Comment Re:Next movie you go to, thank your projectionist. (Score 1) 187
meh... making it look easy only means that they were doing their job well, thus worth the money... Yeah, put the popcorn kid up there... he'd do it for less.
managers *sigh*
Comment Powershell (Score 1) 426
Assuming that you're trying this out on OSes newer than Win2k, powershell may make a nice alternative. You can use the same structures that you're familiar with in command and the ability to add more complex components when/if needed.
The State of Ruby VMs — Ruby Renaissance 89
igrigorik writes "In the short span of just a couple of years, the Ruby VM space has evolved to more than just a handful of choices: MRI, JRuby, IronRuby, MacRuby, Rubinius, MagLev, REE and BlueRuby. Four of these VMs will hit 1.0 status in the upcoming year and will open up entirely new possibilities for the language — Mac apps via MacRuby, Ruby in the browser via Silverlight, object persistence via Smalltalk VM, and so forth. This article takes a detailed look at the past year, the progress of each project, and where the community is heading. It's an exciting time to be a Rubyist."
Comment Quick! (Score 5, Funny) 419
Someone find the house full of Popped Corn!!!
Biotech Company To Patent Pigs
285
Anonymous Swine writes "Monsanto, a US based multinational biotech company, is causing a stir by its plan to patent pig-breeding techniques including the claim on animals born by the techniques. 'Agricultural experts are scrambling to assess how these patents might affect the market, while consumer activists warn that if the company is granted pig-related patents, on top of its tight rein on key feed and food crops, its control over agriculture could be unprecedented. "We're afraid that Monsanto and other big companies are getting control of the world's genetic resources," said Christoph Then, a patent expert with Greenpeace in Germany. The patent applications, filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization, are broad in scope, and are expected to take several years and numerous rewrites before approval.'"
12 Small Windmills Put To the Test In Holland 510
tuna writes "A real-world test by the Dutch province of Zeeland (a very windy place) demonstrates that small windmills are a fundamentally flawed technology (PDF of tests results in Dutch, English summary). Twelve much-hyped micro wind turbines were placed in a row on an open plain. Their energy yield was measured over a period of one year (April 1, 2008 — March 31, 2009), the average wind velocity during these 12 months was 3.8 meters per second, slightly higher than average. Three windmills broke. The others recorded ridiculously low yields, in spite of the optimal conditions. It would take up to 141 small windmills to power an average American household entirely using wind energy, for a total cost of 780,000 dollars. The test results show clearly that energy return is closely tied to rotor diameter, and that the design of the windmill hardly matters."
Comment Re:just silly (Score 1) 479
The Monopolistic abuse was the inclusion of IE and the mandating of its sole inclusion with every shipped computer/os combo. That has been enforced, and now manufacturers can in fact ship with Mozilla, Opera, or even Safari pre-loaded. How many do?
Comment Re:just silly (Score 1) 479
The analogy is poor, I'll grant you, but in no means meaningless. It's simply that you cannot expect to be able to buy a piece of modern hardware ~and~ have it pre-installed with an OS that is not the lastest offering. If Dell still had stacks of Latitudes from 2005, already OEM imaged, she could probably buy one and they'd happily ship to get it out of a warehouse...
As for monopolistic powers and enforcement; your whine privilege has been revoked. Go buy a Mac and tell them that you want it shipped with Jaguar. Or try Emperor Linux and ask them to load RedHat version 4.2 (and not RHEL, btw). How much would either charge if they'd do it at all?
Comment Re:just silly (Score 1) 479
Not at all: you can choose vista home basic, vista home premium, vista professional, etc etc etc...
Just 'cause it's a poor and/or overused analogy doesn't mean that it's entirely false.
Comment Re:just silly (Score 1) 479
Not true. Under the First Sale doctrine, you are allowed to resell your retail license of Windows as long as your sale includes all media and materials (assuming the manuals survived) and that you have removed all copies (running or backup) from your possession. OEM licenses are, in fact different as they were discounted based on the purchase being made ~with~ a specific piece of hardware. Dell subsidizes an OS that they bought in bulk from MS. No magic or mischief there.
Comment Re:just silly (Score 1) 479
the analogies are fun, however, I don't think that the woman in question was buying a ~laptop~ from 2 or more years ago... those packaged with XP originally. She was purchasing a newly manufactured laptop and wanted a customization of the operating system. Customizations cost money in nearly any commodity product. The "car" in my original analogy was ~not~ the operating system, but the gear that it comes on.
Sticking with cars: would BMW charge you extra if you wanted to trade out the plush leather seats for a vinyl alternative? I believe they would, even though the cost-difference to tool and manufacture them are negligible.
Comment just silly (Score 3, Insightful) 479
This would be like suing ford or gm for not continuing to keep last years engines for sale in new cars... this is just silly.
Scientist Patents New Method To Fight Global Warming 492
SUNSTOP writes to tell us that a relatively unknown Maryland scientist has proposed a public patent that he claims could combat global warming. The proposed plan would require massive amounts of water to be sprayed into the air in an effort to bolster the earth's existing air conditioning system. "First, the sprayed droplets would transform to water vapor, a change that absorbs thermal energy near ground level; then the rising vapor would condense into sunlight-reflecting clouds and cooling rain, releasing much of the stored energy into space in the form of infrared radiation. Kenneth Caldeira, a climate scientist for the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University whose computer simulation of Ace's invention suggests it would significantly cool the planet. The simulated evaporation of about one-half inch of additional water everywhere in the world produced immediate planetary cooling effects that were projected to reach nearly 1 degree Fahrenheit within 20 or 30 years, Caldeira said."
Linux As a Model For a New Government? 509
An anonymous reader writes "The hedge fund investor who prided himself on achieving 1000% returns, Andrew Lahde, wrote a goodbye letter to mark his departure from the financial world. In it, he suggests people think about building a new government model, and his suggestion is to have someone like George Soros fund a new government that brings together the best and brightest minds in a manner where they're not tempted by bribery. In doing so, he refers to how Linux grows and competes with Microsoft. An open source government. How would such a system work, and could it succeed? How long before it became corrupt? Would it need a benevolent dictator (Linus vs. Soros)?"
Comment Re:Shows what competion can do. (Score 3, Informative) 605
Opera is a good choice, and a fine browser. And it is still, hands-down best for testing standards compliance (in my humble opinion).
The only real fault they made at getting market share was waiting as long as they did before making it available for free. I don't pretend to know the finer-points of their business model, or Mozilla's for that matter, but people saw two browsers available gratis and one where you paid $35us (if i remember right...). If you could buy a Porsche or or have a VW, which would you be driving?
