Ok people. I don't wanna defend Raymond. Frankly his interview has some weak points.
But what I see here!..
Microsoft has a decent mail system? Cool, show it to me... Outlook? That piece of trash with good look? Very good. If you are a user then you must be a damn lucky guy to not have trouble with it. If you are a sysadmin, damn or you are REAL GOOD or you and me are not living on the same planet...
On what concerns the desktop. KDE vs Windows? That's old. KDE2 is not worser, in most points to Windows. It may be different. But most users consider it at the same level as Windows. Some even comapare to autos of different carmakers. And here I mean general users. Those who don't know nothing about command lines and bash scripts. Those who know this stuff, prefer things like WindowMaker or AfterStep.
Sorry StarOffice bashers. Yes, the tool has some serious esthetic drawbacks, but, sincerly, most people I see, either choose it or Office97. So second place in front of Office00 is not bad at all. And while the masses still use Windows, I'm already seeing a 50/50 OS fight among advanced users. For example, in the office I'm now, we have 5 Windows and 4 Linux desktops. On a comapny I know, the financial director already uses Linux for all his work. We suse StarOffice for nearly 80% of documents and i have not seen any serious drawbacks in the conversion of M$ docs.
On what concerns your stupid trend "Linux is not ready for the desktop". It is not ready and it will never be ready. In most sense. Linux is a building block. Something like a Lego box. If you don't wanna burn your brains building it for a month or two then go and get Windows. But don't come here saying this "linrftd" BS. If you don't have the preparation or the guts to make a desktop system, it's YOUR problem. My Linux box is working for the 5th month in a row. And because one HDD physically crashed. Or else it would be in its 11th month. My collegue is using a box with nearly no big changes since July last year! Now our Windows fans here, fully reinstall their piece of crap every month!
Yes it is a hard thing to do. My box took nearly one month to get into full work. But it is an office desktop machine.
The only thing I would agree is that Linux is not ready for games. Correct, I give up on this one. But I'm in an office and I have a job to do. Games, I can play in other machine.
And what concerns Microsoft loosing its monopoly. It already lost it. If you don't see, then you're quite blind. Many advanced users are already using Redhats, Mandrakes and even Debians for their regular work. And this is making many common users to pass frontlines. Just yesterday I had three users asking for my Linux CDs. Everyday I hear people asking things about Linux settings, configurations. Most, only claim the lack of games as the main barrier to not use Linux fulltime. And what is more significative, is that a large group of dial-up users uses only Linux in their Internet roaming. So don't tell me tales.
Well I worked in both environments and I can say one thing. For high demand, high production work, war rooms are the "only good one". But your boss should be on it... Or else it is not a war room but a barrack. Right now I'm working in war room "version 2". A not so big room (we're really stuffed here) with ten people and 15 computers. There is also the "no man's land" where all servers are located. You only enter there in case of trouble, maintenance "in situ" or to install something new. 24 hours a day there is always someone here. Most of us have computers at home and mobiles. This allows us to hold three ISP structures and a series of several other tasks for the University we work.
Our team is the best and most tighted together among all here. We passed over crises, problems of different kinds and till now many "old guards" are still working here, while they "officially" already left their job. Most decisions are considered and weighted by the team and only then a decision is taken. Frankly, we don't have "soldiers" here. There is only one trouble - music. Tastes are so different that it gets some conflicts here.
I should note that this team is a hallmark around here. While not being the biggest ISP, we are the most influential in terms of methods and technologies. One of the biggest ISPs is made mostly of our "old guards". And this structure has proved to be the best. The examples of "cubicle" schemes on this fiels and which I work with, had all failed. Specially due to the fact that there was no normal communication schemes between the boss and you.
In a work that demands the minimum of failures possible, the boss should not only be in contact with the team but also be an effective member of it. Yeah it is hard for some, any private/confidential talk is nearly known by all. But we are also decisiomakers so it does not make a big difference. It may also look hard to divide work between business deals and technical tasks. But this brings decisionmaking into a more strightforward position. The boss knows things as a captain should know the battlefield. This is very fundamental under the intensity of some tasks we have.
Will you try to optimize Plex86 on SMP systems? I believe some tricks could allow the virtual OS to operate more effectively and stable if, for example, one could dedicate one and only one CPU for its tasks.
Not even Mitnick got half of it. I think the guy needs another correctional measure. To write 1000 time "I'm sorry" and be kept in jail until he writes up 2,5 million times the stuff... That's a good punishment for a spammer.
Hey if he will write 1000 "I'm sorries" a day, that will mean 7 years... Oh damn...
No I'm not talking about the star's wobble but about the planet's one. Planets possessing low rotation speeds and either too high or too low inclinations to the star system's eclyptic, plus a spin that changes too slow, will create serious thermodynamical conditions to the planets themselves. Such is the case of Venus for example. Or the _possible_ case of Earth during after the Permian. At such conditions the planets suffer an overheat. Venus as a 400 degrees and 90 atmospheres in its surface. Earth reached nearly 80-100 degrees inside the continent. Well Earth managed to keep life "alive" because it already had lots of water back then. But a small disbalance and you may get a "hot Mars" in place.
A truck in California, a fall in Sweden? Bring it to us in Russia. If it survives then they can certify it for real and claim as the real thoughest mouse... Meanwhile it is only a though mouse...
I would like to see it pass -50, dropped into the coffee mug, being mistakenly taken for the ashtray, occasionally plugged into the power socket, then being kicked by one though sysadmin in Quake. And being sadistically tested by dozens of users - "Though yeah? Let's see then.."
Once I saw how canadians brought a though truck into a Siberian town. A big bright shiny Kenwood. The Kamaz looks as a tiny family car in front of it. Russian mechanics looked at the american monster and warned that it wouldn't hold up too long. Canadians answered that they have Kenwoods working in similar climatic conditions in their North... Two weeks, BHAM! The main axis turned into a small mound of steel sand. And the guys got stucked in their base without supplies... Well five guys in a whole filled Kamaz. Running 80-120Km/h through the Taiga, frozen river beds at -50 they brought the supplies to the canadian group... A whole trip of over 300Km through Siberia...
So, while it is not "Russian certified", it's only though...
1024 computers - Interesting number. a new unit, the Penguin. One Penguin, two Penguins. Anyway M$ will never reach half Penguin...
According to the text we know know the place of Linus Torvalds in the development of Linux. It occurs he is just a "Fin" of the Penguin... And a group of volunteers on the Web helped him... Yeah Alan Cox upgrading a new patch through a web form...
Interesting licensed OS they found - UNIX. And it seems Linux is an alternative to it. I wonder how interesting is to be an alternative to itself...
Well taking a good look at some of these orbits I would doubt we could find such repositories. zi mean the high elliptical ones. First we know that at 1 AU and less, Moon-sized moons would be virtually cooked by the star. And every planet with a wrong wobble would get into the same fate... Then we should take into account the huge tidal forces produced by these orbits. So probably most moons would look more as hot melted cheese. And then we should think if there are such moons at all, as the escape velocities would be tremendously high for large moons.
Considering the number of such elliptical planets, chances are much lower than one should expect...
What the Hell is this "Zone"???? A region around 1 AU? NONSENSE! Earth is probably more an lucky aberration than a rule of the thumb. It is probable that it is extraordinary that Earth formed at such distance of the Sun with all the parameters to keep a large amount of liquid water on it. Look at the Moon for an example of what I'm saying... In fact the "habitable zone" should be generally be a bit more far away than Earth. I mean the highest probability zone. Because all this is a probability function based on the theories of planetary formation. It is considered that planets are formed from a planetary nebula. And that the "habitable zone" will be a region where water will have the chance to condensate AND later to keep its liquid form.
In general, in the case of a sun-like star this would look like a probability function that starts at zero from the center of the system, keeps zero up to regions between Venus and Earth, sharply rises between Earth and the asteroid belt, and slowly lowers up to a region beyond Jupiter. We know that there were oceans in Mars. We know that the Moon shows Earth as being on the EDGE of this zone. We know that there is the high chances for Europe to have an inner ocean. And we have a hot Io showing that tidal phenomena may trick the whole game of temperature distributions. So if one searches for "habitable zones", then he should search for a region much larger then the Solar System and surely not at 1 AU. Mars lost its water for some damn cosmical impact that send into bubbling to Cosmos. And there are indications that, even now, water makes a good part of the landscape.
Besides I don't see the good point to remark huge planets in highly elliptic orbits. Because they are inside the 1 AU? And what about the escape velocities produced by these orbits? We surely will not find Extra-Jupitereans. We can only rely on the possible sattelites around these planets. And these planets will have very thiny chances of possessing big sattelites with enough conditions for life. Because they need to be big and fat. Or else they will be cooked like the Moon.
Besides what about the chance of Jupiters at Jupiter's distance but with Mars-sized satellited. It is quite possible. And we know that the tidal game may trick the production of enough heat to give habitable conditions to these planets. While these would be exceptions, they are not far from the conditions we even see on Jupiter. At least everyone says there is a good chance to find Life in Europe. There is no arguments to dismiss this fact, on the contrary. And sincerly Life doesn't exactly need the surface of a planet to live and survive. So "underground" habitable zones may extend even further...
Drake Equation is a telltale that no one seriously studying the chances of extraterrestrial life takes into account. It is a mass of suppositions set in algebraic form for the sake of clearity. Nothing else. Drake equation does not show any probability, it only states the relations BETWEEN probabilities to give the result of the combination of these probabilities. While you don't have data about the main probabilities, Drake Equation is as beautiful as the theory of perpetual machines. You may turn the way you like and get the best result it fits you...
Some may argue that we have some starting data. Well I will HIGHLY DISAGREE with it. Until now astronomers are discovering more and more data that strongly influences even the first variables of Drake Equation. Speciallyon what concerns the distribution, density and nature of organic compounds in the Universe.
Not exactly. The guy is not so stupid. He built his phrase smartly enough to avoid a clear case of libel. Look carefully:
"We doubt very much that they are not using Fraunhofer and Thomson intellectual property. We think it is likely they are infringing.'"
The guy expresses only a state of mind. A supposition, a doubt. In other terms, his opinion. In court he may state several reasons for not having seen oggvorbis code. Real or unreal he can state them, restate that he has a right to express his opinion and get clean with this one.
What is really interesting is that, under the conditions oggvorbis is dispatched to the public, they are still "thinking". This would sound like people thinking and communicating at old Bell protocol speeds - 300bps
You forget the law that will be passed three years from now and where the traffic patroller will have the right to ask for your driver's licence, your seat belt and your car player...
No it is not time to calm down. It is time to bash down these folks, Monty. Because if you leave these guys thinking that cheap words make a lot of more noise than lawyers then, soon, we will have three, four, five coporations shouting FUD in several other programs. And later we may face wholescale FUD on OpenSource. Because it will cost nothing to do it. You FUD the whole community and they only *sigh* in answer. And you get your customers, your silly users, the consumer herd for the price of nothing. Thomson could have long ago checked if oggvorbis was a violation of their patents. It costs NOTHING for them to get the algorithm, the source code and the programs. So why to FUD that way? I would accept something like "we checked their code and we have strong suspicions they may be violating our patent rights". But no. He speaks about some vaporous "possible violation" and leaves in the air the idea they are eager to get up to you. No more no less.
Such freeware FUD should not be tolerated. If one has a case, let him show it. If not, then his opinions are covered by the GPL. And can be copied, transferred, modified and used against him for free... but no one has the right to sell it to no one...
And this matters so much? Maybe oggvorbis will not go too far on what concerns hardware, if no one will support it. However there are three points you're missing:
Going "nowhere" is too heavy of a statement. Even today mp3 is mostly used through software tools. Besides the quality of algorithm has greatly improved. It produces files a little fatter than mp3 but with an envious quality.
Almost a couple of years ago mp3 was also going nowhere. There was not hardware support and there was a fear that all these big associations, corporations and mobs would eat alive anyone who dared to produce such hardware. Well, these same groups are still trying to eat alive someone but also trying to sell mp3s now...
When mp3 was outlaw, there were lots of expectations that someone would create a "mp3 killer". This was due to several technical and strategical reasons for such. Most expected that the "Industry" would finally get the "ideal packer" that would not only protect their egoistic copyright demands but also produce better quality than mp3. Well, a system that is starting to produce better sound quality is here. So what's the problem? That does not protect awkward copyright demands? Well, once Spain also wanted all America for itself. For some reason portuguese ended with more than half of South America and english with nearly all North. And in the end Spain lost even its own latinos... such egoistic ownerships have always a tendency to end quite badly...
So a GPL program and they "think"??? Well that's a HEEEELLLLL!
Can't you see? Some of the biggest market players. Some of the biggest makers of sound algorithms. Some of the biggest sound labs. Some of the most well known investigators. And they "THINK"????
Well is that SO hard to dig on a few hundreds of kilobytes of Open Source code? Is that SOOOO HAAAARD to understand a GPL program? Hey, maybe the code was written such way that it is hard to understand? Let's see...
OH MY! Look AT THOSE LINES!!! How they are ordered!!! It's like if someone cared for alignment. Naaa, that's to create confusion. So the code would look like clear and perfect... Like the commies. Everything looks good, all people smiles, but in that damn corner. Oh in that DAMN corner. They are there trying to take over the world. These damn rebelious bastards. Naaa there is soemthing hidden here. It looks too good to be true...
And what about those comments?!!! Don't you see? One comment here. Another there. Clear confusion! "first things first. Make sure encode is ready." "currently lazy. Short block dispatches to 0, long to 1". Pure nonsense! Where is the Developer's Guide? I wanna see the specs in three veluum volumes like in every good corporation! With resumes, marketing analysis, financial projections, accounting and a short explanation what the Hell is this for!..
And how about these variables??? "vorbis_info", "ogg_pack_write". What is a vorbis? And how do you pack a ogg? Isn't this taking people into confusion? Yeah that's it! They are clearly HIDING something. Maybe the patent "on how to sing with your lips"? Yeah probably that one. It can't be that these guys made a new fresh algorithm and get us with our pants on. There must be something hidden behind these orgs and vogues...
"The rest of the Linux herd won't run on the hardware."
Hey,/. staff. Before BOOMing the news read creafully the article and leave some piece of salt on it, instead of crying PANIC!
This article sounds SUSPICIOULSY biased. First it calls for panic. Hey not everyone rides an installation setup prog... For example, I always install everything by hand. Second it turns blame over some oversuspicious database updating Intel should do, sounding as if this was some sort Herculean effort. Then it speaks about "Intel investment SuSE" as if Intel disregards something of its own (why to look at this second-rate OS?).
Also it is interesting to note that it says that:
"Chen says that he's been in contact with SuSE, Caldera and Debian and "we have told all of them about the issue and they're aware." However none of them has given him a schedule for releasing a new CPUID."
As if the Linux "herd" didn't give a bunch about the matter.
Meanwhile. We have something like 80 distros. NO DISTRO works? NONE of them? Even over-conservative Slackware?
Right now a whole field is open to integrate such things as office applications and other stuff, tightly into the kernel. I advise to start with a browser. We glue it ot the kernel and give it to users. Users will have to use it no matter their likes or deslikes. And so we kill all this madness of distros, alpha-beta-gamma versions, several apps for one purpose. We will start to unify Linux into One Total System. And fight M$ for World Domination.
These EULA's stuff are quite interesting. Specially from the Russian point of view. The "Click and accept" is juridically nil here. And some software companies deliver their products without even a written EULA. One of them - Microsoft!
Besides, software companies are obliged to pass a written warrantee to users. However it is hard to understand where an EULA can be considered as such or not. In fact some EULAs are so EULAs that people forget some necessary juridical terms such as "warrants you...". Meanwhile they are quite strightforward on what you shouldn't do. And it is curious that such pretty guys like MS violate in all terms the Russian Law. Specially on something like reverse enginnering. I have the right to do it as far as I don't make holes on M$'s pockets. And specially on cases when I try to add something to software and the only way is to reverse engineer their stuff. However the EULA FORBIDS reverse engineer and looks quite scary on such stuff...
EULA's? End-User Low Acceptance. End Using Lamer's Applications.
Well it's good that DOD is doing something for its protection. Anyway, two years ago, defense in some sectors was near to miserable. The story they refer about the awakening is the example of this. As it was half told. The exploit was found in September and any well-learned sysadmin applied its patch on a month or two. However DOD's guys didn't handle a finger on it until they got these script kiddies harassing their systems. And the first thing they did was to go to the media and talk about "major attacks". What was the most stupid thing I heard about. In result they got a REAL DAMN attack that knocked down a few comps around. Great thing...
I believe that DOD learned the lesson. And learned to NOT TO TRUST the media. Since then I have less learned about Pentagon's generals crying over journalists shoulders and more real work on their defenses. Since then I saw even some real though stuff on security coming from the inners of DOD. My congratulations people to have learned the lesson.
If you kept that wave in 1998 then you could have got the third hackers counter-attack wave and this one could have been very heavy to hold. As people were getting really mad for seeing another Sundevil Operation coming up. Bashing hackers for the lass lazy security of your admins is not the way to operate. If you have a sleepy admin coming 8 o'clock to play minesweeper until 17:00 (time to go home!) is not our problem but yours. Fortunately it seems you got something out of what happened in 98.
If these concenrs only the bug reports that I do think they have some right to do it. Anyway they publish it. However if they try to restrict the discussion of their bugs through this way ten it is a problem and a serious one. Not that Microsoft loves to state that the reproduction of some of their documents is "resctricted in whole and in part". This is the case of their User's Guides for example. I would highly recomend to read it has the text is quite straightforward on this. And even overcomes some legalese about Copyright Law so it is juridically dubious. In particular the fact that it seems to restrict even the right to cite their works.
In this point might be the danger. If Microsoft publishes a bug report and claims that someone violated their copyright because it cited it, then we do have a problem here. I leave the possible consequences to your conclusions...
What these "science" jounalists need is a trip on Mir or ISS. But not as tourists but to keep sending space news for a year... In the end we will only hear: Well, this *BEEP* space station *BEEP* working as usual... Today *BEEEEEEEP* solar panels and ***BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP*** rest. *BEEP* Ground "discontrol" is ****BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPP* about us...
For nearly 20 years, Soviet Union/Russia had people on Space. And it becomes clear that the longer you stay there, the worse you get tired and nervous. They start getting sarcastic, nervous, sometimes quite ordinary. With longlivers, talks with ground control become 90% "not for children's ears". And this is not due to bad conditions or lack of air. The problem is on the huge amount of work, the lack of time and all this in an enclosed space on not very familiar conditions (lack of gravity is not as funny as it may seem). Besides there is a psychological problem with ground control that causes serous problems. You're working for monthes in a cage, swetting and having lots of things to do, troubles, glitches and features. You don't see your family or friends and it was monthes before you had be in a party or soemthing. And this damn lack of gravity to help. Now you see that ground controller who just came from home, had just seen his wife, had been in a party last week and tells you that you are doing something wrong... Can't you imagine the reaction? Well I haven't been in Space but I was in one quite remote place once. For several monthes. When someone started to tell me I was wrong through the sattelite phone I could only say:
Ok you damn fat swine, take your ass from your hot seat and come here to the frost telling "I'm wrong" in your f**** sweet tone"
ID claims that sails are disappointing. Quite right. Many users had to wait nearly a year to see normal X 3D support on Linux. And note this "X 3D" support. There is a "less noted" library called Mesa that ID programmers seem to have forgotten. Better to have suffered amnesia. Quake II worked with this library on Voodoo cards and preformed quite good. Yes, this stuff didn't work with other cards but one also has to note that, back then, few card vendors supported Linux. However ID made two big mistakes on this. First it dropped out Mesa support and ran straight to X. That was the MISTAKE. X didn't have normal 3D support back then. Only two months ago we started to see distros with NORMAL 3D support. And even most developers/testers have seen it not before July. So sorry ID. The sales are bad because you made an incorrect move.
Now about kernel changes and other stuff. I have Quake2 working for nearly two years. under those same binaries of version 3.20. Software mod AND 3D mode. Yes, on Voodoo. But they are working! I ran from 2.0.X through 2.4.0-test6 with it (the newest kernels were not tested because I had no time to play). I ran from glibc 2.0 through 2.2. I had TONS of Mesa and glide libraries running on this Quake2 stuff. Yes, sometimes something broke. But mostly because I wanted to test a new beta or to play a little with performance/quality. So I don't get the point. Even considering the dangers of closed source, their damn Quake2 3.20 is still alive.
Maybe the fact ID tried to play a pioneering role on Linux 3D games. provoked this? Very probable. They started when all here was damn green alpha. No drivers, no libraries, no architecture. And the risks were HUGE. So probably, due to this, Quake2 became unpopular. But there is one thing that ID can be proud of... Their push through linux gave the system a real 3D system. The one we have been waiting for nearly 3 years. It is fantastic how things run now. Their push forced everyone to think and do the engine. Before this there were only some adventurous attempts. After Quake3 we had a real combinated push through 3D support on X. And here I can only say - Thanks ID...
I don't know wnat it want to conquest but users have stated that the stuff is good but interface is bad. Specially in cases when you have to deal with multilanguage. It looks more stable for some troublmaking sites but in general people prefer the Netscape/Mozilla stuff. It seems that menu and button design was not made in the most optimal way. And this turns people away from it.
Meanwhile people generally agree that KDE2 is much better interface than KDE1.
The problem Jon makes is that he picks up some new toy, bashes it and doesn't see a finger in front of the real issue. Jon what you are seeing is "generation wars", something that has been happening since Industrial Revolution. The traditionalist patriacharts and matriarcharts were destroyed by the huge power Industrialism gave to each individual. However, some roots remain inside the cultural and familiar relations among relatives. Specially on those members which their root cultures have only recently touched the "wheels of progress".
People today has a huge freedom to accept new values, material and moral. In my grandparents time, it was cars. In my parents time the TV. In my time the computer. In my children time Internet and VR. Values change but the issue is one and the same. We now are more free to choose things. And your bashing on PS2 consoles is the same blind kicking my dad did on PC's. The issue is not the computer or the PS2 but the fact that our values are changing too radically from generation to generation. Look at how people dress today and pick up some photos of your parents. Listen to how people speak. That's a Revolution. In Middle Ages, such level of changes would take 200-300 years. But now it takes only nd only 10-20 years. Less than a generation. Even I feel too different from the teenager I was. In the 80's I heard Pink Floyd, Deep Purple and Depeche Mode. Today I hear Prodigy, Rammstein, Enigma and underground music. But my fathers are still stuck to old 50's-70's and don't seem to change a lot here.
Look over the cost of the PS2 console and the fact it's Japanese. I wonder if you would note it if it was made in Taiwan and cost half-price... Try to see how your kid does value HIS OWN world and not the objects that help him value it.
Pick out Katz and get him into some Rocky Mountains resort. And get every TV set and VCR out of his hands. Strict rest, mountain air, and walks in the open under the cold breeze of winter. At night three water cups of good Russian vodka and sleep, sleep, sleep.
It seems that Katz is seeing too much films recently... And it looks as if he got a nerve break... That is the only way to see his part two. A typical base script for some low-rated Holywood stuff. Frankly I read it and it seems I'm seeing some "Invasion of Teenager Mutants - the rise of the PS2 Kyborgs". Dad, mommy crying "MOMMIE, DADDDIE" and son running with a fly head and a robot arm after them... And Katz playing the ingenous detective, who occasionaly falls on the track of an old WWII Japanese Doctor plotting to cover the World with robots. And the evil doctor does this right from a XVIII century mansard, somewhere in Kansas. Which occurs to have belonged to Dr. Frankenstein himself...
Ok Katz. At least be faster than Stephen King to end this...
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Ok people. I don't wanna defend Raymond. Frankly his interview has some weak points.
But what I see here!..
Microsoft has a decent mail system? Cool, show it to me... Outlook? That piece of trash with good look? Very good. If you are a user then you must be a damn lucky guy to not have trouble with it. If you are a sysadmin, damn or you are REAL GOOD or you and me are not living on the same planet...
On what concerns the desktop. KDE vs Windows? That's old. KDE2 is not worser, in most points to Windows. It may be different. But most users consider it at the same level as Windows. Some even comapare to autos of different carmakers. And here I mean general users. Those who don't know nothing about command lines and bash scripts. Those who know this stuff, prefer things like WindowMaker or AfterStep.
Sorry StarOffice bashers. Yes, the tool has some serious esthetic drawbacks, but, sincerly, most people I see, either choose it or Office97. So second place in front of Office00 is not bad at all. And while the masses still use Windows, I'm already seeing a 50/50 OS fight among advanced users. For example, in the office I'm now, we have 5 Windows and 4 Linux desktops. On a comapny I know, the financial director already uses Linux for all his work. We suse StarOffice for nearly 80% of documents and i have not seen any serious drawbacks in the conversion of M$ docs.
On what concerns your stupid trend "Linux is not ready for the desktop". It is not ready and it will never be ready. In most sense. Linux is a building block. Something like a Lego box. If you don't wanna burn your brains building it for a month or two then go and get Windows. But don't come here saying this "linrftd" BS. If you don't have the preparation or the guts to make a desktop system, it's YOUR problem. My Linux box is working for the 5th month in a row. And because one HDD physically crashed. Or else it would be in its 11th month. My collegue is using a box with nearly no big changes since July last year! Now our Windows fans here, fully reinstall their piece of crap every month!
Yes it is a hard thing to do. My box took nearly one month to get into full work. But it is an office desktop machine.
The only thing I would agree is that Linux is not ready for games. Correct, I give up on this one. But I'm in an office and I have a job to do. Games, I can play in other machine.
And what concerns Microsoft loosing its monopoly. It already lost it. If you don't see, then you're quite blind. Many advanced users are already using Redhats, Mandrakes and even Debians for their regular work. And this is making many common users to pass frontlines. Just yesterday I had three users asking for my Linux CDs. Everyday I hear people asking things about Linux settings, configurations. Most, only claim the lack of games as the main barrier to not use Linux fulltime. And what is more significative, is that a large group of dial-up users uses only Linux in their Internet roaming. So don't tell me tales.
Well I worked in both environments and I can say one thing. For high demand, high production work, war rooms are the "only good one". But your boss should be on it... Or else it is not a war room but a barrack. Right now I'm working in war room "version 2". A not so big room (we're really stuffed here) with ten people and 15 computers. There is also the "no man's land" where all servers are located. You only enter there in case of trouble, maintenance "in situ" or to install something new. 24 hours a day there is always someone here. Most of us have computers at home and mobiles. This allows us to hold three ISP structures and a series of several other tasks for the University we work.
Our team is the best and most tighted together among all here. We passed over crises, problems of different kinds and till now many "old guards" are still working here, while they "officially" already left their job. Most decisions are considered and weighted by the team and only then a decision is taken. Frankly, we don't have "soldiers" here. There is only one trouble - music. Tastes are so different that it gets some conflicts here.
I should note that this team is a hallmark around here. While not being the biggest ISP, we are the most influential in terms of methods and technologies. One of the biggest ISPs is made mostly of our "old guards". And this structure has proved to be the best. The examples of "cubicle" schemes on this fiels and which I work with, had all failed. Specially due to the fact that there was no normal communication schemes between the boss and you.
In a work that demands the minimum of failures possible, the boss should not only be in contact with the team but also be an effective member of it. Yeah it is hard for some, any private/confidential talk is nearly known by all. But we are also decisiomakers so it does not make a big difference. It may also look hard to divide work between business deals and technical tasks. But this brings decisionmaking into a more strightforward position. The boss knows things as a captain should know the battlefield. This is very fundamental under the intensity of some tasks we have.
Will you try to optimize Plex86 on SMP systems? I believe some tricks could allow the virtual OS to operate more effectively and stable if, for example, one could dedicate one and only one CPU for its tasks.
Not even Mitnick got half of it. I think the guy needs another correctional measure. To write 1000 time "I'm sorry" and be kept in jail until he writes up 2,5 million times the stuff... That's a good punishment for a spammer.
Hey if he will write 1000 "I'm sorries" a day, that will mean 7 years... Oh damn...
No I'm not talking about the star's wobble but about the planet's one. Planets possessing low rotation speeds and either too high or too low inclinations to the star system's eclyptic, plus a spin that changes too slow, will create serious thermodynamical conditions to the planets themselves. Such is the case of Venus for example. Or the _possible_ case of Earth during after the Permian. At such conditions the planets suffer an overheat. Venus as a 400 degrees and 90 atmospheres in its surface. Earth reached nearly 80-100 degrees inside the continent. Well Earth managed to keep life "alive" because it already had lots of water back then. But a small disbalance and you may get a "hot Mars" in place.
A truck in California, a fall in Sweden? Bring it to us in Russia. If it survives then they can certify it for real and claim as the real thoughest mouse... Meanwhile it is only a though mouse...
I would like to see it pass -50, dropped into the coffee mug, being mistakenly taken for the ashtray, occasionally plugged into the power socket, then being kicked by one though sysadmin in Quake. And being sadistically tested by dozens of users - "Though yeah? Let's see then.."
Once I saw how canadians brought a though truck into a Siberian town. A big bright shiny Kenwood. The Kamaz looks as a tiny family car in front of it. Russian mechanics looked at the american monster and warned that it wouldn't hold up too long. Canadians answered that they have Kenwoods working in similar climatic conditions in their North... Two weeks, BHAM! The main axis turned into a small mound of steel sand. And the guys got stucked in their base without supplies... Well five guys in a whole filled Kamaz. Running 80-120Km/h through the Taiga, frozen river beds at -50 they brought the supplies to the canadian group... A whole trip of over 300Km through Siberia...
So, while it is not "Russian certified", it's only though...
1024 computers - Interesting number. a new unit, the Penguin. One Penguin, two Penguins. Anyway M$ will never reach half Penguin...
According to the text we know know the place of Linus Torvalds in the development of Linux. It occurs he is just a "Fin" of the Penguin... And a group of volunteers on the Web helped him... Yeah Alan Cox upgrading a new patch through a web form...
Interesting licensed OS they found - UNIX. And it seems Linux is an alternative to it. I wonder how interesting is to be an alternative to itself...
Well taking a good look at some of these orbits I would doubt we could find such repositories. zi mean the high elliptical ones. First we know that at 1 AU and less, Moon-sized moons would be virtually cooked by the star. And every planet with a wrong wobble would get into the same fate... Then we should take into account the huge tidal forces produced by these orbits. So probably most moons would look more as hot melted cheese. And then we should think if there are such moons at all, as the escape velocities would be tremendously high for large moons.
Considering the number of such elliptical planets, chances are much lower than one should expect...
What the Hell is this "Zone"???? A region around 1 AU? NONSENSE! Earth is probably more an lucky aberration than a rule of the thumb. It is probable that it is extraordinary that Earth formed at such distance of the Sun with all the parameters to keep a large amount of liquid water on it. Look at the Moon for an example of what I'm saying... In fact the "habitable zone" should be generally be a bit more far away than Earth. I mean the highest probability zone. Because all this is a probability function based on the theories of planetary formation. It is considered that planets are formed from a planetary nebula. And that the "habitable zone" will be a region where water will have the chance to condensate AND later to keep its liquid form.
In general, in the case of a sun-like star this would look like a probability function that starts at zero from the center of the system, keeps zero up to regions between Venus and Earth, sharply rises between Earth and the asteroid belt, and slowly lowers up to a region beyond Jupiter. We know that there were oceans in Mars. We know that the Moon shows Earth as being on the EDGE of this zone. We know that there is the high chances for Europe to have an inner ocean. And we have a hot Io showing that tidal phenomena may trick the whole game of temperature distributions. So if one searches for "habitable zones", then he should search for a region much larger then the Solar System and surely not at 1 AU. Mars lost its water for some damn cosmical impact that send into bubbling to Cosmos. And there are indications that, even now, water makes a good part of the landscape.
Besides I don't see the good point to remark huge planets in highly elliptic orbits. Because they are inside the 1 AU? And what about the escape velocities produced by these orbits? We surely will not find Extra-Jupitereans. We can only rely on the possible sattelites around these planets. And these planets will have very thiny chances of possessing big sattelites with enough conditions for life. Because they need to be big and fat. Or else they will be cooked like the Moon.
Besides what about the chance of Jupiters at Jupiter's distance but with Mars-sized satellited. It is quite possible. And we know that the tidal game may trick the production of enough heat to give habitable conditions to these planets. While these would be exceptions, they are not far from the conditions we even see on Jupiter. At least everyone says there is a good chance to find Life in Europe. There is no arguments to dismiss this fact, on the contrary. And sincerly Life doesn't exactly need the surface of a planet to live and survive. So "underground" habitable zones may extend even further...
Drake Equation is a telltale that no one seriously studying the chances of extraterrestrial life takes into account. It is a mass of suppositions set in algebraic form for the sake of clearity. Nothing else. Drake equation does not show any probability, it only states the relations BETWEEN probabilities to give the result of the combination of these probabilities. While you don't have data about the main probabilities, Drake Equation is as beautiful as the theory of perpetual machines. You may turn the way you like and get the best result it fits you...
Some may argue that we have some starting data. Well I will HIGHLY DISAGREE with it. Until now astronomers are discovering more and more data that strongly influences even the first variables of Drake Equation. Speciallyon what concerns the distribution, density and nature of organic compounds in the Universe.
Not exactly. The guy is not so stupid. He built his phrase smartly enough to avoid a clear case of libel. Look carefully:
"We doubt very much that they are not using Fraunhofer and Thomson intellectual property. We think it is likely they are infringing.'"
The guy expresses only a state of mind. A supposition, a doubt. In other terms, his opinion. In court he may state several reasons for not having seen oggvorbis code. Real or unreal he can state them, restate that he has a right to express his opinion and get clean with this one.
What is really interesting is that, under the conditions oggvorbis is dispatched to the public, they are still "thinking". This would sound like people thinking and communicating at old Bell protocol speeds - 300bps
You forget the law that will be passed three years from now and where the traffic patroller will have the right to ask for your driver's licence, your seat belt and your car player...
Highway UCITA...
No it is not time to calm down. It is time to bash down these folks, Monty. Because if you leave these guys thinking that cheap words make a lot of more noise than lawyers then, soon, we will have three, four, five coporations shouting FUD in several other programs. And later we may face wholescale FUD on OpenSource. Because it will cost nothing to do it. You FUD the whole community and they only *sigh* in answer. And you get your customers, your silly users, the consumer herd for the price of nothing. Thomson could have long ago checked if oggvorbis was a violation of their patents. It costs NOTHING for them to get the algorithm, the source code and the programs. So why to FUD that way? I would accept something like "we checked their code and we have strong suspicions they may be violating our patent rights". But no. He speaks about some vaporous "possible violation" and leaves in the air the idea they are eager to get up to you. No more no less.
Such freeware FUD should not be tolerated. If one has a case, let him show it. If not, then his opinions are covered by the GPL. And can be copied, transferred, modified and used against him for free... but no one has the right to sell it to no one...
And this matters so much? Maybe oggvorbis will not go too far on what concerns hardware, if no one will support it. However there are three points you're missing:
Going "nowhere" is too heavy of a statement. Even today mp3 is mostly used through software tools. Besides the quality of algorithm has greatly improved. It produces files a little fatter than mp3 but with an envious quality.
Almost a couple of years ago mp3 was also going nowhere. There was not hardware support and there was a fear that all these big associations, corporations and mobs would eat alive anyone who dared to produce such hardware. Well, these same groups are still trying to eat alive someone but also trying to sell mp3s now...
When mp3 was outlaw, there were lots of expectations that someone would create a "mp3 killer". This was due to several technical and strategical reasons for such. Most expected that the "Industry" would finally get the "ideal packer" that would not only protect their egoistic copyright demands but also produce better quality than mp3. Well, a system that is starting to produce better sound quality is here. So what's the problem? That does not protect awkward copyright demands? Well, once Spain also wanted all America for itself. For some reason portuguese ended with more than half of South America and english with nearly all North. And in the end Spain lost even its own latinos... such egoistic ownerships have always a tendency to end quite badly...
So a GPL program and they "think"??? Well that's a HEEEELLLLL!
Can't you see? Some of the biggest market players. Some of the biggest makers of sound algorithms. Some of the biggest sound labs. Some of the most well known investigators. And they "THINK"????
Well is that SO hard to dig on a few hundreds of kilobytes of Open Source code? Is that SOOOO HAAAARD to understand a GPL program? Hey, maybe the code was written such way that it is hard to understand? Let's see...
OH MY! Look AT THOSE LINES!!! How they are ordered!!! It's like if someone cared for alignment. Naaa, that's to create confusion. So the code would look like clear and perfect... Like the commies. Everything looks good, all people smiles, but in that damn corner. Oh in that DAMN corner. They are there trying to take over the world. These damn rebelious bastards. Naaa there is soemthing hidden here. It looks too good to be true...
And what about those comments?!!! Don't you see? One comment here. Another there. Clear confusion! "first things first. Make sure encode is ready." "currently lazy. Short block dispatches to 0, long to 1". Pure nonsense! Where is the Developer's Guide? I wanna see the specs in three veluum volumes like in every good corporation! With resumes, marketing analysis, financial projections, accounting and a short explanation what the Hell is this for!..
And how about these variables??? "vorbis_info", "ogg_pack_write". What is a vorbis? And how do you pack a ogg? Isn't this taking people into confusion? Yeah that's it! They are clearly HIDING something. Maybe the patent "on how to sing with your lips"? Yeah probably that one. It can't be that these guys made a new fresh algorithm and get us with our pants on. There must be something hidden behind these orgs and vogues...
"The rest of the Linux herd won't run on the hardware."
Hey,
This article sounds SUSPICIOULSY biased. First it calls for panic. Hey not everyone rides an installation setup prog... For example, I always install everything by hand. Second it turns blame over some oversuspicious database updating Intel should do, sounding as if this was some sort Herculean effort. Then it speaks about "Intel investment SuSE" as if Intel disregards something of its own (why to look at this second-rate OS?).
Also it is interesting to note that it says that:
"Chen says that he's been in contact with SuSE, Caldera and Debian and "we have told all of them about the issue and they're aware." However none of them has given him a schedule for releasing a new CPUID."
As if the Linux "herd" didn't give a bunch about the matter.
Meanwhile. We have something like 80 distros. NO DISTRO works? NONE of them? Even over-conservative Slackware?
Right now a whole field is open to integrate such things as office applications and other stuff, tightly into the kernel. I advise to start with a browser. We glue it ot the kernel and give it to users. Users will have to use it no matter their likes or deslikes. And so we kill all this madness of distros, alpha-beta-gamma versions, several apps for one purpose. We will start to unify Linux into One Total System. And fight M$ for World Domination.
These EULA's stuff are quite interesting. Specially from the Russian point of view. The "Click and accept" is juridically nil here. And some software companies deliver their products without even a written EULA. One of them - Microsoft!
Besides, software companies are obliged to pass a written warrantee to users. However it is hard to understand where an EULA can be considered as such or not. In fact some EULAs are so EULAs that people forget some necessary juridical terms such as "warrants you...". Meanwhile they are quite strightforward on what you shouldn't do. And it is curious that such pretty guys like MS violate in all terms the Russian Law. Specially on something like reverse enginnering. I have the right to do it as far as I don't make holes on M$'s pockets. And specially on cases when I try to add something to software and the only way is to reverse engineer their stuff. However the EULA FORBIDS reverse engineer and looks quite scary on such stuff...
EULA's? End-User Low Acceptance. End Using Lamer's Applications.
Well it's good that DOD is doing something for its protection. Anyway, two years ago, defense in some sectors was near to miserable. The story they refer about the awakening is the example of this. As it was half told. The exploit was found in September and any well-learned sysadmin applied its patch on a month or two. However DOD's guys didn't handle a finger on it until they got these script kiddies harassing their systems. And the first thing they did was to go to the media and talk about "major attacks". What was the most stupid thing I heard about. In result they got a REAL DAMN attack that knocked down a few comps around. Great thing...
I believe that DOD learned the lesson. And learned to NOT TO TRUST the media. Since then I have less learned about Pentagon's generals crying over journalists shoulders and more real work on their defenses. Since then I saw even some real though stuff on security coming from the inners of DOD. My congratulations people to have learned the lesson.
If you kept that wave in 1998 then you could have got the third hackers counter-attack wave and this one could have been very heavy to hold. As people were getting really mad for seeing another Sundevil Operation coming up. Bashing hackers for the lass lazy security of your admins is not the way to operate. If you have a sleepy admin coming 8 o'clock to play minesweeper until 17:00 (time to go home!) is not our problem but yours. Fortunately it seems you got something out of what happened in 98.
From Russia with nukes... Just kiddin'...
If these concenrs only the bug reports that I do think they have some right to do it. Anyway they publish it. However if they try to restrict the discussion of their bugs through this way ten it is a problem and a serious one. Not that Microsoft loves to state that the reproduction of some of their documents is "resctricted in whole and in part". This is the case of their User's Guides for example. I would highly recomend to read it has the text is quite straightforward on this. And even overcomes some legalese about Copyright Law so it is juridically dubious. In particular the fact that it seems to restrict even the right to cite their works.
In this point might be the danger. If Microsoft publishes a bug report and claims that someone violated their copyright because it cited it, then we do have a problem here. I leave the possible consequences to your conclusions...
What these "science" jounalists need is a trip on Mir or ISS. But not as tourists but to keep sending space news for a year... In the end we will only hear: Well, this *BEEP* space station *BEEP* working as usual ... Today *BEEEEEEEP* solar panels and ***BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP*** rest. *BEEP* Ground "discontrol" is ****BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPP* about us...
For nearly 20 years, Soviet Union/Russia had people on Space. And it becomes clear that the longer you stay there, the worse you get tired and nervous. They start getting sarcastic, nervous, sometimes quite ordinary. With longlivers, talks with ground control become 90% "not for children's ears". And this is not due to bad conditions or lack of air. The problem is on the huge amount of work, the lack of time and all this in an enclosed space on not very familiar conditions (lack of gravity is not as funny as it may seem). Besides there is a psychological problem with ground control that causes serous problems. You're working for monthes in a cage, swetting and having lots of things to do, troubles, glitches and features. You don't see your family or friends and it was monthes before you had be in a party or soemthing. And this damn lack of gravity to help. Now you see that ground controller who just came from home, had just seen his wife, had been in a party last week and tells you that you are doing something wrong... Can't you imagine the reaction? Well I haven't been in Space but I was in one quite remote place once. For several monthes. When someone started to tell me I was wrong through the sattelite phone I could only say:
Ok you damn fat swine, take your ass from your hot seat and come here to the frost telling "I'm wrong" in your f**** sweet tone"
ID claims that sails are disappointing. Quite right. Many users had to wait nearly a year to see normal X 3D support on Linux. And note this "X 3D" support. There is a "less noted" library called Mesa that ID programmers seem to have forgotten. Better to have suffered amnesia. Quake II worked with this library on Voodoo cards and preformed quite good. Yes, this stuff didn't work with other cards but one also has to note that, back then, few card vendors supported Linux. However ID made two big mistakes on this. First it dropped out Mesa support and ran straight to X. That was the MISTAKE. X didn't have normal 3D support back then. Only two months ago we started to see distros with NORMAL 3D support. And even most developers/testers have seen it not before July. So sorry ID. The sales are bad because you made an incorrect move.
Now about kernel changes and other stuff. I have Quake2 working for nearly two years. under those same binaries of version 3.20. Software mod AND 3D mode. Yes, on Voodoo. But they are working! I ran from 2.0.X through 2.4.0-test6 with it (the newest kernels were not tested because I had no time to play). I ran from glibc 2.0 through 2.2. I had TONS of Mesa and glide libraries running on this Quake2 stuff. Yes, sometimes something broke. But mostly because I wanted to test a new beta or to play a little with performance/quality. So I don't get the point. Even considering the dangers of closed source, their damn Quake2 3.20 is still alive.
Maybe the fact ID tried to play a pioneering role on Linux 3D games. provoked this? Very probable. They started when all here was damn green alpha. No drivers, no libraries, no architecture. And the risks were HUGE. So probably, due to this, Quake2 became unpopular. But there is one thing that ID can be proud of... Their push through linux gave the system a real 3D system. The one we have been waiting for nearly 3 years. It is fantastic how things run now. Their push forced everyone to think and do the engine. Before this there were only some adventurous attempts. After Quake3 we had a real combinated push through 3D support on X. And here I can only say - Thanks ID...
I don't know wnat it want to conquest but users have stated that the stuff is good but interface is bad. Specially in cases when you have to deal with multilanguage. It looks more stable for some troublmaking sites but in general people prefer the Netscape/Mozilla stuff. It seems that menu and button design was not made in the most optimal way. And this turns people away from it.
Meanwhile people generally agree that KDE2 is much better interface than KDE1.
The problem Jon makes is that he picks up some new toy, bashes it and doesn't see a finger in front of the real issue. Jon what you are seeing is "generation wars", something that has been happening since Industrial Revolution. The traditionalist patriacharts and matriarcharts were destroyed by the huge power Industrialism gave to each individual. However, some roots remain inside the cultural and familiar relations among relatives. Specially on those members which their root cultures have only recently touched the "wheels of progress".
People today has a huge freedom to accept new values, material and moral. In my grandparents time, it was cars. In my parents time the TV. In my time the computer. In my children time Internet and VR. Values change but the issue is one and the same. We now are more free to choose things. And your bashing on PS2 consoles is the same blind kicking my dad did on PC's. The issue is not the computer or the PS2 but the fact that our values are changing too radically from generation to generation. Look at how people dress today and pick up some photos of your parents. Listen to how people speak. That's a Revolution. In Middle Ages, such level of changes would take 200-300 years. But now it takes only nd only 10-20 years. Less than a generation. Even I feel too different from the teenager I was. In the 80's I heard Pink Floyd, Deep Purple and Depeche Mode. Today I hear Prodigy, Rammstein, Enigma and underground music. But my fathers are still stuck to old 50's-70's and don't seem to change a lot here.
Look over the cost of the PS2 console and the fact it's Japanese. I wonder if you would note it if it was made in Taiwan and cost half-price... Try to see how your kid does value HIS OWN world and not the objects that help him value it.
Pick out Katz and get him into some Rocky Mountains resort. And get every TV set and VCR out of his hands. Strict rest, mountain air, and walks in the open under the cold breeze of winter. At night three water cups of good Russian vodka and sleep, sleep, sleep.
It seems that Katz is seeing too much films recently... And it looks as if he got a nerve break... That is the only way to see his part two. A typical base script for some low-rated Holywood stuff. Frankly I read it and it seems I'm seeing some "Invasion of Teenager Mutants - the rise of the PS2 Kyborgs". Dad, mommy crying "MOMMIE, DADDDIE" and son running with a fly head and a robot arm after them... And Katz playing the ingenous detective, who occasionaly falls on the track of an old WWII Japanese Doctor plotting to cover the World with robots. And the evil doctor does this right from a XVIII century mansard, somewhere in Kansas. Which occurs to have belonged to Dr. Frankenstein himself...
Ok Katz. At least be faster than Stephen King to end this...