"If I were a Microsoft public relations person, I would probably be sobbing on a desk right now," says Miller.
But, Microsoft doesn't have public relations people: it has public opinion management people. Microsoft has never had any relation with the public (unless you define "relation" in the same way as used in this example: "The larger of the two prisoners had relations with the smaller").
To log in, I had to set Netscape to accept cookies from anywhere (not just originating server), and I got redirected over to beta.slashdot.org. Methinks something still is a little funky.
I am so glad to hear that people are considering what to add to X to make it more competitive with that "other" window system. Most of the items listed are great, but I'd like to add one more item: the ability to change the color depth of the server dynamically. Granted, this may become unneeded as video cards get enough memory to run 32 bit color all the time, but until then I'd like to be able to run 1600x1200, but drop res and pick up colors if needed.
The problem I have with all the MP3 players for cars is that they all need to be installed in the cab, rather than the trunk. Anyone with a new model car knows that rasafrasin' car manufacturers are making cars so that it is neigh impossible to install any aftermarket gear in the dash. I have a trunk-mounted CD changer with a control head in the car, and I had to buy the Standard amateur radio since it has all the controls in the mike rather than a control head in the car (I drive a Mercury Grand Marque).
What I want is for Ford|Chrystler|GM|etc to make a OEM trunk mounted MP3 player. If Ford offered an OEM MP3 player for the Crown Vic|Grand Mark|Continental, I'd be on the phone to my dealer within seconds....
The problem with most machine translation is that it is very little more than a search and replace of one set of words with another. The actual syntax of the language is not translated. Also, in cases where one word maps into several different words in the target language, most machine translation picks the most common usage, which (due to Murphy) is not what's needed. For example, if I ask for source, does that mean "(nominally) human readable instructions for a computer)", "origin of a comment", "part of a MOSFET transistor where the majority charge carriers are injected", or what?
Also, little subtlies of the language get lost, for example translating "you" into French, do you use "vous" (you, formal reference, used for people you either don't know or people you should show respect to) or "tu" (you, informal reference, like you'd use for your buddy).
However, if both parties know the machine is translating, and accept the ungrammatical output and work around it, machine translation sure can help.
Think about it: You need three things for a gas explosion: gas, ignition source (sparks from the snake) and oxygen! There's no air in a gas line, therefor no 02, therefor no explosion.
This is a real quote from Scott Culp, program manager for Microsoft's security response center"
In this case the virus author chose to target Outlook probably because it gave him better reach. There isn't a security vulnerability in Outlook involved in this at all.
I didn't realize Microsoft was in Egypt, because this guy's clearly in denial.
I wonder if anybody is going to bring a class action suit against Microsoft for not closing this security hole back when Melissa came out.
I thought this was one of the reasons for the Library of Congress: to preserve information. Now, if we can just persuade the LoC to cat rectum | gunzip >head and realize the end of the 20th century is nigh we might not need things like this.
I like the fact they are requiring the tools to be scriptable, however I too feel the requirement that Python (or any other single language) be used to do the scripting is short-sighted. I'd rather they had specified a means by which scripting tools could plug into the system, so that any language (possibly with a small modification) could be used. Of course, the question then becomes how to plug in: DCOM (), Bonobo (non-portable), sockets, or ???.
Also there is the question of migration: suppose I want to use one of these super-wizzy tools on my existing project: can I just feed my existing makefiles into a converter to set them up? If not, then they will have a hard time gaining penetration, since old projects will never move over, and many "new" projects start out as mutations of old projects.
Another thing that my (cursory) scan of the site didn't turn up was interfacing to source code management: I'd like to see a good integration into CVS, so that I can easily build different trees from my source base.
Lastly, while they are requiring some degree of cross-platform support (IMHO if you can get the tools working under NT as well as *nix, you have a high probability of getting them working under any OS) do they have the ability to support building the same project on different hosts without modifying the project? For example, I develop embedded systems running VxWorks: I can theoretically build under NT or Linux, but keeping my make files so that they will work under both is a nightmare (Thank you Microsoft for not using / as a directory seperator! Thank you for not having a decent shell! May I have another?)
I'm just glad somebody is looking at this part of the development process and saying "That's great, but is there a better way?"
Yes, I thought it was very mean-spirited. Esp. the way Aurthur's girlfreind from Fish was basically deleted with hardly any mention in the book. I got the distinct feeling that DNA was saying "Screw this series! I've written plenty of other stuff and this is all anybody talks about. I'll show them: I'll destroy the whole thing!" Much the same way that The Final Solution by Sir Aurthur Conan Doyle was ACD's way to get people to read his other books that didn't star a coke abusing detective.
I hope DNA will comment upon his thoughts when writing Mostly Harmless.
The problem with "designed" languages like Esperanto vs. "evolved" languages like English is much the same as the problem with Pascal vs. C.
People use languages to get a job done: communicating with each other. Most designed languages, while pretty on paper, aren't able to cover the whole problem space they need to. Then one of two things happens: either the language begins to evolve, and loses the "prettiness" but becomes functional, or the language is replaced by one that works.
For example, Pascal. Designed as a language with training wheels, it didn't fit the problem space for systems programming. You had some bastardizations like Object Pascal (Delphi), but mostly it's fallen by the wayside while C (a language that has evolved) took over.
Now, look at Esperanto: Nicely designed, but does it cover the whole problem space of human to human communications? Now, look at English: need a word or phrase for a construct? Make it up via concatination, acronym, or onomonopia.
I think the language of the future will be a mix of various languages, with English as a base but constructs from other languages. Personally, I'd like to see a construct like the French "si" enter the language. (si is an true response to a default false question: "You're not going to a movie, are you?" "Si" (yes, I am going to a movie).
Sorry, but the groups listed have very little to do with gun safety and more to do with gun control. If you truly want gun safety, how about a group that promotes the message "If you see a gun, stop, don't touch, leave the area, get an adult." A group that promote locking criminals who commit crimes with guns up for a very long time. A group that feels that if you are going to handle a gun, you should get training first.
Oh, wait. That would make sense. Silly me.
Re:What it is and why Linux won't run on it.
on
Quad G4 Boards
·
· Score: 3
Last I checked, Linux doesn't even support CompactPCI!
Excuse me? I have with my very own hands brought Linux up on a Ziatech compact PCI board, thankyouverymuch! The only difference between standard PCI and cPCI is the layout of the bus: PCI uses an edge-card connection, while cPCI uses a 96 pin connector with controlled impedance. From the software perspective, there is no difference! Furthurmore, if you look over at Ziatech's home page you will see they list Linux quite prominantly.
Now, as for your comments about LinuxPPC, I cannot comment, as I have no experience there. But you are quite incorrect about cPCI./. readers, take note and weigh the rest apropriately.
In reading the thread, I've noticed another misunderstanding about GPS, and the difference between civilian and military GPS units.
The GPS system that civilian units use operates on about 1.2GHz (which is way above the UHF TV band and cellular band). The problem with a single frequency system is that you have no idea how much the atmosphere is bending the signal, so you have a systemic error right there. Add to this selective availability, and you get the 30-100 meter error most people quote.
Military units use 2 freqs: the civilian accessable 1.2GHz frequency, and 1.5GHz. Since atmospheric bending is frequency dependant, you get two different readings, and can then derive the real data from that. So, even when they turn off SA, civilian units will not be as accurate as military units.
The NavSat network is a series of satellites w/ atomic clocks located in Geosynchronous orbit (so they hold steady above the equator) at over 20,000 miles distance. The timing pulses they send are low power, necessarilly so for them to last as long on their available power output.
Wrong. The GPS constellation is in low earth orbit, and they are on inclined orbits, so that they cover the whole earth's surface.
Furthermore, the GPS system uses spread spectrum modulation to make it much harder to jam: you would have to create a very wide bandwidth signal at 1.2GHz to block the signal.
Probably, what the military did was come up with a system that not only blocks the signal, but spoofs it, so that rather than just getting no answer you get a wrong answer (since most military gear has both GPS and intertial nav, if your GPS stops giving you any data you fall back, but if it gives you bogus data you screw up your INS).
The reason they are doing this is probably the same reason a good sysadmin tries to break into his own system: once you know what can be done and how, you can begin to act to prevent it.
The automotive industry is looking into moving to a 42V electrical system because of the number of things in a car that run on electricity rather than mechanical power.
The problem is what's called i-squared-r: since every wire has a non-zero resistance R, the wire burns off an mount of power proportional to the square of the current in the wire. To deliver the same amount of power to a load, for every doubling of voltage, you halve the current: this is why we have high-tension lines: to deliver a thousand megawatts of power to a city at 100kV takes one thousanth the current that 100V would, so you get one millionth the losses in the wire.
Now, in automotive use, 12V is really a pain: consider a laptop computer drawing 52 watts of power. At the nominal engine running voltage of 14 volts, you need 4 amps of current to get 52 watts. If your connection to the car's electrical bus has one ohm of resistance (lighter sockets are a lousy interface), you burn off 4 watts of power in the connection (actually, a bit more, since you lose 4 volts across the drop, and now your laptop power supply is trying to get 4.5A to make up for the difference).
Now, you start getting into steer by wire, electronic valve actuation, ThunderThump 2000 Stereos, maximum-legal output ham radio systems, cell phones, computers, TVs, VCRs, and all of the other things that we are cramming into cars these days, and you are pulling about 2-3kW of power. At 12 volts, this is about 200-300 amps of current. At 42 Volts (three times the nominal run voltage of 14 V), you drop that down to 66-100 amps.
Of course, you have all the infrastructure of 12V lights and gizmos, all of which have to be replaced. So it isn't going to happen anytime soon.
Creating negative energy is simple: the average management meeting has more than enough to create a wormhole to Hell. I know. I go through one twice a week. Sometimes more.
Datum: ISPs are being held responsible for their content, obviating their "common-carrier" status.
Datum: Pinkerton is using a form of that protection to escape responsibility for the harm their actions will cause.
Conclusion: Pinkertion will be sued under this when sufficiently many instances have occurred to make a class action suit profitable.
Second conclusion: Pointing this out to Pinkerton may cause them to abandon this plan
However, I suggest we let Pinkerton go at this full steam. That way, when the inevetiable train wreck occurs, it will be so large and damaging to Pinkerton that no one else will try this foolishness.
This is possibly one of the worst things that can happen to Linux: While I use Corel Wordperfect 8 (and find it adequate), when I heard that Corel Office 2000 was basically a Wine app, I became worried that it would be buggy and crash prone. Wine, for all the magic in its ability to run Windows binaries, it still not quite ready for prime time; furthur while I look forward to being able to run unmodified Windows binaries (for those foolish companies that won't make a native version of their app), I want programs that claim to be "Linux versions" to be just that: Linux versions, not Windows versions + an emulator.
Corel, if you are reading this: Spend the time to make your apps portable, use GTK, and make true native Linux versions. Yes, it will be several man-years of effort, but in the long run it will pay off.
Sorry, but your post doesn't hold water: the USB protocol was designed to connect slaves to a master PC, not to network PCs. Connecting a networking device to USB requires all sorts of horrid mutations just to connect to the networking stack. USB also does not do very well from a driver standpoint: most modern NICs use what's called a packet ring structure: the driver sets up a series of buffers in system memory, and hands them over to the NIC. The NIC fills them in as packets arrive, and interrupts the system when the ring is non-empty. This allows the system to service multiple packets with only one interrupt, greatly reducing system overhead. USB chips don't have the packet ring structure, nor are they likely to, since unlike Ethernet USB transfers have no well defined size (most Ethernet transfers are 1500 bytes long, no longer, and not many shorter.)
Additionally, you may add $20 to the BOM by adding Ethernet, but without it, I have to purchase a $50-$75 Ethernet->USB gateway, and have yet another device to futz with.
Furthermore, sir, it is not necessary to be rude when posting. While you pretend to have a login, you hide behind the AC tag. If you are too damn "lazy" to log in, then by rights you should be too damn lazy to post.
I see two different but related problems with a system composed entirely of non-volatile memory:
If you pull the plug, the state of memory is retained, but the CPU state is lost. This is very much akin to an interrupt occurring, except that an interrupt at least records the CPU state on the stack. The problem is that you now have to protect everything from re-entrancy problems: otherwise when the system is abruptly powered off and restarted the CPU has to do a restart and system or application data structures may be in a non-reenterable state.
If the memory is corrupted, how do you force the system to clear? You'd need a [button|keysequence|etc.] that would tell the system to do a complete coldstart & purge of memory.
Also, this could be bad if the Men In Black (and I don't mean division 6) kick in your door. Anything in system memory will be in system memory "and may be used against you in court", whether you like it or not. You won't be able to just yank the plug and clear system memory.
That said, I still think this will be wonderful in the main. It's just going to have some implications we'll need to think about.
True, however, I feel they are dooming themselves by not having Ethernet: most DSL and Cablemodems use an Ethernet link to the PC. By not having this, they are condemning themselves to modems speeds. This is like driving a moped on the Autobahn.
Slashdot Mirror
But, Microsoft doesn't have public relations people: it has public opinion management people. Microsoft has never had any relation with the public (unless you define "relation" in the same way as used in this example: "The larger of the two prisoners had relations with the smaller").
To log in, I had to set Netscape to accept cookies from anywhere (not just originating server), and I got redirected over to beta.slashdot.org. Methinks something still is a little funky.
I am so glad to hear that people are considering what to add to X to make it more competitive with that "other" window system. Most of the items listed are great, but I'd like to add one more item: the ability to change the color depth of the server dynamically. Granted, this may become unneeded as video cards get enough memory to run 32 bit color all the time, but until then I'd like to be able to run 1600x1200, but drop res and pick up colors if needed.
What I want is for Ford|Chrystler|GM|etc to make a OEM trunk mounted MP3 player. If Ford offered an OEM MP3 player for the Crown Vic|Grand Mark|Continental, I'd be on the phone to my dealer within seconds....
Also, little subtlies of the language get lost, for example translating "you" into French, do you use "vous" (you, formal reference, used for people you either don't know or people you should show respect to) or "tu" (you, informal reference, like you'd use for your buddy).
However, if both parties know the machine is translating, and accept the ungrammatical output and work around it, machine translation sure can help.
Think about it: You need three things for a gas explosion: gas, ignition source (sparks from the snake) and oxygen! There's no air in a gas line, therefor no 02, therefor no explosion.
I didn't realize Microsoft was in Egypt, because this guy's clearly in denial.
I wonder if anybody is going to bring a class action suit against Microsoft for not closing this security hole back when Melissa came out.
I love how they call it "fully ionized hydrogen". Last time I checked, fully ionized hydrogen was a fancy term for "a proton".
I thought this was one of the reasons for the Library of Congress: to preserve information. Now, if we can just persuade the LoC to cat rectum | gunzip >head and realize the end of the 20th century is nigh we might not need things like this.
Also there is the question of migration: suppose I want to use one of these super-wizzy tools on my existing project: can I just feed my existing makefiles into a converter to set them up? If not, then they will have a hard time gaining penetration, since old projects will never move over, and many "new" projects start out as mutations of old projects.
Another thing that my (cursory) scan of the site didn't turn up was interfacing to source code management: I'd like to see a good integration into CVS, so that I can easily build different trees from my source base.
Lastly, while they are requiring some degree of cross-platform support (IMHO if you can get the tools working under NT as well as *nix, you have a high probability of getting them working under any OS) do they have the ability to support building the same project on different hosts without modifying the project? For example, I develop embedded systems running VxWorks: I can theoretically build under NT or Linux, but keeping my make files so that they will work under both is a nightmare (Thank you Microsoft for not using / as a directory seperator! Thank you for not having a decent shell! May I have another?)
I'm just glad somebody is looking at this part of the development process and saying "That's great, but is there a better way?"
I hope DNA will comment upon his thoughts when writing Mostly Harmless.
People use languages to get a job done: communicating with each other. Most designed languages, while pretty on paper, aren't able to cover the whole problem space they need to. Then one of two things happens: either the language begins to evolve, and loses the "prettiness" but becomes functional, or the language is replaced by one that works.
For example, Pascal. Designed as a language with training wheels, it didn't fit the problem space for systems programming. You had some bastardizations like Object Pascal (Delphi), but mostly it's fallen by the wayside while C (a language that has evolved) took over.
Now, look at Esperanto: Nicely designed, but does it cover the whole problem space of human to human communications? Now, look at English: need a word or phrase for a construct? Make it up via concatination, acronym, or onomonopia.
I think the language of the future will be a mix of various languages, with English as a base but constructs from other languages. Personally, I'd like to see a construct like the French "si" enter the language. (si is an true response to a default false question: "You're not going to a movie, are you?" "Si" (yes, I am going to a movie).
"Well, we've feed all the evidence into the computer, and we'll see what comes out...
Well, Mr. Gates, it seems you've done nothing wrong, but we have all been sentenced to death...."
Sorry, but the groups listed have very little to do with gun safety and more to do with gun control. If you truly want gun safety, how about a group that promotes the message "If you see a gun, stop, don't touch, leave the area, get an adult." A group that promote locking criminals who commit crimes with guns up for a very long time. A group that feels that if you are going to handle a gun, you should get training first.
Oh, wait. That would make sense. Silly me.
Excuse me? I have with my very own hands brought Linux up on a Ziatech compact PCI board, thankyouverymuch! The only difference between standard PCI and cPCI is the layout of the bus: PCI uses an edge-card connection, while cPCI uses a 96 pin connector with controlled impedance. From the software perspective, there is no difference! Furthurmore, if you look over at Ziatech's home page you will see they list Linux quite prominantly.
Now, as for your comments about LinuxPPC, I cannot comment, as I have no experience there. But you are quite incorrect about cPCI.
The GPS system that civilian units use operates on about 1.2GHz (which is way above the UHF TV band and cellular band). The problem with a single frequency system is that you have no idea how much the atmosphere is bending the signal, so you have a systemic error right there. Add to this selective availability, and you get the 30-100 meter error most people quote.
Military units use 2 freqs: the civilian accessable 1.2GHz frequency, and 1.5GHz. Since atmospheric bending is frequency dependant, you get two different readings, and can then derive the real data from that. So, even when they turn off SA, civilian units will not be as accurate as military units.
Wrong. The GPS constellation is in low earth orbit, and they are on inclined orbits, so that they cover the whole earth's surface.
Furthermore, the GPS system uses spread spectrum modulation to make it much harder to jam: you would have to create a very wide bandwidth signal at 1.2GHz to block the signal.
Probably, what the military did was come up with a system that not only blocks the signal, but spoofs it, so that rather than just getting no answer you get a wrong answer (since most military gear has both GPS and intertial nav, if your GPS stops giving you any data you fall back, but if it gives you bogus data you screw up your INS).
The reason they are doing this is probably the same reason a good sysadmin tries to break into his own system: once you know what can be done and how, you can begin to act to prevent it.
The problem is what's called i-squared-r: since every wire has a non-zero resistance R, the wire burns off an mount of power proportional to the square of the current in the wire. To deliver the same amount of power to a load, for every doubling of voltage, you halve the current: this is why we have high-tension lines: to deliver a thousand megawatts of power to a city at 100kV takes one thousanth the current that 100V would, so you get one millionth the losses in the wire.
Now, in automotive use, 12V is really a pain: consider a laptop computer drawing 52 watts of power. At the nominal engine running voltage of 14 volts, you need 4 amps of current to get 52 watts. If your connection to the car's electrical bus has one ohm of resistance (lighter sockets are a lousy interface), you burn off 4 watts of power in the connection (actually, a bit more, since you lose 4 volts across the drop, and now your laptop power supply is trying to get 4.5A to make up for the difference).
Now, you start getting into steer by wire, electronic valve actuation, ThunderThump 2000 Stereos, maximum-legal output ham radio systems, cell phones, computers, TVs, VCRs, and all of the other things that we are cramming into cars these days, and you are pulling about 2-3kW of power. At 12 volts, this is about 200-300 amps of current. At 42 Volts (three times the nominal run voltage of 14 V), you drop that down to 66-100 amps.
Of course, you have all the infrastructure of 12V lights and gizmos, all of which have to be replaced. So it isn't going to happen anytime soon.
My hair is pointing, Dave. I can feel it....
However, I suggest we let Pinkerton go at this full steam. That way, when the inevetiable train wreck occurs, it will be so large and damaging to Pinkerton that no one else will try this foolishness.
Corel, if you are reading this: Spend the time to make your apps portable, use GTK, and make true native Linux versions. Yes, it will be several man-years of effort, but in the long run it will pay off.
Additionally, you may add $20 to the BOM by adding Ethernet, but without it, I have to purchase a $50-$75 Ethernet->USB gateway, and have yet another device to futz with.
Furthermore, sir, it is not necessary to be rude when posting. While you pretend to have a login, you hide behind the AC tag. If you are too damn "lazy" to log in, then by rights you should be too damn lazy to post.
Also, this could be bad if the Men In Black (and I don't mean division 6) kick in your door. Anything in system memory will be in system memory "and may be used against you in court", whether you like it or not. You won't be able to just yank the plug and clear system memory.
That said, I still think this will be wonderful in the main. It's just going to have some implications we'll need to think about.
Come to think of it, I think I'll do that right now...
True, however, I feel they are dooming themselves by not having Ethernet: most DSL and Cablemodems use an Ethernet link to the PC. By not having this, they are condemning themselves to modems speeds. This is like driving a moped on the Autobahn.