You'd think so, wouldn't you? But of my past three jobs, two of which were with large (30k+ employees) companies, the standard for intranet development was IE. On the internet side the existence of other browsers was acknowledged, but it was basically OK for them to not get "advanced features" as long as the basics worked (i.e. the page didn't get totally borked).
The worst thing about Java, supposedly a "write once run anywhere" language, is that you can't run anywhere. You can only run on platforms that Sun has ported a JRE to. This is why projects like Kaffe are so important. With an open-source implementation of the Java specs, you never have to worry about unsupported platforms or Sun yanking the rug out from under you.
Sounds like I might get a better database with PG, but it would also force me to become a better database admin. Dunno if I have the time for that, unfortunately. This is only a hobby project, and I have barely any time the way it is.
Couldn't agree more! The 17th Amendment needs to be repealed. It was an attempt to "solve" a procedural issue with filling empty Senate seats, but it had unintended side effects, as we have seen. What it should have done is allow the governor to make a temporary Senate appointment if the state legislature can't decide within a reasonable timeline, say 60 days, much like he can if the legislature is out of session. When the legislature finally makes up its collective mind, their selection can replace the appointee.
I've been saying this for some time now. I think the original ratio was 1:35k. That would be something like 8000 congressman, which is a little unwieldy, but we could certainly change the cap to 1000. Having over twice as many congressman would make a difference. With smaller constituencies they would become more responsive, and there would be a greater chance of third parties winning which enhances diversity of political thought. And that's what's sorely needed!
A side effect would be the greater power accorded to large states in the Electoral College, which many who want to abolish it would like to see. I'm not among those, as the EC has a very essential role if you study the federal design of our national gov't and the reasons for it.
Amen to that. If you vote "against incumbents" by going Rep when it's a Dem or Dem when it's a Rep, you're fooling yourself that you're making any difference at all. Not a dime's worth of difference, as it has been said. The only way we'll see a change is when people start voting third party in large numbers. If we were to get a few in, maybe electoral reform would be raised as a serious issue in our statehouses. If you're staying home on election day as a protest, the Duopoly candidates thank you. Get out and vote for any third party on the ballot. And if you're actually voting for the same old same old and expecting things to change, you're nuts. Neither the Dems or Reps are interested in changing the system significantly - they more-or-less maintain the status quo because it's the status quo system that got them into office. Shake things up! Vote third party!
Just when I get about ready to start another project with MySQL, another bit of news about Postgres comes along, making me wonder if I should make the switch to a "real" RDBMS. After all, if I want to be a professional developer, I should be using "real" tools, not "toys", right? OTOH, I can find more references and resources for help if I go the MySQL route, making my life easier. Dilemmas, quandaries, decisions, oh my!
I don't DL music, just rip my CDs. But it sounds like what I want to do is possible if I just get into iTunes more and learn about these "smart playlists".
I want little robots powered by fat, and only fat. During the winter when people start to bulk up, they ingest a couple of these nanites, and let the trimming begin! A nice side effect would be the heat given off, to keep warm in the cold.
Xfce still tries to be a "full desktop environment" AFAIK. If you just need a low-impact WM, try IceWM. I use it on my low-end boxes, all the way down to 16MHz. If you do need a full desktop, Xfce is better than Gnome or KDE.
Exactly my point. With GPL, the code is "free" whatever that means...people are actually restricted in what they can do with it in order to keep the code "free".
I agree. An honest teaching of any scientific theory ought to at least mention the observations that the theory does not adequately explain. In our time, with men routinely going into space and computers that churn out data faster than anybody can use it, anything "scientific" is taken to be as good as gold. (I was going to say "as gospel truth" but that simile didn't seem to work as well in this particular thread!:-)
If we're trying to teach kids to have an open mind, to question, to think for themselves, and not to just blindly accept what they're told - which is critical for good scientific thought - we need to be honest that the theories are not perfect, and teach their flaws, too. A supposedly flawless theory is too easily accepted as unquestionable, and that's not what we want. Maybe the kid will grow up to throw down that theory and replace it with another. Maybe the kid will grow up to fix the theory in a way that accounts for the previous flaw. We don't know, and we do science a disservice if we set up any theory as unassailable.
Even atheists and agnostics, to be truly open-minded, have to be willing to admit the possibility that a Deity may exist, that some religion might have the right take on metaphysical reality. (That may or may not have direct bearing on his/her personal situation, but that's a different subject.) Said Deity may affect the universe in ways beyond the capability of science to explain. So yes, keep using science to look for a naturalistic explanation, but be prepared that you may never find one because it may not exist.
Of course, the religious also have to be willing to accept the possibility that there is no Deity, and that we simply have an imperfect understanding of how the rules of the universe work. The fundamental nature of the universe may be a question we'll eventually figure out...100,000 years from now. I personally can accept that possibility. It just doesn't fit my personal observations.
"Closed-mindedness" is not the exclusive province of the religious. Practitioners of science are just as susceptible. Intellectual honesty requires that both reexamine their beliefs, and be open that those beliefs may be completely wrong. There's nothing wrong with being wrong, as long as you are willing to change. Everyone makes mistakes.
Back in the System 7 days, I brought my Mac home from college. It had come with an intro/tutorial on the desktop metaphor and mouse usage. My mom had never used a computer beyond text entry/searching on a dumb terminal at a library, and she found it very useful. I don't know why every computer doesn't still ship with something like this.
My wife bought her first computer 6 years ago (to send emails to me, heh heh) and often lamented that you spend all this money but don't even get a simple training manual (beyond how to physically connect it all) written for non-techie people. Of course, usage is often better demonstrated by watching than by reading.
I don't know if this is a completely accurate synopsis of the GPL vs BSD licenses, but it's useful shorthand for me:
GPL gives freedom to code.
BSD gives freedom to people.
I don't know about you, but I think freedom for people is more important. Some people abuse freedom, but I'm not convinced it's my place to take freedom away on those grounds.
That said, I do think that there are useful places for GPL.
Where's this source? Since when is Java OSS? If I knew there was source, I wouldn't have been shouting about availability of Java for NetBSD for the past year.
A 1.25 GHz G4 is just about as fast as they come, but it's at the very bottom of the speed ladder of any currently shipping consumer CPU. The low end in x86 is what, 2.2 GHz now? Blows the G4 away. A G5 at 1.25 GHz might be competitive though.
You don't need 1.8, even 1.25 GHz is fine, as long as it's a G5. This is a great idea, one that many Mac fanatics have been dreaming of since the demise of the Cube. But Apple might be shooting themselves in the foot if they make it virtually obsolete coming out the door. But you're right, if this had been available last spring even at that low a speed it would have cannibalized at least one PowerMac sale: mine. However, I'd be upgrading in about 2 years instead of 5 like I plan to now. I posted earlier about my reasoning.
If you compare the Mac feature-for-feature to a PC, the price is pretty comparable. You almost always have to "upgrade" the PC to get what the Mac considers standard features. The 'books especially; they've been that way longer than the desktops. The days of paying a premium just to have a "Mac" are over.
Last spring I bought a dual G5, my first new Mac in 6 years. My last Mac was also top end for that time. It was 5 years old, and replaced a high mid-range Mac. My needs are really not that great, so why spend the money? Because I've invested in a very nice monitor that would go to waste with an iMac. Therefore, I buy top-end and make it last 5-6 years.
However, with a low-end headless Mac, it suddenly makes much more sense to go that route and upgrade every 2-3 years. I'll never be on the front end of the speed curve, sure, but I'll also never fall as far back as I do now, either. Not only do I get the new hardware, but an OS upgrade thrown in for free, whereas now I would have to pay to jump a major revision.
If this turns out to be true (and is still true 5 years from now when I'm back in the market) and it has even one slot and upgradeable RAM, I know what I'll be buying.
Slashdot Mirror
You'd think so, wouldn't you? But of my past three jobs, two of which were with large (30k+ employees) companies, the standard for intranet development was IE. On the internet side the existence of other browsers was acknowledged, but it was basically OK for them to not get "advanced features" as long as the basics worked (i.e. the page didn't get totally borked).
Forget browsers. Four or five major political parties (speaking as USian) would be a nice improvement, too.
The worst thing about Java, supposedly a "write once run anywhere" language, is that you can't run anywhere. You can only run on platforms that Sun has ported a JRE to. This is why projects like Kaffe are so important. With an open-source implementation of the Java specs, you never have to worry about unsupported platforms or Sun yanking the rug out from under you.
Sounds like I might get a better database with PG, but it would also force me to become a better database admin. Dunno if I have the time for that, unfortunately. This is only a hobby project, and I have barely any time the way it is.
I do use a *BSD. Where can I get more detail on this issue? Kernel recompile, gahhh...
Couldn't agree more! The 17th Amendment needs to be repealed. It was an attempt to "solve" a procedural issue with filling empty Senate seats, but it had unintended side effects, as we have seen. What it should have done is allow the governor to make a temporary Senate appointment if the state legislature can't decide within a reasonable timeline, say 60 days, much like he can if the legislature is out of session. When the legislature finally makes up its collective mind, their selection can replace the appointee.
I've been saying this for some time now. I think the original ratio was 1:35k. That would be something like 8000 congressman, which is a little unwieldy, but we could certainly change the cap to 1000. Having over twice as many congressman would make a difference. With smaller constituencies they would become more responsive, and there would be a greater chance of third parties winning which enhances diversity of political thought. And that's what's sorely needed!
A side effect would be the greater power accorded to large states in the Electoral College, which many who want to abolish it would like to see. I'm not among those, as the EC has a very essential role if you study the federal design of our national gov't and the reasons for it.
Amen to that. If you vote "against incumbents" by going Rep when it's a Dem or Dem when it's a Rep, you're fooling yourself that you're making any difference at all. Not a dime's worth of difference, as it has been said. The only way we'll see a change is when people start voting third party in large numbers. If we were to get a few in, maybe electoral reform would be raised as a serious issue in our statehouses. If you're staying home on election day as a protest, the Duopoly candidates thank you. Get out and vote for any third party on the ballot. And if you're actually voting for the same old same old and expecting things to change, you're nuts. Neither the Dems or Reps are interested in changing the system significantly - they more-or-less maintain the status quo because it's the status quo system that got them into office. Shake things up! Vote third party!
Just when I get about ready to start another project with MySQL, another bit of news about Postgres comes along, making me wonder if I should make the switch to a "real" RDBMS. After all, if I want to be a professional developer, I should be using "real" tools, not "toys", right? OTOH, I can find more references and resources for help if I go the MySQL route, making my life easier. Dilemmas, quandaries, decisions, oh my!
I don't DL music, just rip my CDs. But it sounds like what I want to do is possible if I just get into iTunes more and learn about these "smart playlists".
Yup...
Now back to my regularly scheduled drudgery...
How do I put a song into multiple genres? Say, sub-genres, or actual "crossover" music?
I want little robots powered by fat, and only fat. During the winter when people start to bulk up, they ingest a couple of these nanites, and let the trimming begin! A nice side effect would be the heat given off, to keep warm in the cold.
Xfce still tries to be a "full desktop environment" AFAIK. If you just need a low-impact WM, try IceWM. I use it on my low-end boxes, all the way down to 16MHz. If you do need a full desktop, Xfce is better than Gnome or KDE.
Exactly my point. With GPL, the code is "free" whatever that means...people are actually restricted in what they can do with it in order to keep the code "free".
I agree. An honest teaching of any scientific theory ought to at least mention the observations that the theory does not adequately explain. In our time, with men routinely going into space and computers that churn out data faster than anybody can use it, anything "scientific" is taken to be as good as gold. (I was going to say "as gospel truth" but that simile didn't seem to work as well in this particular thread! :-)
If we're trying to teach kids to have an open mind, to question, to think for themselves, and not to just blindly accept what they're told - which is critical for good scientific thought - we need to be honest that the theories are not perfect, and teach their flaws, too. A supposedly flawless theory is too easily accepted as unquestionable, and that's not what we want. Maybe the kid will grow up to throw down that theory and replace it with another. Maybe the kid will grow up to fix the theory in a way that accounts for the previous flaw. We don't know, and we do science a disservice if we set up any theory as unassailable.
Even atheists and agnostics, to be truly open-minded, have to be willing to admit the possibility that a Deity may exist, that some religion might have the right take on metaphysical reality. (That may or may not have direct bearing on his/her personal situation, but that's a different subject.) Said Deity may affect the universe in ways beyond the capability of science to explain. So yes, keep using science to look for a naturalistic explanation, but be prepared that you may never find one because it may not exist.
Of course, the religious also have to be willing to accept the possibility that there is no Deity, and that we simply have an imperfect understanding of how the rules of the universe work. The fundamental nature of the universe may be a question we'll eventually figure out...100,000 years from now. I personally can accept that possibility. It just doesn't fit my personal observations.
"Closed-mindedness" is not the exclusive province of the religious. Practitioners of science are just as susceptible. Intellectual honesty requires that both reexamine their beliefs, and be open that those beliefs may be completely wrong. There's nothing wrong with being wrong, as long as you are willing to change. Everyone makes mistakes.
Back in the System 7 days, I brought my Mac home from college. It had come with an intro/tutorial on the desktop metaphor and mouse usage. My mom had never used a computer beyond text entry/searching on a dumb terminal at a library, and she found it very useful. I don't know why every computer doesn't still ship with something like this.
My wife bought her first computer 6 years ago (to send emails to me, heh heh) and often lamented that you spend all this money but don't even get a simple training manual (beyond how to physically connect it all) written for non-techie people. Of course, usage is often better demonstrated by watching than by reading.
I don't know if this is a completely accurate synopsis of the GPL vs BSD licenses, but it's useful shorthand for me:
I don't know about you, but I think freedom for people is more important. Some people abuse freedom, but I'm not convinced it's my place to take freedom away on those grounds.
That said, I do think that there are useful places for GPL.
Now watch me get modded down into oblivion...
This is what makes projects like Kaffe all the more important.
Where's this source? Since when is Java OSS? If I knew there was source, I wouldn't have been shouting about availability of Java for NetBSD for the past year.
A 1.25 GHz G4 is just about as fast as they come, but it's at the very bottom of the speed ladder of any currently shipping consumer CPU. The low end in x86 is what, 2.2 GHz now? Blows the G4 away. A G5 at 1.25 GHz might be competitive though.
You don't need 1.8, even 1.25 GHz is fine, as long as it's a G5. This is a great idea, one that many Mac fanatics have been dreaming of since the demise of the Cube. But Apple might be shooting themselves in the foot if they make it virtually obsolete coming out the door. But you're right, if this had been available last spring even at that low a speed it would have cannibalized at least one PowerMac sale: mine. However, I'd be upgrading in about 2 years instead of 5 like I plan to now. I posted earlier about my reasoning.
If you compare the Mac feature-for-feature to a PC, the price is pretty comparable. You almost always have to "upgrade" the PC to get what the Mac considers standard features. The 'books especially; they've been that way longer than the desktops. The days of paying a premium just to have a "Mac" are over.
Last spring I bought a dual G5, my first new Mac in 6 years. My last Mac was also top end for that time. It was 5 years old, and replaced a high mid-range Mac. My needs are really not that great, so why spend the money? Because I've invested in a very nice monitor that would go to waste with an iMac. Therefore, I buy top-end and make it last 5-6 years.
However, with a low-end headless Mac, it suddenly makes much more sense to go that route and upgrade every 2-3 years. I'll never be on the front end of the speed curve, sure, but I'll also never fall as far back as I do now, either. Not only do I get the new hardware, but an OS upgrade thrown in for free, whereas now I would have to pay to jump a major revision.
If this turns out to be true (and is still true 5 years from now when I'm back in the market) and it has even one slot and upgradeable RAM, I know what I'll be buying.
Is there a NetBSD liveCD around for x86?