This means that Sony is trying to import the systems to sell for over $200 USD MSRP in India. If they dropped their system to a reasonable price and then added the 66% tariff, it might be a lot more palatable to Indian consumers. Of course, this is only worthwhile if Sony can hope to sell legit copies of games in India. I know nothing about the probability of that happening, but I suspect that the odds aren't good.
I guess I see where you're coming from, but I think your reaction is over the top a bit. Most casual users that I know have switched to a server side email solution of some sort. They're using Hotmail, Yahoo, or their ISP web email account to read their email. So most people aren't even going to miss OE. For us power users, OE doesn't cut it; it's Outlook or else. So that means the market is pushing OE into a decline anyway. So, why support it?
I do think that Microsoft is deluding themselves though if they think that this is going to drive up sales of Microsoft Office. Anyone who is currently satisfied with OE will probably be satisfied with web mail.
..if he didn't find anything wrong with the book? It just wasn't a stinker. Very few people like reviewing stinkers anyway because they're usually boring, and there are a lot of them. Really, I think that's why most of the book reviews on/. tend to be positive. Now, I do think that a professional reviewer would be obligated to review stinkers too, but these guys are volunteers.
Re:There's one good thing about it.
on
Perl 1.0?
·
· Score: 1
Switching would be a real pain in the ass. However, I can switch the editor to use spaces instead.
Well, there you go! You found a way to work with the team. That's the whole point as far as I'm concerned.
Because what invariably happens is somewhere someone uses 3 spaces instead of 4 or something like that.
That would be my fear too. If you and I were on a project together and some greenhorn did that, suffice it to say that they would feel the sting from the reprimand for a while.
As far as what you would do with code like that, the answer is to throw it back to the dork who messed it up. If the indentation is all off, then it won't even compile. Therefore, it's not even usable. So, why worry about salvaging it? It's not even worthy of that yet.
See? The whole indentation thing is just a bunch of fear. It's not a real problem. I'm guessing from your post that you have not used Python yet, or that would be obvious to you too. Give it a try, you just might like it.
Or don't. But please refrain from expressing a bunch of FUD on something you haven't tried yet.
Re:There's one good thing about it.
on
Perl 1.0?
·
· Score: 1
I have a hard time believing that people will have a hard time grokking today's Python code 10 or even 20 years from now. Really, isn't it much more evil to have to look up/remember the meanings of Perl operators over time? Good grief! If Python's worst sin is making people deal properly with whitespace in their programs, then future Python legacy programmers will have easy lives indeed!
Re:There's one good thing about it.
on
Perl 1.0?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Well, the obvious answer is to just use an editor where this isn't a concern. It really isn't too much to ask to standardize the tools on a project so things like this don't become an issue. Besides, with vi, I believe you could just embed vi directives that configure vi on the fly to your current tabbing standards, etc. True?
Anyway, I used to think that the division between programmers produced by Python's indentation requirement was a problem. After all, it makes us argue about a stupid sounding issue. However, I don't think it's a problem anymore. It's an acid test. To me, the central question is: Will you conform your working style enough to allow tools to augment your work and to allow the rest of your team to work with you? If your answer is no, then Python is not for you. If you answer is yes, then Python is for you. I prefer not to work with people who answer 'No' to that question. In general, they like to make a PITA out of themselves on several levels, and I have no desire to put up with that pain.
Of course, you could counter all this by saying something to the effect of "BS! It's really a question of whether you let your tools get in the way." or something like that. But then, that just affirms what I've been saying. Allowing our tools to change our working style a bit is a tradeoff, and it's one that many programmers are not willing to make. Hooray for them I say... let someone else work with them.
The technical point you raise above is a good one (i.e. the fact that Python code can be broke by inconsistent editor settings), but was never a problem for me on the Python project I worked on. Maybe we were just lucky, but all the problems people like to cite about the indentation rule just never came up for us. Even if it had been issue, I don't see how it could be much worse than a missing curly brace in Java. It's not a big deal to fix.
Nice post, I would mod you up if I had the points.
A question for you: The main issue in all this (aside from normal or corrupt shipping routes) really seems to be the payment method. Of courses, credit cards seem to be the method everyone uses, but that also seems like the method everyone is getting burned on. So, my question is, aren't there any internationally usable means of secured payment available to the average consumer? Isn't there a way to get a customer to jump through a hoop or two to ensure that they can order from a skittish vendor?
Perhaps I'm being naive, but this seems like a simple problem to solve (to my uninitiated eye anyway).
We may have to agree to disagree. I understand your assertion but I will maintain that the choice of programming language does in fact affect the readability of the solution. This is especially true when you consider that the choice of a language often goes hand in hand with participation in a given software sub-culture. That plays right into your idea of readability being more a question of the programmer in question rather than the language, so we may be saying the same thing from different perspectives.
If you don't believe that the choice of programming language affects readability, I can easily find programming languages which, no matter who the programmer, are not readable by any standard.
As far as the Pythonic indentation issue goes, I stand by that concept as well. It requires less typing, less reading, and it's more a question of suspending habits from other programming languages than anything. The only reason I see people objecting to it is because they're too used to brackets, which isn't much of a reason IMO. I will say though that I DO wish Python had a bracket option for the language. It wouldn't be hard to add and it would finally silence all the detractors who use this (minor) issue to bash Python. It gets old. Continuing to use that issue to bash Python is like bashing Perl because the variables look too much like QuickBasic.
Granted, badly written Python can be hard to read, no doubt about it. However, I will assert that it's simply not possible to obfuscate Python to the same extent as C or Perl. It just isn't possible.
Go ahead and show me some nested lambda + encoding of eval'ed source + pickle or some other monstrosity if you like, but it will have to be indented properly to even execute.;+)
really nothing more than the.NET runtime (CLR), the associated libraries, and the associated languages that can execute on the CLR (e.g. C#, VB.NET, etc.)
And that's it....
It interfaces to a whole lot of things via web services, COM, various MS server products, etc. but that's all it is.
Microsoft's marketing people didn't do us any favors by clouding the definition of.NET. However, we should be used to that by now. They did the same thing to DDE, OLE, ActiveX, COM, COM+, and probably some others I'm forgetting.
Really, it's quite easy. Now go do yourself a favor and gain some perspective by downloading the.NET SDK and a good free.NET IDE (like SharpDevelop or Web Matrix) and just go play with it.
Oh, and if you just must maintain an open source angle on it, then try Mono (or that other.NET open source clone I'm forgetting the name of right now) and go from there. If you've ever worked with Perl, Python, PHP, Java or anything else like that it will be pretty easy. And it won't hurt.
I dunno what they're doing. It wouldn't be so bad if the transitions didn't use the 3D engine too. If they used FMV for those, that would at least be quick. But having that delay for the transitions and the game scenes is a complete PITA. Also, I tend to reload the game a lot too because I like to try to redo screw ups. A game load causes a complete reload of textures, etc. AFAIK and this takes forever. It all adds up to a game that I enjoyed between long sessions of grinding my teeth.
I very much doubt I'll buy another Epic game in the future without having played it first.
Like reduce the infernal load times in the game! Seriously, I couldn't stand it anymore so I didn't even finish the game. Unreal2 goes down as the most disappointing game purchase for me in recent memory. They had a good thing going, then they let that load time issue slip through. It really wrecked the game for me.
...Replicate your content to your Palm and then away you go. Do you really need to be able to browse the web from 1 mile away? Sometimes we geeks should be asking "why" instead of "how".
Just in case you don't know about this, you might want to try the AvantGo service to get the content you crave. You get 2MB a day for free and for $20/year you can get 8MB a day. I haven't tried it yet, so I can't firmly vouch for it, but I've been hoping to use it once I have a PDA (which should, hopefully, be soon).
Another solution, if you must have the remote mobile capability, is to just get a PDA+cell phone combo. There are a lot of choices (a lot of Palm ones especially) in that category now, and if you have an Internet option in your phone's service plan, you could access the net from anywhere, not just within the range of your antenna.
Yes, during a re-partition, you can only make partitions for the largest contiguous block of free space on the drive. A defrag cleans up the stray files that litter the drive and makes (most of the time) the free blocks that are there, bigger. This enables you to create an even bigger partition for Linux (or whatever) to use.
You're right, I don't think Joe does care about the cost of office. Or if they do care, they just buy PCs with OEM copies of Microsoft Works on it because that's all they need anyway. I just went through this yesterday with a user. I hate working on that machine because Works really isn't designed the same as Office. But I have to admit, if I had nothing else to use, Works could do the job.
Yes, piracy is keeping free software in general from becoming more prevalent. This applies to more than just Windows and Office. More people don't use the GIMP because they just use their copy of Photoshop they bootlegged at work. They don't use Python or Perl, because they have a bootleg of VB. There are probably other examples, but I don't want to actually think on a Sunday.;+) The flipside to this is that most casual users of bootlegged software don't need all the premium features of the software in question. They would be perfectly happy with a "Photoshop-Lite".
You know, I prefer to keep the discussions of free (as in speech) software separate from the discussion of free (as in beer) software. Linux and the quality applications surrounding it, can not remain a zero cost item forever. There are many charitable souls out there working on free software, but it would be wrong to assume that an entire software industry should be based on free labor. It's just plain wrong to do that in a market economy. Free (as in speech) software is another matter though. And I'll stop there... I'm sure it's all been said before and more eloquently.
What the hell does defragging have to do with anything?
Maybe nothing. Maybe his buddies didn't know what they were doing. He is just the messenger here, so don't shoot. That said, it used to be that you needed a defrag to be able to do a OS multi-boot on the same physical drive. Isn't that still the case?
Now for the meat... No, not all distributions are free. Some companies may choose not to GPL their proprietary bells-and-whistles, such as installers and configuration utilities. I also dislike this article's erroneous insinuation that all Linux software is free.
You're absolutely correct. And it doesn't really matter one bit that you are correct. You see, the average person is quite content to use Windows until something better comes along. By something better, I mean it had better be (a) significantly faster/stable and/or (b) significantly cheaper and/or (c) significantly more feature rich (and easy to use) and/or (d) significantly more entertaining. Linux may or may not be faster/stable (it's debatable these days), it is more feature rich (but it's not easier to use), and it definitely is not more entertaining to the average person. So what does that leave? Cheaper. And how does every rabid Linux advocate start Linux evangelism? "Hey it's free! Here, take one."
The fact is that Joe Blow will choose Linux over Windows when doing so allows him to dodge the extra $200+ of cost of Windows + Office on a new computer. Joe had also better not care that most of the new games out there won't be usable under Linux. THEN he will choose Linux.
Don't get me wrong, I like Linux on the desktop. But please be realistic about why most people will choose it.
Well, I wasn't trying to imply that only lower-tech platforms foster good or unique game development. However, I do think that those kinds of platforms foster *more* good and unique games because they aren't able to hide behind as much video and audio embellishment. That's all...
Personally, I relish games produced on constrictive hardware by a bunch of rowdy upstarts! I think that is where the PDA game market is right now too. The hardware isn't good enough to support elaborate studio style software, so they have to innovate with the gameplay instead of the video and audio. IMO, the best game designs have come from this model. Yeah, I like UT/Q3/GTA:VC as much as the next geek, but I'm just as enamored with Tetris, SameGame, and Bejeweled.
Can't wait to finally get a PDA+PCS cell phone device! I'm cooomming precious!:+)
Anyway, done properly, Wing Chun is very meditative and physically taxing (if you're doing the stance properly). At the same time, itâ(TM)s something anyone on two feet can do. It's an internal martial art like Tai Chi which, but it has some immediate and effective applications. It's nothing like you see in the movies though. It's very subtle and hard to appreciate until you actually feel some of the effects.
But besides all that, it's what I do to associate with non-geeks. I couldn't stomach the thought of golf, so Wing Chun it was. Ironically about half the folks that attend the classes are in some way into IT, but we don't talk shop much.
For anyone who is curious and resides around the Minneapolis/St. Paul MN area, send me an email at: VincePlatt AT Yahoo D.O.T com.
FYI - I appreciate your response and for your patience in dealing with ignoramuses like myself on this subject. Having read/scanned the links you mentioned, I can see how the relational filesystem isn't necessarily the best fit. I can't claim to understand all of the unique operational characteristics of ReiserFS yet though either. I don't quite see how it would be as capable as a relational filesystem from a query/user interaction point of view. That is, I simply haven't looked into it deeply enough yet.
Also, there's probably something wrong with this idea, but I haven't figured out what yet. Once the ReiserFS is perfected, what would keep it from being a good general-purpose database? It seems to me like it could be a good foundation for a database that supports the full range of set operations, just like any modern RDBMS. Would it have more favorable operational characteristics than existing databases though? I really am not in a position to even guess.
Well, I really am not in touch with IFS as I haven't used it. I still think that it's high time we do *something* different with filesystems though. The relational filesystem appears to be the best idea going. I suppose one could argue for a OODBMS filesystem, that would be even better, in theory anyway. I suspect that the world just isn't ready for that one. That, and it wouldn't be a built-in part of Windows since Microsoft doesn't have an OODBMS yet.
Slashdot Mirror
This means that Sony is trying to import the systems to sell for over $200 USD MSRP in India. If they dropped their system to a reasonable price and then added the 66% tariff, it might be a lot more palatable to Indian consumers. Of course, this is only worthwhile if Sony can hope to sell legit copies of games in India. I know nothing about the probability of that happening, but I suspect that the odds aren't good.
True?
Also, what price are gray market PS2's going for?
Just curious... thanks!
I guess I see where you're coming from, but I think your reaction is over the top a bit. Most casual users that I know have switched to a server side email solution of some sort. They're using Hotmail, Yahoo, or their ISP web email account to read their email. So most people aren't even going to miss OE. For us power users, OE doesn't cut it; it's Outlook or else. So that means the market is pushing OE into a decline anyway. So, why support it?
I do think that Microsoft is deluding themselves though if they think that this is going to drive up sales of Microsoft Office. Anyone who is currently satisfied with OE will probably be satisfied with web mail.
..if he didn't find anything wrong with the book? It just wasn't a stinker. Very few people like reviewing stinkers anyway because they're usually boring, and there are a lot of them. Really, I think that's why most of the book reviews on /. tend to be positive. Now, I do think that a professional reviewer would be obligated to review stinkers too, but these guys are volunteers.
Switching would be a real pain in the ass. However, I can switch the editor to use spaces instead.
Well, there you go! You found a way to work with the team. That's the whole point as far as I'm concerned.
Because what invariably happens is somewhere someone uses 3 spaces instead of 4 or something like that.
That would be my fear too. If you and I were on a project together and some greenhorn did that, suffice it to say that they would feel the sting from the reprimand for a while.
As far as what you would do with code like that, the answer is to throw it back to the dork who messed it up. If the indentation is all off, then it won't even compile. Therefore, it's not even usable. So, why worry about salvaging it? It's not even worthy of that yet.
See? The whole indentation thing is just a bunch of fear. It's not a real problem. I'm guessing from your post that you have not used Python yet, or that would be obvious to you too. Give it a try, you just might like it.
Or don't. But please refrain from expressing a bunch of FUD on something you haven't tried yet.
I have a hard time believing that people will have a hard time grokking today's Python code 10 or even 20 years from now. Really, isn't it much more evil to have to look up/remember the meanings of Perl operators over time? Good grief! If Python's worst sin is making people deal properly with whitespace in their programs, then future Python legacy programmers will have easy lives indeed!
Well, the obvious answer is to just use an editor where this isn't a concern. It really isn't too much to ask to standardize the tools on a project so things like this don't become an issue. Besides, with vi, I believe you could just embed vi directives that configure vi on the fly to your current tabbing standards, etc. True?
Anyway, I used to think that the division between programmers produced by Python's indentation requirement was a problem. After all, it makes us argue about a stupid sounding issue. However, I don't think it's a problem anymore. It's an acid test. To me, the central question is: Will you conform your working style enough to allow tools to augment your work and to allow the rest of your team to work with you? If your answer is no, then Python is not for you. If you answer is yes, then Python is for you. I prefer not to work with people who answer 'No' to that question. In general, they like to make a PITA out of themselves on several levels, and I have no desire to put up with that pain.
Of course, you could counter all this by saying something to the effect of "BS! It's really a question of whether you let your tools get in the way." or something like that. But then, that just affirms what I've been saying. Allowing our tools to change our working style a bit is a tradeoff, and it's one that many programmers are not willing to make. Hooray for them I say... let someone else work with them.
The technical point you raise above is a good one (i.e. the fact that Python code can be broke by inconsistent editor settings), but was never a problem for me on the Python project I worked on. Maybe we were just lucky, but all the problems people like to cite about the indentation rule just never came up for us. Even if it had been issue, I don't see how it could be much worse than a missing curly brace in Java. It's not a big deal to fix.
Nice post, I would mod you up if I had the points.
A question for you: The main issue in all this (aside from normal or corrupt shipping routes) really seems to be the payment method. Of courses, credit cards seem to be the method everyone uses, but that also seems like the method everyone is getting burned on. So, my question is, aren't there any internationally usable means of secured payment available to the average consumer? Isn't there a way to get a customer to jump through a hoop or two to ensure that they can order from a skittish vendor?
Perhaps I'm being naive, but this seems like a simple problem to solve (to my uninitiated eye anyway).
Well, that *is* hard to read, but it's nothing compared to much of the obfuscated C code I've seen.
Try that in Python!
We may have to agree to disagree. I understand your assertion but I will maintain that the choice of programming language does in fact affect the readability of the solution. This is especially true when you consider that the choice of a language often goes hand in hand with participation in a given software sub-culture. That plays right into your idea of readability being more a question of the programmer in question rather than the language, so we may be saying the same thing from different perspectives.
If you don't believe that the choice of programming language affects readability, I can easily find programming languages which, no matter who the programmer, are not readable by any standard.
As far as the Pythonic indentation issue goes, I stand by that concept as well. It requires less typing, less reading, and it's more a question of suspending habits from other programming languages than anything. The only reason I see people objecting to it is because they're too used to brackets, which isn't much of a reason IMO. I will say though that I DO wish Python had a bracket option for the language. It wouldn't be hard to add and it would finally silence all the detractors who use this (minor) issue to bash Python. It gets old. Continuing to use that issue to bash Python is like bashing Perl because the variables look too much like QuickBasic.
If you want a real strongly typed language as in all type errors are detected use Haskell or ML.
;+)
Hey, why mess around? Use Ada!
Granted, badly written Python can be hard to read, no doubt about it. However, I will assert that it's simply not possible to obfuscate Python to the same extent as C or Perl. It just isn't possible.
;+)
Go ahead and show me some nested lambda + encoding of eval'ed source + pickle or some other monstrosity if you like, but it will have to be indented properly to even execute.
really nothing more than the .NET runtime (CLR), the associated libraries, and the associated languages that can execute on the CLR (e.g. C#, VB.NET, etc.)
.NET. However, we should be used to that by now. They did the same thing to DDE, OLE, ActiveX, COM, COM+, and probably some others I'm forgetting.
.NET SDK and a good free .NET IDE (like SharpDevelop or Web Matrix) and just go play with it.
.NET open source clone I'm forgetting the name of right now) and go from there. If you've ever worked with Perl, Python, PHP, Java or anything else like that it will be pretty easy. And it won't hurt.
:+)
And that's it....
It interfaces to a whole lot of things via web services, COM, various MS server products, etc. but that's all it is.
Microsoft's marketing people didn't do us any favors by clouding the definition of
Really, it's quite easy. Now go do yourself a favor and gain some perspective by downloading the
Oh, and if you just must maintain an open source angle on it, then try Mono (or that other
I promise.
I dunno what they're doing. It wouldn't be so bad if the transitions didn't use the 3D engine too. If they used FMV for those, that would at least be quick. But having that delay for the transitions and the game scenes is a complete PITA. Also, I tend to reload the game a lot too because I like to try to redo screw ups. A game load causes a complete reload of textures, etc. AFAIK and this takes forever. It all adds up to a game that I enjoyed between long sessions of grinding my teeth.
I very much doubt I'll buy another Epic game in the future without having played it first.
Like reduce the infernal load times in the game! Seriously, I couldn't stand it anymore so I didn't even finish the game. Unreal2 goes down as the most disappointing game purchase for me in recent memory. They had a good thing going, then they let that load time issue slip through. It really wrecked the game for me.
...Replicate your content to your Palm and then away you go. Do you really need to be able to browse the web from 1 mile away? Sometimes we geeks should be asking "why" instead of "how".
Just in case you don't know about this, you might want to try the AvantGo service to get the content you crave. You get 2MB a day for free and for $20/year you can get 8MB a day. I haven't tried it yet, so I can't firmly vouch for it, but I've been hoping to use it once I have a PDA (which should, hopefully, be soon).
Another solution, if you must have the remote mobile capability, is to just get a PDA+cell phone combo. There are a lot of choices (a lot of Palm ones especially) in that category now, and if you have an Internet option in your phone's service plan, you could access the net from anywhere, not just within the range of your antenna.
Umm... where is your DVD drive and game controller? Also, does the Nforce board have a TV out?
Not as easy as it looks is it?!
Yes, during a re-partition, you can only make partitions for the largest contiguous block of free space on the drive. A defrag cleans up the stray files that litter the drive and makes (most of the time) the free blocks that are there, bigger. This enables you to create an even bigger partition for Linux (or whatever) to use.
;+) The flipside to this is that most casual users of bootlegged software don't need all the premium features of the software in question. They would be perfectly happy with a "Photoshop-Lite".
You're right, I don't think Joe does care about the cost of office. Or if they do care, they just buy PCs with OEM copies of Microsoft Works on it because that's all they need anyway. I just went through this yesterday with a user. I hate working on that machine because Works really isn't designed the same as Office. But I have to admit, if I had nothing else to use, Works could do the job.
Yes, piracy is keeping free software in general from becoming more prevalent. This applies to more than just Windows and Office. More people don't use the GIMP because they just use their copy of Photoshop they bootlegged at work. They don't use Python or Perl, because they have a bootleg of VB. There are probably other examples, but I don't want to actually think on a Sunday.
You know, I prefer to keep the discussions of free (as in speech) software separate from the discussion of free (as in beer) software. Linux and the quality applications surrounding it, can not remain a zero cost item forever. There are many charitable souls out there working on free software, but it would be wrong to assume that an entire software industry should be based on free labor. It's just plain wrong to do that in a market economy. Free (as in speech) software is another matter though. And I'll stop there... I'm sure it's all been said before and more eloquently.
What the hell does defragging have to do with anything?
Maybe nothing. Maybe his buddies didn't know what they were doing. He is just the messenger here, so don't shoot. That said, it used to be that you needed a defrag to be able to do a OS multi-boot on the same physical drive. Isn't that still the case?
Now for the meat...
No, not all distributions are free. Some companies may choose not to GPL their proprietary bells-and-whistles, such as installers and configuration utilities. I also dislike this article's erroneous insinuation that all Linux software is free.
You're absolutely correct. And it doesn't really matter one bit that you are correct. You see, the average person is quite content to use Windows until something better comes along. By something better, I mean it had better be (a) significantly faster/stable and/or (b) significantly cheaper and/or (c) significantly more feature rich (and easy to use) and/or (d) significantly more entertaining. Linux may or may not be faster/stable (it's debatable these days), it is more feature rich (but it's not easier to use), and it definitely is not more entertaining to the average person. So what does that leave? Cheaper. And how does every rabid Linux advocate start Linux evangelism? "Hey it's free! Here, take one."
The fact is that Joe Blow will choose Linux over Windows when doing so allows him to dodge the extra $200+ of cost of Windows + Office on a new computer. Joe had also better not care that most of the new games out there won't be usable under Linux. THEN he will choose Linux.
Don't get me wrong, I like Linux on the desktop. But please be realistic about why most people will choose it.
Because now you can quit your game and continue it later. Not a novel feature I admit, but it's just downright diabolical for this game.
Enjoy!
Well, I wasn't trying to imply that only lower-tech platforms foster good or unique game development. However, I do think that those kinds of platforms foster *more* good and unique games because they aren't able to hide behind as much video and audio embellishment. That's all...
Personally, I relish games produced on constrictive hardware by a bunch of rowdy upstarts! I think that is where the PDA game market is right now too. The hardware isn't good enough to support elaborate studio style software, so they have to innovate with the gameplay instead of the video and audio. IMO, the best game designs have come from this model. Yeah, I like UT/Q3/GTA:VC as much as the next geek, but I'm just as enamored with Tetris, SameGame, and Bejeweled.
:+)
Can't wait to finally get a PDA+PCS cell phone device! I'm cooomming precious!
I tried rollerblading a while ago, but it was hell on my lower back (which became extremely fatigued very quickly). Any tips?
Looks like I may post the first real response.
Anyway, done properly, Wing Chun is very meditative and physically taxing (if you're doing the stance properly). At the same time, itâ(TM)s something anyone on two feet can do. It's an internal martial art like Tai Chi which, but it has some immediate and effective applications. It's nothing like you see in the movies though. It's very subtle and hard to appreciate until you actually feel some of the effects.
But besides all that, it's what I do to associate with non-geeks. I couldn't stomach the thought of golf, so Wing Chun it was. Ironically about half the folks that attend the classes are in some way into IT, but we don't talk shop much.
For anyone who is curious and resides around the Minneapolis/St. Paul MN area, send me an email at: VincePlatt AT Yahoo D.O.T com.
FYI - I appreciate your response and for your patience in dealing with ignoramuses like myself on this subject. Having read/scanned the links you mentioned, I can see how the relational filesystem isn't necessarily the best fit. I can't claim to understand all of the unique operational characteristics of ReiserFS yet though either. I don't quite see how it would be as capable as a relational filesystem from a query/user interaction point of view. That is, I simply haven't looked into it deeply enough yet.
Also, there's probably something wrong with this idea, but I haven't figured out what yet. Once the ReiserFS is perfected, what would keep it from being a good general-purpose database? It seems to me like it could be a good foundation for a database that supports the full range of set operations, just like any modern RDBMS. Would it have more favorable operational characteristics than existing databases though? I really am not in a position to even guess.
Anyway, thanks again, and best of luck!
-Vince
Well, I really am not in touch with IFS as I haven't used it. I still think that it's high time we do *something* different with filesystems though. The relational filesystem appears to be the best idea going. I suppose one could argue for a OODBMS filesystem, that would be even better, in theory anyway. I suspect that the world just isn't ready for that one. That, and it wouldn't be a built-in part of Windows since Microsoft doesn't have an OODBMS yet.