...it's on the standard distribution of just about any UNIX-like OS out there so is Java
It sure is hard to come by a current Java implementation for my Alphas running Linux. I have a feeling that other CPU's also have the same problem. Open sourcing Java would help solve that issue.
I don't think a tethered approach is possible
on
Melting Europa
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· Score: 1
According to the article, the ice, which is kilometers thick, will re-freeze right behind the probe. I think it highly unlikely that the probe will be able to drag a tether along behind it, even if we could figure out how to include one that is several kilometers long.
Have you looked at the end user license agreements that come from Microsoft, the poster child of the proprietary software world? What kind of warranty do you get with their software? Here's an extract from one of the EULA's I found on Microsoft's web site:
6. Disclaimer of warranties. Microsoft and its suppliers provide the software "as is" and with all faults, and hereby disclaim all other warranties and conditions, either express, implied or statutory, including but not limited to any (if any) implied warranties or conditions of merchantability, of fitness for a particular purpose, of lack of viruses, and of lack of negligence or lack of workmanlike effort. Also, there is no warranty or condition of title, of quiet enjoyment, or of noninfringement. The entire risk arising out of the use or performance of the software is with you.
What makes this different from Open Source software? From what I see, I'd say damn little, except that the better open source projects seem to do a better job of fixing their stuff than do the proprietary guys. Why did Stallman and company rewrite so many Unix tools in the first place? Because the proprietary versions were, and pretty much remain, crap. There was no incentive for the vendors to improve their software and the free software folks took up the challenge and responded brilliantly. Look at gcc, vim, flex, bison, gawk, and less to name a few vastly improved versions of standard Unix utilities.
Besides -- you're missing the whole point of the open source movement in the first place. The idea is that if you use open source software and you have problems with it, you can always fix them yourself. You don't have to depend on the originators to do that for you. And if you don't possess the necessary competencies to do that, you can always hire somebody who does. Hope this helps you clear your mind about what the debate is about. It's certainly not warranties.
You can surely copyright the software, but I'm pretty sure you can't copyright the algorithm. Hence the desire, and probably need, for software patents. However, I agree with the thesis that many, if not most, of these patents have gone too far. I think that if you look at what passes for a patentable idea in the "real" -- i.e., hardware -- world, you'd have to agree that at least some software ideas should be patentable. RSA is one good example, IMHO.
and FreeBSD is not "GNU/FreeBSD"? Don't they each supply a kernel with a bunch of GNU software piled on to make up a complete OS? Or does FreeBSD not use basically the same system software as Linux?
You need to get a grip on reality. Buying an SUV is legal. The other activities are illegal. Hello?
Let's see if I can adopt your thinking for a moment. Building nuclear power plants, which the French do very well I might add, reduces the need to import foreign oil. Can I then conclude that the environmentalist movement in this country supports terrorism? Well, I suppose that setting fire to SUV dealerships can be considered terrorism, so....
Um, you need to learn how to read. I responded to YOUR post, which says nothing about Lamo; NOT the article, which does. And if you read my posting, you will see that I didn't pass judgment on any of this -- I merely commented on it.
FWIW, I think that what the FBI is reportedly doing with the journalists in connection with the Lamo case is utterly reprehensible if true. And I'm not looking forward to the coming all out war that results when one of these mindless fools gets their hands on a nuke. I'm merely saying that at this point, it's pretty much inevitable. Don't put YOUR words into MY mouth, please.
The Justice Department concedes that it has applied its expanded powers to smugglers, defrauders, bookies, con artists, and drug dealers.
Perhaps you should have paid attention to the reports on how terrorists finance their operations and evade authorities. Then you might realize that some of these "run-of-the-mill criminals" are in fact engaged in terrorist activities. If you think it's bad now, just wait until one of these scum bags explodes a nuke in a major western city. It's going to happen, and the bloodlust afterward will be mind-bending.
It's ironic that Microsoft provides that service for free, whereas Linux requires paying money.
Not true. Various Linux distributions handle security (and other) updates for free and in a much cleaner fashion than Microsoft. Debian has apt-get, Mandrake as urpmi/MandrakeUpdate, and SuSE has YAST2, all of which are free. Red Hat has up2date, for which you need to buy a subscription if you don't want to use their free servers, which are nearly always too busy to use. One way that Linux improves markedly over Microsoft is that you don't have to reboot the whole machine for every little patch installation. You merely have to restart that particular service. I often wonder how high availabilty servers running Windows handle these unending security patches.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were important industrial centers, and there was no way we were going to pack up and go home without invading and occupying Japan. It's too bad so many civilians had to die. It was their leadership that led them down that path, and very many of them were willing to be led that way. What do you say of the millions of Chinese, Koreans, and Philippinos the Japanese slaughtered in their attempts to enslave the western Pacific? It's a shame that those two cities were bombed, but the Japanese went well out of their way to earn that treatment. You need to read some history books (besides the ones written and printed in Japan).
Out of curiosity, do you share the same outrage over the Japanese massacre of a couple hundred thousand civilians in Nanjing? Was that OK because they killed them a few at a time?
The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were designed to be exploded in the air, roughtly 1000 feet above the ground. They were nowhere near powerful enough to put much of a dent into Mount Fuji. Most of the damage caused at Hiroshima was done by the fires afterward. To be sure, the blast did enormous damage, but the fires that followed leveled the city. Truman and his cabinet debated the merits of various approaches and concluded that the best approach was the one they followed. I think history has shown them to have been right.
Note that 100% of Japanese cities were bombed flat in WWII, so all buildings are less than 50 years old (even without the bombing, earthquakes would keep destroying them). Thus they may all look similar to a naive visitor.
Not at all true. There were still several large cities left pretty much untouched at the end of the war. Truman in particular refused to authorize the bombing of Kyoto because of its religious, historical, and cultural significance. I might add that the Japanese military would have shown no similar sense of honor. They were insane zealots of the first magnitude. Just take a look at how they fought on the Pacific islands, especially Okinawa. If you don't believe me, ask the Koreans, Chinese, and Philippinos who experienced them firsthand.
First of all, why shouldn't some EU citizens or countries be worried, after all, the Dutch could be, since the US already has a law enacted that allows them to invade The Hague and free (sic) US soldiers kept by the ICC for war crimes. Very nice thing to do to an ally (even one that supports the invasion and occupation of Iraq).
So what have we actually done? Asserted our right to self determination? Have we actually invaded the Hague? Give me a break. As I see it, the Hague and the rest of western Europe would be speaking German had we not gone over there and kicked Nazi butt a few decades back. And our thanks for this (and for acting as a deterrent to the Soviets during the aftermath) is to be bad mouthed by all the whining, pseudo-intellectual Eurotrash that runs many of the current governments. What a bunch of sniveling cowards the French and Germans have become. OK -- not the French -- they've been that way ever since Waterloo. And we do still have real allies over there, including the UK, Spain, and the eastern European nations who remember what it's like to live under the tyranny of the Soviet Union. And it was our "increased military spending" that was a major factor in bankrupting the Soviet Union and ending their reign of terror. They (the USSR) did have a reason to worry about us -- and they should have. They were worse scumbags the Nazis.
if you look at German history before WW1 (one, not two), the similarities with today US Government arguments is striking
Boy do you have warped view of the world.
increased illusion of being mighty and superior
Are you saying we're NOT mighty? We're certainly superior when it comes to things like military power and the economy. If you're suggesting that we're not superior intellectually or morally, then you're entitled to your opinion, but you're still wrong.
And that most other countries with significant spending (such as the EU) do weapons research only so they do not fall too far behind the US.
So what are you saying -- that the EU is worried that if they don't keep up on their weapons research, we're going to sail across the pond and blow them to smithereens? Cut me a break. Perhaps you didn't learn in your basic world history class that we a) went over there twice during the last century to keep the dumbasses from destroying each other, and 2) we were founded mainly by a large number of people who fled that continent to get away from all the loonies that live there. For my money we should just have let the Soviets have their way with them after WWII. We wouldn't have to listen to all their constant whining had we done so.
Although it's true that the DoD attempted to kill the plane, the Marines worked their friends in Congress to override their own "bosses."
Are you aware that the helicopters being replaced, primarily CH-46 Sea Knights, were so horrid initially that they earned the nickname, "Boeing Body Bag?"
Huh? We're not talking about borrowing a car here. We're talking about buying a car. If your friend buys your car, he can do anything he wants to with it.
Also, this is Microsoft we're talking about. We're not talking about friends here.
Call it what you like. The bottom line is that you don't really understandmath and physics and computer science until you can actually solve problems or write programs. Reading alone does not get you there.
For that matter, people can read a whole bunch without developing critical thinking skills. I agree that reading is a prerequisite, but it's definitely not sufficient.
If you're a reader, you learn how to become a critical thinker -- and this skill -- critical thinking -- is equally important across all disciplines: math, science, literature, philosophy, you name it.
I beg to differ. That may be true in some fields, but until you learn how to solve problems in fields such as math and physics, or write programs in computer science, you will not develop particularly strong critical thinking skills as you claim. It's probably akin to the ability to write creatively in language fields.
Many architectures allow booting this way. My Alphas can be booted without a video card using their serial ports. There are IP addressable boxes that connect to rack mounted servers using their serial ports. Through these boxes, you can boot the servers remotely, monitoring their progress over the serial port. Once a machine is up an running this way, it's then available over the network.
I'm pretty sure that Sun servers can be made to work the same way.
It's common in orbital studies to use a moving reference frame that fixes two objects -- in this case, the earth and the sun -- and let everything else move with respect to them. When you do switch to such a reference frame, the asteroid's orbit looks a bit like a horseshoe with the sun at the center. This kind of reference frame is especially useful for viewing the magic of the Lagrange points.
Slashdot Mirror
I think he was referring to Safari Bookshelf. At least I hope he was. I think it was just a misguided attempt at humor.
According to the article, the ice, which is kilometers thick, will re-freeze right behind the probe. I think it highly unlikely that the probe will be able to drag a tether along behind it, even if we could figure out how to include one that is several kilometers long.
What makes this different from Open Source software? From what I see, I'd say damn little, except that the better open source projects seem to do a better job of fixing their stuff than do the proprietary guys. Why did Stallman and company rewrite so many Unix tools in the first place? Because the proprietary versions were, and pretty much remain, crap. There was no incentive for the vendors to improve their software and the free software folks took up the challenge and responded brilliantly. Look at gcc, vim, flex, bison, gawk, and less to name a few vastly improved versions of standard Unix utilities.
Besides -- you're missing the whole point of the open source movement in the first place. The idea is that if you use open source software and you have problems with it, you can always fix them yourself. You don't have to depend on the originators to do that for you. And if you don't possess the necessary competencies to do that, you can always hire somebody who does. Hope this helps you clear your mind about what the debate is about. It's certainly not warranties.
You can surely copyright the software, but I'm pretty sure you can't copyright the algorithm. Hence the desire, and probably need, for software patents. However, I agree with the thesis that many, if not most, of these patents have gone too far. I think that if you look at what passes for a patentable idea in the "real" -- i.e., hardware -- world, you'd have to agree that at least some software ideas should be patentable. RSA is one good example, IMHO.
Thanks -- great answer. I wasn't aware of the history.
and FreeBSD is not "GNU/FreeBSD"? Don't they each supply a kernel with a bunch of GNU software piled on to make up a complete OS? Or does FreeBSD not use basically the same system software as Linux?
You need to get a grip on reality. Buying an SUV is legal. The other activities are illegal. Hello?
Let's see if I can adopt your thinking for a moment. Building nuclear power plants, which the French do very well I might add, reduces the need to import foreign oil. Can I then conclude that the environmentalist movement in this country supports terrorism? Well, I suppose that setting fire to SUV dealerships can be considered terrorism, so....
Um, you need to learn how to read. I responded to YOUR post, which says nothing about Lamo; NOT the article, which does. And if you read my posting, you will see that I didn't pass judgment on any of this -- I merely commented on it.
FWIW, I think that what the FBI is reportedly doing with the journalists in connection with the Lamo case is utterly reprehensible if true. And I'm not looking forward to the coming all out war that results when one of these mindless fools gets their hands on a nuke. I'm merely saying that at this point, it's pretty much inevitable. Don't put YOUR words into MY mouth, please.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were important industrial centers, and there was no way we were going to pack up and go home without invading and occupying Japan. It's too bad so many civilians had to die. It was their leadership that led them down that path, and very many of them were willing to be led that way. What do you say of the millions of Chinese, Koreans, and Philippinos the Japanese slaughtered in their attempts to enslave the western Pacific? It's a shame that those two cities were bombed, but the Japanese went well out of their way to earn that treatment. You need to read some history books (besides the ones written and printed in Japan).
Out of curiosity, do you share the same outrage over the Japanese massacre of a couple hundred thousand civilians in Nanjing? Was that OK because they killed them a few at a time?
The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were designed to be exploded in the air, roughtly 1000 feet above the ground. They were nowhere near powerful enough to put much of a dent into Mount Fuji. Most of the damage caused at Hiroshima was done by the fires afterward. To be sure, the blast did enormous damage, but the fires that followed leveled the city. Truman and his cabinet debated the merits of various approaches and concluded that the best approach was the one they followed. I think history has shown them to have been right.
Are you saying we're NOT mighty? We're certainly superior when it comes to things like military power and the economy. If you're suggesting that we're not superior intellectually or morally, then you're entitled to your opinion, but you're still wrong.
Although it's true that the DoD attempted to kill the plane, the Marines worked their friends in Congress to override their own "bosses."
Are you aware that the helicopters being replaced, primarily CH-46 Sea Knights, were so horrid initially that they earned the nickname, "Boeing Body Bag?"
Huh? We're not talking about borrowing a car here. We're talking about buying a car. If your friend buys your car, he can do anything he wants to with it.
Also, this is Microsoft we're talking about. We're not talking about friends here.
Are you referring to SPAM or the "product" that most spammers seem to be pushing?
Call it what you like. The bottom line is that you don't really understandmath and physics and computer science until you can actually solve problems or write programs. Reading alone does not get you there.
For that matter, people can read a whole bunch without developing critical thinking skills. I agree that reading is a prerequisite, but it's definitely not sufficient.
Well, CrossOver doesn't run on all Linux boxes -- my Alphas, for example. However, it does work well, and so do the viewers, on my Intel machines.
Many architectures allow booting this way. My Alphas can be booted without a video card using their serial ports. There are IP addressable boxes that connect to rack mounted servers using their serial ports. Through these boxes, you can boot the servers remotely, monitoring their progress over the serial port. Once a machine is up an running this way, it's then available over the network.
I'm pretty sure that Sun servers can be made to work the same way.
It's common in orbital studies to use a moving reference frame that fixes two objects -- in this case, the earth and the sun -- and let everything else move with respect to them. When you do switch to such a reference frame, the asteroid's orbit looks a bit like a horseshoe with the sun at the center. This kind of reference frame is especially useful for viewing the magic of the Lagrange points.