The good news is that from this screenshot it looks like they're using gecko embedded through bonobo, skipping the mozilla framework itself. This is a good thing (not a Good Thing(tm)). Mozilla tries to be a platform, not just a browser; this conflicts with Nautilis also aiming to be a platform, not just a file browser. The end result would be a huge bloaty product. However, by just using Gecko, you get your file browser to be the platform (better than the web browser) while still having a speedy web browser for web pages.
Hmm, a file browser + web browser without the bloat of two separate products. Sounds kind of like Internet Explorer minus the bugs and security holes. --
I thought the Nautalis was still buried deep under the ocean who-knows-where after that affair with the hurricane and the giant squid. I mean, I know they have all those new submersibles and the Jason and things like that, but I didn't know they knew where the nautalis was located, let alone go down there and take pictures of it.
Funny, I can't seem to recall that one (no clinton jokes please). Do you remember the name? (It wasn't the one where the robot tried to hide itself, was it? the robot without the three laws?)
I'll have to check the book when I get home, but I don't think that was a part of I, Robot. Remember, it was just a collection of short stories strung together to form a larger future history. It's really neat how the stories are unrelated and all stand well on their own, but become a breathtaking conclusion when put together on their own. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury did the same thing, but it was a bit more depressing. OTOH, I, Robot can also be quite depressing too, as the human race kind of loses its free will at the end. --
I, Robot (Atari, 1983) - Not only is this the first game to use polygons, it's also quite a good game. The object is to change the color of the floor sections (a-la Paintbrush or Q-Bert) and to avoid getting shot by the big laser in the process. There is also a special mode that allows you to just paint images with your robot, something you would never see in an arcade game today (unless you were playing some strange Japanese game).
Does this have any relation to the famous I, Robot by Asimov? That is one classic book. Just from the tiny screenshot, it looks like the only connection is the name. Was the name licensed? Did they just use it to get people interested in the game? If anyone has ever played this game, please respond with your thoughts.
BTW, if you haven't read I, Robot, READ IT!. It is a classic.
While this might sound like it only has a tenuous relationship to the topic on hand, it is extremely important to the survival of C#. Why? Platform Independence. As much as they would like to claim so, C# is far from platform-independent. Microsoft likes it that way. So what will happen if it goes to the Windows division? Lock-in. While Java was destroyed by inconsistencies (one might say purposeful inconsistencies) in different implementations *cough*Microsoft's*cough*, C# will be destroyed by only being available for one platform. As Windoze slowly dies a painful death, it will take.NET with it to its grave -- unless the software division is granted control of it.
If Microsoft is split up and.NET goes to the software division, they will have no incentive not to make implementations for every platform that it's economical to do so for. C# will then become a true international language, combining the speed of Java with the things that Python, C++, and Modula-2 got right.
When I was reading this article, I actually was quite impressed with the language. But as far as I'm concerned, there are two options:
1: The.NET platform goes to the OS division, it remains tied in to windows, and nobody outside of windows will use C#. As windows loses mindshare, so will C#, ruining what might eventually be a great language.
2: The.NET platform goes with the software division. C# and.NET are ported to various platforms as it becomes economical to do so. Lots of developers use C# and it becomes the language Java only dreams to be.
Sol is the name of our sun; therefore, the system that orbits around it should be the Solar system. Similarly, the system that orbits around Epsilon Eridani should be the Eridanic system or the Epsilonic system. The only thing you have to change is capitalize Solar; otherwise, the "solar system" might tend to mean a generic group of planets orbiting a generic star.
This is a play on words. A metaphor. Do you really think that when G-d told Abraham (Abram at the time) his descendents would be as numerous as the sands on the beach, he actually meant that literally? Most scholars (Jewish scholars, I don't know if Christians have anything to say on this) say that this represents the four cardinal directions.
Yes, I know they didn't have compasses back then. Forward, backwards, left, and right are near-universal ideas. --
This is a fairly normal thing - the same would happen in the US if, say, I created a mySQL spin-off and called my new database 'Oracle' or 'Interbase', I'd be in a lot of trouble for trademark infringement.
Um, no. It's more like if Oracle sued you for making a cheese pizza or car called "Oracle". Trademarks do not apply across different domains; there can be an ACME furniture and an ACME widgets at the same time. For a fun experiment, look at the phone book under 'ACME'. It's the John Smith of corporations:-)
I was thinking of posting a comment containing a few selected words that would cause/. to be censored by all of these sites -- but I decided not to. To those of you who want to do so, don't.
Why?
Because you can go much, much further.
In every online bulletin board you can find, add to you, add a few selected keywords and a link to a site explaining what the point of this is. That site, for whomever feels like putting it up, should contain a succinct description of what our plan is (put keywords into enough web pages that everything is blocked, showing the true usefulness of censorware) plus links to the EFF blue ribbon campaign, peacefire.org, censorware.org, and a brief description of why censorware is bad.
Don't bother with slashdot -- it's just one of those "hacker sites", after all. And I mean hacker the way the general public uses hacker. Hit the big sites. Hit ZDNet. If Disney has talkbacks, hit them hard. Everywhere you post, put that in your signature and watch the success rate of censorware plummet. --
This article was posted in the science section and deemed "not important enough" for the main page. You can still access it through older stuff or the Science slashbox. This probably either was because of its slightly vaporous quality or because of the required subscription.
Remember, Wince sucked because it was taking a desktop environment, with all its bloat, and trying to scale it down to a tiny screen. Remember why the Palm was successful? While there were many factors involved, a main one was that its interface was designed for palmtop computers. Different sizes require different paradigms, and as good as GNOME or KDE may be, I don't think they would scale well at all. --
Do I think that Gnutella will move in where Napster stopped? I personally don't, the reason being that Gnutella requires you to set up a direct connection with an individual you've never met. So where the dangers surrounding Napster, regarding viruses and child molesters, were moderately nebulous, they're going to be very severe with Gnutella.
OK, the author here needs a HUGE whack on the head with a cluestick. With napster, you ask a central server for a song, and then you set up a direct connection. With gnutella, the only difference is that you have to do so before you log on. He's right so far. But then he goes on to say that this increases the risk of virii. Grade A prime bull. You can't possibly get a virus unless you actually transfer a song. No client is brain-damaged enough that it will accept code (vbs or otherwise) from its nearest node without asking for it. And the stuff about child molesters is pure garbage. Chat is chat, whether or not you're using a decentralized server. Knowing someone's ip address doesn't help you hunt down their house.
If you just want better clustering, shared drives, that sort of stuff, check out Mosix or LinuxNOW, as many other people have already pointed out.
If you want the kernel or other fundamental, low-level parts of the operating system to be distributed, then you have a fundamentally bad idea. If you want the kernel to be distributed, you don't have a clue what you're talking about -- The kernel is designed to be low-level and small. It can't be distributed because it is inherently specific to the machine. It is also small enough that the performance loss in distributing it would be bad for time-critical kernel-space functions. If you want system commands like the shell and things in/bin to be distributed, those too are small and speed-critical. If you just want clustering for larger, less-frequent jobs, then you are back to the above solutions: LinuxNOW or Mosix. --
It's Linux 7.0 that's out. See, all my favorite commercial apps say they require "Linux 6.2" to run, so therefore this latest version must be Linux 7.0. And we all know the commercial programs must be right because they can afford to sell the products. If this GNOME thing was any good, they would sell that too.
BTW, what's this "kernel" thing people keep talking about?
This is yet another reason why corporations are a threat to the net's continued existence./. has already been threatened for containing a post that violated copyright (the protocol formerly known as kerberos). Now what happens if someone is sued for merely linking to illicit material?
This is not entirely hypothetical; there is already precedent in which people have been sued for links: DeCSS. Even sites containing lists of mirrors (that would be a link to a link) were given cease-and-desist notices IIRC. Now what happens to index sites such as Yahoo? The MP/RIAA will sue anyone small enough to be unable to fight back. So Yahoo is safe. What happens to the Open Directory servers that are used by Google, among others? The policy of making linkage illegal will destroy the Net as we know it.
I predict that if these sites are not taken down yet, they will be shortly. And don't be surprised about it either. This will continue to happen as long as the RI/MPAA feels they can get away with it. In other words, until we raise hell.
Few people know this, but Will Smith turned down an acceptance to MIT to become a rap star. Now we see Chuck D. with an insightful comment about sharing, and we see an incredibly enlightened comment by the lead of the band "Moebius Dick", who in his spare time is a law professor.
For some reason, we tend not to associate rock/rap/pop music with sophisticated thinking. But to find out how many of these guys actually hold academic posts -- it is far higher than a lot of people think, and that surprises people.
The Magical Mystery Tour vinyl says goo goo goo joob. I've also heard people say that near the end, when it starts degenerating into cacophany, you can hear "dead si nhoj", backwards for "John is dead".
No, I don't believe that one either.:-)
And in case anyone happens to click my user info and find out that I'm 14, it is my parents' record:-) --
It sounds to me like what he's describing can be done as follows:
Mount/usr and/home remotely. Mount/usr/local and everything else in the root directory off of the hard drive.
Voila! The system administrator now only has to keep the main system upgraded. The rare updates to the root directory can be automated over the network, and each user can still install his/her/its stuff in the usr/local directory without fear of it getting overwritten. Of course, this is a simplification -- a bunch of other directories can also be mounted remotely, but I don't know enough about the hierarchy to specify which one.
So it sounds to me like LinuxNOW just bundles that with a bunch of remote administration utilities. Where is the advantage?
Slashdot Mirror
Unfortunately, karma doesn't seem to be moving for people over 50 (karma, not age). It kinda takes the fun out of it :-(
--
The good news is that from this screenshot it looks like they're using gecko embedded through bonobo, skipping the mozilla framework itself. This is a good thing (not a Good Thing(tm)). Mozilla tries to be a platform, not just a browser; this conflicts with Nautilis also aiming to be a platform, not just a file browser. The end result would be a huge bloaty product. However, by just using Gecko, you get your file browser to be the platform (better than the web browser) while still having a speedy web browser for web pages.
Hmm, a file browser + web browser without the bloat of two separate products. Sounds kind of like Internet Explorer minus the bugs and security holes.
--
I thought the Nautalis was still buried deep under the ocean who-knows-where after that affair with the hurricane and the giant squid. I mean, I know they have all those new submersibles and the Jason and things like that, but I didn't know they knew where the nautalis was located, let alone go down there and take pictures of it.
Will the wonders of science never cease?
--
OM*G, am I really that dumb?
(the obvious answer is no, I just pretend. In the movies. Yeah, that's it.)
--
Funny, I can't seem to recall that one (no clinton jokes please). Do you remember the name? (It wasn't the one where the robot tried to hide itself, was it? the robot without the three laws?)
I'll have to check the book when I get home, but I don't think that was a part of I, Robot. Remember, it was just a collection of short stories strung together to form a larger future history. It's really neat how the stories are unrelated and all stand well on their own, but become a breathtaking conclusion when put together on their own. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury did the same thing, but it was a bit more depressing. OTOH, I, Robot can also be quite depressing too, as the human race kind of loses its free will at the end.
--
Dude! How did I miss that one?
:-) )
I checked a whole bunch of low sids, but must've skipped that one or something. Check my new signature now.
(too bad there wasn't room for both
--
Does this have any relation to the famous I, Robot by Asimov? That is one classic book. Just from the tiny screenshot, it looks like the only connection is the name. Was the name licensed? Did they just use it to get people interested in the game? If anyone has ever played this game, please respond with your thoughts.
BTW, if you haven't read I, Robot, READ IT!. It is a classic.
--
Which company will inherit .NET?
.NET with it to its grave -- unless the software division is granted control of it.
.NET goes to the software division, they will have no incentive not to make implementations for every platform that it's economical to do so for. C# will then become a true international language, combining the speed of Java with the things that Python, C++, and Modula-2 got right.
.NET platform goes to the OS division, it remains tied in to windows, and nobody outside of windows will use C#. As windows loses mindshare, so will C#, ruining what might eventually be a great language.
.NET platform goes with the software division. C# and .NET are ported to various platforms as it becomes economical to do so. Lots of developers use C# and it becomes the language Java only dreams to be.
While this might sound like it only has a tenuous relationship to the topic on hand, it is extremely important to the survival of C#. Why? Platform Independence. As much as they would like to claim so, C# is far from platform-independent. Microsoft likes it that way. So what will happen if it goes to the Windows division? Lock-in. While Java was destroyed by inconsistencies (one might say purposeful inconsistencies) in different implementations *cough*Microsoft's*cough*, C# will be destroyed by only being available for one platform. As Windoze slowly dies a painful death, it will take
If Microsoft is split up and
When I was reading this article, I actually was quite impressed with the language. But as far as I'm concerned, there are two options:
1: The
2: The
--
Sol is the name of our sun; therefore, the system that orbits around it should be the Solar system. Similarly, the system that orbits around Epsilon Eridani should be the Eridanic system or the Epsilonic system. The only thing you have to change is capitalize Solar; otherwise, the "solar system" might tend to mean a generic group of planets orbiting a generic star.
--
This is a play on words. A metaphor. Do you really think that when G-d told Abraham (Abram at the time) his descendents would be as numerous as the sands on the beach, he actually meant that literally? Most scholars (Jewish scholars, I don't know if Christians have anything to say on this) say that this represents the four cardinal directions.
Yes, I know they didn't have compasses back then. Forward, backwards, left, and right are near-universal ideas.
--
This is a fairly normal thing - the same would happen in the US if, say, I created a mySQL spin-off and called my new database 'Oracle' or 'Interbase', I'd be in a lot of trouble for trademark infringement.
:-)
Um, no. It's more like if Oracle sued you for making a cheese pizza or car called "Oracle". Trademarks do not apply across different domains; there can be an ACME furniture and an ACME widgets at the same time. For a fun experiment, look at the phone book under 'ACME'. It's the John Smith of corporations
--
I was thinking of posting a comment containing a few selected words that would cause /. to be censored by all of these sites -- but I decided not to. To those of you who want to do so, don't.
Why?
Because you can go much, much further.
In every online bulletin board you can find, add to you, add a few selected keywords and a link to a site explaining what the point of this is. That site, for whomever feels like putting it up, should contain a succinct description of what our plan is (put keywords into enough web pages that everything is blocked, showing the true usefulness of censorware) plus links to the EFF blue ribbon campaign, peacefire.org, censorware.org, and a brief description of why censorware is bad.
Don't bother with slashdot -- it's just one of those "hacker sites", after all. And I mean hacker the way the general public uses hacker. Hit the big sites. Hit ZDNet. If Disney has talkbacks, hit them hard. Everywhere you post, put that in your signature and watch the success rate of censorware plummet.
--
This article was posted in the science section and deemed "not important enough" for the main page. You can still access it through older stuff or the Science slashbox. This probably either was because of its slightly vaporous quality or because of the required subscription.
--
Remember, Wince sucked because it was taking a desktop environment, with all its bloat, and trying to scale it down to a tiny screen. Remember why the Palm was successful? While there were many factors involved, a main one was that its interface was designed for palmtop computers. Different sizes require different paradigms, and as good as GNOME or KDE may be, I don't think they would scale well at all.
--
but their luggage was lost.
--
OK, the author here needs a HUGE whack on the head with a cluestick. With napster, you ask a central server for a song, and then you set up a direct connection. With gnutella, the only difference is that you have to do so before you log on. He's right so far. But then he goes on to say that this increases the risk of virii. Grade A prime bull. You can't possibly get a virus unless you actually transfer a song. No client is brain-damaged enough that it will accept code (vbs or otherwise) from its nearest node without asking for it. And the stuff about child molesters is pure garbage. Chat is chat, whether or not you're using a decentralized server. Knowing someone's ip address doesn't help you hunt down their house.
--
The question is unclear.
/bin to be distributed, those too are small and speed-critical. If you just want clustering for larger, less-frequent jobs, then you are back to the above solutions: LinuxNOW or Mosix.
If you just want better clustering, shared drives, that sort of stuff, check out Mosix or LinuxNOW, as many other people have already pointed out.
If you want the kernel or other fundamental, low-level parts of the operating system to be distributed, then you have a fundamentally bad idea. If you want the kernel to be distributed, you don't have a clue what you're talking about -- The kernel is designed to be low-level and small. It can't be distributed because it is inherently specific to the machine. It is also small enough that the performance loss in distributing it would be bad for time-critical kernel-space functions. If you want system commands like the shell and things in
--
Probably any guy running an nmap gets written up as a "transnational attack".
--
It's Linux 7.0 that's out. See, all my favorite commercial apps say they require "Linux 6.2" to run, so therefore this latest version must be Linux 7.0. And we all know the commercial programs must be right because they can afford to sell the products. If this GNOME thing was any good, they would sell that too.
BTW, what's this "kernel" thing people keep talking about?
(hey mods, it's a joke)
--
This is yet another reason why corporations are a threat to the net's continued existence. /. has already been threatened for containing a post that violated copyright (the protocol formerly known as kerberos). Now what happens if someone is sued for merely linking to illicit material?
This is not entirely hypothetical; there is already precedent in which people have been sued for links: DeCSS. Even sites containing lists of mirrors (that would be a link to a link) were given cease-and-desist notices IIRC. Now what happens to index sites such as Yahoo? The MP/RIAA will sue anyone small enough to be unable to fight back. So Yahoo is safe. What happens to the Open Directory servers that are used by Google, among others? The policy of making linkage illegal will destroy the Net as we know it.
I predict that if these sites are not taken down yet, they will be shortly. And don't be surprised about it either. This will continue to happen as long as the RI/MPAA feels they can get away with it. In other words, until we raise hell.
--
See the smiley right after the dashed line?
Now you get it...
(admittedly, it wasn't that funny in the first place, but w/e. And yerricide, if you know someone named Himu, tell him Jacob says hi.)
--
Few people know this, but Will Smith turned down an acceptance to MIT to become a rap star. Now we see Chuck D. with an insightful comment about sharing, and we see an incredibly enlightened comment by the lead of the band "Moebius Dick", who in his spare time is a law professor.
For some reason, we tend not to associate rock/rap/pop music with sophisticated thinking. But to find out how many of these guys actually hold academic posts -- it is far higher than a lot of people think, and that surprises people.
--
The Magical Mystery Tour vinyl says goo goo goo joob. I've also heard people say that near the end, when it starts degenerating into cacophany, you can hear "dead si nhoj", backwards for "John is dead".
:-)
:-)
No, I don't believe that one either.
And in case anyone happens to click my user info and find out that I'm 14, it is my parents' record
--
The system is the network, the network is the system" ...
... and we are all together. See how they fly like pigs in the sky see their stock soar.
I'm buying.
Sitting on a hard drive, waiting for the 'net to load.
Pornographic pictures, stupid NT systems, man you've been a naughty boy you got your sendmail old.
I am the admin. WHOOO!
They are the admins. WHOOO!
I AM THE PENGUIN! GOO GOO GOO JOOB!
--
It sounds to me like what he's describing can be done as follows:
/usr and /home remotely. /usr/local and everything else in the root directory off of the hard drive.
Mount
Mount
Voila! The system administrator now only has to keep the main system upgraded. The rare updates to the root directory can be automated over the network, and each user can still install his/her/its stuff in the usr/local directory without fear of it getting overwritten. Of course, this is a simplification -- a bunch of other directories can also be mounted remotely, but I don't know enough about the hierarchy to specify which one.
So it sounds to me like LinuxNOW just bundles that with a bunch of remote administration utilities. Where is the advantage?
--