You were right the first time: there - meaning not only a place, but also refering to something 'in the matter of'. example: Were there any ramifications to the ruling... etc.
'Their' is possessive. Something belongs to them... it is theirs; their car; etc.
Don't be so sure that M$ 'out-inovated' anyone in the browser wars. They bought the original IE technology from 'Spyglass Mosaic', a company that was already competing with Netscape. While they ultimately did rewrite (most or all of) the code for it (maybe completely by version 5), they didn't come up with the innovation themselves. Look in the 'About Internet Explorer' item in the 'Help' menu of Internet Explorer, it still credits NCSA Mosaic.
"Based on NCSA Mosaic. NCSA Mosaic(TM); was developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Distributed under a licensing agreement with Spyglass, Inc."
However, M$ did use their financial clout to kill the competition once they had the knowledge 'in-house' (it must be nice to be a multi-billionaire says I, somewhat jeolously).
An interesting blog on this by one of they key players who helped develope Spyglass Mosiac can be found here.
Like it said in the article, even the judges are getting fed up with this guy. There needs to be some changes to the way lawsuits are handled.
A suggestion would be to make it manditory for the loser of a nuisance lawsuit to have to pay all attorney and court costs... or at least an option the judge can apply if he/she sees fit (and make the judge show cause why it didn't apply if they don't impose it). Then a putz like this guy will think twice before he brings a bullshit lawsuit. He'll think about how much he would be paying with all the court costs and attorney's fees when he loses. And from the sounds of it (i.e. the number of judges who threw out his various cases and their comments...), he would have run out of money a long time ago.
Anyway, if something like this were in place, I think you would see a lot less of these kinds of cases. Business would flow a lot more smoothly, and the courts would get a break from going over these ridiculous cases. Mind you, the trial lawyers would probably throw a fit if you brought something like this in, in the 'States. Some of them might actually be forced to play tennis with their tennis shoes, instead of chasing ambulances.;-)
I think the Kaptovator is marketing Crap (with a capital 'C'). Nice packaging and assorted bullshit. And to top it off... kapton... oooooooo... it's used in high tech stuff like the aircraft industry. It looks like this might not be the case any more. From what I can tell from having read a number of articles, it's mainly because that's the stuff that once it gets old it gets brittle and catches fire very easily if there is any sort of short. In fact it seems somewhat explosive (see the Arc Tracking link below). Anyway it looks like many people theorize that kapton is what brought down Swiss Air Flight 111 (and maybe some others). Just google: kapton insulation swiss air 111 aviation canada. Sure it insulates good, but it was just that it was light and available in large quanities at the time the airline industry needed something like it.
Here is a link showing once person's experience and opinion on how dangerous it is: Aircraft Wire Arc Tracking. The fellow was an ex-boeing employee (retired after 36+ years) who has since passed away. Read his 'qualifications' link.
There are tonnes of news articles in the google link, and more if you play with the search query. $1,500.00 for a power cable? Not for me.
Oriental 'Seagull' photographic paper (orientalphotousa.com) is still around and is a GREAT paper. Ansel Adams used to use it. I find it has a slightly brown tone, however if you give it a rinse in selenium toner (very dilute... like for archiving purposes, or less) the tones change to very black blacks, and very white whites. It is a fibre based paper though, so if you like to use resin coated, you won't like it. However, once you see what fibre based papers look like, you probably won't like resin coated again anyway. WAY better tones in fibre based paper.
Film also has more latitude (the range of light in a scene, from pure black to pure white) than digital does. Plus the random/analog nature of the film grain adds something to the photo. Sometimes photographers purposely manipulate things to create more grain.
Finally, I think there is more uniqueness in 'wet' photography than in digital, adding anther level to the art. It adds to whatever the thing is that makes a piece of art special. Each printed photo is unique, and is slightly different from the next, being that it was crafted by human hand. Each print is unique. While digital requires an artist behind it, once a print is made, it is reproduced without the artists hand... on a printer (if it is even printed). Which to me makes it less than something hand printed by the artist.
But then again it is all art. And that is the beauty of it... we all get to appreciate it in our own way. Unless of course it is 'performance art'... then yer jest f'ing goofy!!!;-)
What I said was a memory leak in a Java app(lication). Meaning an application programmed in Java. And yes, you can have a memory leak in Java. Just as you can have a memory leak in 'C' (meaning in an application programmed in 'C'. When talking about a memory leak in Java (or any other language) the reference is to a memory leak caused by programming practices within an application... not in any runtime engine (like the JVM). If I was talking about the JVM, I would have said so. The link in my original post gives an example on how that could happen.
(from my original post) Garbage collection
Garbage collection is generally used to refer to algorithms that (1) determine which objects are still needed by starting from a set of roots and finding all objects reachable from those objects and (2) returning all remaining objects to the heap. The roots include things like global variables and variables on the current call stack. Mozilla's JavaScript engine uses one of the most common garbage collection algorithms, mark and sweep, in which the garbage collector clears the mark bit on each object, sets the mark bits on all roots and all objects reachable from them, and then finalizes all objects not marked and returns the memory they used to the heap.
Garbage collection (at least when the term is not used to refer to lesser algorithms like reference counting) is pretty good at freeing memory that should be freed. However, in a fully garbage-collected system the programmer can still create leaks by leaving objects reachable that are no longer needed. For example, if an object's constructor adds the object to a list that is reachable from a global variable and nothing ever removes it from the list, the object will never be destroyed since it is always reachable from the list.
Memory leaks are caused by application programming. They happen when the programmer tells the program to ask for memory from the system, but doesn't return it to the system when done with it. In 'C' (malloc) and 'C++' (new) etc., the request for memory is explicit, and the programmer is responsible for having the program tell the operating system that it no longer needs the memory (e.g. 'free' for 'C', 'delete' for 'C++'... with C++ the implicit destructors can do some of the work, but it doesn't always let the programmer off the hook). The operating system is not responsible for reclaiming memory. It is told by the program, and not only that, the program tells it what block of memory to free up. If it doesn't and the program ends, then there is that much memory tied up that the operating system doesn't have access to any more.
Java's GC is supposed to overcome that by collecting any unreferenced memory during a program's lifetime and before it exits. But if the programmer codes in a way that keeps open references to unused/unreachable objects, then the application will be said to leak. Granted it will 'leak' in the JVM (asking the JVM for more memory), but the JVM will in turn ask the O/S for more memory until it reaches some predefined maximum, at which time it will crash. In the meantime, it sucks up resources and slows things down on the box that the JVM is running on. If this happens in an enterprise application running in a J2EE container (which presumably is supposed to provide a stable application environment 24/7, which means little leaks will add up over time), this can cause very unhappy customers. If it happens in a web browser because the JavaScript code is leaking, then you also have unhappy customers. Any time you lose system memory to a leak (even if it will be returned once the runtime environment is shut down), you will have performance impact and unhappy customers.
As an adendum, what I am trying to say that you cannot rely on a garbage collector to do everything for you. It cannot understand everything you are trying to do. As a programmer, you have to give it a little help.
Yes but like Java, Javascript surely uses a garbage collection concept meaning it is the browsers responsibility to free memory, and any leaks are thus due to the browser.
Bubble bustin' time! Garbage collection doesn't always live up to its reputation. I have seen Java apps leak memory like a sieve. This one project I was working at would start up a production (!) EJB container in the morning, and by 13:00, it would have run out of memory and crashed. I told them to fix their leaks. When they got over arguing that the garbage collector prevents memory leaks and checked it against a memory profiler... they started fixing the memory leaks and the problem was solve.
In any case, I doubt that the garbage collection in the Javascript engines are anywhere near as sophisticated as in Java itself. So I would think it would be easier to leak memory. Anyway Mozilla has a bit of an article on this
here.
The rules require American software companies that wish to sell to the Chinese government to manufacture all of their products in China and to register their copyrights first in China. The proposed regulation would also require that at least 50 percent of the development be done in China.
Since so many software companies are outsourcing their programming shops to places like China anyway, why would this affect their sales?
What about the republicans in the Senate and House that are trying to make changes so that the American companies that make MTBE are no longer liable for health effects of MTBE on people? That is, so that they cannot be sued.
It's possible. It could be a type of co-generation. The idea is used in a lot of places, but usually it involves using excess heat to produce steam, or waste steam. It would be a good idea.
Something to think about: in order to be flammable you need concentrations of at least 5% CO in air (about the same as needed for natural gas). That's 50000 ppm. To put it in perspective if you were in a room with 800 - 1000 ppm CO for several hours, you would likely end up dead. If you walked into a room with 4000 to 5000 ppm CO, you might not even know what hit you as you hit the floor. It wouldn't be long before you died. So basically, if you used it for a fuel source, it would really suck if the pilot light went out. Maximum OSHA allowable limits in the workplace is 35 ppm. In the middle of typical rush hour traffic (I measured it with a portable meter): 50 ppm! Mind you in industry you are usually indoors where it can concentrate, and often there are very high levels behind it (our offgas lines had 75 to 80 % pure CO... even small leaks were dangerous... we had monitors and venting systems and escape air bottles everywhere).
I wished I was in the post breast implant inspection team, but that was a highly coveted job that I didn't have the seniority to get. So I can't help you with the hardness thing.:-(
Silicon is a metaloid element (sits on the boundary of metal and non-metal). In pure form it is non-conductive, but if you heat it to around at least 1000 degrees, it starts to conduct.
Silicone is a rubber. Simply put, silicon has similar properties to carbon (being in the same family) like being able to form chains. However since it is a much bigger atom, it is a little too heavy to be able to form long chains. When it gets a little too long it pulls itself apart. So you form a chain interspersed with oxygen (which forms very strong bonds)...Si-O-Si-O-Si-O... and so on... polysiloxane. Then they start hanging other side chains and cross linking, etc. and you get different types of synthetic rubber. Anyway, I switched to programming and IT about 10 years ago (after the silicon project ended), so I would have to pull out my books to any deeper anyway.:-)
They don't use sand to produce silicon, they use quartz rock. They reduce (redox reaction) the SiO2 using coal and charcoal to produce the initial Silicon metal(oid). Or to put it in layman's terms, it is smelted in a reaction similar to reducing iron in a blast furnace (except with silicon, it is done in a three phase AC powered arc furnace). The reactions happen in the gas phase at over 1400 degrees C. Chunks of quartz are more suitable since the gases can move between them. Sand just clogs things up... kind of like smothering a fire.
Si02 + 2C = 2CO + Si
Once this silicon is produced, it is refined into super-pure semiconductor grade silicon, or more usually, into silicone rubber pre-cursors. I used to work in silicon smelting R&D and so I have some idea about what I'm talking about. (We built and ran the worlds largest direct current arc furnace during a series of pilot runs in the early 90's to research making lower cost silicon. That was before Russia opened up. After they did, they flooded the market with cheaper silicon, and there was no point trying to create lower cost silicon.) The biggest use of silicon is in making silicone rubber (but not so many boobs any more). The raw material for ultra-pure silicon is taken from the raw material (not so pure silicon) used for silicone production.
Anyway, smelting silicon creates large volumes of CO. CO (carbon monoxide) is highly flammable, on the order of natural gas, and usually burns off to C02 at the top of the furnace bed. (CO could be used as a fuel like natural gas, but it is so poisonous it is not really safe to do so.) Since coal and charcoal are used in the process, other carbon by-products are also released, mostly in gaseous form. E.g. like the stuff that makes up tars and such... a little nasty... but quite small relative to CO and CO2 since the high temperature tends to atomize them. However, some of the coal and charcoal does burn away in the upper part of the furnace (where it is relatively cooler) and before it gets a chance to react. As well as producing some not so nice gases, it is a very energy intensive process. Silicon is never found in elemental form in nature. It must be separated from SiO2, which requires a lot of power, which in turn needs to be produced at generating stations.
As far as silicon used in semi-conductors goes, I'm not sure if they use electrolysis to refine it to ultra-pure levels. Maybe in some sort of deposition process from a gasous phase, but I am just guessing from what I have read in general chemistry related articles. The details of that type of processing are usually very top secret so I am not sure who could or would comment on that. And I mean either industrial secrets and likely in a military sense as well (it is probably of strategic value).
Personally, I think it started when companies started showing less and less loyalty to their employees so that they could squeeze every last drop of profit for the shareholders. Granted companies exist to make a profit, but you can hardly blame individuals from trying to squeeze every last drop of profit from companies, when the companies are doing the same to them. It's a two way street... why are people getting indignant over people trying to screw the company for more money for a change? Yeah yeah, I know, the company provides a living for them. But without the employee, the company cannot operate either. It's supposed to be symbiosis... that is until one side decides the other is a disposible commodity. At that point, it should not be a surprise when things get ugly.
The reason we put up with what companies dictate (in terms of pay and benefits) is generally because we don't have the muscle to push companies while they can push us (this is the original reason unions came into existance). But let's face it, we need each other (companies need people to work for them, and people need to work for companies). But when one side seeks to change the relationship to maximize their profit, why are we all surprised when the other side tries to push back. Some of you think the position of the contractors in this case is unethical. But can you tell me that corporations are always ethical when money is involved? If you say yes, I call bullshit. Everyone, people and corporations alike are all as ethical as they have to be when money is involved (or not as ethical as they can get away with).
Anyway, I say let them get as much as they can out of HP. Same goes for anyone else in that position. At least until some long term loyalty to employees is shown again.
Actually, I would think that most of the people on Slashdot recognize 'queue' as a 'line up' (at least those from outside of the U.S... and many within)... and from which, the people creating the data structures for the first time borrowed the word.
The way I understand it is that if your new library calls something from the GPL'd code, your code has to be GPL'd. If the GPL'd code calls your code, then the license from your code needs to be paid for, or your code needs something like LGPL. IANAL so take this with a grain of salt.
Actually I agree with you that nobody is entitled to software updates. However, since MS does provide MS Office updates, but not to Wine users (even if they paid for the product), I believe my point still stands: They look like jerks.
To add to your point about 'examining the product in its current state', you could also add, 'examine the track record of the vendor and how they treat their customers'. For those people or organizations that wanted to run Linux but still use MS Office, they should start looking at Open Office (or Star Office) more closely. Or any other 'office' product that runs under that O/S.
What if someone paid to purchase Microsoft Office, and chose to run it on Linux using Wine? Why should they not have access to convenient updates like the rest of the people who purchased MS Office? There are a number of software packages that run on both Windows and Linux and have easy mechanisms to ensure they are updated. Frisk software's F-Prot virus update comes to mind as one (mind you, you do have to set up a cron job on Linux, but that is pretty easy to set up, even for a newbie). I agree with the rest who think that MS just comes off looking like a bunch of jerks... like a whiney kid who didn't like being scored against during a game: "it's my ball, and I'm taking it home!"
I know this has been alluded to before, but I thought a direct reply to this post that has been marked insightful was warranted.
Slashdot Mirror
'Their' is possessive. Something belongs to them... it is theirs; their car; etc.
However, M$ did use their financial clout to kill the competition once they had the knowledge 'in-house' (it must be nice to be a multi-billionaire says I, somewhat jeolously).
An interesting blog on this by one of they key players who helped develope Spyglass Mosiac can be found here.
A suggestion would be to make it manditory for the loser of a nuisance lawsuit to have to pay all attorney and court costs... or at least an option the judge can apply if he/she sees fit (and make the judge show cause why it didn't apply if they don't impose it). Then a putz like this guy will think twice before he brings a bullshit lawsuit. He'll think about how much he would be paying with all the court costs and attorney's fees when he loses. And from the sounds of it (i.e. the number of judges who threw out his various cases and their comments...), he would have run out of money a long time ago.
Anyway, if something like this were in place, I think you would see a lot less of these kinds of cases. Business would flow a lot more smoothly, and the courts would get a break from going over these ridiculous cases. Mind you, the trial lawyers would probably throw a fit if you brought something like this in, in the 'States. Some of them might actually be forced to play tennis with their tennis shoes, instead of chasing ambulances. ;-)
Here is a link showing once person's experience and opinion on how dangerous it is: Aircraft Wire Arc Tracking. The fellow was an ex-boeing employee (retired after 36+ years) who has since passed away. Read his 'qualifications' link.
There are tonnes of news articles in the google link, and more if you play with the search query. $1,500.00 for a power cable? Not for me.
And when you think it's old and dried out, someone will start burning things with it.
Oriental 'Seagull' photographic paper (orientalphotousa.com) is still around and is a GREAT paper. Ansel Adams used to use it. I find it has a slightly brown tone, however if you give it a rinse in selenium toner (very dilute... like for archiving purposes, or less) the tones change to very black blacks, and very white whites. It is a fibre based paper though, so if you like to use resin coated, you won't like it. However, once you see what fibre based papers look like, you probably won't like resin coated again anyway. WAY better tones in fibre based paper.
Finally, I think there is more uniqueness in 'wet' photography than in digital, adding anther level to the art. It adds to whatever the thing is that makes a piece of art special. Each printed photo is unique, and is slightly different from the next, being that it was crafted by human hand. Each print is unique. While digital requires an artist behind it, once a print is made, it is reproduced without the artists hand... on a printer (if it is even printed). Which to me makes it less than something hand printed by the artist.
But then again it is all art. And that is the beauty of it... we all get to appreciate it in our own way. Unless of course it is 'performance art'... then yer jest f'ing goofy!!! ;-)
Agfa was good.
And if you still don't believe me, read this IBM article on memory leaks in Java applications. The garbage collector does NOT always collect uneeded objects that bad coding leaves accessable.
Memory leaks are caused by application programming. They happen when the programmer tells the program to ask for memory from the system, but doesn't return it to the system when done with it. In 'C' (malloc) and 'C++' (new) etc., the request for memory is explicit, and the programmer is responsible for having the program tell the operating system that it no longer needs the memory (e.g. 'free' for 'C', 'delete' for 'C++'... with C++ the implicit destructors can do some of the work, but it doesn't always let the programmer off the hook). The operating system is not responsible for reclaiming memory. It is told by the program, and not only that, the program tells it what block of memory to free up. If it doesn't and the program ends, then there is that much memory tied up that the operating system doesn't have access to any more.
Java's GC is supposed to overcome that by collecting any unreferenced memory during a program's lifetime and before it exits. But if the programmer codes in a way that keeps open references to unused/unreachable objects, then the application will be said to leak. Granted it will 'leak' in the JVM (asking the JVM for more memory), but the JVM will in turn ask the O/S for more memory until it reaches some predefined maximum, at which time it will crash. In the meantime, it sucks up resources and slows things down on the box that the JVM is running on. If this happens in an enterprise application running in a J2EE container (which presumably is supposed to provide a stable application environment 24/7, which means little leaks will add up over time), this can cause very unhappy customers. If it happens in a web browser because the JavaScript code is leaking, then you also have unhappy customers. Any time you lose system memory to a leak (even if it will be returned once the runtime environment is shut down), you will have performance impact and unhappy customers.
As an adendum, what I am trying to say that you cannot rely on a garbage collector to do everything for you. It cannot understand everything you are trying to do. As a programmer, you have to give it a little help.
Bubble bustin' time! Garbage collection doesn't always live up to its reputation. I have seen Java apps leak memory like a sieve. This one project I was working at would start up a production (!) EJB container in the morning, and by 13:00, it would have run out of memory and crashed. I told them to fix their leaks. When they got over arguing that the garbage collector prevents memory leaks and checked it against a memory profiler... they started fixing the memory leaks and the problem was solve.
In any case, I doubt that the garbage collection in the Javascript engines are anywhere near as sophisticated as in Java itself. So I would think it would be easier to leak memory. Anyway Mozilla has a bit of an article on this here.
Since so many software companies are outsourcing their programming shops to places like China anyway, why would this affect their sales?
What about the republicans in the Senate and House that are trying to make changes so that the American companies that make MTBE are no longer liable for health effects of MTBE on people? That is, so that they cannot be sued.
That is WAY too funny!
Something to think about: in order to be flammable you need concentrations of at least 5% CO in air (about the same as needed for natural gas). That's 50000 ppm. To put it in perspective if you were in a room with 800 - 1000 ppm CO for several hours, you would likely end up dead. If you walked into a room with 4000 to 5000 ppm CO, you might not even know what hit you as you hit the floor. It wouldn't be long before you died. So basically, if you used it for a fuel source, it would really suck if the pilot light went out. Maximum OSHA allowable limits in the workplace is 35 ppm. In the middle of typical rush hour traffic (I measured it with a portable meter): 50 ppm! Mind you in industry you are usually indoors where it can concentrate, and often there are very high levels behind it (our offgas lines had 75 to 80 % pure CO... even small leaks were dangerous... we had monitors and venting systems and escape air bottles everywhere).
Silicon is a metaloid element (sits on the boundary of metal and non-metal). In pure form it is non-conductive, but if you heat it to around at least 1000 degrees, it starts to conduct.
Silicone is a rubber. Simply put, silicon has similar properties to carbon (being in the same family) like being able to form chains. However since it is a much bigger atom, it is a little too heavy to be able to form long chains. When it gets a little too long it pulls itself apart. So you form a chain interspersed with oxygen (which forms very strong bonds) ...Si-O-Si-O-Si-O... and so on... polysiloxane. Then they start hanging other side chains and cross linking, etc. and you get different types of synthetic rubber. Anyway, I switched to programming and IT about 10 years ago (after the silicon project ended), so I would have to pull out my books to any deeper anyway. :-)
Si02 + 2C = 2CO + Si
Once this silicon is produced, it is refined into super-pure semiconductor grade silicon, or more usually, into silicone rubber pre-cursors. I used to work in silicon smelting R&D and so I have some idea about what I'm talking about. (We built and ran the worlds largest direct current arc furnace during a series of pilot runs in the early 90's to research making lower cost silicon. That was before Russia opened up. After they did, they flooded the market with cheaper silicon, and there was no point trying to create lower cost silicon.) The biggest use of silicon is in making silicone rubber (but not so many boobs any more). The raw material for ultra-pure silicon is taken from the raw material (not so pure silicon) used for silicone production.
Anyway, smelting silicon creates large volumes of CO. CO (carbon monoxide) is highly flammable, on the order of natural gas, and usually burns off to C02 at the top of the furnace bed. (CO could be used as a fuel like natural gas, but it is so poisonous it is not really safe to do so.) Since coal and charcoal are used in the process, other carbon by-products are also released, mostly in gaseous form. E.g. like the stuff that makes up tars and such... a little nasty... but quite small relative to CO and CO2 since the high temperature tends to atomize them. However, some of the coal and charcoal does burn away in the upper part of the furnace (where it is relatively cooler) and before it gets a chance to react. As well as producing some not so nice gases, it is a very energy intensive process. Silicon is never found in elemental form in nature. It must be separated from SiO2, which requires a lot of power, which in turn needs to be produced at generating stations.
As far as silicon used in semi-conductors goes, I'm not sure if they use electrolysis to refine it to ultra-pure levels. Maybe in some sort of deposition process from a gasous phase, but I am just guessing from what I have read in general chemistry related articles. The details of that type of processing are usually very top secret so I am not sure who could or would comment on that. And I mean either industrial secrets and likely in a military sense as well (it is probably of strategic value).
In Soviet Russia, old Koreans are GNOMEs.
The reason we put up with what companies dictate (in terms of pay and benefits) is generally because we don't have the muscle to push companies while they can push us (this is the original reason unions came into existance). But let's face it, we need each other (companies need people to work for them, and people need to work for companies). But when one side seeks to change the relationship to maximize their profit, why are we all surprised when the other side tries to push back. Some of you think the position of the contractors in this case is unethical. But can you tell me that corporations are always ethical when money is involved? If you say yes, I call bullshit. Everyone, people and corporations alike are all as ethical as they have to be when money is involved (or not as ethical as they can get away with).
Anyway, I say let them get as much as they can out of HP. Same goes for anyone else in that position. At least until some long term loyalty to employees is shown again.
Actually, I would think that most of the people on Slashdot recognize 'queue' as a 'line up' (at least those from outside of the U.S... and many within)... and from which, the people creating the data structures for the first time borrowed the word.
The way I understand it is that if your new library calls something from the GPL'd code, your code has to be GPL'd. If the GPL'd code calls your code, then the license from your code needs to be paid for, or your code needs something like LGPL. IANAL so take this with a grain of salt.
Whoever has lots of bread, doesn't have to eat shit.
Don't ask me why, but I like this page.
Debug only code - comments can lie.
To add to your point about 'examining the product in its current state', you could also add, 'examine the track record of the vendor and how they treat their customers'. For those people or organizations that wanted to run Linux but still use MS Office, they should start looking at Open Office (or Star Office) more closely. Or any other 'office' product that runs under that O/S.
I know this has been alluded to before, but I thought a direct reply to this post that has been marked insightful was warranted.