooking the real potentials of robotic exploration that is based on science fact. For example, the USA deciding they will focus on putting men on the Mars, while their robotics explorers of Mars are already proven, is about as frustrating as seeing the US Department of Energy decide to invest in fuel-cells and Ethanol for cars when solar and hybrid technology is proving itself in the field. It is frustrating to see one proven technology not being perfected, while a less viable option is pursued.
No, it's not a zero-sum game, but the "hard" science fiction fans have never seen eye-to-eye with the "fantasy" science fiction fans anyway, even though there are a lot of books out there! Sometimes you just have to call a duck a duck when you see it.
Actually, it seems to be very much in line with how the American language has developed in the last 200-250 years. Abbreviations of common words have been the way things were written especially in colonial days. Mr. Benjamin Franklin was even a strong supporter of the time savings of abbreviation, and he spends a good section of his autobiography discussing the topic.
I won't dispute whether you find it irritating or who might agree with you, but what he is doing is not unlike what many have attempted to do before him. Not only was it common in American history, but we continue to use many of those shortcuts today. What's the reason you don't object to IBM corp., or RMS from MA? Do you have a B.A. in CS from UCLA or something? You'd best talk to Senator Joseph A. Smith (R-Minn.).
Imagine if were an area where Linux user groups could work hand-in-hand with Microsoft: Turning the screws on local business by strengthening software copyright and by enforcing laws against illegal software distribution.
Companies who compare Linux to pirated Windows look at the cost: $0 to $0, having the source code likely does not factor into the equation. But, when Microsoft users are forced off pirated Microsoft products, Linux advocates can accept these Window refugees with open arms, thus expanding the Linux operating system market.
With stricter the copy protection enforcement, the more popular Free Software solutions. Take a look at those "ClusrMaps" applets found on some websites. For example, there is more interest in Linux websites from Spain than Mexico. Why? They both speak the same language, they both have similar GDPs... but I suspect there are tighter controls on software piracy in Spain than Mexico. Note: The GDP per person is much higher in Spain. Yes, this could be a factor. It is hard to say for sure, because the level of wealth and the level of piracy seems proportional, so how can you say whether it is one or the other. Even so, you would think those who could afford computers would be making these same decisions.
I see what you are saying. In the past, powerful corporations might say, "We cannot do actions that might put us in a poor light, because public opinion would turn against us." Now, they can instead measure public opinion closely and watch web-trends based on RSS keywords. They can measure their actions by the result of the "blogosphere" and then gauge their next nefarious action accordingly.
In reality, however, I think the common practice of spider-intelligence-gathering is simply another tool for marketing departments. They measure what trends are rising and what trends are ebbing, in near real-time. Plus, they can measure the "buzz" regarding their products, again in near real-time.
Like any new technology, there are circumstances when it will be used for ill, but mostly it will simply be used to make us all more efficient. The hardest part is just getting our minds wrapped around all the new possibilities!
This is very much untrue, as I can attest. I have been running a 64-bit OS since 2003, and it runs like a dream. I can't address all the technical reasons why, but I can say that I have no 32-bit libraries and I'm up and running. No tears here.
Classic "short-term / long-term" distraction argument. Why worry about preparing for the future, when there is something other bad happening right now?
The answer is: If we postpone improvements until there is no killing or until there is religious harmony, then we would never do anything.
A computer beating a 5-den would be a huge accomplishment for computational AI.
Other successes in chess and checkers, only prove the improvements in memory and CPU. While there are technical challenges, computers are simply using brute force in calculating every possible move to find every path to victory.
To use brute force a win against a 5-den, we will either need much, much more powerful computers than present, or (more significantly) computer algorithms with insight into spacial concepts that humans take for granted.
Don't be so easily discouraged. You're better off asking for help in a more private forum, since people are sensitive about getting shown up here on Slashdot. There are some distributions with "LiveCDs" where you throw a disk into your computer, reboot, and take Linux for a test spin. Ubuntu is built from the ground-up for new users, like yourself. Give it a shot. You've got nothing to lose, because you just eject the CD-ROM, reboot, and you're back in Windows (operating system untouched).
A whole article on statistics, yet no where does it say what is the confidence level. Is the percent error +/- 10% ? If so, then this is a bogus story. Since it doesn't bother to even say, then this reporting is rubbish. Where's your love for mathematics, Slashdot editors?
His timing could not have been better, since Roswell is hosting the 60th anniversary of the crash in a couple months! That's right, folks, UFO theories may have died down due to the Internet, but with these new, unprovable sources, you'll want to come right down to the heart of it. Visit the International UFO Museum Center there, and be sure to stay at the "Little A'Le'Inn". Folks, bring the kids because they eat free Crash Site Cafe. That's highway forty, folks, exit Yakima Road. Bring your wallets!
Agreed! What a turn of perspective from Slashdot.
So, is this action an indication of a more general trend?
Sorry, but it appears I left my mod points in my other jacket.