This autism thing might be true of some technical people, but many of the tech people (including myself) are quite gregarious and outgoing. The autism thing has grown to encompass all technical people, which I think is a disservice to Joe Tech. I know there are ways some of us think differently than others, but this applies to doctors, artists, and craftsmen as well. The geek==autistic thing has got to go. It's stereotypes us way too much.
You know, Sun sure hasn't been that active in Java for Linux. Everything Sun has done so far just points to the fact that they do not practice what they preach. Sun is proprietary. Moreso than Apple, and almost as much as MS. Their write once, run anywhere technology has so many provisos that the promise has whithered. If Sun would truly open the technology, it'd take off like a shot. Unfortunately, it's a niche of a niche product. Sun has practically strangled its own baby.
I personally like that HTML prints so badly. It lessens the temptation to print a web page and take it into the bathroom for a little reading time. Otherwise, I'd just print out a whole slashdot thread and be in there for a half-hour. It's better for me and my personal life that I can't access slashdot away from my computer. Otherwise, I'd be in there all day!
Many of their hotels can't even make money on the ground. Imagine the overhead (pun intended) of them working in space. This was just a baseless rumor. Oh, by the way, did you hear that Bill Gates is suing the Hilton because he had reserved a permanent room there? He wanted to be outside the reach of the Justice Dept. The above was definitely not a rumor. Pure, solid fact. Yep.
Is the friction between Gnome and KDE, BSD and GPL, Free Software and Open Source, and the other sources of flame war a bad thing or a good thing for the movement? Many people seem to feel that the competition is devisive, but isn't it the opposite? We're always preaching that competition is a good thing for the entire market, but then we complain when any of our pet projects are pitted head to head with another. The passion felt by the proponents of each philosophy seems to result in better, more quality work. Isn't this proof that competition is the Good Thing we've been saying it is all along?
It was developed in the same collaborative style as Linux, is entirely in the public domain, and is reliable
Software licensed under the GPL and BSD licenses are not at all in the public domain. The source code is available to the public, but not in the public domain.
And will the movement, riven by tensions between Open Source pragmatists and free software fundamentalists, fall apart under the pressures of success?
No. If anything, I'm seeing the whole open source/free software movement strengthened by success. Nothing RedHat, Cygnus, or any of the other OSS companies is doing is hurting the FSF ideal. With the success of RedHat, more and more companies are going to see that the FUD that free software companies can't be successful is just that. Maybe it'll take Corel doing well to really convince them, though.
This is something that nobody should be afraid of. If we're too busy to watch TV, we miss our shows. I could be recording today at noon, Dragonball Z at 4:00, and wrap it up with the Frasier rerun at 6:30, but I don't (well, I do record Dragonball.) Why? Because the shows just aren't that good that I'm going to waste my day sitting in front of the TV and doing nothing (except for my Dragonball Z half hour). I'd rather spend my free time interacting with my family and having fun! This resembles the Gernsbackian future a little too much for me. Next thing you know, Katz will be railing about how food pills won't taste as good as normal food. Duh! That's why we're not heading in that direction. Another newsflash, Katz, we're not going to be disembodied heads floating around in flying saucers either. Get a grip, man, and take your Palm Pilot out for a drive. You need to take in a little countryside.
Cygnus is one of the premier open source companies. We're lucky to have those guys on our side. Before the Open Source phenominon took off the software company landscape was looking pretty bleak as far as ethics and idealism went, but now there are so many good companies producing high quality software, making money, and not selling out. It's truly heartening to see. Thanks, Cygnus, and keep the software coming!
"He was brilliant, humble and funny, qualities rarely seen in contemporary geeks and nerds, or anybody much."
I don't know about y'all, but I think that contemporary geeks and nerds are more likely to be brilliant, humble, and funny. We're all just a bunch of tech support people around here, but I know many people I'd put in that category, and my wife puts me in the same category all the time. I consider it a well-known fact that a large number of geeks are more shy/humble, good natured, even-tempered, humorous, and, of course, brilliant. Of course, we have the exceptions that prove the rule (Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs), but we also have role models like Linus, Alan Cox, and Woz. All of the latter seem to be good natured, funny, brilliant geeks.
I equate it more to exposing a child to musicals even though he likes action movies, or opera even though she is fond of Green Day. Exposure to a plethora of new and different things expands their minds and challenges them. I disabled booting to Windows on my system at home and my son did very well with Linux. Then I disabled that and made NT the default. He did fine with that too. It was all a learning experience for him. "Kids and schools don't need platform diversity shoved down their throats... what kids need is the critical thinking skills that will enable them to decide for themselves that a particular "feature" sucks, or that a gui is poorly designed." But if a child doesn't know that alternative features exist there's nothing to compare certain features with. My son (he's 14) likes West Side Story. He sure didn't want to sit through it the first time, though. Glad I "shoved it down his throat."
Schools should all have Macs. For creativity, the Mac can't be beat. Also, they should all have Windows computers because that's what they'll most likely see in a business setting. Of course, they should also have Unix (or Unix-like) systems so they could learn the high-end of software and basic developement, etc. So in a perfect school, there would be a heterogenous environment with computers focused toward the specific tasks they're best at. Too bad they'll never get that if they're tied to a specific hardware and/or software vendor. Sounds like the schoold are shooting themselves in the foot in order to save money. Well, that and the fact that an ideal environment would be pretty expensive.
Crashes reliably? Puts all that extra memory to a good use? Actually, I did something a little crazy today. I had a bunch of Favorites my wife had made up and needed to save each of them as a full web page. (We're looking for a house and she did a lot of research and saved Favorites for many house listings on the internet.) There's not an easy way to do that that I'm aware of, and I didn't have time to download any shareware app to do it, so I searched for all URL files in the folder (and many subfolders) that she had the favorites in, selected all, right-clicked, and clicked "Open." She had, by the way, about 300 links in there. I only have 64MB RAM, and a Celeron 450A, so about a half hour later, everything calmed down. I closed about 15 Explorer windows because they didn't have anything I needed, and proceeded to "Save as" each individual page. It was a slow tedious process, but it worked out okay. In fact, I haven't rebooted since and all is still running stably. My question is this: Is there any way to do this any easier? Is there an Open Source program that can save a page as an entire web page? Is there an Open Source program that will convert.url files to a format that can be used in Linux? How did NT handle that task so well? (considering that there were five full rows of Internet Explorer "E"s on the taskbar)
Those poor cab drivers will probably need to bone up on their tech if they're running Windows in their cabs. Can you imagine the guy in back asking "Hey, what does this do?" "Why is the screen all blue?" "What's an exception?" That's too much disctraction for the poor cabbies. The ones who don't speak english are better off, actually. Hey! They should put a guide in the back. "What to do when the computer stops responding".
With all these conflicts we're going to have to move to increasingly futuristic technologies like laserbeams, flashing lights, dials, and laptops that communicate by shooting a beam of light that makes an oscillating "EeEeEeEeEeEeEeEe" sound. Eventually, no matter how corny we think they are now, we're going to catch up to the tech shown in the movies of the '60s and '70s. Just you wait and see. I can't wait 'til I issue the commands: Computer! Initiate self destruct sequence 123456!
Maybe I shouldn't post right after watching "The Time Machine". Sorry.
How many companies that were in M$'s back pocket are now not so close to them? I now of a few: Compaq, Intel, Dell, and SGI, and those are just off the top of my head. It used to be that taking sides with Microsoft assured success. Now it appears that these companies have finally realized that Microsoft isn't the only way to do well in software. It was really good to see MS get the shaft with the Compaq announcement that they were dumping 32 bit NT support for Alpha. And as much as I don't like Intel, I sure do like seeing them support Linux and other Unixen. MS has egg on their face and is grasping for straws. I love this!
This product would make computers more expensive, run slower, and less reliable. Is it just me or does it sound more like a Microsoft product than an Intel product? This is what happens when Intel tries to force the industry in one direction when there's a better short term alternative (DDRSDRAM) because Intel has invested in the technology it wants to make the standard. I'll really be disappointed if this doesn't translate into gains by VIA, AMD, and some of the other smaller players.
In fact, who do you think MS would hire to study Linux?
Developers? No way! Once they got a hold of Linux they'd never go back to Windows.
Marketing types? Would you even try to sell Windows after using Linux?
Sales? See marketing.
FUD slingers? Nope. They couldn't even do their job anymore.
So who else do you hire other than someone expendable? Someone with absolutely no knowledge whatsoever? They'll probably poke his eyes out and sew his mouth shut after they're done with him.
I'm learning to code just so I can help out with the Open source developement model. I'm slowly getting there, but I promise that one day I will be a producer of open source code.
Personally, I prefer the local ISPs to the very large ones. The bigger the company the longer you wait on hold. My local guy is fast, friendly, available, offers Unix shell accounts, and most of all, flexible. Besides that, if I get really pissed off at them for any reason, I can drive down to the office and make a big scene. Now that's service! Aren't the big ISPs going to become less and less relevant as we move to the broadband services? Do either Mindspring or Earthstink offer DSL? I'm pretty sure they wouldn't offer cable modem service. Right?
I think the customers who are interested in low price notebooks are less interested in "Intel Inside" and pay more attention to the sticker with the dollar sign on it. Circuit City and Best Buy have even put the cool little K6-2 logo prominently on their advertisements. The only advantage Intel has with their Intel Inside program is the fact that PC makers are tied to them and their advertising dollars. Hopefully Intel will be hurt enough by their low prices they won't have enough control over the market to beat AMD over the head with anything but low prices. I'm really rooting for an AMD/Motorola merger. Motorola would gain power and marketshare and AMD would gain cash. Just months ago I was hoping the same thing would happen with Compaq, but now that I see what they've done with Digital I'm backing way off that idea!
I couldn't find a text of the story anywhere, though I'm sure the story should be in the public domain by now. Doesn't the copyright run out in 50 yrs? Anyway, for some of our non-US friends who may not have heard the story, here's the most info I could find on it. http://www.uic.edu/depts/geos/littleng.htm
The story is about steam engine who thinks positively and is able to climb a hill. (Of course, that's the zip version of the Reader's Digest version.) The engine says "I think I can! I think I can!" and when he hits the top and speeds down the hill he's saying "I thought I could. I thought I could." Of course, they forgot to mention that the bridge was out, but that's just details. Right?
It's too bad they'll still be so much slower in floating point calculations since they're based on the K6 family, but that won't matter at all if they're used for the applications that most laptop users will be using. I'd like to see AMD clean up in the notebook market since they seemingly have a very strong product. When the K6s first came out I was very excited. I knew they were no panacea, but I overclocked my first 166 to a 210 using the newly available 83 MHz bus and I loved that little bad boy. Is it just me, or is Intel every bit as predatory as Microsoft? Every time I think about that little chip company that could and how much Intel has hurt them it just makes me sick! Andy Grove is a spawn of SATAN! ; >
Maybe it's just because I work at a large computer company, or maybe it's just because I'm really into this computer thing, but the difference between this "virtual Helsinki" and the tech buzzing around me every day seems more like the difference between Hard Rock and New Wave music: mostly one of aesthetics(?). I'll admit that the Finns seem more into the smaller stuff than we are here in the US (maybe it's those legacy beige boxes), but I don't think their tech is that much more advanced. It's just not as anchored to the desktop as ours is. Maybe I have no room to talk because I don't own a handheld device yet (besides my Toshiba laptop).
Actually, it's probably some type of scam. For some reason, I see a guy who looks like Eddie Murphy crossed with a used car salesman at the head of the company. There's no way they can pull off a standard IPO. Isn't this kind of thing regulated by the SEC? At least we won't even notice while they're in their quiet period, though.
Slashdot Mirror
This autism thing might be true of some technical people, but many of the tech people (including myself) are quite gregarious and outgoing. The autism thing has grown to encompass all technical people, which I think is a disservice to Joe Tech.
I know there are ways some of us think differently than others, but this applies to doctors, artists, and craftsmen as well. The geek==autistic thing has got to go. It's stereotypes us way too much.
You know, Sun sure hasn't been that active in Java for Linux. Everything Sun has done so far just points to the fact that they do not practice what they preach. Sun is proprietary. Moreso than Apple, and almost as much as MS. Their write once, run anywhere technology has so many provisos that the promise has whithered. If Sun would truly open the technology, it'd take off like a shot. Unfortunately, it's a niche of a niche product. Sun has practically strangled its own baby.
I personally like that HTML prints so badly. It lessens the temptation to print a web page and take it into the bathroom for a little reading time. Otherwise, I'd just print out a whole slashdot thread and be in there for a half-hour. It's better for me and my personal life that I can't access slashdot away from my computer. Otherwise, I'd be in there all day!
Many of their hotels can't even make money on the ground. Imagine the overhead (pun intended) of them working in space. This was just a baseless rumor.
Oh, by the way, did you hear that Bill Gates is suing the Hilton because he had reserved a permanent room there? He wanted to be outside the reach of the Justice Dept.
The above was definitely not a rumor. Pure, solid fact. Yep.
Is the friction between Gnome and KDE, BSD and GPL, Free Software and Open Source, and the other sources of flame war a bad thing or a good thing for the movement? Many people seem to feel that the competition is devisive, but isn't it the opposite? We're always preaching that competition is a good thing for the entire market, but then we complain when any of our pet projects are pitted head to head with another. The passion felt by the proponents of each philosophy seems to result in better, more quality work. Isn't this proof that competition is the Good Thing we've been saying it is all along?
Software licensed under the GPL and BSD licenses are not at all in the public domain. The source code is available to the public, but not in the public domain.
No. If anything, I'm seeing the whole open source/free software movement strengthened by success. Nothing RedHat, Cygnus, or any of the other OSS companies is doing is hurting the FSF ideal. With the success of RedHat, more and more companies are going to see that the FUD that free software companies can't be successful is just that. Maybe it'll take Corel doing well to really convince them, though.
I didn't see that, but that could be one of the best moments on TV ever.
This is something that nobody should be afraid of. If we're too busy to watch TV, we miss our shows. I could be recording today at noon, Dragonball Z at 4:00, and wrap it up with the Frasier rerun at 6:30, but I don't (well, I do record Dragonball.) Why? Because the shows just aren't that good that I'm going to waste my day sitting in front of the TV and doing nothing (except for my Dragonball Z half hour). I'd rather spend my free time interacting with my family and having fun! This resembles the Gernsbackian future a little too much for me. Next thing you know, Katz will be railing about how food pills won't taste as good as normal food. Duh! That's why we're not heading in that direction. Another newsflash, Katz, we're not going to be disembodied heads floating around in flying saucers either. Get a grip, man, and take your Palm Pilot out for a drive. You need to take in a little countryside.
Cygnus is one of the premier open source companies. We're lucky to have those guys on our side. Before the Open Source phenominon took off the software company landscape was looking pretty bleak as far as ethics and idealism went, but now there are so many good companies producing high quality software, making money, and not selling out. It's truly heartening to see.
Thanks, Cygnus, and keep the software coming!
"He was brilliant, humble and funny, qualities rarely seen in contemporary geeks and nerds, or anybody much."
I don't know about y'all, but I think that contemporary geeks and nerds are more likely to be brilliant, humble, and funny. We're all just a bunch of tech support people around here, but I know many people I'd put in that category, and my wife puts me in the same category all the time. I consider it a well-known fact that a large number of geeks are more shy/humble, good natured, even-tempered, humorous, and, of course, brilliant. Of course, we have the exceptions that prove the rule (Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs), but we also have role models like Linus, Alan Cox, and Woz. All of the latter seem to be good natured, funny, brilliant geeks.
I equate it more to exposing a child to musicals even though he likes action movies, or opera even though she is fond of Green Day. Exposure to a plethora of new and different things expands their minds and challenges them. I disabled booting to Windows on my system at home and my son did very well with Linux. Then I disabled that and made NT the default. He did fine with that too. It was all a learning experience for him.
"Kids and schools don't need platform diversity shoved down their throats... what kids need is the critical thinking skills that will enable them to decide for themselves that a particular "feature" sucks, or that a gui is poorly designed."
But if a child doesn't know that alternative features exist there's nothing to compare certain features with. My son (he's 14) likes West Side Story. He sure didn't want to sit through it the first time, though. Glad I "shoved it down his throat."
Schools should all have Macs. For creativity, the Mac can't be beat. Also, they should all have Windows computers because that's what they'll most likely see in a business setting. Of course, they should also have Unix (or Unix-like) systems so they could learn the high-end of software and basic developement, etc. So in a perfect school, there would be a heterogenous environment with computers focused toward the specific tasks they're best at. Too bad they'll never get that if they're tied to a specific hardware and/or software vendor. Sounds like the schoold are shooting themselves in the foot in order to save money.
Well, that and the fact that an ideal environment would be pretty expensive.
Crashes reliably? .url files to a format that can be used in Linux? How did NT handle that task so well? (considering that there were five full rows of Internet Explorer "E"s on the taskbar)
Puts all that extra memory to a good use?
Actually, I did something a little crazy today. I had a bunch of Favorites my wife had made up and needed to save each of them as a full web page. (We're looking for a house and she did a lot of research and saved Favorites for many house listings on the internet.) There's not an easy way to do that that I'm aware of, and I didn't have time to download any shareware app to do it, so I searched for all URL files in the folder (and many subfolders) that she had the favorites in, selected all, right-clicked, and clicked "Open." She had, by the way, about 300 links in there. I only have 64MB RAM, and a Celeron 450A, so about a half hour later, everything calmed down. I closed about 15 Explorer windows because they didn't have anything I needed, and proceeded to "Save as" each individual page. It was a slow tedious process, but it worked out okay. In fact, I haven't rebooted since and all is still running stably. My question is this: Is there any way to do this any easier? Is there an Open Source program that can save a page as an entire web page? Is there an Open Source program that will convert
Those poor cab drivers will probably need to bone up on their tech if they're running Windows in their cabs. Can you imagine the guy in back asking "Hey, what does this do?" "Why is the screen all blue?" "What's an exception?" That's too much disctraction for the poor cabbies. The ones who don't speak english are better off, actually.
Hey! They should put a guide in the back. "What to do when the computer stops responding".
With all these conflicts we're going to have to move to increasingly futuristic technologies like laserbeams, flashing lights, dials, and laptops that communicate by shooting a beam of light that makes an oscillating "EeEeEeEeEeEeEeEe" sound.
Eventually, no matter how corny we think they are now, we're going to catch up to the tech shown in the movies of the '60s and '70s. Just you wait and see.
I can't wait 'til I issue the commands:
Computer! Initiate self destruct sequence 123456!
Maybe I shouldn't post right after watching "The Time Machine". Sorry.
How many companies that were in M$'s back pocket are now not so close to them? I now of a few: Compaq, Intel, Dell, and SGI, and those are just off the top of my head. It used to be that taking sides with Microsoft assured success. Now it appears that these companies have finally realized that Microsoft isn't the only way to do well in software. It was really good to see MS get the shaft with the Compaq announcement that they were dumping 32 bit NT support for Alpha. And as much as I don't like Intel, I sure do like seeing them support Linux and other Unixen.
MS has egg on their face and is grasping for straws. I love this!
This product would make computers more expensive, run slower, and less reliable. Is it just me or does it sound more like a Microsoft product than an Intel product?
This is what happens when Intel tries to force the industry in one direction when there's a better short term alternative (DDRSDRAM) because Intel has invested in the technology it wants to make the standard. I'll really be disappointed if this doesn't translate into gains by VIA, AMD, and some of the other smaller players.
In fact, who do you think MS would hire to study Linux?
Developers? No way! Once they got a hold of Linux they'd never go back to Windows.
Marketing types? Would you even try to sell Windows after using Linux?
Sales? See marketing.
FUD slingers? Nope. They couldn't even do their job anymore.
So who else do you hire other than someone expendable? Someone with absolutely no knowledge whatsoever? They'll probably poke his eyes out and sew his mouth shut after they're done with him.
I'm learning to code just so I can help out with the Open source developement model. I'm slowly getting there, but I promise that one day I will be a producer of open source code.
Personally, I prefer the local ISPs to the very large ones. The bigger the company the longer you wait on hold. My local guy is fast, friendly, available, offers Unix shell accounts, and most of all, flexible. Besides that, if I get really pissed off at them for any reason, I can drive down to the office and make a big scene. Now that's service! Aren't the big ISPs going to become less and less relevant as we move to the broadband services? Do either Mindspring or Earthstink offer DSL? I'm pretty sure they wouldn't offer cable modem service. Right?
I think the customers who are interested in low price notebooks are less interested in "Intel Inside" and pay more attention to the sticker with the dollar sign on it. Circuit City and Best Buy have even put the cool little K6-2 logo prominently on their advertisements. The only advantage Intel has with their Intel Inside program is the fact that PC makers are tied to them and their advertising dollars. Hopefully Intel will be hurt enough by their low prices they won't have enough control over the market to beat AMD over the head with anything but low prices. I'm really rooting for an AMD/Motorola merger. Motorola would gain power and marketshare and AMD would gain cash. Just months ago I was hoping the same thing would happen with Compaq, but now that I see what they've done with Digital I'm backing way off that idea!
I couldn't find a text of the story anywhere, though I'm sure the story should be in the public domain by now. Doesn't the copyright run out in 50 yrs?
Anyway, for some of our non-US friends who may not have heard the story, here's the most info I could find on it.
http://www.uic.edu/depts/geos/littleng.htm
The story is about steam engine who thinks positively and is able to climb a hill. (Of course, that's the zip version of the Reader's Digest version.)
The engine says "I think I can! I think I can!" and when he hits the top and speeds down the hill he's saying "I thought I could. I thought I could."
Of course, they forgot to mention that the bridge was out, but that's just details. Right?
It's too bad they'll still be so much slower in floating point calculations since they're based on the K6 family, but that won't matter at all if they're used for the applications that most laptop users will be using. I'd like to see AMD clean up in the notebook market since they seemingly have a very strong product.
When the K6s first came out I was very excited. I knew they were no panacea, but I overclocked my first 166 to a 210 using the newly available 83 MHz bus and I loved that little bad boy.
Is it just me, or is Intel every bit as predatory as Microsoft? Every time I think about that little chip company that could and how much Intel has hurt them it just makes me sick!
Andy Grove is a spawn of SATAN!
; >
Maybe it's just because I work at a large computer company, or maybe it's just because I'm really into this computer thing, but the difference between this "virtual Helsinki" and the tech buzzing around me every day seems more like the difference between Hard Rock and New Wave music: mostly one of aesthetics(?). I'll admit that the Finns seem more into the smaller stuff than we are here in the US (maybe it's those legacy beige boxes), but I don't think their tech is that much more advanced. It's just not as anchored to the desktop as ours is.
Maybe I have no room to talk because I don't own a handheld device yet (besides my Toshiba laptop).
"If this isn't a big joke, I don't know what is."
Actually, it's probably some type of scam. For some reason, I see a guy who looks like Eddie Murphy crossed with a used car salesman at the head of the company. There's no way they can pull off a standard IPO. Isn't this kind of thing regulated by the SEC?
At least we won't even notice while they're in their quiet period, though.