Not quite. Yes, Win 9x uses MS DOS as a bootloader, but once 32-bit Windows is running, it replaces all the functionality of DOS. It does a few crazy things for handling stuff like real-mode drivers, but I don't know all the technical details off the top of my head.
It doesn't have nearly the security features of NT, but 9x has some limited memory protection and preemptive multitasking. It's certainly worlds more sophisticated than the classic Mac OS all the way up through Mac OS 9, which was barely more than a loose collection of libraries tied together with a standard calling convention based on the notion of "traps". It had essentially zero memory protection or preemptive multitasking, which is why you'd usually have to reboot a Mac whenever anything went wrong. Fortunately, OS X changed all that.
I assume that when you say "writing code", you mean, "cobbling together cargo cult code snippets invoking jquery/prototype that were harvested from the first Stack Overflow result that Google crapped out." Your version is definitely more concise, though.
We've got a pretty sizeable warehouse full of previous-gen (and current gen) goodies, which is why I can throw together a test rig on very short notice, and for comparatively little cost. I think our sales and purchasing guys can track down REALLY old stuff, if you've got some ancient Sun gear you need to keep running.
Disclaimer: I work for them, but I'm not an official company spokesperson. All of this rambling is purely my own views and opinions.
Just remember that you're going to also have to figure out how to handle all the marketing, capital investments, accounting, collections, legal, HR benefits (health, retirement), etc. that your employer would have previously handled for you. If you can figure out how to do it more efficiently and effectively than them, then you'll end up with a bigger take-away from that billing rate, but either way you'll be dealing with a LOT more than you are now.
I work for an IT hardware reseller (mostly; we do some new stuff too), so scrounging up some lab boxes or test beds usually isn't a problem. I've got one in our rack right now that I fire up to mess with VMs via Hyper-V, rather than adding a bunch of extra load to our ESX cluster. And we mostly deal with smaller development projects, not spending months building huge software packages, so it's generally not too hard to grab a few hours of downtime here and there to read and experiment with stuff. Our dev team (a whole two of us) have MSDN subscriptions, so it's open season on learning MS products and figuring out what might be useful to us.
Thus, I don't have a ton of experimental IT gear at home, nor do I feel all that compelled to continue doing at home what I do all day at work. I've got a desktop that does a few light server duties, and which is mostly just a means to and end. I do have a growing pile of assorted tablets, though...
The IT world suddenly seems to be under the impression that "compute" can be used as a noun. Either that or they were referring to the old '80s C64 magazine and forgot to capitalize the C.
Their argument is basically, "Everybody is going to pirate the new software anyway, so please continue to sink money into supporting the old software that we've already pirated." Is that how I should be interpreting this?
The kind of people and activities that need TOR to provide extreme anonymity need significantly more than just TOR alone to do it effectively. This seems like it could lull people into assuming otherwise.
Personally, I think the answer might be a hybrid situation. EG. Offer physical DVD rentals out of an existing establishment that's already successful on its own - like a gas station, bar or grocery store.
So Redbox machines, basically? I see quite a few of them around here.
I still wear one. I even use the scheduler. I love having the little 2-week preview with dots on the days with events (a dot on the current day will blink). It sucks that Casio discontinued them not too long ago.
To everyone suggesting blasting the landing zone flat, have you considered what sort of scientific data we could recover from from a site that's been razed with Earth explosives? If this ice is enough to ruin a spacecraft, then anything capable of dealing with it on a scale needed for a safe landing is going to fling contaminating detritus for probably miles. So we could land, and... then what?
So we've got OCR nailed. What NP-hard problem do we dupe the spammers into solving for us next? Can we throw halting problem at them, or should we work up to it with traveling salesman first?
It's still handy to have it back on a tablet. In 8, you can right-click the lower-left corner of the screen to get a nice shortcut menu, but with no spatial presence, it was pretty much impossible to tap-and-hold the corner. Now in 8.1 there's at least a target for your finger to open that menu.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes. Fortunately, nothing like that happened here.
I'm just tinfoil-hatting here, but do we know that wasn't its intended purpose?
Not quite. Yes, Win 9x uses MS DOS as a bootloader, but once 32-bit Windows is running, it replaces all the functionality of DOS. It does a few crazy things for handling stuff like real-mode drivers, but I don't know all the technical details off the top of my head.
It doesn't have nearly the security features of NT, but 9x has some limited memory protection and preemptive multitasking. It's certainly worlds more sophisticated than the classic Mac OS all the way up through Mac OS 9, which was barely more than a loose collection of libraries tied together with a standard calling convention based on the notion of "traps". It had essentially zero memory protection or preemptive multitasking, which is why you'd usually have to reboot a Mac whenever anything went wrong. Fortunately, OS X changed all that.
"Sir, I think there's a problem with our calculations."
"Uh... uh... dark matter! Yeah, that's the ticket!"
I assume that when you say "writing code", you mean, "cobbling together cargo cult code snippets invoking jquery/prototype that were harvested from the first Stack Overflow result that Google crapped out." Your version is definitely more concise, though.
...Turing complete?
Sure. We'll sell to pretty much anybody, from a garage hobbyist, to a global corporation.
Great Lakes Computer
We've got a pretty sizeable warehouse full of previous-gen (and current gen) goodies, which is why I can throw together a test rig on very short notice, and for comparatively little cost. I think our sales and purchasing guys can track down REALLY old stuff, if you've got some ancient Sun gear you need to keep running.
Disclaimer: I work for them, but I'm not an official company spokesperson. All of this rambling is purely my own views and opinions.
Just remember that you're going to also have to figure out how to handle all the marketing, capital investments, accounting, collections, legal, HR benefits (health, retirement), etc. that your employer would have previously handled for you. If you can figure out how to do it more efficiently and effectively than them, then you'll end up with a bigger take-away from that billing rate, but either way you'll be dealing with a LOT more than you are now.
I work for an IT hardware reseller (mostly; we do some new stuff too), so scrounging up some lab boxes or test beds usually isn't a problem. I've got one in our rack right now that I fire up to mess with VMs via Hyper-V, rather than adding a bunch of extra load to our ESX cluster. And we mostly deal with smaller development projects, not spending months building huge software packages, so it's generally not too hard to grab a few hours of downtime here and there to read and experiment with stuff. Our dev team (a whole two of us) have MSDN subscriptions, so it's open season on learning MS products and figuring out what might be useful to us.
Thus, I don't have a ton of experimental IT gear at home, nor do I feel all that compelled to continue doing at home what I do all day at work. I've got a desktop that does a few light server duties, and which is mostly just a means to and end. I do have a growing pile of assorted tablets, though...
Gotcha. We had a C64 and subscribed to Gazette for a while. I didn't realize (or had forgotten) there were multiple variations.
The IT world suddenly seems to be under the impression that "compute" can be used as a noun. Either that or they were referring to the old '80s C64 magazine and forgot to capitalize the C.
And MS has had loads of practice throwing good money after bad, so what's another go at it here and there?
Their argument is basically, "Everybody is going to pirate the new software anyway, so please continue to sink money into supporting the old software that we've already pirated." Is that how I should be interpreting this?
Hobbies like working for a company that's not in a nosedive.
The kind of people and activities that need TOR to provide extreme anonymity need significantly more than just TOR alone to do it effectively. This seems like it could lull people into assuming otherwise.
So Redbox machines, basically? I see quite a few of them around here.
This is a great way to make your Wii collect less dust (what with the reduced surface area and all).
They're used to microing from all that Starcraft.
I still wear one. I even use the scheduler. I love having the little 2-week preview with dots on the days with events (a dot on the current day will blink). It sucks that Casio discontinued them not too long ago.
Well that part just goes without saying, really.
To everyone suggesting blasting the landing zone flat, have you considered what sort of scientific data we could recover from from a site that's been razed with Earth explosives? If this ice is enough to ruin a spacecraft, then anything capable of dealing with it on a scale needed for a safe landing is going to fling contaminating detritus for probably miles. So we could land, and... then what?
So we've got OCR nailed. What NP-hard problem do we dupe the spammers into solving for us next? Can we throw halting problem at them, or should we work up to it with traveling salesman first?
Increasing goodwill to sell more hardware, and burning a bit of revenue to rake MS over the coals a little.
It's still handy to have it back on a tablet. In 8, you can right-click the lower-left corner of the screen to get a nice shortcut menu, but with no spatial presence, it was pretty much impossible to tap-and-hold the corner. Now in 8.1 there's at least a target for your finger to open that menu.
Certainly not that keyboard with the keylogger embedded in it!