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Comment Re:Windows 7 32bit? (Score 1) 483

Pretty sure that only applies to Netbook processors that are not x86 to start with anyway(ARM). Not really hugely compatible with a normal 32 bit version of windows.

Atom sure seems to support 64 bit. AMD's netbook offering "Turion 64" also sounds like it may support 64 bit as well.

It probably has a lot to do with many of the third party Windows developers being retards who are incapable of creating 64 bit compatibly software and drivers.

Comment Re:Nokia n810 (Score 1) 426

The n810 technically has GPS, but it takes a very long time to connect and isn't very accurate. It should in no way be a deciding factor for anyone to purchase an 810 over a 800.

You can pick up Holux bluetooth GPS unit for about $50 which will preform a lot better. The n810's built in mapping software is pretty weak, and you have to pay for navigation. Doubt many folks here would want to use it anyway.

Programming

Steve Bourne Talks About the History of Sh 232

An anonymous reader writes "Steve Bourne, the creator of the Bourne shell, or sh, talks about its history as the default Unix shell of Unix Version 7. Bourne worked on the shell in 1975 and said the process took no more than 6 months. Sh aimed to improve on the Thompson shell. 'I did change the shell so that command scripts could be used as filters. In the original shell this was not really feasible because the standard input for the executing script was the script itself. This change caused quite a disruption to the way people were used to working. I added variables, control flow and command substitution. The case statement allowed strings to be easily matched so that commands could decode their arguments and make decisions based on that. The for loop allowed iteration over a set of strings that were either explicit or by default the arguments that the command was given. I also added an additional quoting mechanism so that you could do variable substitutions within quotes. It was a significant redesign with some of the original flavor of the Thompson shell still there. Also I eliminated goto in favour of flow control primitives like if and for. This was also considered rather radical departure from the existing practice. Command substitution was something else I added because that gives you very general mechanism to do string processing; it allows you to get strings back from commands and use them as the text of the script as if you had typed it directly. I think this was a new idea that I, at least, had not seen in scripting languages, except perhaps LISP,' he says."

Comment Re:No swaggering... (Score 1) 500

Maybe I'd like to be judged by a competent person, not a group of Joe Blows from the street, thank you very much. Just because it's YOUR "right" doesn't make it the universal "right" (as in right/wrong) for everybody. Whether SOME other countries besides the US have the same "right" or not.

Sweden is not the US.

You can pretty much have it whichever way you want in the US. You have the right to a jury trial, but you don't have to exercise it. If you think the subject matter is too complicated or prejudicial, or if you just don't want a jury, you can elect to have a bench trial(where the judge determines guilt/culpability).

Comment Re:What a reaction! (Score 1) 256

1) They've allowed documents stating their support for the republican party to become public knowledge.
2) They produce closed source software.
2a) They have made statement against open source competition.
3) They produce buggy software and hardware that are not well secured or designed.
4) They create technological 'solutions' for social problems.
5) They are the industry leader in their field, and they produce a flawed product. They maintain their position through marketing and lobbying.
6) They program in languages owned by Microsoft.

Any one of those would get them hated by at least some slashdotters. They do all of those things. Most of them multiple times. Their infamy here isn't surprising.

Comment Re:Sounds like Intelligent Design (Score 1) 149

1) Good for you Creationism is not science. You can't discover anything with it. It is religion. That's ok. We let people practice religion. We don't teach it as science in our public schools.

2) Yes, it is correct science to ask how chemicals enabled evolution. As a result of such questions we know how fairly complicated chemicals can form from simple situations.

The other of this is our understanding of the various nucleic acids. This has benefited everything from forensics to biological science to medicine.

It is a great question to ask. Asking it has improved our lives and created the groundwork for the next thousand years of biological and medical sciences.

Compare this to "Did god create the universe?" That's a bad question. We can't do anything with the answers. It doesn't lead to new interesting question. It's just a question that we can't answer. If we manage to answer it, we get nothing.

3) Yeah, I don't like people who misuse terminology either.

Comment Re:Um, guys.... (Score 1) 149

This is all correct. For instance, we know that ID in the Dover case is creationism dressed up as science, because the textbook originally advocated by the IDers was about Creationism in it's early drafts and was changed after the earlier court cases banning Creationism from being taught in schools. The diff was the cornerstone of the complaint's case.

We know that this is being done to introduce Chrisitanity into public schools, because those supporting ID, the Discovery Institute, said as much in the Wedge Document.

I think atraintocry is suffering from a bit of hubris. This is an ongoing fight that has not yet been won. While circuit and district courts have ruled on the issue, there has been no recent supreme court ruling and ID advocates have found their ways into School Boards across the nation. They have not given up, and this is no time to sit back just because we've won some small victories.

They are liars. They know it. The swarms of selectively ignorant religious folks that support them don't know they are liars or really understand the evolution 'debate'. So long as we are a democracy, we won't have won until we convince the public, not the courts.

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