In the UK, DVB-T (digital terrestial) and 'in the clear' DVB-S are pretty easy to work with. If you use cheap-n-cheerful cards that don't have hardware MPEG-2 decoders (such as the Hauppauge Nova-T for DVB-T) then you can get access to the streams pretty easily.
Tools like Videolan can then allow you to do all manner of cool stuff - such as multicast it on your LAN.
A basic approach in engineering is that you can only improve something that you can measure. So without benchmarks, instrumentation in your code and profilers the chances are that developers have no idea where the hotspots are, assembly language expertise or not.
I've seen a huge number of bugs in production code that were caused by daft attempts to 'optimise' stuff that I am very very wary of the subject
Sure, once you have identified performane hotspots that mean that your system isn't fast enough then deploy all the tricks in the trade - but only do this where and when it is necessary.
Of course, past experience with particular systems may allow you to know where hotspots will be and plan aggressive optimisation up front in those areas, but that is still basing things on an empirical understanding of where the performance problems really are.
The only time I have been involved in a situation where litigation actually got started over a bit of software I was told that "unless the other guy was standing behind you dictating what you typed in, you have the copyright". Note that this was Scotland in '97 so no idea how this applies to the rest of civilisation.
Forunately, nothing came of it but I found the whole thing incredibly stressful and made me very wary of situations where litigation was possible.
I don't know about Redhat, but according to this article, MySql is produced under a business model where:
All contributions are checked and rewritten by company developers thus not diluting the copright ownership of the product.
I recommend reading that paper - its very good. Too many people seem to equate 'available under the GPL' with 'nobody owns the IPR'. Any time a lawyer has explained software IPR to me (quite a few times, unfortunately) the only things that seems to count are strict copyright (i.e. literally who wrote the code) and patents. Who had the 'good idea' doesn't appear to count.
I suspect thats why organisations that dual-license probably have to rewrite contributions or get explicit assignment of copyright. Given the administative hassles of keeping track of the copyright issues with a large number of contributions I would expect that this explains the 'rewrite contributions' model.
I would not want to be involved in surviving legal due diligence for a company that was careless about re-using contributions without managing the copyright issues.
I think they rewrite all submissions to keep their codebase 'clean'. If they take rough ideas from the submitted code but rewrite it from scratch then AFAIK they have copyright.
You could have a look at Perspective, an open source Wiki that uses Indexing Service for searching so can search MS Office documents and can be configured for Windows Integrated Authentication. Its early stage but GPL-ed and doesn't require a database (data is held in XML files). Find it at Perspective.
Well, there is not much right with it either. I know it is 'good enough' for a lot of projects but in this context I really wouldn't recommend that this chap uses VB6 (or even VB.Net).
VB6 is an elegance free zone - C, (not C++), Java, Python, even Perl, PostScript (!), C#, Lisp, Scheme, Prolog. Jeez, just not VB6 and preferably not from a 'learn to build apps in 21 days' book.
I believe that there is very little proof that "more bobbies on the beat" actually does anything to reduce crime levels (I have a vague memory of some Radio 4 thing on this subject). However, what it apparently does do is make people feel safer - politicians give people what they need to get them elected not what will actually be effective.
I have to say, here in Edinburgh there are quite a few and I really don't care about them one way or another! After all, a camera is only as scary as whoever is watching the video feed and I really don't regard Lothian and Borders Police as a particularly threatening bunch.
Well, I have to admit it wasn't particularly practical. But I did find that once you got the hang of it that interactive graphical programming in PostScript was immense fun.
As for the 'originality' aspect - its not something that I care about too much as it was never an academic excercise (and I say that as a ex-academic!). Success in the marketplace is IMHO about having 'good enough' technology at the right time with the right spin. Its not fair, but whoever said it was.
You are right - I still think Common Lisp was the 'best' development environment that I have used: CLOS still makes Java/.NET look unfeasibly primitive, but I'd *never* try and persuade someone to do a commercial project on that platform, even if it was technically the right thing.
Well, I have to say, NeWS was a thing of beauty - especially with the HyperNeWS stuff that Arthur Van Hoff did.
And Java, like it or not, and I do, was a great tool. If the current explosion of APIs is a bit confusing I really don't think it has much to do with his original vision or, indeed, code.
He did good stuff, the man deserves respect.
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That sig? Is it Y?
My height I do in feet, but my sons in cm.
Drink pints of beer and 75 cl bottles of wine.
Drive and cycle in mph but walk in kph.
Altitude in feet when walking and m when skiing.
I guess I'm one of the 'in between' generation of Brits.
Tools like Videolan can then allow you to do all manner of cool stuff - such as multicast it on your LAN.
A basic approach in engineering is that you can only improve something that you can measure. So without benchmarks, instrumentation in your code and profilers the chances are that developers have no idea where the hotspots are, assembly language expertise or not.
I've seen a huge number of bugs in production code that were caused by daft attempts to 'optimise' stuff that I am very very wary of the subject
Sure, once you have identified performane hotspots that mean that your system isn't fast enough then deploy all the tricks in the trade - but only do this where and when it is necessary.
Of course, past experience with particular systems may allow you to know where hotspots will be and plan aggressive optimisation up front in those areas, but that is still basing things on an empirical understanding of where the performance problems really are.
Forunately, nothing came of it but I found the whole thing incredibly stressful and made me very wary of situations where litigation was possible.
I would not want to be involved in surviving legal due diligence for a company that was careless about re-using contributions without managing the copyright issues.
I think they rewrite all submissions to keep their codebase 'clean'. If they take rough ideas from the submitted code but rewrite it from scratch then AFAIK they have copyright.
A reason to mention the lovely Scottish village of Portknockie!
And yeah, I'm the author, so I am biased!
Oh yes please. The CAT flying through the innards of The Ends of Invention - poetically awesome stuff.
VB6 is an elegance free zone - C, (not C++), Java, Python, even Perl, PostScript (!), C#, Lisp, Scheme, Prolog. Jeez, just not VB6 and preferably not from a 'learn to build apps in 21 days' book.
Of course, not that I'm bitter about VB6.
Not to mention "seamless integration".
I have to say, here in Edinburgh there are quite a few and I really don't care about them one way or another! After all, a camera is only as scary as whoever is watching the video feed and I really don't regard Lothian and Borders Police as a particularly threatening bunch.
Well, I have to admit it wasn't particularly practical. But I did find that once you got the hang of it that interactive graphical programming in PostScript was immense fun. As for the 'originality' aspect - its not something that I care about too much as it was never an academic excercise (and I say that as a ex-academic!). Success in the marketplace is IMHO about having 'good enough' technology at the right time with the right spin. Its not fair, but whoever said it was. You are right - I still think Common Lisp was the 'best' development environment that I have used: CLOS still makes Java/.NET look unfeasibly primitive, but I'd *never* try and persuade someone to do a commercial project on that platform, even if it was technically the right thing.
Well, I have to say, NeWS was a thing of beauty - especially with the HyperNeWS stuff that Arthur Van Hoff did. And Java, like it or not, and I do, was a great tool. If the current explosion of APIs is a bit confusing I really don't think it has much to do with his original vision or, indeed, code. He did good stuff, the man deserves respect.