"Java is the only language..."
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Perl and .NET
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· Score: 3
From the article:
Where Microsoft betters Sun is that while Java is the only real language that compiles to the JVM, Microsoft intends IL to be cross-language.
It's already been pointed out that this statement isn't true. Here's why, for those of y'all that don't already know.:)
First off, Java isn't the only programming language (or even the only "real" programming language) which works with JVM. One can point to JPython as an example of a language which works with JVM. (Of course there are many out there who think Java isn't a "real" programming language. I'm not going to argue with them too vigorously, execpt to say that if BASIC on the Apple was a real language, then there's no reason why Python shouldn't be, either.)
The second reason, which is more substantial, is that JVM, while not exactly an open standard, is pretty much available to the public. In particular, the byte codes are well-known. While it's not trivial to port a language to a new instruction set, it's far from impossible. The only reason why there isn't, for example, a JPerl, JSmalltalk or JOberon, is because nobody's done the port.
Microsoft does have a vested interest in making.NET as widely useable as possible. That will probably include porting other languages to.NET, and maybe the unthinkable, porting.NET to other operating systems. Then all they'd have to do is keep.NET proprietary (but sell, for example, a standardized.NDK for people who want to port their favorite languages to.NET) and they could make a killing off the platform. Then it would be Microsoft versus Sun. A very ugly battle indeed.
Re:Big business and online music.
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Nazis on Napster
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· Score: 2
Provably wrong? Hmm, if you can prove it, then why not claim the prize money from Irving et al?
I might just take up that challenge. I could use $50k. But will IHR take the evidence seriously? Based on the other things I read on their website, IHR strikes me as an organization with a most definite agenda...
The simplest proof, of course, would be a chemical analysis of the area surrounding Auchwitz for proof of the existance of the ovens (for example, high carbon content in the deeper layers of soil) followed by an analysis of residue from the ovens and gas chambers themselves. Start with a null hypothesis that the ovens are *not* used to cremate corpses, or that the so-called gas chambers did use Zyklon B, and go from there. OTOH I strongly suspect that none of this would be sufficient proof for the IHR.
Re:Big business and online music.
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Nazis on Napster
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· Score: 2
God forbid we actually try to understand what the "nazis" actually believe (including the fact that many of them are not nazis at all, btw)
I'm pretty familiar with what Nazis and other white supremacists believe and I think they're all nuts. There is nothing special about white people except that an awful lot of white people seem to control most of the money and can't get out of their suburban hives to save their lives. There is no logical end to a program of racial purity except the homogenization of the gene pool, which is pretty much doomed to failure anyway. White culture is a myth; it is divided deeply into about two dozen different cultures, just as are Asian and Hispanic culture. The only reason why Black culture is so homogenized in the US is because slavery stripped the black people of their cultural identity; as a result they have created a new, uniquely American culture out of whole cloth, and every American is better off for it.
Still, I think it would be humorous to give white supremacists...all of them...a homeland of their own, and watch the Christian Identity and KKK people fight it out with the worshipers of Odin Somefather a real "Holy War." Then maybe the rest of us, with more tolerance for differences and more common sense, will get along better.
Now I'm confused, do nazi bands have powerful conquering armies and concentration camps, or are thay just a bunch of powerless losers that shave their heads and pretend to have some affiliation with Hitler?
First, came online music, which allowed anyone to put their music (or for that matter somebody else's music) out there for public consumption, regardless of the market potential.
Then, came the shotgun marriage of the music industry with online music; which led to the protection of music copyrights while still allowing people to put their music out there for public consumption, regardless of the market potential.
Now, the music industry is moving beyond legitimate protection of their intellectual property, into the realm of controlling what music other people can distribute.
We had to see this coming. The old media want to provide "editorial supervision" of online content, precisely because they make money off of controlling what's popular. Banning Nazi music is only the first step.
Don't get me wrong. I hate Nazis. They're nutcases, provably wrong, violent stupid thugs lacking any shred of sense, dignity, or humanity. There was a time I'd as soon beat one up as talk to one. If Naziism were wiped off the planet I'd be one very happy human being. They have as much right to free expression as we do, and we all lose when free expression is put under corporate control.
Here's another possible side effect of this insipid mandate: do any of y'all know of any kind of filtering software for Linux or BSD? If not, then schools will be forced to install WinXX or use Macs until a Linux or BSD version becomes available.
Perhaps Java is not a bad thing, although it's gonna be hell for my school, which has something like 250 computers using MS Visual C++.
Actually, Sun's JDK is available for free to pretty much anyone who wants it. The main pain in the rear is going to be figuring out what environment to use. I have a feeling that the school is NOT going to want to use the raw JDK (command line tools and all) with VIM or Emacs, even though that's probably not a bad way to learn it.
One of the nice things about Java is that it's not too difficult to write code that works, even though writing good code still requires some skill and consideration. Contrast this to C++, a language with cancer of the semi-colon, in which writing code that works at all can sometimes be impossible.
I've written substantial amounts of code in both C++ and Java and I can attest to the fact that both languages make it easy to write code that works. C++ can become a 'cancer of semicolons' IF you approach C++ as just a fancier C. This is exactly the wrong way to code C++.
A teaching language should be one that a bright student can learn the syntax of in three days, so she can spend the rest of the year learning idioms and concepts that are applicable to CS in general.
This is a good point, and I humbly suggest that Java does not meet this criterion. The AP CS exam should switch instead to Python.
Sure they got Java and turned it into a standard, but that was before the beast had awoken. Now MS is pushing C# and it's standards all over the shop.
I've looked over C# and it looks pretty good...an obvious Java ripoff with some additional syntactical candy and the ability to cast explicit pointers...whether it will attract a wide array of developers is another matter. Microsoft may not have learned their lesson from J++.
The simple fact is that MS have the marketshare, on the client browser side at least. They can pretty much dictate the standard without having to worry about fleas like Sun.
One thing MS definitely *does not have* is a wide marketshare on the client side. This is because they've focused too much on PCs and not enough on PDAs (I'm sorry, WinCE doesn't have anywhere near the same market share as Palm) and cell phones (where Microsoft doesn't even compete). In fact, unless Microsoft opens up their standards the way Sun did, and makes C# available on platforms besides Windows, C# is pretty much going to stay in the Windows environment. That's going to hurt adoption of the C# language, especially on applications that require lots of iron.
My guess?.NET and C# are going to define the way Windows is used in the next half-decade, but it won't take the same market share as Java.
In a way it's good that at this time, the birth of the Net, there is a behemoth who can dictate common standards. Without MS I fear the Net would degenerate into conflicting and incompatible rulesets.
If anything, Microsoft is frightening the other companies into adopting open and standardized rule-sets. After all, if the rest of us won't do it, Microsoft will. Not that adopting open and standardized rule-sets hasn't stopped Microsoft from "embracing and extending"... far from it....
Didn't the RF design software go to Agilent when it was spun off? Bdale of Debian fame is over there.
I hadn't heard that, although I suppose you would know better than I would:). Thank gods somebody in open source can influence where the RF design software runs.
I do want to work on wireless, though. 802.11, Bluetooth, and wireless WAN are probably in my future.
So how have they been paying the bills? Printers. Sad but true, this tech titan is nothing more than a paper pusher.
Don't knock printers, they're damned important. If you can't get a decent printer to work with your Linux box, you can't move your office to Linux. I say good luck to Bruce, and by the way, here's hoping he can get some of those printer drivers working on Linux. And maybe, while he's at it, their RF design software.
i don't like *any* of the candidates. low turn-outs should signal that people are apathetic about the choices we're given, and don't agree with anyone.
I can guarantee you that nobody gives shit one what the nonvoters think: not the GOP, not the Democrats, not the third parties. This is because nonvoters (surprise surprise) are not likely voters. The likely voters are party aparachniks, idealogues (usually leaning conservative), and moderates, and they determine policy. If you don't like it, too bad, because the politicians aren't going to cater to you.
If you really want to give people other options, you might want to run for office yourself.
an * ti * cli * max (an'-tI-clI-max): A series of statements in some ascending order, ending with a statement clearly lower than each of the previous statements. e. g.: "The ASCI White Computer: 12.3 trillion calculations/second (teraflops), 8,192 copper microprocessors, 6.2 terabytes memory, 512 RS/6000 375 MHz POWER3 SMP High Nodes, IBM AIX operating system."
Give the man even a two-hour lecture on what Wicca is, and let's see if his tune changes.
When Bush said that he didn't believe Wicca was a religion, it set off such a shitstorm in the pagan community that almost everyone got involved. Many of us sent Bush books, pamphlets, etc. He's had more than enough information on the subject sent to him, and he's had plenty of opportunity to study up on this. His more recent statement to voter.com re-iterating his anti-minority-religion viewpoint emphasizes that despite this, his mind hasn't changed. We cannot give him the benefit of the doubt on this issue.
Never once has Bush proposed a crackdown on religious minorities, despite the flagrant ignorance of such religions that he displays. That's more than can be said for some of the candidates."
"I don't think (witchcraft) is a religion and I wish the military would reconsider (whether to allow Wicca to be practised on military bases.)" -- Gov. George W. Bush
In the next five years, we anticipate that two-thirds of software will be distributed over the Internet, making it more important than ever to ensure strong copyright protection for computer software. In the United States, much of the legal framework already exists, but we need to redouble our efforts on enforcement. In particular, the next President must make sure that the US Department of Justice and US law enforcement agencies have the resources to enforce our intellectual property laws. In the international community, the challenge is even tougher since we must both help establish a legal framework for intellectual property protection and ensure it is enforced.
Does this worry anyone here besides me? I hear about getting US law enforcement involved in copyright protection, and I start thinking about stepped-up abuses of procedure similar to those carried out by the FBI, the BATF, and the DEA in recent years. It's bad enough that the MPAA and Judge Kaplan have basically declared that source code is not free speech; are we going to see stormtroopers with machineguns tearing up the homes of WINE developers?
First off, I'd like to congratulate Ryan Gordon for this wonderful bit of satire. I'm sure you had a lot of your readers fooled on this one.
OK, so with that being said, here's how I would react if I thought this was a real letter from Bill Gates.
So, a Linux effort has finite resources to start with. Eventually a good idea is concieved, and executed, and on the rare occasion that it produces quality results, there is a split. In this case, I am referring to KDE. For several petty reasons I will get into later, GNOME was started in direct response to KDE, and began duplicating its functionality.....To continue my example, GNOME was started because KDE, an open source project, used an open, but not "free" library of custom controls called "Qt". Qt was not acceptable to the free software movement, so therefore all of the work done on KDE was "tainted" in their eyes. Their solution? Rewrite the whole thing. As GNOME work commenced, another faction began work on "Harmony" with the goal of replacing Qt at the API level with a "free" implementation.
No Bill, GNOME is not just a reaction to KDE. It's also a reaction to Microsoft's COM, DCOM and COM+, and to Javabeans. GNOME stands for Gnu Netrowk Object Model Environment. The desktop is only one part of the project; the rest of it is creating a very large set of components to work from.
You should feel proud in a way, Bill, that the Open Source movement is borrowing heavily from Microsoft's techniques for system-building. And for that very reason, you shouldn't be selling the GNOME project short.
That having been said, Gates's broader point about redundant effort is well taken. If this revolution is going to be at all successful, then we have to stop eating each other alive and keep working together. Once we have an open source answer to a problem, we have got to stop re-inventing the wheel, and start thinking instead in terms of porting that solution to many different tool sets. (How many graphical libraries do we have?)
Let me dwell a little longer on the topic of corporate acceptance. Years ago, the "problem" with Linux was a lack of hardware drivers. Today, that problem still exists, and even though many people seem to think otherwise, I've yet to hear reports of a working, let alone robust DVD player for this "desktop" operating system. I hear horror stories about incompatible and difficult to configure 3D accelerators. Linux has not gotten to the point where you can walk into CompUSA and grab something off the shelf and expect it to work in any form with the OS. This is not a new story, but it is downplayed more today. I can not pretend that the Linux kernel has not improved, but it has not improved at the rate that Torvalds and his bunch of merry men pretend it has, and that's largely due to companies that will not release hardware programming information. They aren't interested in Open Source, and they don't want to be troubled by it.
That's not a bad critticism, and it's extensible to pretty much any company that deals with Linux. When Oracle announced that they weren't going to support Sequent anymore, IBM (Sequent's parent company) announced a Linux emulator for Sequent. They could have had all those fancy programmers of theirs, including the OS/2 programmers, working on the Linux kernel and other bits, but no such luck.
One of the things that the Open Source community can do to counteract this is to adopt open hardware standards. SoundBlaster keeps their standards open; so has, for the most part, the processor developers, although I'm less certain about IA-64.
Officially, Microsoft has always kept at a safe distance with Linux. We leave the actually muddying to others, like Mindcraft.
Well, at least you're decent enough to admit it:).
The average Linux user has a much more direct response. Generally speaking, if you were to ask a Linux user the benefits of Linux they will not tell you about its merits, but rather Windows's flaws. I am generally distrustful of anyone that defines themselves by what they are against and not what they are for.
Part of the reason why the Open Source community is so fond of knocking Windows and Office is because we like having control of our software. Open Source gives us control; Microsoft, by contrast, removes control. It is healthy for us to provide this contrast if it helps to define what we're all about.
This attitude is pervasive in the community: even the leaders of this counter-culture act like children!
What's a counterculture worth if you can't act like children occasionally? Even you had to get a genuine kick out of Windows Refund Day.
If they aren't making fun of our pleads for Freedom to Innovate...
Oh Lord, not this again. The issue in the Microsoft trial was never freedom to innovate; the issue was whether Microsoft broke antitrust laws. Please, for crissakes, stop believing your own press. I'm asking you this as a shareholder.
...(something they do themselves, when legal processes stop them; ask the people at linuxvideo.org what they think of their "freedom to innovate" with their DVD player)...
This brings up a good point. If you want the freedom to innovate, how about helping yourselves and everyone else out by joining us in opening up the patent process?
This brings me to the next point: infighting. The primary spokesmen for Linux are Richard M. Stallman, a professor, and Eric S. Raymond, a (self-proclaimed) writer. I won't waste your time on each's inflexible opinion of what Linux should be, except to note that both have a variation on the messages of open source's charity and selflessness. Give away your source code to make a better product? Doubtful. Give away your source code to protect your freedoms? Hardly. Ironically, both need to defend their feel-good mantras for purely selfish reasons. And, while both desperately need Linux to thrive for shameless self-promotion, the two spokesmen spend their time trying to show that the other is not just incorrect, but downright evil. They probably do as much harm as good for their cause. How can anyone be productive when one has to expend energy to argue the fundamentals of such artificial concepts as "Free Software" and "Open Source?"
This should give all of us in the Open Source world pause. Look, we can like or dislike Raymond and/or Stallman all we like. Let's just remember that without them, and Linus, most of us wouldn't be here discussing the Linux phenomenon at all. Especially not Gordon. Excuse me. Gates.:)
In the meantime, I hope they enjoy their 5.6 percent of the desktop. It won't last.
But who cares about the desktop market? The future is the distributed market. That's why Microsoft is developing.NET, isn't it?
In any case, what do you want to bet that someone is going to misattribute this to ol' Bill in a few years, as an example of a collosally stupid statement? Personally, I'm still optimistic.:)
So I'm here trying to figure out how the "Guinness Sucks" phrase could possibly be confused as an actual Guinness trademark by any reasonable person. At first I thought it was because the Guinness people were drinking too much of their fine product, when it suddenly struck me....."Guinness sucks" is going to be their new advertising slogan. Maybe they're looking to produce a line of beer that sucks? Could they possibly be in the market for one of the American brewers, such as Miller or Budweiser?
Any way you slice it, this complaint and subsequent decision belong in the Guinness company's own Book of World Records for Stupidest Legal Complaint Lobbied by a Multinational Corporation.
This message is to warn all consumers not to confuse D&D (the movie) with a cheap ripoff, called MUD (the movie).
Although they may seem alike in some respects (both are set in a fantasy world with fantastic creatures, monsters, magic, etc.) one was produced by Hollywood studios for millions of dollars, while the other was produced by a band of computer geeks who barely know each other and wanted all the thrill of a role-playing game without much of the actual role-playing. While MUD (the movie) does have a cast of thousands of characters, all of them have (mostly) the same items, with the lead characters having an insane amount of gold and experience. What's worse, they fight the same monsters over and over again, sometimes into the wee hours of the morning, with long breaks where the characters do nothing but sleep. The characters start saying things for no apparent reason (what does 'lag' mean anyway?) and sometimes disappear or end up frozen in place for no apparent reason.
While there is nothing illegal about MUD (the movie), we are concerned that unscrupulous theater managers and video vendors may try to pass off MUD (the movie) as D&D (the movie). Don't settle for immitations. The real D&D movie is not yet in theatres, nor are tapes of it available. If someone should represent MUD (the movie) as D&D (the movie) please contact the MPAA immediately. It is vitally important that the MPAA not be denied the money it needs to dest^H^H^H^Hprotect artistic freedom. Thank you.
Slashdot Mirror
Where Microsoft betters Sun is that while Java is the only real language that compiles to the JVM, Microsoft intends IL to be cross-language.
It's already been pointed out that this statement isn't true. Here's why, for those of y'all that don't already know. :)
First off, Java isn't the only programming language (or even the only "real" programming language) which works with JVM. One can point to JPython as an example of a language which works with JVM. (Of course there are many out there who think Java isn't a "real" programming language. I'm not going to argue with them too vigorously, execpt to say that if BASIC on the Apple was a real language, then there's no reason why Python shouldn't be, either.)
The second reason, which is more substantial, is that JVM, while not exactly an open standard, is pretty much available to the public. In particular, the byte codes are well-known. While it's not trivial to port a language to a new instruction set, it's far from impossible. The only reason why there isn't, for example, a JPerl, JSmalltalk or JOberon, is because nobody's done the port.
Microsoft does have a vested interest in making .NET as widely useable as possible. That will probably include porting other languages to .NET, and maybe the unthinkable, porting .NET to other operating systems. Then all they'd have to do is keep .NET proprietary (but sell, for example, a standardized .NDK for people who want to port their favorite languages to .NET) and they could make a killing off the platform. Then it would be Microsoft versus Sun. A very ugly battle indeed.
ObJectBridge (GPL'd Java ODMG) needs volunteers.
Big difference. Jews are usually born Jews, and usually don't fantasize about beating the crap out of innocent people.
Uh huh. Sure.
ObJectBridge (GPL'd Java ODMG) needs volunteers.
I might just take up that challenge. I could use $50k. But will IHR take the evidence seriously? Based on the other things I read on their website, IHR strikes me as an organization with a most definite agenda...
The simplest proof, of course, would be a chemical analysis of the area surrounding Auchwitz for proof of the existance of the ovens (for example, high carbon content in the deeper layers of soil) followed by an analysis of residue from the ovens and gas chambers themselves. Start with a null hypothesis that the ovens are *not* used to cremate corpses, or that the so-called gas chambers did use Zyklon B, and go from there. OTOH I strongly suspect that none of this would be sufficient proof for the IHR.
ObJectBridge (GPL'd Java ODMG) needs volunteers.
I'm pretty familiar with what Nazis and other white supremacists believe and I think they're all nuts. There is nothing special about white people except that an awful lot of white people seem to control most of the money and can't get out of their suburban hives to save their lives. There is no logical end to a program of racial purity except the homogenization of the gene pool, which is pretty much doomed to failure anyway. White culture is a myth; it is divided deeply into about two dozen different cultures, just as are Asian and Hispanic culture. The only reason why Black culture is so homogenized in the US is because slavery stripped the black people of their cultural identity; as a result they have created a new, uniquely American culture out of whole cloth, and every American is better off for it.
Still, I think it would be humorous to give white supremacists...all of them...a homeland of their own, and watch the Christian Identity and KKK people fight it out with the worshipers of Odin Somefather a real "Holy War." Then maybe the rest of us, with more tolerance for differences and more common sense, will get along better.
ObJectBridge (GPL'd Java ODMG) needs volunteers.
sniff sniff...oh dude...that was beautiful...
ObJectBridge (GPL'd Java ODMG) needs volunteers.
First, came online music, which allowed anyone to put their music (or for that matter somebody else's music) out there for public consumption, regardless of the market potential.
Then, came the shotgun marriage of the music industry with online music; which led to the protection of music copyrights while still allowing people to put their music out there for public consumption, regardless of the market potential.
Now, the music industry is moving beyond legitimate protection of their intellectual property, into the realm of controlling what music other people can distribute.
We had to see this coming. The old media want to provide "editorial supervision" of online content, precisely because they make money off of controlling what's popular. Banning Nazi music is only the first step.
Don't get me wrong. I hate Nazis. They're nutcases, provably wrong, violent stupid thugs lacking any shred of sense, dignity, or humanity. There was a time I'd as soon beat one up as talk to one. If Naziism were wiped off the planet I'd be one very happy human being. They have as much right to free expression as we do, and we all lose when free expression is put under corporate control.
ObJectBridge (GPL'd Java ODMG) needs volunteers.
Here's another possible side effect of this insipid mandate: do any of y'all know of any kind of filtering software for Linux or BSD? If not, then schools will be forced to install WinXX or use Macs until a Linux or BSD version becomes available.
The Free ODMG Project needs volunteers.
You can find the relevant software here. It's about 135k to download. It also only runs under Win98.
The Free ODMG Project needs volunteers.
Actually, Sun's JDK is available for free to pretty much anyone who wants it. The main pain in the rear is going to be figuring out what environment to use. I have a feeling that the school is NOT going to want to use the raw JDK (command line tools and all) with VIM or Emacs, even though that's probably not a bad way to learn it.
The Free ODMG Project needs volunteers.
I've written substantial amounts of code in both C++ and Java and I can attest to the fact that both languages make it easy to write code that works. C++ can become a 'cancer of semicolons' IF you approach C++ as just a fancier C. This is exactly the wrong way to code C++.
This is a good point, and I humbly suggest that Java does not meet this criterion. The AP CS exam should switch instead to Python.
The Free ODMG Project needs volunteers.
If you thought people came up with extreme overclocking methods before, just wait until they try to reproduce this in their garages....
The Free ODMG Project needs volunteers.
"Hi, I'm Col. Jeff Sanders, United States Army, Retired."
"And I'm Col. Quan Li, People's Liberation Army, Retired."
"Our two nations may not agree on the important things, like respecting human rights,"
"Or not exploitating the working class,"
"But we both agree on one thing."
"Both the People's Republic of China,"
"And the United States Army,"
"Use Linux to power their operations."
"Linux is cheap, stable, and as flexible as it gets since the source code is available to anyone."
"Linux also works on older, less expensive hardware, and is the glorious product of the unalienated labor of thousands of volunteers."
"And it's under the GPL, which makes it free, as in Free Speech."
"Something which even the People's Republic of China can appreciate."
"When it benefits them."
"That is not in the script....."
"Don't tell me what's in the..."
"SO..try Linux today. Billions of Chinese can't be wrong."
"Try Linux, the Operating System that stands for Freedom and Quality."
The Free ODMG Project needs volunteers.
I've looked over C# and it looks pretty good...an obvious Java ripoff with some additional syntactical candy and the ability to cast explicit pointers...whether it will attract a wide array of developers is another matter. Microsoft may not have learned their lesson from J++.
One thing MS definitely *does not have* is a wide marketshare on the client side. This is because they've focused too much on PCs and not enough on PDAs (I'm sorry, WinCE doesn't have anywhere near the same market share as Palm) and cell phones (where Microsoft doesn't even compete). In fact, unless Microsoft opens up their standards the way Sun did, and makes C# available on platforms besides Windows, C# is pretty much going to stay in the Windows environment. That's going to hurt adoption of the C# language, especially on applications that require lots of iron.
My guess? .NET and C# are going to define the way Windows is used in the next half-decade, but it won't take the same market share as Java.
If anything, Microsoft is frightening the other companies into adopting open and standardized rule-sets. After all, if the rest of us won't do it, Microsoft will. Not that adopting open and standardized rule-sets hasn't stopped Microsoft from "embracing and extending" ... far from it ....
The Free ODMG Project needs volunteers.
I hadn't heard that, although I suppose you would know better than I would :). Thank gods somebody in open source can influence where the RF design software runs.
This is very good news indeed.
The Free ODMG Project needs volunteers.
Don't knock printers, they're damned important. If you can't get a decent printer to work with your Linux box, you can't move your office to Linux. I say good luck to Bruce, and by the way, here's hoping he can get some of those printer drivers working on Linux. And maybe, while he's at it, their RF design software.
The Free ODMG Project needs volunteers.
I can guarantee you that nobody gives shit one what the nonvoters think: not the GOP, not the Democrats, not the third parties. This is because nonvoters (surprise surprise) are not likely voters. The likely voters are party aparachniks, idealogues (usually leaning conservative), and moderates, and they determine policy. If you don't like it, too bad, because the politicians aren't going to cater to you.
If you really want to give people other options, you might want to run for office yourself.
fearbush.com
an * ti * cli * max (an'-tI-clI-max): A series of statements in some ascending order, ending with a statement clearly lower than each of the previous statements. e. g.: "The ASCI White Computer: 12.3 trillion calculations/second (teraflops), 8,192 copper microprocessors, 6.2 terabytes memory, 512 RS/6000 375 MHz POWER3 SMP High Nodes, IBM AIX operating system."
fearbush.com
When Bush said that he didn't believe Wicca was a religion, it set off such a shitstorm in the pagan community that almost everyone got involved. Many of us sent Bush books, pamphlets, etc. He's had more than enough information on the subject sent to him, and he's had plenty of opportunity to study up on this. His more recent statement to voter.com re-iterating his anti-minority-religion viewpoint emphasizes that despite this, his mind hasn't changed. We cannot give him the benefit of the doubt on this issue.
fearbush.com
How about Bob Barr's 1999 attempt to forbid Wiccan soliders from practising on bases and ships?
References:
Thank gods it was defeated, but Bush has stated that he agrees with Barr's position.
fearbush.com
fearbush.com
Does this worry anyone here besides me? I hear about getting US law enforcement involved in copyright protection, and I start thinking about stepped-up abuses of procedure similar to those carried out by the FBI, the BATF, and the DEA in recent years. It's bad enough that the MPAA and Judge Kaplan have basically declared that source code is not free speech; are we going to see stormtroopers with machineguns tearing up the homes of WINE developers?
fearbush.com
First off, I'd like to congratulate Ryan Gordon for this wonderful bit of satire. I'm sure you had a lot of your readers fooled on this one.
OK, so with that being said, here's how I would react if I thought this was a real letter from Bill Gates.
No Bill, GNOME is not just a reaction to KDE. It's also a reaction to Microsoft's COM, DCOM and COM+, and to Javabeans. GNOME stands for Gnu Netrowk Object Model Environment. The desktop is only one part of the project; the rest of it is creating a very large set of components to work from.
You should feel proud in a way, Bill, that the Open Source movement is borrowing heavily from Microsoft's techniques for system-building. And for that very reason, you shouldn't be selling the GNOME project short.
That having been said, Gates's broader point about redundant effort is well taken. If this revolution is going to be at all successful, then we have to stop eating each other alive and keep working together. Once we have an open source answer to a problem, we have got to stop re-inventing the wheel, and start thinking instead in terms of porting that solution to many different tool sets. (How many graphical libraries do we have?)
That's not a bad critticism, and it's extensible to pretty much any company that deals with Linux. When Oracle announced that they weren't going to support Sequent anymore, IBM (Sequent's parent company) announced a Linux emulator for Sequent. They could have had all those fancy programmers of theirs, including the OS/2 programmers, working on the Linux kernel and other bits, but no such luck.
One of the things that the Open Source community can do to counteract this is to adopt open hardware standards. SoundBlaster keeps their standards open; so has, for the most part, the processor developers, although I'm less certain about IA-64.
Well, at least you're decent enough to admit it :).
Part of the reason why the Open Source community is so fond of knocking Windows and Office is because we like having control of our software. Open Source gives us control; Microsoft, by contrast, removes control. It is healthy for us to provide this contrast if it helps to define what we're all about.
What's a counterculture worth if you can't act like children occasionally? Even you had to get a genuine kick out of Windows Refund Day.
Oh Lord, not this again. The issue in the Microsoft trial was never freedom to innovate; the issue was whether Microsoft broke antitrust laws. Please, for crissakes, stop believing your own press. I'm asking you this as a shareholder.
This brings up a good point. If you want the freedom to innovate, how about helping yourselves and everyone else out by joining us in opening up the patent process?
This should give all of us in the Open Source world pause. Look, we can like or dislike Raymond and/or Stallman all we like. Let's just remember that without them, and Linus, most of us wouldn't be here discussing the Linux phenomenon at all. Especially not Gordon. Excuse me. Gates. :)
But who cares about the desktop market? The future is the distributed market. That's why Microsoft is developing .NET, isn't it?
In any case, what do you want to bet that someone is going to misattribute this to ol' Bill in a few years, as an example of a collosally stupid statement? Personally, I'm still optimistic. :)
fearbush.com
So I'm here trying to figure out how the "Guinness Sucks" phrase could possibly be confused as an actual Guinness trademark by any reasonable person. At first I thought it was because the Guinness people were drinking too much of their fine product, when it suddenly struck me....."Guinness sucks" is going to be their new advertising slogan. Maybe they're looking to produce a line of beer that sucks? Could they possibly be in the market for one of the American brewers, such as Miller or Budweiser?
Any way you slice it, this complaint and subsequent decision belong in the Guinness company's own Book of World Records for Stupidest Legal Complaint Lobbied by a Multinational Corporation.
fearbush.com
Ah, but that's what moderators are for.......
fearbush.com
Although they may seem alike in some respects (both are set in a fantasy world with fantastic creatures, monsters, magic, etc.) one was produced by Hollywood studios for millions of dollars, while the other was produced by a band of computer geeks who barely know each other and wanted all the thrill of a role-playing game without much of the actual role-playing. While MUD (the movie) does have a cast of thousands of characters, all of them have (mostly) the same items, with the lead characters having an insane amount of gold and experience. What's worse, they fight the same monsters over and over again, sometimes into the wee hours of the morning, with long breaks where the characters do nothing but sleep. The characters start saying things for no apparent reason (what does 'lag' mean anyway?) and sometimes disappear or end up frozen in place for no apparent reason.
While there is nothing illegal about MUD (the movie), we are concerned that unscrupulous theater managers and video vendors may try to pass off MUD (the movie) as D&D (the movie). Don't settle for immitations. The real D&D movie is not yet in theatres, nor are tapes of it available. If someone should represent MUD (the movie) as D&D (the movie) please contact the MPAA immediately. It is vitally important that the MPAA not be denied the money it needs to dest^H^H^H^Hprotect artistic freedom. Thank you.
fearbush.com