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Bill Gates: I'm literally losing sleep over Java (1996)

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Re: Bill Gates: I'm literally losing sleep over Java (1996)

#231

Post by bmacho »

cm2187 wrote: post #65

Has anyone ever used the cross platform capability of java? Java is cross platform in the way c is cross platform, you can compile to many target platforms. But aren't pretty much all java applications intended to run on one specific platform only? Developers like the idea of cross platform but they pretty much never use it. I think javascript is the only language that is truly used in a cross platform way.

I don't understand the question. Some java programs I know run on linux and on windows as well, does that count?

Re: Bill Gates: I'm literally losing sleep over Java (1996)

#232

Post by ThrowAgain »

tasuki wrote: post #223
ThrowAgain wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, I would say he puts a lot of effort intro creating image of benevolent nerd philantropist. Point in case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hnZJIRd6Qw There must have been a team of people dedicated to carefully crafting this video, creating props, there's even a dozen or so actors there (each in the background for just a few seconds). It looks like someone put a lot of effort into this and it surely consumed thou…

> Maybe it had impact on people's lives, but given Gates' net value is 100B$+, giving away a billion or two does not matter. Is it not enough for you that he went out of his way to improve other people's lives? Would it only satisfy you if his lifestyle suffered? > it's easy decision to make when you have that much money How do you know? Have you ever been in that position?

> Is it not enough for you that he went out of his way to improve other people's lives?

How did he went out of his way?

> How do you know? Have you ever been in that position?

I don't think snark is necessary here; probably there are no 100B$+ users on HN.

But it's not hard to extrapolate from where am I. I have comfortable tech job, I could easily give away few thousands bucks to some charitable cause just to show off (and my quality of life wouldn't change). Would that automatically make me a good and trustworthy person? I think the answer here is no. I also guess if for some reason my net worth went up a few orders of magnitude, I could also give few orders of magnitude more. Would then I be a good and trustworthy person?

Re: Bill Gates: I'm literally losing sleep over Java (1996)

#234

Post by sangnoir »

peoplefromibiza wrote: post #210
pjmlp wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ActiveState provided Tcl, Perl and Python versions actually.

ActiveState, that is a name I haven't heard in a long time! They provided the best Perl distribution for Windows. They also made some cool IDE/Editor based on Mozilla XUL.

ActiveState's IDE (Komodo) was recently open sourced!

Re: Bill Gates: I'm literally losing sleep over Java (1996)

#235

Post by sangnoir »

kaba0 wrote: post #161
mtrower wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, they were a really big deal at the time, before security concerns came along and sunk them.

There was nothing inherently unsafe about Java Applets that could not have been fixed, security was simply not that important in the era for browsers.

Browsers didn't even have sandboxes then: fixing would have taken decades, and we still get sandbox escape vulns.

Re: Bill Gates: I'm literally losing sleep over Java (1996)

#236

Post by elevaet »

stcroixx wrote: post #208
elevaet wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, Gates is absolutely terrible at PR and doesn't tick any of the boxes of being chic, unless it's some kind of so uncool that he's cool kind of thing. Despite this and more importantly despite his reputation in business and the often laughable products MS produced, his tremendous philanthropy really changed my perspective on him. In a world where there are mega-billionaires, he's my least unfavourite. He's doing…

Strong disagree. I started software dev in the late 90's and among everyone I knew in tech MS was uniformly hated, even the DOJ sued them. They did everything they could to stomp out open internet standards. Untold amounts of money, business, etc. were lost by all of us fighting this scourge. The fact that anyone alive thinks anything remotely positive of him could only be due to PR. IMO even if he gave away every ce…

I didn't work in the industry at that time but I did hear the stories. I might have a different perspective if I was on the ground.

We have a pretty open internet today, or at least MS is no longer the biggest threat to it so maybe this was just another MS-bungled project lol.

Jokes aside, utmost respect to the people who have fought for an open internet over the years.

Re: Bill Gates: I'm literally losing sleep over Java (1996)

#237

Post by tasuki »

ThrowAgain wrote: post #232
tasuki wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe it had impact on people's lives, but given Gates' net value is 100B$+, giving away a billion or two does not matter. Is it not enough for you that he went out of his way to improve other people's lives? Would it only satisfy you if his lifestyle suffered? > it's easy decision to make when you have that much money How do you know? Have you ever been in that position?

> Is it not enough for you that he went out of his way to improve other people's lives? How did he went out of his way? > How do you know? Have you ever been in that position? I don't think snark is necessary here; probably there are no 100B$+ users on HN. But it's not hard to extrapolate from where am I. I have comfortable tech job, I could easily give away few thousands bucks to some charitable cause just to show o…

> How did he went out of his way?

He spent a considerable amount of his free time.

> I have comfortable tech job, I could easily give away few thousands bucks to some charitable cause just to show off (and my quality of life wouldn't change).

Yes, you could. Do you?

> Would that automatically make me a good and trustworthy person? I think the answer here is no.

It wouldn't. But also because there are no good and bad people. There are good and bad actions. I use Linux and absolutely hate what Bill Gates was doing wrt the whole free software ecosystem. I still commend him for his charity work.

> I also guess if for some reason my net worth went up a few orders of magnitude, I could also give few orders of magnitude more.

Yes, you could. Would you though?

Re: Bill Gates: I'm literally losing sleep over Java (1996)

#238

Post by peoplefromibiza »

kragen wrote: post #222
peoplefromibiza wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but because they waited until last year FTP died long ago as a protocol, it wasn't killed by some corporations trying to embrace and extend, but by better protocols (SFTP, SCP, HTTP(S) etc.) also FTP created a lot of issues behind NAT

there are still ftp servers and there is still a substantial information that is only accessible through ftp, however lame the protocol design is wrt nat i would say that nat created a lot of issues with ftp

> wrt nat i would say that nat created a lot of issues with ftp

let me rephrase it.

FTP behind NAT had a lot of issues.

But the protocol was never designed to be accessed by a WEB browser, that were limited to read only access.

The best way to access FTP is through an FTP client.

I don't necessarily agree with the new wave of browser security at all costs, like HTTPS everywhere, but FTP clients are far from being hard to find.

> there is still a substantial information that is only accessible through ftp

can you point me to an example?

I haven't encountered that problem since the end of the 90s. The only instance I can recall is upgrading the firmware of home routers/modems using TFTP.

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