1. Do you agree with the judge's findings of fact in the Microsoft case? total responses to this question: 25468
Agree 80.21% Disagree 19.79%
2. Does Microsoft, in your opinion, have illegal monopoly power in the software operating systems for personal computers? total responses to this question: 25437
Yes 77.26% No 22.74%
3. What action should the judge take to punish Microsoft? total responses to this question: 42896
Split the company into multiple companies. 34.90% Order changes in company practices. 32.14% Impose fines. 23.56% No action. 9.40%
4. Does the judge's decision go too far? total responses to this question: 25338
Just imagine we had this component library. Imagine that we had a huge database of reliable components that would work together easily. If this library were GPL'ed it would actually not be available for general usage buy just anyone. The program you were plugging it into would have to be GPL'ed as well. This would be a great incintive for newly developed programs to use the GPL as well. The result is the ability to tell management that by using the GPL you could get your product to the market faster, with less bugs and with more standard features. Although the LGPL is great it does not promote open source applications to this degree.
This isn't viral behavior but there is a bandwagon or "me too" effect that is associated with the GPL.
As to cost of living... Maybe I should have left that alone. I live in the Silicon Valley and cost of living here is much more expensive than other places in the US. Cost of living is such a relative thing. I speak from what my friends from Europe told me, so they might be wrong. Who knows.
A lot of people get into America on H1 visa status. There are three reasons this doesn't work for most people: 1) There is a limited number of H1's available. This year they ran out of them in spring. 2) often pay rates offered for H1's are lower 3) it seems much tougher to switch jobs.
As a result many of the people I know who work over here have something shady going on. You know Mexican's are not the only ones who want to work in the US but can't.
One friend of mine came over on a 6 month tourist visa and interviewed for several months... He found an american to marry so he is still here. During the 6 months he looked he was not able to get an H1. Another friend of mine leads a start-up here in Mountain View.. He travels back to the UK every couple months so that he can say he isn't living here.
I think if you have a company which will sponser you and pay to move you across the lake you should think twice about it. As soon as you get over here start looking for something better. Although it is tougher to switch as an H1 it may be easier than anything else. Note, pay attention to what city they will put you in. If they are the only company in town it will be difficult to interview at other places.
Also pay attention to how much you will have to pay them back. One more thing... American programmers can get paid many times what you would make in Europe... but the higher cost of living here makes up for it, so be carefull about that too.
That means the OS most likely to suffer because of Linux's success is Unix, he says.
Obviously this is a logical error. Linux is Unix, The only way Linux could hurt Unix is if it reduced the usage or value Unix as a whole. Surely he isn't saying the Linux will have a negative usage or value. It can be said that Linux competes with other Unix variants, but anyone who knows how internetworking Unix is also understands that Linux is likely to increase sales of SOLARIS/IRIX/AIX/etc...
NT competes with Unix as a whole... not only Linux. The more usefull and desireable Linux is, the more usefull all the other Unixes become. This is the fundamental thing that SGI and IBM understand but the Gatner group doesn't seem to get. In the end, Linux doesn't have to replace win32 to be successful, it merely has to be functional and be available.
What's so special about UNL? Theoretical translation of language A into a universal language and from there to language B is almost as old as "machine" translation itself. The fundamental argument is that it hasn't worked before so it isn't going to work now is stupid. It has been demonstrated how difficult it is to do this, but not that it is impossible.
For a good example of the total and dismal failure of machine translation, try translating this text into French (or Spanish, or Italian, or whatever) with Babelfish and back to English. Then do it a few times. Then try English to Chinese and back a few times. Case closed.
Hardly, Here's why that is not a valid test
Babelfish doesn't use an intermediate language.
Babelfish doesn't even achieve loseless translation from language A to B and back to A. This is the simplest case and one which can be improved the most with a good definition for UNL
It is, in fact, an even better AI test than the Turing test.
They do not claim perfect translation, but yes computer which could translate between languages and do it perfectly would pass the test. Do you really argue that it is impossible for computer programs to ever pass the turing test? It is only a matter of time till this happens. The only way to stop it is to stop making computers.
Frankly, would you trust somthing as big, bureaucratic and inefficient as the UN to determine the next standard in machine translation?
This could be a real concern. You have to hope that once the UNL is defined you could extend it for your own purposes and still have every thing work.
Finally, I have some friends who work at the UN as official translators, and they are doing perfectly fine, thank you very much (and, I should manking some serious money). Why? Because, AFAIK, no machine has ever been able to translate perfectly
Here we are reading/. At the very heart of the cutting edge. Isn't it obvious to all us that the only thing we know we can expect in the next few decades are massive amounts of change? I wouldn't expect your friends to be out of work any time soon. But isn't the job of a professional translator radically different now than it would have been 100 yrs ago? Political change was not the only thing that caused this change... communication technology has had a big role.
Machine translation has its place, but only on documents of a very limited scope/vocabulary and of a very repetitive and technical nature. Even then, a human translator is needed to correct the multiple mistakes made by the machine.
Do you honestly believe this is the best possible solution? That machines can't get better?
Re:Are we approaching microwave frequencies?
on
700 MHz Athlon
·
· Score: 2
Microwave is just a number.
Humans invented the term microwave... there is nothing different about it other than the period of the generated wave. Will it fry you is what you really want to know. The fact is any electomagnetic energy can fry you. It's a function of how much energy is output, how far you are from it, and how long you are exposed. Faster period means more energy, yes, but the fact that it is 1GHZ as ooposed to 700 Mhz doesn't mean as much as where the source is, what's between you and it, how far you are from it, and how long you stay there.
During WW 1 the Germans sent a message to the Mexicans telling them to attack the US. The message went over American telegraph lines. Guess who intercepted the message. Was it international spying? or just stupid Germans?
As for you Canadians... we have your number. Because your info goes over our lines we've already know everything about your plan to conquer Seattle. We've decided to trade you Seattle and Redmond for Montreal. I think it's a damn good trade.
Where can someone find good Dvorak Keyboards? In the past I've used xmodmap to change the letters around... but the letters printed on the keyboard are still wrong. Also that doesn't work for windows.
Surgery is a big deal. Although it works for many people it does not for all. After surgery you will have scar tissue created which may cause other problems.
I had symptoms of Carpal Tunnel for almost 3 years! God it was painful! I got a Microsoft Natural Keyboard, it helped a little but not enough. I wore the wrist braces all the time. These helped a lot but I still felt pain occasionally. I would take enormous amounts of Alieve and other asprin like drugs. That reduced pain the most and would make swelling go down... but didn't solve the problem. I tried trackballs which helped my wrist but made my thumb really hurt. I tried ergonomic chairs, new postures you name it. The way I finally solved the problem was by trying another doctor!
My new doctor said I had been mis-diagnosed for CTS!!! Can you imagine the expression on my face? He said that most of the people he sees for CTS have been mis-diagonsed. He said get rid of the braces and pills and exercise instead. I went to a physial therapist who did the standard training stuff eleco-therapy,ice-packs, whirlpools of hot water. I learned new exercises that strengthened my wrists and elbows.... and slowly the pain went away. I noticed significant improvement in 3-4 weeks. I was out of the braces completely in 2 months. It took maybe 4 months of work to completely heal. Where I used to feel constant pain daily , I might feel a twinge now if I play too much Soul Caliber.
So my word to everyone out there having wrist/elbow pain is to do some research. Sometimes your doctor is wrong. Carpal Tunnel is a specific problem that many people get misdiagnosed for. Simply being in shape and strengthening muscles will solve many peoples problems.
I laughed, I cried. You have completely edumacated me on the Mae Ling Mak naked and petrified movement. I will no longer settle for Mae Ling Mak immobilized and not fully clothed! BTW, let's petrify Jennifer Lopex and Tyra Binks while we are at it.
Linux is a direct competitor to Solaris. When you thnik about it.. Linux is much more of a threat to Solaris than NT. SUN still thinks they can make money by getting more people to use Solaris. Not putting Java on Linux means that if you want unix + Java they want you to buy an OS from SUN. Before Linux, Solaris was the dominant Unix OS. Linux has rapidly stolen the lime-light and the Apps that would have been done on Solaris. They will talk about Linux say how good a thing it is but deep down they feel just as afraid as MicroBorg. It all boils down to this, if you talk about Unix to SUN.. they will try to sell you as OS they wrote, for a machine they designed, which runs apps they will make money off of.
Of course androids will feel pain! Pain is a basic thing that most living things have... That indicates that pain is a good design feature, despite the unpleasentness.
The real question is will they dream of electric sheep?
Web browsing technology will be standard in the next generation of cell phones. Want more info? check out this press release What it really means is that phone.com basically has this whole thing locked up.
How is this any better than the Microsoft "Will only work on MS Windows" philosophy?
Umm, this is an open standard which anyone can use. If I wrote an API for Linux made the it an open standard would I get flamed for not writing the BeOS and BSD versions of the API? It's a public API and how it works is well known. If you want it for BSD or BeOS do it yourself....
SGI has only made it easier for people or companies to make openGL API's on other OS's.
I forgot to mention in my other post. If you are having problems like that with the shutter glasses it may be because they are not set up correctly. I dont know what kind you are using but when we switched to the IR emitters from http://www.nuvision3d.com our whole setup worked better. These use a tiny fraction of the power that the StereoGraphics crystalEyes glasses we had before used. If you are using the IR emitters make sure you have more than one. Buy enough to make sure the glasses always recieve a signal no matter where the user is facing.
I've worked with immersaDesks/CAVE's for while. Here goes my current view on them.
1) It is almost impossible to get the stereo parameters correct if what you are looking at is very dynamic. -- In order to make imersive display work you know exactly where someone is and exactly what they are looking at. With this info you can make the scene look pretty good. The problem is that a small error here gives people headaches, nausea, motion-sickness and the general impression that it 'SUCKS'. The problem with the cave is that you have 5 people looking in different places and there is no way to get it right.
2) The RF emitter/receiver system used for headtracking can way to difficult to keep running and acurate. Even the newest stuff they sell to do this seems like it's 20 yrs old and I haven't seen it done really well yet.
3) When it works you really knock peoples socks off. I think it's worth all of that effort because this system really does let you convey much more info and understanding than 2D or non-immersive 3D. Despite all the difficulties with it I think you'll start seeing it everywhere when we can fix the two problems above. I've seen too many customers come in and oh and ahh for hours to think otherwise.
Please update the posted Slash code. Let's do as Alan Cox suggested and try posting patches instead of this endless stream of suggestions for Rob. The best candidates could be picked out and tried for a day or two.
It shows up suddenly when it is your turn. You get a new slashbox telling you how many pts you have, an option menu at the bottom of each comment to give input on a comment, and a "moderate" button to submit your changes at the bottom of the comment page.
The Steven's piece has pointed out several weaknesses in Slashdot moderation. If Slashdot moderation were ideal all you would have to do is set your threshold to 1 and you wouldn't have to worry about this. This is not an ideal system... so we should think of ways to make it better.
Here are some of the previous proposals: ---------------------------------------- 1) Make it easier to score thing negative. The current moderation system can be overloaded by spam like attacks. This is useful because you want moderation pts spent on finding good posts, not weeding out bad ones. But how do you make sure this is not abused? or that valid but possibly inflammatory comments are not marked down? Both things will happen.
2) Eliminate Anonymous Cowardice... This sounds extreme.. even if we do something simple like requiring a mail address to post I think many good comments from knowledgeable sources will not be made.
3) Combat moderator overload by making more moderators The problem here is that average posts may get marked higher than they should.
Here goes what I propose as a solution. -------------------------------------- 1) Make the score system secondary to classification system. Let moderators classify posts as "Funny", "Informative", or "Flamebait" without spending pts. This way a post might show up as 30%flamebait but 70% funny. This make fair moderation a non-issue because every moderator gets a say about every post. Add a second category to measure the quality of the post as "Must Read", "Good Read", or "Average" this might cost points to moderate or simply be an average of what all the moderators think.
2) Instead of having moderators make only 5 moderations take a look at post volume on that subject. Discussion threads with a very high number of posts need more moderation than normal. Detect this and let moderators make multiple changes cheaply in these threads.
2) Personalize the scoring system for each reader. Already in preferences there are ways to add pts to long posts or subtract from short. This would be an extension to let the reader decide what kind of posts show up. Here goes a list of possible features. 1) each feature listed here may be turned on or off in preferences 2) add/subtract pts to posts from certain authors. 3) subtract pts from all AC's 4) add/subtract from certain types of posts -i.e. humor +1 flamebait -1.
Slashdot Mirror
Poll results as of Sunday 4:50PM PST
1. Do you agree with the judge's findings of fact in the Microsoft case?
total responses to this question: 25468
Agree 80.21%
Disagree 19.79%
2. Does Microsoft, in your opinion, have illegal monopoly power in the software operating systems for personal computers?
total responses to this question: 25437
Yes 77.26%
No 22.74%
3. What action should the judge take to punish Microsoft?
total responses to this question: 42896
Split the
company
into
multiple
companies.
34.90%
Order
changes in
company
practices.
32.14%
Impose
fines.
23.56%
No action.
9.40%
4. Does the judge's decision go too far?
total responses to this question: 25338
No 78.24%
Yes 21.76%
Just imagine we had this component library. Imagine that we had a huge database of reliable components that would work together easily. If this library were GPL'ed it would actually not be available for general usage buy just anyone. The program you were plugging it into would have to be GPL'ed as well. This would be a great incintive for newly developed programs to use the GPL as well. The result is the ability to tell management that by using the GPL you could get your product to the market faster, with less bugs and with more standard features. Although the LGPL is great it does not promote open source applications to this degree.
This isn't viral behavior but there is a bandwagon or "me too" effect that is associated with the GPL.
As to cost of living... Maybe I should have left that alone. I live in the Silicon Valley and cost of living here is much more expensive than other places in the US. Cost of living is such a relative thing. I speak from what my friends from Europe told me, so they might be wrong. Who knows.
A lot of people get into America on H1 visa status. There are three reasons this doesn't work for most people:
1) There is a limited number of H1's available. This year they ran out of them in spring.
2) often pay rates offered for H1's are lower
3) it seems much tougher to switch jobs.
As a result many of the people I know who work over here have something shady going on. You know Mexican's are not the only ones who want to work in the US but can't.
One friend of mine came over on a 6 month tourist visa and interviewed for several months... He found an american to marry so he is still here. During the 6 months he looked he was not able to get an H1. Another friend of mine leads a start-up here in Mountain View.. He travels back to the UK every couple months so that he can say he isn't living here.
I think if you have a company which will sponser you and pay to move you across the lake you should think twice about it. As soon as you get over here start looking for something better. Although it is tougher to switch as an H1 it may be easier than anything else. Note, pay attention to what city they will put you in. If they are the only company in town it will be difficult to interview at other places.
Also pay attention to how much you will have to pay them back. One more thing... American programmers can get paid many times what you would make in Europe... but the higher cost of living here makes up for it, so be carefull about that too.
this link is an article from mercury news about how slashdotted they are.
Obviously this is a logical error. Linux is Unix, The only way Linux could hurt Unix is if it reduced the usage or value Unix as a whole. Surely he isn't saying the Linux will have a negative usage or value. It can be said that Linux competes with other Unix variants, but anyone who knows how internetworking Unix is also understands that Linux is likely to increase sales of SOLARIS/IRIX/AIX/etc...
NT competes with Unix as a whole... not only Linux. The more usefull and desireable Linux is, the more usefull all the other Unixes become. This is the fundamental thing that SGI and IBM understand but the Gatner group doesn't seem to get. In the end, Linux doesn't have to replace win32 to be successful, it merely has to be functional and be available.
- Babelfish doesn't use an intermediate language.
- Babelfish doesn't even achieve loseless translation from language A to B and back to A. This is the simplest case and one which can be improved the most with a good definition for UNL
They do not claim perfect translation, but yes computer which could translate between languages and do it perfectly would pass the test. Do you really argue that it is impossible for computer programs to ever pass the turing test? It is only a matter of time till this happens. The only way to stop it is to stop making computers. This could be a real concern. You have to hope that once the UNL is defined you could extend it for your own purposes and still have every thing work. Here we are readingMicrowave is just a number.
Humans invented the term microwave... there is nothing different about it other than the period of the generated wave. Will it fry you is what you really want to know. The fact is any electomagnetic energy can fry you. It's a function of how much energy is output, how far you are from it, and how long you are exposed. Faster period means more energy, yes, but the fact that it is 1GHZ as ooposed to 700 Mhz doesn't mean as much as where the source is, what's between you and it, how far you are from it, and how long you stay there.
During WW 1 the Germans sent a message to the Mexicans telling them to attack the US. The message went over American telegraph lines. Guess who intercepted the message. Was it international spying? or just stupid Germans?
As for you Canadians... we have your number. Because your info goes over our lines we've already know everything about your plan to conquer Seattle. We've decided to trade you Seattle and Redmond for Montreal. I think it's a damn good trade.
Where can someone find good Dvorak Keyboards?
In the past I've used xmodmap to change the letters around... but the letters printed on the keyboard are still wrong. Also that doesn't work for windows.
I had symptoms of Carpal Tunnel for almost 3 years! God it was painful! I got a Microsoft Natural Keyboard, it helped a little but not enough. I wore the wrist braces all the time. These helped a lot but I still felt pain occasionally. I would take enormous amounts of Alieve and other asprin like drugs. That reduced pain the most and would make swelling go down... but didn't solve the problem. I tried trackballs which helped my wrist but made my thumb really hurt. I tried ergonomic chairs, new postures you name it. The way I finally solved the problem was by trying another doctor!
My new doctor said I had been mis-diagnosed for CTS!!! Can you imagine the expression on my face? He said that most of the people he sees for CTS have been mis-diagonsed. He said get rid of the braces and pills and exercise instead. I went to a physial therapist who did the standard training stuff eleco-therapy,ice-packs, whirlpools of hot water. I learned new exercises that strengthened my wrists and elbows.... and slowly the pain went away. I noticed significant improvement in 3-4 weeks. I was out of the braces completely in 2 months. It took maybe 4 months of work to completely heal. Where I used to feel constant pain daily , I might feel a twinge now if I play too much Soul Caliber.
So my word to everyone out there having wrist/elbow pain is to do some research. Sometimes your doctor is wrong. Carpal Tunnel is a specific problem that many people get misdiagnosed for. Simply being in shape and strengthening muscles will solve many peoples problems.
I laughed, I cried. You have completely edumacated me on the Mae Ling Mak naked and petrified movement. I will no longer settle for Mae Ling Mak immobilized and not fully clothed! BTW, let's petrify Jennifer Lopex and Tyra Binks while we are at it.
Linux is a direct competitor to Solaris. When you thnik about it.. Linux is much more of a threat to Solaris than NT. SUN still thinks they can make money by getting more people to use Solaris. Not putting Java on Linux means that if you want unix + Java they want you to buy an OS from SUN. Before Linux, Solaris was the dominant Unix OS. Linux has rapidly stolen the lime-light and the Apps that would have been done on Solaris. They will talk about Linux say how good a thing it is but deep down they feel just as afraid as MicroBorg. It all boils down to this, if you talk about Unix to SUN.. they will try to sell you as OS they wrote, for a machine they designed, which runs apps they will make money off of.
Of course androids will feel pain! Pain is a basic thing that most living things have... That indicates that pain is a good design feature, despite the unpleasentness.
The real question is will they dream of electric sheep?
Web browsing technology will be standard in the next generation of cell phones. Want more info? check out this press release What it really means is that phone.com basically has this whole thing locked up.
I'll take the bait and respond to this troll.
How is this any better than the Microsoft "Will only work on MS Windows" philosophy?
Umm, this is an open standard which anyone can use. If I wrote an API for Linux made the it an open standard would I get flamed for not writing the BeOS and BSD versions of the API? It's a public API and how it works is well known. If you want it for BSD or BeOS do it yourself....
SGI has only made it easier for people or companies to make openGL API's on other OS's.I forgot to mention in my other post. If you are having problems like that with the shutter glasses it may be because they are not set up correctly. I dont know what kind you are using but when we switched to the IR emitters from http://www.nuvision3d.com our whole setup worked better. These use a tiny fraction of the power that the StereoGraphics crystalEyes glasses we had before used. If you are using the IR emitters make sure you have more than one. Buy enough to make sure the glasses always recieve a signal no matter where the user is facing.
I've worked with immersaDesks /CAVE's for while. Here goes my current view on them.
1) It is almost impossible to get the stereo parameters correct if what you are looking at is very dynamic. -- In order to make imersive display work you know exactly where someone is and exactly what they are looking at. With this info you can make the scene look pretty good. The problem is that a small error here gives people headaches, nausea, motion-sickness and the general impression that it 'SUCKS'. The problem with the cave is that you have 5 people looking in different places and there is no way to get it right.
2) The RF emitter/receiver system used for headtracking can way to difficult to keep running and acurate. Even the newest stuff they sell to do this seems like it's 20 yrs old and I haven't seen it done really well yet.
3) When it works you really knock peoples socks off. I think it's worth all of that effort because this system really does let you convey much more info and understanding than 2D or non-immersive 3D. Despite all the difficulties with it I think you'll start seeing it everywhere when we can fix the two problems above. I've seen too many customers come in and oh and ahh for hours to think otherwise.
Please update the posted Slash code.
Let's do as Alan Cox suggested and try posting patches instead of this endless stream of suggestions for Rob. The best candidates could be picked out and tried for a day or two.
It shows up suddenly when it is your turn. You get a new slashbox telling you how many pts you have, an option menu at the bottom of each comment to give input on a comment, and a "moderate" button to submit your changes at the bottom of the comment page.
*I also posted this in the slashdot poll*
... so we should think of ways to make it better.
The Steven's piece has pointed out several weaknesses in Slashdot moderation. If Slashdot moderation were ideal all you would have to do is set your threshold to 1 and you wouldn't have to worry about this. This is not an ideal system
Here are some of the previous proposals:
----------------------------------------
1) Make it easier to score thing negative.
The current moderation system can be overloaded by spam like attacks. This is useful because you want moderation pts spent on finding good posts, not weeding out bad ones. But how do you make sure this is not abused? or that valid but possibly inflammatory comments are not marked down? Both things will happen.
2) Eliminate Anonymous Cowardice...
This sounds extreme.. even if we do something simple like requiring a mail address to post I think many good comments from knowledgeable
sources will not be made.
3) Combat moderator overload by making more moderators
The problem here is that average posts may get marked higher than they should.
Here goes what I propose as a solution.
--------------------------------------
1) Make the score system secondary to classification system. Let moderators classify posts as "Funny", "Informative", or "Flamebait" without spending pts. This way a post might show up as 30%flamebait but 70% funny. This make fair moderation a non-issue because every moderator gets a say about every post. Add a second category to measure the quality of the post as "Must Read", "Good Read", or "Average" this might cost points to moderate or simply be an average of what all the moderators think.
2) Instead of having moderators make only 5 moderations take a look at post volume on that subject. Discussion threads with a very high number of posts need more moderation than normal. Detect this and let moderators make multiple changes cheaply in these threads.
2) Personalize the scoring system for each reader. Already in preferences there are ways to add pts to long posts or subtract from short. This would be an extension to let the reader decide what kind of posts show up. Here goes a list of possible features.
1) each feature listed here may be turned on or off in preferences
2) add/subtract pts to posts from certain authors.
3) subtract pts from all AC's
4) add/subtract from certain types of posts -i.e. humor +1 flamebait -1.