Back in 80s there wasn't so much patenting going on in Silicon Valley. In those times you needed to innovate and bring the product to the market so fast that you couldn't afford to apply for patents; even two weeks counted on the learning curve. And people became instant milionaires.
Twenty years later, after a recent bumpy ride in the IT sector, investors (who generally understand little in terms of technoloy) would not invest unless they see there is some IP protection -- a.k.a. patents. Hence, the pressure for software patent legislation comming from companies that want to positively attract investor's attention. Big sharks such as M$ shouldn't really need software patents unless everybody else moves in that direction. They also probably learned a lot from big Pharma that patent everything they "discover" and then license those "discoveries" out to smaller companies. It's a different game these days, a different kind of race that, I'm afraid, the small fish (read: open-source developers) will unfortunately lose.
The Asian tsunami in December has dramatically shown how much SMS, email and the web are now indispensible parts of disaster recovery.
More importantly, it has shown how important ham radio is when and where disaster strikes. Indeed, in tsunami-affected areas, "modern" communication tools, such as telephone, cell phones, email and web failed to work when needed.
The issues raised are at best, I think, naive. First, the so-called "hostile" american individual thinks of him/herself first and of the state of the american economy and innovation second (if ever) -- which kinda makes sense to me. Second, racism in the U.S. and Europe is not something new, so welcome to the Free World! and Third, why would any country offer "presents" to people from other countries? When you apply for a H1-B visa it's your responsability to understand what it entails and what to expect. Apparently, the system is designed so that H1-B holders develop a strong desire to leave the States after a few years. I have lived in several countries and I am convinced that the percentage of creative, intelligent people is roughly the same everywhere. Whether or not an individual engages in a creative process, or decides to start up a business, or pursues a career in technology or research depends on many factors and the 16+ years of education are a consequence of such a decision rather than some kind of inherited asset. One final note: I'm not American, nor do I live in the U.S., nor I wish to work or live there.:)
The format I would like OOo to manipulate efficiently is the format most text documents use, that is,.doc. 95% of the world uses that format. Headhunters systematically reject my resume in PDF format, they want it in.doc format only. Companies use.doc format. Universities use.doc format. Government use.doc format. That's real life.
I agree with you. When/if IE has features such as Adblock, Anidisable and a few others I will dump FF. The reason why MS hesitate to include such features with IE is because the lack thereof fuels smaller businesses, and that has always been a main theme with MS: create a commercial environment where othes can get business and strive.
It's like living in a world where a group of people decide that all cars should have the gas tank on the right hand side and that gas stations should only accomodate those. Then a company starts making cars with the gas tank on the left hand side and eventually dominates the market. Bummer, cars with the gas tank on the right hand side cannot refuel at some gas stations. At this point we hear arguments that only cars with the gas tank on the right hand side meet the standards and that all cars and gas stations should be modified to meet those requirements. Jesus, I just want to drive my car and not have to worry about being unable to refuel at the next gas station!
You've gotta be kidding me! In Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0, when I click Forums three images dissapear.
Well, I think innovation is apparent on the plug-in and extension sides. There are lots of interesting plug-ins on Windows and some interesting extensions for Firefox.
Mozilla developers have proposed a "simple" solution to make more sites compatible with Firefox: ask the website admins to edit their code accordingly. In fact, most webmasters will reply "Grow up, buddy!" or won't reply at all. An easier solution is to make Firefox compatible with those sites. How come IE can display virtually any site and Firefox cannot? After three months with Firefox I switched back to IE -- sites such as www.deep-shadows.com, or www.asrock.com, just won't open smoothly in Firefox. Yes, I like Firefox (when it works) and I agree that some should grow up.:)
Where did you read that? I have developed software that used recursive function calls, dynamic pointer structures, and dynamic memory allocation extensively, and ran it for days on Linux and UNIX machines (including a Cray) to successfully compute phylogeny trees, all without a glitch and in Pascal. I cannot imagine how my problem could have been solved without those features.
I have been using Pascal on multiple platforms for... what, 20 years or so? and I am still using it on Linux in various projects. You know what? It's the best language ever created for a scientist or any other kind of non-IT profession. IMHO, the two greatest disasters that have ever happened in computer programming are the advent of the C and Java languages. Let me explain (cause I can hear your laughter from here).
C was created for writing operating system(s), recte Unix; therefore, it has features required for that task: flexibility in terms of data type passing, CPU instructions, a.s.o. Now what happened was, all geeks determined they had to do their software development in C, even if they were not involved in system programming. For someone who doesn't do programming for a living, strong typing (see Pascal) is a very good thing, as it avoids common errors. Then, someone decided C was not good enough because OOP in C/C++ was not an easy endeavor (true) so they invented Java, only they removed some very good things in the process, such as pointers and (user-controlled) dynamic memory allocation. And for those sysadmins who are still in love with C but all too aware of its limitations there is always Perl, a mutant born from a happy C + unix shell scripting marriage.
Thus, I canot repeat it often enough, long live Pascal!
Don't know what kind of business you're in, but believe me, it's embarassing to receive a MS Word document and be unable to display it on your screen, or to get a printout, with the intended layout. Or to receive PDF documents generated in Acrobat 6 and get that error messages every time you attempt reading a PDF in acroread-5.0.9 on Linux. Or open a Website that doesn't "show" as intended because it was designed for IE only and you're the only one who complains about it. I know of a large pharmaceutical company where the entire R&D department uses Linux while everybody else in the company uses Windows. You get the general idea. I'm not talking about the OS per se but about software availability and compatibility on the Linux platform. So, enjoy Debian and good luck!;)
I've been using Linux as a desktop for a few months now and I can tell that, if all your business partners use Linux, then you don't need another OS. If some of them use Windows then you need Windows. The rest is propaganda, or marketing, or whatever you wish to call it.
Come to think of it, I believe the problem is rooted in two fundamental beliefs of the open-source world. Number one: "Release early, release often" -- personally, I prefer to focus on productivity, rather than on backward compatibility issues. Number two: "Don't tell us what to develop, or how to develop it" -- sure, but if you don't develop software that addresses unmet needs of the business world then business will look elsewhere.
I don't want to buy a first price Macintosh only to have MacOS-X. Macintosh machines come almost twice as expensive as i386 machines for similar performance. So yes, if MacOS-X were available on Pentium or AMD PCs then I would switch.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Twenty years later, after a recent bumpy ride in the IT sector, investors (who generally understand little in terms of technoloy) would not invest unless they see there is some IP protection -- a.k.a. patents. Hence, the pressure for software patent legislation comming from companies that want to positively attract investor's attention. Big sharks such as M$ shouldn't really need software patents unless everybody else moves in that direction. They also probably learned a lot from big Pharma that patent everything they "discover" and then license those "discoveries" out to smaller companies. It's a different game these days, a different kind of race that, I'm afraid, the small fish (read: open-source developers) will unfortunately lose.
CentOS, aka free version or RHEL.
Should we be surprised? M$ need to set some cash aside for the $600+ penalty they might have to pay in the EU.
More importantly, it has shown how important ham radio is when and where disaster strikes. Indeed, in tsunami-affected areas, "modern" communication tools, such as telephone, cell phones, email and web failed to work when needed.
According to their website Energia did fly, at least once, to launch the Buran space shuttle prototype.
The Russian Energia rocket (http://www.russianspaceweb.com/energia.html) is still more powerful... Is this to be a new pissing contest? :)
The issues raised are at best, I think, naive. First, the so-called "hostile" american individual thinks of him/herself first and of the state of the american economy and innovation second (if ever) -- which kinda makes sense to me. Second, racism in the U.S. and Europe is not something new, so welcome to the Free World! and Third, why would any country offer "presents" to people from other countries? When you apply for a H1-B visa it's your responsability to understand what it entails and what to expect. Apparently, the system is designed so that H1-B holders develop a strong desire to leave the States after a few years. I have lived in several countries and I am convinced that the percentage of creative, intelligent people is roughly the same everywhere. Whether or not an individual engages in a creative process, or decides to start up a business, or pursues a career in technology or research depends on many factors and the 16+ years of education are a consequence of such a decision rather than some kind of inherited asset. One final note: I'm not American, nor do I live in the U.S., nor I wish to work or live there. :)
The format I would like OOo to manipulate efficiently is the format most text documents use, that is, .doc. 95% of the world uses that format. Headhunters systematically reject my resume in PDF format, they want it in .doc format only. Companies use .doc format. Universities use .doc format. Government use .doc format. That's real life.
Well, that would make sense. That's because advertisers are bad for Firefox users and for any Internet user, for that matter. :)
I agree with you. When/if IE has features such as Adblock, Anidisable and a few others I will dump FF. The reason why MS hesitate to include such features with IE is because the lack thereof fuels smaller businesses, and that has always been a main theme with MS: create a commercial environment where othes can get business and strive.
It's like living in a world where a group of people decide that all cars should have the gas tank on the right hand side and that gas stations should only accomodate those. Then a company starts making cars with the gas tank on the left hand side and eventually dominates the market. Bummer, cars with the gas tank on the right hand side cannot refuel at some gas stations. At this point we hear arguments that only cars with the gas tank on the right hand side meet the standards and that all cars and gas stations should be modified to meet those requirements. Jesus, I just want to drive my car and not have to worry about being unable to refuel at the next gas station!
Unfortunaly, in _real_ life "valid" is whatever MS decides it is, since they have ~90% of the market.
You've gotta be kidding me! In Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0, when I click Forums three images dissapear.
Go to www.deep-shadows.com and click on Forums. Well?
Well, I think innovation is apparent on the plug-in and extension sides. There are lots of interesting plug-ins on Windows and some interesting extensions for Firefox.
But Java is so ssllloooowwwww... at least on my 2.26 GHz P4.
Mozilla developers have proposed a "simple" solution to make more sites compatible with Firefox: ask the website admins to edit their code accordingly. In fact, most webmasters will reply "Grow up, buddy!" or won't reply at all. An easier solution is to make Firefox compatible with those sites. How come IE can display virtually any site and Firefox cannot? After three months with Firefox I switched back to IE -- sites such as www.deep-shadows.com, or www.asrock.com, just won't open smoothly in Firefox. Yes, I like Firefox (when it works) and I agree that some should grow up. :)
Where did you read that? I have developed software that used recursive function calls, dynamic pointer structures, and dynamic memory allocation extensively, and ran it for days on Linux and UNIX machines (including a Cray) to successfully compute phylogeny trees, all without a glitch and in Pascal. I cannot imagine how my problem could have been solved without those features.
But can you create a pointer to a list of pointers and programatically clear from memory (dispose) the n-th element in the list?
Not all scientists are mathematicians, or, for that matter, do maths. :)
C was created for writing operating system(s), recte Unix; therefore, it has features required for that task: flexibility in terms of data type passing, CPU instructions, a.s.o. Now what happened was, all geeks determined they had to do their software development in C, even if they were not involved in system programming. For someone who doesn't do programming for a living, strong typing (see Pascal) is a very good thing, as it avoids common errors. Then, someone decided C was not good enough because OOP in C/C++ was not an easy endeavor (true) so they invented Java, only they removed some very good things in the process, such as pointers and (user-controlled) dynamic memory allocation. And for those sysadmins who are still in love with C but all too aware of its limitations there is always Perl, a mutant born from a happy C + unix shell scripting marriage.
Thus, I canot repeat it often enough, long live Pascal!
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/19/023 6213&tid=113&tid=128&tid=154&tid=2 18
Don't know what kind of business you're in, but believe me, it's embarassing to receive a MS Word document and be unable to display it on your screen, or to get a printout, with the intended layout. Or to receive PDF documents generated in Acrobat 6 and get that error messages every time you attempt reading a PDF in acroread-5.0.9 on Linux. Or open a Website that doesn't "show" as intended because it was designed for IE only and you're the only one who complains about it. I know of a large pharmaceutical company where the entire R&D department uses Linux while everybody else in the company uses Windows. You get the general idea. I'm not talking about the OS per se but about software availability and compatibility on the Linux platform. So, enjoy Debian and good luck! ;)
Come to think of it, I believe the problem is rooted in two fundamental beliefs of the open-source world. Number one: "Release early, release often" -- personally, I prefer to focus on productivity, rather than on backward compatibility issues. Number two: "Don't tell us what to develop, or how to develop it" -- sure, but if you don't develop software that addresses unmet needs of the business world then business will look elsewhere.
I don't want to buy a first price Macintosh only to have MacOS-X. Macintosh machines come almost twice as expensive as i386 machines for similar performance. So yes, if MacOS-X were available on Pentium or AMD PCs then I would switch. :)