"i heard another rumor that they might be taking the my out of my documents, my pictures, etc so it will just be 'pictures, documents, music' etc etc... dont know how accurate it is though."
This is due to MS new rental license agreement. When Longhorn is eventually released, the hardware and all files created using said hardware and OS will be the property of Microsoft and for only $10 a month you will have the right to access them. As a result MS will need to change the labels "My Computer" and "My Documents" etc as that is no longer legally correct.;)
Thanks for that advice about hitting the first letter of the application. I'd just reorganised my taskbar so that I have more space for the task buttons by removing my quick launch toolbar (in favour of icons on the main start menu like you) and installing Tray Pilot to hide the system tray. Before that I'd routinely have to use the up and down arrows on the taskbar to move between 3 or more "pages" of task buttons.
"integrating the graphics into the kernel like BeOS and skyos"
Umm - graphical subsystems belong in userspace. Most unstable systems are unstable due to badly written drivers, and so you want to keep these away from the kernel. Graphics drivers are part of the kernel in recent (since NT4 IIRC) Windows NT based systems (they're ring 0), so if they crash they bring down the kernel too. Stability is worth more than any performance gain.
"Religion of one form or another has always been a part of human history. People need something to believe in for reassurance and because it's human nature to want to find reasons for the universe etc."
We have science, and unlike religion, it's flexible and improves it's theories as it gathers more evidence. Religion is simply what we believed before we knew any better. It's superstitious claptrap and dangerous when taken literally.
We should fight terrorism and the causes of terrorism. Encouraging the promotion of science can only help.
I'm not sure, but I don't think Firefox extensions are compiled. If this is the case it would be easy enough to strip out the offending code if necessary. It won't be needed though because Google will offer the option to disable this sort of behaviour just like they do in the IE version.
I'm not the parent poster, but it seems to me that religion is the cause of most of these problems. If we could somehow stop people believing in this crap we would stop the problem.
Oh, and it might be good if we could wean ourselves off oil so that we're not dependent on the middle east...
Look at this to see the view of someone from the other side. We're "well meaning but deeply mislead" apparently...
"Today we - you! - saved patentability of computer implemented inventions. Nothing that was patentable yesterday will be unpatentable tomorrow and vice versa.
At the 11th hour the European Parliament resoundingly rejected attempts by the anti-patent groups to narrow the scope of patentability for high-tech inventions. Your businesses are safe.
Of course we do not have a harmonised EU-wide system for protecting computer implemented inventions and that is a pity. If we had had our way - and another few months - we would have had just that. However, after five years of intense lobbying by well meaning but deeply mislead programmers, the fact that the Parliament was not ready to accept their arguments is a testament to the hours of hard work put in by people across Europe."
Interesting to see that Andrew Duff (who worked with Michel Rocard and Jerzy Buzek to write the ammendments) abstained. I wonder what his reasoning was.
Any idea where we can find a list of how the different MEPs voted (especially the 14 who voted for it and whether they voted for the ammended or unammended version)?
Here's the contents of an advisory email about this sort of thing from the FFII (lists of MEPs removed to get around/. lameness filter). The "Key Messages" section for each party is particularly interesting. -------- Dear XYZ,
You have registered as a supporter of FFII and thereby agreed to receiving e-mails which tell you how you can support our work.[1]
The European Parliament will vote next Tuesday or Wednesday. Unless more than half of the members (= 367) vote for serious amendments, the Council's version will become law and US-style software patent enforcement will begin in Europe.
* Check that your MEP will attend the plenary session, an abstention is a vote for the unmodified council version.
We recommend him/her to vote for the 21 cross-party amendments[2], but even a vote for the official liberal or conservative party line is probably better than not showing up or abstaining. If the 21 cross-party amendments do not get passed we recommend that your MEP should vote to reject the directive.
* At this point sending e-mails alone is probably of no great value. Below you find a list of UK MEPs with phone numbers and some hints on specific messages to be delivered.
* Phone calls can be very effective if you are well informed. *Otherwise they can backfire*. Always be polite, never get aggressive. Explain clearly how software patents would affect *you* and *your* business. Only contact MEPs from *your own* region.[4]
* Before calling your MEP by phone, please make sure you have read the 21 cross-party amendments yourself, have a printed copy ready beside your phone and are well aware of the central ones, particularly Amendments 8, 4, 3, 9 and 1.
* It would also be good to have read the FFII discussion paper[3]. You can use Sunday (tonight) and Monday morning for preparation. MEPs arrive in Strasburg Monday afternoon.
* For help, please email the UK coordinators at uk-help@ffii.org with your name, region and relevant details of your business or profession.
"What was wrong with 2000's search is the same thing that is currently wrong with XP's search: it sucks. It's slow and inaccurate."
Try Agent Ransack. It supports regular expressions and lists matching lines (like a graphical grep) and I've been using it frequently for the last 2 years or so...
"Say hello," he demanded coldly, "to my little friend!"
Without the narrative interruption in the middle, the quote would read, "Say hello to my little firend!" Note the absence of the comma from the uninterrupted quote? The comma does not change the meaning of the quoted text any more than the trailing punctuation does.
But there is a difference between: "Say hello to my little friend!" and "Say hello, to my little friend!" The comma creates a pause and unnecessarily breaks up the sentance.
This reminds me of a story I heard once about people using the blitter on the Amiga for some kind of number crunching task. Apparently it was much faster to use the blitter than to use the CPU!:)
Sorry to reply to my own post, but here's another one:
a bunch of water should be a load of water or loads of water You can only say there's a bunch of something when it's a plural. Say I wrote a load of code or I wrote a bunch of lines of code, but never I wrote a bunch of code.
I'm doing good should usually be I'm doing well Doing good is what do-gooders do:)
I'll write you should be I'll write to you As an example of why this is wrong, think of the statement I'll write my name. When spoken, I'll write you sounds like I'll write "you".
I said "Abracadabra." should be I said "Abracadabra". Adding periods to the inside of the quotes changes the quoted text. As an example of why this is wrong, think of the phrase Click the button labelled "Start."
Slashdot Mirror
Nice trick - it takes a while to setup but it's cool none the less...
"i heard another rumor that they might be taking the my out of my documents, my pictures, etc so it will just be 'pictures, documents, music' etc etc... dont know how accurate it is though."
;)
This is due to MS new rental license agreement. When Longhorn is eventually released, the hardware and all files created using said hardware and OS will be the property of Microsoft and for only $10 a month you will have the right to access them. As a result MS will need to change the labels "My Computer" and "My Documents" etc as that is no longer legally correct.
Thanks for that advice about hitting the first letter of the application. I'd just reorganised my taskbar so that I have more space for the task buttons by removing my quick launch toolbar (in favour of icons on the main start menu like you) and installing Tray Pilot to hide the system tray. Before that I'd routinely have to use the up and down arrows on the taskbar to move between 3 or more "pages" of task buttons.
"integrating the graphics into the kernel like BeOS and skyos"
Umm - graphical subsystems belong in userspace. Most unstable systems are unstable due to badly written drivers, and so you want to keep these away from the kernel. Graphics drivers are part of the kernel in recent (since NT4 IIRC) Windows NT based systems (they're ring 0), so if they crash they bring down the kernel too. Stability is worth more than any performance gain.
"Religion of one form or another has always been a part of human history. People need something to believe in for reassurance and because it's human nature to want to find reasons for the universe etc."
We have science, and unlike religion, it's flexible and improves it's theories as it gathers more evidence. Religion is simply what we believed before we knew any better. It's superstitious claptrap and dangerous when taken literally.
We should fight terrorism and the causes of terrorism. Encouraging the promotion of science can only help.
I'm sure it was a group affiliated with Al Qaeda, but I can't help wondering why they attacked the Edgware Road tube in London's Arab district?
I'm not sure, but I don't think Firefox extensions are compiled. If this is the case it would be easy enough to strip out the offending code if necessary. It won't be needed though because Google will offer the option to disable this sort of behaviour just like they do in the IE version.
I'm not the parent poster, but it seems to me that religion is the cause of most of these problems. If we could somehow stop people believing in this crap we would stop the problem.
Oh, and it might be good if we could wean ourselves off oil so that we're not dependent on the middle east...
Place the two words in quotes.
Look at this to see the view of someone from the other side. We're "well meaning but deeply mislead" apparently...
"Today we - you! - saved patentability of computer implemented inventions. Nothing that was patentable yesterday will be unpatentable tomorrow and vice versa.
At the 11th hour the European Parliament resoundingly rejected attempts by the anti-patent groups to narrow the scope of patentability for high-tech inventions. Your businesses are safe.
Of course we do not have a harmonised EU-wide system for protecting computer implemented inventions and that is a pity. If we had had our way - and another few months - we would have had just that. However, after five years of intense lobbying by well meaning but deeply mislead programmers, the fact that the Parliament was not ready to accept their arguments is a testament to the hours of hard work put in by people across Europe."
Read more...
Interesting to see that Andrew Duff (who worked with Michel Rocard and Jerzy Buzek to write the ammendments) abstained. I wonder what his reasoning was.
You can read a press release from him here
...I've been looking for this info all day.
Did they vote for the ammended or unammended version?
Any idea where we can find a list of how the different MEPs voted (especially the 14 who voted for it and whether they voted for the ammended or unammended version)?
Actually, I think the best thing would be for the directive to be passed with the 21 cross-party amendments (read more about the Buzek-Rocard-Duff amendments here: http://wiki.ffii.org/AmPlenPr050701En and here: http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/europarl0309/amends05 /komprom0506.en.pdf)
Failing that we want a rejection of course...
Here's the contents of an advisory email about this sort of thing from the FFII (lists of MEPs removed to get around /. lameness filter). The "Key Messages" section for each party is particularly interesting.
/komprom0506.en.pdf /ffiiepp050615.en.pdf
--------
Dear XYZ,
You have registered as a supporter of FFII and thereby agreed to receiving e-mails which tell you how you can support our work.[1]
The European Parliament will vote next Tuesday or Wednesday. Unless more than half of the members (= 367) vote for serious amendments, the Council's version will become law and US-style software patent enforcement will begin in Europe.
On 5 July there will be a demonstration in Strasbourg, with coaches from Paris, Brussels, Munich, Amsterdam and possibly elsewhere http://noepatents.eu.org/index.php/StbDemo050604
Final things for you to do:
* Check that your MEP will attend the plenary session, an abstention is a vote for the unmodified council version.
We recommend him/her to vote for the 21 cross-party amendments[2], but even a vote for the official liberal or conservative party line is probably better than not showing up or abstaining. If the 21 cross-party amendments do not get passed we recommend that your MEP should vote to reject the directive.
* At this point sending e-mails alone is probably of no great value. Below you find a list of UK MEPs with phone numbers and some hints on specific messages to be delivered.
* Phone calls can be very effective if you are well informed. *Otherwise they can backfire*. Always be polite, never get aggressive. Explain clearly how software patents would affect *you* and *your* business. Only contact MEPs from *your own* region.[4]
* Before calling your MEP by phone, please make sure you have read the 21 cross-party amendments yourself, have a printed copy ready beside your phone and are well aware of the central ones, particularly Amendments 8, 4, 3, 9 and 1.
* It would also be good to have read the FFII discussion paper[3]. You can use Sunday (tonight) and Monday morning for preparation. MEPs arrive in Strasburg Monday afternoon.
* For help, please email the UK coordinators at uk-help@ffii.org with your name, region and relevant details of your business or profession.
* More instructions on how to contact your MEP are at http://wiki.noepatents.eu.org/index.php/MEPinfo
With kind regards, Hartmut Pilch and Alex Macfie, FFII
[1] Your user id is XYZ at http://aktiv.ffii.org/, in case of
difficulties you also may contact buero at ffii.org.
[2] Buzek-Rocard-Duff amendments
http://wiki.ffii.org/AmPlenPr050701En
http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/europarl0309/amends05
[3] http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/europarl0309/juri0504
[4] Map of UK Euro regions at
http://www.europarl.org.uk/uk_meps/MembersMain.htm
UK MEPs
email @europarl.eu.int
Strasbourg phone, MEP assistant: 0033-3881-77 XXX
Strasbourg phone, MEP him/herself: 0033-3881-75 XXX
Strasbourg fax: 0033-3881-79 XXX
LIBDEMS (ALDE UK)
=================
Messages:
Please follow the 21 cross-party amendments which are championned by Andrew Duff
http://www.andrewduffmep.org.uk/news/163.html
The Duff line conforms to the recommendations of the UK Libdem party policy documents and of the European Liberal Youth (LYMEC)
"What was wrong with 2000's search is the same thing that is currently wrong with XP's search: it sucks. It's slow and inaccurate."
Try Agent Ransack. It supports regular expressions and lists matching lines (like a graphical grep) and I've been using it frequently for the last 2 years or so...
"Everybody knows it'll end in nothing happening at all."
I hope not. I want to SCO be declared bankrupt.
"Say hello," he demanded coldly, "to my little friend!"
Without the narrative interruption in the middle, the quote would read, "Say hello to my little firend!" Note the absence of the comma from the uninterrupted quote? The comma does not change the meaning of the quoted text any more than the trailing punctuation does.
But there is a difference between:
"Say hello to my little friend!"
and
"Say hello, to my little friend!"
The comma creates a pause and unnecessarily breaks up the sentance.
"I've found that illiteracy and good programming seldom come from the same individual."
Only if you think script kiddies are good programmers.
This reminds me of a story I heard once about people using the blitter on the Amiga for some kind of number crunching task. Apparently it was much faster to use the blitter than to use the CPU! :)
To be more specific it's when the noun is countable and plural.
Sorry to reply to my own post, but here's another one:
a bunch of water
should be
a load of water or loads of water
You can only say there's a bunch of something when it's a plural. Say I wrote a load of code or I wrote a bunch of lines of code, but never I wrote a bunch of code.
I'm doing good :)
should usually be
I'm doing well
Doing good is what do-gooders do
I'll write you
should be
I'll write to you
As an example of why this is wrong, think of the statement I'll write my name. When spoken, I'll write you sounds like I'll write "you".
I said "Abracadabra."
should be
I said "Abracadabra".
Adding periods to the inside of the quotes changes the quoted text. As an example of why this is wrong, think of the phrase Click the button labelled "Start."
Maybe we can figure out how to get cheap energy from fusion before oil production peaks in 3 to 5 years time.
See here and here
You might also want to look at XCB, an asynchronous replacement for Xlib.
There's a lot of good work going on!