The code lines correspond to blank lines. SCO has obviously copyrighted blank lines.
Now that SCO owns blank lines, and Microsoft owns ones and zeroes, there won't be much left for innovation! As an interim solution, I propose that we all program in machine code only, and rather than using binary, we all use a very similar number base whose digits will be 2 and 3 instead of 0 and 1.
In case you need to be reminded, the 2000 election did not work out as smoothly or as straight-forward as you describe. With Florida having 25 electoral votes, and with lots of dangling chads hanging about, the 271/266 electoral vote count you mention was entirely in question. One can only hope that 2004 isn't 2000 all over again.
You know who Sharman Networks needs to defend themselves from the MIPI/IFPI/RIAA/MPAA thugs? None other than Terry Tate, office linebacker, of course!:^)
I'd rather know about the money I'll be making five to ten years into the job.
Try the Princeton Review's Career Research and Planning website -- they list information about whether job conditions (including salaries) improve or worsen for your career field at the 5 year and 10 year points.
Nah, it will boot NetBSD (whose slogan is "Of course it runs NetBSD."), and then sit there and look cool, and do absolutely nothing since there is no hard disk, keyboard, or mouse....:^)
Rather than use these new fangled pseudo-silent power supplies, we could all revert to systems that don't require fans on the CPU and power supply. I still have a Pentium Pro 180 MHz system that runs fanless and doesn't overheat. The G4 Cube, IIRC, was also entirely sans fans by design. I remember old 286 and some 386 CPUs would run cool to the touch. Surely, there is a better way!:^)
- Consistent GUI like Aqua vs. Metal vs. Classic vs. 3rd party UI like KPT or Lightwave? I'm interested in your definition of "consistent". Also, Gnome has descriptive buttons too ("discard" and "save").
GNOME didn't have those when I used to use it... My definition of consistent is that there are File/Edit/Window/Help menus in most every app, and the options inside those menus are nearly the same. In no way do X11 apps have this level of consistency. GNOME and KDE improve on this, but there are enough things in each that you end up needing to run both to "get stuff done".
- Gnome has also sensible defaults. But you can change things, if you want. But you don't have to.
Agreed. I'm not knocking GNOME so much as I'm knocking the library compatibility problems with a lot of Linux applications, and the endless hacking necessary just to start getting work done.
- self containing applications - some are, some are not. See also iTunes. Or any application that uses external frameworks.
Very, very few programs need to actually be installed. You can drag and drop most apps (easily greater than 95%) around from computer to computer with no other tinkering necessary. Linux does well with its packages (especially.deb), but again, there are enough packages that have to be built from source (and therefore require odd libraries) that it gets frustrating after a while.
- iPhoto is slow. Dog slow. And you can't order digital prints if you don't live in USA or Canada.
iPhoto 4 (which just came out) is amazingly fast. It loads my 2,800 photo collection in less than 10 seconds, and I can scroll through it without delay on a 550 MHz G4. Digital prints are offered through Kodak, which currently does not offer printing outside the USA or Canada. Complain to Kodak about this, not Apple.
- Linux has no product activation.
That is correct. Windows does, though (remember I was comparing OS X to both Windows and Linux).
- Linux just works too (For me. YMMV.)
It too worked for me for six years, until I realized that OS X is more of what I want/need for a desktop. I got sick of the endless tinkering just to get stuff to work right.
- You can have encrypted fs too. But yes, it is not one click.
Touche.
You forgot OSX downsides:
I didn't forget these, as I don't find them to be problems.
- to play media files, you need to download MPlayer or VLC. Linux applications, right?
What media files are you referring to? I can play most every format (with the exception of DiVX) with Quicktime. Even then, there is a DiVX plugin for Quicktime. Quicktime originally came out over a decade ago, and it defined computer multimedia as we know it today.
- MS Office sucks. Not just like Windows version, Mac version sucks even more. No Unicode support on Unicode OS? Scrambled characters, if they are not in US-ASCII charset? There goes grandaparent's comment about flawless.doc opening. OpenOffice.org does better than that.
Blame Microsoft, not Apple. Even with the Unicode issues, it manages to open my resume in one page, whereas OpenOffice (and practically every other word processor that claims to speak MS-Office-ese) messes up and makes it span into two pages.
I don't know what's funnier -- the fact that the warspying guy's name was "Massive White Dude" (or "MWD" for short), or the fact that the reporter misspelled it as "WMD" in the second to last paragraph...
- Applications use a consistent GUI, unlike Linux (and sometimes even Windows with its ideas like "To shut down, click on 'Start'"). One big difference from Windows and Linux is that most OS X dialog boxes have button text that is written in verbs (such as "Save file" and "Don't save file" instead of "Yes" and "No"). That way you can quickly look at a dialog box and know what to do without even reading the full text. When you have no time at all to get something important done, this truly helps.
- Default application settings often make sense. The amount of settings I need to change to set it up for my liking is minimal.
- For those times when default keyboard combos are crappy (rare), you can use keyboard combo remapping to custom-map menu options to keys (yet another Panther only option*) -- under System Preferences -> Keyboard & Mouse -> Keyboard Shortcuts. Keyboard combo remapping is easier with GNOME, I'll admit, but I have always had trouble with it keeping the changes I make.
- Applications are self-contained, meaning they don't have their files scattered across multiple directories. You could copy your already-installed applications over to another computer and they would work perfectly. Most applications you can just drag into your "Applications" folder/subdirectory and be done with it -- no other step is necessary.
- iPhoto works very, very well with digital cameras. The prints you can order online from Kodak are excellent and easy to order.
- No product activation to worry about.
- Unlike Linux, the thing just works. There is no tinkering required to get the results I want. Unlike Windows, it doesn't crash and behave oddly. I can still get Windows 2000 and XP to crash and act quirky on occasion.
- Attention to detail -- lots of the OS software has intuitive features that make life easier. Try typing the first few letters of a long word (such as "unequivocally") into Mail or any program with a text box, and hit alt-Esc. It comes up with a list that lets you pick the words that start with those first few letters. Also, you can right click in any text box and tell it to "Check Spelling as You Type". Programs will remember this setting and apply it to future emails, web pages, text files, etc.
- FileVault can encrypt your home directory (wait a few versions to use this though, as it's kinda buggy right now). I know that Linux can encrypt its entire filesystem, but is it as simple as clicking a checkbox?
Anyway, the list goes on and on... I remember the first time I read Jamie Zawinski's quote, "Linux is only free if your time has no value", I completely disagreed with it... Although, I realized after a few years that I was only in high school when I was learning Linux back in '96, and my time pretty much had no value back then. Now that I've grown up somewhat, and my time does have more value, I don't really have the time to be tinkering with my computer for six hours a day. You know the process -- trying to get something to work, just so you can then get to work on what you were intending to work on in the first place... That doesn't cut it when you need results quickly.
Anyway, Apple has been great in filling the void for a very well-functioning UNIX laptop system, and I praise them for that.
Pardon my asking, but do you have low-grade 3rd party RAM installed? I've heard that using low-grade RAM can cause sleep problems with Powerbooks... I put my 2 yr. old Powerbook to sleep (and wake it back up) many, many times daily, and it has never had an issue with it before.
I was born and raised in Orlando, FL, home of many theme parks... I have to say that the line shown in that video rivals all lines I've ever stood in at theme parks (yes, even including "King Kong" when the ride first came out at Universal Studios)!
Even if they did tank, I still find it strange that their website displays jibberish... If they were holding on to the domain, they could have at least directed folks to GNOME.org, or made a huge error 404 page as their homepage.
Andy Hertzfeld is one of the guys who helped design the original Mac, and also one of the people behind Eazel, the GNOME UI polishing group. Eazel was the group that contributed Nautilus file manager to GNOME. Strangely, Eazel's webpage now displays jibberish...
cygwin provides a set of Win32 libraries that provide reimplementations of Linux functions that are necessary for a Linux app to run.
Yes, that is correct. You can think of Cygwin as being like Wine, but exactly the reverse (i.e. a UNIX-like layer running on Windows, as opposed to a Windows-like layer running on UNIX)...
Of course, the value of redundancy must of course be balanced with the overall cost of the system, which can be measured in money, man-hours, and weight...
1. you'd have to increase the complexity of the device even more, exposing it to a higher risk of failure statistically
While that statement is correct for adding components in series, it is not correct when applied to adding components for redundancy (i.e. in parallel). Adding another CPU in parallel increases the redundancy, and therefore decreases the risk of failure statistically. Here is the math for both types:
Series: If I add two components in series to a system, with reliability of R_1 and R_2, respectively, the overall system reliability is:
R_series = R_1 * R_2
To demonstrate this with real numbers, let's assume the values of R_1 = 0.95 and R_2 = 0.90. R_series would equal 0.95 * 0.90 = 0.855, or 85.5%. So, adding components in series makes reliability worse than the original reliability of either of the two components.
Parallel: On the other hand, If I add two components in parallel, with reliability of R_1 and R_2, respectively, the overall system reliability is:
R_parallel = 1-(1-R_1)*(1-R_2)
Using the same values for R_1 and R_2 as above, the value of R_parallel would be 1-(1-0.95)*(1-0.90) = 0.995, or 99.5%. Redundant systems such as this are a good thing, because the overall chance of system failure can often be greatly reduced.
Of course, the value of redundancy must of course be balanced with the overall cost of the system, which can be measured in money, man-hours, and weight... Most introductory courses in engineering management explain these tradeoffs in good detail, and help to understand how to maximize a project's reliability while minimizing the overall system cost.
One of the most fascinating engineering management issues with Spirit and Opportunity is that the number of man-hours dedicated to both rovers is very limited, and now that Spirit is failing, less people will be available to make sure that Opportunity is going to land and operate successfully. The extra added cost of adding a second CPU or extra RAM to the rovers may well have already paid itself off, just for that very reason. A lack of man-hours devoted to Opportunity could spell as much doom to the project as a design flaw, but ultimately both cost money to fix. It all boils down to: "faster, cheaper, better -- pick any two."
While I agree with your point, I believe it mostly applies to stationary situations. In situations where you're moving on a motorcycle/snowmobile/etc. very quickly and in freezing temperatures, I could see this as a great improvement in glove technology. I, for one, welcome our new glove-making overlords.:^)
That's the drawback of sending multiple identical probes: if one is intrinsically fucked, they all are.
That depends on whether the problem is related to the rover design itself, or is simply due to circumstance. In other words, something unique could have happened to Spirit to incapacitate it that may or may not also happen to Opportunity. We'll see in a few days...
Slashdot Mirror
I think one thing can be said about Slashdot users... We do it using brute force. :^)
In case you need to be reminded, the 2000 election did not work out as smoothly or as straight-forward as you describe. With Florida having 25 electoral votes, and with lots of dangling chads hanging about, the 271/266 electoral vote count you mention was entirely in question. One can only hope that 2004 isn't 2000 all over again.
You know who Sharman Networks needs to defend themselves from the MIPI/IFPI/RIAA/MPAA thugs? None other than Terry Tate, office linebacker, of course! :^)
Nah, it will boot NetBSD (whose slogan is "Of course it runs NetBSD."), and then sit there and look cool, and do absolutely nothing since there is no hard disk, keyboard, or mouse.... :^)
I guess we can always admire the blinkenprompt...
The official release of PithHelmet now supports Safari 1.2... Download here. If you like the software, please donate to him.
Rather than use these new fangled pseudo-silent power supplies, we could all revert to systems that don't require fans on the CPU and power supply. I still have a Pentium Pro 180 MHz system that runs fanless and doesn't overheat. The G4 Cube, IIRC, was also entirely sans fans by design. I remember old 286 and some 386 CPUs would run cool to the touch. Surely, there is a better way! :^)
Correct. However, keep in mind that OS X Mail had this feature before Mozilla.
Correction: Panther has Expose and virtual desktops.
GNOME didn't have those when I used to use it... My definition of consistent is that there are File/Edit/Window/Help menus in most every app, and the options inside those menus are nearly the same. In no way do X11 apps have this level of consistency. GNOME and KDE improve on this, but there are enough things in each that you end up needing to run both to "get stuff done".
Agreed. I'm not knocking GNOME so much as I'm knocking the library compatibility problems with a lot of Linux applications, and the endless hacking necessary just to start getting work done.
Very, very few programs need to actually be installed. You can drag and drop most apps (easily greater than 95%) around from computer to computer with no other tinkering necessary. Linux does well with its packages (especially
iPhoto 4 (which just came out) is amazingly fast. It loads my 2,800 photo collection in less than 10 seconds, and I can scroll through it without delay on a 550 MHz G4. Digital prints are offered through Kodak, which currently does not offer printing outside the USA or Canada. Complain to Kodak about this, not Apple.
That is correct. Windows does, though (remember I was comparing OS X to both Windows and Linux).
It too worked for me for six years, until I realized that OS X is more of what I want/need for a desktop. I got sick of the endless tinkering just to get stuff to work right.
Touche.
I didn't forget these, as I don't find them to be problems.
What media files are you referring to? I can play most every format (with the exception of DiVX) with Quicktime. Even then, there is a DiVX plugin for Quicktime. Quicktime originally came out over a decade ago, and it defined computer multimedia as we know it today.
Blame Microsoft, not Apple. Even with the Unicode issues, it manages to open my resume in one page, whereas OpenOffice (and practically every other word processor that claims to speak MS-Office-ese) messes up and makes it span into two pages.
I don't know what's funnier -- the fact that the warspying guy's name was "Massive White Dude" (or "MWD" for short), or the fact that the reporter misspelled it as "WMD" in the second to last paragraph...
Here is my semi-complete comparison between OS X and other OSes (namely Windows and Linux):
- Kick-ass junk mail filtering (it uses Bayesian filtering, which is a very smart way to detect junk mail).
- Expose
- Applications use a consistent GUI, unlike Linux (and sometimes even Windows with its ideas like "To shut down, click on 'Start'"). One big difference from Windows and Linux is that most OS X dialog boxes have button text that is written in verbs (such as "Save file" and "Don't save file" instead of "Yes" and "No"). That way you can quickly look at a dialog box and know what to do without even reading the full text. When you have no time at all to get something important done, this truly helps.
- Default application settings often make sense. The amount of settings I need to change to set it up for my liking is minimal.
- For those times when default keyboard combos are crappy (rare), you can use keyboard combo remapping to custom-map menu options to keys (yet another Panther only option*) -- under System Preferences -> Keyboard & Mouse -> Keyboard Shortcuts. Keyboard combo remapping is easier with GNOME, I'll admit, but I have always had trouble with it keeping the changes I make.
- Applications are self-contained, meaning they don't have their files scattered across multiple directories. You could copy your already-installed applications over to another computer and they would work perfectly. Most applications you can just drag into your "Applications" folder/subdirectory and be done with it -- no other step is necessary.
- iPhoto works very, very well with digital cameras. The prints you can order online from Kodak are excellent and easy to order.
- No product activation to worry about.
- Unlike Linux, the thing just works. There is no tinkering required to get the results I want. Unlike Windows, it doesn't crash and behave oddly. I can still get Windows 2000 and XP to crash and act quirky on occasion.
- Attention to detail -- lots of the OS software has intuitive features that make life easier. Try typing the first few letters of a long word (such as "unequivocally") into Mail or any program with a text box, and hit alt-Esc. It comes up with a list that lets you pick the words that start with those first few letters. Also, you can right click in any text box and tell it to "Check Spelling as You Type". Programs will remember this setting and apply it to future emails, web pages, text files, etc.
- FileVault can encrypt your home directory (wait a few versions to use this though, as it's kinda buggy right now). I know that Linux can encrypt its entire filesystem, but is it as simple as clicking a checkbox?
Anyway, the list goes on and on... I remember the first time I read Jamie Zawinski's quote, "Linux is only free if your time has no value", I completely disagreed with it... Although, I realized after a few years that I was only in high school when I was learning Linux back in '96, and my time pretty much had no value back then. Now that I've grown up somewhat, and my time does have more value, I don't really have the time to be tinkering with my computer for six hours a day. You know the process -- trying to get something to work, just so you can then get to work on what you were intending to work on in the first place... That doesn't cut it when you need results quickly.
Anyway, Apple has been great in filling the void for a very well-functioning UNIX laptop system, and I praise them for that.
Pardon my asking, but do you have low-grade 3rd party RAM installed? I've heard that using low-grade RAM can cause sleep problems with Powerbooks... I put my 2 yr. old Powerbook to sleep (and wake it back up) many, many times daily, and it has never had an issue with it before.
You're hired! :^)
I was born and raised in Orlando, FL, home of many theme parks... I have to say that the line shown in that video rivals all lines I've ever stood in at theme parks (yes, even including "King Kong" when the ride first came out at Universal Studios)!
Or better yet, "we need someone with 15 years experience with OS X", even though it's only been out for around 4 now. :^)
Even if they did tank, I still find it strange that their website displays jibberish... If they were holding on to the domain, they could have at least directed folks to GNOME.org, or made a huge error 404 page as their homepage.
Andy Hertzfeld is one of the guys who helped design the original Mac, and also one of the people behind Eazel, the GNOME UI polishing group. Eazel was the group that contributed Nautilus file manager to GNOME. Strangely, Eazel's webpage now displays jibberish...
Series: If I add two components in series to a system, with reliability of R_1 and R_2, respectively, the overall system reliability is:
To demonstrate this with real numbers, let's assume the values of R_1 = 0.95 and R_2 = 0.90. R_series would equal 0.95 * 0.90 = 0.855, or 85.5%. So, adding components in series makes reliability worse than the original reliability of either of the two components.
Parallel: On the other hand, If I add two components in parallel, with reliability of R_1 and R_2, respectively, the overall system reliability is:
Using the same values for R_1 and R_2 as above, the value of R_parallel would be 1-(1-0.95)*(1-0.90) = 0.995, or 99.5%. Redundant systems such as this are a good thing, because the overall chance of system failure can often be greatly reduced.
Of course, the value of redundancy must of course be balanced with the overall cost of the system, which can be measured in money, man-hours, and weight... Most introductory courses in engineering management explain these tradeoffs in good detail, and help to understand how to maximize a project's reliability while minimizing the overall system cost.
One of the most fascinating engineering management issues with Spirit and Opportunity is that the number of man-hours dedicated to both rovers is very limited, and now that Spirit is failing, less people will be available to make sure that Opportunity is going to land and operate successfully. The extra added cost of adding a second CPU or extra RAM to the rovers may well have already paid itself off, just for that very reason. A lack of man-hours devoted to Opportunity could spell as much doom to the project as a design flaw, but ultimately both cost money to fix. It all boils down to: "faster, cheaper, better -- pick any two."
While I agree with your point, I believe it mostly applies to stationary situations. In situations where you're moving on a motorcycle/snowmobile/etc. very quickly and in freezing temperatures, I could see this as a great improvement in glove technology. I, for one, welcome our new glove-making overlords. :^)