I did post a correction, that we're using MySQL for intranet apps, and Oracle for other stuff (HR, data warehousing, etc).
Nice use of childishness though. Well done. When you grow up, perhaps you'll learn how to reply in conversation. Capitals are occasionally nice, as well, as is grammar and correct punctuation.
At least you refrained from using "LOL!!!" in your post. Well done, you.
While I'm not often a big Linux advocate, I have to question a few assumptions here.
Is security reduced through exposure? I'd say not, so long as the design is fundamentally secure.
Windows is not. Linux, Unix and OS X are. Put the ***x OSs at the same marketshare as Windows and some holes will emerge, but the fundamentals of the OS are more secure. They will not suffer to the same extent as Windows.
Windows is (thankfully) moving in the right direction but it seems to have the same tight turning ability as a supertanker in a narrow harbour.
****
Is SCO a real risk? I'd say not. I don't believe the case they brought will survive much longer, and already they're considered a bit of a joke.
The FUD was strong though.
****
Is software patenting an issue for Linux? I had heard it was covered. Maybe through something like OpenBSD. How is it less an issue for Windows?
I work in a *very* big company (can't say right now, in the office... but we're possibly the biggest on Earth by at least one metric) and recently the focus is on LAMP for servers, intranets and databases.
Linux Apache MySQL PHP
I'm not in IT, so I don't see the scope, but I think this is global for us.
I know this won't be a popular line, but why not sue Bittorrent users?
They're doing the copyright infringement, and the nature of Bittorrent means that they're also providing file data to other users.
And to make it even more tempting to go after them - Bittorrent isn't in any way anonymous. IP addresses are easily found, and these can be traced back to ISPs.
There may be other targets they could use, but the message that sharing copyrighted files over P2P can result in you being sued should be a strong deterrant.
I think they're small targets, but they are valid targets.
If supply is infinite and demand is finite, then mathematics shows that the ratio of supply to demand must be
infinity : finite
As we know that any number divided by infinity is as near to zero as makes no odds, it follows that there is in fact no demand.
From this we can conclude that the online music industry does not, in fact, exist, and that any online music stores are actually the products of a deranged mind.
A corollary of this is that Slashdot posts about the subject are also products of a deranged mind.
Sure, just about every game allows you to save your position in some way. That's fine.
But what about the games that artificially place save points to restrict your progress?
Who hasn't played a game where the last save point is ages before a major boss and you have to survive all sorts of crap before you can actually get there?
That's fine the first few times, but if you get knocked out again and again, you start to feel that you're wading through crap before you get back to the good bit. It weakens the game.
The neo-cultural imperative to strip genderosity from language is a fraud perpetrated those eager to assume paternalistic authority all the while disclaiming otherwise.
That's an overly verbose way of saying "I don't like it." Wrapping it in some bizarre conspiracy theory that most self-respecting tin foil hat-wearing adults would blush at speaking aloud is a bit odd too.
Believe what you want, but I find it clumsy to use "he" and "she" when I don't know the gender of the subject. The "it's always been that way" answer is a non-starter too - there's no reason behind it, just momentum.
I find it just as bad to use "he" in one paragraph and then "she" in the next, as it seems too much like the subject has changed.
I don't know what a good solution is. I see things like "M. Smith" as possibly good ways of referring to someone, but I'm not sure how to use that in a pronoun.
Interesting point. Apple's platform is closed. I'm not sure I see that.
Let's have a look at the parts in a Mac... * PPC chip (soon to be x86) * HyperTransport bus (a standard, developed by AMD) * IDE (standard) * DDR RAM (standard) * AGP on older Macs (standard) * PCI-Express (a standard, but not a commonly used on outside of workstations) * PCI (standard) * USB (standard) * FireWire (standard, developed by Apple)
It looks to me like there's almost no 'closed' part of the hardware.
Even booting is done through OpenFirmware (another standard).
It's possible that someone could build a machine that could run OS X by combining all of these standards. Apple don't currently implement a 'Mac only' hardware device.
Of course, Apple wouldn't smile on a hardware manufacturer doing that, and may implement something to stop them if that were to happen. That sort of thing was possible in the clone days, because Apple booted from proprietary ROMs back then and revoking a licence to clone meant revoking the licence to sell the ROMs. These days, there's no such restriction.
That may well change with the x86 version of OS X, but it's just not true to say that their hardware is a closed system. It's as open as any PC, but few PPC motherboards exist.
These days it's all about controlling content once it leaves your servers.
I don't know MythTV well, but I'll hazard a guess that it's not big on DRM. If that's the case, then Windows Media Centre will always have better corporate backing.
I actually think Sun's push for an 'open' DRM scheme will help, but then I'm evil like that.
Why not look at what's happening around us now? Maybe Apple will bring out an AMD Mac, maybe not. It's not at all likely in the next few years though, and given that scale of time the whole issue isn't worth caring about.
Yes - it *is* bad that Intel would write a compiler that hurts AMD performance on purpose.
No - it's still not relevant to OS X in any way in the forseeable future.
Apple provide a page on their developer site that maps Altivec instructions to SSE instructions. It's not clean, as SSE is different to Altivec and many Altivec commands require several SSE commands each.
Intel are probably just supporting this mapping in the compiler. It may just be a preprocessor macro, or even a change to header files.
You need to remember that there won't be an AMD-based Mac, only Intel-based Macs.
If Intel want to sabotage AMD on the Mac, they can go nuts for all I care. It's a waste of their time, but maybe their dev team are a bit bored lately.
And I just don't care about hacked copies of OS X running on AMD boxes. That's speaking as someone who both owns an iBook and built an AMD64 PC recently.
Sorry - I thought that since the article was about computer role-playing games, and the post at the top was clearly intended to be about computer role-playing games that bringing in other types of games was asinine.
Perhaps when we find the computer role-playing game that manages to get by without any story at all we can revisit the point that we agreed on ("story isn't the only criteria for a good computer game").
I don't think there's a single metric that will cover a processor's performance.
You'd be better off to run an unoptimised set of integer and floating-point tests, then an optimised set of the exact same tests.
After that, you'd run a set of memory access tests and that should cover processor performance.
Of course, you've got different motherboards making it a bit more complex. Any tests you run depend on motherboard limitations or sub-systems, so you can't easily compare the two - you're left wondering if the motherboard choice is helping or hindering the test results.
As with all things, the simple answer of one number is bound to be a poor answer. You have to look at what you want the thing for, and then pick the tests that matter to you. For most users, application-level tests (such as Photoshop, Office, Windows Explorer or OS X Finder) give the best way to compare processors.
Those puppies are retailing for $12.50 all over the place. The other day I got ten of them just to make a monitor stand that I can use as a RAID array. 20GB hot-swappable drives are so cheap!
Slashdot Mirror
I'm surprised I reached +5 as well. I'm back to +4 now, and will probably finish at +2.
On the desktops it's definitely Windows and Office all the way. In the server rooms it's another matter.
Or at least that's the way we're heading in my division (a fairly big one, very Money focused).
Hmm... not Wal-Mart.
Much shorter name than that...
Maybe this is what I get for reading the company emails. I'll reinstate my email rule to direct them to the deleted items.
I did post a correction, that we're using MySQL for intranet apps, and Oracle for other stuff (HR, data warehousing, etc).
Nice use of childishness though. Well done. When you grow up, perhaps you'll learn how to reply in conversation. Capitals are occasionally nice, as well, as is grammar and correct punctuation.
At least you refrained from using "LOL!!!" in your post. Well done, you.
On reflection, I have to say that we use Oracle for HR and data warehousing.
MySQL and PHP must be for web apps. I guess I'm a bit too focused on my narrow area.
While I'm not often a big Linux advocate, I have to question a few assumptions here.
Is security reduced through exposure? I'd say not, so long as the design is fundamentally secure.
Windows is not. Linux, Unix and OS X are. Put the ***x OSs at the same marketshare as Windows and some holes will emerge, but the fundamentals of the OS are more secure. They will not suffer to the same extent as Windows.
Windows is (thankfully) moving in the right direction but it seems to have the same tight turning ability as a supertanker in a narrow harbour.
****
Is SCO a real risk? I'd say not. I don't believe the case they brought will survive much longer, and already they're considered a bit of a joke.
The FUD was strong though.
****
Is software patenting an issue for Linux? I had heard it was covered. Maybe through something like OpenBSD. How is it less an issue for Windows?
... and mangles a big victim under its wheels.
I work in a *very* big company (can't say right now, in the office... but we're possibly the biggest on Earth by at least one metric) and recently the focus is on LAMP for servers, intranets and databases.
Linux
Apache
MySQL
PHP
I'm not in IT, so I don't see the scope, but I think this is global for us.
Nethack! Angband!
Drink the wrong potion and you hallucinate.
If that's not prior art, nothing is.
I know this won't be a popular line, but why not sue Bittorrent users?
They're doing the copyright infringement, and the nature of Bittorrent means that they're also providing file data to other users.
And to make it even more tempting to go after them - Bittorrent isn't in any way anonymous. IP addresses are easily found, and these can be traced back to ISPs.
There may be other targets they could use, but the message that sharing copyrighted files over P2P can result in you being sued should be a strong deterrant.
I think they're small targets, but they are valid targets.
I do that, but somehow it just doesn't seem quite right.
If supply is infinite and demand is finite, then mathematics shows that the ratio of supply to demand must be
infinity : finite
As we know that any number divided by infinity is as near to zero as makes no odds, it follows that there is in fact no demand.
From this we can conclude that the online music industry does not, in fact, exist, and that any online music stores are actually the products of a deranged mind.
A corollary of this is that Slashdot posts about the subject are also products of a deranged mind.
That's not true.
My fiancee has an iPod, a Dell laptop and (being in Australia) we've got no access to the iTunes Music Store.
iPods are selling like crazy here. They've been doing that for at least twelve months.
There is no lock-in.
The right to save is an interesting one.
Sure, just about every game allows you to save your position in some way. That's fine.
But what about the games that artificially place save points to restrict your progress?
Who hasn't played a game where the last save point is ages before a major boss and you have to survive all sorts of crap before you can actually get there?
That's fine the first few times, but if you get knocked out again and again, you start to feel that you're wading through crap before you get back to the good bit. It weakens the game.
Saves should be universally available.
The neo-cultural imperative to strip genderosity from language is a fraud perpetrated those eager to assume paternalistic authority all the while disclaiming otherwise.
That's an overly verbose way of saying "I don't like it." Wrapping it in some bizarre conspiracy theory that most self-respecting tin foil hat-wearing adults would blush at speaking aloud is a bit odd too.
Believe what you want, but I find it clumsy to use "he" and "she" when I don't know the gender of the subject. The "it's always been that way" answer is a non-starter too - there's no reason behind it, just momentum.
I find it just as bad to use "he" in one paragraph and then "she" in the next, as it seems too much like the subject has changed.
I don't know what a good solution is. I see things like "M. Smith" as possibly good ways of referring to someone, but I'm not sure how to use that in a pronoun.
Interesting point. Apple's platform is closed. I'm not sure I see that.
Let's have a look at the parts in a Mac...
* PPC chip (soon to be x86)
* HyperTransport bus (a standard, developed by AMD)
* IDE (standard)
* DDR RAM (standard)
* AGP on older Macs (standard)
* PCI-Express (a standard, but not a commonly used on outside of workstations)
* PCI (standard)
* USB (standard)
* FireWire (standard, developed by Apple)
It looks to me like there's almost no 'closed' part of the hardware.
Even booting is done through OpenFirmware (another standard).
It's possible that someone could build a machine that could run OS X by combining all of these standards. Apple don't currently implement a 'Mac only' hardware device.
Of course, Apple wouldn't smile on a hardware manufacturer doing that, and may implement something to stop them if that were to happen. That sort of thing was possible in the clone days, because Apple booted from proprietary ROMs back then and revoking a licence to clone meant revoking the licence to sell the ROMs. These days, there's no such restriction.
That may well change with the x86 version of OS X, but it's just not true to say that their hardware is a closed system. It's as open as any PC, but few PPC motherboards exist.
I don't think that's true.
'He' is the masculine pronoun.
'She' is the feminine pronoun.
There isn't an elegant gender-neutral pronoun, and using 'he' is just not correct.
Why not something a bit more logical than an invisible wall?
Maybe a real, visible wall, or a chainlink fence? Makes much more sense.
These days it's all about controlling content once it leaves your servers.
I don't know MythTV well, but I'll hazard a guess that it's not big on DRM. If that's the case, then Windows Media Centre will always have better corporate backing.
I actually think Sun's push for an 'open' DRM scheme will help, but then I'm evil like that.
It's okay. No need to thank me.
Why not look at what's happening around us now? Maybe Apple will bring out an AMD Mac, maybe not. It's not at all likely in the next few years though, and given that scale of time the whole issue isn't worth caring about.
Yes - it *is* bad that Intel would write a compiler that hurts AMD performance on purpose.
No - it's still not relevant to OS X in any way in the forseeable future.
Apple provide a page on their developer site that maps Altivec instructions to SSE instructions. It's not clean, as SSE is different to Altivec and many Altivec commands require several SSE commands each.
Intel are probably just supporting this mapping in the compiler. It may just be a preprocessor macro, or even a change to header files.
You need to remember that there won't be an AMD-based Mac, only Intel-based Macs.
If Intel want to sabotage AMD on the Mac, they can go nuts for all I care. It's a waste of their time, but maybe their dev team are a bit bored lately.
And I just don't care about hacked copies of OS X running on AMD boxes. That's speaking as someone who both owns an iBook and built an AMD64 PC recently.
Sorry - I thought that since the article was about computer role-playing games, and the post at the top was clearly intended to be about computer role-playing games that bringing in other types of games was asinine.
Perhaps when we find the computer role-playing game that manages to get by without any story at all we can revisit the point that we agreed on ("story isn't the only criteria for a good computer game").
And which scene in Pacman is most memorable to you?
What actions in Super Mario Bros do you think about, every now and then?
Story isn't the only criteria for a good computer game, but it can make a good game into a truly great game.
I don't think there's a single metric that will cover a processor's performance.
You'd be better off to run an unoptimised set of integer and floating-point tests, then an optimised set of the exact same tests.
After that, you'd run a set of memory access tests and that should cover processor performance.
Of course, you've got different motherboards making it a bit more complex. Any tests you run depend on motherboard limitations or sub-systems, so you can't easily compare the two - you're left wondering if the motherboard choice is helping or hindering the test results.
As with all things, the simple answer of one number is bound to be a poor answer. You have to look at what you want the thing for, and then pick the tests that matter to you. For most users, application-level tests (such as Photoshop, Office, Windows Explorer or OS X Finder) give the best way to compare processors.
... and negative comments about the need for Ogg Vorbis support will cause you to be modded a troll.
...bastards...
My only troll-modded remarks were over it. And when I relented and praised it with a nice "Sieg Heil Ogg Vorbis!" I was modded as a troll again!
Those three Ogg Vorbis users must have lots of mod points...
Yeah!
Those puppies are retailing for $12.50 all over the place. The other day I got ten of them just to make a monitor stand that I can use as a RAID array. 20GB hot-swappable drives are so cheap!