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Programming

Submission + - The value of BASIC as a first programming language (wordpress.com) 2

Mirk writes: "Computer-science legend Edsger W. Dijkstra famously wrote: "It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration". The Reinvigorated Programmer argues that the world is full of excellent programmers who cut their teeth on BASIC, and suggests it could even be BECAUSE they started out with BASIC."

Comment Re:DNF release? (Score 1) 189

There are some answers from the blog posts around the net. Take-Two had already offered them 30 million for the whole Duke IP; they had no other option and still refused this proposal, putting the company on life support. That probably means they won't open source it (since their precious IP is so important). OTOH, they originally wanted 5 million to be able to finish the game this year and launch in 2010, so I'm guessing any publisher that hands them this approximate amount of money could ressurect the project and still be able to make it for 2010. Hopefully. :(

Comment Re:Great but... (Score 1) 405

OTOH, if one is not into web or cross-platform applications, he/she could try Vala. It's a nice language for GNOME based environments, its syntax is very similar to Java's, has garbage-collection, doesn't need a virtual machine, and so on.
Operating Systems

MoBo Manufacturer Foxconn Refuses To Support Linux 696

Noodlenose notes a thread up on the Ubuntu forums, where a user is questioning the practices of hardware manufacturer Foxconn. The user describes how his new Foxconn motherboard caused his Linux install to freeze and fire off weird kernel errors. He disassembles the BIOS and concludes that a faulty DSDT table is responsible for the errors. Even though the user makes Foxconn aware of the problem, they refuse to correct it, as 'it doesn't support Linux' and is only 'Microsoft certified.' The user speculates darkly on Foxconn's motives. Read the forum, read the code, and come to your own conclusions. "I disassembled my BIOS to have a look around, and while I won't post the results here, I'll tell you what I did find. They have several different tables, a group for Windows XP and Vista, a group for 2000, a group for NT, Me, 95, 98, etc. that just errors out, and one for LINUX. The one for Linux points to a badly written table that does not correspond to the board's ACPI implementation.' The worst part is Foxconn's insistence that the product is ACPI compliant because their tables passed to Windows work, and that Microsoft gave the the magic WHQL certification."

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