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Submission + - FSF suggests that Google Frees Gmail Javascript (fsf.org) 1

Submitted by
Phoe6
Phoe6 writes: "Apparently, FSF is calling it a "JavaScript Trap" and wants 'useful websites' such as Gmail and others such as twitter, facebook to release their Javascript code under Free Software License so that users can trust their service."

Comment Kavka's toxin puzzle (Score 4, Insightful) 97

by Phoe6 (#34194444) Attached to: Australian State Govt. To Fund iPads For Doctors

Reminds me of Kavka's toxin puzzle. ...the Political Manifesto. Before an election, a political party will release a written document outlining their policies and plans should they win office. Many of these promises may be difficult or impossible to implement in practice. Having won, the party is not obligated to follow the manifesto even if they would have lost without it.

Comment His thoughts on Java and Open Source Contributions (Score 1) 337

by Phoe6 (#33731696) Attached to: Father of Java, James Gosling Unloads

If you read a bit into the interview, you will be starled by what he says about Java language development and Open Source contributions to Java. He tends to focus on "engineering the Java language" as a product is more difficult than developing the language, which constitutes only 2 or 3 percent. Also goes on to say that Open Source Contributions have not really been effective.

Well, I can understand where he is coming from, but is James missing out the picture of where it actually works? - Python, Apache, Linux kernel.. Are these less used software pieces than Java? Here is the portion that I am talking about.

So long as they do that. The development of Java is not an inexpensive thing. It takes a fair amount of funding. It's not just about writing code. Learning the code is two or three percent of the expense. You're shipping fifteen million copies a week, just the bandwith is horrible. The QA when you have to worry about something that has thirty issues. When you've got everything, every stock exchange, every phone company on the planet. Their security depends on Java. So it's not a causual piece of testing.

You know, when it comes to open source contributions, our history with contributions over the years have been kinda snarky. We'd get lost of people sending code and fixes. But on average, we'd get a submission that fixed the bug but it caused three or four more. And it probably didn't fix the bug for everybody. It probably only fixed the bug for their one case. And trying to get people in the community to actually think about the whole code base and not just their particular issue today. Doing one line of change means an immense amount of testing.

Most open source projects are way too casual for that. Sometimes when you get bugs that are potential security issues, you have to move fast, you have to put immense resources on getting it done. Maybe it's just one engineer fixing one character in one line, but then testing it and making sure you didn't introduce a bug. The harder stuff is if you have a bug, there are probably people out there who have worked around that bug, so how many of the workarounds are you going to break. And when you've got nine or ten million in the developer community you have enormous applications, trivial fixes are not trivial. And open source projects, the way the average open source projects are constituted. IT's easy to get people to do the fun stuff. It's hard to get people to do the hard stuff.

Like QAing the math libraries. Like doing QA on sine and cosine, you absolutely have to have a PHd in Mathematics. Sine and cosine: it sounds really simple, but there is unbelievable amount of depths of subtlety in there. There are extraordinarily few people on the planet qualified to QA that type of stuff.
KDE

KDE 4.5 Released 302

Posted by Soulskill from the newer-and-shinier dept.
An anonymous reader writes "KDE 4.5.0 has been released to the world. See the release announcement for details. Highlights include a Webkit browser rendering option for Konqueror, a new caching mechanism for a faster experience and a re-worked notification system. Another new feature is Perl bindings, in addition to Python, Ruby and JavaScript support. The Phonon multimedia library now integrates with PulseAudio. See this interview with KDE developer and spokesperson Sebastian Kugler on how KDE can continue to be innovative in the KDE4 age. Packages should be available for most Linux distributions in the coming days. More than 16000 bug fixes were committed since 4.4."

Submission + - Bill Gates' new version of the Einstein letter (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: In 1939, Albert Einstein sent "F.D. Roosevelt, President of the United States," a letter with a warning about Germany's interest in a new type of energy with potential for use as a powerful bomb. The letter also outlined the competitive threat posed by Germany and steps for improving U.S. research efforts. Last Week, Bill Gates, along with GE's CEO and others, met with President Obama to deliver their own message that of the top 30 companies in the world working on alternative energy only four are in the U.S. Similar to Einstein's point and recommendations, Gates and his allies are asking the U.S. to view the alternative energy push as a competitive threat posed by other nations, particularly China, which may be doing a better job in bringing its engineering talent and money to bear on this problem.

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