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Comment Re:TIOBE methodology is so flawed it's pointless (Score 1) 535

Google can show different search results in different locations, probably due to its distributed nature and not all servers containing the same version of the data.

There is no "probably". Google goes to extraordinary lengths to ensure that when you reference google.com it really goes to google.com?.XX, where XX is the country code that your IP reverse resolves to.

It didn't use to be that relentless. They started doing it when I lived in Japan and I was able to avoid google.co.jp for awhile with some magic in the URL.

Google.co.in shows the C programming language as 2 of the top four hits (1 and 3) with Vitamin C as the 2nd hit. Citibank comes in 4th. Unsurprisingly, Citibank has the largest national presence of any US bank.

Comment Re:Penalties (Score 1) 657

In fact, I don't think Linux (or UNIX for that matter) could even do this if it wanted to, or it'd be very ugly - it would have to check the sticky bit (and other special bits), then user, group, and role for all users to generate that list.

The traditional Unix way to limit access to an executable is via group permissions and turning off all world permissions. Conceptually, this isn't any different than an ACL, except that modifying members of a group requires administrative access.

Ancient versions of Unix (System V and older) only allowed a user to be in a single group at a time. That was fixed decades ago.

The sticky bit on an executable, a hint to keep the executable in memory when the program exits, hasn't worked that way for just about as long.

Comment Re:Bad timing... (Score 1) 128

Most players have gotten all of the alts they could want to level 80. Most have finished grinding out all WotLK reps to exalted that they care about and are basically biding their time (or trying to keep up with the raid progression).

Well, I guess I'm in the minority then. I'm still working on getting my first level 80 to exalted with the Wyrmrest Accord and with any luck and time this coming weekend, I'll get my 2nd level 80, but hey, I have a life.

Comment Re:It's more important MS had another release (Score 1) 770

While Apple remains quite content with its upscale OS niche - in the fat years, worth about 5%-10% of the client market, domestically.

In the meantime, in a very bad economy, AAPL is making record profit. Something Is Wrong with your picture.

I'm a hardcore Linux guy. I "signed on" to contribute my share to what has now become Linux over two decades ago. I am a programmer. I lost count long ago of how many different programming languages I've had to deal with.

I've always mocked people (or silently gagged) when I've seen people do things on Microsoft Windows in front of me - "you're in a twisty maze of gui menus, all alike". I did give Microsoft Windows XP a try 3 years ago for about 6 months in deference to a boss whom I respected. Using it made me want to drive an ice pick through my forehead.

I had never owned a Mac until the summer of 2007 when I wanted to buy a notebook computer but wanted some flavor/descendent of Unix on it. The only thing I could buy in a brick mortar store in the US without Microsoft Windows was a Macbook Pro and I like it.

It comes with /bin/zsh, /usr/bin/emacs and X11. X11 windows coexist nicely with "native" Mac windows. It takes only a few seconds knowing nothing about Mac OS X to fix the big key to the left of the A key to be a Control key as God intended - even faster than KDE. 10.4 was still a toy system like Microsoft Windows XP, but 10.5 brought virtual desktops (my *must have* feature for a serious computer).

You Microsoft fanbois can diss Mac OS X to your heart's content, but there is serious goodness in it. The Apple guys have managed to achieve my fondest dream - matching a user friendly GUI to a hardcore power O/S.

(Oh and for you gamers, has it escaped notice that the most successful gaming company, Blizzard, releases all their games on Mac?)

Comment Re:Are desktop OS's really dying ? (Score 1) 770

The tech has changed (Clouds are replacing Mainframes) but some people are still thinking the same way. There is a certain move in this direction but to say that people will not have their own "local" horsepower sitting around I believe is extrapolating a tech-craze beyond where it is actually going to end up.

It hasn't really changed. Microsoft killed AT&T Unix in the late 1980s because of software licensing costs. It was a no brainer - do you want to pay ~US$100 per seat or ~US$1000 per seat?

The trend towards things like Citrix with centralized apps not residing on a user's local machine will continue.

Comment Re:Are desktop OS's really dying ? (Score 1) 770

Does this remark seem strange to anyone else ? I, honestly, am not seeing this trend at all, but I've seen it talked about.

I am seeing it. The trend began in Asia almost a decade ago. The US is just starting to catch up.

I've always loved hand held units over desktops. Notebook computers are a decent second. For casual browsing and email, hand held wins hands down.

Comment Re:Slashes still lean the wrong way (Score 1) 770

You realize that you can use / in path names anywhere in Windows, right?

Heh. That DOS 2.0ism is still there? In DOS 2.0 (when subdirectories were brilliantly innovated) the system code that decoded path names accepted either slashes or backslashes. There was also an undocumented system call that allowed one to change the switch character away from the slash.

You can (try to) take the Windows out of DOS, but you cannot take the DOS out of Windows. Or, something like that.

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