I'd be careful with compiler-only changes to Java. Given the proliferation of frameworks that do dynamic magic with the VM, the VM should in many cases be altered. I may remember the exact details of the below slightly wrong, but you get the point.
In Java there are basic types and classes, and there are equivalent basic types and class. There is bool and there is Boolean. People got a little tired of boxing bools in Booleans and unboxing, so Sun added auto-boxing and auto-un-boxing. When writing code, my bool was suddenly equal to your Boolean. Well, perhaps not. So, I am using a third-party library to parse some XML, I am not going to name smooks here. There exists this POJO that contains a getSomething and setSomething that operate on bools. Smooks, on parsing some XML assumes that since they are bool, a Boolean can be created and assignment can happen. No, it can't. You see, a Boolean can have more values than a bool. True. False. Null. You can't assign a null to a bool. Peculiar, and hard to identify, things happen.
Some times you have to change the VM, and some times perhaps you have to be more intelligent. A.NET bool can be true and false, but a.NET bool? (nullable bool) can be null too. Anders did this smarter than the Sun folks.
As I said in my own reply, I am not an outsider. I have used Linux since 0.93 (or was that 0.97, can't remember) and it is an excellent platform for what it is good at. So, I am probably what you would call an "insider" insofar as I am an active user of Linux. Even as an insider the religious nuts are a cult. It's not a matter of "looks like". They have all the hallmarks of a cult of nuts.
No, a religion is the blind following of dogma by rather slow people. I happen to like Linux, and for Ruby and Rails Ubuntu is my primary development machine. I am not retarded enough to make Linux into a religion however. Hell, a bunch of the Linux religious nuts also believes in the second coming of something that is never going to happen. For the born-again-nuts it is Jesus (even though he said he'd be back within 30 or so odd years they are still waiting). For the Linux nuts it is The Year of The Linux Desktop(tm). As most religions, the Linux Nuts also have a "satan", someone so evil that anyone who utters "his" name must be evil to the core. For the Linux nuts it is Windows or Ballmer or Gates.
Remember, "assumption" starts with "ass". Just because someone is not buying the whole Linux dogma and the born-again-computer-user bullshit doesn't mean that they don't "like" Linux. There is a huge difference between blindly regurgitating mindless dogma and just using whatever fits the situation. When I develop Ruby I use Linux since it is the most appropriate platform for Ruby development. When I edit photos and videos I use Windows because, together with Apple, it is the only reasonable solution (no, Linux is not even a player in that space).
It is unlikely that Win8 for ARM will be available for purchase or download (ever). ARM is a CPU, it isn't a platform spec. This means that the OS (drivers and stuff) must be modified specifically for each tabled/mobile vendors hardware. If ARM ever becomes a standardized platform, that might change. Until then, the only way to get Win8 on ARM will probably be to purchase an ARM device with Win8 pre-installed. This probably also means that you will have to depend on your vendor for OS updates. A little like the situation with Android and also WP7 these days.
It used to be that/. was a place where you could get good info. These days it has become like the Repugnican party, ruled by the religious nut-case fringes who cling to the "one-and-only-truth" as if their lives depend on it. It does. If 2012 isn't "The Year of The Linux Desktop" they are going to have to move out of their mothers basement.
Again, ignorant nonsense doesn't get less ignorant or less nonsense just because you spout it twice. Microsoft is saying nothing of the kind. Microsoft is saying that when you are using touch the Metro interface is the most appropriate, but if you are, for example, using Photoshop, the more traditional Windows 7 interface is the appropriate. That is why both are available in Windows 8.
Only someone with severe brain damage would claim that that means that "MS is insisting that the same interface is suitable for any screen".
Almost all of them. The JavaScript apps are HTML5. You need something similar to vi to write them. You can use the HTML features like local storage etc. You will probably need a dev membership to sell them in the Microsoft Marketplace however. If you need to use Windows features you should write in C, C++ or.NET.
You don't get out much, do you? Mommy won't let you out of the basement? Just whack here over the head with something heavy and run away. Find your way to the nearest road (you'll recognize it when you see it, it's hard, probably black or grey and it is long. On the ground. You can walk on it.). Once you hit the road, walk for a day or two and you'll find other houses. Stop there and ask for help.
Every year has been "the year of Linux on the desktop". Here is a clue for you from the real world: It's never going to happen. Seriously. Never. Linux is not a consumer grade OS, and there is no effort on the way by anyone, anywhere to make it one. Stop dreaming about it. The closest you are going to get is "The year for Linux on the Phone".
Like for example here in Europe many students still want to spend an year in US university. I guess it's a little bit more relaxed there
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Funny. I am a European who lived for ten years in the US, but moved back to Europe for family reasons (they are all here). In the US people actually work, study and try to succeed. Comparatively, the entirety of Europe is on welfare. The vast majority of Europeans would not be able to work or study in the US, the demands are simply too high (with perhaps one or two countries excepted). We hired a reasonable number of Europeans, all of which would be considered top-of-the-line in their respective countries (they are now). A significant portion of them bailed from "stress".
Sorry to bust your bubble, but there are very few places in the world where people work harder than in the US. They have to.There is no government programs protecting them if they don't. In Europe, whole countries are on various government programs. Mostly paid for by the German government and people.
In capitalism greed man tries to exploit worker man but fails.
In communism, lazy man tries to make working man do all the work and society fails.
What we are currently witnessing has nothing to do with capitalism. In what capitalist theory is it said that when "greed man" (investors) make failed investments, the government will bail them out? There was an "easy" and reasonable way out of this crisis, the institutions that had gambled and lost took it on the chin and went under, the institutions that were left standing claimed their assets for a significantly reduced price. Bailing out the banks with tax-payer money was insane, and it was communism.
The US government could have followed a Norwegian model from the previous banking crisis in the late '80s early 90's. Norway has not been affected by the current banking crisis to any major degree except that the sovereign fund has lost a bit of money model when the banks came calling. The Norwegian model was easy. The government stood ready with money to save the bank, but the price for getting the money was that the government took all of the shares in the bank, leaving the investors with zero. Later, the government sold the bank back to "the market" for a profit.
We can only hope that Iceland will do the same to the UK and Dutch banks that claim that the people of Iceland should pay for the UK and Dutch banks insane investment strategy on Iceland.
This is a good point. MS is doing the truck software. The stuff that brings food out to the supermarkets, goods into the stores. You know, the important stuff that keeps society running. Apple is the Mazda Miata. A fun toy for sure, but not something one would miss terribly if it disappeared. Shut down the truck service and entire cities and communities would crumble and fall. Remove the Miata from the world and a number of gay guys without the income to buy a Jaguar XKR will feel miserable for at least a week.
Sigh. This was reported a few days after the iCloud apps started appearing in beta. It was reported by various Apple rags. It was later confirmed by several sources. This isn't hard to check. Connect the device to your network, check to see what sites it accesses when storing stuff in the cloud. Given the age of this story, if it wasn't true, any idiot with a router and an iCloud account could have shot it down long ago. It hasn't been, quite the opposite, it has been verified again and again. Something any moron with Google access could have found out. Try: http://www.google.com/ it's a real nice search engine you clearly have never heard about.
The idea that the "odds of this being true are exceptionally low" is so utterly ridiculous only religious/. nutcases could come up with it. Why would Apple not use Azure? What should they use instead? Google? Apple doesn't have the infrastructure in place to build the iCloud (at least not yet), so they have to buy it.
Now, I can believe some Microsoft PR guy thought about it and came up with the idea of spreading a rumour that it would use Azure
Yeah, because it is sooooo hard to check what sites a device connects to when storing stuff. Were you born this dumb or did someone make you this dumb by hitting you repeatedly over the head with a hammer?
The Alt key was always the key to get to the menus, so yes, the Alt key makes absolute sense to use for hints to people who fancy them selves power users. The Alt key has been the "menu access" key on PCs since long before Windows. If you didn't know that you are not half as clever as you think. Perhaps you should get to Computers 101 before you go on/. and join the sheep who complain about all UI changes. You know, the sheep who complained about the Start button, the sheep who complained about GUIs in general. The sheep who can't learn anything new.
As Google found out, most users do not even know that it is possible to search a document on a computer. They find things in their documents by scanning them from top to bottom. Most users are iffy on the difference between an application and a document, on a saved document and a link. Most users are (apparently like you) rather ignorant of what their software can actually do. The fact that hovering over a ribbon button gives a good and somewhat detailed explanation of what it does is a good thing. Most people don't know.
The majority of people use multiple spaces to indent a piece of text, then press Enter at the end of the line to indent the next line of text. They are struggling with the fact that the text doesn't become properly left-aligned.
Most people use number keys to created a numberd list. That is why Microsoft changed that to doing it automatically.
Most people use the dash key to create a bulleted list.
Most people, probably even you, never use styles. If there is anything evil in Office it is Bold, Underline and Italics, not the ribbon interface. People who write documents and use either of the three should be punished severely.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd be careful with compiler-only changes to Java. Given the proliferation of frameworks that do dynamic magic with the VM, the VM should in many cases be altered. I may remember the exact details of the below slightly wrong, but you get the point.
In Java there are basic types and classes, and there are equivalent basic types and class. There is bool and there is Boolean. People got a little tired of boxing bools in Booleans and unboxing, so Sun added auto-boxing and auto-un-boxing. When writing code, my bool was suddenly equal to your Boolean. Well, perhaps not. So, I am using a third-party library to parse some XML, I am not going to name smooks here. There exists this POJO that contains a getSomething and setSomething that operate on bools. Smooks, on parsing some XML assumes that since they are bool, a Boolean can be created and assignment can happen. No, it can't. You see, a Boolean can have more values than a bool. True. False. Null. You can't assign a null to a bool. Peculiar, and hard to identify, things happen.
Some times you have to change the VM, and some times perhaps you have to be more intelligent. A .NET bool can be true and false, but a .NET bool? (nullable bool) can be null too. Anders did this smarter than the Sun folks.
At least, we keep being told that by MS people and blogs and Channel 9.
Really? No. Not really.
As I said in my own reply, I am not an outsider. I have used Linux since 0.93 (or was that 0.97, can't remember) and it is an excellent platform for what it is good at. So, I am probably what you would call an "insider" insofar as I am an active user of Linux. Even as an insider the religious nuts are a cult. It's not a matter of "looks like". They have all the hallmarks of a cult of nuts.
No, a religion is the blind following of dogma by rather slow people. I happen to like Linux, and for Ruby and Rails Ubuntu is my primary development machine. I am not retarded enough to make Linux into a religion however. Hell, a bunch of the Linux religious nuts also believes in the second coming of something that is never going to happen. For the born-again-nuts it is Jesus (even though he said he'd be back within 30 or so odd years they are still waiting). For the Linux nuts it is The Year of The Linux Desktop(tm). As most religions, the Linux Nuts also have a "satan", someone so evil that anyone who utters "his" name must be evil to the core. For the Linux nuts it is Windows or Ballmer or Gates.
Remember, "assumption" starts with "ass". Just because someone is not buying the whole Linux dogma and the born-again-computer-user bullshit doesn't mean that they don't "like" Linux. There is a huge difference between blindly regurgitating mindless dogma and just using whatever fits the situation. When I develop Ruby I use Linux since it is the most appropriate platform for Ruby development. When I edit photos and videos I use Windows because, together with Apple, it is the only reasonable solution (no, Linux is not even a player in that space).
There is no real difference between people devoted to creationism and the Linux devotees. Really. It is religion. It is sad.
It is unlikely that Win8 for ARM will be available for purchase or download (ever). ARM is a CPU, it isn't a platform spec. This means that the OS (drivers and stuff) must be modified specifically for each tabled/mobile vendors hardware. If ARM ever becomes a standardized platform, that might change. Until then, the only way to get Win8 on ARM will probably be to purchase an ARM device with Win8 pre-installed. This probably also means that you will have to depend on your vendor for OS updates. A little like the situation with Android and also WP7 these days.
It used to be that /. was a place where you could get good info. These days it has become like the Repugnican party, ruled by the religious nut-case fringes who cling to the "one-and-only-truth" as if their lives depend on it. It does. If 2012 isn't "The Year of The Linux Desktop" they are going to have to move out of their mothers basement.
Again, ignorant nonsense doesn't get less ignorant or less nonsense just because you spout it twice. Microsoft is saying nothing of the kind. Microsoft is saying that when you are using touch the Metro interface is the most appropriate, but if you are, for example, using Photoshop, the more traditional Windows 7 interface is the appropriate. That is why both are available in Windows 8.
Only someone with severe brain damage would claim that that means that "MS is insisting that the same interface is suitable for any screen".
Almost all of them. The JavaScript apps are HTML5. You need something similar to vi to write them. You can use the HTML features like local storage etc. You will probably need a dev membership to sell them in the Microsoft Marketplace however. If you need to use Windows features you should write in C, C++ or .NET.
Eh, no. Sorry, you are wrong.
Eh, no.
Or you could RTFA and not make your self look like the fool you actually are.
Why not just Read the FA and not make a fool out of your self?
You don't get out much, do you? Mommy won't let you out of the basement? Just whack here over the head with something heavy and run away. Find your way to the nearest road (you'll recognize it when you see it, it's hard, probably black or grey and it is long. On the ground. You can walk on it.). Once you hit the road, walk for a day or two and you'll find other houses. Stop there and ask for help.
Every year has been "the year of Linux on the desktop". Here is a clue for you from the real world: It's never going to happen. Seriously. Never. Linux is not a consumer grade OS, and there is no effort on the way by anyone, anywhere to make it one. Stop dreaming about it. The closest you are going to get is "The year for Linux on the Phone".
Nobody is, why don't you just read the article?
Why don't you just check the article before spouting your nonsense?
Isn't that a TSA job requirement? I am sure I saw that in a TSA job ad somewhere. "Must be an disgruntled ex-Micky-D employee".
Like for example here in Europe many students still want to spend an year in US university. I guess it's a little bit more relaxed there
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Funny. I am a European who lived for ten years in the US, but moved back to Europe for family reasons (they are all here). In the US people actually work, study and try to succeed. Comparatively, the entirety of Europe is on welfare. The vast majority of Europeans would not be able to work or study in the US, the demands are simply too high (with perhaps one or two countries excepted). We hired a reasonable number of Europeans, all of which would be considered top-of-the-line in their respective countries (they are now). A significant portion of them bailed from "stress".
Sorry to bust your bubble, but there are very few places in the world where people work harder than in the US. They have to.There is no government programs protecting them if they don't. In Europe, whole countries are on various government programs. Mostly paid for by the German government and people.
In capitalism greed man tries to exploit worker man but fails.
In communism, lazy man tries to make working man do all the work and society fails.
What we are currently witnessing has nothing to do with capitalism. In what capitalist theory is it said that when "greed man" (investors) make failed investments, the government will bail them out? There was an "easy" and reasonable way out of this crisis, the institutions that had gambled and lost took it on the chin and went under, the institutions that were left standing claimed their assets for a significantly reduced price. Bailing out the banks with tax-payer money was insane, and it was communism.
The US government could have followed a Norwegian model from the previous banking crisis in the late '80s early 90's. Norway has not been affected by the current banking crisis to any major degree except that the sovereign fund has lost a bit of money model when the banks came calling. The Norwegian model was easy. The government stood ready with money to save the bank, but the price for getting the money was that the government took all of the shares in the bank, leaving the investors with zero. Later, the government sold the bank back to "the market" for a profit.
We can only hope that Iceland will do the same to the UK and Dutch banks that claim that the people of Iceland should pay for the UK and Dutch banks insane investment strategy on Iceland.
Remember Steve's quote about MS being trucks
This is a good point. MS is doing the truck software. The stuff that brings food out to the supermarkets, goods into the stores. You know, the important stuff that keeps society running. Apple is the Mazda Miata. A fun toy for sure, but not something one would miss terribly if it disappeared. Shut down the truck service and entire cities and communities would crumble and fall. Remove the Miata from the world and a number of gay guys without the income to buy a Jaguar XKR will feel miserable for at least a week.
The odds of this being true are exceptionally low
Sigh. This was reported a few days after the iCloud apps started appearing in beta. It was reported by various Apple rags. It was later confirmed by several sources. This isn't hard to check. Connect the device to your network, check to see what sites it accesses when storing stuff in the cloud. Given the age of this story, if it wasn't true, any idiot with a router and an iCloud account could have shot it down long ago. It hasn't been, quite the opposite, it has been verified again and again. Something any moron with Google access could have found out. Try: http://www.google.com/ it's a real nice search engine you clearly have never heard about.
The idea that the "odds of this being true are exceptionally low" is so utterly ridiculous only religious /. nutcases could come up with it. Why would Apple not use Azure? What should they use instead? Google? Apple doesn't have the infrastructure in place to build the iCloud (at least not yet), so they have to buy it.
Now, I can believe some Microsoft PR guy thought about it and came up with the idea of spreading a rumour that it would use Azure
Yeah, because it is sooooo hard to check what sites a device connects to when storing stuff. Were you born this dumb or did someone make you this dumb by hitting you repeatedly over the head with a hammer?
At work when I'm limited to 1024x768 resolution
Time to stop whining and get a new job.
The Alt key was always the key to get to the menus, so yes, the Alt key makes absolute sense to use for hints to people who fancy them selves power users. The Alt key has been the "menu access" key on PCs since long before Windows. If you didn't know that you are not half as clever as you think. Perhaps you should get to Computers 101 before you go on /. and join the sheep who complain about all UI changes. You know, the sheep who complained about the Start button, the sheep who complained about GUIs in general. The sheep who can't learn anything new.
As Google found out, most users do not even know that it is possible to search a document on a computer. They find things in their documents by scanning them from top to bottom. Most users are iffy on the difference between an application and a document, on a saved document and a link. Most users are (apparently like you) rather ignorant of what their software can actually do. The fact that hovering over a ribbon button gives a good and somewhat detailed explanation of what it does is a good thing. Most people don't know.