World: r3wp

Only have to buy a new PC to accomodate the hardware requirements 
of vista.

the speech engine, hopefully better than the one built into Windows 
XP Tablet edition

Internet Explorer 7 under Windows Vista runs in a special super-low 
user access mode that gives the browser very little access to the 
underlying OS, and ActiveX security has been tightened up significantly 
as well, with most ActiveX controls off by default and set to opt-in 
rather than opt-out. Hopefully other browsers will follow suit and 
operate in this least-privileged mode, too.
 - Like IE is a model of good security practices!?

Microsoft would have liked to build in antivirus software, but would 
have gotten in legal trouble.
 ???

Why Windows Vista Won't Suck - maybe because the author of the article 
has been paid by MS? ;) I'll believe this when I see it (but even 
in that case, MS is evil and must be fighted)

Well lets see. according to yahoo, Microsoft has revenues of $41 
billion, a 31% profit margin, total cash of $34 billion, a $15 billion 
operating cash flow, and a market cap of $277.66 Billion.

Thats BILLION as in $1000 million.

But hey, what do they know?

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=MSFT

What's the interest on $34b in cash?

So you can behave badly if you've got money, is that what you're 
saying, Terry ?

that proves that they can easily pay people to fool other poeple 
like you to give them more money. I should probably do that too.

Yes, Gabriele, I'll talk to you privately about my other marketing 
consultancy :)

i wonder if the fact that MS is that rich means that ms-dos doesn't 
suck either, and that windows 95 doesn't suck and so on.

but wait! I just forgot terry comes from a parallel universe. it 
makes sense that windows does not suck there.

Gab, btw - as we don't want rebol to suck in the future, is the Roadmap 
REBOL 3 announcement date anytime soon now? :-)

i'm not the one that can write the roadmap, so i can only tell you 
what i am told. i was told "soon" (in the sense of a few days)

so, i guess that means that it is still to be expected very soon.

well, I have heard Carl was out till monday, so let's hope it is 
soon now .... :-)

I will be going by Redwood Valley on Saturday and give Carl a "reboot" 
:)

:-)) but please, only a software reboot, not hard-reboot, right? 
:-)

Have a nice visit Alan ;-)

http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/01/not-content-as-a-mere-sideline-mascot-tux-now-runs-linux/

Cute...

Here's a good read.. 

The future of HTML, Part 1: WHATWG
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/x-futhtml1/

In my universe, back in the early 80s, I went with windows, simply 
becuase I couldn't afford a mac. Best computing decision i ever made. 
 Wish I bought stock.

at the time, i really liked Amiga too, especially video toaster, 
but i saved myself TONS of grief by avoiding it, as many of the folk 
here would understand.

Terry, I think computing is mature enough to have machines for different 
purposes, games machines, media machines and work machines. Most 
households I know have a least two on that list so far and are heading 
for the 3rd. Currently the pendulum is swinging away from "one machine 
to rule them all".

Economic tides may turn that back again, and cut the diversity again 
like it did in the late eighties / early nineties. But

thankfully we are in a time of plenty in our neck of the woods at 
the moment.

I've been telling people foy years to get a machine for work and 
a machine to trash for games etc.

Because if they call me (as they often do) and say "I've broken my 
only computer by downloading a game and now I can't get it to work 
and I've got to do something important" they get zero sympathy and 
I'm pretty dis-inclined to lend a hand in fixing their crisis.

Of course, those of us with only one computer must equip ourselves 
with a little common sense to avoid pain. Funny when I watch my friend 
end up trashing all of his machines because he is not similarly equipped.

Strange isn't it?

Most people wouldn't dream of pimping their plumbing or their car.....They 
just know that those things need to work, and messing around with 
them will lead to breakages.
But they'll mess with their only computer day and night.

I'm guilty. But I think below a certain threshold, people tend to 
spend all their available money on the one computer, in order to 
make it as good as possible. That's my reasoning from years ago. 
These days, I feel quite different. I don't feel like playing games 
much anymore and I'm pretty careful installing new software.

Small cute motherboards for your home silent pc :-) http://www.itreviews.co.uk/hardware/h905.htm

Apart from that, there is many mini-itx (17x17cm ones) - http://www.mini-itx.com
, http://www.epiacenter.com

Windows bad, Apple good.. http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39156900,00.htm

  MySQL 5.0 Adds Features for Enterprise Developers and DBAs
by Ken 
  North

Baseball legend Satchel Paige is famous for having said 

Don't look back, something might be gaining on you." Companies selling 
a commercial SQL database management system (DBMS) know its MySQL 
that's gaining on them. With an already large installed base, MySQL 
is set to attract new users because of the feature set of version 
5.0. It includes capabilities for which developers have often turned 
to commercial SQL products.


The purposes for which we use personal, mobile, workgroup, departmental, 
enterprise and web databases are diverse. Application requirements 
are a primary determinant of the capacity and features we need from 
an SQL DBMS. For example, a high-volume transaction processing web 
site places greater demands on a database than a contact list manager 
for laptops and small business servers.


A Web Techniques magazine article, "Web Databases: Fun with Guests 
or Risky Business?" discussed features that characterize an industrial-grade 
SQL DBMS. It explained SQL security and mission-critical databases, 
defined as


    "A database is mission critical if its lack of data integrity has 
    serious consequences, such as causing the loss of customers or even 
    lives."


Maintaining data integrity is implicit -- that's a prime directive 
for a DBMS. The article explained other features that enterprise 
developers look for in an SQL platform:


    ... mission-critical applications require features such as intrinsic 
    security, transaction journaling, concurrency controls and the ability 
    to enforce data integrity constraints. Without those features, you 
    do not have secure, robust databases. Connecting a database to a 
    Web server adds other requirements, such as a multithreaded architecture 
    and the ability to do database backups without taking the server 
    down.


    Freeware and PC DBMSs are suitable for certain classes of applications, 
    but not for high-volume Web sites and mission-critical databases. 
    In any case, don't bet your business, or lives, on such software 
    unless you have the source code and the expertise to understand and 
    repair it.


Since that article appeared in print, improvements to MySQL have 
removed the "not ready for prime time" label. Features described 
in that article are now available to MySQL users:

    * transactions
    * concurrency control, locking, SQL standard isolation levels
    * intrinsic security
    * integrity constraints
    * thread-based memory allocation.

  TII Computer Deals at Dell Home Systems 180x150
	


MySQL uses separate threads to handle TCP/IP and named pipes connections, 
authentication, signaling, alarms and replication. The combination 
of threaded architecture and MySQL clustering provides powerful parallel 
processing capabilities. MySQL can process transactions in parallel 
with separate connections on separate processors using separate threads.
MySQL Milestones


A decade of development has moved MySQL out of the bare-bones DBMS 
category, enlarged its user base, and turned MySQL AB into a profitable 
company. One of the important milestones was integration of the InnoDB 
engine with MySQL 4.0. That upgrade gave MySQL multiple tablespaces, 
tables greater than 4GB and support for transaction processing. Other 
enhancements included OpenGIS spatial data types and hot backups. 
The latter enables a DBA to perform a backup without taking the DBMS 
offline. Hot backup software is available as a commercial add-on 
for databases using the InnoDB storage engine. 


MySQL 5.0, the newest version, is a major milestone. There have been 
enhancements to the tool sets, storage engines, types and metadata. 
 MySQL 5.0 includes features enterprise developers have come to expect 
from commercial SQL products. 

    * capacity for very large databases
    * stored procedures
    * triggers
    * named-updateable views
    * server-side cursors
    * type enhancements
    * standards-compliant metadata (INFORMATION_SCHEMA)
    * XA-style distributed transactions
    * hot backups.


MySQL has a demonstrated capacity for managing very large databases. 
Mytrix, Inc. maintains an extensive collection of Internet statistics 
in a one terabyte (1 TB) data warehouse that contains 20 billion 
rows of data. Sabre Holdings runs the oldest and largest online travel 
reservation system. It replicates 10-60 gigabytes per day from its 
master database to a MySQL server farm. The MySQL databases are used 
to support a shopping application that can accommodate a million 
fare changes per day."

The main architect for Interbase/Firebird, was just lured to the 
mysql camp.

Well, a couple of months ago .. so expect to see Firebird like syntax 
appearing in future versions of mysql.

is this bad news for firebird? I'm sitting here looking at the project 
page, thinking of using it in my next project

No, it's validation of Firebird's approach.

Jim Starkey Sells Netfrastructure to MySQL AB and Moves On

 Today Jim Starkey, who led the original Vulcan fork of Firebird, 
 announced that he has sold his Netfrastructure web software business 
 to MySQL AB and will be taking up a full-time job as a developer 
 for the MySQL company.

Jim won't be a regular code contributor around Firebird any more, 
but he has promised he'll still be around to post the occasional 
"wolf-gram" in Firebird-Architect.

We in the Firebird Project wish Jim all the best for what looks like 
an interesting turn in his career.

His wife continues to work for the Firebird org.

how convenient that the link to the starter guide is dead...

http://www.firebirdsql.org/pdfmanual/Firebird-1.5-QuickStart.pdf
.. works for me.

link is dead here

seems to be a problem in my end

Sorry about the size of that paste above,.. only mean to post the 
last paragraph, and then my connection went down right after..

robotic mule http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGrMMlNjBB8&feature=Views&page=1&t=t&f=b

This is good.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49IDp76kjPw&feature=Views&page=1&t=t&f=b

:-D That robotic mule is really funny! Amazing and interesting, what's 
possible these days.

Yeah, kind of spooky without a head, though :)