that I have found, which does treat games and gaming industry as a new art form, is the Russian "game.exe", in existance for over 10 years already, approximately 100 pages every month, reviewing the new releases, interviewing gaming industry professionals (from Levelord to Peter Molyneux), tracking the gaming industry and its companies - who bought whom and what it spells for the gamer, etc.
Some of it is what you would expect any magazine to write about games, and some (especially the reviews and general outlook on gaming) stems from the point of view that a game is - in its best case - an art form.
Communism and the reality in states like the Soviet Union have no more in common than a bread and a piece of concrete...
Which is pretty much, actually.
As somebody who has spent his first 15 years of life in the SU, and today reads Marx et al for the 19th century German philosophy course, I must say it sure looks to me like the SU was a pretty good example of communist ideas applied to the reality. When Marx declared himself materialist, he sure was being idealistic about that.
I think it would be batch compiled, safe (unless you use an explicit escape hatch), efficient, and usable by current mainstream programmers. It would also have a small, streamlined standard library. It's not rocket science--we have had such languages: Algol, Modula-3, Oberon, Simula, gcj-Java, and various Pascal variants.
The funny thing is that the languages you mention are generally pretty dead. And (correct me if I am wrong) have never really catched on. Might be a trend there?
> We still need a new language that combines the best of these breeds.
Hmm. Not sure if that is what you would like, but maybe try Pike? http://pike.ida.liu.se/ Been around for like 10 years, syntax close to C, usually described to be close to Python. Touted to be much faster tho.
-1 zonk You have Views on Java - fine. But trying to creating black PR just by picking up any tidbit of something that might show Java in any possible unfavourable way - I would have thought better of slashdot. So far only MS seemed to have been the punchbag.
Ah, so it's OK for me to come to US and start selling stuff, and if US passes a law saying that people who sell the type of stuff I sell, must provide certain docs for it, then it should be OK for me to say - screw you?
1. It seems hardly viable to compare industrial monopolies of the 19th century, to the global corporations of the 21st. 2. As a citizen of a country which was formerly part of the USSR, I still see a number of state/partial-state-owned monopolies in my country, and I see what has happened in the sectors where monopoly has ended. The pricing and quality is by no means in favour of the first.
Nah, it'd just crash the most stupid governments who went and invested in MS software in the first place, creating healthy advantage for the smaller countries who hadn't been able to afford MS and went opensource for their critical services.
Hmm, I wonder if you could direct me to the nearest burgeoning worm market in my former Soviet block country? I am sure I'd like to get to know somebody from organized crime, if I happen to lose my job. Gee, they might even pay me well, and maybe provide me with some cement shoes gratis.
Honestly, have you seen too many Holywood shit? You do sound a bit like as if you were thinking bears walk in the streets down here.
Even more than "a lot of IT/programmer types", Eastern Europe currently has jobs for them. Down here it seems to be almost as bad as one can read about other places -- you gotta hire people who are underqualified, simply because there isn't anyone better available - many of the decent ones moved to the other places of EU where the pay is better.
So it wouldn't be that easy to find a decent unemployed programmer. If the "burgeoning spam market" has to rely on the currently unemployed E-Europe programmer, I can, but feel pity for the organized crime.
Re:The problem with Java is the programmers
on
Java Is So 90s
·
· Score: 1
The problem with Java is that if you're a non-programming manager its very hard to tell the difference between a good java programmer and an incompetent java programmer. Both build software that displays a window on your screen which responds more or less correctly when you press the buttons. That the incompetent one simply caught and ignored all the exceptions isn't obvious until you're 18 months in to development with a product that can't be made to work. That the good programmer then says, "I told you so" is unhelpful.
--
I fail to see how PHP would be better in that respect. Considering also that Java generally has a bit steeper learning curve, in my experience, it is all too easy to find programmers who claim to know PHP, but in fact barely know the language. Still what little knowledge they have helps them produce some code that SEEMS to work. Until you are in the proverbial 18th month of development.
LAMP vs Java - ridiculous
on
Java Is So 90s
·
· Score: 1
Decent applications can be made in LAMP (by that in this case I am understanding Linux+Apache+Mysql+PHP), and decent apps can be made in Java.
The real difference seems to come, when you are reaching some level of complexity of the program. At some point the P(hp) part of LAMP becomes an obstacle and also the M(ysql) one.
After working a year for a PHP-based portal service, 3 years as IT manager for a bank, overseeing a Java-made internet banking application, and currently doing server-side support for a Linux-Lighttpd/Zeus-Mysql-Php portal application [A(pache) was thrown out because of the performance issues], now already spanning twenty servers... I am more and more convinced that LAMP development is limited to small-medium applications.
After all, the developers were forced to replace parts of PHP code with C-written custom PHP extensions for speed, and parts of Mysql with (again) custom written C application servers, again - for speed.
Whether a Java is an answer always, is a good question. But it supports a number of things, which make life easier for "enterprise" level computing, which LAMP does not support.
Thus I see the original post as yet another flamebait. This "platform war" tries to compare a sedan to a truck. These types of cars are built for different purposes.
In direct contravention of the recent vote by the European Parliament to curtail Software Patents, the Irish Presidency of the European Union has surreptitiously
reinstated unlimited software patent language into the text of a statement to be adopted by the European Council of Ministers on Monday, May 17, without further debate!
However, as I understand, you still don't have all 5000 email users sending outbound mail DIRECTLY to recipient, do you?
As long as they use your company's mail server (which should generally have an MX record, right?), they should be classified as sources of outbound, not inbound mail. A thing which I see I didn't clarify in my original post - I only use this for inbound mail to my domain from outside.
As regards MX records not listed for outgoing-only mail servers, I can see the reasoning, and I admit it is an issue. Still, in my particular case, I believe the benefits far outweigh the potential problems.
Speaking of spam, I see at least one immediate solution I have used myself.
As DNS is a much more hierarchical and restrictive system, use it to assist you. Configure your mail servers to drop mails from ip addresses that do not have associated valid MX records. That would take care of 99% of the hacked boxes, which are typically end-user computers that have some reverse DNS at best. Ie. if a 1.2.3.4 host contacts your mailserver and wants to give you something, accept it only if 1.2.3.4 is listed as an MX for a domain.
This, as I understand, _is_ contrary to a particular RFC, but what is the percentage of valid (and most probably DNS misconfigured) hosts that won't be able to contact you, and what is thus the price? I have done it on my domain mailbox, and this has effectively shut down 100% of all the spam that has been pouring due to the recent Windows spam worms.
Sunrays + Suns, as was suggested previously, or maybe LTSP (http://www.ltsp.org/).
It still amazes me that people use fully-featured computers for large networks with simple user box requirements. Perhaps there is no company that offers LTSP-based solutions? But what about Sun's xterms?
you could have a small diesel engine (running a biodiesel mix no doubt) with these magnetic helpers generating power (the generator has these helpers too)to drive another electric motor (with helpers)
Hmm... what exactly is the point of having the smaller engine generating power for the larger one instead of having a larger one doing all the job?
So, to sum the above comments.
1. The motor is assumed to be a hoax by people who take notice of the 330% efficiency mentioned. Which is pretty understandable. Nobody wants to rewrite the rules of physics that have served us so well so far (Note: "rules", not "laws").
2. What Tom Bearden's highly interesting comment claims though (see somewhere in comments), is that the efficiency is gained by exploiting other source of energy.
Ie. it is not 1 W input -> 2 W output, but rather:
1W input + X W other source -> 2 W output.
In this case, the efficiency may well be very low actually, as long as most of it comes from a source that requires no cost from the user.
Tom's post mentions an analogy with a windmill. You may well need electricity to run it, but basically you rely on wind, not electricity, to turn the blades.
The inventor's motor is thus probably more adequately called a "magnetic"/"magneto"-motor rather than an electromotor.
Some interesting texts to that effect are mentione d in the Flying Dutchman Project:
http://www.fdp.nu/thebook/default.asp
including the instructions for building your own constructions that demonstrate the principle (and sound quite practical, at least in the post):
http://www.fdp.nu/thebook/rpmm.txt
If we take a look at the virus and some of the things it has caused from a specific standpoint - reputations:
SCO website down - does it hurt their business? I guess not much, however, it does give them good publicity - that of a victim; Link #1 for Linux (Linuxoid SCO haters).
Microsoft website targeted but not down -- good publicity for Microsoft; Link #2 for Linux (Linuxoid MS haters).
Millions of losses and aggravated users - extremely bad publicity for the virus and people associated with it, of course;
So, the net effect of the virus has certainly hurt the reputation of Linux/OpSrc world, because its targets can try to link the virus to L/OS by its choice of targets.
Based on the current knowledge of the virus and the above, I would say there are 3 basic motivations for the virus creator(s):
Spammers testing their tools, as indicated in the above/. comments. In that case SCO/MS attack would simply be a way to have publicity for checking to see how their virus is doing.
A zealot trying to hurt SCO/MS. In that case he was very dumb -- of course it is not impossible though, so we can't rule this possibility out.
It was a publicity stunt by Microsoft. Could be linked to first motivation too. Note that the net effect of the virus for Microsoft has been beneficial PR wise. After all, their systems withstood the attack -- never mind it was said that the attack on MS was much weaker.
Noting also that the virus creator has had considerable Windows programming skills (which is not the experience generally associated with OpenSource programmers), I believe that the 3d motivation is not entirely impossible either. Especially if it was linked with first.
Of course.
Except that do you think it's going to happen fast?
Do you think you'll live to see it?
I wouldn't think living standards and expenses are going to skyrocket in India that fast.
Outlaw the guns, and only outlaws will carry guns.
As the discussion goes, there seem to be 2 issues with guns:
#1 they are used for premediated criminal activities, like robberies, murders, assassinations, etc.;
#2 they are used in "crimes of passion", ie. by people who are generally law-abiding, but "just have had it enough".
While there is maybe a valid point in saying that "having a gun makes manslaughter easier" - psychologically and physically it might be easier to squeeze the trigger, than to snatch a knife from kitchen table, simply saying it does not mean it is proved. I do believe there might be some research which indicates your point, but then please quote it, rather than just assume it is so.
There is a difference of course, between owning a firearm which can reasonably be used for defence, like a pistol, and owning an AK47 or a sniper rifle. If the things are that bad you need THAT for your PROTECTION, you are probably better off requesting your defence from the police anyway.
An interesting point to consider, by the way, might be that most totalitarian countries have always outlawed guns for their citizens. Whereas not a lot of democracies do.
If I'd be a robber, outlawing the guns for general populace would make me grin broadly though.
Slashdot Mirror
that I have found, which does treat games and gaming industry as a new art form, is the Russian "game.exe", in existance for over 10 years already, approximately 100 pages every month, reviewing the new releases, interviewing gaming industry professionals (from Levelord to Peter Molyneux), tracking the gaming industry and its companies - who bought whom and what it spells for the gamer, etc.
Some of it is what you would expect any magazine to write about games, and some (especially the reviews and general outlook on gaming) stems from the point of view that a game is - in its best case - an art form.
Communism and the reality in states like the Soviet Union have no more in common than a bread and a piece of concrete...
Which is pretty much, actually.
As somebody who has spent his first 15 years of life in the SU, and today reads Marx et al for the 19th century German philosophy course, I must say it sure looks to me like the SU was a pretty good example of communist ideas applied to the reality. When Marx declared himself materialist, he sure was being idealistic about that.
I think it would be batch compiled, safe (unless you use an explicit escape hatch), efficient, and usable by current mainstream programmers. It would also have a small, streamlined standard library. It's not rocket science--we have had such languages: Algol, Modula-3, Oberon, Simula, gcj-Java, and various Pascal variants. The funny thing is that the languages you mention are generally pretty dead. And (correct me if I am wrong) have never really catched on. Might be a trend there?
Hehe, got me :)
You did have to search a bit.. I mean: 2001-11-25?
And then again, we may find some towns/cities in the US where this happens too:
http://www.igorilla.com/gorilla/animal/
> We still need a new language that combines the best of these breeds.
Hmm. Not sure if that is what you would like, but maybe try Pike? http://pike.ida.liu.se/
Been around for like 10 years, syntax close to C, usually described to be close to Python. Touted to be much faster tho.
-1 zonk
You have Views on Java - fine. But trying to creating black PR just by picking up any tidbit of something that might show Java in any possible unfavourable way - I would have thought better of slashdot. So far only MS seemed to have been the punchbag.
Ah, so it's OK for me to come to US and start selling stuff, and if US passes a law saying that people who sell the type of stuff I sell, must provide certain docs for it, then it should be OK for me to say - screw you?
1. It seems hardly viable to compare industrial monopolies of the 19th century, to the global corporations of the 21st.
2. As a citizen of a country which was formerly part of the USSR, I still see a number of state/partial-state-owned monopolies in my country, and I see what has happened in the sectors where monopoly has ended. The pricing and quality is by no means in favour of the first.
Nah, it'd just crash the most stupid governments who went and invested in MS software in the first place, creating healthy advantage for the smaller countries who hadn't been able to afford MS and went opensource for their critical services.
Types, eh?
Hmm, I wonder if you could direct me to the nearest burgeoning worm market in my former Soviet block country? I am sure I'd like to get to know somebody from organized crime, if I happen to lose my job. Gee, they might even pay me well, and maybe provide me with some cement shoes gratis.
Honestly, have you seen too many Holywood shit? You do sound a bit like as if you were thinking bears walk in the streets down here.
Even more than "a lot of IT/programmer types", Eastern Europe currently has jobs for them. Down here it seems to be almost as bad as one can read about other places -- you gotta hire people who are underqualified, simply because there isn't anyone better available - many of the decent ones moved to the other places of EU where the pay is better.
So it wouldn't be that easy to find a decent unemployed programmer. If the "burgeoning spam market" has to rely on the currently unemployed E-Europe programmer, I can, but feel pity for the organized crime.
The problem with Java is that if you're a non-programming manager its very hard to tell the difference between a good java programmer and an incompetent java programmer. Both build software that displays a window on your screen which responds more or less correctly when you press the buttons. That the incompetent one simply caught and ignored all the exceptions isn't obvious until you're 18 months in to development with a product that can't be made to work. That the good programmer then says, "I told you so" is unhelpful.
--
I fail to see how PHP would be better in that respect. Considering also that Java generally has a bit steeper learning curve, in my experience, it is all too easy to find programmers who claim to know PHP, but in fact barely know the language. Still what little knowledge they have helps them produce some code that SEEMS to work. Until you are in the proverbial 18th month of development.
Decent applications can be made in LAMP (by that in this case I am understanding Linux+Apache+Mysql+PHP), and decent apps can be made in Java.
The real difference seems to come, when you are reaching some level of complexity of the program. At some point the P(hp) part of LAMP becomes an obstacle and also the M(ysql) one.
After working a year for a PHP-based portal service, 3 years as IT manager for a bank, overseeing a Java-made internet banking application, and currently doing server-side support for a Linux-Lighttpd/Zeus-Mysql-Php portal application [A(pache) was thrown out because of the performance issues], now already spanning twenty servers... I am more and more convinced that LAMP development is limited to small-medium applications.
After all, the developers were forced to replace parts of PHP code with C-written custom PHP extensions for speed, and parts of Mysql with (again) custom written C application servers, again - for speed.
Whether a Java is an answer always, is a good question. But it supports a number of things, which make life easier for "enterprise" level computing, which LAMP does not support.
Thus I see the original post as yet another flamebait. This "platform war" tries to compare a sedan to a truck. These types of cars are built for different purposes.
Funny to see the parent of my note at score 2, while the irrelevent conspiration theory parent of parent being 4.
Indeed, these were two rather wild guesses, and do not sound too convincing.
Well, I didn't say it was a perfect solution.
However, as I understand, you still don't have all 5000 email users sending outbound mail DIRECTLY to recipient, do you?
As long as they use your company's mail server (which should generally have an MX record, right?), they should be classified as sources of outbound, not inbound mail. A thing which I see I didn't clarify in my original post - I only use this for inbound mail to my domain from outside.
As regards MX records not listed for outgoing-only mail servers, I can see the reasoning, and I admit it is an issue. Still, in my particular case, I believe the benefits far outweigh the potential problems.
A valid concern. However, if the outgoing servers needn't accept mail, why not block incoming port 25 traffic for them on firewall level already?
Speaking of spam, I see at least one immediate solution I have used myself.
As DNS is a much more hierarchical and restrictive system, use it to assist you. Configure your mail servers to drop mails from ip addresses that do not have associated valid MX records. That would take care of 99% of the hacked boxes, which are typically end-user computers that have some reverse DNS at best.
Ie. if a 1.2.3.4 host contacts your mailserver and wants to give you something, accept it only if 1.2.3.4 is listed as an MX for a domain.
This, as I understand, _is_ contrary to a particular RFC, but what is the percentage of valid (and most probably DNS misconfigured) hosts that won't be able to contact you, and what is thus the price? I have done it on my domain mailbox, and this has effectively shut down 100% of all the spam that has been pouring due to the recent Windows spam worms.
Exactly.
Sunrays + Suns, as was suggested previously, or maybe LTSP (http://www.ltsp.org/).
It still amazes me that people use fully-featured computers for large networks with simple user box requirements. Perhaps there is no company that offers LTSP-based solutions? But what about Sun's xterms?
Hmm... what exactly is the point of having the smaller engine generating power for the larger one instead of having a larger one doing all the job?
So, to sum the above comments. 1. The motor is assumed to be a hoax by people who take notice of the 330% efficiency mentioned. Which is pretty understandable. Nobody wants to rewrite the rules of physics that have served us so well so far (Note: "rules", not "laws"). 2. What Tom Bearden's highly interesting comment claims though (see somewhere in comments), is that the efficiency is gained by exploiting other source of energy. Ie. it is not 1 W input -> 2 W output, but rather: 1W input + X W other source -> 2 W output. In this case, the efficiency may well be very low actually, as long as most of it comes from a source that requires no cost from the user. Tom's post mentions an analogy with a windmill. You may well need electricity to run it, but basically you rely on wind, not electricity, to turn the blades. The inventor's motor is thus probably more adequately called a "magnetic"/"magneto"-motor rather than an electromotor. Some interesting texts to that effect are mentione d in the Flying Dutchman Project: http://www.fdp.nu/thebook/default.asp including the instructions for building your own constructions that demonstrate the principle (and sound quite practical, at least in the post): http://www.fdp.nu/thebook/rpmm.txt
- SCO website down - does it hurt their business? I guess not much, however, it does give them good publicity - that of a victim; Link #1 for Linux (Linuxoid SCO haters).
- Microsoft website targeted but not down -- good publicity for Microsoft; Link #2 for Linux (Linuxoid MS haters).
- Millions of losses and aggravated users - extremely bad publicity for the virus and people associated with it, of course;
So, the net effect of the virus has certainly hurt the reputation of Linux/OpSrc world, because its targets can try to link the virus to L/OS by its choice of targets.Based on the current knowledge of the virus and the above, I would say there are 3 basic motivations for the virus creator(s):
- Spammers testing their tools, as indicated in the above
/. comments. In that case SCO/MS attack would simply be a way to have publicity for checking to see how their virus is doing.
- A zealot trying to hurt SCO/MS. In that case he was very dumb -- of course it is not impossible though, so we can't rule this possibility out.
- It was a publicity stunt by Microsoft. Could be linked to first motivation too. Note that the net effect of the virus for Microsoft has been beneficial PR wise. After all, their systems withstood the attack -- never mind it was said that the attack on MS was much weaker.
Noting also that the virus creator has had considerable Windows programming skills (which is not the experience generally associated with OpenSource programmers), I believe that the 3d motivation is not entirely impossible either. Especially if it was linked with first.Of course. Except that do you think it's going to happen fast? Do you think you'll live to see it? I wouldn't think living standards and expenses are going to skyrocket in India that fast.
Outlaw the guns, and only outlaws will carry guns. As the discussion goes, there seem to be 2 issues with guns: #1 they are used for premediated criminal activities, like robberies, murders, assassinations, etc.; #2 they are used in "crimes of passion", ie. by people who are generally law-abiding, but "just have had it enough". While there is maybe a valid point in saying that "having a gun makes manslaughter easier" - psychologically and physically it might be easier to squeeze the trigger, than to snatch a knife from kitchen table, simply saying it does not mean it is proved. I do believe there might be some research which indicates your point, but then please quote it, rather than just assume it is so. There is a difference of course, between owning a firearm which can reasonably be used for defence, like a pistol, and owning an AK47 or a sniper rifle. If the things are that bad you need THAT for your PROTECTION, you are probably better off requesting your defence from the police anyway. An interesting point to consider, by the way, might be that most totalitarian countries have always outlawed guns for their citizens. Whereas not a lot of democracies do. If I'd be a robber, outlawing the guns for general populace would make me grin broadly though.