The point isnt to support lots of platforms, it's to allow x86 run on x86_64 platforms. In theory it's fantastic but the reality is that this will enable people to be lazy in that they will only release a build for x86 and just ignore all about 64-bit platforms because they can. While it would be great, not every Linux application or game is open source. Why make a 64-bit build when it can cause incompatibility because of bad coding practices? Even with open source, developers on a 32-bit systems will feel no need for 64-bit binary packages if their 32-bit stuff works on everything.
This is enabling people to release for ONLY the x86 platform. Will companies release for x86_64 if you demand it? YES! It happened with Flash and companies are realizing that a ton of people use 64-bit.
Look at Windows, there are a TON of new applications that are released only as a 32-bit build.
x86 is obsolete, we are in a 64-bit world now. Stop letting people hold us back!
I'm not sure what the complaint is about 1 second open to window time for a modern file manager.
no. for me, Nautilus open a new folder window instantly.
I agree with you that Dolphin's control panel isn't the best. It's too dumbed down.
that's not what i was talking about.
Works fine for me, but it would be nice to have a little bit of snap to position.
my issue is that they snap to hard to position but it ends up being the wrong position.
On your conclusion, I have to just kind of sigh and roll my eyes. Your experience is indicative of someone with little experience in that you were unable to recognize a GPU driver issue.
i have the latest Nvidia drivers (binary package) installed and it runs my games and other OpenGL programs with ease. stop being a bully.
i've been on Gnome a while and have seen KDE advance. Plasma seemed particularly interesting and how they integrated apps seemed cool. today i tried KDE again and now i'm back in Gnome 2.x writing this.
complaints:
my biggest complaint is that they took away the desktop icons. it's a big deal. i have files on my desktop that are fast and easy to access and they took those away from me! i searched a good half our trying to find how to restore them but low and behold, it's not just a configuration, they removed that functionality completely. if you are about to say, "hey! you cant criticize, Gnome 3 does that too!" i would like to reiterate i'm using Gnome 2.x for that same reason.
it's graphics accelerated but not snappy. i expected since the graphic render system is offloaded that it would be super snappy but alas, it is NOT! opening a new file manager window or any thing else took a second, sitting there with a "busy" cursor. before you blame my hard drive, please know that i have a very high-speed SSD (cost me an arm but talked them down so i could keep the leg). even Gnome's file manager (Nautilus) renders faster and it's no slimline file manager.
one annoying thing is the file manager's configuration fragmentation. in the file manager, you can right click lots of different things and configure them but not everything. it's really annoying to have to open eight different configuration windows instead of just one with a well organized system for configuring everything in the file manager.
setting up widgets in the panels can be a little clumsy trying to put a widget between two others and i hope that will be addressed.
conclusion:
it's pretty but it can be frustrating to use. it's not ready for general consumption.
and please dont tell me KDE is for "advanced users and not you, noob!" or some BS because i've been on the Linux scene over a decade using everything from kernel configuration frontends to IDEs to that damn fish applet. i know what i'm talking about.
I see a schism of people forming: the "real names are good!" and the "nooo! my privacy!". The privacy people are really complaining that they are losing anonymity.
How I see it is people are fed up with people trolling/spamming and the trolls/spammers can stay anonymous so that they feel safe.
The people that think they are losing privacy really mean they are losing their anonymity, a psychological protective layer. When you get a message saying, "Mister Fancypants99, you need to grow up," it doesn't have the same psychological impact as "Kevin Smith, you need to grow up." When anonymous and if you make too many enemies, you can just destroy your account and make a new identity for yourself.
I really wish they would take this one step further and require a verification by phone and limiting the number of accounts that number can make in a certain period of time. This would really cut down on the Kevin Smiths of the world that just want to troll people.
I'm not saying people that want to be anonymous are trolls but I am saying it makes being a troll a lot easier.
MS is obviously ignoring the real solution to this heat: low power architectures like ARM.
If they could make this heating system a reality, it would ensure the life of x86 which they are deeply invested in as tons of server apps still use native x86 code. They may be able to switch over their own server apps but some other apps might get ported. Additionally, with people buying new server systems they may decide they are fed up with paying MS, their non-ported server apps, paying for expensive cooling system and paying for high power machines and switch to ARM and Linux because MS isn't ready to switch to ARM. Sure Microsoft showed off Win 7 ported but there is a good chance efficiency sucks and the kernel is far from ready and likely runs very slow on 1.2GHz, even with symmetric processing.
Microsoft could find them losing a substantial part of their remaining server market share to other OSes, primarily Linux that are ready for ARM and just about any other architecture.
On top of this, their good buddies Intel are completely committed to x86 as they sold off their ARM assets and their attempts to move to their own custom architecture failed miserably. With AMD making strides ahead of Intel Atom in the low power x86 front, making Intel's high heat byproduct a benefit would really give Intel a boost. If the market switches to ARM, Intel is completely screwed as there are major players like Texas Instruments invested in the ARM architecture (see OMAP 4 and 5).
As many of you know, ARM is currently limited to 1.2GHz chips but since that is going to be kicked up to 2+ GHz in 2012 so that isnt a real excuse anymore. The server market has a good chance of switching to ARM servers if savings in software, power and cooling outweigh the cost of new Linux servers in a short period.
---------------------
for those who said "tl;dr" the short version is Microsoft and Intel are scared of the server market moving to ARM CPUs so they want to lock into x86 if they can by setting up permanent heating systems.
mods before you mark this a troll, please consider my point carefully as it has validity.
the people in question would not have ToS violations for their names if they had put their real names in the "real name" fields and their nickname/alias in the "nickname" field.
Kirrily "Skud" Robert is not his real name. Kirrily Robert is his real name and Skud is his nickname. Limor Fried “Ladyada” is not a real name but Limor Fried is.
While heavy-handed and without warning, these users did actually violate the ToS. That said, it seems Google should inform users that adding their nickname to their real name is not ok.
Facebook has done a wonderful job in providing what people want and a central location where all your friends can communicate. Facebook has also pleased advertisers by sharing details about the users. Both sides love what Facebook has to offer.
However, users that are aware of them hate Facebook's business practices. In other words, Facebook is a typical arrogant company that feels nothing for their consumers, just their profits. Take a look around at the mega-sized tech companies around and you will notice they are just as horrible, why does this surprise you?
If anything, people should be flabbergasted by how well Google treats and stands up for their customers. Google isnt perfect but they are the only mega-company i know that actually tries to be ethical even if it hurts their bottom line.
when you write software/drivers you cant expect the first, second or even third version to be perfect. you make it work and then you optimize it. this is the same way the proprietary drivers started out.
the Internet is NOT responsible for our memories being stored differently, it's our brains that have done that on their own. the human brain is incredible at organizing and optimizing itself which is a trait machines are far from achieving. giving an altered environment and without intervention, a new memory storage schema was implemented. how awesome is that?!:D
the Internet does nothing but provide access to information. how we utilize that information is determined by our brains.
if law enforcement can do their job in a timely manner then they wont need this level of logging. if they cannot then perhaps we need better people in law enforcement.
the system serves the people, not the other way around.
we all know that excluding trackers ends up being a game of whack-a-mole. you block some trackers and more will show up when you aren't looking. the solution is simple: whitelisting.
cookies whitelisting cookies is a must because good guys, bad guys and even the oblivious have sites that want to store cookies on your system.
JavaScript JavaScript is a lesser offender but noscript can help you here.
flash the most insidious of cookies are flash cookies. some argue flash is the most insidious in it's own right but that is another issue. using Flashblock prevents those lame invisible flash trackers while not completely incapacitating a site you want to use flash on. just click on the flash object and voila!
images we've all seen and not seen them: tracker images. they are either the unseen invisible ones or the "site stats by X CORP!" image. their mechanism is rudimentary and can be thwarted by not allowing off site images which can be troublesome with some pages that use high-speed hosts for static images.
however, there are going to be places you enable one of these that you don't want to be tracked.
there are proactive measures for most trackers.
do not track cookies the only (sane) way to enjoy their site and not be tracked is to use "do not track" cookies. they are used as an opt-out system. you have a cookie that says to not track you and in turn they dont activate their tracking mechanisms. these are silver bullets: one do not track cookie will shutdown a tracking service.ghostery is a very nifty add-on that loads your system with do not track cookies. it updates the list on it's own so if you select the option so that nobody can track you, you are golden.
all these suggestions and add-ons will do a great job but the bottom line is that if you REALLY dont want people to track what you do on the internet then STAY OFF THE INTERNET!;D
there seems to be a lot of "you cant trust them!" and "they did this on purpose!" posts on/. but let me remind you that this is a private beta. the whole point of a private beta is to work out the bugs using a small/reduced group of people so that when things go pear-shaped they aren't putting the general public at risk of huge data loss or in this case a loss of "privacy". they aren't being super private about this or trying to silence anyone, they even have a public page telling the world the problem with the site.
this shouldn't be a/. story and it only is because "everyone else is doing it"
this is excellent news for sure but it's no silver bullet. one problem is that it requires you inject the magnetic particles into the tumor which can be tricky and if you miss, it's bad news. another is if you inject too much it will kill the surrounding tissue. you may think a little extra isnt too bad but when the tumor is in your brain, it matters. lastly, there doesnt seem to be any mention of being able to remove the particles. this is a problem if you ever want to have an MRI and not have them all ripped out of your body.
a reoccurring role in technology is "do we need or want it?" and the technologies that fail to fulfill such a role have found themselves left behind. price has a role but Apple has shown it's not a deal breaker to have crazy prices.
therefore, Intel must start convincing companies to make very highspeed Thunderbolt devices. there is only one consumer end device that needs that kind of bandwidth: graphics cards. nobody wants to lug around another device with their laptop so such a device would be one left at home for gaming. for Apple this is a problem because they dont have many games to start with and i really doubt they are just going to let any ol' person start making drivers because as we've seen with many third party graphics cards, drivers are buggy. this doesnt go well with Apple's "it just works" mantra.
on the other side of the fence, Microsoft doesnt care if a device bricks your computer and they are more than happy to take money from people willing to pay to get the Microsoft driver stamp of approval. as mentioned in the article, Sony is putting Thunderbolt in their new Vaio Z laptop and their initial plan is for it to be used for external graphics cards.
this might be the graphics upgrade savior laptop gamers have been looking for but i'm skeptical.
Slashdot Mirror
'What we've actually been asked to do by Larry and Sergey is to investigate what technology alternatives exist to Java for Android and Chrome,'
LOLCODE!
just how many entries does kissmetrics.com have for Lynx?
Unfortunately, this is deceptively bad.
The point isnt to support lots of platforms, it's to allow x86 run on x86_64 platforms. In theory it's fantastic but the reality is that this will enable people to be lazy in that they will only release a build for x86 and just ignore all about 64-bit platforms because they can. While it would be great, not every Linux application or game is open source. Why make a 64-bit build when it can cause incompatibility because of bad coding practices? Even with open source, developers on a 32-bit systems will feel no need for 64-bit binary packages if their 32-bit stuff works on everything.
This is enabling people to release for ONLY the x86 platform. Will companies release for x86_64 if you demand it? YES! It happened with Flash and companies are realizing that a ton of people use 64-bit.
Look at Windows, there are a TON of new applications that are released only as a 32-bit build.
x86 is obsolete, we are in a 64-bit world now. Stop letting people hold us back!
I'm not sure what the complaint is about 1 second open to window time for a modern file manager.
no. for me, Nautilus open a new folder window instantly.
I agree with you that Dolphin's control panel isn't the best. It's too dumbed down.
that's not what i was talking about.
Works fine for me, but it would be nice to have a little bit of snap to position.
my issue is that they snap to hard to position but it ends up being the wrong position.
On your conclusion, I have to just kind of sigh and roll my eyes. Your experience is indicative of someone with little experience in that you were unable to recognize a GPU driver issue.
i have the latest Nvidia drivers (binary package) installed and it runs my games and other OpenGL programs with ease. stop being a bully.
i've been on Gnome a while and have seen KDE advance. Plasma seemed particularly interesting and how they integrated apps seemed cool. today i tried KDE again and now i'm back in Gnome 2.x writing this.
complaints:
my biggest complaint is that they took away the desktop icons. it's a big deal. i have files on my desktop that are fast and easy to access and they took those away from me! i searched a good half our trying to find how to restore them but low and behold, it's not just a configuration, they removed that functionality completely. if you are about to say, "hey! you cant criticize, Gnome 3 does that too!" i would like to reiterate i'm using Gnome 2.x for that same reason.
it's graphics accelerated but not snappy. i expected since the graphic render system is offloaded that it would be super snappy but alas, it is NOT! opening a new file manager window or any thing else took a second, sitting there with a "busy" cursor. before you blame my hard drive, please know that i have a very high-speed SSD (cost me an arm but talked them down so i could keep the leg). even Gnome's file manager (Nautilus) renders faster and it's no slimline file manager.
one annoying thing is the file manager's configuration fragmentation. in the file manager, you can right click lots of different things and configure them but not everything. it's really annoying to have to open eight different configuration windows instead of just one with a well organized system for configuring everything in the file manager.
setting up widgets in the panels can be a little clumsy trying to put a widget between two others and i hope that will be addressed.
conclusion:
it's pretty but it can be frustrating to use. it's not ready for general consumption.
and please dont tell me KDE is for "advanced users and not you, noob!" or some BS because i've been on the Linux scene over a decade using everything from kernel configuration frontends to IDEs to that damn fish applet. i know what i'm talking about.
I see a schism of people forming: the "real names are good!" and the "nooo! my privacy!". The privacy people are really complaining that they are losing anonymity.
How I see it is people are fed up with people trolling/spamming and the trolls/spammers can stay anonymous so that they feel safe.
The people that think they are losing privacy really mean they are losing their anonymity, a psychological protective layer. When you get a message saying, "Mister Fancypants99, you need to grow up," it doesn't have the same psychological impact as "Kevin Smith, you need to grow up." When anonymous and if you make too many enemies, you can just destroy your account and make a new identity for yourself.
I really wish they would take this one step further and require a verification by phone and limiting the number of accounts that number can make in a certain period of time. This would really cut down on the Kevin Smiths of the world that just want to troll people.
I'm not saying people that want to be anonymous are trolls but I am saying it makes being a troll a lot easier.
MS is obviously ignoring the real solution to this heat: low power architectures like ARM.
If they could make this heating system a reality, it would ensure the life of x86 which they are deeply invested in as tons of server apps still use native x86 code. They may be able to switch over their own server apps but some other apps might get ported.
Additionally, with people buying new server systems they may decide they are fed up with paying MS, their non-ported server apps, paying for expensive cooling system and paying for high power machines and switch to ARM and Linux because MS isn't ready to switch to ARM.
Sure Microsoft showed off Win 7 ported but there is a good chance efficiency sucks and the kernel is far from ready and likely runs very slow on 1.2GHz, even with symmetric processing.
Microsoft could find them losing a substantial part of their remaining server market share to other OSes, primarily Linux that are ready for ARM and just about any other architecture.
On top of this, their good buddies Intel are completely committed to x86 as they sold off their ARM assets and their attempts to move to their own custom architecture failed miserably. With AMD making strides ahead of Intel Atom in the low power x86 front, making Intel's high heat byproduct a benefit would really give Intel a boost.
If the market switches to ARM, Intel is completely screwed as there are major players like Texas Instruments invested in the ARM architecture (see OMAP 4 and 5).
As many of you know, ARM is currently limited to 1.2GHz chips but since that is going to be kicked up to 2+ GHz in 2012 so that isnt a real excuse anymore. The server market has a good chance of switching to ARM servers if savings in software, power and cooling outweigh the cost of new Linux servers in a short period.
---------------------
for those who said "tl;dr" the short version is Microsoft and Intel are scared of the server market moving to ARM CPUs so they want to lock into x86 if they can by setting up permanent heating systems.
mods before you mark this a troll, please consider my point carefully as it has validity.
the people in question would not have ToS violations for their names if they had put their real names in the "real name" fields and their nickname/alias in the "nickname" field.
Kirrily "Skud" Robert is not his real name. Kirrily Robert is his real name and Skud is his nickname.
Limor Fried “Ladyada” is not a real name but Limor Fried is.
While heavy-handed and without warning, these users did actually violate the ToS. That said, it seems Google should inform users that adding their nickname to their real name is not ok.
Facebook has done a wonderful job in providing what people want and a central location where all your friends can communicate. Facebook has also pleased advertisers by sharing details about the users. Both sides love what Facebook has to offer.
However, users that are aware of them hate Facebook's business practices. In other words, Facebook is a typical arrogant company that feels nothing for their consumers, just their profits. Take a look around at the mega-sized tech companies around and you will notice they are just as horrible, why does this surprise you?
If anything, people should be flabbergasted by how well Google treats and stands up for their customers. Google isnt perfect but they are the only mega-company i know that actually tries to be ethical even if it hurts their bottom line.
Facebook "security update" breaks Chrome extension
the rationale
1) easy to remember (weak)
2) it's good enough (average strength)
3) holy shit, hackers! (strong)
it's a quantum leap. :)
what was the $4.19 charge for?!
when you write software/drivers you cant expect the first, second or even third version to be perfect. you make it work and then you optimize it. this is the same way the proprietary drivers started out.
which one of them was having sex with the monkeys?
the Internet is NOT responsible for our memories being stored differently, it's our brains that have done that on their own. the human brain is incredible at organizing and optimizing itself which is a trait machines are far from achieving. giving an altered environment and without intervention, a new memory storage schema was implemented. how awesome is that?! :D
the Internet does nothing but provide access to information. how we utilize that information is determined by our brains.
if law enforcement can do their job in a timely manner then they wont need this level of logging.
if they cannot then perhaps we need better people in law enforcement.
the system serves the people, not the other way around.
So this is not about criminal activity. It is about "which city has the most zombies".
close but it is actually about "which city has the most zombies that own computers".
see what i did there? ;)
so... were they cheating or not
we all know that excluding trackers ends up being a game of whack-a-mole. you block some trackers and more will show up when you aren't looking. the solution is simple: whitelisting.
cookies
whitelisting cookies is a must because good guys, bad guys and even the oblivious have sites that want to store cookies on your system.
JavaScript
JavaScript is a lesser offender but noscript can help you here.
flash
the most insidious of cookies are flash cookies. some argue flash is the most insidious in it's own right but that is another issue. using Flashblock prevents those lame invisible flash trackers while not completely incapacitating a site you want to use flash on. just click on the flash object and voila!
images
we've all seen and not seen them: tracker images. they are either the unseen invisible ones or the "site stats by X CORP!" image. their mechanism is rudimentary and can be thwarted by not allowing off site images which can be troublesome with some pages that use high-speed hosts for static images.
however, there are going to be places you enable one of these that you don't want to be tracked.
there are proactive measures for most trackers.
do not track cookies
the only (sane) way to enjoy their site and not be tracked is to use "do not track" cookies. they are used as an opt-out system. you have a cookie that says to not track you and in turn they dont activate their tracking mechanisms. these are silver bullets: one do not track cookie will shutdown a tracking service. ghostery is a very nifty add-on that loads your system with do not track cookies. it updates the list on it's own so if you select the option so that nobody can track you, you are golden.
all these suggestions and add-ons will do a great job but the bottom line is that if you REALLY dont want people to track what you do on the internet then STAY OFF THE INTERNET! ;D
they're just mad because they never get invited.
when is the law going to drop the hammer on these IP trolls?
there seems to be a lot of "you cant trust them!" and "they did this on purpose!" posts on /. but let me remind you that this is a private beta. the whole point of a private beta is to work out the bugs using a small/reduced group of people so that when things go pear-shaped they aren't putting the general public at risk of huge data loss or in this case a loss of "privacy". they aren't being super private about this or trying to silence anyone, they even have a public page telling the world the problem with the site.
this shouldn't be a /. story and it only is because "everyone else is doing it"
this is excellent news for sure but it's no silver bullet. one problem is that it requires you inject the magnetic particles into the tumor which can be tricky and if you miss, it's bad news. another is if you inject too much it will kill the surrounding tissue. you may think a little extra isnt too bad but when the tumor is in your brain, it matters. lastly, there doesnt seem to be any mention of being able to remove the particles. this is a problem if you ever want to have an MRI and not have them all ripped out of your body.
this may work for some cancers but not all.
a reoccurring role in technology is "do we need or want it?" and the technologies that fail to fulfill such a role have found themselves left behind. price has a role but Apple has shown it's not a deal breaker to have crazy prices.
therefore, Intel must start convincing companies to make very highspeed Thunderbolt devices. there is only one consumer end device that needs that kind of bandwidth: graphics cards. nobody wants to lug around another device with their laptop so such a device would be one left at home for gaming. for Apple this is a problem because they dont have many games to start with and i really doubt they are just going to let any ol' person start making drivers because as we've seen with many third party graphics cards, drivers are buggy. this doesnt go well with Apple's "it just works" mantra.
on the other side of the fence, Microsoft doesnt care if a device bricks your computer and they are more than happy to take money from people willing to pay to get the Microsoft driver stamp of approval.
as mentioned in the article, Sony is putting Thunderbolt in their new Vaio Z laptop and their initial plan is for it to be used for external graphics cards.
this might be the graphics upgrade savior laptop gamers have been looking for but i'm skeptical.