magnafrost

Your basic logic seems fine but one problem is you are assuming that the only variable is the length of the post, which makes it a little flawed. There are other variables like post age (how much time after the post was created you replied) and maybe there are a bunch of other factors. Obviously, as Opaque is the only one who knows this there is no way we can have a perfect equation. Though, I agree that yours reduces the margin of error a lot.

You are right. But I was actually talking about it from google's perspective. How does it matter to google how long your system takes to say , boot up or save a file ? So, I'm talking about things like latency and load times. True, if google is running windows one server might support 1000 requests(just making up a number) but linux might support 10,000. But i see that more as a cost issue than a speed issue. I'm wondering about difference in load times between, say, the following 4 scenarios. 1) Google Linux Server -> Client Linux machine 2) Google Windows Server -> Client Linux machine 3) Google Linux Server -> Client Windows machine 1) Google Windows Server -> Client Windows machine Here I'm talking about everything from google search to gmail to gtalk to even other IMs like trillian.

Yes, like people mentioned above, all your posts would be taken into account. To me it looks like he has a standalone script that he runs when he feels its time to make an update. Though there is no specific time to this, he will not take too much time. But, my last update was around 36 hours ago, so one of our calculations is a little off. I suggest you wait another day and PM opaque. He can either fix your case or just run the script again and you'll get your mycents. In any case dont worry, you'll not lose any mycents thats for sure

Awww.. That is so sad! I'll surely miss Paul. Hail Paul. I was almost starting to think that he's immortal ! Ok wd. I dunno how much you much got by googling. Basically there's this octopus who's affectionately called Paul. He's somehow been able to 'predict' the winners of matches in this world cup and he's been pretty much right all the time till now. The way he 'predicts' is that in his fish (or octopus ) tank they keep two boxes which have the flags of the competing teams. The video I saw was not very clear but the country that owns the flag of the box he opens is what we call his prediction. As it turns out, whatever flag he picked, that team won. This has been happening for a while now which is why there are lots of people who are very enthusiastic about it. I'm sure there were lots of people who even bet on the results placing faith in Paul. Hope that clarifies it for you There is one youtube video which is kind of like a news presentation introducing Paul. But I'm not able to find it. Let me know if you need it, I'll try and get it for you.

Ok wd. I dunno how much you much got by googling. Basically there's this octopus who's affectionately called Paul. He's somehow been able to 'predict' the winners of matches in this world cup and he's been pretty much right all the time till now. The way he 'predicts' is that in his fish (or octopus ) tank they keep two boxes which have the flags of the competing teams. The video I saw was not very clear but the country that owns the flag of the box he opens is what we call his prediction. As it turns out, whatever flag he picked, that team won. This has been happening for a while now which is why there are lots of people who are very enthusiastic about it. I'm sure there were lots of people who even bet on the results placing faith in Paul. Hope that clarifies it for you There is one youtube video which is kind of like a news presentation introducing Paul. But I'm not able to find it. Let me know if you need it, I'll try and get it for you.

Thats the perfect combo! Windows 7 and Linux give you maximum security and flexibility. But .. does the OS really make that much difference w.r.t speed ? Both from client side and server side. I would have thought they'll be pretty much the same .. no ?

I do not agree that open source is ruining the economy. Say, tomorrow if I decide to make a software and give it out for free instead of asking people to pay for it, am I ruining the economy ? No. In case of open source, there is a balance. They've consciously made a choice. They chose to compromise on the price for the sake of advancement. Do you really think its ever possible for as many people to work on a Firefox or Linux if it is not open source ? For the sake of technological advancement, both routes have to be followed. Windows has its own strategies and innovations that are adopted by Linux. Linux has its own advantages too. It is upto the customer to decide which one he wants. The companies cannot blame open source for spoiling their market because its their job to beat it. Come up with features that are so powerful that people choose you over free alternatives. You cannot honestly expect everyone to pay for every single software they use. There are paid versions of everything! Right from email to blogs to development tools and everything else on the planet which has a free alternative. If people are looking for a minimal set and are not looking for reliability, I dont see any reason why they should pay for an expensive commercial software. For instance, all that my parents use in Microsoft Office is Word, and all they use in Word is text, font formatting and tables. Office is too big for them and Wordpad or Notepad too minimal. OpenOffice is perfect for them as it just doesn't make sense for MS Office. Is it not the same as free vs paid blog hosting ? Just because free blog hosts are there, it does not mean the paid ones disappeared. Its a healthy competition. No single company can give a challenge to the big players on their own. Microsoft had started stagnating, and Linux came in with competition which made Microsoft go up a notch. I hate Vista. I love Windows 7. You know very well that it is even more true in the case of browsers. IE was starting to get hopeless and Firefox changed the picture completely. IE is just catching up and is doing very well now. Can you imagine getting stuck with IE6 now ? Its hardly a few years behind but seems like ages. But yes, like he said lets stick to the topic. Marketing is definitely not the reason google chose Linux. Its just increasing the focus on using Linux machines which makes perfect sense. They'll just make a more conscious effort in choosing the OS which is good for everyone. In case this triggers a competition for more security the way it was for browsers, and Windows emerges the winner, I'll be more than happy. Phew. My longest post so far

Actually, I dont agree that if its free it'll kill the economy or the product. Look at it this way. When you work for a closed source product for which you get paid, I see the money as the main compensation that you get. But, when you work for a open-source product out of your free time, you get a special happiness out of it. I'd say for all the open source developers, this far outweighs the financial compensation that they would get for it and they'll put in lots of effort, probably making a product superior to its closed source counterpart in much lesser man-hours.

I'm using Office 2007 on XP without any problems. And I'm using SP2. I'm not sure why you are facing a problem, maybe it has to do with some minor upgrades in Office 2007. Microsoft still officially support XP (SP3) and I'd be very surprised if it had issues with it. I suggest you get the latest possible installer and try it out. I'm more than happy with Office 2007 for my purposes and I won't be changing for a long time.

I knew Paul would beat Mani! But now he's got to be careful about one more country called Netherlands. He's making too many enemies, kinda like James Bond

I hardly saw any matches in this world cup either. I've managed to be travelling or be out whenever any big match was going on , and was never keen on watching the others. Good that Spain won though. Happy for Paul more than anyone else

Oh ok .. I'll send him a PM and see whether he can do something about it ..

I still stick to the old school when it comes to gaming. Windows windows and more windows! Pressing the windows key mid game and shouting at your friends to pause the game while you struggle to get back kind of appeals to me But seriously, get dual OS on your system. Use linux for everything, and windows for gaming. You'll be happy I promise

I did that. The problem is that the feed I get seems to show the starting post in the thread instead of the latest post. So basically its like I know which thread has got the latest post but thats it. Im not sure if I'm doing something wrong or whether this is a bug or if thats the only way it could work!

Yes, from what you say I gather that Linux is a lot more value for money in any case. That makes perfect sense. I'm actually considering switching to Linux from now. Just waiting to get a new laptop for that though.

My point is that knowing the source code makes it easier for the attacker to explore and figure out the loopholes. It might have just 0.1% of the number of loopholes that windows has, but its also that much easier. Like rvalkass said the whole power of open source is that there are a lot of people looking at the code and saying "hey there's an issue here". While most of the people who see that will try to fix it, someone could try to exploit it. Thats why I am saying a combination of open source and closed source is better. Use a linux base which has been waded through by the community, but put in some closed source effort from your end too!

I totally agree. In my place about 8 years back, we were given the option of either getting Telephone books or CDs. I of course chose the CDs but my grand parents made me go get the book. In any case, I haven't even seen the phone books for a long time ! God knows what happened to them!

I'm sure google did not decide Linux for the sake of promotion . In any case, I'm not so sure about how secure linux could be either. There's gotta be security flaws in it and considering that the code is open it'll be easier to spot. My guess is google should pool in some resources for modifying the OS source code itself and have a custom linux OS with a little more security. Though, RHEL and the type might already be highly secure.

My vote goes for Deadmad and then wd. Deadmad you might consider making yours a little 'less simple' . I'm no pro but I think if you add a little more 'blurriness' to the background in your image it might improve it.

I've always had a liking for Octopuses , and Hail Paul sounds a lot better than hail Mani. So, go go go Paul ! We're with you ! Waiting for the day when you enter Wall Street

I just subscribed to the RSS feed for latest posts and I have a "make or break" suggestion. The feed now displays the starting topic of the thread which kind of does not make sense. There is already a "New topics" thread and I would much rather have the latest post in the RSS than the starting topic. Plus, I am not sure if the current RSS feed is "live" or whether there is a small delay. I seem to get updates in bunches though the problem might be from my feed reader. I just wanted to know if its possible to fix these.

You seem to have a knack of resurrecting old threads comp2. I'm fairly new myself so I dunno if thats fine but maybe you should check it up.

Nokia 5800 I love it because of its brilliant value for money. Though I'm planning to upgrade any time now.

I think that the lock ness monster is very real and exists. Mainly because since there is no real description of it, any 'monster' can be called lock ness. Maybe the yeti. Maybe the yeti and the lock ness monster are the same. Maybe what people call the yeti is just a mutated polar bear! We never know!

My list is pretty easy to make for me1) Diablo 22) NFS 63) UnchartedWell that actually my list for today There might be a different one tomorrow but hey, thats how it works !