From a purely information-theoretic perspective, the presence of people (and life) means that the net entropy of the universe is lower than it would be in our absence.
I would guess that the entropy raises moire quickly with life, though it's hard to say without knowing what would be in it's stead. Why do you think it is lower?
The reason, I suspect, is mostly the licensing of Qt and KDE, which is the GPL (and not LGPL, which GTK+ is). This makes it less corporate-friendly, in a way. It probably explains the big shift to GNOME in the major distros, as well as the focus on GNOME in nearly all the new mobile Linux initiatives.
KDE's libraries are LGPL, so it's only QT libs that are GPL'ed, though that is of little consequence as of the present. And I don't worry too much about KDEs future, the shift to GNOME just mark the entering of the non-powerusers into the linux system. KDE is empowerment, features and customizability. Gnome is "get-the-hell-out-of-my-way", "do-as-little-as-possible" and conformality. Nothing wrong with either one, as long as I don't have to use Gnome. A limited system might be better for new users, especially those easily scared by configuration options.
Or put another way, KDE is do it however you like, gnome is do it our way or take the highway. Some like the one, some the other.
It replaces SuperKaramba, which is a widget app. Calling a widget a widget or an applet is a matter of semantics.
I love KDE and I'm excited for KDE 4.x however let's be clear here. The Plasma website talked about revolutionizing how we use our computers and rethinking the entire concept of the desktop. Widgets have been around for ages. So far none of the widgets are means to increase work-flow or productivity. They are means to clutter up my desktop.
Whoa, I'm sorry that you are disappointed, but I wasn't trying to promote anything. I was merely trying to explain what plasma is. And plasma is a replacement for KApplet and friends, and for superkaramba. Of course, all of these use widgets... all GUI programs does, but that is hardly the point. It is true that plasma will contain widgets, but that is a technical detail, as is the reason for these widgets. Really, plasma programs or plasmoids are merely replacing the good,old applets with something more modern. Don't get too excited:)
They aren't reshaping how I might work, and so far all the widgets I've seen replicate information or tasks that I pretty much do in my web browser.
Correct. E.g, the clock applet can reside in your task bar, your desktop or maybe other places, and might look nicer, be SVG graphics, and might be animated in interesting ways, but I doubt that would reshape how you work. At best, you might have an easier time going without having the taskbar visible all the time, and thus save a bit of screen estate.
Plasma does exist, but it is just basically a new (easier) way to make widgets largely. The API and libraries are supposed to very useful, but the revolution in how we use our desktops doesn't exist, and I'm not sure anyone is working on it.
The plasma development is one of the most active, at the moment, but it is not a widget thing. It's a replacement for applets and superkaramba. Think Applets that integrates directly with the desktop.
In cases like that you can just give the investigators your key/passphrase, so they can verify your innocence. I think the issue is about cases where the person being asked doesn't surrender the key/passphrase, or says they lost/deleted it.
I hope my computer is never investigated. I have maybe 10 partition files from when I played with cryptoloop, and no idea what the passphrases are. Maybe I should delete those, to be safe. (There are similar laws in Denmark... you have to turn over the keys, or face fines until you do.)
Considering that the major blocker for the average person in regards to making the switch to Linux happens to be driver support no, the major blocker is "it's not windows" You're both right. It's easy to get Windows drivers for my hardware: download, click "install". On Linux, getting updated drivers means recompiling a kernel; grandma / soccer mom can't do that.
Do you really think that "soccer moms" are going to get "updated drivers" by either method, ever? What matters to them is: does it work out of the box? Linux is better than windows in that respect (better out-of-the-box-hardware-support), but again, that doesn't matter because the mother in question will certainly buy a box with the software already installed. So what really matters is the system, software included, that is actually sold to the customer. For that, the factors I can see matter are:
Availability.
Price
Brand recognition
Salesmen motivation.
From a practical viewpoint, the linux "update everything by a single click" (drivers included) is much more user friendly for the inexperienced than the windows "hunt the net for the newest updates for each component". But I sincerely doubt that moves many installation for the very-non-technical in significant any way.
There is nothing wrong with the body in and of itself. There *is* something wrong with exploiting it whether for monetary or some other gain. Porn does exactly that. It makes a business out of people, their method of reproduction, and what they use to express love for someone else.
Heh. Let me try something for you:
There is nothing wrong with the body in and of itself. There *is* something wrong with exploiting it whether for monetary or some other gain. Restaurants do exactly that. It makes a business out of people, their method of feeding, and what they use to delight their palette.
What you said could basically be said for any service industry. But I suppose you mean that making love is special and precious, and shouldn't be wasted? Well, I agree, but that is up to each individual, not something that society should dictate.
Yet, there are anti-virus programs for Linux. So, at least some are known to exist, however weak they may be. But without checking, you don't even know you don't have those.
You are thinking of clam-AV? All or almost of the virus signatures are window viruses. The one I have installed occasionally finds a (windows)-virus in my email. So actually, I do check my mail at least for virus, and there has yet to be an incident. So there:p
Now, Granted, I'm typing this from my Ubuntu partition, which I do not virus check, and I also have faith that it has picked up as many viruses as my XP partition (which I do virus check) has over the time I've had each: 0. (XP: 4 years vs. Feisty: 3 months since complete install) To the best of my knowlegde, I had not had a virus since I bought my first computer in the early 90ties, and I have run a number of opperating system... the DOS family up to windows me, the win Nt familiy (2000 only), OS/2, and in the last few years linux in various flavours. But the point is, excepting my brief time with OS/2, I have had to worry about viruses in all that time until I finally had enough and went over to linux. So it's more the bother of protecting myself than the actual virus:)
On the other hand, I do have multiverse in my repositories list, so I may not be as safe as I think... Mulitverse should be safe enough. The packages are signed and essentially taken from Debian. So we will know who screwed up. Of course, malware might slip through, but you can be sure you will hear of it shortly.
P.S: I wonder how you became a foe of a friend. You seem likeable enough. Oh well:)
One of the nice things about not running windows... no virus.
how do you know? In the same way that I know there is no amadillos in my garden. That is, I have not heard of any, nor encountered anything remotely like a virus in linux. I have heard of worms from the ancient days, and that's pretty much it. Of course, it is not real proof, but there is precious litle that we can definitely prove.
Furthermore, software gets installed via. signed packages from repositories, or compiled by myself in the case I am working on it. That leaves spreading-by-application-bugs, and as nearly all my software is opensource and pretty much up to date, I think the chance of infection low, even if any virus are available.
As a practical matter, virus is a non-issue on linux, and so I hear it is on BSD or even open solaris.
As a bonus, you'll get more time for your wife/reading slashdot/posting blogs, since you won't be wasting your time with so much gaming anymore;)
Or so I thought. Alas, someone came along and decided it would be fun to develop WINE...
Ah, but no problem! Just go for 64bit linux, and you are safe once again!:o) (Technically you could install wine in 32bit version, but it's not easy yet. Gutsy might change that, though)
Getting infected is not only for the dumb and lazy anymore.
Heh. One of the nice things about not running windows... no virus. So in that sense it is for the lazy, i.e. the ones that doesn't install something easier to use. Might I suggest Ubuntu?
As a bonus, you'll get more time for your wife/reading slashdot/posting blogs, since you won't be wasting your time with so much gaming anymore;)
Sure, but why would they bother? They do not lose much by GPLv3, really. And let's not forget it isn't just gcc, but all applications and libraries that goes GPLv3+.I could be wrong, but I think a non-trivial amount of useful projects will migrate to GPLv3.
it's not like new versions are really needed - all they seem to do these days is break compatibility with older versions.
You don't know much about compilers, do you?:) Try to read one of the change logs. Or consider that C++ will soon be updated to C0x, which means changes.
My emphasis. Microsoft is not bound by GPLv3 by distributing code marked GPLv2 or later, provided they keep their obligations re. GPLv2. However, I doubt that SuSE/Novel will stay non-GPLv3 for long when e.g. gcc starts being GPLv3 or later.
Take a common program, for instance. Say, Gnumeric. And you're running Ubuntu 6.06 -- the Long Term Support release.
So you are running a release that is made for one purpose: To not change and then complain that it doesn't change? Okaydokey. The rest of us just follows the automatic Ubuntu upgrades as times go by. Sure, sometimes we have to wait for 6 months before getting the latest.x release, but personally, I really don't care.
It sounds as if you want a stable core, with application repositories closely tracking the newest available? Sounds like a decent idea for a distro. Are you sure that there isn't just such a distrobution?
That's the problem. Repositories are just time-constrained cludges. People should be able to install cool new apps whenever they want, all in a single file, just like you buy a new CD from the shop and play it. Linux was getting there with Autopackage, but sadly that hasn't been taken up to any grand scale...
I don't know about autopackage, but klik seems to offer what you want. I'm sure the klik team will appreciate your contributions, at least with testing. They seem to need some server reasources, too, the search seems very slow.
Personally, I prefer to be able to have new, fairly tested software without having to bother with the actual upgrades. But I am sure you actually enjoy hunting down the 10-50 apps you use and upgrade them as needed every now and then;p
Only this. In the face of this, I agree the earth could be a on a long term (ish) warming trend, but I doubt man's role in it.
But that scale is in *thousands* of years. The global warming trends I showed you was measured in *years* . That's off by a factor of one thousand, an entire three magnitudes. In slashdot terms, it's the difference between a file of one Gb and one Tb.
The global warming is not a "long trend", at least as these things go. The rise will perhaps be over and stabilized in 200 years, which would not even be visually distinguisable on your graph.
The graph does show a very clear match between CO_2 and temperature. Interesting, I didn't know it was that clear cut, with the forcing slightly lagging the response, just as I'd expect. Wow.
The global warming scare suffers from the fact that the world has been cooling ever since 1998. Take a look at
this graph. . It is true that 1998 was exceptionally hot, but the trend looks increasing to me. It even looks as if 1998 wasn't a record year, with some year 200Ox being a bit hotter, though the text of the article says it is a draw within the error bars. Also, according to the article 1998 was a El Nino year, while 2005 wasn't... had it been, it would have been even warmer.
In an online chess game, where the rules are fixed, I would challenge you to trick the server other than by hacking it. There is two things: Game data and interpretation of this data.
There are at least 2 possibities: Changing the rendering of the incoming data in a favorable manner (e.g. highlighting opponents, pickups or what-have-you) and having a custom client that plays or help you play. The classic example is the aimbot, that is a client that helps you aim your shots.
Most people are far more interested in seeing parts of Solaris (ZFS and dtrace) make it into Linux.
Really? I'll take oprofile over dtrace, and for filesystems I prefer something simple that just works. And keeps working. Like ext3. I fail to see what ZFS offers me that LVM+ext3 doesn't give me, and I dislike the idea of mixing LVM and filesystem parts.
Another point is that dtrace and zfs would be hard to port, from what I hear on the kernel lists. While device drivers would be easier.
A third point: Without dtrace and zfs, linux might be sligtly less attractive for a while. Without more device drivers, Solaris can't boot on most developer's machines. So I'd say that Solaris would gain most.
[...] fleeing the GPL because its considered too restrictive already. You see it when it comes to libraries etc. I mean firefox doesn't use it. And there are plenty of apps out there that don't use it. [...]
That's the beauty of the religious argument as you note in the asterisk:P
It doesn't matter if GOD is irrelevant in this world. The ultimate relevancy shows up when you die, when no proof can be gathered. You know those places always being talked about (Hell/Heaven). It's a flawless improvable system.
The most interesting bit is that all heavens *and* hells sounds like rather unpleasant affairs. Nirvana and Abraham heaven? Pure boredom. Valhalla? Not really my idea of fun.
Anyway, my argument against heaven is one word long: Wishful thinking.(*)
(*) It's not my fault that ønsketænkning translates from Danish into 2 words, is it?
GOD cannot be proven or disproven. Science can never contradict the existence of GOD.
But assuming his existence, we can prove his irrelevance, thus:
Either God is capable of miracles --- miracles means "changing the world contrary to the physical laws that otherwise prevail". If he cannot, then he is irrelevant, obviously.(*) If he is capable of such, then he either listen and acts (i.e, perform miracles) on at least some significant amount of prayers, or he does not. If not, he is obviously irrelevant. If he does act on prayers by performing miracles, those miracles would, at least in principle, show up as deviation to normal, observable behaviour. E.g, we should expect people that prays to got for health to be more healthy. Current research indicates that there is no such effect, and thus we can conclude that God, if he exists, is irrelevant. Q.E.D.
:p
(*) Of course, the judgement-after-death could be an argument. But given the number of religions, trying to simply live a good life is probably the best defense against this rather remote possibility.
P.S: This is, of course, a variant on the "problem of evil"-argument.
But how much will transportation affect the economy? So many jobs hinge on transporting people and goods. As well as those that service the cars, trucks, trains and planes. That many people out of work would definitely have a major impact.
You are falling for the broken window fallacy. Ignoring any shortterm/disruptive effects, and one-off costs in retraining, everyone would get richer, as the manufacturing price for many goods and editables would decline due to cheaper and faster transportation. The money people saves by not having to pay (as much) for transportation would be used elsewhere, and that elsewhere would need more people to do it.
This is all assuming that this is at all feasible, which I doubt.
Yeah for some reason it passes the test, but have you tried running the CSS3 demos... hardly any of them work, while with firefox almost all of them do.
so it passes that test just fails at displaying CSS3 correctly.
Mostly the demos seems to be written specifically to firefox and safari. The -moz-* and the -webkit-* bits are sort of giveaways. Or are there some true css3 demos, that uses css3 ?
No. I think what he was trying to say was that no matter what, you'd never score with a girl.;)
Well, as a (happily) married man and considering the 6 point odd billion global population, I'd say it isn't quite impossible to score with a girl. You just have to learn that there is no correct answer, especially on multiple choice.;)
Slashdot Mirror
I would guess that the entropy raises moire quickly with life, though it's hard to say without knowing what would be in it's stead. Why do you think it is lower?
KDE's libraries are LGPL, so it's only QT libs that are GPL'ed, though that is of little consequence as of the present. And I don't worry too much about KDEs future, the shift to GNOME just mark the entering of the non-powerusers into the linux system. KDE is empowerment, features and customizability. Gnome is "get-the-hell-out-of-my-way", "do-as-little-as-possible" and conformality. Nothing wrong with either one, as long as I don't have to use Gnome. A limited system might be better for new users, especially those easily scared by configuration options.
Or put another way, KDE is do it however you like, gnome is do it our way or take the highway. Some like the one, some the other.
I love KDE and I'm excited for KDE 4.x however let's be clear here. The Plasma website talked about revolutionizing how we use our computers and rethinking the entire concept of the desktop. Widgets have been around for ages. So far none of the widgets are means to increase work-flow or productivity. They are means to clutter up my desktop.
Whoa, I'm sorry that you are disappointed, but I wasn't trying to promote anything. I was merely trying to explain what plasma is. And plasma is a replacement for KApplet and friends, and for superkaramba. Of course, all of these use widgets... all GUI programs does, but that is hardly the point. It is true that plasma will contain widgets, but that is a technical detail, as is the reason for these widgets. Really, plasma programs or plasmoids are merely replacing the good,old applets with something more modern. Don't get too excited :)
They aren't reshaping how I might work, and so far all the widgets I've seen replicate information or tasks that I pretty much do in my web browser.Correct. E.g, the clock applet can reside in your task bar, your desktop or maybe other places, and might look nicer, be SVG graphics, and might be animated in interesting ways, but I doubt that would reshape how you work. At best, you might have an easier time going without having the taskbar visible all the time, and thus save a bit of screen estate.
The plasma development is one of the most active, at the moment, but it is not a widget thing. It's a replacement for applets and superkaramba. Think Applets that integrates directly with the desktop.
I hope my computer is never investigated. I have maybe 10 partition files from when I played with cryptoloop, and no idea what the passphrases are. Maybe I should delete those, to be safe. (There are similar laws in Denmark... you have to turn over the keys, or face fines until you do.)
Do you really think that "soccer moms" are going to get "updated drivers" by either method, ever? What matters to them is: does it work out of the box? Linux is better than windows in that respect (better out-of-the-box-hardware-support), but again, that doesn't matter because the mother in question will certainly buy a box with the software already installed. So what really matters is the system, software included, that is actually sold to the customer. For that, the factors I can see matter are:
From a practical viewpoint, the linux "update everything by a single click" (drivers included) is much more user friendly for the inexperienced than the windows "hunt the net for the newest updates for each component". But I sincerely doubt that moves many installation for the very-non-technical in significant any way.
There is nothing wrong with the body in and of itself. There *is* something wrong with exploiting it whether for monetary or some other gain. Porn does exactly that. It makes a business out of people, their method of reproduction, and what they use to express love for someone else.
Heh. Let me try something for you:
There is nothing wrong with the body in and of itself. There *is* something wrong with exploiting it whether for monetary or some other gain. Restaurants do exactly that. It makes a business out of people, their method of feeding, and what they use to delight their palette.
What you said could basically be said for any service industry. But I suppose you mean that making love is special and precious, and shouldn't be wasted? Well, I agree, but that is up to each individual, not something that society should dictate.
You are thinking of clam-AV? All or almost of the virus signatures are window viruses. The one I have installed occasionally finds a (windows)-virus in my email. So actually, I do check my mail at least for virus, and there has yet to be an incident. So there :p
Now, Granted, I'm typing this from my Ubuntu partition, which I do not virus check, and I also have faith that it has picked up as many viruses as my XP partition (which I do virus check) has over the time I've had each: 0. (XP: 4 years vs. Feisty: 3 months since complete install) To the best of my knowlegde, I had not had a virus since I bought my first computer in the early 90ties, and I have run a number of opperating system... the DOS family up to windows me, the win Nt familiy (2000 only), OS/2, and in the last few years linux in various flavours. But the point is, excepting my brief time with OS/2, I have had to worry about viruses in all that time until I finally had enough and went over to linux. So it's more the bother of protecting myself than the actual virusP.S: I wonder how you became a foe of a friend. You seem likeable enough. Oh well :)
how do you know? In the same way that I know there is no amadillos in my garden. That is, I have not heard of any, nor encountered anything remotely like a virus in linux. I have heard of worms from the ancient days, and that's pretty much it. Of course, it is not real proof, but there is precious litle that we can definitely prove.
Furthermore, software gets installed via. signed packages from repositories, or compiled by myself in the case I am working on it. That leaves spreading-by-application-bugs, and as nearly all my software is opensource and pretty much up to date, I think the chance of infection low, even if any virus are available.
As a practical matter, virus is a non-issue on linux, and so I hear it is on BSD or even open solaris.
Or so I thought. Alas, someone came along and decided it would be fun to develop WINE...
Ah, but no problem! Just go for 64bit linux, and you are safe once again! :o) (Technically you could install wine in 32bit version, but it's not easy yet. Gutsy might change that, though)
Heh. One of the nice things about not running windows... no virus. So in that sense it is for the lazy, i.e. the ones that doesn't install something easier to use. Might I suggest Ubuntu?
As a bonus, you'll get more time for your wife/reading slashdot/posting blogs, since you won't be wasting your time with so much gaming anymore ;)
Sure, but why would they bother? They do not lose much by GPLv3, really. And let's not forget it isn't just gcc, but all applications and libraries that goes GPLv3+.I could be wrong, but I think a non-trivial amount of useful projects will migrate to GPLv3.
it's not like new versions are really needed - all they seem to do these days is break compatibility with older versions.You don't know much about compilers, do you? :) Try to read one of the change logs. Or consider that C++ will soon be updated to C0x, which means changes.
"GPLv2, or later"
My emphasis. Microsoft is not bound by GPLv3 by distributing code marked GPLv2 or later, provided they keep their obligations re. GPLv2. However, I doubt that SuSE/Novel will stay non-GPLv3 for long when e.g. gcc starts being GPLv3 or later.
Take a common program, for instance. Say, Gnumeric. And you're running Ubuntu 6.06 -- the Long Term Support release.
So you are running a release that is made for one purpose: To not change and then complain that it doesn't change? Okaydokey. The rest of us just follows the automatic Ubuntu upgrades as times go by. Sure, sometimes we have to wait for 6 months before getting the latest .x release, but personally, I really don't care.
It sounds as if you want a stable core, with application repositories closely tracking the newest available? Sounds like a decent idea for a distro. Are you sure that there isn't just such a distrobution?
That's the problem. Repositories are just time-constrained cludges. People should be able to install cool new apps whenever they want, all in a single file, just like you buy a new CD from the shop and play it. Linux was getting there with Autopackage, but sadly that hasn't been taken up to any grand scale...I don't know about autopackage, but klik seems to offer what you want. I'm sure the klik team will appreciate your contributions, at least with testing. They seem to need some server reasources, too, the search seems very slow.
Personally, I prefer to be able to have new, fairly tested software without having to bother with the actual upgrades. But I am sure you actually enjoy hunting down the 10-50 apps you use and upgrade them as needed every now and then ;p
But that scale is in *thousands* of years. The global warming trends I showed you was measured in *years* . That's off by a factor of one thousand, an entire three magnitudes. In slashdot terms, it's the difference between a file of one Gb and one Tb.
The global warming is not a "long trend", at least as these things go. The rise will perhaps be over and stabilized in 200 years, which would not even be visually distinguisable on your graph.
The graph does show a very clear match between CO_2 and temperature. Interesting, I didn't know it was that clear cut, with the forcing slightly lagging the response, just as I'd expect. Wow.
Do you have other facts to share? ;p
There are at least 2 possibities: Changing the rendering of the incoming data in a favorable manner (e.g. highlighting opponents, pickups or what-have-you) and having a custom client that plays or help you play. The classic example is the aimbot, that is a client that helps you aim your shots.
Really? I'll take oprofile over dtrace, and for filesystems I prefer something simple that just works. And keeps working. Like ext3. I fail to see what ZFS offers me that LVM+ext3 doesn't give me, and I dislike the idea of mixing LVM and filesystem parts.
Another point is that dtrace and zfs would be hard to port, from what I hear on the kernel lists. While device drivers would be easier.
A third point: Without dtrace and zfs, linux might be sligtly less attractive for a while. Without more device drivers, Solaris can't boot on most developer's machines. So I'd say that Solaris would gain most.
Firefox is licensed under GPL 2.0 or later and LGPL 2.1 or later, as well as a couple of other licenses.
They make it too restrictive and they will scare away all commercial support for open source.They would be scared of their own shadow, then. There is a plenty of space in the OS based market as the proprietary, legally.
That's the beauty of the religious argument as you note in the asterisk
It doesn't matter if GOD is irrelevant in this world. The ultimate relevancy shows up when you die, when no proof can be gathered. You know those places always being talked about (Hell/Heaven). It's a flawless improvable system
The most interesting bit is that all heavens *and* hells sounds like rather unpleasant affairs. Nirvana and Abraham heaven? Pure boredom. Valhalla? Not really my idea of fun.
Anyway, my argument against heaven is one word long: Wishful thinking.(*)
(*) It's not my fault that ønsketænkning translates from Danish into 2 words, is it?
But assuming his existence, we can prove his irrelevance, thus:
Either God is capable of miracles --- miracles means "changing the world contrary to the physical laws that otherwise prevail". If he cannot, then he is irrelevant, obviously.(*) If he is capable of such, then he either listen and acts (i.e, perform miracles) on at least some significant amount of prayers, or he does not. If not, he is obviously irrelevant. If he does act on prayers by performing miracles, those miracles would, at least in principle, show up as deviation to normal, observable behaviour. E.g, we should expect people that prays to got for health to be more healthy. Current research indicates that there is no such effect, and thus we can conclude that God, if he exists, is irrelevant. Q.E.D.
:p
(*) Of course, the judgement-after-death could be an argument. But given the number of religions, trying to simply live a good life is probably the best defense against this rather remote possibility.
P.S: This is, of course, a variant on the "problem of evil"-argument.
You are falling for the broken window fallacy. Ignoring any shortterm/disruptive effects, and one-off costs in retraining, everyone would get richer, as the manufacturing price for many goods and editables would decline due to cheaper and faster transportation. The money people saves by not having to pay (as much) for transportation would be used elsewhere, and that elsewhere would need more people to do it.
This is all assuming that this is at all feasible, which I doubt.
so it passes that test just fails at displaying CSS3 correctly.
Mostly the demos seems to be written specifically to firefox and safari. The -moz-* and the -webkit-* bits are sort of giveaways. Or are there some true css3 demos, that uses css3 ?
Well, as a (happily) married man and considering the 6 point odd billion global population, I'd say it isn't quite impossible to score with a girl. You just have to learn that there is no correct answer, especially on multiple choice. ;)
That just means that the maximum score is 0 :p