I think he was just pinging me for the ideas, which do predate my efforts and is certainly fair -- I started my whole "object" approach to c in 1985.

Of course, the whole point was to avoid using compiler tech that generated code I didn't intend it to generate, and in that sense, I got what I was after.

I wish I could still write my code in assembler, though. I was never more at home than when churning out 6809 or 68000 code.

Thanks, looks like very interesting reading. Bookmarked it.

Unfortunately Duel Licencing model is the only way to go with the GPL.

A Free in terms of freedom for the End User License.
A Closed Source licences that gives more freedom for the developers to control their own product.

Part of the effort is trying to determine what systems are vulnerable during that time as well.

So we get the flaw released on day one, It will take a while to audit all the systems to make sure they are not vulnerable.

Health Care IT is complex, Mixing new technology with extremely out of date technology. You have a LOT of network traffic as all these systems needs to talk to each other. You are required by law to share the data and keep it private at the same time. Data sets are often in the millions of records.

Just going patching your systems blindly is open to disaster as you could cause a systems that is critical for maintaining life for a person to fail. These updates need to be scheduled with a fail plan in place.

I think the problem with the Patent system isn't the idea of patents, but some factors that need to have them adjusted.

1. Patent Lifetime. 20 years is much too long in the technology industry. As technology is improving at an exponential rate. 20 years to hold onto a patents means by the time the patient expires, the technology is so old and out of date that it isn't useful any more. Back in the old days 20 years was enough for someone to get it in the market and make a good living off of it. When it was over then you can get others using it.

2. Too many obvious patents. Especially in software, We code new and interesting stuff every day, as our programs are meant to solve a new problem. Software patents should be reserved for some really ingenious stuff. Like advanced algorithms that the average coder will go, you know I might as well just download the library and implement vs having to figure it out myself and probably not have it work as well.

3. Lack of a good Non-Patent Protection legal mechanism. There isn't a way to register your idea officially, while not having the patent overhead, and if someone patents the same idea you can use your registration to prove yours is legit.

Exactly,
There is a lot of internet tout that Europeans somehow do things that much better then the US, is actually a lot of BS. They just have a different set of problems that the US does.

Germany probably just made the biggest fuss about it, just because they could, and distract their public from their own problems. We do the same in the US.

Have you ever written C code which uses a switch statement based on what type a struct/union is and calling the relevant code for it?

No. When I use structures as objects (which is often), they almost always contain a pointer to a block of general methods appropriate to that structure, as well as containing any methods unique to the object, all of which are called through the object/structure, so it would be unusual, at least, to be testing the object type in order to choose an object-specific procedure to call. However, I do mark each object type with a specific ID and serial as they are created, along with a tag indicating what procedure created them, as these things facilitate some very useful memory management and diagnostic mechanisms.

Have you ever used qsort?

I am aware of qsort. But I have my own multi-method sort library that I use. Most of them locate the comparison mechanisms they are to use through the procedures specified by the objects they are asked to sort. Likewise list management, memory management, certain types of drawing primitives and image processing primitives, image handling mechanisms, associative storage, basically anything I have run into that I thought likely I would need more than once. I am positively locked into the idea that if I write it, I can fix it, and the number of bugs and problems that fall into the "maybe they'll fix the library someday" class are greatly reduced. I'm a little less picky if I have the source code to a capability I didn't actually write and can supply my own version if and as needed. A good example of something like that is SQLite. Actually having the source code and compiling it in reduces my inherent paranoia to a somewhat duller roar.

Ha. Funny. Thank you, didn't know that.

People owning and running businesses should be allowed to choose whith whom they associate and do business and then the ones which discriminate against otherwise good, paying customers can rightfully go under instead of being propped up by the policies of the state.

That's precisely the kind of thinking that led to child labor in factories and mines; it is also why we have to subsidize low paying jobs through our taxes so people can survive at a (somewhat) more reasonable level. It is what led to "whites only" and "separate bathrooms"; It is why the male/female employment ratios are so skewed; it is why older engineers are replaced by younger ones who know far less and don't have families to support; it is why the EPA, or something like it, really needs to exist. And so on.

Business, large and small, incorporated or not, as entities, resemble people only to the degree that most of them, left unregulated, exhibit sociopathy and/or psychopathy. History has shown this explicitly, time and time again. No one is guessing about this: the facts have been in for a long time, and new facts consistent with the old continue to arrive with distressing regularity.

The idea that business, left to its own discretions, will do the right thing is nothing more than a fantasy. Unregulated business is a very bad idea, and further, the premise that bad businesses will automatically fail because customers will do the right thing is equally bankrupt, and for many of the same reasons. Large numbers of people are both selfish and disinterested in the welfare of others.

Yes but that doesn't make the intestines a sexual organ.

Any body part with nerve endings and/or usable contact surfaces can be brought into play in sexual relations under the right circumstances. This has nothing do do with the gender of the party or parties involved. The fact that you don't know these things speaks very poorly about your competence and experience in the sexual arena.

Please take a minute and 45 seconds to absorb the following (quite funny) video:

http://www.boreme.com/posting....

Yes, it's still going strong (and particularly hot right now!)

Hansel? Is that you?

Wouldn't it more useful for it to be set in silicone?

Intend to stay abreast of the spec, do you?

...using c. Although I do like to comment thusly, and so prefer a compiler that understands at least basic c++:

// comment

I like to stay as close to the metal as I can get. I'd use assembler, but many of my projects are cross platform, so c it is.

You don't pay taxes?

It isn't free, it is just that your money that you are paying is being placed in an other category.