You consider the Revolutionary War the most significant event in world history?
I would've picked something like the rise of rome. Or Fire. Or the Wheel. Or maybe one of the Ice Ages... but I probably just don't know the *most* significant one. I bet it wasn't recorded.
Is there a way to use ActiveX, JavaScript, or some other client side tech to determine if TopText is installed, and if so forward to a page that explains why they can not access the site, and how to uninstall toptext (perhaps even have something that runs the uninstall app from the browser w/ a click)
Anyone want to work on this?
You need to watch Mulan again
on
Reviews:Shrek
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· Score: 3
Eddie Murphy did NOT play an insect in Mulan. He played a protecting spirit in the form of a small dragon.
IIRC, he was kicked out of the spirit group for having done something stupid, but since he manages to help Mulan, he is let back in, and takes a place of pride in the house again.
True... but while some of them are a bit extreme (ok.. most of them), you also have Tim O'Reilley, Bob Young, Larry Augustin, and those who aren't CEO's, but also arent seen as insane, such as Larry Wall and Guido van Rossum. (Does anyone see Miguel de Icaza as insane?)
All of the people who responded, zealot or not, have a strong interest in Open Source, and do represent the closest thing to "leadership" I can think of... at least in the public mind. And that show of unity among the community "leaders" is, IMHO, enough.
Late Tuesday, Microsoft responded to the open letter. "We appreciate the dialog on this issue--it's exactly the type of discussion Craig was hoping to foster," the company said in a statement.
So Mundie was hoping to get a large group of well respected technical persons criticizing Microsoft and pointing out their monopolistic practices? Wow. Anyone else find that to be a bit of a strange plan?
It's called piracy by the RIAA, because the connotations obscure what is really happening, and that makes for great soundbytes. I call it duplication. Or copying. Or downloading. Whatever it is, It certainly has nothing to do with raping and pillaging villages or other boats and killing their crews and taking their gold/money/stuff. In fact, no one is out anything, except maybe the record companys who rape their artists and take their gold/money/stuff. The artist is out a bit, but if their stuff is good, I'll go to their show and/or buy a t-shirt.
Clearly, Napster will replace Napster. Or rather, OpenNap. People will just connect to the free servers. Hell.. they could even use napster's software to do it.
settlers is a zero sum game. Everytime you place a road, you eliminate that space for the other players roads. Same with the intersections for cities and towns. The idea is to get to 12 points first (i believe) and to do that, you have to take resources that other players will then not be able to get (such as longest road, largest army, point cards, etc)... Not to mention that each tile provides resources, and you can monopolize the tiles.
That said, it has trading elements to it that lessen the impact, so that you can always make a comeback... but there IS a winner, and every point someone else gets is one point closer to winning than you... thus you are one behind.
I guess its arguable, but i don't think Settlers fits. Of course, it is still an amazing amazing game, and one that everyone should own.:)
You are correct that most of the things i have stated are gimmicky. Thats because i was replying to a post that mentioned playing mp3's backwards. But the combined load of all those things at once not effecting the system, (and without custom plextor hardware burnproof tech) is the main point i was making.
Desperate times have not arrived for Be. I think they are actually more successful now than they ever have been, and I would predict profitability in the next year or so. How are linux companies doing again...?
As for not getting more technical than viewing the source code... that has nothing to do with my point. My point was technical competence. If the BeOS sourcecode is better coded, faster, more efficient, and more elegant than the linux source code, but you can read the linux source, that does not make the linux code more technically competent. I have not seen the source for either, so i cant really compare the actual code, but the main point stands.
As an OS Be is much better suited for mainstream users if you disregard applications. Arguably, drivers aside, it is better suited for home use than windows.
As far as security, Be has all the hooks in place for a completely secure, multi-user system in place. Same system as the linux and the others. It is not yet completely enabled throughout the system, but if it was opensourced, this would be finished pretty rapidly.
As far as linux being more attractive, why? BeOS has the same shell capabilities, stronger GUI capabilities, and a cleaner API.
Linux is more attractive from a geek viewpoint, free software viewpoint, and the fact that you can get in there and change the code for anything. But wouldnt GPLing BeOS make it just as attractive on all three of those points?
As far as the lack of applications, I don't really find that to be true. It is a common misconception that Be still has the same problems with apps that it did before. People who actually make an effort to find what they need for BeOS almost always do.
Be does not have as many applications as linux, but it typically has a few in each major category. Those that it is lacking in have several products in beta and on the way. While you may argue that beta products don't count, it could be countered that much open source software for linux is also beta. Thats part of the open source advantage - lots of testers.
I think its purely a matter of preference. If Linux is the next Dos/Windows combo, the BeOS would be the next Amiga or MacOS. One is for techies, one is for Artists. But there is a large amount of overlap.
I think that if linux users stopped and tried beos for a week or two, exclusively, they would be surprised. I think that BeOS users should do the same for linux. Both are good. Just different.
You make a pretty big assumption here... that being that BeOS itself is not a "rock solid OS" and porting it's GUI to linux would help.
This really isnt the case. BeOS itself is just as stable as Linux. Nearly everything runs as a server on top of the kernel, and if it crashes, it just restarts that server.
As far as porting the Be GUI to linux, it also couldnt happen. It would require basically recreating the Be API from scratch, and rewriting almost all of the linux kernel due to different ways of handling scheduling and threading.
In fact, large chunks of the Be GUI are already opensourced at opentracker.org, but porting it to linux would be VERY difficult.
With all these problems, doesn't it seem more likely that people would start porting the various linux libraries to BeOS? The end result would be the same really, but to assume that linux would be the better solution to start building on is probably incorrect.
First off, the first GPL player thing... So what? So its the first player to do it that was released under the GPL. Thats like saying that its the first player because its green. It still came after soundplay. Quite a while after.
And for your 36 songs... are they just playing backwards/forwards? Can you play 12 of em at 72% speed backwards? Can you run 3 different tracks of the same CD at once, some backwards some forwards? And oh yeah, while you are doing that can you map 6 mov files to a software rendered realtime 3d cube?
If that isnt enough, you could always burn a cd while you were doing it...
and you wouldnt have a "wait" prompt once. no hourglass, nothing. It would just, well... do it.
But honestly, this was just to point out that mp3's backwards came from Be, and is not some great alsaplayer thing.
When it comes to mp3's, it really doesnt get better than Be... assuming you judge on technical competence and not a great socio-political belief structure about the nature of the software.
FYI, Soundplay has been playing mp3's backwards for years. In fact, its believed by many people to be the first player that could play it backwards. So your big alsaplayer advantage is shot...
Oh yeah, on most Be systems soundplay can play about 30 mp3's backwards, forwards, and at different speeds... simultaneously, and without skipping.
This patent doesn't actually read like its gonna hurt too much. I mean, I could be completely mistaken, and (oh god... about to use my first/.ism) IANAL (that hurt), but it seems straightforward enough.
Here is the abstract:
Entertainment content complementary to a musical recording is delivered to a user's computer by means of a computer network link. The user employs a browser to access the computer network. A plug-in for the browser is able to control an audio CD or other device for playing the musical recording. A script stored on the remote computer accessed over the network is downloaded.
The script synchronizes the delivery of the complementary entertainment content with the play of the musical recording.
All this does is cover the use of the browser to run an embedded plugin which grabs information from a database to show data related to the cd (or music recording). The only way this would be really bad is if they tried to claim control over non-physical recordings as well. (mp3s vs cd's)
In any case, unless your freedb access is done via a plugin in your browser, we seem to be ok.
Um... maybe its just me, but isn't the popular vote just the total number of votes cast for the candidate? So taking a state in the electoral college really has nothing do do with the popular vote. A raw total of all the votes cast shows that Gore has around 250,000 more votes than Bush. so if Bush "takes" florida, and wins the election via the Electoral College system, he will do so without winning the popular vote.
Re:It's definitely not for PPC
on
BeOS For Linux!
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· Score: 1
1) The linux port to the G3/G4 architecture was done via reverse-engineering. Apple didn't just say "Here's the specs to our chipsets you guys."
Be can't open itself to the possible lawsuits it would face by reverse-engineering the apple specs. They NEED Apple to give them the specs, so they can stay 100% legal.
I know there will be an argument about reverse-engineering being 100% legal and all that crap, but Be can't afford to even go into the gray area. So it's not their fault that it won't run on G3/G4 systems. (though systems w/ a G3/G4 upgrade card on an older chipset board WILL work)
2) The whole AMIGA/dying media platform thing:
Have you ever USED BeOS? It's much more than just a "Media OS." For every media app there are three General Purpose apps of equal or better quality.
Developers do NOT just focus on media stuff, though the media stuff is impressively easy and powerful.
In every interview and article I have seen, I have always seen apps such as Gobe (an office suite) hyped right along with the media apps.
That said, when you think about it, what current applications (other than office suites and compilers) do you use that won't benefit from an impressive media core in the OS?
Actually, any app can handle a file up to 18 petabytes in size. It is because of the design of the filesystem. It is not an application based distinction.
That said, there obviously isnt a file that big in the world, nor a drive (or drive array) to store it on. It's purely theoretical.
I understand what you mean by BeOS being closed source and thus "trapped" - after last months "Focus Shift" I felt the same way. It IS rather scary to think that it could die. But I think that Be will release the source if and when they die, or can't keep updating the desktop.
I don't think they will let it die. If they do, then I may bother trying to figure out Linux... right now it just doesn't hold a candle to BeOS (IMHO as someone who couldnt care less about having the code - I am purely interested in functionality, features, and ease of use)
Ever Hear of Private Beta?
on
Free Be
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· Score: 1
I am pretty sure beta versions were available last year... just not to you.
Private betas do exist, and tend to be policy for Be, Inc.
I would expect full Java support in the next full version (R5). It will definately be on the full CD version (which they still sell) and probably in the downloadable version.
Maybe I missed something, but exactly where did Be, Inc. try to ride on the Linux bandwagon? What have they done that would affiliate them with Linux in any way?
Hell... what other bandwagons have they ridden? Please...show me some facts...
I think Be's problem is that they don't ride any bandwagons. They do things the right way, bandwagons be damned.
Quote from the Livid FAQ: "The CSS code here is NOT enough to decrypt DVD's. This code mearly unlocks the DVD drive and will allow the data to be sent to a decoder (hardware or software)." However,: "Since the Zoran 36710 decoder card decrypts the sectors in hardware, we can have a fully functional DVD playback system for Linux."
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen Amen. That is the Be experience. It takes power and makes it friendly. Thank you.
Stock is not a good measure.
on
Be on the G4
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· Score: 1
It is based on hype. Be has no hype, because Be is being quiet. If they made too much noise, people (read: microsoft) might notice them and then they would Be dead. Stock is not a measure of a program - that is a measure of the stock buying publics understanding of a program. Just wait. It will go up. As for multimedia - show me a computer on linux running 10 quick time movies, as well as mixing 16 track audio in real time, WHILE saving the audio to a seperate wave and editing videofiles in realtime with no need to render the video. I have done it on Be using a p3 500. and oh yeah - lets see linux get a 2ns audio latency. Linux has more drivers - but Be has more potential (in that area) Be is not a single user pretty version of linux. It is not UNIX at all. There is no unix. it is POSIX compliant, but is _NOT_ a version of UNIX. is uses the bash shell, but only as default - others can be used. It is not a gui like E or Windows that sits above a seperate OS - linux or dos respectively - it is a GUI system that is inseperable from the shell - the shell is not the base of the os, nor is the GUI. they are intertwined. The gui is no more confusing than any other - it takes a few days to really get used to. Be is a superior OS for the desktop - NOT for servers. Linux is good and stable for servers. But for a user on the desktop who wants to mix some audio, work on some video, or just work in a nice environment, Be is the best choice. and oh yeah, "How did you get to be so stupid?" in the subject line does not really depict you as a person who is rational enough to take seriously. Try being civilized. Your opinion is just that - an opinion. It is no better than anyone elses. This email is my opinion - it is no better than yours. But its no worse. The difference is that my subject line shows some dignity.
Slashdot Mirror
You consider the Revolutionary War the most significant event in world history?
I would've picked something like the rise of rome. Or Fire. Or the Wheel. Or maybe one of the Ice Ages... but I probably just don't know the *most* significant one. I bet it wasn't recorded.
Is there a way to use ActiveX, JavaScript, or some other client side tech to determine if TopText is installed, and if so forward to a page that explains why they can not access the site, and how to uninstall toptext (perhaps even have something that runs the uninstall app from the browser w/ a click)
Anyone want to work on this?
Eddie Murphy did NOT play an insect in Mulan. He played a protecting spirit in the form of a small dragon.
IIRC, he was kicked out of the spirit group for having done something stupid, but since he manages to help Mulan, he is let back in, and takes a place of pride in the house again.
It was sorta a big plot thread.
True... but while some of them are a bit extreme (ok.. most of them), you also have Tim O'Reilley, Bob Young, Larry Augustin, and those who aren't CEO's, but also arent seen as insane, such as Larry Wall and Guido van Rossum. (Does anyone see Miguel de Icaza as insane?)
All of the people who responded, zealot or not, have a strong interest in Open Source, and do represent the closest thing to "leadership" I can think of... at least in the public mind. And that show of unity among the community "leaders" is, IMHO, enough.
It's called piracy by the RIAA, because the connotations obscure what is really happening, and that makes for great soundbytes. I call it duplication. Or copying. Or downloading. Whatever it is, It certainly has nothing to do with raping and pillaging villages or other boats and killing their crews and taking their gold/money/stuff. In fact, no one is out anything, except maybe the record companys who rape their artists and take their gold/money/stuff. The artist is out a bit, but if their stuff is good, I'll go to their show and/or buy a t-shirt.
Clearly, Napster will replace Napster. Or rather, OpenNap. People will just connect to the free servers. Hell.. they could even use napster's software to do it.
settlers is a zero sum game. Everytime you place a road, you eliminate that space for the other players roads. Same with the intersections for cities and towns. The idea is to get to 12 points first (i believe) and to do that, you have to take resources that other players will then not be able to get (such as longest road, largest army, point cards, etc)... Not to mention that each tile provides resources, and you can monopolize the tiles.
:)
That said, it has trading elements to it that lessen the impact, so that you can always make a comeback... but there IS a winner, and every point someone else gets is one point closer to winning than you... thus you are one behind.
I guess its arguable, but i don't think Settlers fits. Of course, it is still an amazing amazing game, and one that everyone should own.
You are correct that most of the things i have stated are gimmicky. Thats because i was replying to a post that mentioned playing mp3's backwards. But the combined load of all those things at once not effecting the system, (and without custom plextor hardware burnproof tech) is the main point i was making.
Desperate times have not arrived for Be. I think they are actually more successful now than they ever have been, and I would predict profitability in the next year or so. How are linux companies doing again...?
As for not getting more technical than viewing the source code... that has nothing to do with my point. My point was technical competence. If the BeOS sourcecode is better coded, faster, more efficient, and more elegant than the linux source code, but you can read the linux source, that does not make the linux code more technically competent. I have not seen the source for either, so i cant really compare the actual code, but the main point stands.
As an OS Be is much better suited for mainstream users if you disregard applications. Arguably, drivers aside, it is better suited for home use than windows.
As far as security, Be has all the hooks in place for a completely secure, multi-user system in place. Same system as the linux and the others. It is not yet completely enabled throughout the system, but if it was opensourced, this would be finished pretty rapidly.
As far as linux being more attractive, why? BeOS has the same shell capabilities, stronger GUI capabilities, and a cleaner API.
Linux is more attractive from a geek viewpoint, free software viewpoint, and the fact that you can get in there and change the code for anything. But wouldnt GPLing BeOS make it just as attractive on all three of those points?
As far as the lack of applications, I don't really find that to be true. It is a common misconception that Be still has the same problems with apps that it did before. People who actually make an effort to find what they need for BeOS almost always do.
Be does not have as many applications as linux, but it typically has a few in each major category. Those that it is lacking in have several products in beta and on the way. While you may argue that beta products don't count, it could be countered that much open source software for linux is also beta. Thats part of the open source advantage - lots of testers.
I think its purely a matter of preference. If Linux is the next Dos/Windows combo, the BeOS would be the next Amiga or MacOS. One is for techies, one is for Artists. But there is a large amount of overlap.
I think that if linux users stopped and tried beos for a week or two, exclusively, they would be surprised. I think that BeOS users should do the same for linux. Both are good. Just different.
You make a pretty big assumption here... that being that BeOS itself is not a "rock solid OS" and porting it's GUI to linux would help.
This really isnt the case. BeOS itself is just as stable as Linux. Nearly everything runs as a server on top of the kernel, and if it crashes, it just restarts that server.
As far as porting the Be GUI to linux, it also couldnt happen. It would require basically recreating the Be API from scratch, and rewriting almost all of the linux kernel due to different ways of handling scheduling and threading.
In fact, large chunks of the Be GUI are already opensourced at opentracker.org, but porting it to linux would be VERY difficult.
With all these problems, doesn't it seem more likely that people would start porting the various linux libraries to BeOS? The end result would be the same really, but to assume that linux would be the better solution to start building on is probably incorrect.
Um... ok.
Two points:
First off, the first GPL player thing... So what? So its the first player to do it that was released under the GPL. Thats like saying that its the first player because its green. It still came after soundplay. Quite a while after.
And for your 36 songs... are they just playing backwards/forwards? Can you play 12 of em at 72% speed backwards? Can you run 3 different tracks of the same CD at once, some backwards some forwards? And oh yeah, while you are doing that can you map 6 mov files to a software rendered realtime 3d cube?
If that isnt enough, you could always burn a cd while you were doing it...
and you wouldnt have a "wait" prompt once. no hourglass, nothing. It would just, well... do it.
But honestly, this was just to point out that mp3's backwards came from Be, and is not some great alsaplayer thing.
When it comes to mp3's, it really doesnt get better than Be... assuming you judge on technical competence and not a great socio-political belief structure about the nature of the software.
does his opinion on linux have any impact on his review of a completely non-linux related system?
Running a Plextor SCSI 40x, i can rip and encode a full audio CD under BeOS in ~5-10 minutes, at 192kbps.
Copying raw audio off of this CD-Rom would potentially be much faster, but i have not tried it.
FYI, Soundplay has been playing mp3's backwards for years. In fact, its believed by many people to be the first player that could play it backwards. So your big alsaplayer advantage is shot...
Oh yeah, on most Be systems soundplay can play about 30 mp3's backwards, forwards, and at different speeds... simultaneously, and without skipping.
Here's the that i embarassingly left out of the post above.
This patent doesn't actually read like its gonna hurt too much. I mean, I could be completely mistaken, and (oh god... about to use my first /.ism) IANAL (that hurt), but it seems straightforward enough.
Here is the abstract:
Entertainment content complementary to a musical recording is delivered to a user's computer by means of a computer network link. The user employs a browser to access the computer network. A plug-in for the browser is able to control an audio CD or other device for playing the musical recording. A script stored on the remote computer accessed over the network is downloaded.
The script synchronizes the delivery of the complementary entertainment content with the play of the musical recording.
All this does is cover the use of the browser to run an embedded plugin which grabs information from a database to show data related to the cd (or music recording). The only way this would be really bad is if they tried to claim control over non-physical recordings as well. (mp3s vs cd's)
In any case, unless your freedb access is done via a plugin in your browser, we seem to be ok.
Um... maybe its just me, but isn't the popular vote just the total number of votes cast for the candidate? So taking a state in the electoral college really has nothing do do with the popular vote. A raw total of all the votes cast shows that Gore has around 250,000 more votes than Bush. so if Bush "takes" florida, and wins the election via the Electoral College system, he will do so without winning the popular vote.
1) The linux port to the G3/G4 architecture was done via reverse-engineering. Apple didn't just say "Here's the specs to our chipsets you guys."
Be can't open itself to the possible lawsuits it would face by reverse-engineering the apple specs. They NEED Apple to give them the specs, so they can stay 100% legal.
I know there will be an argument about reverse-engineering being 100% legal and all that crap, but Be can't afford to even go into the gray area. So it's not their fault that it won't run on G3/G4 systems. (though systems w/ a G3/G4 upgrade card on an older chipset board WILL work)
2) The whole AMIGA/dying media platform thing:
Have you ever USED BeOS? It's much more than just a "Media OS." For every media app there are three General Purpose apps of equal or better quality.
Developers do NOT just focus on media stuff, though the media stuff is impressively easy and powerful.
In every interview and article I have seen, I have always seen apps such as Gobe (an office suite) hyped right along with the media apps.
That said, when you think about it, what current applications (other than office suites and compilers) do you use that won't benefit from an impressive media core in the OS?
Actually, any app can handle a file up to 18 petabytes in size. It is because of the design of the filesystem. It is not an application based distinction.
That said, there obviously isnt a file that big in the world, nor a drive (or drive array) to store it on. It's purely theoretical.
I understand what you mean by BeOS being closed source and thus "trapped" - after last months "Focus Shift" I felt the same way. It IS rather scary to think that it could die. But I think that Be will release the source if and when they die, or can't keep updating the desktop.
I don't think they will let it die. If they do, then I may bother trying to figure out Linux... right now it just doesn't hold a candle to BeOS (IMHO as someone who couldnt care less about having the code - I am purely interested in functionality, features, and ease of use)
I am pretty sure beta versions were available last year... just not to you.
Private betas do exist, and tend to be policy for Be, Inc.
I would expect full Java support in the next full version (R5). It will definately be on the full CD version (which they still sell) and probably in the downloadable version.
Um...
Maybe I missed something, but exactly where did Be, Inc. try to ride on the Linux bandwagon? What have they done that would affiliate them with Linux in any way?
Hell... what other bandwagons have they ridden?
Please...show me some facts...
I think Be's problem is that they don't ride any bandwagons. They do things the right way, bandwagons be damned.
Of course... I may have missed something....
Quote from the Livid FAQ: "The CSS code here is NOT enough to decrypt DVD's. This code mearly unlocks the DVD drive and will allow the data to be sent to a decoder (hardware or software)." However,: "Since the Zoran 36710 decoder card decrypts the sectors in hardware, we can have a fully functional DVD playback system for Linux."
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen Amen. That is the Be experience. It takes power and makes it friendly. Thank you.
It is based on hype. Be has no hype, because Be is being quiet. If they made too much noise, people (read: microsoft) might notice them and then they would Be dead. Stock is not a measure of a program - that is a measure of the stock buying publics understanding of a program. Just wait. It will go up. As for multimedia - show me a computer on linux running 10 quick time movies, as well as mixing 16 track audio in real time, WHILE saving the audio to a seperate wave and editing videofiles in realtime with no need to render the video. I have done it on Be using a p3 500. and oh yeah - lets see linux get a 2ns audio latency. Linux has more drivers - but Be has more potential (in that area) Be is not a single user pretty version of linux. It is not UNIX at all. There is no unix. it is POSIX compliant, but is _NOT_ a version of UNIX. is uses the bash shell, but only as default - others can be used. It is not a gui like E or Windows that sits above a seperate OS - linux or dos respectively - it is a GUI system that is inseperable from the shell - the shell is not the base of the os, nor is the GUI. they are intertwined. The gui is no more confusing than any other - it takes a few days to really get used to. Be is a superior OS for the desktop - NOT for servers. Linux is good and stable for servers. But for a user on the desktop who wants to mix some audio, work on some video, or just work in a nice environment, Be is the best choice. and oh yeah, "How did you get to be so stupid?" in the subject line does not really depict you as a person who is rational enough to take seriously. Try being civilized. Your opinion is just that - an opinion. It is no better than anyone elses. This email is my opinion - it is no better than yours. But its no worse. The difference is that my subject line shows some dignity.