Almost nobody programs assembler anymore so I wouldn't worry about that. Writing a few small to medium programs in C or understanding an contributing to an open source one is more than enough of that. Unless you are headed for something close to the metal I don't see that any more knowledge of C would be useful. Besides it is pretty darn simple as languages go.
If you are heading out to get a j-o-b then knowing Java, Python, Ruby and or C# is going to mean a lot more than C. What kind of job? Most of the jobs are either Java or C# numerically. But there are an increasing number of python jobs and a small number of Ruby jobs. If you ask mean both of those are a heck of a lot more fun to hack in. That aside what kind of programs, systems, environments charge you up? Tailor your skills for what you want instead of trying to make yourself a generic software shmoo.
If you are young then I think you should consider Paul Graham's advice on doing a startup rather than immediately become an employee.
A very inexpensive product, CrossOver Office, makes MS Office no big deal on Linux. The biggest advantages Apple has on the software side are beautiful and very quick graphics and that a lot of things just work, even in 64 bits, that are still a pain in Linux. To get flash you have to build a 32 bit stack and run Firefox in 32 bit. Some Java programs don't work right in 64 bits, especially their GUIs. Compiz on Linux apparently interferes with Java GUIs. Add to this that some OS X tools are dearly missed on Linux. On the flip side a lot of Linux goodness doesn't quite work with find or macports at least down on Leopard. This is my short list going back and forth between OS X and Linux.
So there is bad information on YouTube. So what? Only a fool depends on random heresy for important factual information. Are we to censor all information sources to protect fools? Are we to censor information sources to only those officially licensed to present the "proper" information? Tell the would be censors and busybody nannies exactly where to stuff it.
Almost nothing is encrypted in most internet communication. We the public don't seem to take our privacy very seriously much less have a real idea of what should be private and beyond government (and corporate) prying. We seem to have even less clear much less actionable notion of what should and should not be punishable or otherwise actionable by the government.
All of that said the most pro-freedom and pro-privacy candidate on principle is obviously Ron Paul.
There is no really good evidence that I am aware of that there is anything much too worry about as far as truly nano-sized particles per se. There was one ofter criticized study early on but not a lot else. So without much evidence of harm why does this keep coming up?
OK, I am embarrassed. They really didn't have much choice except to go out of business given both a fully legal (though it shouldn't be) court order and the fact that the users in question were foolish enough to make their private keys available. I should have read more before firing off. Mea culpa.
No. They should be sued into oblivion for clear breech of contract for starters. This is one of the most disgustingly slimey things I have seen in a while. Those that take privacy seriously, which should be all of us, were lied to by a company that was supposed to help. And don't give me that tired "well I have nothing to hide" bullshit. When the government and other busies make it their business to prohibit and/or punish a great number of activities that really are no one's business it behooves us as purportedly free people to limit access where we can.
Gore was right. The "internet superhighway" is just as if not even more important than the national superhighway system. It should be a national priority to insure high bandwidth broadband everywhere in the country and both wired and wireless. The boon to business, innovation, entertainment, communication, access to information and computational resources makes it more than worth it.
Why should the Linux Foundation be counseling respect for an organization that has for years smeared Linux at every opportunity and has stated that it considers F/OSS generally un-American? Microsoft has done and has stated it intends to keep doing all in its power to bring FOSS down wherever it can. Frankly I think the Foundation should be called to task for such a treasonous pronoucement.
Dear Luddite, The data is not with you. Test after test has dispelled the general myth that all pervasive radiation regardless of characteristics must be bad. If you have something more than general hand-wringing and whining about our fallible nature then please post it.
Both Suse and Redhat are slow and bloated in my experience compared to Ubuntu. And Ubuntu has a better user experience. I also find Sabayon of interest but I am not well versed in a Gentoo universe. Business users? What about the increasingly computer savvy masses? Most business users don't use Macs either but Apple isn't exactly suffering. What is wrong with a server based on Ubuntu? Most of us don't require much hand-holding support.
C++ and modern techniques like exception handling and RAII? Hahahaha. Do not expect any large scale good code in a krap language environment. If you want to see beautiful code then learn Lisp. The largest reason most projects of any size become code crap magnets is because there is far too little incentive and support to improve our tools.
This is exactly how the FCC should be expected to rule if it is so arrogant to rule on so broad a notion at all. Not because there is any real relevant security concern on the part of the FCC. There is a "security concern" that software radio in particular can make it hard for government and industrial bedfellows to protect their profits and control however. With a proliferation of software radio, especially at the hands of the prolific open source folks, things like cell phone lock in, relative scarcity of VOIP over wireless offerings and especially mass communication fully open to government spying could be very seriously threatened. There are powerful monetary and political interests at work here. It is not really being looked at or decided on technical merits at all. It is yet another brick in the wall being built and ever improved to shutdown any real empowerment of the people through the information revolution.
Do not get sidetracked into single issues. Remember to look for the pattern.
The thieving fiends who (US) take 60% minimum of everything and still put us $9 trillion (minimum) in debt now want to slap a tax on any old useful arrangement of bits in virtual worlds? These goons have no shame. Nail them to the wall.
Are they going to give the customers perfect keylogger detection and removal software? Without that all the firewalls and standard kruft in the world of "secure" computing is so much hot air. Of course many governments will object to that. Are they going to go through a rigorous and very public security audit of their own systems especially the ones with which they wish to snoop user computers? PGP level encryption and keylogger free systems would do wonders to making making and other transactions secure from crackers and all matter of legal snoops. Instead they want to tell the people what (probable business partner) software they must have on their boxes and even have free reign within your digital extension of your brain before they will deign to do business with you in a responsible manner.
First they said that it was to protect the financial well being of the artists. Some artists spoke up and said the greatest threat to their financial well-being is the record companies. Some decided to publish their work themselves. Some give it away for free. Now it isn't about protecting the artist but about protecting shops who sell musical information on old fashioned hard media in little boxes? Who owns these outlets? Can it be any more obvious that it is all about protecting the business model, practices and profits of the increasingly redundant an unneeding recording industry?
Idiot. 911 was an inside job. The evidence is too strong to believe much else creditably. It was about getting the green light to do whatever many parts of the government wanted in the Midddle East and about ever increasing control and erosion of freedom at home. The administration has even declared itself the power to arrest you or me with no trial or due process and claim we are foreign combatants strictly on its say so. And still you bleat that the bad old terrorist may get you if you don't lead them finish taking away every ounce of your freedom? I am disgusted by such gross stupidity and utter lack of any notion of what a free country is about.
This administration has wiped itself repeatedly with the Constitution. There is no Constitutional question involved. The Congress has every power it needs to call the Executive to task. The Executive has no right to refuse this request, especially when it concerns criminal acts on the part of the Executive.
Remember the good old days when we Congress was yelling to impeach Clinton over a bit of sex and a lie or two? Now we have a sitting President and Vice President who have repeatedly told Congress to go to hell and who have repeatedly said they will do and have done whatever they want with impunity. What the hell is wrong with this country? Why are we putting up with this?
It is typical that tools that might insure the busies don't dig into our brain extensions (computers) are cast mainly as a boon for criminals. Many of the tools described are a boon to those who insist on the right to be secure in their computer based effects. Many are a boon to those who insist on more cyber-freedom than many a State wants to allow.
Synaptics based trackpads such as in Apple laptops already track the difference between one and multiple fingers touching the pad. What is going to be really interesting to me is the multiple new GUI paradigms this makes possible. I have been hoping for touch screen and especially multi-touch to become the norm for a long time now.
Does anyone know if multi-touch in unencumbered enough to hack on? Are there good multi-touch screens or overlays available? I would love to play with the technology. I think it is going to be really big.
a) I don't expect to be tracked by items I purchase forever after purchase.
b) I don't want every song in my collection that might be shared (legally over say iTunes sharing) to contain my email addr;
c) If I paid extra for DRM free music I should be able to do whatever I want with it within the same bounds as ripping a song from a CD. That is what I thought I was paying extra for.
Bring on the Dark Nets. All of us who can help need to build out an alternate underground internet equivalent. The internet as is is all too eesy to subject to such surveillance and far worse. It is too easy to control the all important flow of open communication. The day will come when governments limit access and approved usage much more tightly. We need to be ready. We need to refuse to be controlled.
I don't know anybody that is remotely a geek who doesn't watch it and love it. BUT they put so much time between seasons it is easy to wander off. It is frustrating as hell. I would rather have the entire show done straight out than have to wait most of a year for the next season. A year is a really long time today.
"Linux is not Windows" DUH. So friggin what? The notion that an app in de facto owned by an OS is a wrong turn taken by we software folks a LONG time ago. A program could just be a program that runs on every OS there is or will be that implements a set of services. There could be a standard adapter or API to those services. Then we wouldn't be prattling about how this OS is not that OS except in terms of performance. I for one am sick of OS wars and OS ghettos.
No, that is not his point. Someone leaned on Dell about Wine or Dell leaned and Shuttleworth is finding an argument to roll over. It is flimsy as hell. Free software is about freedom not about some control freak deciding what you get. Wine is not Windows in the least. It is a way to ease the transition for a lot of folks that depend on some Windows apps and games to be productive or entertained. It has a perfectly legitimate and useful place particular with the ascendancy of the virtual machine. Another possible vector leading to this development is VMWare or someone is doing some leaning on. Of course they cannot stop you from running Wine. But this is a pointless snub of a highly viable and respected OS community.
Slashdot Mirror
Almost nobody programs assembler anymore so I wouldn't worry about that. Writing a few small to medium programs in C or understanding an contributing to an open source one is more than enough of that. Unless you are headed for something close to the metal I don't see that any more knowledge of C would be useful. Besides it is pretty darn simple as languages go.
If you are heading out to get a j-o-b then knowing Java, Python, Ruby and or C# is going to mean a lot more than C. What kind of job? Most of the jobs are either Java or C# numerically. But there are an increasing number of python jobs and a small number of Ruby jobs. If you ask mean both of those are a heck of a lot more fun to hack in. That aside what kind of programs, systems, environments charge you up? Tailor your skills for what you want instead of trying to make yourself a generic software shmoo.
If you are young then I think you should consider Paul Graham's advice on doing a startup rather than immediately become an employee.
A very inexpensive product, CrossOver Office, makes MS Office no big deal on Linux. The biggest advantages Apple has on the software side are beautiful and very quick graphics and that a lot of things just work, even in 64 bits, that are still a pain in Linux. To get flash you have to build a 32 bit stack and run Firefox in 32 bit. Some Java programs don't work right in 64 bits, especially their GUIs. Compiz on Linux apparently interferes with Java GUIs. Add to this that some OS X tools are dearly missed on Linux. On the flip side a lot of Linux goodness doesn't quite work with find or macports at least down on Leopard. This is my short list going back and forth between OS X and Linux.
So there is bad information on YouTube. So what? Only a fool depends on random heresy for important factual information. Are we to censor all information sources to protect fools? Are we to censor information sources to only those officially licensed to present the "proper" information? Tell the would be censors and busybody nannies exactly where to stuff it.
Almost nothing is encrypted in most internet communication. We the public don't seem to take our privacy very seriously much less have a real idea of what should be private and beyond government (and corporate) prying. We seem to have even less clear much less actionable notion of what should and should not be punishable or otherwise actionable by the government.
All of that said the most pro-freedom and pro-privacy candidate on principle is obviously Ron Paul.
There is no really good evidence that I am aware of that there is anything much too worry about as far as truly nano-sized particles per se. There was one ofter criticized study early on but not a lot else. So without much evidence of harm why does this keep coming up?
OK, I am embarrassed. They really didn't have much choice except to go out of business given both a fully legal (though it shouldn't be) court order and the fact that the users in question were foolish enough to make their private keys available. I should have read more before firing off. Mea culpa.
No. They should be sued into oblivion for clear breech of contract for starters. This is one of the most disgustingly slimey things I have seen in a while. Those that take privacy seriously, which should be all of us, were lied to by a company that was supposed to help. And don't give me that tired "well I have nothing to hide" bullshit. When the government and other busies make it their business to prohibit and/or punish a great number of activities that really are no one's business it behooves us as purportedly free people to limit access where we can.
Gore was right. The "internet superhighway" is just as if not even more important than the national superhighway system. It should be a national priority to insure high bandwidth broadband everywhere in the country and both wired and wireless. The boon to business, innovation, entertainment, communication, access to information and computational resources makes it more than worth it.
Why should the Linux Foundation be counseling respect for an organization that has for years smeared Linux at every opportunity and has stated that it considers F/OSS generally un-American? Microsoft has done and has stated it intends to keep doing all in its power to bring FOSS down wherever it can. Frankly I think the Foundation should be called to task for such a treasonous pronoucement.
Dear Luddite,
The data is not with you. Test after test has dispelled the general myth that all pervasive radiation regardless of characteristics must be bad. If you have something more than general hand-wringing and whining about our fallible nature then please post it.
Both Suse and Redhat are slow and bloated in my experience compared to Ubuntu. And Ubuntu has a better user experience. I also find Sabayon of interest but I am not well versed in a Gentoo universe. Business users? What about the increasingly computer savvy masses? Most business users don't use Macs either but Apple isn't exactly suffering. What is wrong with a server based on Ubuntu? Most of us don't require much hand-holding support.
C++ and modern techniques like exception handling and RAII? Hahahaha. Do not expect any large scale good code in a krap language environment. If you want to see beautiful code then learn Lisp. The largest reason most projects of any size become code crap magnets is because there is far too little incentive and support to improve our tools.
This is exactly how the FCC should be expected to rule if it is so arrogant to rule on so broad a notion at all. Not because there is any real relevant security concern on the part of the FCC. There is a "security concern" that software radio in particular can make it hard for government and industrial bedfellows to protect their profits and control however. With a proliferation of software radio, especially at the hands of the prolific open source folks, things like cell phone lock in, relative scarcity of VOIP over wireless offerings and especially mass communication fully open to government spying could be very seriously threatened. There are powerful monetary and political interests at work here. It is not really being looked at or decided on technical merits at all. It is yet another brick in the wall being built and ever improved to shutdown any real empowerment of the people through the information revolution.
Do not get sidetracked into single issues. Remember to look for the pattern.
The thieving fiends who (US) take 60% minimum of everything and still put us $9 trillion (minimum) in debt now want to slap a tax on any old useful arrangement of bits in virtual worlds? These goons have no shame. Nail them to the wall.
Are they going to give the customers perfect keylogger detection and removal software? Without that all the firewalls and standard kruft in the world of "secure" computing is so much hot air. Of course many governments will object to that. Are they going to go through a rigorous and very public security audit of their own systems especially the ones with which they wish to snoop user computers? PGP level encryption and keylogger free systems would do wonders to making making and other transactions secure from crackers and all matter of legal snoops. Instead they want to tell the people what (probable business partner) software they must have on their boxes and even have free reign within your digital extension of your brain before they will deign to do business with you in a responsible manner.
First they said that it was to protect the financial well being of the artists.
Some artists spoke up and said the greatest threat to their financial well-being is the record companies. Some decided to publish their work themselves. Some give it away for free. Now it isn't about protecting the artist but about protecting shops who sell musical information on old fashioned hard media in little boxes? Who owns these outlets? Can it be any more obvious that it is all about protecting the business model, practices and profits of the increasingly redundant an unneeding recording industry?
Idiot. 911 was an inside job. The evidence is too strong to believe much else creditably. It was about getting the green light to do whatever many parts of the government wanted in the Midddle East and about ever increasing control and erosion of freedom at home. The administration has even declared itself the power to arrest you or me with no trial or due process and claim we are foreign combatants strictly on its say so. And still you bleat that the bad old terrorist may get you if you don't lead them finish taking away every ounce of your freedom? I am disgusted by such gross stupidity and utter lack of any notion of what a free country is about.
This administration has wiped itself repeatedly with the Constitution. There is no Constitutional question involved. The Congress has every power it needs to call the Executive to task. The Executive has no right to refuse this request, especially when it concerns criminal acts on the part of the Executive.
Remember the good old days when we Congress was yelling to impeach Clinton over a bit of sex and a lie or two? Now we have a sitting President and Vice President who have repeatedly told Congress to go to hell and who have repeatedly said they will do and have done whatever they want with impunity. What the hell is wrong with this country? Why are we putting up with this?
It is typical that tools that might insure the busies don't dig into our brain extensions (computers) are cast mainly as a boon for criminals. Many of the tools described are a boon to those who insist on the right to be secure in their computer based effects. Many are a boon to those who insist on more cyber-freedom than many a State wants to allow.
Synaptics based trackpads such as in Apple laptops already track the difference between one and multiple fingers touching the pad. What is going to be really interesting to me is the multiple new GUI paradigms this makes possible. I have been hoping for touch screen and especially multi-touch to become the norm for a long time now.
Does anyone know if multi-touch in unencumbered enough to hack on? Are there good multi-touch screens or overlays available? I would love to play with the technology. I think it is going to be really big.
- samantha
a) I don't expect to be tracked by items I purchase forever after purchase.
b) I don't want every song in my collection that might be shared (legally over say iTunes sharing) to contain my email addr;
c) If I paid extra for DRM free music I should be able to do whatever I want with it within the same bounds as ripping a song from a CD. That is what I thought I was paying extra for.
Bring on the Dark Nets. All of us who can help need to build out an alternate underground internet equivalent. The internet as is is all too eesy to subject to such surveillance and far worse. It is too easy to control the all important flow of open communication. The day will come when governments limit access and approved usage much more tightly. We need to be ready. We need to refuse to be controlled.
I don't know anybody that is remotely a geek who doesn't watch it and love it. BUT they put so much time between seasons it is easy to wander off. It is frustrating as hell. I would rather have the entire show done straight out than have to wait most of a year for the next season. A year is a really long time today.
"Linux is not Windows" DUH. So friggin what? The notion that an app in de facto owned by an OS is a wrong turn taken by we software folks a LONG time ago. A program could just be a program that runs on every OS there is or will be that implements a set of services. There could be a standard adapter or API to those services. Then we wouldn't be prattling about how this OS is not that OS except in terms of performance. I for one am sick of OS wars and OS ghettos.
No, that is not his point. Someone leaned on Dell about Wine or Dell leaned and Shuttleworth is finding an argument to roll over. It is flimsy as hell. Free software is about freedom not about some control freak deciding what you get. Wine is not Windows in the least. It is a way to ease the transition for a lot of folks that depend on some Windows apps and games to be productive or entertained. It has a perfectly legitimate and useful place particular with the ascendancy of the virtual machine. Another possible vector leading to this development is VMWare or someone is doing some leaning on. Of course they cannot stop you from running Wine. But this is a pointless snub of a highly viable and respected OS community.