heh. Well, I can come up with two possible reasons for that spelling of "MS Windows". First, there's the idea that it's terribly slow. (like it's asleep or like, you need No-Doze to stay awake while it's loading) Not very often true these days, but there was a time way back when... Second, there's the mental image of MS Windows plowing down everything in it's path like a bulldozer.
Of course, poking fun at operating systems by changing their spelling is not particularly new... nor is it restricted to just OSes and comptuer geek things (Taco Hell comes to mind). In the Jargon File, I've seen names like HP-sUX, Slowlaris, and sun-stools. Oh, and the original name UNICS itself was making fun of the name MULTICS.
I wonder, does anyone ever play that name game with "Linux"? If not, I would guess it's because they'd probably get cyber-lynched here on slashdot.
(Facetiously and tounge-in-cheekly, I here write): It would be nice if MS did lose its dominance of the desktop computer market to Linux specifically. Doubtless a large minority of people would be unhappy with the state of affairs under Linux domination--then they'd make fun of it. That'd be cool.
...gun manufacturers aren't held similarly liable? (replace "copyright infringment" with "murder/manslaughter") Or are they these days, I forget--so out of touch.
Re Half-Life 2: I think you'd find the lack of a direct internet connection to be just as much a pain if you were installing HL2 under Windoze instead of Linux. The Steam content serving/authentication thing is neat, but the major, major flaw is how things fail to work when you can't get a connection. If you're extra patient, I think you can get single player to work... not sure about multiplayer, and I wouldn't even want to try to register the game that way, and that's assuming that it even lets me.
His modesty is exactly why he's one of my heroes. Uh... I hope I'm not a fanboy or a flamebaiter, but if you look at the replies I've made to other peoples' replies to this article maybe I am.:-/
Therefore, while I would like to believe that what Linus says is true, I sincerely doubt it will happen, at least not in the forseeable future.
Please RTFA. Linus doesn't believe the MS empire will be crushed any year soon either. The closest he comes to saying that is
I just don't believe in dynasties. Things erode over time. Successes start to take themselves for granted, and the successful companies aren't nimble and hungry enough any more.
. . .
So the question is how the decline happens, and in what timeframe. Will open source be a factor? Almost certainly. Will it be the factor? I don't know.
That part comes at the end. Probably because the interviewer wanted to finish on a strong note. Earlier in the interview however, Linus said
And yes, I think the big difference 10 years from now is not that MS is gone or even necessarily does anything very different, but that they have profit margins in line with the rest of the industry.
and, continuing backwards
That said, I don't see the MS market going away very fast, and I don't see why MS couldn't continue to function as a software company even if they don't control the commodity market any more. In many ways I think MS is in the same situation that IBM was in two decades ago, losing control of the basic market -- and thus the dominance of the market -- but not necessarily going away or even necessarily shrinking.
In general, I'm rather annoyed with the way people have been responding to the article because it seems like they're not reading it, or if they are, they're only looking at it from out of the corners of their eyes. Linus has always seemed to me to be a very level headed, easy going, and above all realistic individual when it comes to discussing the future of MS, Linux, and IT in general. It should come as no surprise then that he's not really predicting the sudden and apocalyptic death of MS, but rather a very slow, very gradual, possible(!) marginalization of the company.
You can leave the "imminent death of X"-style predicting to lesser people.
Oh wait! This is slashdot! Oops, I'm sorry my bad... I forgot where I was posting for a while. Please. Forget everything I said. Thanks.
That said, I don't see the MS market going away very fast, and I don't see why MS couldn't continue to function as a software company even if they don't control the commodity market any more. In many ways I think MS is in the same situation that IBM was in two decades ago, losing control of the basic market -- and thus the dominance of the market -- but not necessarily going away or even necessarily shrinking. -- Torvalds
I think Linus is a lot smarter, or at least a lot more realistic about the long term future of MS, Linux, and IT in general than most of the early responses to this article give him credit for.
That explains why they were able to develop it in just five months.:-)
Thank you. I'll probably play it anyway, hardware willing. It looks neat--also short games take less of a time investment than long ones do. If my hardware's good enough, I'll play it, write up my opinion of it on the Eclipse site, thank the students for making the game if it doesn't suck, and move on. Happy day.
Read it again--according to my browser, the word "open" never occurs anywhere in the article.
You're right, those two things (obfuscation and open source) likely don't belong together, but I don't believe anyone was suggesting that they should be.
I think all the banner ads, pop-ups, and stupid ad tie-ins do a good enough job of bringing down the credibility of the site, nevermind the sci-fi junk.
That having been said, AFAIK, none of the informative pages have been torn down, so if you've got a pop-up blocker, an ad-blocker, and you're careful what link you click on, who cares? You can still get the same info you could have gotten before.
Everyone saying that W2K is great are correct, of course. But the funny part is that soon, Micrsoft will be forced to begin FUDding their own platform to cause people to upgrade to the next version of Windows. That makes laugh. That makes laugh, smile, guffaw, and just feel good inside.
There is a lesson here also though, although it's not a new one: the capitalist system actually works better when you're selling something that wears out or breaks down in time--so the whole system is, to some degree, fundamentally antithetical to notion of good, solid robust software which should not really wear out as time goes by. Point to ponder. Word to the wise.
Why, by all the gods, doesn't slashdot let us edit our frikkin' comments after we've posted them? I don't get it--other sites let you do that, and the slashdot editors themselves can and do edit their articles after they've posted them...
So, what you're saying is that this exploit is the Democrats' fault?
Ok, here's a good example: you're statement seems malformed to me--at least the content of your statement makes no sense and, is a near total non sequitor. Maybe it's meant to be mean, or maybe it's meant to be a joke. Whatever. What I would normally choose to do with such input is either ignore (reject) it, or ask for clarification.
In thise case (obviously) I've chosen to make an example of it instead.
It's closed source; Closed architecture; Closed development processes. They could be throwing code together like monkeys and making all this stuff up for the PR value. Who knows?
I hate Microsoft as much as the next guy, but let's be clear--the next part where you said, "These are simple facts.": those statements you're referring to are not statements of fact, they're statements meant to cast doubt on Microsoft's story. That's great, and true, but it's not statements of fact--rather it's kind of the opposite of a fact--they are, in fact, statements designed to cause fear, uncertainty, and doubt.:-) (well ok, not fear really, but probably uncertainty, and definitely doubt.)
Ok, color me clueless, but can Linux (or any Unix) even start without init? I mean, I know the kernel can load, but to even get to the point of having a command line, surely you've got to have some kind of init process? or maybe not? Mostly, I'm just curious.:-)
Ok, so I didn't RTFA, an' I'm gonna rant, so I'll burn in hell, but here goes anyway
the IFPI argues that the move is needed in order to bring the E.U. in sync with U.S. copyright regulations. Ironically, one of the original rationales behind the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act was that U.S. copyrights needed to sync up with European standards.
BULLSHIT! All this "get the copyright laws in sync" is bullshit. Isn't it obvious? There's no irony here, just sadness personified--great big lobby groups on both sides of the pond steamrollering over as much public domain / creative commons stuff as they possibly can and using really, really weak "rationals" to pretend to justify it.
The "get the laws in sync" thing carries no weight. Suppose I support law A. But my country doesn't have law A, my country has A-lite--well then I'm definitely gonna be arguing to "get the laws in sync" duh. OTOH, suppose my country has law A, the other country has law A-lite, and I like A-lite better--well then I can make the exact same, damn argument.
Now suppose I hate law A-lite, and my country's the one with law A--then instead I'll be arguing, "woah! Let's not change things! That country's got law A and it's all full of vermin and lice and bad stuff 'cause of it! One of the great things about our nation is we have law A instead of A-lite.
I'm probably not explaining myself very clearly, but I hope I'm making at least an A-lite level of sense.
/(taken from some site from (theoretically) the script, then modified a bit to match what I remember of the movie version)/
RIPLEY: I feel like a fifth wheel here. Is there anything I can do? APONE: I don't know. Is there anything you can do? RIPLEY: (pointing) Well, I can drive that loader. I've got a Class Two rating.
(Apone turns. A SECOND POWER LOADER sits unused in an equipment bay.
(TWO SHOT APONE AND HICKS skeptical. Considering. TIGHT ON POWER SWITCH as Ripley's finger punches it on. A RISING WHINE of power. TIGHT ON THE HYDRAULICS as the massive machine stirs to life.
(FULL, as the loader starts. Ripley is strapped into the safety cage, her arms and legs inserted in the servo-sensor assemblies. She takes a step. BOOM! Two tons of hardened steel takes a step.
(Ripley spins the wrist servos. The huge claws swing, open...slide smoothly into lifting brackets on a cargo module, nearby. She raises it deftly.)
I'm with you on that. I really like that idea a lot more than I ought to. I don't have a problem with neighbor-dog right because of where I live, but I have in the past. Right then, when the dog's barking and you're trying to sleep, many, many forms of dog torture and murder seem like good ones.
I was trying to promote the use of a gender neutral singular pronoun, but since I used "others", which is plural, I should have used "their". So... you're right, my bad.:-)
I've seen a-whole-lot (all of Doctor's #3,4,5,6, some of #7, just a little bit of #1&2) of the old series, it was one of my favorite things growing up. The Doctor was my hero. (seriously) I have a large stack of Doctor Who on VHS tapes recorded at LP speed in the next room.
The old adventures were originally broadcast as 3-4 30 minute episodes. They had the tradional cliff hangers and all that. I saw mine on PBS KCPT channel 19 and they'd been edited together into 90 - 120 min movies, so I didn't get to see them in quite the way they were originally intended to be seen.
The old series is a lot different than the new one (but it's also sort of the same). But it makes sense that the new series would be different--the series was always reinventing itself even way back when. This is at least partly due to its having been on for so damn long. Look at when the series started, then look at today's date and meditate on how much things have changed from then to now. When you fire up some old 1st or 2nd Doctor episode, truly you are looking back in time.:-) This is also one of the reasons why some people only liked some of the Doctor's--sometimes the series moved in a direction that those people didn't like anymore. (I personally feel the very first ever adventure, An Unearthly Child, goes downhill rapidly after the first 30-40 min--and the stuff before that is all just clunky exposition, but I happen to feel it's fascinating, intriguing clunky exposition so that's why I like it.) These things happen.
Yeah, the old series was cool. It was also very B-movie in some ways, sometimes had bad dialogue, often had some bad acting, and almost always had lame (or as they say in the Red Dwarf commentary track "pony") special effects and sets. But, of course, I still love the hell out of it because it's what I grew up with.:-)
Whether or not the old series is right for you is something you'll have to figure out for yourself. (DVDs of some adventures available through Netflix or amazon.com, etc) Try not to judge the thing based on just one adventure with one Doctor--give it some time.If you find that you just can't get into it, don't feel bad. You've still got the new series. I also like the new series, so that means I get to have both.:-)
As for making sense of the old series, the overview provided by jd (1658) will probably be quite helpful. And, oh yeah, in case no one else has mentioned it there's this http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/classic.shtml note that is also has an episode guide, links to the Doctor Who books, links to the radio plays, and... and basically enough Doctor Who related stuff to keep you busy for the forseeable future.:-) Have fun.
I'd now like to finish pretentiously with a few choice Doctor quotes: "Anyone even remotely interesting is mad in one way or another." "Oh and did I mention it also travels in time?" "Oh so you're my replacements? A dandy and a clown." "Better leave him on simmer." "Why can't people be nice to each other--just for a change? I mean I'm an alien and you don't want to throw me into a swamp do you? You do." "Wait, watch, and learn." "`Twas brillig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe'" "Unless... I reverse the polarity of the neutron flow..."
Some ads, I mentally tune out--the really eye catching ones, I just outright block.
I'm not sure which I prefer about the movie tie-ins vs. product placement. I think both of them suck when done wrong, but that both of them can work when done right.
Slashdot Mirror
heh. Well, I can come up with two possible reasons for that spelling of "MS Windows". First, there's the idea that it's terribly slow. (like it's asleep or like, you need No-Doze to stay awake while it's loading) Not very often true these days, but there was a time way back when... Second, there's the mental image of MS Windows plowing down everything in it's path like a bulldozer.
Of course, poking fun at operating systems by changing their spelling is not particularly new... nor is it restricted to just OSes and comptuer geek things (Taco Hell comes to mind). In the Jargon File, I've seen names like HP-sUX, Slowlaris, and sun-stools. Oh, and the original name UNICS itself was making fun of the name MULTICS.
I wonder, does anyone ever play that name game with "Linux"? If not, I would guess it's because they'd probably get cyber-lynched here on slashdot.
(Facetiously and tounge-in-cheekly, I here write): It would be nice if MS did lose its dominance of the desktop computer market to Linux specifically. Doubtless a large minority of people would be unhappy with the state of affairs under Linux domination--then they'd make fun of it. That'd be cool.
It's bad to not be able to make fun of something.
...gun manufacturers aren't held similarly liable? (replace "copyright infringment" with "murder/manslaughter") Or are they these days, I forget--so out of touch.
Re Half-Life 2: I think you'd find the lack of a direct internet connection to be just as much a pain if you were installing HL2 under Windoze instead of Linux. The Steam content serving/authentication thing is neat, but the major, major flaw is how things fail to work when you can't get a connection. If you're extra patient, I think you can get single player to work... not sure about multiplayer, and I wouldn't even want to try to register the game that way, and that's assuming that it even lets me.
I'm clueless--to what are you referring? If it's the "Shared Source", open-source-under-glass thing, then it doesn't really count.
His modesty is exactly why he's one of my heroes. Uh... I hope I'm not a fanboy or a flamebaiter, but if you look at the replies I've made to other peoples' replies to this article maybe I am. :-/
Oh well, no big deal.
Please RTFA. Linus doesn't believe the MS empire will be crushed any year soon either. The closest he comes to saying that is
That part comes at the end. Probably because the interviewer wanted to finish on a strong note. Earlier in the interview however, Linus said and, continuing backwardsIn general, I'm rather annoyed with the way people have been responding to the article because it seems like they're not reading it, or if they are, they're only looking at it from out of the corners of their eyes. Linus has always seemed to me to be a very level headed, easy going, and above all realistic individual when it comes to discussing the future of MS, Linux, and IT in general. It should come as no surprise then that he's not really predicting the sudden and apocalyptic death of MS, but rather a very slow, very gradual, possible(!) marginalization of the company.
You can leave the "imminent death of X"-style predicting to lesser people.
Oh wait! This is slashdot! Oops, I'm sorry my bad... I forgot where I was posting for a while. Please. Forget everything I said. Thanks.
From TFA:
I think Linus is a lot smarter, or at least a lot more realistic about the long term future of MS, Linux, and IT in general than most of the early responses to this article give him credit for.
That explains why they were able to develop it in just five months. :-)
Thank you. I'll probably play it anyway, hardware willing. It looks neat--also short games take less of a time investment than long ones do. If my hardware's good enough, I'll play it, write up my opinion of it on the Eclipse site, thank the students for making the game if it doesn't suck, and move on. Happy day.
Read it again--according to my browser, the word "open" never occurs anywhere in the article.
You're right, those two things (obfuscation and open source) likely don't belong together, but I don't believe anyone was suggesting that they should be.
I think all the banner ads, pop-ups, and stupid ad tie-ins do a good enough job of bringing down the credibility of the site, nevermind the sci-fi junk. That having been said, AFAIK, none of the informative pages have been torn down, so if you've got a pop-up blocker, an ad-blocker, and you're careful what link you click on, who cares? You can still get the same info you could have gotten before.
Everyone saying that W2K is great are correct, of course. But the funny part is that soon, Micrsoft will be forced to begin FUDding their own platform to cause people to upgrade to the next version of Windows. That makes laugh. That makes laugh, smile, guffaw, and just feel good inside.
There is a lesson here also though, although it's not a new one: the capitalist system actually works better when you're selling something that wears out or breaks down in time--so the whole system is, to some degree, fundamentally antithetical to notion of good, solid robust software which should not really wear out as time goes by. Point to ponder. Word to the wise.
Why, by all the gods, doesn't slashdot let us edit our frikkin' comments after we've posted them? I don't get it--other sites let you do that, and the slashdot editors themselves can and do edit their articles after they've posted them...
Ok, here's a good example: you're statement seems malformed to me--at least the content of your statement makes no sense and, is a near total non sequitor. Maybe it's meant to be mean, or maybe it's meant to be a joke. Whatever. What I would normally choose to do with such input is either ignore (reject) it, or ask for clarification.
In thise case (obviously) I've chosen to make an example of it instead.
Yes, it's just you. You're noticing a pattern where, in fact, there is none. Humans do this all the time, it's no big deal.
I hate Microsoft as much as the next guy, but let's be clear--the next part where you said, "These are simple facts.": those statements you're referring to are not statements of fact, they're statements meant to cast doubt on Microsoft's story. That's great, and true, but it's not statements of fact--rather it's kind of the opposite of a fact--they are, in fact, statements designed to cause fear, uncertainty, and doubt. :-) (well ok, not fear really, but probably uncertainty, and definitely doubt.)
Ok, color me clueless, but can Linux (or any Unix) even start without init? I mean, I know the kernel can load, but to even get to the point of having a command line, surely you've got to have some kind of init process? or maybe not? Mostly, I'm just curious. :-)
Ok, so I didn't RTFA, an' I'm gonna rant, so I'll burn in hell, but here goes anyway
BULLSHIT! All this "get the copyright laws in sync" is bullshit. Isn't it obvious? There's no irony here, just sadness personified--great big lobby groups on both sides of the pond steamrollering over as much public domain / creative commons stuff as they possibly can and using really, really weak "rationals" to pretend to justify it.
The "get the laws in sync" thing carries no weight. Suppose I support law A. But my country doesn't have law A, my country has A-lite--well then I'm definitely gonna be arguing to "get the laws in sync" duh. OTOH, suppose my country has law A, the other country has law A-lite, and I like A-lite better--well then I can make the exact same, damn argument.
Now suppose I hate law A-lite, and my country's the one with law A--then instead I'll be arguing, "woah! Let's not change things! That country's got law A and it's all full of vermin and lice and bad stuff 'cause of it! One of the great things about our nation is we have law A instead of A-lite.
I'm probably not explaining myself very clearly, but I hope I'm making at least an A-lite level of sense.
Except actually he probably said "monster" rather than "enemy" or something. Why the hell doesn't slashdot let people edit their comments?
Good quotes too. :-)
The most classic Brigadier quote: "Just once I'd like to meet an enemy that wasn't immune to bullets!"
My cat runs Linux.
(reference)
/(taken from some site from (theoretically) the script, then modified a bit to match what I remember of the movie version)/
RIPLEY: I feel like a fifth wheel here. Is there anything I can do?
APONE: I don't know. Is there anything you can do?
RIPLEY: (pointing) Well, I can drive that loader. I've got a Class Two rating.
(Apone turns. A SECOND POWER LOADER sits unused in an equipment bay.
(TWO SHOT APONE AND HICKS skeptical. Considering. TIGHT ON POWER SWITCH as Ripley's finger punches it on. A RISING WHINE of power. TIGHT ON THE HYDRAULICS as the massive machine stirs to life.
(FULL, as the loader starts. Ripley is strapped into the safety cage, her arms and legs inserted in the servo-sensor assemblies. She takes a step. BOOM! Two tons of hardened steel takes a step.
(Ripley spins the wrist servos. The huge claws swing, open...slide smoothly into lifting brackets on a cargo module, nearby. She raises it deftly.)
RIPLEY: (mock sexy voice) Where do ya want it?
(Hicks and Apone chuckle and smile at her joke)
APONE: Bay 12, please.
I'm with you on that. I really like that idea a lot more than I ought to. I don't have a problem with neighbor-dog right because of where I live, but I have in the past. Right then, when the dog's barking and you're trying to sleep, many, many forms of dog torture and murder seem like good ones.
I was trying to promote the use of a gender neutral singular pronoun, but since I used "others", which is plural, I should have used "their". So... you're right, my bad. :-)
I've seen a-whole-lot (all of Doctor's #3,4,5,6, some of #7, just a little bit of #1&2) of the old series, it was one of my favorite things growing up. The Doctor was my hero. (seriously) I have a large stack of Doctor Who on VHS tapes recorded at LP speed in the next room.
:-) This is also one of the reasons why some people only liked some of the Doctor's--sometimes the series moved in a direction that those people didn't like anymore. (I personally feel the very first ever adventure, An Unearthly Child, goes downhill rapidly after the first 30-40 min--and the stuff before that is all just clunky exposition, but I happen to feel it's fascinating, intriguing clunky exposition so that's why I like it.) These things happen.
:-)
:-)
:-) Have fun.
The old adventures were originally broadcast as 3-4 30 minute episodes. They had the tradional cliff hangers and all that. I saw mine on PBS KCPT channel 19 and they'd been edited together into 90 - 120 min movies, so I didn't get to see them in quite the way they were originally intended to be seen.
The old series is a lot different than the new one (but it's also sort of the same). But it makes sense that the new series would be different--the series was always reinventing itself even way back when. This is at least partly due to its having been on for so damn long. Look at when the series started, then look at today's date and meditate on how much things have changed from then to now. When you fire up some old 1st or 2nd Doctor episode, truly you are looking back in time.
Yeah, the old series was cool. It was also very B-movie in some ways, sometimes had bad dialogue, often had some bad acting, and almost always had lame (or as they say in the Red Dwarf commentary track "pony") special effects and sets. But, of course, I still love the hell out of it because it's what I grew up with.
Whether or not the old series is right for you is something you'll have to figure out for yourself. (DVDs of some adventures available through Netflix or amazon.com, etc) Try not to judge the thing based on just one adventure with one Doctor--give it some time.If you find that you just can't get into it, don't feel bad. You've still got the new series. I also like the new series, so that means I get to have both.
As for making sense of the old series, the overview provided by jd (1658) will probably be quite helpful. And, oh yeah, in case no one else has mentioned it there's this
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/classic.shtml
note that is also has an episode guide, links to the Doctor Who books, links to the radio plays, and... and basically enough Doctor Who related stuff to keep you busy for the forseeable future.
I'd now like to finish pretentiously with a few choice Doctor quotes:
"Anyone even remotely interesting is mad in one way or another."
"Oh and did I mention it also travels in time?"
"Oh so you're my replacements? A dandy and a clown."
"Better leave him on simmer."
"Why can't people be nice to each other--just for a change? I mean I'm an alien and you don't want to throw me into a swamp do you? You do."
"Wait, watch, and learn."
"`Twas brillig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe'"
"Unless... I reverse the polarity of the neutron flow..."
Some ads, I mentally tune out--the really eye catching ones, I just outright block.
I'm not sure which I prefer about the movie tie-ins vs. product placement. I think both of them suck when done wrong, but that both of them can work when done right.