Tell me how to do disk defragmentation using Win32 calls
Ok, there aren't any Win32 API calls for this yet. It doesn't seem to be a problem (seeing as there are MANY defrag utils for windows - much more so than for Linux).
You can read this if you want to know how to do it using the Native API.
Tell me how to write an IFS using Win32: I want to put my Solaris UFS disks on my W2K box so I can get rid of this expensive Sun hardware.
I'm pretty sure you can write a virtual device driver to do this. There are tools that emulate virtual drives (from ISO images etc). Also, I belive there is an ext2fs driver for windows around somewhere.
Of course, if what you shill I mean say is true, then MSFT is keeping the native API under wraps because it's so crappy. That's not true, of course: there's some things you can do in the native API that you can't do in Win32. You can't clone a processes address space in Win32, so you can't emulate the Unix fork() system call in Win32. The POSIX subsystem does emulate fork(), so MSFT does use the native API.
That's funny. Cygwin clones fork using Win32 APIs fine.
BTW, Windows ships with the published Win32 APIs. The internal native APIs don't need to be public, they're internal to the OS, and helps make things transparent. If everyone used the Native API then it would be a nightmare. The only reason to ever use the native API is if you're writing a new sub system. But from cygwin it's clear that a wrapper for POSIX around Win32 is just as possible as a wrapper for POSIC around the NT native APIs.
Now if they could make the satellite crash on the comet, and somehow get the comet to change trajectory to aim towards distant stars suspected of sustaining life -- what a cool way that would be to contact alien civilizations (provided they have the technology and they're eagerly searching for others in the universe).
It would be very un-cool if the comet crashes onto their planet and wipes them out...
gates gave thousand dollars to important things like education to force them buying MS computers, how angel you are bill gates... When you have billions of dollars in your pockets...
Where does "force" come in? I suppose Microsoft gave 100 million dollars to AIDs research so he could force AIDs sufferers to use windows too eh? I bet those people in thost 3rd world countries are about to go out and buy Windows XP next month.
let's speak about all this stuff : you dare to say that M$ introduce you to personal computing -hey does apple means something to you?-
Yes I do. I know apple exists. But Microsoft has done more (especially in the last decade) than Apple has. And especially to ME. I got introduced to personal computing through Commodore. Then through PCs running DOS/Windows. Apple had very little to do with it for me (and I bet - for many people 18-25).
Who said childish?
Again, I did. It's childish to bring up Microsoft over and over again regardless of the relevance.
and what about the others like oracle sun,?
sure they aren't angels but they represent an other way, a different place and thus are idealized
Yes. But Gates at least tries to redistribute his wealth. The fact that he has lots of money doesn't make his contributions are 'meaningless'. I'd be suprised if many people here would be giving away that much money in meaningful ways. (Donating a billion dollars to the FSS doesn't count as more meaningful than donating a billion dollars to medical research).
Microsoft helped create the computer/software world. You're a fool if you think otherwise. Your close mindedness is typical of the avergage/.er.
I read slashdot cause I like perspective. I use Windows. I use Linux. I know heaps about Windows. I know heaps about Unix. I program under Windows. I program under Unix.
I get angry when I read obviously brainwashed posts. Even if we just talk about the software world, there are companies that are just as devious as Microsoft (only not as big - therefore not as noticable). Ever heard of Sun or Oracle? They're just as much a threat as Microsoft is. In the past, all they've cared about is making big money from big companies - they never cared about the little guys with PCs at home. In the end, Microsoft's and Gate's charitable donations are to important things (health, education, third worlds). I can't remember the last time McNeally or Ellison doing that. The last big thing Ellison bought was prolly a new jet plane.
By talking about Microsoft as if they're some kind of 'evil' entity, you make belittle the real problems.
And BTW, slashdot is supposed to be "news for nerds". Not "news for geeks". Discussions that aren't computer related somehow end up bashing Microsoft. It's childish.
You're an idiot. Who do you think paid the goverment to take down Microsoft?
Microsoft was never a 'big' political player before Sun/Oracle/Netscape & Co started playing dirty. Wasn't Oracle caught going through Microsoft trash?
In the end, there are more 'evil' things in the world than Microsoft you know. There are also more important issues in the world (hint: they don't involve computers or software).
Because PDAs are either running Windows CE (Pocket PC) or Palm OS. Both don't require the need for x86 processors. They use lower power consumptions CPUs like ARMs. Crusoe has crap power consumption for an embedded CPU. It's only good if you want x86 compatability.
Why does everyone think the crusoe is most efficient CPU around? If Linus didn't work at transmeta everyone would be crying fowl.
Some of the next generation of Tablet PCs will be using the crusoe (since they use XP).
The Turing test requires a proper enviroment and setup. A system that simply fools any old person into thinking it is human doesn't pass the turing test (eliza for example).
You need a HUMAN subject, a COMPUTER subject and a HUMAN observer. The human observer asks questions to both the computer and the human (through teletype terminals).
The human observer asks questions, and notes the responses from both the computer and human (he doesn't know who wrote what). In the end, the computer only passes the turning test if the human observer picks it to have the most intelligent responses. E.g. On a head-head thrashing of minds (on any subject), the computer must be more intelligent than the human.
Some more lenient Turing tests limit the subject to something like "sport". No computer has ever passed the Turing test.
Ah yes, Mr. Auto Manufacturer, let me not forget to mention that I'm also the ONLY tire manufacturer.
If that were true this wouldn't be an issue (why dual boot if there's only ONE OS).
My 4 tires will cost you $20, making your car cost $10020 altogether. If you don't agree with my proposed deal I can't give you the discount and you must buy the tires from me at full price (or else have a car without wheels... or perhaps you could use one of those new open source triangles or square on the market nowadays...).
The full price for 4 tires from me is, uhm, $400, making your car cost $10400
The price differences aren't that much. They're significant, but not as ridiculas as that. It's also standard business practise. You don't sell pepsi in your store, you get a nice discount on coke.
Yes. Except that Linux is a clone of an OS whose ideas mostly came out of a COMPANY.
KDE/Gnome/Netscape etc also crash a whole lot more than Explorer. I don't know what you're talking about.
Linux gets stability at the expensive of not being flexible. Windows supports 100X more hardware than Linux - that's the only reason why windows (NT) can get unstable.
Personally, I find Linux crashes a lot more than Windows 2000. Many of the applications are in beta and very unstable (even though the kernel is reasonable stable - again at the cost of having little hardware support). How many times has X or Gnome crashed on you today?
The turing test requires the the tester ask humans as well as the ai the same questions. Simply being fooled by a computer isn't enough. The tester has to know that there is an AI and two other 'real people'. The AI only passes if the human tester picks it as the real person (over the real humans).
Just about everyone on/. doesn't know what the turing test really is (then again - most people on/. talk about shit they don't know all the time).
And thinking about it again, I have to say they can't get the lat 2 digits of your MAC address either. MS uses a one way hash that generates a unique code based on the one it obtained from your hardware. You can't get any of the hardware ids back again (and even if you could, it wouldn't be the complete ID).
To me, if you have to contact the vendor to unlock your software, that's "registration" even if Microsoft calls it something else.
No it's different. You had to contact the vendor to buy the product. Is that considered registration?
Registration is totally anonymous.
Yes, Microsoft says the 50-digit hash cannot be deconstructed to reveal your system information, but I have to wonder. At the very least, the potential for abuse is enormous, both on the data-collection side, and on the de-hashing side.
Right...so you (or fred) don't believe in mathematics now? It is IMPOSSIBLE to deconstruct all the information. The most they could probably get is the last 2 digits of your MAC address. Hardly a breach of security.
As much as I absolutely hate WPA (windows product activation) I really have to correct you on a few things. If you're going to spread how crap WPA is, you need to get your facts straight!
"But that's not all. Even when it's been fully registered, the WPA component wakes up from time to time to verify that it's still on the original system where it was first installed; and it "phones home" to check with the central Microsoft database to make sure it's still indeed a registered copy. If anything's amiss, your software reverts to reduced-functionality mode.
This isn't entirely correct. Windows XP doesn't "Phone home". It will however do periodic checks (on bootup etc) to make sure your hardware hasn't changed beyond the set threshold. If anything is amiss, it doesn't rever ti reducde-functionality. It stops working. You have to phone them to get it working again.
"So, with WPA, Microsoft is quite literally *forcing* registration: Microsoft wants your full-fare money for the software *and* they want to know who you are and what PC you're using--- and you better give it to them pronto, buster, or they'll cripple your software!"
This is aboslutely false. WPA is seperate from registration (though you can choose to do both at once).
WPA generates a unique serial based in your hardware, but Microsoft can't extract your hardware information from the serial (it's a one way hash). Also, activation doesn't require you to supply any information about yourself (not your name, not your address etc etc). It's completely anonymous.
And yes, activation does suck. It ruins a great product (Windows XP).
If DirectX is so hard to program in, so clunky to use, and limits the game to being sold on only one OS, WHY do so many programmers use it?
By the sheer amount of DX games out there, isn't it obvious that the game industry doesn't find DX clunky and hard to program in. And remember DX offers MORE than just graphics. It also does sound, input and networking.
As we've seen this year, game companies don't care whether DX limits them to windows or not because:
1- Almost everyone uses windows to play games on.
2- If they ever did want it ported to other platforms, there are companies (you know who they are) that will do the porting for you (yes, that includes porting DX games).
Slashdot Mirror
Mono has nothing to do with Linux development.
Yeah, except that it's run by Ximian and it's point is to port
Linux is not trying to be a Windows clone, instead it is a rather successful Unix clone.
Yeah, that's why there's such things as Gnome and KDE.
Uh. Where did you get the idea that it lets through doc files but not txt files?
Hrm, after reading your post again, it's clear that you're massively misinformed (and ignorant of facts).
But go on, tell me how to emulate fork() using Win32 calls
Read this
Tell me how to do things like write my own login service
Use the Windows GINA APIs. Novell does this.
Read this
Tell me how to do disk defragmentation using Win32 calls
Ok, there aren't any Win32 API calls for this yet. It doesn't seem to be a problem (seeing as there are MANY defrag utils for windows - much more so than for Linux).
You can read this if you want to know how to do it using the Native API.
Tell me how to write an IFS using Win32: I want to put my Solaris UFS disks on my W2K box so I can get rid of this expensive Sun hardware.
I'm pretty sure you can write a virtual device driver to do this. There are tools that emulate virtual drives (from ISO images etc). Also, I belive there is an ext2fs driver for windows around somewhere.
Of course, if what you shill I mean say is true, then MSFT is keeping the native API under wraps because it's so crappy. That's not true, of course: there's some things you can do in the native API that you can't do in Win32. You can't clone a processes address space in Win32, so you can't emulate the Unix fork() system call in Win32. The POSIX subsystem does emulate fork(), so MSFT does use the native API.
That's funny. Cygwin clones fork using Win32 APIs fine.
BTW, Windows ships with the published Win32 APIs. The internal native APIs don't need to be public, they're internal to the OS, and helps make things transparent. If everyone used the Native API then it would be a nightmare. The only reason to ever use the native API is if you're writing a new sub system. But from cygwin it's clear that a wrapper for POSIX around Win32 is just as possible as a wrapper for POSIC around the NT native APIs.
Now if they could make the satellite crash on the comet, and somehow get the comet to change trajectory to aim towards distant stars suspected of sustaining life -- what a cool way that would be to contact alien civilizations (provided they have the technology and they're eagerly searching for others in the universe).
It would be very un-cool if the comet crashes onto their planet and wipes them out...
who said brainwashed???
... When you have billions of dollars in your pockets...
I did.
gates gave thousand dollars to important things like education to force them buying MS computers, how angel you are bill gates
Where does "force" come in? I suppose Microsoft gave 100 million dollars to AIDs research so he could force AIDs sufferers to use windows too eh? I bet those people in thost 3rd world countries are about to go out and buy Windows XP next month.
let's speak about all this stuff : you dare to say that M$ introduce you to personal computing -hey does apple means something to you?-
Yes I do. I know apple exists. But Microsoft has done more (especially in the last decade) than Apple has. And especially to ME. I got introduced to personal computing through Commodore. Then through PCs running DOS/Windows. Apple had very little to do with it for me (and I bet - for many people 18-25).
Who said childish?
Again, I did. It's childish to bring up Microsoft over and over again regardless of the relevance.
and what about the others like oracle sun,?
sure they aren't angels but they represent an other way, a different place and thus are idealized
Yes. But Gates at least tries to redistribute his wealth. The fact that he has lots of money doesn't make his contributions are 'meaningless'. I'd be suprised if many people here would be giving away that much money in meaningful ways. (Donating a billion dollars to the FSS doesn't count as more meaningful than donating a billion dollars to medical research).
Microsoft helped create the computer/software world. You're a fool if you think otherwise. Your close mindedness is typical of the avergage /.er.
I read slashdot cause I like perspective. I use Windows. I use Linux. I know heaps about Windows. I know heaps about Unix. I program under Windows. I program under Unix.
I get angry when I read obviously brainwashed posts. Even if we just talk about the software world, there are companies that are just as devious as Microsoft (only not as big - therefore not as noticable). Ever heard of Sun or Oracle? They're just as much a threat as Microsoft is. In the past, all they've cared about is making big money from big companies - they never cared about the little guys with PCs at home. In the end, Microsoft's and Gate's charitable donations are to important things (health, education, third worlds). I can't remember the last time McNeally or Ellison doing that. The last big thing Ellison bought was prolly a new jet plane.
By talking about Microsoft as if they're some kind of 'evil' entity, you make belittle the real problems.
And BTW, slashdot is supposed to be "news for nerds". Not "news for geeks". Discussions that aren't computer related somehow end up bashing Microsoft. It's childish.
You're an idiot. Who do you think paid the goverment to take down Microsoft?
Microsoft was never a 'big' political player before Sun/Oracle/Netscape & Co started playing dirty. Wasn't Oracle caught going through Microsoft trash?
In the end, there are more 'evil' things in the world than Microsoft you know. There are also more important issues in the world (hint: they don't involve computers or software).
You own the coffee - but not the recipe.
You own the paper the book is printed on, but not the content.
However, serializers and de-serializers require lots of transisters. I don't think they can be reliably embedded in a flexible medium.
Um, that's why they're using flexible plastic transistors in e-paper.
Well, some operating systems might require a reboot when new device drivers are installed.... (win95....)
Because PDAs are either running Windows CE (Pocket PC) or Palm OS. Both don't require the need for x86 processors. They use lower power consumptions CPUs like ARMs. Crusoe has crap power consumption for an embedded CPU. It's only good if you want x86 compatability.
Why does everyone think the crusoe is most efficient CPU around? If Linus didn't work at transmeta everyone would be crying fowl.
Some of the next generation of Tablet PCs will be using the crusoe (since they use XP).
Do you even know what the turing test involves?
The Turing test requires a proper enviroment and setup. A system that simply fools any old person into thinking it is human doesn't pass the turing test (eliza for example).
You need a HUMAN subject, a COMPUTER subject and a HUMAN observer. The human observer asks questions to both the computer and the human (through teletype terminals).
The human observer asks questions, and notes the responses from both the computer and human (he doesn't know who wrote what). In the end, the computer only passes the turning test if the human observer picks it to have the most intelligent responses. E.g. On a head-head thrashing of minds (on any subject), the computer must be more intelligent than the human.
Some more lenient Turing tests limit the subject to something like "sport". No computer has ever passed the Turing test.
Ah yes, Mr. Auto Manufacturer, let me not forget to mention that I'm also the ONLY tire manufacturer.
If that were true this wouldn't be an issue (why dual boot if there's only ONE OS).
My 4 tires will cost you $20, making your car cost $10020 altogether. If you don't agree with my proposed deal I can't give you the discount and you must buy the tires from me at full price (or else have a car without wheels... or perhaps you could use one of those new open source triangles or square on the market nowadays...).
The full price for 4 tires from me is, uhm, $400, making your car cost $10400
The price differences aren't that much. They're significant, but not as ridiculas as that. It's also standard business practise. You don't sell pepsi in your store, you get a nice discount on coke.
If you had read the article you would have noticed that that was an XP SKIN.
The latest version of Pocket PC doesn't have a massive start button like that...
The new UI is very usable - on par with Palm.
Yes. Except that Linux is a clone of an OS whose ideas mostly came out of a COMPANY.
KDE/Gnome/Netscape etc also crash a whole lot more than Explorer. I don't know what you're talking about.
Linux gets stability at the expensive of not being flexible. Windows supports 100X more hardware than Linux - that's the only reason why windows (NT) can get unstable.
Personally, I find Linux crashes a lot more than Windows 2000. Many of the applications are in beta and very unstable (even though the kernel is reasonable stable - again at the cost of having little hardware support). How many times has X or Gnome crashed on you today?
Now let's see how many computers from 95 that can run recent games.
They would if the recent games used crappy 5 year old graphics.
How many new PS1 games do you see that have significantly better sound, graphics & videos the the ones released 6 years ago?
The turing test requires the the tester ask humans as well as the ai the same questions. Simply being fooled by a computer isn't enough. The tester has to know that there is an AI and two other 'real people'. The AI only passes if the human tester picks it as the real person (over the real humans).
/. doesn't know what the turing test really is (then again - most people on /. talk about shit they don't know all the time).
Just about everyone on
Just a few corrections:
I ofcourse meant activation is totally anonymous.
And thinking about it again, I have to say they can't get the lat 2 digits of your MAC address either. MS uses a one way hash that generates a unique code based on the one it obtained from your hardware. You can't get any of the hardware ids back again (and even if you could, it wouldn't be the complete ID).
To me, if you have to contact the vendor to unlock your software, that's "registration" even if Microsoft calls it something else.
No it's different. You had to contact the vendor to buy the product. Is that considered registration?
Registration is totally anonymous.
Yes, Microsoft says the 50-digit hash cannot be deconstructed to reveal your system information, but I have to wonder. At the very least, the potential for abuse is enormous, both on the data-collection side, and on the de-hashing side.
Right...so you (or fred) don't believe in mathematics now? It is IMPOSSIBLE to deconstruct all the information. The most they could probably get is the last 2 digits of your MAC address. Hardly a breach of security.
As much as I absolutely hate WPA (windows product activation) I really have to correct you on a few things. If you're going to spread how crap WPA is, you need to get your facts straight!
"But that's not all. Even when it's been fully registered, the WPA component wakes up from time to time to verify that it's still on the original system where it was first installed; and it "phones home" to check with the central Microsoft database to make sure it's still indeed a registered copy. If anything's amiss, your software reverts to reduced-functionality mode.
This isn't entirely correct. Windows XP doesn't "Phone home". It will however do periodic checks (on bootup etc) to make sure your hardware hasn't changed beyond the set threshold. If anything is amiss, it doesn't rever ti reducde-functionality. It stops working. You have to phone them to get it working again.
"So, with WPA, Microsoft is quite literally *forcing* registration: Microsoft wants your full-fare money for the software *and* they want to know who you are and what PC you're using--- and you better give it to them pronto, buster, or they'll cripple your software!"
This is aboslutely false. WPA is seperate from registration (though you can choose to do both at once).
WPA generates a unique serial based in your hardware, but Microsoft can't extract your hardware information from the serial (it's a one way hash). Also, activation doesn't require you to supply any information about yourself (not your name, not your address etc etc). It's completely anonymous.
And yes, activation does suck. It ruins a great product (Windows XP).
Ofcourse products like cygwin make Linux a subset of windows as well...hrm
If DirectX is so hard to program in, so clunky to use, and limits the game to being sold on only one OS, WHY do so many programmers use it?
By the sheer amount of DX games out there, isn't it obvious that the game industry doesn't find DX clunky and hard to program in. And remember DX offers MORE than just graphics. It also does sound, input and networking.
As we've seen this year, game companies don't care whether DX limits them to windows or not because:
1- Almost everyone uses windows to play games on.
2- If they ever did want it ported to other platforms, there are companies (you know who they are) that will do the porting for you (yes, that includes porting DX games).
[begin irrelevant]
Have you noticed that unix is trying to be like most of the OS vendors.
Take Linux for example. In the latest linux projects, many "new" concepts like "com", ".net", "easy-to-use-guis", "component-reuse" were introduced.
With Gnome, it becomes a very good "desktop" enviroment.
Solaris, FreeBSD and alike are trying to be (semi) usable from the end.
[end irrelevant]
Java isn't as open as C#. C# is an ECMA standard.