C is by far the most commonly used programming language in the embedded systems world. Right now there are more embedded systems programming projects (and jobs) than their are conventional PC programming jobs. Thus, knowing C is a good thing.
What this acutally means is that there will be another mainstream Unix based operating system running on X86 hardware. This just means that porting software back and forth between OS X and X86 Linux will be easier than before, and therefore a more attractive option.
Porting between Windows and OS X/Linux/BSD would require much more work as the underlying structure of the operating system and APIs are completely incompatible. This could potentially create more synergy and cross development between OS X, Linux, and BSD while leaving Windows left in the cold.
I see no potential harm from an x86 OS X to Linux. Microsoft, however, is left as only one of several x86 operating systems, and they just happen to be the only one which is completely incompatible with everything else available. Not a good situation to be in. What's more, OS X cannot be written off as easily or burried in FUD. It can't be labeled a hobby OS, nor can they drum up fears of it forking. Given the amazing ease of use, the argument that it will cost more because of retraining expenses are just silly. Most important, there is a company behind it which every tom, dick, and harry has heard of even if they haven't ever touched a computer in their lives.
This move is a threat to Windows, not to Linux.
I know that the ATI Direct Rendering Manager is currently broken for 2.6.12 - at least building for amd64. Oh well, no TuxRacer for a couple days until it gets sorted out.
Ok, so it turns out this copy protection is actually an exploit of a major security hole in Windows. It uses "auto run" in Windows, which apparently happily automatically launches any program that happens to be sitting on a CD when it is inserted. Presumably it must look for a special file name or script, I don't know since I have no Windows box or Windows CDs to check. Now, this intentional hole can be turned off - but Windows must ship with it on by default.
Think about this - you insert a music CD, and software is automatically installed on your system. Further, that software then tracks what you do with your CD - ie how many times you have copied it - and then interferes with the normal functioning of the system by blocking attempts to burn further copies.
Clearly this is a MAJOR Windows security issue!
Ah, so there actually is no copy protection then. They just tacked on a program that will only run on machines running Windows, and only then if you let it?
I guess it makes sense though - chances are that most people running Windows aren't smart enough to know the difference, and anyone running Linux/BSD/*nix is smart enough that they would just be wasting their time trying to control them.
Also, if inserting a music CD can run and install software, this is a MAJOR security problem! This isn't just a copy protection scheme, this is a major exploit in Windows. I see from the link that the automatic run option can be turned off, but the important question is why was it allowed to begin with? That's just as bad as including an email program that runs scripts included in emails - good move Microsoft.
In another venue, that would be much funnier. This, however, is Slashdot. Most of the posts that I see here would make a second grade English teacher cringe, especially the idiots that think that 'you' is spelled 'u' and that 'your' is spelled 'ur'.
Being popular make make writing viruses that target Windows worthwhile, but that is not what makes it POSSIBLE. If a user can run a program which can write to application binaries - then viruses can happen. If a program run by the user can only write to their home directory in which no executables are stored - no viruses.
Sure there is te danger that since most users will also be the administraters (on their bsd/linux machine) that they can be tricked into running something they shouldn't as root - but that is not an OS flaw that is a failure to think flaw.
Last I checked, creating a threat and then charging money to deal with it is a protection racket and is illegal. Can the RICO act be used against Microsoft???
Well, actually a bare minimum car without any extras like power steering, abs, cd player, power window or locks, etc. is a Kia Rio which only costs $8,000 versus $20,000 or so for your average car.
About the Cell phones and computers, though you're dead on.
Oh, and judging by where I've seen/heard the phrase "bling-bling" used, I think only the drug, handgun, and loud car stereo markets are dominated by it... whatever it is.
First, it is inaccurate to say that all environmentalists are opposed to urbanization. That's just silly. Sprawl represents an enormous and unecessary destruction of resources and introduces inefficiencies in transportation and infrastructure. The urban dweller does not need to drive 20 miles in an SUV just to buy a gallon of milk.
I think the author is a bit confused here. The reactionary anti-urban mentality is not generally one posessed by those who are concerned with the world and society around them or the that of the future. Quite the contrary, it is the ultra-right, greed is good, conservative libertarians for whom a retreat from civilization to a private suburban or rurual hermatage most appeals.
Yup. As far as I know there is no regulation banning the use of the "OFF" button on the TV. For that matter, getting rid of the damn thing completely is also a perfectly good option.
Negative. Even if equipment existed to read that AOL cd in 20 years, let alone 200 years, it would be useless as corrosion makes them useless. You won't be able to read ANY cd that is 20 years old.
Magnetic media is completely useless. tapes, disks, etc. must be turned on a regular basis to keep the earth's magnetic field from erasing them if they are stuck on a shelf in an archive. Even that is only a delay, the data must be rewritten eventually or it will be lost anyway.
File formats are another challenge. with the exception of simple plain text documents, it will be nearly impossible to decode and make since of anything on that snazzy hard drive of yours. In 200 years, no one will be able to make since of a jpg or png, and these are well known and well understood formats. Data in proptiatary formats will be utterly useless in a much shorter time.
Heh.. and the more ebook readers the greater the popularity of public domain texts such as those hosted by project gutenberg - and a great rise in the popularity of on demand publishing, producing a high quality bound paper copy of a book from an electronic copy already on hand:-) Long live paper!
but paper is permanent. Digital copies aren't. In addition to the problem of digital obsolescence as file formats change and are forgotten there is the problem of decay of the storage media. Paper doesn't have this problem. It can be preserved for thousands of years and function just as well as when it was new (although it must be treated more carefully... I wouldn't, for instance, want to soak in the bathtub with the Domesday book).
Thousands of years is, of course, on the extreme side - but on a more realistic scale it is nice to be able to put a book on the shelf, to toss clippings in a scrapbook, and know that they will be there regardless of power outages and there is never a need to make backups or try to remember what filename something is saved under, let alone which CD it is on.
Its amazing, they put out an endless stream of rap, hip-hop, and various forms of noise which involve the word "mix" and then blame declining sales on p2p file sharing.
If most of the space on store shelves and racks weren't taken up by CDs with pictures of one or more homey-g thuggy types wearing gold chains and grabbing their crotches, and a little more space was devoted to music that people might actually want to listen to, maybe they would sell more.
Any silly matrix references aside, I'll be damned if anyone is going to be aiming pulses of anything at my brain just to make a game more realistic!!! I don't care how many studies they can present saying that it is perfectly safe and should not cause injuries, they better keep that thing the hell away from my skull!
Slashdot Mirror
And I guess I still won't read it, since the provided link requires registration. Oh well.
I didn't have time to read the article the first time it was posted today. Thanks for the helpful dupe!
What this acutally means is that there will be another mainstream Unix based operating system running on X86 hardware. This just means that porting software back and forth between OS X and X86 Linux will be easier than before, and therefore a more attractive option. Porting between Windows and OS X/Linux/BSD would require much more work as the underlying structure of the operating system and APIs are completely incompatible. This could potentially create more synergy and cross development between OS X, Linux, and BSD while leaving Windows left in the cold. I see no potential harm from an x86 OS X to Linux. Microsoft, however, is left as only one of several x86 operating systems, and they just happen to be the only one which is completely incompatible with everything else available. Not a good situation to be in. What's more, OS X cannot be written off as easily or burried in FUD. It can't be labeled a hobby OS, nor can they drum up fears of it forking. Given the amazing ease of use, the argument that it will cost more because of retraining expenses are just silly. Most important, there is a company behind it which every tom, dick, and harry has heard of even if they haven't ever touched a computer in their lives. This move is a threat to Windows, not to Linux.
I know that the ATI Direct Rendering Manager is currently broken for 2.6.12 - at least building for amd64. Oh well, no TuxRacer for a couple days until it gets sorted out.
Ok, so it turns out this copy protection is actually an exploit of a major security hole in Windows. It uses "auto run" in Windows, which apparently happily automatically launches any program that happens to be sitting on a CD when it is inserted. Presumably it must look for a special file name or script, I don't know since I have no Windows box or Windows CDs to check. Now, this intentional hole can be turned off - but Windows must ship with it on by default. Think about this - you insert a music CD, and software is automatically installed on your system. Further, that software then tracks what you do with your CD - ie how many times you have copied it - and then interferes with the normal functioning of the system by blocking attempts to burn further copies. Clearly this is a MAJOR Windows security issue!
Ah, so there actually is no copy protection then. They just tacked on a program that will only run on machines running Windows, and only then if you let it? I guess it makes sense though - chances are that most people running Windows aren't smart enough to know the difference, and anyone running Linux/BSD/*nix is smart enough that they would just be wasting their time trying to control them. Also, if inserting a music CD can run and install software, this is a MAJOR security problem! This isn't just a copy protection scheme, this is a major exploit in Windows. I see from the link that the automatic run option can be turned off, but the important question is why was it allowed to begin with? That's just as bad as including an email program that runs scripts included in emails - good move Microsoft.
It's a pretty new technology. I'ts been catching on pretty fast and will probably replace 8mm movies completely within the next 50 years or so.
Hah.. funny.
In another venue, that would be much funnier. This, however, is Slashdot. Most of the posts that I see here would make a second grade English teacher cringe, especially the idiots that think that 'you' is spelled 'u' and that 'your' is spelled 'ur'.
Wow. That's scary. A governing body to determine what is worth studying and what isn't?! The purpose of expanding knowledge is to expand knowledge.
Being popular make make writing viruses that target Windows worthwhile, but that is not what makes it POSSIBLE. If a user can run a program which can write to application binaries - then viruses can happen. If a program run by the user can only write to their home directory in which no executables are stored - no viruses. Sure there is te danger that since most users will also be the administraters (on their bsd/linux machine) that they can be tricked into running something they shouldn't as root - but that is not an OS flaw that is a failure to think flaw.
Last I checked, creating a threat and then charging money to deal with it is a protection racket and is illegal. Can the RICO act be used against Microsoft???
Well, actually a bare minimum car without any extras like power steering, abs, cd player, power window or locks, etc. is a Kia Rio which only costs $8,000 versus $20,000 or so for your average car. About the Cell phones and computers, though you're dead on. Oh, and judging by where I've seen/heard the phrase "bling-bling" used, I think only the drug, handgun, and loud car stereo markets are dominated by it... whatever it is.
this is supposed to be a surprise?! OF COURSE MORSE CODE IS FASTER!!!! Would anyone have thought otherwise?
First, it is inaccurate to say that all environmentalists are opposed to urbanization. That's just silly. Sprawl represents an enormous and unecessary destruction of resources and introduces inefficiencies in transportation and infrastructure. The urban dweller does not need to drive 20 miles in an SUV just to buy a gallon of milk.
I think the author is a bit confused here. The reactionary anti-urban mentality is not generally one posessed by those who are concerned with the world and society around them or the that of the future. Quite the contrary, it is the ultra-right, greed is good, conservative libertarians for whom a retreat from civilization to a private suburban or rurual hermatage most appeals.
Yup. As far as I know there is no regulation banning the use of the "OFF" button on the TV. For that matter, getting rid of the damn thing completely is also a perfectly good option.
Negative. Even if equipment existed to read that AOL cd in 20 years, let alone 200 years, it would be useless as corrosion makes them useless. You won't be able to read ANY cd that is 20 years old. Magnetic media is completely useless. tapes, disks, etc. must be turned on a regular basis to keep the earth's magnetic field from erasing them if they are stuck on a shelf in an archive. Even that is only a delay, the data must be rewritten eventually or it will be lost anyway. File formats are another challenge. with the exception of simple plain text documents, it will be nearly impossible to decode and make since of anything on that snazzy hard drive of yours. In 200 years, no one will be able to make since of a jpg or png, and these are well known and well understood formats. Data in proptiatary formats will be utterly useless in a much shorter time.
Heh.. and the more ebook readers the greater the popularity of public domain texts such as those hosted by project gutenberg - and a great rise in the popularity of on demand publishing, producing a high quality bound paper copy of a book from an electronic copy already on hand :-) Long live paper!
but paper is permanent. Digital copies aren't. In addition to the problem of digital obsolescence as file formats change and are forgotten there is the problem of decay of the storage media. Paper doesn't have this problem. It can be preserved for thousands of years and function just as well as when it was new (although it must be treated more carefully... I wouldn't, for instance, want to soak in the bathtub with the Domesday book).
Thousands of years is, of course, on the extreme side - but on a more realistic scale it is nice to be able to put a book on the shelf, to toss
clippings in a scrapbook, and know that they will be there regardless of
power outages and there is never a need to make backups or try to remember
what filename something is saved under, let alone which CD it is on.
Can't be much worse than mainland US. Hell, NOTHING could be worse than Fox news. TV Free and proud of it.
Its amazing, they put out an endless stream of rap, hip-hop, and various forms of noise which involve the word "mix" and then blame declining sales on p2p file sharing. If most of the space on store shelves and racks weren't taken up by CDs with pictures of one or more homey-g thuggy types wearing gold chains and grabbing their crotches, and a little more space was devoted to music that people might actually want to listen to, maybe they would sell more.
Well, he was still distracted by the "worts".
Yea, I'd stay away from the worts if I were you.
Any silly matrix references aside, I'll be damned if anyone is going to be aiming pulses of anything at my brain just to make a game more realistic!!! I don't care how many studies they can present saying that it is perfectly safe and should not cause injuries, they better keep that thing the hell away from my skull!