Stephen Hawking mentioned something like 95% chance of a black hole being located at the center of our galaxy, in his book "A brief history of time". In spite of all the circumstancial evidence, absolute proof aka 100% certainty is something different.
Are you saying that any "real scientific work" is necessarily cost prohibitive? That nobody can do research unless they have a big fancy lab and a beefy grant? 'Cause it would be a sad state of affairs, given that many famous researchers conducted their work at home, in modest conditions.
I consider myself an excellent driver, but recognize that relatively few people care about improving their driving skills. I would much rather they have access to gadgets that prevent them from smashing into me than not.
And yet those other people still want to drive themselves. If the things are going as the article says, at some point there won't be cars anymore, in the classical sense, only various forms of public transportation. Perhaps moving bands like in Asimov's books, or cars you only sit in and talk to, like in the "Demolition Man".
Why doesn't MS just open up NTFS and sell a driver for Linux?
Because they have absolutely no incentive for something that would make Linux more attractive. If there are people out there that don't go for Linux because it doesn't do NTFS, Microsoft wants them and their money.
Besides, creating a full, native, NTFS Linux driver would be too dangerous. Sooner or later it would be reverse engineered and would find its way into the desktops everywhere. Look at mplayer or mp3, they breach all kinds of patents and nobody cares and stil uses them. Once a NTFS driver would appear there would be no way to stop it from spreading.
What do they care? To the GP's question I answer: "whatever makes them the more money".
No, manufacturers won't migrate to another FS, because they need their stuff to work with Windows and there's only FAT and NTFS to choose from. Can't use exotic stuff like ext2/3 because it would need a driver to work with Windows (does such a driver even exist, and is it free or cheaper to license?) Can't use the stuff that DVD/CD use because it's designed to be read-only. I wonder about the DVD-RAM FS though, but, again, licensing issues...
So they'll just pay through the nose, or, realistically, put the squeeze on the consumers by increasing the price for USB sticks. And that's why flash media keeps being stinking expensive and will never replace the floppy disk in the foreseeable future as a nearly universal, cheap and instant R/W access media.
But I suspect most of us will still need someone to put some things in plain English. I even read the "detailed description" and no go. Call me Dumbo.
*Is it kernel space or userspace? *What's with those "3rd party config files"? If we wait for [all the] apps to catch up, good luck. See how "widely" the user home config file spec from FDO was implemented, and that one needs just an effort of good will. *Isn't it a bit strange to let a 3rd app specify its own security config on YOUR machine's context? *What exactly do they mean by "easy to use"? No, miles long text files where you have to write down what files each program can access are not "easy to use".
I don't see what the big deal is. Debian has had Mono and Beagle in unstable for quite some time. As official packages, not third party packages from obscure repositories.
For most users, a partition is something that's between them and the guy in the next cubicle. They don't want to know what a computer partition is, they don't care, and they don't even want to see it - not even "Do you want the computer to partition for you?"
How the hell can you not want partitioning? How on Earth was this modded +5 informative? If a new guy comes to work with you, do you not care which cubicle is free for him to take?
There are things that can be taken care of by the installer without assistance. Choosing a partition is not one of them. If you know an automagical way in which the installer can figure out where on the disk to install without asking you anything, please please share it with us.
The bottom line is: if the vast majority of the people (ie. billions) want something, why can a few thousand corporate execs and politicians tell them they can't have it? How is that normal? If they tried to outlaw sex they'd be laughed at. Hell, they get laughed at trying to eliminate smoking, which is much more clearly "wrong" or "bad" than the whole IP tangled mess.
PS: don't use China as a counter-argument. Just... don't. Is that what we want?
I can't understand why so many programmers stick with C++. It's just not a very good language.
That may be true (subject to debate). But the main reason is that it's everywhere. It spread and support is simply unmatchable. Even a huge corporation like Microsoft, trying to push an alternative (.Net) has a tough time making a dent in C++. Whatever shortcomings C++ may have, it's already here, everywhere, and it's not that bad as to provoke mass migration.
It's not worth my time to document and look for help. Why would it be? The *second* that I start looking into why X isn't working in Linux, I'm losing money and valuable time, because my alternative is to spend a couple of hundred bucks on Windows and be done with it.
A personal computer is a hell of a lot more complicated than a TV!
Isn't it only because nobody so far has really tried to make them truly user-friendly? Can you honestly say that the interfaces out there are perfect, with a learning curve as smooth as with other electrical appliances?
And for those that intend to reply "but computers are not your average electrical appliance"... you deserve what you get. If that's you [elitist] take on computers, than you have no right to complain about why more people aren't able to cope with computers.
If you need backup, go with bzip2. It also supports the -1 to -9 flags. AND it has error recovery, while gzip does not. One byte gone wrong and your gzip backup is toast.
I wish people would stop making up statistics about IM usage based on their own country or aquintances. Stuff like this "people all over the world" means nothing. There are regions where they use YM almost exclusively, or Gadu-gadu or other stuff.
He said "should buy" first, then went on to say he had an inside source who confirmed the actual buy. It's on his blog. But he's a notorious troll, so he would. Dunno why any self-respecting journalist would pick up the "story", though.
It's signed "JC", but just to keep the paranoia going, there's no way to tell if it's really his comment or just someone signing "JC". Usually blogs have means of distinctly marking comments made by the owner himself, but not in this case.
That will be difficult. Probably CG. Everything else is these days... Someone else suggested that this film would work best as anime, which I can't help but think is perhaps the right idea.
Actually, I'd rather hope that they hold off the CG effects as much as possible, short of places where it's a must, like recreating imponderability.
This movie should be more of a drama, an less of an action flic. You know what I mean. We don't want to see some BatMan type beating up scores of opponents single-handedly. We need to see a small genius kid who lives from day to day off his smarts alone, and this frightens everybody and him included.
Good acting and directing is all that this movie really needs. I actually hope they'll resist the urge to show off any humongous cool spaceships or freakish aliens or space explosions or anything like that. Ender never gets to see such ships, ever, he only gets to see the screens and blips.
I wish this book was written and made into a movie in the 60's or 70's. They had just enough CG effects to get by, but relied on god damn acting first of all.
Think about it this way: this book is almost doable as a play, as far as I'm concerned. If they can pull that off and keep CG only as polish, they can do it right.
Particular the whole issue of actors at that age. They will probably have to move the age to 12-16. Unfortunate,cuz it dilutes it a bit. OTOH it avoids the risk of the Cute Factor, and reduces people protesting the film because it shows violent young uns.
This is a controversial book. If they attempt to cater to the PC crowd they condemn it right from the start. The movie should be every bit as controversial as the book or it will fail horribly. The whole gist of the book is having small children as the main characters, if you take that out it's just another space adventure for teenagers.
I think there's plenty of action scenes in Ender's Game. There isn't that much introspection as some of you say, there's very little that can't be put on screen. The book has great potential for becoming a movie, but it all starts with a good screenplay and needs a good director and a good cast of several wonder kids.
I strongly believe it would make a groundshaking movie if only it was done right. Perhaps the book is not known much out of the geek circles because it is marked SciFi and many people avoid this literature genre out of principle. But if you could sit them down and see the story it would reach them just the same, because it's a damn good story.
Bear in mind that impact damage was just one of many possible failure modes for Beagle 2.
Multiple failure points? Somehow that doesn't sound very good, not when we're talking pieces of equipment meant to be thrown out in space away from any kind of servicing. Aren't these things supposed to be both sturdy and have redundant failure protections?
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Stephen Hawking mentioned something like 95% chance of a black hole being located at the center of our galaxy, in his book "A brief history of time". In spite of all the circumstancial evidence, absolute proof aka 100% certainty is something different.
Are you saying that any "real scientific work" is necessarily cost prohibitive? That nobody can do research unless they have a big fancy lab and a beefy grant? 'Cause it would be a sad state of affairs, given that many famous researchers conducted their work at home, in modest conditions.
I consider myself an excellent driver, but recognize that relatively few people care about improving their driving skills. I would much rather they have access to gadgets that prevent them from smashing into me than not.
And yet those other people still want to drive themselves. If the things are going as the article says, at some point there won't be cars anymore, in the classical sense, only various forms of public transportation. Perhaps moving bands like in Asimov's books, or cars you only sit in and talk to, like in the "Demolition Man".
I think the GP forgot one: giving "tree hugger" a whole new meaning...
Why doesn't MS just open up NTFS and sell a driver for Linux?
Because they have absolutely no incentive for something that would make Linux more attractive. If there are people out there that don't go for Linux because it doesn't do NTFS, Microsoft wants them and their money.
Besides, creating a full, native, NTFS Linux driver would be too dangerous. Sooner or later it would be reverse engineered and would find its way into the desktops everywhere. Look at mplayer or mp3, they breach all kinds of patents and nobody cares and stil uses them. Once a NTFS driver would appear there would be no way to stop it from spreading.
yeah, I'm really holding my breath for this...
What do they care? To the GP's question I answer: "whatever makes them the more money".
No, manufacturers won't migrate to another FS, because they need their stuff to work with Windows and there's only FAT and NTFS to choose from. Can't use exotic stuff like ext2/3 because it would need a driver to work with Windows (does such a driver even exist, and is it free or cheaper to license?) Can't use the stuff that DVD/CD use because it's designed to be read-only. I wonder about the DVD-RAM FS though, but, again, licensing issues...
So they'll just pay through the nose, or, realistically, put the squeeze on the consumers by increasing the price for USB sticks. And that's why flash media keeps being stinking expensive and will never replace the floppy disk in the foreseeable future as a nearly universal, cheap and instant R/W access media.
IRTFA.
But I suspect most of us will still need someone to put some things in plain English. I even read the "detailed description" and no go. Call me Dumbo.
*Is it kernel space or userspace?
*What's with those "3rd party config files"? If we wait for [all the] apps to catch up, good luck. See how "widely" the user home config file spec from FDO was implemented, and that one needs just an effort of good will.
*Isn't it a bit strange to let a 3rd app specify its own security config on YOUR machine's context?
*What exactly do they mean by "easy to use"? No, miles long text files where you have to write down what files each program can access are not "easy to use".
I don't see what the big deal is. Debian has had Mono and Beagle in unstable for quite some time. As official packages, not third party packages from obscure repositories.
For most users, a partition is something that's between them and the guy in the next cubicle. They don't want to know what a computer partition is, they don't care, and they don't even want to see it - not even "Do you want the computer to partition for you?"
How the hell can you not want partitioning? How on Earth was this modded +5 informative? If a new guy comes to work with you, do you not care which cubicle is free for him to take?
There are things that can be taken care of by the installer without assistance. Choosing a partition is not one of them. If you know an automagical way in which the installer can figure out where on the disk to install without asking you anything, please please share it with us.
The bottom line is: if the vast majority of the people (ie. billions) want something, why can a few thousand corporate execs and politicians tell them they can't have it? How is that normal? If they tried to outlaw sex they'd be laughed at. Hell, they get laughed at trying to eliminate smoking, which is much more clearly "wrong" or "bad" than the whole IP tangled mess.
PS: don't use China as a counter-argument. Just... don't. Is that what we want?
Besides, there's nothing fundamentally different between running "mission critical apps" from a losable, stealable, USB drive than an online service.
Then let's conduct sensitive business meetings at the closest McDonalds, while we're at it.
I can't understand why so many programmers stick with C++. It's just not a very good language.
That may be true (subject to debate). But the main reason is that it's everywhere. It spread and support is simply unmatchable. Even a huge corporation like Microsoft, trying to push an alternative (.Net) has a tough time making a dent in C++. Whatever shortcomings C++ may have, it's already here, everywhere, and it's not that bad as to provoke mass migration.
It's not worth my time to document and look for help. Why would it be? The *second* that I start looking into why X isn't working in Linux, I'm losing money and valuable time, because my alternative is to spend a couple of hundred bucks on Windows and be done with it.
And where do you go when Windows doesn't work?
A personal computer is a hell of a lot more complicated than a TV!
Isn't it only because nobody so far has really tried to make them truly user-friendly? Can you honestly say that the interfaces out there are perfect, with a learning curve as smooth as with other electrical appliances?
And for those that intend to reply "but computers are not your average electrical appliance"... you deserve what you get. If that's you [elitist] take on computers, than you have no right to complain about why more people aren't able to cope with computers.
If you need backup, go with bzip2. It also supports the -1 to -9 flags. AND it has error recovery, while gzip does not. One byte gone wrong and your gzip backup is toast.
I wish people would stop making up statistics about IM usage based on their own country or aquintances. Stuff like this "people all over the world" means nothing. There are regions where they use YM almost exclusively, or Gadu-gadu or other stuff.
He said "should buy" first, then went on to say he had an inside source who confirmed the actual buy. It's on his blog. But he's a notorious troll, so he would. Dunno why any self-respecting journalist would pick up the "story", though.
First off, where did you find this entry?
It's comment #96 to his The End of the Legislative Year post.
It's signed "JC", but just to keep the paranoia going, there's no way to tell if it's really his comment or just someone signing "JC". Usually blogs have means of distinctly marking comments made by the owner himself, but not in this case.
You guys are the lucky ones as you can just ignore this lump of coal.
C.a.r.b.o.n. It's called Carbon.
The Dvorak layout had a lot of theoretical goodness going for it and still couldn't take over QWERTY. How can this one?
That will be difficult. Probably CG. Everything else is these days... Someone else suggested that this film would work best as anime, which I can't help but think is perhaps the right idea.
Actually, I'd rather hope that they hold off the CG effects as much as possible, short of places where it's a must, like recreating imponderability.
This movie should be more of a drama, an less of an action flic. You know what I mean. We don't want to see some BatMan type beating up scores of opponents single-handedly. We need to see a small genius kid who lives from day to day off his smarts alone, and this frightens everybody and him included.
Good acting and directing is all that this movie really needs. I actually hope they'll resist the urge to show off any humongous cool spaceships or freakish aliens or space explosions or anything like that. Ender never gets to see such ships, ever, he only gets to see the screens and blips.
I wish this book was written and made into a movie in the 60's or 70's. They had just enough CG effects to get by, but relied on god damn acting first of all.
Think about it this way: this book is almost doable as a play, as far as I'm concerned. If they can pull that off and keep CG only as polish, they can do it right.
Particular the whole issue of actors at that age. They will probably have to move the age to 12-16. Unfortunate,cuz it dilutes it a bit. OTOH it avoids the risk of the Cute Factor, and reduces people protesting the film because it shows violent young uns.
This is a controversial book. If they attempt to cater to the PC crowd they condemn it right from the start. The movie should be every bit as controversial as the book or it will fail horribly. The whole gist of the book is having small children as the main characters, if you take that out it's just another space adventure for teenagers.
I think there's plenty of action scenes in Ender's Game. There isn't that much introspection as some of you say, there's very little that can't be put on screen. The book has great potential for becoming a movie, but it all starts with a good screenplay and needs a good director and a good cast of several wonder kids.
I strongly believe it would make a groundshaking movie if only it was done right. Perhaps the book is not known much out of the geek circles because it is marked SciFi and many people avoid this literature genre out of principle. But if you could sit them down and see the story it would reach them just the same, because it's a damn good story.
Bear in mind that impact damage was just one of many possible failure modes for Beagle 2.
Multiple failure points? Somehow that doesn't sound very good, not when we're talking pieces of equipment meant to be thrown out in space away from any kind of servicing. Aren't these things supposed to be both sturdy and have redundant failure protections?