Re:Will anyone gain anything from this? Not Linux
on
The End is Nigh for XP
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Eventually, as it always happens, there will be bug releases and new drivers for Windows Vista. Upgrading to them is as easily as doing "Windows Update." Linux (and BSD) distros will never be this easily patched due to the very nature of being open source. I only have to go to 1 web site to update my PC's - Windows Update - and it's incredibly simple - just click on Update and voila, it's done and everything works.
Really? Try doing that with non-MS software or you do not use any?
AutoDesk or Maya or OpenOffice or Turbo Tax or any other application you can think of that is not MS. Can you use Windows Update and it is incredibly simple?
Linux distros are MUCH easier to patch because they are open source and because they are distributions not just bare-bone OS. Last I checked, I could update my Debian boxes with just aptitude or apt-get. And any non-Debian software usually has their own archive or provides a deb file. And installing a deb file is usually easier than installing a.msi installation. And with the great new way that Vista works, the.msi files that require admin rights with custom actions may not run like they did in XP or older systems. (no more "and"s!)
Yes, I'm speaking from experience in all of these areas.
Huh? What guidelines? The only guidelines are "try to be careful and warn users their tax data is stored on your servers". That's the extend of what you are asked to do for web based solutions. I know this because I'm writing one of the software that has NETFILE in CCRA. And no, our product will NOT be web based for exactly the reasons of security. People that can't install simple software (it's 3 clicks!) should not be doing their own taxes. Go to H&R or similar (family?) to help you out.
As currently is, Intuit can use these databases for whatever reason they wish short of selling the data verbose. Who could prove otherwise?
And no, NETFILE can be safe because CCRA only accepts data and does not allow you to read it back. That's why it is safe to transfer taxes over the Internet.
And now you will be modded as a troll because people are incredibly stupid and WILL NOT take responsibility. EVER. Maybe when they are dying, but not a fortnight before that!
One can count on one hand the number of politicians that in recent memory have taken a responsibility for any crap they caused. And not for the big things. See Iraq war for example. Now everyone will say that politicians are liars and such, but they are just people. Normal people. Just like the rest of the population that thinks drinking and driving is not right but they NEVER drive drunk (only one beer officer!). Or that they are not distracted by a cell phone while driving. Or it is always someone else's fault why they are fat and out of shape. No time to exercise because of the job, kids and all that beer and TV watching! Or no time to work because of shashdot! (douh!)
The same is true for the entire thing with what is to blame for the global warming. Clearly it is the thing that is causing the CO2 amount in atmosphere to double - a smaller change is a change between a warm period and ice age. Now, we have double of that change above the warm period. What is causing that? Volcanoes? I don't see those blowing up. I don't see a super volcano blowing in Yellowstone (US park that is a super volcano). No, it is us the people that are burning billions and billion of barrels of oil each year. Hell, not only are we causing global warming but we are also causing the oceans to increase in acidity.
So what if sunspots correlate with whatever. I'm sure one could correlate anything with anything. We all know that global warming is caused by pirates http://www.venganza.org/about/open-letter/ . Correlation does NOT mean cause and effect.
On the other hand, CO2 and methane increase is the cause of global warming because CO2 and methane not only is correlated with temperature changes in the past, but is known to be a greenhouse gas (gas that traps heat). And since we are producing CO2, what is then the cause of the temperature increase?
PS. As the article says, sunspots remained about the same in the last 60 years yet we are seeing an accelerated global warming. Enough said.
GUI is not very good for visually impaired. After all, it is called a "Graphical User Interface". What may be better than all the voice over and dodgy braille support is regular text interface to most used application. This is where Unix and Linux excel and neither Windows nor OS X can match this.
For example, in Debian you can have a text only interface with a spreadsheet (sc), word processor (text editor like emacs + latex if needed) and lots of database software. Mutt for email. All command line. All with transparent braille support. All working with a voice readers. No problems.
There are interoperability problems with Excel and other GUI stuff, but TUI (Text User Interface) is far superior for someone without or little sight.
If someone has a degenerative eye disease such that they will lose all of their sight in the future, I would recommend getting familiar with the console and not waste money on magnifiers and other such things as these will become less and less effective.
Why do you use DC for long-haul lines? Because the high voltage AC lines act line gigantic antennas. They started at AC and had to convert everything to DC because of that. It is a big problem converting that much power back and forth from DC to AC, but it is better than having most of it gone to space.
Oh, and Steam....SUCKS! Valve, you've really gotta learn how to manage your software better. Every patch breaks something else. Your software acts....odd at times. Oh, and while you're saving money by doing everything from the 'net instead of pressing CDs, I'd rather have the disk in my hand.
You backup the games on CD/DVD so you don't have to DL it again.
Steam is not perfect but better than CD copy protection.
Exceptions are bad for two reasons:
* they are verbose - I don't want to write by try.. catch blocks all over the place.
* they are used as a crutch
Anyway, this is not a design error. If you want to know what the size of a file is, first check that it exists, if it does, open it. Seek to the end and check your position. You are done. It is not a big deal.
Now I do use exceptions all the time in C++ and Ruby, I just don't want to have exceptions thrown by the library left and right and I have to handle all of them. I always see stuff in Java about unhandled exceptions. Exceptions thrown by libraries are good on paper, bad in practice. And no, Ruby exceptions are not the same as Java. I do not get an exception on non-critical failures (ie. can't open file, socket can't be allocated, etc.). I get exceptions for programming errors (bad input to functions, etc..). For everything else there are return objects. And this is how it should be.
So in summary, the function in question is not a design error in Qt. You can determine the souce of the failure with other calls.
It probably was Java instead of HTML + CSS ( + Javascript, maybe ), because more computers support it. Think about people running default IE back on Windows 98. This is Canada - you want to be as inclusive as possible!
But I doubt that future census efforts in Canada will continue to use Java applets. Next time it will be DHTML (XHTML + CSS + Javascript).
You write games for DX 9. DX 10 is compatible with DX 9 and probably all previous releases.
Anyway, you can write DX 10 code path in your game with the parallel DX 9 code path. Not a big deal. How do you think OpenGL apps do it when they have to detect capabilities on the fly?
We had 640x480 with 256 colors.. and we were happy about it! (No seriously, I still have a couple video cards that let computers do 256 colors instead of just 16)
As opposed to the 4 bit EGA cards and the 2 bit Hercules displays. The King Quest 4 on the EGA was something.
Same thing in Canada. You want stuff from US, it is "cheaper" shipping to get it UPS than USPS. But then they tack on their stupid "brockage free" and your costs are much, much bigger than USPS. So now I also never accept UPS (ie. OOPS). Regular mail service is 100 times better.
Re:This requires not storing in insulators?
on
Halving Half Lives
·
· Score: 1
From a biological standpoint, gammas are least nasty ones as they interract poorest. Alphas are the worst. Now, this is for the situation where the emiter is inside you. The Alphas will do vastly more damage than Betas which will do vastly more damage than Gammas. So, if you ever eat radioactive waste, you better be damn lucky it is a gamma emitter, not an alpha emitter!
And yes, if you want your radioactive source embedded in glass and used as paper weight, then go with alpha or beta emitter. Just don't break the seal and contaminate your sandwitch.
You know, the total energy absorbed by the one hit is less then the one firing the gun. Of course, unless you are using a mounted gun where the ground is holding it so the shooter doesn't have to. You know, the laws of physics and all.
So, "knocking someone on their ass" is just the result of being cought off-guard and shock.
How about when your PS fails and sends a 120V jolt over the 12V rail (been there, done that)? Backup is not a backup if data is destroyed when the original computer is stolen, blown up, etc...
RAID 1 is good only for situations where the drive fails and you don't want down time. It doesn't guarantee that failure will not result in data loss.
Say you give the new wonder drug to one guy, and five minutes later he drops dead. Did it have anything to do with the drug? How would you know? I wouldn't want to be the next person injected with that drug.
You don't need javascript to open a link to another page. You don't need javascript to open an image in a gallery. You don't need javascript to submit a username and password. You just don't need it.
You don't need it - you want it. You want it to make the entire web experience better.
From a security standpoint, everyone should be on lynx or similar browser. From the user standpoint, Javascript is essential (see maps.google.com, or gmail) for a good web experience. Images are fundamental. Web is not static HTML any more. We now live in the world of DHTML and security is just going to have to deal with it.
Javascript is broken if it allows you to access other than non-remote resources (ie. from original website) and some settings available to it from the browser (windows size, etc..). That's what it is there for and other uses should be disabled. We already see it with the JS popup blockers. Similar security for network accesses should suffice.
I have a game, let's call it Black & White 2, that works on Athlon XP 2000 with 512MB ram and nVidia FX series video card. Great! Now, move it to Athlon 64 X2 4400 with 2GB and 7900GT video card and it craps out. It doesn't even start! What did I do with it? Nothing. Uninstalled it. And yes, I payed $50 for it and it is about the same as the first one...
Now, I recently upgraded linux to 2.6.17 SMP from 2.6.16 UP (uni-processor) kernel. Well, all hell broke loose with system calls. Suddenly, select(...) calls used up CPU time! It took hours to trace the problem to ACPI. Turning that off, I finanally can use the 2.6.17 SMP kernel (Debian removed the UP kernel in favour of SMP with 2.6.17... Not sure why yet).
Now, if you pirate software, well, just DO NOT compare it to free software (as in OSS, not "for free"). They are not the same. And no, unless you write the software it is *never* "your" program. You just have a license to use it. Nothing more. And without a license, you can't use it.
The bottom line is, I need linux to work. I don't care if Black & White 2 works now because I don't need it. The amount of money paid for the license is secondary.
It is called "Designed for Windows" program. Yes, applications have to be signed. And yes, you have to send a copy to MS so they can verify if you follow guidelines when they get 1000s of core dumps from your application. Or complaints about spyware and crap.
Yes, it costs money because you have to buy a digical certificate from Verisign. And send the software on a CD to MS, so a postage stamp there too.
And yes, MS will probably start treating software from unknown vendors differently than those that have registered. But afterall, how can you blame them with all the spyware screensavers and other crap.
We already see digital signatures in Linux like Debian. Untrusted repositories get flagged as "WARNING!! Untrusted source. WARNING!!". Microsoft should be doing the same to protect its user base.
You will always be limited to the amount of stuff you want to save to your HD. I mean, how much do you want to DL? All the internets? And most servers are either behind 10 or 100Mbps connections so huge bandwidth is unusable today except for TV which will be on the local net for the telco.
I have a 3Mb/320kb connection and it is rarely used to max potential. The most bandwidth usage is on `apt-get update; apt-get upgrade`. Maybe a few GB per month tops.
"MPs Colin Challen and John Hayes, say building just one mile of motorway costs on average £23m and a mile of dual carriageway £12m."
So, assuming £1 => $2 we get, £23,000,000/mi / 1600m/mi / * 2$/£ => $28750/meter => ~$8700/ft. I think a motorway is a 4 lane divided highway, but not sure. Now, $30 billion for 500 miles is, $30,000,000,000/500mi => $60,000,000/mi => $37500/meter => ~$11363/ft. I don't understand how you get $18500/ft, but this seems realistic. Contruction costs depend on your terrain and other things.
"1.9 billion... Critics point to new cost information that indicates the project could cost several times that amount."
And it will cost more than that. ALL costs are up including construction and material especially for oil-intensive operations like road building. The other cost different between Europe and US is the value of the land.
In Tour, peak for sprinters is about 1800W (for sprints). Lance apparantly has a max power at VO2max of 600W, but more for sprints (non-oxygen). That is the power he can sustain for some time. Resting HR: 32bpm but average for the tour was something in the 56 or so.
Mr. Bad Example wrote: >> But what if you receive a Power Point presentation from your >> manager called "ReadThisOrYourFired.ppt"? > >I'd quit. I refuse to work for anyone who can't tell the difference between a possessive pronoun and a contraction.
Slashdot Mirror
Eventually, as it always happens, there will be bug releases and new drivers for Windows Vista. Upgrading to them is as easily as doing "Windows Update." Linux (and BSD) distros will never be this easily patched due to the very nature of being open source. I only have to go to 1 web site to update my PC's - Windows Update - and it's incredibly simple - just click on Update and voila, it's done and everything works.
.msi installation. And with the great new way that Vista works, the .msi files that require admin rights with custom actions may not run like they did in XP or older systems. (no more "and"s!)
Really? Try doing that with non-MS software or you do not use any?
AutoDesk or Maya or OpenOffice or Turbo Tax or any other application you can think of that is not MS. Can you use Windows Update and it is incredibly simple?
Linux distros are MUCH easier to patch because they are open source and because they are distributions not just bare-bone OS. Last I checked, I could update my Debian boxes with just aptitude or apt-get. And any non-Debian software usually has their own archive or provides a deb file. And installing a deb file is usually easier than installing a
Yes, I'm speaking from experience in all of these areas.
Huh? What guidelines? The only guidelines are "try to be careful and warn users their tax data is stored on your servers". That's the extend of what you are asked to do for web based solutions. I know this because I'm writing one of the software that has NETFILE in CCRA. And no, our product will NOT be web based for exactly the reasons of security. People that can't install simple software (it's 3 clicks!) should not be doing their own taxes. Go to H&R or similar (family?) to help you out.
As currently is, Intuit can use these databases for whatever reason they wish short of selling the data verbose. Who could prove otherwise?
And no, NETFILE can be safe because CCRA only accepts data and does not allow you to read it back. That's why it is safe to transfer taxes over the Internet.
Why is this tagged Linux? Linus already indicated that Linux will not be under GPLv3.
And now you will be modded as a troll because people are incredibly stupid and WILL NOT take responsibility. EVER. Maybe when they are dying, but not a fortnight before that!
One can count on one hand the number of politicians that in recent memory have taken a responsibility for any crap they caused. And not for the big things. See Iraq war for example. Now everyone will say that politicians are liars and such, but they are just people. Normal people. Just like the rest of the population that thinks drinking and driving is not right but they NEVER drive drunk (only one beer officer!). Or that they are not distracted by a cell phone while driving. Or it is always someone else's fault why they are fat and out of shape. No time to exercise because of the job, kids and all that beer and TV watching! Or no time to work because of shashdot! (douh!)
The same is true for the entire thing with what is to blame for the global warming. Clearly it is the thing that is causing the CO2 amount in atmosphere to double - a smaller change is a change between a warm period and ice age. Now, we have double of that change above the warm period. What is causing that? Volcanoes? I don't see those blowing up. I don't see a super volcano blowing in Yellowstone (US park that is a super volcano). No, it is us the people that are burning billions and billion of barrels of oil each year. Hell, not only are we causing global warming but we are also causing the oceans to increase in acidity.
So what if sunspots correlate with whatever. I'm sure one could correlate anything with anything. We all know that global warming is caused by pirates http://www.venganza.org/about/open-letter/ . Correlation does NOT mean cause and effect.
On the other hand, CO2 and methane increase is the cause of global warming because CO2 and methane not only is correlated with temperature changes in the past, but is known to be a greenhouse gas (gas that traps heat). And since we are producing CO2, what is then the cause of the temperature increase?
PS. As the article says, sunspots remained about the same in the last 60 years yet we are seeing an accelerated global warming. Enough said.
GUI is not very good for visually impaired. After all, it is called a "Graphical User Interface". What may be better than all the voice over and dodgy braille support is regular text interface to most used application. This is where Unix and Linux excel and neither Windows nor OS X can match this.
For example, in Debian you can have a text only interface with a spreadsheet (sc), word processor (text editor like emacs + latex if needed) and lots of database software. Mutt for email. All command line. All with transparent braille support. All working with a voice readers. No problems.
There are interoperability problems with Excel and other GUI stuff, but TUI (Text User Interface) is far superior for someone without or little sight.
If someone has a degenerative eye disease such that they will lose all of their sight in the future, I would recommend getting familiar with the console and not waste money on magnifiers and other such things as these will become less and less effective.
s/native/efficient/
AMD is more efficient than Intel on the 64-bit end. Intel seems more efficient on the 32-bit end.
DC is good for short-haul power distribution
:)
m issionh tml
Please tell that to Manitoba Hydro.
"The two transmission lines, each nearly 900 km long, operate at +/- 450 kV and +/- 500 kV DC, with converter stations at Gillam and Sundance, and the receiving terminal near Rosser. The combined capacity of the two HVDC lines is 3420 MW, or about 68% of the total generation capacity in the province."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manitoba_Hydro#Trans
http://www.hydro.mb.ca/our_facilities/ts_nelson.s
Why do you use DC for long-haul lines? Because the high voltage AC lines act line gigantic antennas. They started at AC and had to convert everything to DC because of that. It is a big problem converting that much power back and forth from DC to AC, but it is better than having most of it gone to space.
Oh, and Steam....SUCKS! Valve, you've really gotta learn how to manage your software better. Every patch breaks something else. Your software acts....odd at times. Oh, and while you're saving money by doing everything from the 'net instead of pressing CDs, I'd rather have the disk in my hand.
You backup the games on CD/DVD so you don't have to DL it again.
Steam is not perfect but better than CD copy protection.
Exceptions are bad for two reasons: .. catch blocks all over the place.
* they are verbose - I don't want to write by try
* they are used as a crutch
Anyway, this is not a design error. If you want to know what the size of a file is, first check that it exists, if it does, open it. Seek to the end and check your position. You are done. It is not a big deal.
Now I do use exceptions all the time in C++ and Ruby, I just don't want to have exceptions thrown by the library left and right and I have to handle all of them. I always see stuff in Java about unhandled exceptions. Exceptions thrown by libraries are good on paper, bad in practice. And no, Ruby exceptions are not the same as Java. I do not get an exception on non-critical failures (ie. can't open file, socket can't be allocated, etc.). I get exceptions for programming errors (bad input to functions, etc..). For everything else there are return objects. And this is how it should be.
So in summary, the function in question is not a design error in Qt. You can determine the souce of the failure with other calls.
It probably was Java instead of HTML + CSS ( + Javascript, maybe ), because more computers support it. Think about people running default IE back on Windows 98. This is Canada - you want to be as inclusive as possible!
But I doubt that future census efforts in Canada will continue to use Java applets. Next time it will be DHTML (XHTML + CSS + Javascript).
You write games for DX 9. DX 10 is compatible with DX 9 and probably all previous releases.
Anyway, you can write DX 10 code path in your game with the parallel DX 9 code path. Not a big deal. How do you think OpenGL apps do it when they have to detect capabilities on the fly?
We had 640x480 with 256 colors.. and we were happy about it! (No seriously, I still have a couple video cards that let computers do 256 colors instead of just 16)
As opposed to the 4 bit EGA cards and the 2 bit Hercules displays. The King Quest 4 on the EGA was something.
Same thing in Canada. You want stuff from US, it is "cheaper" shipping to get it UPS than USPS. But then they tack on their stupid "brockage free" and your costs are much, much bigger than USPS. So now I also never accept UPS (ie. OOPS). Regular mail service is 100 times better.
From a biological standpoint, gammas are least nasty ones as they interract poorest. Alphas are the worst. Now, this is for the situation where the emiter is inside you. The Alphas will do vastly more damage than Betas which will do vastly more damage than Gammas. So, if you ever eat radioactive waste, you better be damn lucky it is a gamma emitter, not an alpha emitter!
And yes, if you want your radioactive source embedded in glass and used as paper weight, then go with alpha or beta emitter. Just don't break the seal and contaminate your sandwitch.
You know, the total energy absorbed by the one hit is less then the one firing the gun. Of course, unless you are using a mounted gun where the ground is holding it so the shooter doesn't have to. You know, the laws of physics and all.
So, "knocking someone on their ass" is just the result of being cought off-guard and shock.
How about when your PS fails and sends a 120V jolt over the 12V rail (been there, done that)? Backup is not a backup if data is destroyed when the original computer is stolen, blown up, etc...
RAID 1 is good only for situations where the drive fails and you don't want down time. It doesn't guarantee that failure will not result in data loss.
Say you give the new wonder drug to one guy, and five minutes later he drops dead. Did it have anything to do with the drug? How would you know? I wouldn't want to be the next person injected with that drug.
One work: autopsy
Who did you say is comitting war crimes?
You can't think of a better oxymoron than
war crime
You don't need javascript to open a link to another page. You don't need javascript to open an image in a gallery. You don't need javascript to submit a username and password. You just don't need it.
You don't need it - you want it. You want it to make the entire web experience better.
From a security standpoint, everyone should be on lynx or similar browser. From the user standpoint, Javascript is essential (see maps.google.com, or gmail) for a good web experience. Images are fundamental. Web is not static HTML any more. We now live in the world of DHTML and security is just going to have to deal with it.
Javascript is broken if it allows you to access other than non-remote resources (ie. from original website) and some settings available to it from the browser (windows size, etc..). That's what it is there for and other uses should be disabled. We already see it with the JS popup blockers. Similar security for network accesses should suffice.
Similarly with Java, Flash and other things.
Bull.
I have a game, let's call it Black & White 2, that works on Athlon XP 2000 with 512MB ram and nVidia FX series video card. Great! Now, move it to Athlon 64 X2 4400 with 2GB and 7900GT video card and it craps out. It doesn't even start! What did I do with it? Nothing. Uninstalled it. And yes, I payed $50 for it and it is about the same as the first one...
Now, I recently upgraded linux to 2.6.17 SMP from 2.6.16 UP (uni-processor) kernel. Well, all hell broke loose with system calls. Suddenly, select(...) calls used up CPU time! It took hours to trace the problem to ACPI. Turning that off, I finanally can use the 2.6.17 SMP kernel (Debian removed the UP kernel in favour of SMP with 2.6.17... Not sure why yet).
Now, if you pirate software, well, just DO NOT compare it to free software (as in OSS, not "for free"). They are not the same. And no, unless you write the software it is *never* "your" program. You just have a license to use it. Nothing more. And without a license, you can't use it.
The bottom line is, I need linux to work. I don't care if Black & White 2 works now because I don't need it. The amount of money paid for the license is secondary.
It is called "Designed for Windows" program. Yes, applications have to be signed. And yes, you have to send a copy to MS so they can verify if you follow guidelines when they get 1000s of core dumps from your application. Or complaints about spyware and crap.
http://www.microsoft.com/winlogo/default.mspx
Yes, it costs money because you have to buy a digical certificate from Verisign. And send the software on a CD to MS, so a postage stamp there too.
And yes, MS will probably start treating software from unknown vendors differently than those that have registered. But afterall, how can you blame them with all the spyware screensavers and other crap.
We already see digital signatures in Linux like Debian. Untrusted repositories get flagged as "WARNING!! Untrusted source. WARNING!!". Microsoft should be doing the same to protect its user base.
You will always be limited to the amount of stuff you want to save to your HD. I mean, how much do you want to DL? All the internets? And most servers are either behind 10 or 100Mbps connections so huge bandwidth is unusable today except for TV which will be on the local net for the telco.
I have a 3Mb/320kb connection and it is rarely used to max potential. The most bandwidth usage is on `apt-get update; apt-get upgrade`. Maybe a few GB per month tops.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4720409.stm
... Critics point to new cost information that indicates the project could cost several times that amount."
"MPs Colin Challen and John Hayes, say building just one mile of motorway costs on average £23m and a mile of dual carriageway £12m."
So, assuming £1 => $2 we get, £23,000,000/mi / 1600m/mi / * 2$/£ => $28750/meter => ~$8700/ft. I think a motorway is a 4 lane divided highway, but not sure. Now, $30 billion for 500 miles is, $30,000,000,000/500mi => $60,000,000/mi => $37500/meter => ~$11363/ft. I don't understand how you get $18500/ft, but this seems realistic. Contruction costs depend on your terrain and other things.
http://www.taxpayer.net/road2ruin/roads/i-69.htm
"1.9 billion
And it will cost more than that. ALL costs are up including construction and material especially for oil-intensive operations like road building. The other cost different between Europe and US is the value of the land.
In Tour, peak for sprinters is about 1800W (for sprints). Lance apparantly has a max power at VO2max of 600W, but more for sprints (non-oxygen). That is the power he can sustain for some time. Resting HR: 32bpm but average for the tour was something in the 56 or so.
source: http://lancearmstrong.com/
Mr. Bad Example wrote:
>> But what if you receive a Power Point presentation from your
>> manager called "ReadThisOrYourFired.ppt"?
>
>I'd quit. I refuse to work for anyone who can't tell the difference between a possessive pronoun and a contraction.
Thank you Mr. Bad Example!