Even the oldest version of Crystal Enterprise (version 8 - before that the product was know as Crystal Info) doesn't need to use a Java or ActiveX plugin - it can output straight to HTML and DHTML - though it might not be the prettiest web pages you've ever seen.
Saying that, Enterprise has never been anythng other than a complete pain to use and I would find it hard to recommend it to anyone.
# A multi-billion Euro fine could be used to top up the soon to go bankrupt European pension funds. Or it could be fiddled away a semi-corrupt bureaucracy # The UN could be brought back onto the world stage by being used to police the enforcement of any judgments. So, the UN is going to do what - send troops to Seatle to enforce judgement? Yeah, that would go down real well in America. # A whole new software industry will be created as new companies are formed that attempt to write software that conforms to the newly disclosed Microsoft 'standards'.
Of course, as those 'standards' are patented, they'll be paying MS to use them
# Another whole new software industry will be created helping companies migrate away from Microsoft, once they realize how bad those 'standards' are.
Just make damn sure those new 'standards' don't infringe on MS patents (like using XML as a word processing document format)
# France could regain face by fighting off US hegemony.
Seriously though, I have a feeling the EU is more likely to collapse in on itself before the UK decides to leave, especially with all the new member states joining who haven't yet realized that you're supposed to agree with France and Germany no matter what.
I don't think that the EU is perfect, but I don't see keeping seperate as a viable alternative.
Why isn't keeping seperate a viabal alternative? It's not like trade would stop with the EU the moment we left. I don't see what benefits there are in being a member state of the EU that couldn't be gained from trade agreements (like Switzerland has).
As much as some people don't like it, we do need the EU
But the EU would still be there. Why can't we trade with the EU like we trade with the US? We need the US as well economically, but that doesn't imply we need to be a member state of the US, does it?
Theyre only there because of the money they contribute otherwise they would be kicked out on theyre ear along time ago.
No, the UK hasn't been kicked out because it makes a great whipping boy for France and Germany. As long as the UK is in Europe none of the other states have to stand up to those two.
The link (http://www.dpreview.com/news/0108/01080401lurajpe g2000.asp) 404'd on me. When I went to http://www.dpreview.com/ I got: Dear Visitor,
During a simple piece of routine maintenance a fault developed in the RAID subsystem of our primary server. Despite our hosting provider's best efforts they were not able to recover any data. We are now rebuilding to a completely new machine from backup but the process may take some time. Please accept my apologies for this unannounced downtime and have our assurance that we are doing all we can to be back up and running again very soon.
Since programming languages are meant for use by technical people, and since computer programming and mathematics are so intimately related, it pays to let computer programmers use the same tools that mathematicians do
I only partly agree with this statement as I think there are two distinct types of programming - the technical, mathematical type and a far less mathmatical 'data processing' (ie pretty forms for putting data in databases) type of programming.
With DP case sensitvity just gets in the way - the programmers may not be very technical and any maths used would probably only be complicated by use of the 'same' name for different variables.
I think VB is definately in the DP category of languages and hence has no need for case sensitivity. As Java is often marketed as a DP language it's case-sensetivity is a serious drawback (at least as far as DP is concerned - in other areas of Java's use it may be usefull).
Now lets think...what would happen if it didn't error out because of case sensitive erors? Wouldn't that make it "easier" to make mistakes?
Exactly how would case sensitivity make the blindest bit of difference to syntax errors? As long as the language recognizes that keywords such as Class, CLASS and clASS are all the same and seeing as you declare variables beforehand anyway (so it can tell that myVar, Myvar and MYVAR are all the same), then tell me how does case sensitivity reduce syntax errors?
How about instead of cancelling the show they end the temporal cold war, which would mean the klingon never came to earth and therefore the entire series didn't actually happen, so they can go straight back to the beginning as though the first seasons never happened (I know - after the scene ending the TCW they cut to Archer leaving his shower on Earth). Then they can meet the klingons properly and immediatly go to war with them.
Far from it, many DVD players in europe (and around the world) are either multi-region out of the box or easily set to multi region by entering 'secret codes' into special hidden areas of the machine's set up menu. For the rest that aren't easily switched (which are oddly the more expensive 'branded' models), there are companies that can modify them to be region free.
I think region coding really only restricts Americans, the rest of the planet happily carries on with little if any notice of region coding at all.
1. Don't buy Sony or any other branded DVD player. I know someone with a 600 Sony DVD player and the picture is crisp but it plays nothing apart from local DVDs.
If for some reason you 'must' buy an expensive branded player in the UK,Techtronics can often make it multi-region.
Though why anyone would pay 600 quid when a 30 quid player will do more is beyond me.
It's never made sense to me just why they make us (The UK) wait so long for movies after their release in the US
I've heard one reason, at least for some films, is film stock. Instead of printing new film for the UK they just ship over films that have already been through the cinemas in the States.
Actually there are multiregion players that can fool RCE discs - one of my friend's players will do it. The way he thinks it works is that the player recognizes that the DVD has effectivly 'stopped' and will restart the dvd and respond with the next region code and so on untill the the DVD starts working.
Region codes are not a problem -- I have two DVD Players (cost $50 each). One is set for region 1 and one is set for region 2. Region codes were a problem when the DVD players were expensive.
Even when players were expensive region coding was never a real problem (at least in the UK). Companies in the UK have been selling modified players since DVD players first came out over here, and if I remember right some were selling modified US players before DVD was even launched over here. At least they did sell modified players - seeing as you can pick up a multi-region DVD player (without even needing to enter a 'code' much less soldering a chip into it) for under 30 quid these days I doubt there's much call for modding players anymore.
Some of the quality is going to depend on how the film got onto the DVD in the first place.
For example, in the past Fox has been known not to do a proper cine transfer of a film for 625/50 countries but to just do a (piss poor) transcode of the 525/60 video. You'd be better of off using a 525/60 version of the DVD and either letting the DVD player transcode it to 625/50 or (assuming you have a suitable tv - most people in Europe do) just watch it in 525/60.
The only reason I say this is because most of the replies seem to go something like this, "yes, but forking is good for software". Well, it may be good for the people producing the software but it really sucks for customers.
I don't see why having forks can be seen as being particularily bad for the user. It's hardly any different from having to choose between products. If anything it's better as it's usually easier to merge advances and fixes from one fork to another than it is from one product to another.
Yes, it means more choice, but more choice is usally percieved as a good thing.
I vaguely remember that somewhere in Germany, the local council stopped having people seperate out thier trash - it was actually cheaper and easier to do the seperation at the refuse processing plant. Apperently they have to make sure everything gets seperated anyway (because people don't always put stuff in the right bin), so there was no real point in the residents sorting it themeselves (other than a feel good factor).
It could well be that your school is allowing it's student's to feel that they're doing something to help the planet when it really doesn't matter what they do.
We've been saying it on the currently-dead message boards [emusic.com] for months -- if all of Emusic's subscribers downloaded as much as we did, they'd expire overnight, taking in less than a penny per track.
I'm one of those (soon to be ex) subscribers who didn't download as much as you did. Months would go by and I wouldn't download a thing, then I would download a few ablumns when I was bored and had nothing better to do. I never cared too much if in a particular month I didn't bother download, as the next month I could donwloand as much 9or as little) as I wanted.
With the new scheme, forget it. 40 tracks isn't going to make up for a month or two of not bothering to download (especially as it doesn't appear that you can carry unused traks over to the next month). Instead, I'm going leech all I can in the few remaining weeks and dump them.
Since the cards are mandatory for people who buy season tickets, you can choose to have privacy at a fee by buying individual tickets (which will remain on paper for some time).
If you can convince your employer to let you start you travel after 9:30, than you can actually save money and keep your privacy (assuming you don't pay for your daily travelcard with a credit card) - if you only use the tube during the week than buying a one day, off peak travel card is cheaper than any of the seasons tickets - even more so when you include holiday time and sick leave.
I think that even though they are going to roll out using the oyster card for daily travel cards (using thier 'pre pay' system) they are going to have to keep paper tickets available for all the tourist who won't have an oyster card.
Thinking about, I wonder if even before the oyster cards came out they could track you anyway if you paid by credit card. I remember reading somewhere that they keep track of where the paper tickets go (only on the undergound, not the buses) and it probably wouldn't be too hard to track a ticket that was issued at a particular station, at a particular time to a credit card transaction for the correct amount, at the coorect time at the correct station. Ok, it's a bit paranoid, but still
Only use cash, don't have a mobile phone (maybe not even a land line), don't go shopping (if you live in a camera infested area). I think other than hiding away in the woods somewhere, I doubt there's really much you can directly do.
Heck, even governments allow this kind of activity
Allow? Some governments activly encourage this sort of thing. I live in the UK, and the home secretary is pushing for national ID cards (mostly under a pretense that it will snoop out illegal immigrants - even though he has no clue as to how many there are) so that they can track people even more. In fact, I think the way things are going, in the future if you do try and protect your privacy (by not having a credit card etc) then you're going to get into some form of trouble.
All we need is somebody to say something is illegal/unethical/etc
I think we need a lot more than that. You need to have somebody say preciesly why it is unethical, explain how and why the loss of freedom does not garuntee an equivalent increase in security and most of all excplain why people should give a damn about the issue (one way or the other, I feel a lot of people just don't care)
It's going to be a long hard battle, perhaps never ending. As an example, over the last year/couple of years in the UK the HomeSec has been trying to get 'entitlement' cards, but a lot realized that this was little more than a backdoor way of getting compulsory ID (basically, without a passport, driving licence or 'entitlement' card you wouldn't people able to use government services, therefore defacto compulsory ID). Enough of a stink was made about it (even though the government shamelessly tried to sweep the overwhelming opposition under the table) that it was dropped. So, the HomeSec finnaly came out fighting for what he really wanted in the first place - compulsory ID cards. And the battle begins again.
Sainsbury's ATM's use windows - a couple of weeks ago I went to take some cash out before going to the pub, but all I saw was the windows desktop. Exactly why an ATM needs a desktop, start bar and all, is beyond me. I think someone was trying to play with it before I got there and had somehow managed to bring up the find files dialog.
Slashdot Mirror
Even the oldest version of Crystal Enterprise (version 8 - before that the product was know as Crystal Info) doesn't need to use a Java or ActiveX plugin - it can output straight to HTML and DHTML - though it might not be the prettiest web pages you've ever seen.
Saying that, Enterprise has never been anythng other than a complete pain to use and I would find it hard to recommend it to anyone.
Tk
# A multi-billion Euro fine could be used to top up the soon to go bankrupt European pension funds.
Or it could be fiddled away a semi-corrupt bureaucracy
# The UN could be brought back onto the world stage by being used to police the enforcement of any judgments.
So, the UN is going to do what - send troops to Seatle to enforce judgement? Yeah, that would go down real well in America.
# A whole new software industry will be created as new companies are formed that attempt to write software that conforms to the newly disclosed Microsoft 'standards'.
Of course, as those 'standards' are patented, they'll be paying MS to use them
# Another whole new software industry will be created helping companies migrate away from Microsoft, once they realize how bad those 'standards' are.
Just make damn sure those new 'standards' don't infringe on MS patents (like using XML as a word processing document format)
# France could regain face by fighting off US hegemony.
Umm, when did France loose face?
Tk
the minute the constitution is signed im out
:-)
So you won't be leaving for a while then?
Seriously though, I have a feeling the EU is more likely to collapse in on itself before the UK decides to leave, especially with all the new member states joining who haven't yet realized that you're supposed to agree with France and Germany no matter what.
I don't think that the EU is perfect, but I don't see keeping seperate as a viable alternative.
Why isn't keeping seperate a viabal alternative? It's not like trade would stop with the EU the moment we left. I don't see what benefits there are in being a member state of the EU that couldn't be gained from trade agreements (like Switzerland has).
Tk
As much as some people don't like it, we do need the EU
But the EU would still be there. Why can't we trade with the EU like we trade with the US? We need the US as well economically, but that doesn't imply we need to be a member state of the US, does it?
Theyre only there because of the money they contribute otherwise they would be kicked out on theyre ear along time ago.
No, the UK hasn't been kicked out because it makes a great whipping boy for France and Germany. As long as the UK is in Europe none of the other states have to stand up to those two.
Tk
Well maybe they didn't write it, but Im sure there is some SCO code in it.
While some may consider that the virus is "derived" from SCO intellectual property, it doesn't contain actual SCO code.
The link (http://www.dpreview.com/news/0108/01080401lurajpe g2000.asp) 404'd on me. When I went to http://www.dpreview.com/ I got:
Dear Visitor,
During a simple piece of routine maintenance a fault developed in the RAID subsystem of our primary server. Despite our hosting provider's best efforts they were not able to recover any data. We are now rebuilding to a completely new machine from backup but the process may take some time. Please accept my apologies for this unannounced downtime and have our assurance that we are doing all we can to be back up and running again very soon.
Phil Askey
whoops
Tk
Since programming languages are meant for use by technical people, and since computer programming and mathematics are so intimately related, it pays to let computer programmers use the same tools that mathematicians do
I only partly agree with this statement as I think there are two distinct types of programming - the technical, mathematical type and a far less mathmatical 'data processing' (ie pretty forms for putting data in databases) type of programming.
With DP case sensitvity just gets in the way - the programmers may not be very technical and any maths used would probably only be complicated by use of the 'same' name for different variables.
I think VB is definately in the DP category of languages and hence has no need for case sensitivity. As Java is often marketed as a DP language it's case-sensetivity is a serious drawback (at least as far as DP is concerned - in other areas of Java's use it may be usefull).
Tk
Now lets think...what would happen if it didn't error out because of case sensitive erors? Wouldn't that make it "easier" to make mistakes?
Exactly how would case sensitivity make the blindest bit of difference to syntax errors? As long as the language recognizes that keywords such as Class, CLASS and clASS are all the same and seeing as you declare variables beforehand anyway (so it can tell that myVar, Myvar and MYVAR are all the same), then tell me how does case sensitivity reduce syntax errors?
Tk
How about instead of cancelling the show they end the temporal cold war, which would mean the klingon never came to earth and therefore the entire series didn't actually happen, so they can go straight back to the beginning as though the first seasons never happened (I know - after the scene ending the TCW they cut to Archer leaving his shower on Earth). Then they can meet the klingons properly and immediatly go to war with them.
Tk
But, this could be an isolated incident.
Far from it, many DVD players in europe (and around the world) are either multi-region out of the box or easily set to multi region by entering 'secret codes' into special hidden areas of the machine's set up menu. For the rest that aren't easily switched (which are oddly the more expensive 'branded' models), there are companies that can modify them to be region free.
I think region coding really only restricts Americans, the rest of the planet happily carries on with little if any notice of region coding at all.
Tk
1. Don't buy Sony or any other branded DVD player. I know someone with a 600 Sony DVD player and the picture is crisp but it plays nothing apart from local DVDs.
If for some reason you 'must' buy an expensive branded player in the UK,Techtronics can often make it multi-region.
Though why anyone would pay 600 quid when a 30 quid player will do more is beyond me.
Tk
It's never made sense to me just why they make us (The UK) wait so long for movies after their release in the US
I've heard one reason, at least for some films, is film stock. Instead of printing new film for the UK they just ship over films that have already been through the cinemas in the States.
Tk
Actually there are multiregion players that can fool RCE discs - one of my friend's players will do it. The way he thinks it works is that the player recognizes that the DVD has effectivly 'stopped' and will restart the dvd and respond with the next region code and so on untill the the DVD starts working.
Tk
Region codes are not a problem -- I have two DVD Players (cost $50 each). One is set for region 1 and one is set for region 2. Region codes were a problem when the DVD players were expensive.
Even when players were expensive region coding was never a real problem (at least in the UK). Companies in the UK have been selling modified players since DVD players first came out over here, and if I remember right some were selling modified US players before DVD was even launched over here. At least they did sell modified players - seeing as you can pick up a multi-region DVD player (without even needing to enter a 'code' much less soldering a chip into it) for under 30 quid these days I doubt there's much call for modding players anymore.
Tk
Some of the quality is going to depend on how the film got onto the DVD in the first place.
For example, in the past Fox has been known not to do a proper cine transfer of a film for 625/50 countries but to just do a (piss poor) transcode of the 525/60 video. You'd be better of off using a 525/60 version of the DVD and either letting the DVD player transcode it to 625/50 or (assuming you have a suitable tv - most people in Europe do) just watch it in 525/60.
Tk
Even PAL/NTSC doesn't really matter. Most players can output in either format from all discs.
Tk
"Back before the advent of Mac OS X, my favourite (and for many years, only) development environment was one variety of Unix or another.
Shouldn't there be an 'Even' before the 'Back before the advent of Mac OS X', seeing as OS X is a variety of Unix?
Tk
The only reason I say this is because most of the replies seem to go something like this, "yes, but forking is good for software". Well, it may be good for the people producing the software but it really sucks for customers.
I don't see why having forks can be seen as being particularily bad for the user. It's hardly any different from having to choose between products. If anything it's better as it's usually easier to merge advances and fixes from one fork to another than it is from one product to another.
Yes, it means more choice, but more choice is usally percieved as a good thing.
Tk
I vaguely remember that somewhere in Germany, the local council stopped having people seperate out thier trash - it was actually cheaper and easier to do the seperation at the refuse processing plant. Apperently they have to make sure everything gets seperated anyway (because people don't always put stuff in the right bin), so there was no real point in the residents sorting it themeselves (other than a feel good factor).
It could well be that your school is allowing it's student's to feel that they're doing something to help the planet when it really doesn't matter what they do.
Tk
We've been saying it on the currently-dead message boards [emusic.com] for months -- if all of Emusic's subscribers downloaded as much as we did, they'd expire overnight, taking in less than a penny per track.
I'm one of those (soon to be ex) subscribers who didn't download as much as you did. Months would go by and I wouldn't download a thing, then I would download a few ablumns when I was bored and had nothing better to do. I never cared too much if in a particular month I didn't bother download, as the next month I could donwloand as much 9or as little) as I wanted.
With the new scheme, forget it. 40 tracks isn't going to make up for a month or two of not bothering to download (especially as it doesn't appear that you can carry unused traks over to the next month). Instead, I'm going leech all I can in the few remaining weeks and dump them.
Tk
Since the cards are mandatory
for people who buy season tickets, you can choose to have privacy at a fee by buying
individual tickets (which will remain on paper for some time).
If you can convince your employer to let you start you travel after 9:30, than you can actually save money and keep your privacy (assuming you don't pay for your daily travelcard with a credit card) - if you only use the tube during the week than buying a one day, off peak travel card is cheaper than any of the seasons tickets - even more so when you include holiday time and sick leave.
I think that even though they are going to roll out using the oyster card for daily travel cards (using thier 'pre pay' system) they are going to have to keep paper tickets available for all the tourist who won't have an oyster card.
Thinking about, I wonder if even before the oyster cards came out they could track you anyway if you paid by credit card. I remember reading somewhere that they keep track of where the paper tickets go (only on the undergound, not the buses) and it probably wouldn't be too hard to track a ticket that was issued at a particular station, at a particular time to a credit card transaction for the correct amount, at the coorect time at the correct station. Ok, it's a bit paranoid, but still
Tk
what can we do about it?
.
Only use cash, don't have a mobile phone (maybe not even a land line), don't go shopping (if you live in a camera infested area). I think other than hiding away in the woods somewhere, I doubt there's really much you can directly do.
Heck, even governments allow this kind of activity
Allow? Some governments activly encourage this sort of thing. I live in the UK, and the home secretary is pushing for national ID cards (mostly under a pretense that it will snoop out illegal immigrants - even though he has no clue as to how many there are) so that they can track people even more. In fact, I think the way things are going, in the future if you do try and protect your privacy (by not having a credit card etc) then you're going to get into some form of trouble
All we need is somebody to say something is illegal/unethical/etc
I think we need a lot more than that. You need to have somebody say preciesly why it is unethical, explain how and why the loss of freedom does not garuntee an equivalent increase in security and most of all excplain why people should give a damn about the issue (one way or the other, I feel a lot of people just don't care)
It's going to be a long hard battle, perhaps never ending. As an example, over the last year/couple of years in the UK the HomeSec has been trying to get 'entitlement' cards, but a lot realized that this was little more than a backdoor way of getting compulsory ID (basically, without a passport, driving licence or 'entitlement' card you wouldn't people able to use government services, therefore defacto compulsory ID). Enough of a stink was made about it (even though the government shamelessly tried to sweep the overwhelming opposition under the table) that it was dropped. So, the HomeSec finnaly came out fighting for what he really wanted in the first place - compulsory ID cards. And the battle begins again.
Tk
Sainsbury's ATM's use windows - a couple of weeks ago I went to take some cash out before going to the pub, but all I saw was the windows desktop. Exactly why an ATM needs a desktop, start bar and all, is beyond me. I think someone was trying to play with it before I got there and had somehow managed to bring up the find files dialog.