Good points, but I still think that open source suffers because of the lack of a economic model that fits application developers.
Open source is good for the big dogs ("cloud", "enterprise") - not so good for the garage guys. I think the status quo will self-correct if the economic incentive can be tilted.
How about an open source license that only allows distribution to other license holders?
I've found a bunch of useful software there that has been abandoned and not been moved to Github.
Why shut it down? They could've made one guy have a part time job watching over it, and kept the stuff running on Azure.
Considering all the technology Facebook has accrued directly and through partners a phone with a lot of nice features should be possible for them to implement. It's also a logical next step. Phones are social nodes in themselves, and mapping the Facebook 'world-in-a-world' onto this should be possible.
It could even be data-only if they wanted to (wifi/data traffic), but I don't think they would take it that far.
Technology mapping from the Facebook's technology chest to the mobile:
Text messaging - Replaced/complemented by Facebook Messenger
Audio chat - Integrated Skype version
Video chat - Integrated Skype version (Technology now in the hands of MS/Skype. Apple has shown us that this is feasible)
Group video chat / audio chat - Integrated Skype version.
Status of your friends reflected on your phone (Eg. approx. location, busy, last locations visited).
Contact list - Facebook friends.
I believe Google can do a lot of damage if the data they've been collecting somehow got in the wrong hands. For the public Google is a black box: You really don't know how much of what you put in, stay in.
Relevant quote:
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."
I've been following Linux' progress since Slackware 7.1.
Sometimes on the sideline (using Windows), sometimes on the court (using Linux).
Now I've hit the tipping point: A KDE desktop running on Debian is what I use all day.
There is only so much one can progress (when it comes to knowledge and efficiency) using Windows. A comparison I would like to make is that Windows is like duplo lego, while Linux is like technic lego. The console in Linux is really powerful, giving me the abilities to do far more than would've been possible using a simple Windows system.
Want a image of that disk?
Windows: Shell out cash for Norton Ghost.
Linux: dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/home/sokk/backup.img
Want to reliably copy your system from one disk to another?
Windows: Reinstall everything, copy documents from old install.
Linux: rsync the old root filesystem to the new disk. Change some settings in/etc/fstab and/boot/grub/. Run grub-install/dev/newdisk/
Found a bug?
Windows: Send a bug report to the software company. Hope that the bug gets fixed. If not, you're out of luck.
Linux: Send bug to maintainer. Is it unmaintained software? hire someone to do it, or do it yourself.
(Microsoft has acknowledged that the lack of a useful shell is a weak spot in the Windows family, by creating a new "Powershell" for their operating system).
Anyways, preaching to the choir here.
A couple of years ago I crossed my fingers and hoped that Mozilla (early alpha) wouldn't crash when opening a page. Even if it opened, it could look like shit, or don't work at all. Now every single page works in Firefox for me.. The only problem I have is 1% of the pages don't look good in Konqueror.
Developing software in Linux is a breeze, with hundreds of shoulders to stand on. Instead of reinventing or rewriting code, you can probably find a free library to do it, cutting development time dramatically down! Want to write a torrent client? Use the libtorrent, and focus on the part you don't like about the other clients (eg. UI).
I think I would have withdrawal symptoms if I went back to the old Windows desktop now. I would miss Amarok (excellent music player), the extensible kde desktop, scripting. The ability to look at the source code of applications, and fix bugs if they should present themselves.
The near future looks bright. (Stable) OpenGL accelerated desktops (on even the low-end cards), open source java (hopefully it will get integrated into the desktops, so that it doesn't feel alien/out of place like it does now), KDE 4.. More and more people using Linux (thanks to Ubuntu, even though I can't stand Ubuntu myself), thereby getting the ball rolling.
Uh, Microwave ovens, 1938 developed with no thought of war.
Jet engines, also in the 30's developed in Britain (and other places)
Get your facts str8 moron.
Under "A Brief History of the Microwave Oven"
Like many of today's great inventions, the microwave oven was a by-product of another technology. It was during a radar-related research project around 1946 that Dr. Percy Spencer, a self-taught engineer with the Raytheon Corporation, noticed something very unusual. He was testing a new vacuum tube called a magnetron (we are searching for a picture of an actual 1946 magnetron), when he discovered that the candy bar in his pocket had melted. This intrigued Dr. Spencer, so he tried another experiment. This time he placed some popcorn kernels near the tube and, perhaps standing a little farther away, he watched with an inventive sparkle in his eye as the popcorn sputtered, cracked and popped all over his lab
Wikipedia: Atomic weapons, jet aircraft, and RADAR are only a few of many war-time inventions.
World War 2 brought along radar, jet, microwaves and atomic bombs - probably much more and early computers. All in five years. That's a lot of progress. What if WW2 never happened, how would our life been?
So what I wonder: Isn't it strange that wartime is the best time for scientific progress? Do we really need war to focus our minds and resources in this way?
I should probably have mentioned that I've bought Half-life 2 myself. A great game.
I also own Half-Life 1. The people who bought Half-Life 1 didn't know about Steam at time of purchase. I believe that the old multiplayer network (WON?) is down as well. So they are in a sense punishing you (dollar-wise) if they ban your Half-Life 1 account/serial; just because you couldn't resist the temptation of waiting for a download, waiting for your monthly pay or whatever.
So in that sense: You don't own your games, because you never know if they'll ban you for some obscure action. Eg. I hate that I have to put the Half-Life 2 DVD in everytime I want to play. If I use a no-cd crack, and that causes a ban of all my games from Valve. That would surely piss me off.
I'm not saying they will, I'm just entertaining a thought here.
I'm not filled in with the details of this particular mass-ban, but does this mean that someone who legally owns eg. Half-Life 1 won't be able to play it on the net anymore.
I'm starting to see problems with this Steam technology: When you connect multiple games to a "profile", and they ban _all_ your games because of something.. then something is wrong. They can't say: "Well, we know you've paid us a great deal of money for our earlier games. But we don't give a fuck, and we will punish you by banning you from your old games". Can they?
When I got on the internet for the first time I was on dial-up. It cost money to stay on the net. My first thought was to download as much as I could, so that I could use it when I needed it (Downloading whole sites for offline viewing pleasure. Eg. Code sample archives).
I felt that way about programs too. I had to download them to my computer. I burned them out and archived them, just in case I would need them for a reinstall or for a friend.
Nowadays I seldom keep the installation program of applications. Why? Because I know they're out there. I can get them at a moments notice. How come? I've got a broadband connection now.
This is how I feel the next generation file sharing will become. Currently everyone is downloading everything. To have it handy. To use it. It doesn't need to be like that. I don't yet know how the technical solutions will be (if they ever will).
Imagine: A world wide archive of music at your fingertips. You don't have (much) of it at your hard drive, because it's accessible through the net. You have your favorite music "bookmarked" to make your collection. Music playback is instantly - because of the evolution of the speed of the net, and the evolution of the file sharing technology.
You won't have to think about "the files" as files. You think of them as entities. Always accessible.
You'll (as mentioned) probably have to keep a part of the world wide collection at your hard drive. (If it can't be stored at the net, always flowing).
Well, some of my thoughts.:). I know it's pretty far out, but it would've been neat. Any thougts?
It doesn't seem to like Netlimiter. It won't install. Too bad. I won't uninstall Netlimiter just because Google's Search Tool doesn't like it.
If I remember correctly Altavista put out something like this in their golden years? Let's not hope Google won't go down the drain (I hate hitting "google farms", and I do that too often). Focus Google.. I'm sure Clusty and AllTheWeb would like a share of the market, and if you don't fix your primary service (your beloved search engine) - you'll probably fade away.
I suppose they do this so that developers can deploy their new apps (based on Avalon and Indigo) on the XP platform as well. It makes sense - and will give a more rapid transistion. (Instead of waiting for Longhorn to get the marketshare needed to have custom Avalon/Indigo-apps written for it).
But what do I know?;)
(The color theme for it.slashdot.org needs a revision btw)
I've always used the J button to select a file in Winamps playlist. If this could be implemented into the browser (Ctrl-J) or something, then filtering the bookmarks would be an easy task.
It's all in the packaging. They make the free software accessible for the (l)users. The market will decide if they do a good enough job.
I'm glad someone are catering them, because they are in majority after all. Linux won't go further then the door step if it isn't made accessible to the crowd.
Well, what about the content of the essays? Anyways, any way to get a hold on the software:)? Would've been nice with a "clippy" that said what grade the current document is.
Well, they've probably learned from SCO and MPAA that they shouldn't use Word documents for publishing.
"Hey Bill, what should I write here?"
"Well, how about all your offices are belong to us".
"Nah, remove that":
*Releases document after 100 hours of trying to figure out why MS Office is better. With all metadata.*
Next day on slashdot:
Story: "Microsoft has a hard time writing why MS Office is better than OpenOffice".
Comment: "Isn't it nice that Microsoft eats it's own dogfood.:)"
I believe that this can be just another flop from Microsofts side. Remember MS Bob anyone?
If Joe Average buys his (Trusted) computer, and takes it home: Only to find out that he can't put an extra copy of Photoshop on it (he uses it at work) - without paying for a extra license: He'll then return it if he can; or if he can't he will remember the manufacturer and spread the word about this new machine that won't let him run his software. The x86 computer isn't boxed as a X-Box, so it will be hard for MS to keep their grip on the market. "Why should I buy that computer when it won't do what I want it to do?"
If it breaks through (everyone gets it over night - in the backdoor by the temptation of the "secure"-sticker), and people can't use their "home-copies": They'll probably look for alternatives. The local geek tells them about how he runs Linux - which does almost everything he could possible want - for free. I'm willing to bet that Joe Average takes a closer look.
I'm actually hoping for better copy protection and such in Windows. It'll open peoples eyes when they actually see the price they have to pay to get their "box" upgraded to the latest buzz. I think piracy is one of the things that helped build the monopoly of Microsoft. People took the OS home, without additional cost.
Well. The sands of time will show if this chained boat will float:).
I'll make more money working a "shit job" in the US than as a programmer in India
Yes. Maybe, but if you both work and live in India, the cost of living is lower -- so it all adds up. If you work in India, and spend money in the US, then your comparision is correct.
Slashdot Mirror
Good points, but I still think that open source suffers because of the lack of a economic model that fits application developers. Open source is good for the big dogs ("cloud", "enterprise") - not so good for the garage guys. I think the status quo will self-correct if the economic incentive can be tilted. How about an open source license that only allows distribution to other license holders?
I've found a bunch of useful software there that has been abandoned and not been moved to Github. Why shut it down? They could've made one guy have a part time job watching over it, and kept the stuff running on Azure.
It's 2017. Everything should be running in VMs, and snapshots of those VMs should've been backed up. Guess the IT department wasn't up to scratch.
Considering all the technology Facebook has accrued directly and through partners a phone with a lot of nice features should be possible for them to implement. It's also a logical next step. Phones are social nodes in themselves, and mapping the Facebook 'world-in-a-world' onto this should be possible.
It could even be data-only if they wanted to (wifi/data traffic), but I don't think they would take it that far.
Technology mapping from the Facebook's technology chest to the mobile:
Text messaging - Replaced/complemented by Facebook Messenger
Audio chat - Integrated Skype version
Video chat - Integrated Skype version (Technology now in the hands of MS/Skype. Apple has shown us that this is feasible)
Group video chat / audio chat - Integrated Skype version.
Status of your friends reflected on your phone (Eg. approx. location, busy, last locations visited).
Contact list - Facebook friends.
I believe Google can do a lot of damage if the data they've been collecting somehow got in the wrong hands. For the public Google is a black box: You really don't know how much of what you put in, stay in. Relevant quote: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."
Now I've hit the tipping point: A KDE desktop running on Debian is what I use all day.
There is only so much one can progress (when it comes to knowledge and efficiency) using Windows. A comparison I would like to make is that Windows is like duplo lego, while Linux is like technic lego. The console in Linux is really powerful, giving me the abilities to do far more than would've been possible using a simple Windows system.
- Want a image of that disk?
- Want to reliably copy your system from one disk to another?
/etc/fstab and /boot/grub/. Run grub-install /dev/newdisk/
- Found a bug?
(Microsoft has acknowledged that the lack of a useful shell is a weak spot in the Windows family, by creating a new "Powershell" for their operating system). Anyways, preaching to the choir here.Windows: Shell out cash for Norton Ghost.
Linux: dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/home/sokk/backup.img
Windows: Reinstall everything, copy documents from old install.
Linux: rsync the old root filesystem to the new disk. Change some settings in
Windows: Send a bug report to the software company. Hope that the bug gets fixed. If not, you're out of luck.
Linux: Send bug to maintainer. Is it unmaintained software? hire someone to do it, or do it yourself.
A couple of years ago I crossed my fingers and hoped that Mozilla (early alpha) wouldn't crash when opening a page. Even if it opened, it could look like shit, or don't work at all. Now every single page works in Firefox for me.. The only problem I have is 1% of the pages don't look good in Konqueror.
Developing software in Linux is a breeze, with hundreds of shoulders to stand on. Instead of reinventing or rewriting code, you can probably find a free library to do it, cutting development time dramatically down! Want to write a torrent client? Use the libtorrent, and focus on the part you don't like about the other clients (eg. UI).
I think I would have withdrawal symptoms if I went back to the old Windows desktop now. I would miss Amarok (excellent music player), the extensible kde desktop, scripting. The ability to look at the source code of applications, and fix bugs if they should present themselves.
The near future looks bright. (Stable) OpenGL accelerated desktops (on even the low-end cards), open source java (hopefully it will get integrated into the desktops, so that it doesn't feel alien/out of place like it does now), KDE 4.. More and more people using Linux (thanks to Ubuntu, even though I can't stand Ubuntu myself), thereby getting the ball rolling.
Uh, Microwave ovens, 1938 developed with no thought of war.
Jet engines, also in the 30's developed in Britain (and other places)
Get your facts str8 moron.
Under "A Brief History of the Microwave Oven"
Like many of today's great inventions, the microwave oven was a by-product of another technology. It was during a radar-related research project around 1946 that Dr. Percy Spencer, a self-taught engineer with the Raytheon Corporation, noticed something very unusual. He was testing a new vacuum tube called a magnetron (we are searching for a picture of an actual 1946 magnetron), when he discovered that the candy bar in his pocket had melted. This intrigued Dr. Spencer, so he tried another experiment. This time he placed some popcorn kernels near the tube and, perhaps standing a little farther away, he watched with an inventive sparkle in his eye as the popcorn sputtered, cracked and popped all over his lab
Wikipedia: Atomic weapons, jet aircraft, and RADAR are only a few of many war-time inventions.
World War 2 brought along radar, jet, microwaves and atomic bombs - probably much more and early computers. All in five years. That's a lot of progress. What if WW2 never happened, how would our life been?
So what I wonder: Isn't it strange that wartime is the best time for scientific progress? Do we really need war to focus our minds and resources in this way?
Windows-Tools on CD-ROM (or USB stick)
Well thought you might enjoy that compilation of tools as much as I did.
(I'm not affliated with the page.)
I'm getting tired of these advertisements disguised as "news". The story was even submitted by an employee of the business in focus...
Slow news day or what?
I should probably have mentioned that I've bought Half-life 2 myself. A great game.
I also own Half-Life 1. The people who bought Half-Life 1 didn't know about Steam at time of purchase. I believe that the old multiplayer network (WON?) is down as well. So they are in a sense punishing you (dollar-wise) if they ban your Half-Life 1 account/serial; just because you couldn't resist the temptation of waiting for a download, waiting for your monthly pay or whatever.
So in that sense: You don't own your games, because you never know if they'll ban you for some obscure action. Eg. I hate that I have to put the Half-Life 2 DVD in everytime I want to play. If I use a no-cd crack, and that causes a ban of all my games from Valve. That would surely piss me off.
I'm not saying they will, I'm just entertaining a thought here.
I'm not filled in with the details of this particular mass-ban, but does this mean that someone who legally owns eg. Half-Life 1 won't be able to play it on the net anymore.
I'm starting to see problems with this Steam technology: When you connect multiple games to a "profile", and they ban _all_ your games because of something.. then something is wrong. They can't say: "Well, we know you've paid us a great deal of money for our earlier games. But we don't give a fuck, and we will punish you by banning you from your old games". Can they?
When I got on the internet for the first time I was on dial-up. It cost money to stay on the net. My first thought was to download as much as I could, so that I could use it when I needed it (Downloading whole sites for offline viewing pleasure. Eg. Code sample archives).
:). I know it's pretty far out, but it would've been neat. Any thougts?
I felt that way about programs too. I had to download them to my computer. I burned them out and archived them, just in case I would need them for a reinstall or for a friend.
Nowadays I seldom keep the installation program of applications. Why? Because I know they're out there. I can get them at a moments notice. How come? I've got a broadband connection now.
This is how I feel the next generation file sharing will become. Currently everyone is downloading everything. To have it handy. To use it. It doesn't need to be like that. I don't yet know how the technical solutions will be (if they ever will).
Imagine: A world wide archive of music at your fingertips. You don't have (much) of it at your hard drive, because it's accessible through the net. You have your favorite music "bookmarked" to make your collection. Music playback is instantly - because of the evolution of the speed of the net, and the evolution of the file sharing technology.
You won't have to think about "the files" as files. You think of them as entities. Always accessible.
You'll (as mentioned) probably have to keep a part of the world wide collection at your hard drive. (If it can't be stored at the net, always flowing).
Well, some of my thoughts.
The transition from DOS to Windows took a while too ;)
It doesn't seem to like Netlimiter. It won't install. Too bad. I won't uninstall Netlimiter just because Google's Search Tool doesn't like it.
If I remember correctly Altavista put out something like this in their golden years? Let's not hope Google won't go down the drain (I hate hitting "google farms", and I do that too often). Focus Google.. I'm sure Clusty and AllTheWeb would like a share of the market, and if you don't fix your primary service (your beloved search engine) - you'll probably fade away.
Killing someone because of trespassing? Someone that's almost surely unarmed!? That's the last solution I would've chosen, if at all.
Flame me all you want, but deep down you know it's wrong. Guess Michael Moore was into something in the movie Bowling For Columbine.
I suppose they do this so that developers can deploy their new apps (based on Avalon and Indigo) on the XP platform as well. It makes sense - and will give a more rapid transistion. (Instead of waiting for Longhorn to get the marketshare needed to have custom Avalon/Indigo-apps written for it).
;)
But what do I know?
(The color theme for it.slashdot.org needs a revision btw)
- Ctrl-J
- Start typing slashdot (sl...)
- Enter
Done in no time.It's all in the packaging. They make the free software accessible for the (l)users. The market will decide if they do a good enough job.
I'm glad someone are catering them, because they are in majority after all. Linux won't go further then the door step if it isn't made accessible to the crowd.
Slick desktop btw.
0.02$
One of the teachers I had on high school gave me a negative score on a test because I wrote that HTML is not a programming language.
I still stand by this, I even argued with him - but he meant he was right.
It's Hypertext Markup Language. Far from programming. The closest thing must be javascript, which isn't HTML at all.
Anyways, my point is HTML is not programming. It's markup.
But your point may be valid, it's something to do -- but it isn't programming.
Well, what about the content of the essays? Anyways, any way to get a hold on the software :)? Would've been nice with a "clippy" that said what grade the current document is.
Well, they've probably learned from SCO and MPAA that they shouldn't use Word documents for publishing.
:)"
"Hey Bill, what should I write here?"
"Well, how about all your offices are belong to us".
"Nah, remove that":
*Releases document after 100 hours of trying to figure out why MS Office is better. With all metadata.*
Next day on slashdot:
Story: "Microsoft has a hard time writing why MS Office is better than OpenOffice".
Comment: "Isn't it nice that Microsoft eats it's own dogfood.
I believe that this can be just another flop from Microsofts side. Remember MS Bob anyone?
:).
If Joe Average buys his (Trusted) computer, and takes it home: Only to find out that he can't put an extra copy of Photoshop on it (he uses it at work) - without paying for a extra license: He'll then return it if he can; or if he can't he will remember the manufacturer and spread the word about this new machine that won't let him run his software. The x86 computer isn't boxed as a X-Box, so it will be hard for MS to keep their grip on the market. "Why should I buy that computer when it won't do what I want it to do?"
If it breaks through (everyone gets it over night - in the backdoor by the temptation of the "secure"-sticker), and people can't use their "home-copies": They'll probably look for alternatives. The local geek tells them about how he runs Linux - which does almost everything he could possible want - for free. I'm willing to bet that Joe Average takes a closer look.
I'm actually hoping for better copy protection and such in Windows. It'll open peoples eyes when they actually see the price they have to pay to get their "box" upgraded to the latest buzz. I think piracy is one of the things that helped build the monopoly of Microsoft. People took the OS home, without additional cost.
Well. The sands of time will show if this chained boat will float
Ogg Vorbis have had support for this for some while.
What I'm not sure of is if the support for "joint" surround is there. (Like joint stereo, only for surround)
Who wants to use a proprietary sound format, when they can use a much more appealing open format.
Yes. Maybe, but if you both work and live in India, the cost of living is lower -- so it all adds up. If you work in India, and spend money in the US, then your comparision is correct.
Everything is relative.