Mine doesn't crash too often but if they don't fix the memory leaks soon I may have to switch to Opera. I know I'm a "power user" and probably not too many people keep 16 tabs open at once, but all too often I launch Task Manager to find that Firefox is chewing up 97% of my system resources, and I'm really tired of it. I love Firefox otherwise--I was a contributor listed in the NY Times ad.
I suspect this is why, to the best of my knowledge, Unisys never actually took any GIF infringers on their LZW patent to court--because having gone so long without any attempt to enforce the patent, they pretty much knew that they would lose. And I still find it very strange that Lincoln Stein actually encouraged people to pay Unisys' extortionate $5,000 per Website GIF license.
I just want the OpneOffice.org folks to do whatever it will take to get IBM/Lotus to contribute import filters for all of the SmartSuite apps, but especially WordPro, which I have been using since it was AmiPro 1.1. Then I can finally give up WordPro (much as I love it) so I can have commonality on my PC, Mac, and Linux boxes! If this is what it takes, I'm for it.
There is a plan to make these available for purchase in industrialized nations and the price point is, in fact, $200 according to an article in the Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB1131933051 49696140-442o71jo_IlBrLpyUeeOdsqDs7E_20061113.html ?mod=tff_main_tff_top). At that price, I for one--quite literally--will take four of them; one for each of my kids and one for me. In the tablet, B&W high-contrast screen mode, they are supposed to be killer E-Book readers (I love E-Books). They have built-in mesh wireless; supposedly if one unit is connected to the Internet physically or by wireless, all units within range of the mesh are as well. They will run RedHat Linux and I'm sure that there will be a pile of easy-to-install programs of all type in a purpose-built YUM repository somewhere to allow them to meet each user's needs. Even thought they will have no hard drive, they will have half a Gig of flash drive and 4 USB ports, making them easy to connect to external drives. This geek certainly wants one (OK, four), and even with marketing costs, I know that at $200 each, my four units would pay to put at least two units in the hands of poor kids as well. It's certainly one of those win-win-win situations all around.
Age? Get an M.S. degree and teach college--if you have the interpersonal skills necessary, can present well and have kept your technical knowledge current. I see no age discrimination here! Experience = value to students. I'm constantly on the prowl for qualified faculty members for our IT degree programs, and we place such a high value on experience that the average age of our full-time faculty is somewhere in the 50's. We might not always pay as well in academia, but your ulcer will heal and your stress levels will drop.
"...at once point (probably a while ago) we did "capture" a MiG or whatever. I think it went along the lines that he had to land for mechanical failure or we forced him to land or something. In any case, what makes the story stand out is that we eventaully sent the MiG back in several boxes (ie, after we'd taken it apart to see what it had). Any idea if this is true?"
Absolutely! Lt. Victor Belenko of the Soviet Air Force actually defected and flew his MIG-25 to Japan. There is a truly outstanding book about this: Mig Pilot: The Final Escape of Lt. Belenko by John Barron. I highly recommend this book as it is a very revealing look at what life in the Soviet Union was like even for "elite" comrades like fighter pilots.
Jesus saved him and he became a Muslim. Go figure.
Religion aside, personally I suspect a minor psychotic incident, but I am not a mental health professional--nor do I play one on TV--so my opinion is pretty meaningless.
Oops, almost forgot; my paper for the class was on Imperialism in (ta-da) Afghanistan! (Takes a large prescient bow...)
Actually, this was one of three history courses I took at the Naval Academy that were taught from a Marxist perspective. "Know your enemy" and all that. I also thought it said something about the intellectual climate at the place when I was there (mid-70's) that this seemd like no big deal. Of course, alumni would have been pooping their pants had they known. And probably today the DHS would be knocking on the Prof's office door.
Gee, I wonder if they should have come and visited my history class entitled "Imperialism", where the textbook was Imperialism by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, printed by the Export Press of the People's Republic of China? Oh, by the way, that class: it was at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland. (By golly, I sure love irony.)
Many, many Wikipedians are NOT anonymous. Me for one. I take full responsibility for (and stand behind) anything I write on Wikipedia. Just as I do on Slashdot. Or anywhere I contribute online.
I think Perl works just as well or maybe better because it at least uses a contemporary programming language syntax (i.e. C++/Java). I learned with BASIC but that was in 1973; we do have better tools now.
I have to echo this. I have originated several Wikipedia articles, and all of them are on my watch list. I like to think I would notice were there a significant change to any of them.
People can debate the morality of this all day without really accomplishing anything, but as someone who operated technically sophisticated weapons systems, I can speak from experience as to the value of having an OS that is rock-stable and fast. As a long-time anti-submarine warfare helicopter pilot, the last thing I want ever want to see on my center console screen would be a blue screen of death, because in a shooting war, the "death" part might be far more literal than figurative. The morality of the use of technologies for war is a debate for politicians and academics; for those who are at the cutting edge of the spear--who are all volunteers and are there defending your right to even have this debate--the only thing that really matters about a technology is does it work now, and will it work without fail every time it is needed. Personally I'd go with Linux with a great deal of confidence. And if the political will of a nation is going to ask some citizens to lay their lives on the line to protect the bulk of the people, don't those folks on the cutting edge deserve to have the very best tools to do their job?
> The original Battlestar Galactica was very, very, very, very bad.
True. But not as bad as Space: 1999, quite possibly the most bizarre and humorless sci-fi series ever made. At least no one is talking about remaking it. (I think I should not have said anything. Forget you read this. You have never heard of Space: 1999.)
> Then Richard Stallman can run the world, of course.
Quite frankly, although I may not always agree with his positions, if given an honest choice between Richard Stallmann or the existing United Nations running the world I think I would go with Richard Stallman every time. If he needed a team to back him up I might nominate Cory Doctorow, Eric S. Raymond and Lawrence Lessig. All people who seem to me to believe that rights belong to people individually rather than collectively.
In the ultimate irony, the U.S. Department of Defense has created the first funtional anarchy in the history of mankind. Yes, there is some "Internet Governance" (i.e. ICANN and IANA) but the core of the matter is that the Internet only actually works because everyone cooperates. When folks stop cooperating (bickering over peering agreements, etc.) parts of it may stop working, demonstrating the validity of the ananarchical model and proving that, at the core--at the heart--it really is an anarchy. A co-operative, mercantile, market driven anarchy. Even anarchists agree there have to be standards but on the Internet they are so loose that we call them either a "Request for Comments" (IAB/IETF) or a "Recommendation" (W3C). And you can just ignore them if you want--look at how Microsoft has been blowing of the W3C for years with their browser. And who can be a member of an IETF Working Group? ANYONE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD! You just join! (How cool is that--it's not perfect but it actually works, and anyone who wants to participate has a voice.) People can propose and build new protocols but if no one uses them they wither on the vine (i.e. desktop push models; no one really wanted push, and where is it today? And how about VRML? Seen any lately?). The last thing we need is for someone to step in and slap a government on top of this wonderful anarchy. I feel I should end with a rousing call for all of us anarchists to unite, but the sad thing is that is contrary to the concept of anarchy; so at least let's all cooperate, to oppose this attempt to impose tyranny on our anarchy. And while we're at it, let's just celebrate the whole concept of an anarchy created by the Depratment of Defense. Irony not only lives but thrives online.
Plus you have to swear your undying allegiance to some goverment agent.
Weird thing is, in 21 years of service as an officer in the U.S. Navy, the only thing I ever swore allegiance to was to the Constitution of the United States--to support and defend it against all enemies, foreign and domestic. This is an oath I take very, very seriously. Which is why arbitrary, stupid government requirements like this that appear to tread on Constitutional rights get me REALLY PISSED OFF.
Not looking for any further development--it does everything I want to just fine, and really fast, thanks--I just want a Linux port. I've been told that SmartSuite is actually more locked into use of Windows APIs than even MS Office, which is why this may not be possible. If they are never going to do anything more with SmartSuite, then the OpenOffice.org import filters would be a natural extension as a way to 1) support Open Source Software and 2) look after their long-time loyal end users like me. But I'll try Wordpro on Wine. If it works, it may be Linux on the desktop for me anyway.
In those instances where you need to use active sonar, you need to use it RIGHT NOW because the tactical situation is so severe that you will accept making yourself a beacon just to try to pinpoint the location of your opponent. No one uses active sonar unless they absolutely have to and then it's usually to nail down a firing solution. And you have to train like you fight or there's really no point to it. While it's true that you can't actually "fire real rockets" (they're missiles, by the way, not rockets--there's quite a difference) at an exercise aircraft opponent, you certainly can--and do--fire missiles at drones. As an anti-submarine warfare helicopter pilot, I certainly dropped enough exercise torpedoes, which actually run out, on real submarines--100% were scored as hits, BTW, although the torps actually turn out before impacting the sub. I had the cut-out fail on one and actually knock into the sub one time--boy, were they pissed off! Anyway, you MUST train like you fight. It's not just a good idea; it's critical to proficiency and to having the correct lightning-fast response in a real combat situation.
I appreciate the perscipacity of your observation, and it probably would be helpful if I actually gave a rat's ass about being modded up. But thanks anyway!
Answer 1: Bought off by Microsoft; there used to be Wordperfect and Coreldraw for Linux. Where are they now? Microsoft "invested" $50 million in Corel and dropped Photodraw 2 (a great product and a real threat to CorelDraw), for which Corel sold off Corel Linux and dropped all Linux development efforts. ($50 million? just chump change to Microsoft.)
Answer 2: Not answering up; IBM, an alleged supporter of Open Source Software, has consistantly failed to answer calls to either port their Lotus SmartSuite package to Linux, or to pony up to pay for OpenOffice.org import filters for the SmartSuite apps.
In my Navy career as an anti-submarine warfare helicopter pilot, I can tell you I always used passive detection whenever possible; active was a last resort. I even used marine life to locate subs; although I could never get any offical sanction or confirmation, we found that often schools of dolphins hung out over submerged subs. On one occasion while passively tracking a "not U.S. or known friendly" submarine contact for over two hours, we noticed that a dolphin school seemed to consistantly be right under us when we marked "on top" of the contact using our magnetic anomoly detector (MAD). We went off station to refuel and returned over an hour later to our projected position for the contact. We dropped sonobouys but had no luck. We did see the school of dolphins, so we reeled out our MAD, made a MAD run over the dolphins and BINGO--gained contact. We tracked it for another couple of hours and the dolphins hung in there the whole time as well. We think they may have been attracted by the pressure ridge produced by the passage of the submerged sub.
All that aside, I personally never observed any adverse reaction on the part of marine mammals to active sonar, which my destroyers were the most likely to use. They loved to cavort in our bow wake--dolphins, pilot whales, killer whales--and I never saw a reaction when we lit off the sonar. Purely anecdotal, I know, but I was a pretty serious ASW guy for a long time, and have always been fascinated by marine mammals as well. Even when it is used, the modes active sonar is used in tend to be highly directional. Active sonar is sort of a last-ditch tool, and if the tactical situation requires its use, you can't afford to spend time at low power to "warn off the whales". And you have to train the way you'll fight, or there's no point to it.
Slashdot Mirror
Mine doesn't crash too often but if they don't fix the memory leaks soon I may have to switch to Opera. I know I'm a "power user" and probably not too many people keep 16 tabs open at once, but all too often I launch Task Manager to find that Firefox is chewing up 97% of my system resources, and I'm really tired of it. I love Firefox otherwise--I was a contributor listed in the NY Times ad.
I suspect this is why, to the best of my knowledge, Unisys never actually took any GIF infringers on their LZW patent to court--because having gone so long without any attempt to enforce the patent, they pretty much knew that they would lose. And I still find it very strange that Lincoln Stein actually encouraged people to pay Unisys' extortionate $5,000 per Website GIF license.
I just want the OpneOffice.org folks to do whatever it will take to get IBM/Lotus to contribute import filters for all of the SmartSuite apps, but especially WordPro, which I have been using since it was AmiPro 1.1. Then I can finally give up WordPro (much as I love it) so I can have commonality on my PC, Mac, and Linux boxes! If this is what it takes, I'm for it.
There is a plan to make these available for purchase in industrialized nations and the price point is, in fact, $200 according to an article in the Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB1131933051 49696140-442o71jo_IlBrLpyUeeOdsqDs7E_20061113.html ?mod=tff_main_tff_top). At that price, I for one--quite literally--will take four of them; one for each of my kids and one for me. In the tablet, B&W high-contrast screen mode, they are supposed to be killer E-Book readers (I love E-Books). They have built-in mesh wireless; supposedly if one unit is connected to the Internet physically or by wireless, all units within range of the mesh are as well. They will run RedHat Linux and I'm sure that there will be a pile of easy-to-install programs of all type in a purpose-built YUM repository somewhere to allow them to meet each user's needs. Even thought they will have no hard drive, they will have half a Gig of flash drive and 4 USB ports, making them easy to connect to external drives. This geek certainly wants one (OK, four), and even with marketing costs, I know that at $200 each, my four units would pay to put at least two units in the hands of poor kids as well. It's certainly one of those win-win-win situations all around.
Age? Get an M.S. degree and teach college--if you have the interpersonal skills necessary, can present well and have kept your technical knowledge current. I see no age discrimination here! Experience = value to students. I'm constantly on the prowl for qualified faculty members for our IT degree programs, and we place such a high value on experience that the average age of our full-time faculty is somewhere in the 50's. We might not always pay as well in academia, but your ulcer will heal and your stress levels will drop.
But...in fact, they WON'T sell them cheaper, because it would undercut their inflated pricing model!
"...at once point (probably a while ago) we did "capture" a MiG or whatever. I think it went along the lines that he had to land for mechanical failure or we forced him to land or something. In any case, what makes the story stand out is that we eventaully sent the MiG back in several boxes (ie, after we'd taken it apart to see what it had). Any idea if this is true?" Absolutely! Lt. Victor Belenko of the Soviet Air Force actually defected and flew his MIG-25 to Japan. There is a truly outstanding book about this: Mig Pilot: The Final Escape of Lt. Belenko by John Barron. I highly recommend this book as it is a very revealing look at what life in the Soviet Union was like even for "elite" comrades like fighter pilots.
Jesus saved him and he became a Muslim. Go figure. Religion aside, personally I suspect a minor psychotic incident, but I am not a mental health professional--nor do I play one on TV--so my opinion is pretty meaningless.
Oops, almost forgot; my paper for the class was on Imperialism in (ta-da) Afghanistan! (Takes a large prescient bow...) Actually, this was one of three history courses I took at the Naval Academy that were taught from a Marxist perspective. "Know your enemy" and all that. I also thought it said something about the intellectual climate at the place when I was there (mid-70's) that this seemd like no big deal. Of course, alumni would have been pooping their pants had they known. And probably today the DHS would be knocking on the Prof's office door.
Gee, I wonder if they should have come and visited my history class entitled "Imperialism", where the textbook was Imperialism by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, printed by the Export Press of the People's Republic of China? Oh, by the way, that class: it was at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland. (By golly, I sure love irony.)
Many, many Wikipedians are NOT anonymous. Me for one. I take full responsibility for (and stand behind) anything I write on Wikipedia. Just as I do on Slashdot. Or anywhere I contribute online.
I think Perl works just as well or maybe better because it at least uses a contemporary programming language syntax (i.e. C++/Java). I learned with BASIC but that was in 1973; we do have better tools now.
I have to echo this. I have originated several Wikipedia articles, and all of them are on my watch list. I like to think I would notice were there a significant change to any of them.
People can debate the morality of this all day without really accomplishing anything, but as someone who operated technically sophisticated weapons systems, I can speak from experience as to the value of having an OS that is rock-stable and fast. As a long-time anti-submarine warfare helicopter pilot, the last thing I want ever want to see on my center console screen would be a blue screen of death, because in a shooting war, the "death" part might be far more literal than figurative. The morality of the use of technologies for war is a debate for politicians and academics; for those who are at the cutting edge of the spear--who are all volunteers and are there defending your right to even have this debate--the only thing that really matters about a technology is does it work now, and will it work without fail every time it is needed. Personally I'd go with Linux with a great deal of confidence. And if the political will of a nation is going to ask some citizens to lay their lives on the line to protect the bulk of the people, don't those folks on the cutting edge deserve to have the very best tools to do their job?
> The original Battlestar Galactica was very, very, very, very bad.
True. But not as bad as Space: 1999, quite possibly the most bizarre and humorless sci-fi series ever made. At least no one is talking about remaking it. (I think I should not have said anything. Forget you read this. You have never heard of Space: 1999.)
> Then Richard Stallman can run the world, of course.
Quite frankly, although I may not always agree with his positions, if given an honest choice between Richard Stallmann or the existing United Nations running the world I think I would go with Richard Stallman every time. If he needed a team to back him up I might nominate Cory Doctorow, Eric S. Raymond and Lawrence Lessig. All people who seem to me to believe that rights belong to people individually rather than collectively.
Damn. Maybe someday I'll learn to spell, too. Or at least proofread.
In the ultimate irony, the U.S. Department of Defense has created the first funtional anarchy in the history of mankind. Yes, there is some "Internet Governance" (i.e. ICANN and IANA) but the core of the matter is that the Internet only actually works because everyone cooperates. When folks stop cooperating (bickering over peering agreements, etc.) parts of it may stop working, demonstrating the validity of the ananarchical model and proving that, at the core--at the heart--it really is an anarchy. A co-operative, mercantile, market driven anarchy. Even anarchists agree there have to be standards but on the Internet they are so loose that we call them either a "Request for Comments" (IAB/IETF) or a "Recommendation" (W3C). And you can just ignore them if you want--look at how Microsoft has been blowing of the W3C for years with their browser. And who can be a member of an IETF Working Group? ANYONE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD! You just join! (How cool is that--it's not perfect but it actually works, and anyone who wants to participate has a voice.) People can propose and build new protocols but if no one uses them they wither on the vine (i.e. desktop push models; no one really wanted push, and where is it today? And how about VRML? Seen any lately?). The last thing we need is for someone to step in and slap a government on top of this wonderful anarchy. I feel I should end with a rousing call for all of us anarchists to unite, but the sad thing is that is contrary to the concept of anarchy; so at least let's all cooperate, to oppose this attempt to impose tyranny on our anarchy. And while we're at it, let's just celebrate the whole concept of an anarchy created by the Depratment of Defense. Irony not only lives but thrives online.
Weird thing is, in 21 years of service as an officer in the U.S. Navy, the only thing I ever swore allegiance to was to the Constitution of the United States--to support and defend it against all enemies, foreign and domestic. This is an oath I take very, very seriously. Which is why arbitrary, stupid government requirements like this that appear to tread on Constitutional rights get me REALLY PISSED OFF.
Not looking for any further development--it does everything I want to just fine, and really fast, thanks--I just want a Linux port. I've been told that SmartSuite is actually more locked into use of Windows APIs than even MS Office, which is why this may not be possible. If they are never going to do anything more with SmartSuite, then the OpenOffice.org import filters would be a natural extension as a way to 1) support Open Source Software and 2) look after their long-time loyal end users like me. But I'll try Wordpro on Wine. If it works, it may be Linux on the desktop for me anyway.
In those instances where you need to use active sonar, you need to use it RIGHT NOW because the tactical situation is so severe that you will accept making yourself a beacon just to try to pinpoint the location of your opponent. No one uses active sonar unless they absolutely have to and then it's usually to nail down a firing solution. And you have to train like you fight or there's really no point to it. While it's true that you can't actually "fire real rockets" (they're missiles, by the way, not rockets--there's quite a difference) at an exercise aircraft opponent, you certainly can--and do--fire missiles at drones. As an anti-submarine warfare helicopter pilot, I certainly dropped enough exercise torpedoes, which actually run out, on real submarines--100% were scored as hits, BTW, although the torps actually turn out before impacting the sub. I had the cut-out fail on one and actually knock into the sub one time--boy, were they pissed off! Anyway, you MUST train like you fight. It's not just a good idea; it's critical to proficiency and to having the correct lightning-fast response in a real combat situation.
I appreciate the perscipacity of your observation, and it probably would be helpful if I actually gave a rat's ass about being modded up. But thanks anyway!
"Ask your vendors where they are."
Done that.
Answer 1: Bought off by Microsoft; there used to be Wordperfect and Coreldraw for Linux. Where are they now? Microsoft "invested" $50 million in Corel and dropped Photodraw 2 (a great product and a real threat to CorelDraw), for which Corel sold off Corel Linux and dropped all Linux development efforts. ($50 million? just chump change to Microsoft.)
Answer 2: Not answering up; IBM, an alleged supporter of Open Source Software, has consistantly failed to answer calls to either port their Lotus SmartSuite package to Linux, or to pony up to pay for OpenOffice.org import filters for the SmartSuite apps.
This is just udderly rediculous.
In my Navy career as an anti-submarine warfare helicopter pilot, I can tell you I always used passive detection whenever possible; active was a last resort. I even used marine life to locate subs; although I could never get any offical sanction or confirmation, we found that often schools of dolphins hung out over submerged subs. On one occasion while passively tracking a "not U.S. or known friendly" submarine contact for over two hours, we noticed that a dolphin school seemed to consistantly be right under us when we marked "on top" of the contact using our magnetic anomoly detector (MAD). We went off station to refuel and returned over an hour later to our projected position for the contact. We dropped sonobouys but had no luck. We did see the school of dolphins, so we reeled out our MAD, made a MAD run over the dolphins and BINGO--gained contact. We tracked it for another couple of hours and the dolphins hung in there the whole time as well. We think they may have been attracted by the pressure ridge produced by the passage of the submerged sub.
All that aside, I personally never observed any adverse reaction on the part of marine mammals to active sonar, which my destroyers were the most likely to use. They loved to cavort in our bow wake--dolphins, pilot whales, killer whales--and I never saw a reaction when we lit off the sonar. Purely anecdotal, I know, but I was a pretty serious ASW guy for a long time, and have always been fascinated by marine mammals as well. Even when it is used, the modes active sonar is used in tend to be highly directional. Active sonar is sort of a last-ditch tool, and if the tactical situation requires its use, you can't afford to spend time at low power to "warn off the whales". And you have to train the way you'll fight, or there's no point to it.
Just my 2 cents.