I have to provide multiple formats because it's hard for users to find the right codecs to be able to consume my media.
I don't see the issue: whenever I visit a website with a flash thingy, I see a message inviting me to download the flash player from the Adobe/Macromedia site, not the website itself. Surely you could make something like that where it directs the user to a site where royalty-free and non-patent-encumbered codecs can be downloaded for Ogg/Theora (xiph.org perhaps, if they have the bandwidth).
The point is that unlike WMV etc., codecs for all the most used platforms and architectures can be written for Ogg/Theora.
I realize MPEG-4 is a standard but I thought that even though it was licensed R.a.n.D, it was not *free* (as in beer) to implement; please correct me if I'm wrong.
I find it a bit worrying that most of the population in any given country don't understand how important and precious the small percentage of anti-government malcontents are, to keep their government sane and honest. You've heard of "checks and balances": this is one of them. Notice it when your government starts its own "National Reorganization Process" (symptom: a lot less anti-government malcontents on the streets).
Thank you for bothering to answer here on Slashdot. I hope your contribution to ECMA helped. Seeing how things like that ceiling() function slipped through, I have my doubts though..
Why is there an upper limit to how fast you can accelerate a proton? I mean in energy, as it approaches c, does something bad happen as it reaches that threshold? Relativistics was never my forte.
You're welcome. I hope I didn't explain it all wrong. Do you mean Coltrane or William Burroughs?
I think the confusion in this discussion about printer drivers is like this: the low-level printer drivers are in the Linux kernel and are therefore programmed by what you could call "kernel programmers". These people have offered to write drivers for all kinds of equipment if the manufacturers can't be bothered to write them due to perceived lack of marketshare.
The problem with printers is that these low-level drivers are all already written and working; what they are is the parallel port driver, the USB drivers, the network drivers. Still, if you bought a printer, and it is connected via a parallel port or USB or network driver, for some brands of printers it will not work. Why is my printer not supported by Linux? Are these kernel people lying, or lazy?
I think the most plausible answer to that riddle is that, even though you can send your page of printed text to the printer (either in text format or PostScript or even PCL), and Linux will dutifully transmit it with the correct protocol and parameters, some printers just refuse to print it..
I can speculate as well as anyone else why this is, but except if you have buggy parallel port or USB or network drivers, none of this can really be blamed on the Linux programmers IMHO: no matter how many you let work on the problem, you won't get any improvement: it's just not a "kernelspace" problem but a "userspace" problem, i.e. how does the page of text have to look in order to be printed by your printer.
<speculation>
I don't actually know much about printing, but from what I gather, printers refusing to print can often be caused by one of these two causes, both clearly the domain of the printer manufacturer:
the printer expects a binary dump of every pixel in the page, delivered by your computer at a certain speed, because the printer is cheap and dumb as shit, or
the printer expects commands in a mystical proprietary printer language which only selected operating system companies are allowed to know.
I'm not saying there aren't reasons for these two cases (e.g. the PostScript language is patented so a printer manufacturer would have to charge you extra to repay those royalties for the PostScript chip in your printer) but it does make it more difficult for anyone to make a userspace program that can take your document, transform it to a format the printer reluctantly accepts, and let the Linux kernel feed it to the printer.
On that "further reading" link, amongst the other members of ECMA TC45 are:
The following organizations have participated in the work of Ecma TC45 and their contributions are gratefully acknowledged: Apple, Barclays Capital, BP, The British Library, Essilor, The Gnome Foundation, Intel, The Library of Congress, Microsoft, NextPage, Novell, Statoil, and Toshiba.
I can't imagine why the British Library and the Library of Congress support such a crappy standard, while there already is one which they could improve if they'd like (If you work at either and are reading this, please consider joining the OASIS office TC as well, home of the ISO ODF standard;-) ).
The skillsets aren't that far away from each other.
I don't know, you know -- the kernel is written in C and a bit assembler, which are easy languages to learn, but the CUPS printer drivers for example are in the form of Adobe.ppd files which looks more like Forth. Know any C developers who are also PostScript/Forth developers?
To follow up on your analosy: a Windows developer can not go fix an Epson driver even if he wants to, but a Linux kernel developer can help fix a userspace driver problem if only he wants to. That's the big advantage of Open Source.
I disagree: leaving aside the difference between Linux kernel developer and userspace driver developer, there is still a huge issue in that the specs are generally not available. A driver can't be coded from vacuum, you need either the specs from the manufacturer or you have to painstakingly reverse-engineer the whole thing (which is even illegal in some countries).
And I think this is a problem of market share: if a manufacturer refuses to give Microsoft the specs for their device, they lose 90+ % of the market. If they refuse to give any skilled Linux developer the specs, they lose only < 5% of the market.
(That being said, I don't actually understand the reasons why manufacturers deny any developer who wants them, access to their device specs, for a small copying fee.)
Following up to myself here: maybe the foregoing was confusing, because printing is a bit special because the low-level functions (how long to wait etc.) are presumably standardized (either standard parallel port or send it over ethernet I guess), but here the high-level functions (i.e. how to encode the data to be sent to the printer) is not. And this high-level encoding is done in user-space by a program library called CUPS. And if the printer maker refuses to give the documentation necessary to write a CUPS driver (Adobe.ppd file) for your printer, well then you should just return the printer to them or complain to your country's consumer organization because you're S.O.L.
Probably other people can describe it much better, but here goes:
From an end user's perspective, "userspace" is what you see, the programs you start up and interact with. "kernelspace" is something you only encounter when the system crashes or a floppy drive is stuck or a line printer on fire etc.
From a technological point of view, Unix-like operating systems have a clear separation between "kernelspace" and "userspace".
The kernel is a program that always runs and "does everything". It is supposed to only do the low-level tasks, close to hardware, such as scheduling (which userspace program is allowed to run next) and I/O (send bits to a parallel port printer and wait x microseconds).
Between kernel and userspace is a software library called the system library; for Unix-like OSes usually written in C, libc. This contains functions like write() and read() that are implemented by sending commands to the kernel to do something via "system calls". Whether those commands are actually executed then depends on the permissions model, because programs using the system library are all run as if executed by a "user".
This brings us to userspace: an end-user wanting to print something in the gimp program presses a button, the gimp program is running under the privileges of that end user, the userspace programmers who wrote gimp tied the "print button press" action to a gimp function which at one point does a libc call write(printer, data), the C library function write() takes the data and <start handwaving> invokes the kernel's SYS_write() call (I think) with permissions from that end user and a pointer to the data in user memory and a pointer to the printer device special file (everything looks like a file in Unix) and then the gimp program will just sleep and halt and be activated again when the kernel decides to give it another slice of CPU time (for example, after the kernel has done the actual printing, or at least called the kernel functions to get the actual what-have-you brand printer driver functions to do their voodoo with the user-presented data).</end vague handwaving>
But as you can probably tell I'm not a real system programmer so I'll gladly let someone else correct me from here:-)
Another way to donate is to give your personal time, if you're a careful reader with a good eye for mistakes: www.pgdp.net and for the books in less ASCIIfyable scripts the european version, dp.rastko.net (warning, currently down, please don't slashdot it).
You drank the Microsoft Kool-aid that interoperability protocols and file formats == trade secrets. Interoperability information CANNOT be trade secrets! Think about it ffs.
Even the judge of the Court of First Instance was on to Microsoft trying to paint it that way, and he's a judge not a programmer. All involved parties, with the notable exception of Microsoft itself, have repeatedly publicly stated that they DO NOT WISH to see Microsoft's preciousss source code, because that is not required for interoperability.
To elaborate on the (Debian/Ubuntu specific?) meaning of the word "meta-package": what (I think) pp means is that, apt-get install xubuntu-desktop is equivalent to "install all things that the makers of the distro thought you would want to have installed if you wanted to own a xubuntu-desktop". Therefore, removing the printer drivers means that this set of software is no longer fully complete. Whether anyone (e.g. you) cares is a topic of conversation between you and the distro-makers. Usually, it's not a problem.
Whether the remaining software that was also depended upon by the xubuntu-desktop meta-package still works is not clear but unless it uses those specific printer drivers I'd say you're probably OK:-)
Beware though if you propose an upgrade and apt-get or synaptic offers to remove a few hundred packages to make this possible -- you may want to think that action over!
Microsoft is a U.S.A company, right? Wrong. Microsoft is a multinational company.
Now imagine they move HQ from Redmond to Shanghai. If you're an USian, would you still feel the same way when your deactivated auto-update program suddenly automatically updates something unknown (according to Microsoft, just itself)?
That's more than a factor 1000 difference! I could imagine an uncertainty between 27 or 40000 barrels, but 270 million or 400 billion, that would be "this would sustain the current consumption in USA for 14 days" vs. ".. for 54 years". But as you say if production has started then we'll see how much is produced. I thought shale needed a wholly different production process from drilling.
The resources of the Bakken Formation are defined by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) as
unconventional "continuous-type" oil resources. This means the hydrocarbons within the Bakken have not
accumulated into discrete reservoirs of limited areal extent. Other examples of "continuous-type" oil or natural
gas resources are from low-permeability (tight) formations (e.g. Austin Chalk), shales, and coalbeds.
so that means it will get economical to extract once the oil price goes way up.
Optimistic estimate of its contents is 270 million barrels, which compared to the USA oil consumption in 2003 of 20 million barrels
would mean exploitation of this expensive low-concentration shale field would give 2 weeks more of oil consumption.
I don't know what you'd have to do to get all the oil out of shale; dig it all up and boil out the oil, or what?
IANACS but I would imagine their argument is something like this: global warming could lead to severe problems for agriculture in several countries (e.g. this picture from 2001, which would lead to famine and mass migrations, which could easily lead to war (i.e. loss of fraternity between the nations).
And any large sea-level rise would lead to tremendous losses in the global economy (see this picture, featured on Slashdot recently. You recognize the continents? why is it that you recognize the continents on this picture? think about that.), which could also lead to destabilization and war.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't see the issue: whenever I visit a website with a flash thingy, I see a message inviting me to download the flash player from the Adobe/Macromedia site, not the website itself. Surely you could make something like that where it directs the user to a site where royalty-free and non-patent-encumbered codecs can be downloaded for Ogg/Theora (xiph.org perhaps, if they have the bandwidth).
The point is that unlike WMV etc., codecs for all the most used platforms and architectures can be written for Ogg/Theora.
I realize MPEG-4 is a standard but I thought that even though it was licensed R.a.n.D, it was not *free* (as in beer) to implement; please correct me if I'm wrong.
John Dvorak? Is that you?
It's probably forbidden in Germany (I hope). In Dutch it's called "hoofdkaas" nowadays (shudder).
PP gives a plausible sounding solution.
Please read a bit more history. You said:
Agreed, but that difference depends also on what lawmakers you have, because they decide what constitutes a criminal offense:<insta-Godwin> Februari staking 1941 </insta-Godwin>
I find it a bit worrying that most of the population in any given country don't understand how important and precious the small percentage of anti-government malcontents are, to keep their government sane and honest. You've heard of "checks and balances": this is one of them. Notice it when your government starts its own "National Reorganization Process" (symptom: a lot less anti-government malcontents on the streets).
Thank you for bothering to answer here on Slashdot. I hope your contribution to ECMA helped. Seeing how things like that ceiling() function slipped through, I have my doubts though..
Why is there an upper limit to how fast you can accelerate a proton? I mean in energy, as it approaches c, does something bad happen as it reaches that threshold? Relativistics was never my forte.
I think the confusion in this discussion about printer drivers is like this: the low-level printer drivers are in the Linux kernel and are therefore programmed by what you could call "kernel programmers". These people have offered to write drivers for all kinds of equipment if the manufacturers can't be bothered to write them due to perceived lack of marketshare.
The problem with printers is that these low-level drivers are all already written and working; what they are is the parallel port driver, the USB drivers, the network drivers. Still, if you bought a printer, and it is connected via a parallel port or USB or network driver, for some brands of printers it will not work. Why is my printer not supported by Linux? Are these kernel people lying, or lazy?
I think the most plausible answer to that riddle is that, even though you can send your page of printed text to the printer (either in text format or PostScript or even PCL), and Linux will dutifully transmit it with the correct protocol and parameters, some printers just refuse to print it..
I can speculate as well as anyone else why this is, but except if you have buggy parallel port or USB or network drivers, none of this can really be blamed on the Linux programmers IMHO: no matter how many you let work on the problem, you won't get any improvement: it's just not a "kernelspace" problem but a "userspace" problem, i.e. how does the page of text have to look in order to be printed by your printer.
<speculation>
I don't actually know much about printing, but from what I gather, printers refusing to print can often be caused by one of these two causes, both clearly the domain of the printer manufacturer:
I'm not saying there aren't reasons for these two cases (e.g. the PostScript language is patented so a printer manufacturer would have to charge you extra to repay those royalties for the PostScript chip in your printer) but it does make it more difficult for anyone to make a userspace program that can take your document, transform it to a format the printer reluctantly accepts, and let the Linux kernel feed it to the printer.
I can't imagine why the British Library and the Library of Congress support such a crappy standard, while there already is one which they could improve if they'd like (If you work at either and are reading this, please consider joining the OASIS office TC as well, home of the ISO ODF standard ;-) ).
I disagree: leaving aside the difference between Linux kernel developer and userspace driver developer, there is still a huge issue in that the specs are generally not available. A driver can't be coded from vacuum, you need either the specs from the manufacturer or you have to painstakingly reverse-engineer the whole thing (which is even illegal in some countries).
And I think this is a problem of market share: if a manufacturer refuses to give Microsoft the specs for their device, they lose 90+ % of the market. If they refuse to give any skilled Linux developer the specs, they lose only < 5% of the market.
(That being said, I don't actually understand the reasons why manufacturers deny any developer who wants them, access to their device specs, for a small copying fee.)
Following up to myself here: maybe the foregoing was confusing, because printing is a bit special because the low-level functions (how long to wait etc.) are presumably standardized (either standard parallel port or send it over ethernet I guess), but here the high-level functions (i.e. how to encode the data to be sent to the printer) is not. And this high-level encoding is done in user-space by a program library called CUPS. And if the printer maker refuses to give the documentation necessary to write a CUPS driver (Adobe .ppd file) for your printer, well then you should just return the printer to them or complain to your country's consumer organization because you're S.O.L.
From an end user's perspective, "userspace" is what you see, the programs you start up and interact with. "kernelspace" is something you only encounter when the system crashes or a floppy drive is stuck or a line printer on fire etc.
From a technological point of view, Unix-like operating systems have a clear separation between "kernelspace" and "userspace". The kernel is a program that always runs and "does everything". It is supposed to only do the low-level tasks, close to hardware, such as scheduling (which userspace program is allowed to run next) and I/O (send bits to a parallel port printer and wait x microseconds).
Between kernel and userspace is a software library called the system library; for Unix-like OSes usually written in C, libc. This contains functions like write() and read() that are implemented by sending commands to the kernel to do something via "system calls". Whether those commands are actually executed then depends on the permissions model, because programs using the system library are all run as if executed by a "user".
This brings us to userspace: an end-user wanting to print something in the gimp program presses a button, the gimp program is running under the privileges of that end user, the userspace programmers who wrote gimp tied the "print button press" action to a gimp function which at one point does a libc call write(printer, data), the C library function write() takes the data and <start handwaving> invokes the kernel's SYS_write() call (I think) with permissions from that end user and a pointer to the data in user memory and a pointer to the printer device special file (everything looks like a file in Unix) and then the gimp program will just sleep and halt and be activated again when the kernel decides to give it another slice of CPU time (for example, after the kernel has done the actual printing, or at least called the kernel functions to get the actual what-have-you brand printer driver functions to do their voodoo with the user-presented data).</end vague handwaving>
But as you can probably tell I'm not a real system programmer so I'll gladly let someone else correct me from here :-)
Another way to donate is to give your personal time, if you're a careful reader with a good eye for mistakes: www.pgdp.net and for the books in less ASCIIfyable scripts the european version, dp.rastko.net (warning, currently down, please don't slashdot it).
Even the judge of the Court of First Instance was on to Microsoft trying to paint it that way, and he's a judge not a programmer. All involved parties, with the notable exception of Microsoft itself, have repeatedly publicly stated that they DO NOT WISH to see Microsoft's preciousss source code, because that is not required for interoperability.
Whether the remaining software that was also depended upon by the xubuntu-desktop meta-package still works is not clear but unless it uses those specific printer drivers I'd say you're probably OK :-)
Beware though if you propose an upgrade and apt-get or synaptic offers to remove a few hundred packages to make this possible -- you may want to think that action over!
Fourier Transform rulez!one!1
Ye gods.. the hours I wasted on that one.. thanks for the memory!
Microsoft is a U.S.A company, right? Wrong. Microsoft is a multinational company.
Now imagine they move HQ from Redmond to Shanghai. If you're an USian, would you still feel the same way when your deactivated auto-update program suddenly automatically updates something unknown (according to Microsoft, just itself)?
</tinfoil hat>
That's more than a factor 1000 difference! I could imagine an uncertainty between 27 or 40000 barrels, but 270 million or 400 billion, that would be "this would sustain the current consumption in USA for 14 days" vs. ".. for 54 years". But as you say if production has started then we'll see how much is produced. I thought shale needed a wholly different production process from drilling.
A US DOE report (here) calls this
so that means it will get economical to extract once the oil price goes way up.
Optimistic estimate of its contents is 270 million barrels, which compared to the USA oil consumption in 2003 of 20 million barrels would mean exploitation of this expensive low-concentration shale field would give 2 weeks more of oil consumption.
I don't know what you'd have to do to get all the oil out of shale; dig it all up and boil out the oil, or what?
Maybe the gibbon will grab their attention. I hope compiz has stabilized enough in the meantime, though.
And any large sea-level rise would lead to tremendous losses in the global economy (see this picture, featured on Slashdot recently. You recognize the continents? why is it that you recognize the continents on this picture? think about that.), which could also lead to destabilization and war.