FishWithAHammer - Slashdot User

Submission + - Microsoft Puts C# and the CLI under Community Prom (technet.com) 3

Submitted by FishWithAHammer on Monday July 06, 2009 @09:36PM

FishWithAHammer writes: Peter Galli of Microsoft posted a blog entry on Port25 today, regarding the explicit placement of C# and the Common Language Infrastructure (the ECMA startard that underpins .NET) under their Community Promise:
It is important to note that, under the Community Promise, anyone can freely implement these specifications with their technology, code, and solutions. You do not need to sign a license agreement, or otherwise communicate to Microsoft how you will implement the specifications. ... Under the Community Promise, Microsoft provides assurance that it will not assert its Necessary Claims against anyone who makes, uses, sells, offers for sale, imports, or distributes any Covered Implementation under any type of development or distribution model, including open-source licensing models such as the LGPL or GPL.

This clears the way for Mono to be fully integrated into GNOME, and Boycott Novell can go back to crying in their corner.

Submission + - Big Performance Improvements with Mono 2.2 (mono-project.com)

Submitted by

FishWithAHammer

on Tuesday January 20, 2009 @10:26PM

FishWithAHammer writes: "As blogged about by Mono Project leader Miguel de Icaza, with Mono 2.2 comes a new code generation engine for the Mono Framework, the open-source implementation of the standards set by the .NET Framework. The benchmarks for the Linear IL engine developed primarily by Zoltan Varga are impressive! Miguel also mentions the introduction of Mono.SIMD, a system for allowing the use of SIMD instructions within managed code. He writes:

Using SIMD for accelerating certain floating point operations had been in the back of our minds for a while. We looked into implementing that in our old engine, but that turned out to be very difficult. With the new engine, Rodrigo was able to put together a prototype in a weekend (the legend goes that Rodrigo's wife was busy that weekend). This prototype was later turned into Mono.SIMD an API for accelerating vector operations.
"

Submission + - Fixing Linux: "The Space Between" (edropple.com)

Submitted by

Ed Ropple

on Tuesday August 05, 2008 @01:49AM

Ed Ropple writes: "I was having some trouble with a couple of shell scripts I was trying to make work the other day. In an attempt to divert me from building up a head of steam and ranting for an hour or so, a buddy of mine asked me an interesting question: "so how do you fix it?" That question's the genesis of this blog entry, not-so-humbly titled Fixing Linux. In this article I look into three underlying technical issues I see with the progression of Linux/BSD on the desktop: the divide between GUI and command-line tools, the divergence of languages and libraries used on the OS, and the reliance on text streams and pipes as communication between small-function independent programs."

Submission + - Creative Labs C&D's Vista Driver Creator (creative.com)

Submitted by FishWithAHammer on Sunday March 30, 2008 @03:56AM

FishWithAHammer writes: For some time now, users of Creative Labs' sound cards have been almost entirely unable to use them due to Creative's lack of proper Vista drivers. An end user known as Daniel_K decided to take it upon himself to release working Vista drivers. Creative, apparently, takes a dim view of this, ordering him to stop distributing the only drivers that have made Creative hardware workable on Vista. Daniel_K, in his response, accuses Creative Labs of intentially crippling the Vista version of their drivers; other Creative customers have speculated that this is in order to sell new "Vista-compatible" cards in the near future.

I guess we know what companies care about keeping their customers, don't they?

Submission + - A Windows-Based Packaging Mechanism

Submitted by

FishWithAHammer

on Monday May 28, 2007 @08:09PM

FishWithAHammer writes: "As part of my Google Summer of Code project, I'm working with WinLibre to develop a vaguely Debian-esque software download system for Free/open source software on the Windows platform. My reasoning is that open-source software suffers from poor presentation. Most computer laymen, even those aware of open source software, often don't have any idea how to go looking for it — their Google-fu is lacking — but would use it were it easier to access. What I have proposed is both a Debian-style packaging mechanism (capable of using Windows Installer MSIs or not, as the user wishes) and a software "catalog" that takes the best aspects of Synaptic and Linspire's Click-N-Run system. Seamless, simple installation and removal of programs in as straightforward a way as apt-get (there will be a command-line tool as well). I'm posting to Slashdot to get the ideas of you lot who, while you may not be the target audience, can certainly provide insights that can be of value.

There are areas that I'm personally not familiar with, and while I have done some research I would like the opinions of Slashdotters on some others. While at first I intend to set it up so that WinLibre (and I) run only one repository, I am curious as to how this sort of tool could be most useful to network administrators. Customizable repositories will be available; the code will be under the GPL, after all, so it'd be a little hard for them not to be available.

I'm also interested in the ideas of those who might be in a position to roll together packages. I intend to package a number of open-source language interpreters with the core software to allow special pre- and post-install scripts, as well as removal scripts. C#Script, Perl, and Python are definites, as is a Cygwin sh interpreter. We will have some program requirements — chief among them that no registry changes may be made by the program — but some of them, I fear, will require some flexibility; some programs really do require a way to edit the registry, for example, and I am considering offering some sort of tracked way to make registry changes so they can be rolled back on uninstallation of the program.

I'd love to hear what Slashdotters think of this. Think of it as a wishlist, but you don't get any damn ponies.

Ed Ropple (FishWithAHammer)"

Submission + - Twelve-year-old Gets Porn-Filled Zune

Submitted by

FishWithAHammer

on Wednesday December 20, 2006 @03:32PM

FishWithAHammer writes: "Gizmodo has a story running about a twelve-year-old getting a Zune for Christmas — and finding homemade pornography on it. From the article:

Apparently the Zune, which Martin purchased at a local Walmart, came with a 1-hour and 44-minute homemade porn video. We're talking guy-on-guy action here. Walmart's response? After blaming MS for the porn, they refunded the Martins and gave them a $25-dollar gift certificate.

Fox Chicago has a video report as well."

Submission + - A Catalog of MMORPG Asshats

Submitted by

FishWithAHammer

on Monday November 20, 2006 @12:41PM

FishWithAHammer writes: "Wired should be immediately suspect under most circumstances, but Lore Sjöberg's column on "Complainers of the World" (you can hear the South Park reference) is pretty funny. Quoth:

If you play an online game that you enjoy, there's one surefire way to spoil the experience: read the forums on the official site. There you will find a vast underworld of lost souls keening their misery onto your screen. A game you thought was entertaining, well-balanced and attractive will be torn apart before your very eyes and pronounced lacking in every conceivable way.

And the punishments are appropriate."

Submission + - Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft Released

Submitted by

FishWithAHammer

on Thursday October 26, 2006 @02:21AM

FishWithAHammer writes: "It's official — Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft has been released! This version contains the replacement init daemon, upstart, GNOME 2.16, and a host of other new features, including GAIM 2.0 and Firefox 2.0 (not Iceweasel?!).

You can get the ISOs for the Canonical-supported Ubuntu 6.10 distribution here. It doesn't look like Xubuntu, Kubuntu (woot!), or Edubuntu have been posted yet, but they should be soon."

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