I'm surprised nobody considered GNU Arch
http://www.gnu.org/software/gnu-arch/ to replace BitKeeper - it was
probably started in direct response to the Linux Kernel using a
non-free tool.
I must say I haven't used it, but from reviews and comparisons I've
read, it seems to be a good tool.
I could not believe how awful this film was. The story has almost nothing to do with previous versions of Hitchhiker's Guide and just rambles all over the place, but not in any humorous or interesting or entertaining or enjoyable way.
All the changes from the book and TV show and radio play seem to have been made for no reason and not only do they not add anything, they actually make it worse.
The acting is uniformly terrible, except for Bill Nighy, and some of the design work is embarrassing, although the special effects are impressive.
But the main problem with this film is that it is meant to be a comedy and it's just not funny at all. All the great comedy that was in the radio play and recreated in the books and recreated in the TV show and recreated (again) in the computer game has gone. All that is left is a lot of people falling over and getting slapped in the face and I don't remember any of that from the previous versions.
Nothing is explained. They don't even explain why the story stops for 20 minutes in the middle of the film while John Malkovich wanders around and talks for a bit. Was that from a different movie? It seemed to have no connection with the rest of the film.
As a long-time fan of Hitch-Hikers Guide, who has enjoyed all the previous versions, I thought this movie was just dreadful, and I couldn't even enjoy it as a movie on its own because it was so badly made. Douglas Adams deserves better than this. I hope he was right in his atheist belief because it would be awful if he could look down from heaven and see what these people have done in his name.
I think the "Open Source" model can be extended to all aspects of society. But it requires a paradigm shift in the way the world works.
If you take the cases of Linux or Wikipedia, arguably two of the most popular "open source" products, there are far more users that contributors.
Human nature is such that we try to do the least amount of work to achieve maximum effect. Humans are essentially greedy.
Open source model does nto work well with this inherent greediness. IF one day we humans change our intrinsic nature, open source model might well replace the current individualist/capitalist model.
From TFA Ballmer says:
"We will add support for non-Windows virtual machines running on our Virtual Server, including Linux. Virtualisation, is an area of intense interest and activity for us. Driving virtualisation is a key technology to facilitate better compatibility and lower total cost of ownership."
This is virtually non-sensical to me. Can anybody explain this to me in English?
Assertion 1:The only difference is that with Adobe, nobody else is actually after the guitar. Adobe only thinks they are. Justification: Not forthcoming
Assertion 2:Its paranoia stems from Microsoft. Justification: Not forthcoming
Assertion 3:And apparently this paranoia permeates the corporate culture. It's NOT apparent
Assertion 4:So, mostly out of fear, Adobe buys its main competitor and now must shoehorn the company into its unfortunate not-invented-here corporate culture. (This aspect of Adobe is another story in itself.) Pray, I would like to here this other story
Assertion 5:But easily absorbing Macromedia is another story, especially since a lot of ill-will was generated by a lawsuit between them a few years ago. Yeah it is another more interesting story that Dvorak's rant. But skills of even storytelling are beyond Dvorak.
Assertion 6:It's assumed that Adobe will redesign the interfaces of key Macromedia products to match its own and then discard most of the rest of Macromedia, much like the guitar in "Blow-Up." Assumed only by Dvorak
Assertion 7:Was it worth $3.4 billion? I doubt it. And I doubt Dvorak
Kenneth Lay stole US$7 trillion from Enron and he gets off scott free WITH the money while the employees have all lose their pensions. But the poor guy who shares a file ends in jail.
Dyncorp sells children for sex in the Balcans, but thanks to their friend Rumsfeld, they get off scott free. But the guy in Colorado who loads a plate of salad at a salad bar at a Chuck E. Cheese gets beaten up by the police.
This article argues that software patents could at least be brought in line with other
patents by strengthening the marking requirement. Software patents are largely unjustifiable
in the absence of marking.
One might object to the arguments presented in the second section of this paper as
empirically unsupported--after all, the plural of "anecdote" is not "data." The rejoinder
is that a half-billion dollar verdict is more than a mere anecdote,204 and the plural
of these "anecdotes" is a shameful abomination. The burden is on the proponents of
the current software-patenting regime to point out where the billions of economic
gains can be found.
This is not true. It might work on Kazaa but most other P2P networks use MD5 or better. Okay, they have found collisions but no one has found a way to generate file for a given key. So the claim by the finnish company is bogus.
Or they have cracked even the strong hashes. In which case they are really cool. I know Mr. Torvalds is Finnish, but I doubt even he could come up with algorithms to do that.
In their conceited press release, they have compared Spoofing vs DRP/a
From TFA:"There are some tremendous questions being raised about this," said Dietz. "On whether they (JFCCNW) have the legal mandate or the authority to shut these sites down with a defacement or a denial-of-service attack."
According to TFA, the main task of JFCCNW is to bring down websites that don't portray America in good light.
It is going to be more of a PR-damage limitation excercise than anything else. And a good way to spend millions of taxpayer money.
This acquisition is major news for the software industry, although not altogether surprising. Macromedia has regularly been seen as a prime candidate for acquisition.
This makes good sense from both companies' perspective and this is clearly signalled in the fact that it comes with the blessing of both boards. Adobe has traditionally been strong in the offline graphical design business particularly with respect to desktop publishing in the newspaper and magazine publishing world. The company has also made its PDF reader ubiquitous in the desktop space and has a strong enterprise play.
Macromedia, on the other hand, has a much stronger presence in graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for the desktop with its Dreamweaver and Flash product set. Both companies have made plays into the wireless market with the promise of rich media applications and cross platform access.
Macromedia, however has made stronger inroads into this market with recent deals with key operators and device manufacturers that will see Flash expanding its reach from the desktop environment to wireless platforms.
The deal itself is not without issues from a competition standpoint since the resulting business will almost certainly hold a sizeable chunk of the GUI market that would make it difficult for some smaller vendors to play in. The companies have overlapping product sets and a product portfolio that goes in many different directions. That is both a positive and a negative and will need to be addressed, going forward.
Dr. Smalley talks to the senate
on
Quantum Wires
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Interestingly,Dr. Smalley talked about armchair nanotube technology at the senate Oversight hearing on sustainable, low emission, electricity generation
Full Committee Hearing almost one year ago. The full text is here.
It's not really good for 3D stuff. So that only means you can use it for stacked virtual desktops. But as TFA says, stacking transparent desktops on each other is quite annoying. Let virtual desktops be virtual.
However, I do see a use in this for GIS applications. You can redefine the term overlay with this.
Re:Is that a sexual euphemism?
on
Longhorn Preview
·
· Score: 1, Funny
Micro soft gets a long horn. Wife still not happy.
Here is the background to the case courtesy of linux.kernel NG.
For those who do not wish to RTFA, the gist is:
Briefly, IBM asked the judge to rule that they weren't infringing any of
Calsera/SCO's copyrights by distributing Linux. And they further asked
for that ruling immediately, before the trial is complete. In such
a pre-trial summary judgement motion, the rules are heavily biased in
favor of Caldera/SCO; they only have to show a tiny bit of evidence to
defeat the motion.
By the time Longhorn ships, according to Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, PCs
will have 4GHz to 6GHz processors, more than 2GB of memory, at least a terabyte
of storage, and graphics accelerators three times more powerful than those
offered by ATI and Nvidia today. He says that Longhorn is designed to take
advantage of all this muscle, and nowhere is that more evident than in
the rich, three-dimensional interface known as Aero.
Points to ponder:
1. People don't even want to move to SP2, do you think people will buy all this muscle for Longhorn?
2. What exactly is a 3D interface? Would we need to wear 3D goggles to use it?
3. Longhorn is built around three major advances--a new graphics and presentation engine known as Avalon, a new communications architecture known as Indigo, and a new file system known as WinFS that borrows from Microsoft's relational database technology. Avalon and Indigo are catchy names, but are we going to have loads of compatibility issues?
4. How much MORE is Longhorn going to cost? Is it going to be subscription based?
5. How many software patents are MS going to secure for this?
And the lost continent of Atlantis too...
on
Satellite Easter Eggs
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
(PRWEB) April 14, 2005 -- While searching for the secrets of the Bermuda Tri-angle, Chris Shearer stumbled upon a picture of what he believes is the concentric rings and canal system where Atlantis once flourished. Finding even more pictures on the subject he then concluded that with earlier pictures of the area showed much more sedimentary sand deposits. The hurricanes and tropical storms that happened last year and some of the previous years removed some of the sedimentary sand that was on top of the parts of Atlantis which are now visible. Back in the thirties Edgar Cayce who was a world renowned psychic was quoted as saying that parts of Atlantis would rise in 68 or 69, and indeed they did. The Bimini roads were then discovered along with under water temples which are also visible.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm surprised nobody considered GNU Arch http://www.gnu.org/software/gnu-arch/ to replace BitKeeper - it was probably started in direct response to the Linux Kernel using a non-free tool.
I must say I haven't used it, but from reviews and comparisons I've read, it seems to be a good tool.
I could not believe how awful this film was. The story has almost nothing to do with previous versions of Hitchhiker's Guide and just rambles all over the place, but not in any humorous or interesting or entertaining or enjoyable way.
All the changes from the book and TV show and radio play seem to have been made for no reason and not only do they not add anything, they actually make it worse.
The acting is uniformly terrible, except for Bill Nighy, and some of the design work is embarrassing, although the special effects are impressive.
But the main problem with this film is that it is meant to be a comedy and it's just not funny at all. All the great comedy that was in the radio play and recreated in the books and recreated in the TV show and recreated (again) in the computer game has gone. All that is left is a lot of people falling over and getting slapped in the face and I don't remember any of that from the previous versions.
Nothing is explained. They don't even explain why the story stops for 20 minutes in the middle of the film while John Malkovich wanders around and talks for a bit. Was that from a different movie? It seemed to have no connection with the rest of the film.
As a long-time fan of Hitch-Hikers Guide, who has enjoyed all the previous versions, I thought this movie was just dreadful, and I couldn't even enjoy it as a movie on its own because it was so badly made. Douglas Adams deserves better than this. I hope he was right in his atheist belief because it would be awful if he could look down from heaven and see what these people have done in his name.
If you take the cases of Linux or Wikipedia, arguably two of the most popular "open source" products, there are far more users that contributors.
Human nature is such that we try to do the least amount of work to achieve maximum effect. Humans are essentially greedy.
Open source model does nto work well with this inherent greediness. IF one day we humans change our intrinsic nature, open source model might well replace the current individualist/capitalist model.
This is virtually non-sensical to me. Can anybody explain this to me in English?
Assertion 1: The only difference is that with Adobe, nobody else is actually after the guitar. Adobe only thinks they are.
Justification: Not forthcoming
Assertion 2:Its paranoia stems from Microsoft.
Justification: Not forthcoming
Assertion 3:And apparently this paranoia permeates the corporate culture.
It's NOT apparent
Assertion 4:So, mostly out of fear, Adobe buys its main competitor and now must shoehorn the company into its unfortunate not-invented-here corporate culture. (This aspect of Adobe is another story in itself.)
Pray, I would like to here this other story
Assertion 5:But easily absorbing Macromedia is another story, especially since a lot of ill-will was generated by a lawsuit between them a few years ago.
Yeah it is another more interesting story that Dvorak's rant. But skills of even storytelling are beyond Dvorak.
Assertion 6:It's assumed that Adobe will redesign the interfaces of key Macromedia products to match its own and then discard most of the rest of Macromedia, much like the guitar in "Blow-Up."
Assumed only by Dvorak
Assertion 7:Was it worth $3.4 billion? I doubt it.
And I doubt Dvorak
Microsoft has enough monopoly issues of its own to worry about without buying the company that makes Flash.
The author makes a number of assertions without justifying them.
Next
Kenneth Lay stole US$7 trillion from Enron and he gets off scott free WITH the money while the employees have all lose their pensions. But the poor guy who shares a file ends in jail.
Dyncorp sells children for sex in the Balcans, but thanks to their friend Rumsfeld, they get off scott free. But the guy in Colorado who loads a plate of salad at a salad bar at a Chuck E. Cheese gets beaten up by the police.
These are facts.
I made a mistake in the original post. Please check the reply I made to myself.
But Stealing US$7 trillion isn't.
Loading salad at a restaurant before paying is a crime.
But Selling children for sex isn't.
I feel so glad that Bush is the President of US in this Post 9/11 world.
Loading salad at a restaurant before paying is a crime.
But Selling children for sex isn't.
I feel so glad that Bush is the President of US in this Post 9/11 world.
One might object to the arguments presented in the second section of this paper as empirically unsupported--after all, the plural of "anecdote" is not "data." The rejoinder is that a half-billion dollar verdict is more than a mere anecdote,204 and the plural of these "anecdotes" is a shameful abomination. The burden is on the proponents of the current software-patenting regime to point out where the billions of economic gains can be found.
One ought to be more careful in this Post-9/11 world.
1. Seth Nickell has posted a few videos showing the Luminocity window manager doing some super Open GL hardware acceleration tricks.
2. Interview: Rasterman Speaks of Enlightenment .17
3. XGL file format specs
RSS On Slashdot: Iran captures three CIA agents
If they did they should stop selling crappy software and buy the lottery :)
Or they have cracked even the strong hashes. In which case they are really cool. I know Mr. Torvalds is Finnish, but I doubt even he could come up with algorithms to do that.
In their conceited press release, they have compared Spoofing vs DRP/a
From TFA:"There are some tremendous questions being raised about this," said Dietz. "On whether they (JFCCNW) have the legal mandate or the authority to shut these sites down with a defacement or a denial-of-service attack."
According to TFA, the main task of JFCCNW is to bring down websites that don't portray America in good light.
It is going to be more of a PR-damage limitation excercise than anything else. And a good way to spend millions of taxpayer money.
This makes good sense from both companies' perspective and this is clearly signalled in the fact that it comes with the blessing of both boards. Adobe has traditionally been strong in the offline graphical design business particularly with respect to desktop publishing in the newspaper and magazine publishing world. The company has also made its PDF reader ubiquitous in the desktop space and has a strong enterprise play.
Macromedia, on the other hand, has a much stronger presence in graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for the desktop with its Dreamweaver and Flash product set. Both companies have made plays into the wireless market with the promise of rich media applications and cross platform access.
Macromedia, however has made stronger inroads into this market with recent deals with key operators and device manufacturers that will see Flash expanding its reach from the desktop environment to wireless platforms.
The deal itself is not without issues from a competition standpoint since the resulting business will almost certainly hold a sizeable chunk of the GUI market that would make it difficult for some smaller vendors to play in. The companies have overlapping product sets and a product portfolio that goes in many different directions. That is both a positive and a negative and will need to be addressed, going forward.
Interestingly,Dr. Smalley talked about armchair nanotube technology at the senate Oversight hearing on sustainable, low emission, electricity generation Full Committee Hearing almost one year ago. The full text is here.
However, I do see a use in this for GIS applications. You can redefine the term overlay with this.
Micro soft gets a long horn. Wife still not happy.
Check my earlier post which the mods have graciously marked as troll. It has a link to a plain English explanation.
For those who do not wish to RTFA, the gist is:
Briefly, IBM asked the judge to rule that they weren't infringing any of Calsera/SCO's copyrights by distributing Linux. And they further asked for that ruling immediately, before the trial is complete. In such a pre-trial summary judgement motion, the rules are heavily biased in favor of Caldera/SCO; they only have to show a tiny bit of evidence to defeat the motion.
By the time Longhorn ships, according to Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, PCs will have 4GHz to 6GHz processors, more than 2GB of memory, at least a terabyte of storage, and graphics accelerators three times more powerful than those offered by ATI and Nvidia today. He says that Longhorn is designed to take advantage of all this muscle, and nowhere is that more evident than in the rich, three-dimensional interface known as Aero.
Points to ponder:
1. People don't even want to move to SP2, do you think people will buy all this muscle for Longhorn?
2. What exactly is a 3D interface? Would we need to wear 3D goggles to use it?
3. Longhorn is built around three major advances--a new graphics and presentation engine known as Avalon, a new communications architecture known as Indigo, and a new file system known as WinFS that borrows from Microsoft's relational database technology. Avalon and Indigo are catchy names, but are we going to have loads of compatibility issues?
4. How much MORE is Longhorn going to cost? Is it going to be subscription based?
5. How many software patents are MS going to secure for this?
Read more and see the image