The problem always comes back to the input device. Sure, you have your keyboard/mouse when you're docked, but when you're not, input just plain sucks...
Whoa, what an incredible flashback I just had. The first IBM PC that I was able to get my hands on at work (had a broken "hard-card") so I told the user it "had to go into the shop", brought it back to the office, stuck in a 3270? emulator card, plonked it down on top of our IBM 5520 dedicated word-processing mini, plugged in the twin-ax and fired it up as a terminal. HA!
Let's see, you are comparing our solar system to other galaxies? You must realize that the scale of a solar system in relation to the scale of a galaxy is unbelieveably small, right? Ie., there are a (suitably big number) of solar systems in our galaxy alone.
Think of it this way, when you look at a picture of a galaxy, and you see the fuzzy white haze, that haze is (to quote Dr. Sagan) billions and billions of stars.
Now step back, and look at a Hubble Deep Field photo. What do you see? A (suitably large number) of galaxies each of which contains a (suitably large number) of stars/solar systems.
If you really consider the scale of the universe and the scale of time that the universe has been around, it seems pretty obvious that there is a lot of life out there.
The reason we don't have the Star Trek thing going on is that wonderful little thing called "c". That, and I guess they are all trying to learn English...
Nobody's got around to shipping lots of computers with smartcard interfaces
Umm, gotta disagree with you there, every computer purchased by the US DoD is -required- to have a smartcard reader. Dell has a keyboard (model SK-somethingorother) that has the card reader built into the keyboard.
My first thought was that it should be very easy to get a higher percentage of shots, but I guess that a lot of shots require 'english' to make, probably something that is not easily computed.
Having recently tried snooker for the first time, I can appreciate the difficulty!
Look up into the sky on the darkest night. Everything you see, every single star, is in our galaxy.
Heck, even use a telescope. The naked eye can't really see that many of the stars still in our galaxy. Every single star that you can resolve with a telescope (lets limit ourselves to say, a 16" reflector - a huge amateur telescope) is in our galaxy. Believe me, with a telescope that big, you can see -a lot- of stars!
Now take a look at the Hubble deep field images. There are a lot of galaxies out there. Each of those galaxies contains more stars than you can see from earth with the BF telescope referenced above.
Now think about it. Even if a solar system like ours is -extremely- rare, there have to still be a large number of similar systems out there.
You don't have to do the math, just look around you and think about it!
In that case, it made sense to use an open license, since the project was jointly funded by the US DoD and the Swiss government, with programmers from several former Soviet Bloc countries contributing code...
All (unclassified) software that is developed on the government's (read: the citizen's) dime should be released under a free license. Question: what should that license look like?
Do I think that computer users are smart enough not to run as root all the time? No, not in the current "frame of reference".
But that is artificial. Think chicken and egg. Not so many years ago, in Windows(TM) we were fiddling with memory management, config.sys, autoexec.bat, etc.
And that was NORMAL. If (big if), Linux was the dominant OS, then "don't run as root" would probably be the conventionaly accepted practice, and no one would blink about it.
Seriously, I cannot believe the lack of faith in what people will do to make their computers work, no matter how asinine! Think about how things were just 10 years ago...
There you go, that is the crux of the biscuit. This is essentially a trade-school education, which will teach you what you need to know to be a code monkey.
It will -not- teach you design and problem-solving skills, but a lot of positions these days are more about cranking code than coming up with a good design.
IBM has no intention of asserting its patent portfolio against the Linux kernel, unless of course we are forced to defend ourselves (emphasis added)," said Nick Donofrio...
Where I work (US DoD), I am definitely seeing a change in management attitude toward open-source.
In fact the CIO of my organization (an army LTC) has stated openly that we will look at open source/open standards preferentially when making software choices.
Case in point, we are standing up a student portal, and the choice is UPortal with stand-up support from a commercial vendor.
Like it or not, critical mass is being reached. It doesn't have so much to do with the individual applications as the mindset of managers.
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The problem always comes back to the input device. Sure, you have your keyboard/mouse when you're docked, but when you're not, input just plain sucks...
Whatever, you're totally OT now. My point was that it is "a matter of scale". Geez, you're as bad as the grammar nazis!
I watched Cosmos avidly. He may not have written the line, but he certainly said it!
Whoa, what an incredible flashback I just had. The first IBM PC that I was able to get my hands on at work (had a broken "hard-card") so I told the user it "had to go into the shop", brought it back to the office, stuck in a 3270? emulator card, plonked it down on top of our IBM 5520 dedicated word-processing mini, plugged in the twin-ax and fired it up as a terminal. HA!
Let's see, you are comparing our solar system to other galaxies? You must realize that the scale of a solar system in relation to the scale of a galaxy is unbelieveably small, right? Ie., there are a (suitably big number) of solar systems in our galaxy alone.
Think of it this way, when you look at a picture of a galaxy, and you see the fuzzy white haze, that haze is (to quote Dr. Sagan) billions and billions of stars.
Now step back, and look at a Hubble Deep Field photo. What do you see? A (suitably large number) of galaxies each of which contains a (suitably large number) of stars/solar systems.
If you really consider the scale of the universe and the scale of time that the universe has been around, it seems pretty obvious that there is a lot of life out there.
The reason we don't have the Star Trek thing going on is that wonderful little thing called "c". That, and I guess they are all trying to learn English...
Wow, what a great idea, we send them chocolate, they send us their passwords. Brilliant!
Nobody's got around to shipping lots of computers with smartcard interfaces
Umm, gotta disagree with you there, every computer purchased by the US DoD is -required- to have a smartcard reader. Dell has a keyboard (model SK-somethingorother) that has the card reader built into the keyboard.
My first thought was that it should be very easy to get a higher percentage of shots, but I guess that a lot of shots require 'english' to make, probably something that is not easily computed.
Having recently tried snooker for the first time, I can appreciate the difficulty!
Look up into the sky on the darkest night. Everything you see, every single star, is in our galaxy.
Heck, even use a telescope. The naked eye can't really see that many of the stars still in our galaxy. Every single star that you can resolve with a telescope (lets limit ourselves to say, a 16" reflector - a huge amateur telescope) is in our galaxy. Believe me, with a telescope that big, you can see -a lot- of stars!
Now take a look at the Hubble deep field images. There are a lot of galaxies out there. Each of those galaxies contains more stars than you can see from earth with the BF telescope referenced above.
Now think about it. Even if a solar system like ours is -extremely- rare, there have to still be a large number of similar systems out there.
You don't have to do the math, just look around you and think about it!
Sure, there's plenty. Just like the commercial world, the majority of software development is to meet in-house requirements.
Here's one that I was originally involved with.
In that case, it made sense to use an open license, since the project was jointly funded by the US DoD and the Swiss government, with programmers from several former Soviet Bloc countries contributing code...
All (unclassified) software that is developed on the government's (read: the citizen's) dime should be released under a free license. Question: what should that license look like?
It is a matter of what is "normal".
Do I think that computer users are smart enough not to run as root all the time? No, not in the current "frame of reference".
But that is artificial. Think chicken and egg. Not so many years ago, in Windows(TM) we were fiddling with memory management, config.sys, autoexec.bat, etc.
And that was NORMAL. If (big if), Linux was the dominant OS, then "don't run as root" would probably be the conventionaly accepted practice, and no one would blink about it.
Seriously, I cannot believe the lack of faith in what people will do to make their computers work, no matter how asinine! Think about how things were just 10 years ago...
News Flash: They already have!!! -pedestrian crossing
'nuff said!
There you go, that is the crux of the biscuit. This is essentially a trade-school education, which will teach you what you need to know to be a code monkey.
It will -not- teach you design and problem-solving skills, but a lot of positions these days are more about cranking code than coming up with a good design.
Unless, perhaps thay needed to defend themselves against someone else? Hmm, who might that be?
IBM has no intention of asserting its patent portfolio against the Linux kernel, unless of course we are forced to defend ourselves (emphasis added)," said Nick Donofrio...
Sure your $3000 would get you 4 of your current system, but you are comparing apples and oranges (pun intended).
Consider what the IIe and the 540MB drive were at the time, absolutely top-of-the line stuff.
You need to compare that with what is currently top-of-the line.
The price will be about the same.
I seem to remember an old "law" that went something like "The computer you want will always cost $5000". I think it still pretty much holds true....
Where I work (US DoD), I am definitely seeing a change in management attitude toward open-source.
In fact the CIO of my organization (an army LTC) has stated openly that we will look at open source/open standards preferentially when making software choices.
Case in point, we are standing up a student portal, and the choice is UPortal with stand-up support from a commercial vendor.
Like it or not, critical mass is being reached. It doesn't have so much to do with the individual applications as the mindset of managers.
Test Post I loaded real yesterday, but when will debian set up an installer for the new version (the realplayer package installs ver8)...