> Hence also why larger species tend to live longer: they get a bigger limit there.
Is that a fact? I thought that big species die older, because their cells devide less often. So instead of having a bigger counter, they just count slower.
A good solution would be a public domain cross platform library that implements the language which we want to use. Then any browser could easily start using that implementation and assuming the implementation is updated frequently enough, every browser would have identical implementation.
Of course there would be security issues, as every browser would be vulnerable if security hole is found from the code. But on the other hand, should it be public domain code, it would get a lot of peer reviewing.
> In my lifetime (40 years) genetic modification has gone from theory to fact. I am worried that it will be horribly abused.
Anything can be used either for good or evil. You can use water for healing or for torturing. But I like to think that eventually there is more good than evil, so the more we know, the better it is for us.
The strokes could be stored e.g. as an xml file, and then we would get a hash of that file. So storing is not a problem, we can do it pretty much the same way passwords are stored.
> And that, in a nutshell, is why Linux will never be mainstream.
Getting to the mainstream has nothing to do with quality. The only thing that matters there is marketing. Just look how well Windows is doing, even everyone complains how bad it is.
Nowadays the locks in the cars are nearly impossible to open without the key. So what do criminals do? They steal the keys. So USB key is obviously not the perfect solution for this problem.
But what if we would protect the data on the USB key with a password...
Humans have done genetic engineering for thousands of years. For example have you ever wondered why there are so many different kinds of dogs? Or why strawberries or potatoes are that big? And this old fashion genetic engineering is not any safer either. For example with potatoes when they tried to increase the size of the potato, they also managed to make a very poisonous version of it. And because there were no tests for old fashion genetic engineering, it was humans who tested those potatoes first.
So I feel pretty safe with modern genetic engineering. At least we now know what we are doing and we test it well.
That is not always true. Sometimes the seller has legal right to break the whole deal if customer doesn't accept one part of the deal.
But even if I wouldn't have a computer, I would really pay Windows tax, literally. I pay taxes and the goverment buys Windows licenses with that money.
> The bad news is, the partition resize seemed to break Vista!
I got a challenge for you. Install Linux on an empty hard drive (shouldn't be a problem), and then install Vista in a way that a) You resize the Linux partition to make room for it b) After installation you have dual boot for both Windows and Linux c) Both still work
If you can manage to do this, I bet that James Randi will give you the 1 million dollar prize.
And for the record, not once has the dualboot installation failed when I have installed Linux after Windows. And for the most people, it just works. Obviously if you resize a partition and the OTHER operating system can't handle that, there is nothing Linux could do for that. So just resize the partition on Windows and then install Linux on the empty partition and you should be fine. Assuming you know how to change partition size on Windows (and that you are even able to do that). The very best solution of course is to do the partitioning before installing anything.
Son: *slams the door and locks the dad behind it* Dad: Open the door! Son: The word "open" has many different connotations. Open to view? Open to change? Open to redistribute?... Dad: Just open the god damn door and let me in!
> For example, your boss can tell you to vote while he is watching. If you don't vote > the way that he wants he will fire you.
Your boss can always force you to take a picture of your traditional voting process to prove what you have voted for. Traditional voting is not more secure than internet voting.
> (so much for the "millions of pairs of eyes" thing, huh?)
The story is about how many leaks have been found and fixed. How do you see that as a bad thing? Or do you mean that with open source development model, these bugs shouldn't been there in the first place? Well, Firefox is based on Mozilla Application Suite, which is based on Netscape Communicator, which was developed as closed source application, before it's source was released in 1998.
Slashdot Mirror
> Hence also why larger species tend to live longer: they get a bigger limit there.
Is that a fact? I thought that big species die older, because their cells devide less often. So instead of having a bigger counter, they just count slower.
A good solution would be a public domain cross platform library that implements the language which we want to use. Then any browser could easily start using that implementation and assuming the implementation is updated frequently enough, every browser would have identical implementation.
Of course there would be security issues, as every browser would be vulnerable if security hole is found from the code. But on the other hand, should it be public domain code, it would get a lot of peer reviewing.
> In my lifetime (40 years) genetic modification has gone from theory to fact. I am worried that it will be horribly abused.
Anything can be used either for good or evil. You can use water for healing or for torturing. But I like to think that eventually there is more good than evil, so the more we know, the better it is for us.
> The thing about that is that there are students who actually do try to cite Wikipedia articles as references, I've seen it plenty of times.
Is that a problem? Isn't school the place where you CAN make mistakes and teachers will fix them, so that you learn.
The strokes could be stored e.g. as an xml file, and then we would get a hash of that file. So storing is not a problem, we can do it pretty much the same way passwords are stored.
Let's start OOXML support foundation and claim that we will drop support for OOXML.
> One of the problems with Wikipedia is that the content can change and change rapidly.
There is a change history, so why is this a problem? You can simply quote a specific version.
Schools should perhaps not teach OS, but they could still USE Linux for teaching other stuff, simply because of the price and low maintenance costs.
> And that, in a nutshell, is why Linux will never be mainstream.
Getting to the mainstream has nothing to do with quality. The only thing that matters there is marketing. Just look how well Windows is doing, even everyone complains how bad it is.
Nowadays the locks in the cars are nearly impossible to open without the key. So what do criminals do? They steal the keys. So USB key is obviously not the perfect solution for this problem.
But what if we would protect the data on the USB key with a password...
Humans have done genetic engineering for thousands of years. For example have you ever wondered why there are so many different kinds of dogs? Or why strawberries or potatoes are that big? And this old fashion genetic engineering is not any safer either. For example with potatoes when they tried to increase the size of the potato, they also managed to make a very poisonous version of it. And because there were no tests for old fashion genetic engineering, it was humans who tested those potatoes first.
So I feel pretty safe with modern genetic engineering. At least we now know what we are doing and we test it well.
> I'm going to cook my dinner soon. Apparently it used to be a cow(or perhaps a bull).
It used to be a bull, but then it became a cow? So the meat on your plate...
> What ever happened to minimal?
You would like to have a light Linux distribution? Something like this perhaps:
http://www.puppylinux.com/
http://featherlinux.berlios.de/about.htm
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
That is not always true. Sometimes the seller has legal right to break the whole deal if customer doesn't accept one part of the deal.
But even if I wouldn't have a computer, I would really pay Windows tax, literally. I pay taxes and the goverment buys Windows licenses with that money.
I think that patents won't hold in court, because they are too trivial or have prior art.
- What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge patents?
- No, Neo. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to.
> IE7 also fixes a lot of HTML rendering and CSS bugs. Definately not all, but a considerable amount.
Considerable amount?
html/xhtml support went from 73% to 73%
css 2.1 support went from 51% to 56%
Yeah, sure that is better than before, but they are still far behind the other browsers:
Firefox 2:
html/xhtml: 90%
css 2.1: 92%
Opera 9:
html/xhtml: 85%
css 2.1: 94%
http://www.webdevout.net/browser-support-summary
> The bad news is, the partition resize seemed to break Vista!
I got a challenge for you. Install Linux on an empty hard drive (shouldn't be a problem), and then install Vista in a way that
a) You resize the Linux partition to make room for it
b) After installation you have dual boot for both Windows and Linux
c) Both still work
If you can manage to do this, I bet that James Randi will give you the 1 million dollar prize.
And for the record, not once has the dualboot installation failed when I have installed Linux after Windows. And for the most people, it just works. Obviously if you resize a partition and the OTHER operating system can't handle that, there is nothing Linux could do for that. So just resize the partition on Windows and then install Linux on the empty partition and you should be fine. Assuming you know how to change partition size on Windows (and that you are even able to do that). The very best solution of course is to do the partitioning before installing anything.
Son: *slams the door and locks the dad behind it* ...
Dad: Open the door!
Son: The word "open" has many different connotations. Open to view? Open to change? Open to redistribute?
Dad: Just open the god damn door and let me in!
Actually horses are not that environment friendly, they produce pollution from both ends.
> For example, your boss can tell you to vote while he is watching. If you don't vote
> the way that he wants he will fire you.
Your boss can always force you to take a picture of your traditional voting process to prove what you have voted for. Traditional voting is not more secure than internet voting.
That is pretty good, but as your example is not valid XML, we need to wrap it inside a valid XML to make it actually work:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE documentation [
<!ELEMENT documentation (#PCDATA)>
]>
<documentation>
<![CDATA[<XML documentation>XML documentation</XML documentation>]]>
</documentation>
> (so much for the "millions of pairs of eyes" thing, huh?)
The story is about how many leaks have been found and fixed. How do you see that as a bad thing? Or do you mean that with open source development model, these bugs shouldn't been there in the first place? Well, Firefox is based on Mozilla Application Suite, which is based on Netscape Communicator, which was developed as closed source application, before it's source was released in 1998.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Application_Suite
You forgot to post that anonymously.
> Why should Windows be the only OS singled out to be unbundled?
Because Microsoft has what Apple doesn't. Monopoly.
> And whenever I come to work dressed somewhat fashionably I get weird comments, not compliments
I'm a male software engineer and I can guarantee to you that I would also get weird comments if I would go to work wearing a dress.