Posts by stephanh

Re: Planet?

Actually Uranus is only 14.5 times the mass of Earth, so it would seem quite possible for it to be a gas giant (well, "ice giant" really) like Uranus and Neptune.

Re: Hmmm.

I don't. The only thing surprising about this is that it took them so long. Of course, Microsoft would prefer you running Windows on Azure. But if you are going to run Linux, they would rather have you run it on Azure. Because otherwise you might go to Amazon and who knows, one day you might decide that you can run your Windows VMs on Amazon too.

In other words, like every other business in existence, they would prefer you to use their toothbrushes AND their toothpaste, but if you insist on Penguin-brand toothpaste, then please at least use our brushes.

(I am not sure if they see this mostly as offensive or defensive. Offensive, in the sense of getting a foot in the door at Linux-only shops, or defensive in the sense of preventing Amazon getting a foot in the door in Microsoft-only shops.)

Re: I'm puzzled by the example

That's nothing.

The capital of Flanders is Brussels, even though Brussels is not part of Flanders. Perhaps they should have chosen Jerusalem instead, just to annoy everybody.

Re: Wow! 3 (count'em...THREE) files at a time!

It's still limited to three windows *visible* at the same time, which is completely ridiculous in a time where 27" monitors are becoming standard for software development work.

I checked the configuration file and this seems not to be configurable. As an aside, I noticed that the settings.json configuration file is in fact not valid JSON (comments are NOT allowed in JSON!).

Re: I'll bet money...

If Microsoft stopped all its new product development today it could still be wildly profitable for at least 20 years by doing licensing and support for its currently installed user base.

Actually, this might be a better strategy than the one they are following now...

Re: Red.

Don't worry.

The chances of anything coming from Mars^W Pluto are a million to one, she said.

Re: More Linux performance data please

If you want Linux, it makes definitely sense to look into second-hand laptops. Generally, the older the machine the better driver support. Also, more information is available on the Internet on compatibility.

Re: inverse square law and all that

The EM radiation of a cellphone is absorbed by the skin and does not penetrate further into the body. The skin is (slightly) heated, which appears[1] to be completely harmless, at least at the levels emitted by your iphone. Swallowing your phone is thus not recommended as it will lead to bad reception. Also make sure you are not holding it wrong.

[1] As demonstrated by countless studies, which you may want to believe where all funded by the big conspiracy for corrupting our precious bodily fluids.

30% of what?

Bing has almost[1] 30% of the US[2] desktop[3] market...

provided we also include Yahoo in their numbers (at approx 10%) which uses the same engine. Unfortunately for them, for the Yahoo use they get no revenue, in fact they have to pay[4] them.

[1] "Almost" is "not" spelled with six letters.

[2] Globally, Bing is "almost" as big as Yandex.

[3] So not including this newfangled "mobile" stuff.

[4] The payments accounted for 25% of Yahoo's revenue for 2013.

Re: heck, the way things are going

Industry average for "good quality" software: 1 defect per 1000 lines of code. Source: http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=14871

OpenSSL source code: approx. 500,000 lines of code.

So four down, 496 bugs to go. And that is assuming the people adding "features" aren't putting them back in faster than they can be found.

Re: Stupidest bug ever

Apparently the idea is that you can export a function, like you can export a variable (meaning it gets inherited by subshells). The function body is then communicated through an environment variable.

Example:

$ function foo { echo hello, world; }

$ export -f foo

$ tclsh # since bash doesn't show the magic variables...

% set env(foo)

() { echo hello, world

}