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Ximian

Nat Demos Dashboard 274

Posted by michael from the test-drive dept.
pheared writes "Nat Friedman from Ximian gave a fairly in depth, quite hilarious (got embarrassing screensaver?), and somewhat impromptu, talk about his project "Dashboard" at OLS. From his blog: "The dashboard is a piece of software which performs a continous, automatic search of your personal information space to show you things in your life that are related to whatever you happen to be doing with your computer at the time." Neat stuff, but I don't think I will be warming up to Mono and C# any time soon."
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Nat Demos Dashboard

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  • Are you taking the PIS? Uhm... "my PIS is full. I can't find my PIS."

    I think we need another term. Unfortunately my PIS seems to have crashed so I can't search for one.
  • Is there any subject on this site that is immune to reflex bashing-of-all-things-Microsoft? Stop the snide Mono remarks already.

    • Re:Nice to see the sideswipe at .NET (not) (Score:5, Funny)

      by Rogerborg ( 306625 ) on Monday July 28, 2003 @04:25AM (#6549306) Homepage
      You're thinking of kuro5hin [kuro5hin.org]. This is slashdot. Slaaaaash, dohhhhht.
    • Well, I think if M$ has Mono, it would serve you well not to "get in bed" with them, so to speak.
    • As always, if you think something doesn't suck then prove it. Everything I've seen of .NET has looked retarded to the point of making Java seem almost decent. If you can provide some good examples of why .NET, Java, or gas powered vacuum cleaners are useful tools then I'd be glad to change my view. I don't like most things Microsoft (excepting Flight Simulator) but my dislike for .NET stems 100% from .NET itself. I wouldn't have liked it coming from anyone. I like Ximian but I don't care fot their Mono obse

      • Re:Nice to see the sideswipe at .NET (not) (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward

        As always, if you think something doesn't suck then prove it.

        Actually, whenever you think you have a point (wether something sucks or not - it works both way you know), you have to make it, not just state it. You merely gave your opinion on the .NET technology, you didn't make a point about it. Same for the story poster, and so you both deserve critisism for that.

        That said, you're right on the story editing. If the story is worth to be posted, so be it, but it's good question to ask wether this story

      • Well, judging from your comment I would say you don't know much about .NET at all.

        To me the biggest advantage that ASP.NET provides is complete seperation of code and HTML - I cringe whenever I see them intermingled now (read: PHP or classic ASP). .NET also provides xcopy style deployment (no registry, no components) and side-by-side versioning. Also, you can upgrade an app by copying in new DLLs - while it is running. This is CRITICAL for server deployment. Oh yeah, .NET also lets you mix languages. You c

      • Yeah, Like That's Proof (Score:5, Insightful)

        by reallocate ( 142797 ) on Monday July 28, 2003 @08:17AM (#6550014)
        >> As always, if you think something doesn't suck then prove it.

        Says who? You?

        >> Everything I've seen of .NET has looked retarded...

        Oh, there's the proof.

        >> I don't like most things Microsoft...

         ..and, therefore, anything and everything associated with Microsoft is beneath contempt, by definition.

        Have you ever considered the possiblity that you might, sometimes, be wrong?

    • Re:Nice to see the sideswipe at .NET (not) (Score:5, Insightful)

      by nepheles ( 642829 ) on Monday July 28, 2003 @05:39AM (#6549441) Homepage

      It's maybe a little ironic that large portions of the OS community are generally against C# and Mono, as it is a Microsoft technology. Mono is an OS clone of a mainly proprietary technology.

      ...Almost like a certain Operating System

      • I have one word for you:

        Patents.

        Every heard of Unisys?
        Understand now?

  • Unnecessary commentary? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Osty ( 16825 ) on Monday July 28, 2003 @04:17AM (#6549290)

    From the submitter:

    Neat stuff, but I don't think I will be warming up to Mono and C# any time soon.

    Was this commentary really necessary? This software looks like neat stuff, just as pheared said, so why the barb? Could you at least give a reason for your statement? What, if anything, does it have to do with the article, save that the software in question was written using C# via Mono?

    Editors, I know you've explained why you won't edit user submissions before, and I know it's a losing battle to suggest you change, but this is a perfect candidate for editing. That remark had no business being left on the submission, and removing it would not detract from the story one bit. If there has ever been a perfect example of why editors should take their jobs seriously, this is it. Was pheared so unsure of the quality of his submission that he needed to try to stir up debate over Mono and C#, rather than let the story stand on its own? Or worse, were there really no other submissions for this story, or did the editors purposely choose this one submission because of the added barb at the end?

    • ...What, if anything, does it have to do with the article, save that the software in question was written using C# via Mono?

      Err, it's written in C# via Mono. The author of the article is interested in the app but has reservations about that technology.

      What is so inappropriate about stating that? If anything it provides a good starting point to the discussion here.

      Getting your knickers in a twist because slashdot isn't a traditional media source and doesn't try to ape that style *is* inappropriate, and s
      • The author of the article is interested in the app but has reservations about that technology. What is so inappropriate about stating that?

        Umm... the fact that the author of the article didn't mention that at all, and it was a comment from Michael, one of the editors, who has a chip on his shoulder about all things Microsoft, perhaps?
      • No, slashdot shouldn't "ape" to silly journalistic traditions like conditions of relevance or unbiased reporting. Shovelling in tidbits of flamebait to boost page impressions is where it's at.
        • Nobody ever said /. was a news site (least of all the editors). It's an editorial site, one that's driven by discussion of the news, not by the news itself.

          It's been my opinion for some time that the editors have actually been encouraged to put jabs like that in, just for the sake of inflating threads (and subsequently, revenue from ad banners).

      • Re:Unnecessary commentary? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by plasticmillion ( 649623 ) <matthew@allpeers.com> on Monday July 28, 2003 @05:52AM (#6549463) Homepage
        I don't have any problem with inflammatory comments, but I am curious to know what exactly motivated the author's statement besides sheer bloodymindedness vis-a-vis Microsoft.

        I currently have two machines sitting in front of me, one of which runs my "Microsoft" development environment (Visual Studio.NET, C++, C#) and the other my Java development environment (Eclipse). I use all three languages more or less on a daily basis, and I don't think I have any latent bias other than what actually works for me. From this perspective (pun intended) I would make the following observations:

        • Eclipse is totally awesome. No other Java IDE comes close (and I've used a bunch). Not only is it a pleasure to use, but it has had a major influence on my view of software architectures in general by virtue of its elegant plugin architecture.
        • C++ sucks. I've been a C++ programmer for 10 odd years, but after using Java and C# there's no turning back. I understand memory management, pointers and the like, but they are a major cramp on productivity and I'd rather do without them.
        • C# and .NET look very cool as a replacement for venerable C++. C# has all of the obvious advantages of Java, and equally important, the .NET libraries are finally a worthy equivalent to all the J2SE foundation class that should have been in C++ but aren't (and don't get me started about STL). Ever try to, say, check whether a directory exists in C++ and, if not, to create it? I spent at least 20 minutes surfing through MSDN and ended up with 10-15 lines of code. I'm very much still learning C#, but I wrote:

          if (!Directory.Exists(str)) Directory.CreateDirectory(str);

          ...and it worked first time.

        So what exactly is wrong with .NET? If you need to work on the Windows platform it's a godsend!

        • C# and .NET look very cool as a replacement for venerable C++.

          Are you on crack? C# is a Java wannabe, and can hardly compete with C++ in areas where Java can't compete with C++ (i.e. severely cramped power-performance-memory critical environments).

          Repeat after me: C# is a MSFT version of Java. C# is a MSFT version of Java.

          C# is a MSFT version of Java.

          The fact that they often advertise it as a replacement for C++ only serves to remind us what drooling morons MSFT assumes their developer "community" to b

          • C# is a Java wannabe, and can hardly compete with C++ in areas where Java can't compete with C++ (i.e. severely cramped power-performance-memory critical environments).

            On "power-performance-memory critical environments" you wouldn't be wanting to use C++ anyway - unless it's in a very limited "better C" kind of way. The sorts of devices you seem to be describing are generally programmed in C or assembler. Anything more powerfull will probably run Java - which is why I'll now get back to programming a Ja

        • Instead of:
          if (!Directory.Exists(str)) Directory.CreateDirectory(str);
          How about just:
          Directory.CreateDirectory(str);
          The system will check to see if the directory exists and if does the method will fail. Or in C:
          mkdir(str);
          That was hard.
          • I am probably awfully stodgy but I prefer to know why an operation failed. Just telling the user "An IOException occurred" (or, even better, just assuming that it was due to the fact that the directory existed and ignoring it) isn't good programming practice where I come from.

            I'll type those 20 odd extra characters any day...

        • Ah, but that's exctly the point! (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Lysol ( 11150 ) * on Monday July 28, 2003 @11:15AM (#6551448)
          So what exactly is wrong with .NET? If you need to work on the Windows platform it's a godsend!

          Precisely. And that's where it will stay - on a Win platform. At least until Win is made much smaller (think Novell) and the platform becomes less important compared to the app and development technologies.

          Anyway, I have to say that I'm a huge Ximian fan. I think they've contributed a great desktop. So my hat's off to them.

          However, as someone who has done some hacking on dotGNU, I am pessimistic about the whole .NET thing.

          Besides domination, what is m$'s ultimate goal: lock in. This has been documented and has hit people over the head for years so I don't need to go into a lengthy discussion about it.
          Coupled with the fact that even from a clean room implementation standpoint, m$ will pull ip claims. No question about it. Especially when GNU/Linux starts making more and more inroads. I mean, if it's (.NET) supported on *nix, why go with costly m$?

          Like I said, I think Nat, Miguel and co. have done an excellent job. They're doing great things. But unless there is some strict, free, licensing agreement submitted along with the .NET ECMA stuff (to my knowledge, only C# has been submitted), then I just can't see how m$ will stay away from shutting Mono down.

          Also, while I think Mono is cool, I still have a problem supporting a language/platform that was created by a company such as m$ for the reasons they did. It still feels tainted and dirty to me. m$ has not become the largest software company in the world by being 'compatible'. There's a documented history that goes back well over a decade that proves this.

          Good luck guys! The dashboard looks reall cool, btw.
        • Well, I'm unfamiliar with Windows, not having used it in quite some time now (I'm a Debian user). I was sort of amazed that it would take 20 minutes and 10-15 lines of code for an experienced programmer to check if a directory exists and if not, create it. It took me about 5 minutes searching on MSDN to find the Win32 calls "GetFileAttributes" and "CreateDirectory". The following should work (I can't test it, I don't have Windows):

          if (!(GetFileAttributes(filename) & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY)) CreateDir
        • if (!Directory.Exists(str)) Directory.CreateDirectory(str);

          I prefer:

          #!/perl
          mkdir($str) unless -d $str;

          Once you go with short method names and hyper-abbreviated syntax, coupled with no memory management/pointers, you never go back. I can't stand such verbose crap as:

          if (TheDirectoryExistsOnTheHardDiskButIsNotAFileOr ASymbolicLinkAndTheMoonIsInItsThirdPhase) { DoSomethingEvenLongerAndMoreVerbose() }

          s/you//g;

    • Re:Unnecessary commentary? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by IamTheRealMike ( 537420 ) on Monday July 28, 2003 @04:30AM (#6549316)
      Agreed, especially true because the full Dashboard system is written in a range of languages - the plugins/backends tend to use whatever languages are best for integration with the software. It's certainly not a pure .NET app, not by any stretch.
    • It's just a bit of editorial comment.
      They appear on all other commercial news outlets, albeit in not such an overt form.
      Get out more.
    • You see the adverts on every page? This is a commercial site. Page views pay the mortgages, and nothing draws page views like contentious issues. The "editors" here are simply trolling for dollars.
    • By writing Mono, and by writing unique and interesting software using it, these guys clearly have an agenda of creating interest and demand for C# on Linux. This is a big win for Microsoft, and pretty much of no help to Linux. Mono is always going to be on shaky ground legally, but it will let people begin their critical application development on Linux before deciding that for safety they need to move to Windows. If they wrote their application for Java instead, they would have less need to move off Linux,

      • Re:Unnecessary commentary? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by IamTheRealMike ( 537420 ) on Monday July 28, 2003 @07:44AM (#6549822)
        these guys clearly have an agenda of creating interest and demand for C# on Linux

        Uh, no. The guy pushing Mono is Miguel, Dashboard is written by Nat. Large parts of Ximian are not using Mono, or not sure about it. Nonetheless, Nat decided to use Mono because he wanted to try it out, and decided he liked what he saw.

        This is a big win for Microsoft, and pretty much of no help to Linux

        I fail to see how having a language that doesn't suck and is good for writing desktop apps in is "no help at all to Linux". We have to move beyond C and C++ sometime, you know.

        Mono is always going to be on shaky ground legally

        What, just like Linux itself? Need I remind you that Linux is a reimplementation of a once proprietary OS written in a once proprietary language?

        If they wrote their application for Java instead.....[snip]

        Yes, but they didn't. Java had its chance at being the choice of desktop apps, and failed it. I'm still not sure why Java is any better than C# - both languages/environments have had to have their compilers and class libraries cloned by the free software community, except that Java is not ratified by ISO.

        Essentially Ximian are developing this software to grab some market share for something they hope will become big

        Er, no. Why don't you read up on how it got started? It started as Nat trying something he thought would be cool, and then a load of people helping out. There are enough conspiracy theories as it is, no need to invent more.

        Think before you endorse C#.

        The people writing this stuff aren't stupid. I can tell you, they are thinking about C#, and have decided that most peoples fears are groundless. That doesn't mean it's risk free! Oh no. It does mean that they think it's no more risky than any other part of free software is (cloning a UNIX kernel? reverse engineering Windows? GPLd MP3 players?)

        • Re:Unnecessary commentary? (Score:4, Informative)

          by alext ( 29323 ) on Monday July 28, 2003 @10:32AM (#6551106)
          Friedman is a well-known Mono propagandist, as has been covered in /. before (based on this article [osnews.com]).

          The rest of the comments above appear to follow the "let's play dumb" ploy that's been a distinctive feature of the Mono program from the outset. Three years after starting, there are still no concrete objectives listed on the project site. Can I really port my Dotnet application to Linux? Gee, that's a tough one - we'll get back to you...

          The Mono vs. Java comparisons in particular are almost desperate in their attempt to mislead. All these statements have been refuted numerous times before on /., but it's clear that we're not dealing with people that can respond intelligently to objections, instead we're in the "Mono groundhog day" zone. Here, proponents are obliged to constantly restate discredited arguments in the hope that there are at least some new readers out there who are naive enough to be drawn in to their cloner "community".

          FACT: Java has 3 million developers now, and is continuing to grow rapidly, both on the server side and now on the client side. (Millons of phones now support a JVM compared to... well, are there any Dotnet phones?)

          FACT: Most of Dotnet is patented and not standardized. Anyone still resorting to the assertion that Dotnet is open because the C Sharp language is standardized is either hopelessly out of touch or being deliberately deceptive.

          FACT: All of the Java platform is available on a free license for open-source developments, including the test suites. This is what the Kaffe people use. Nothing comparable exists for Dotnet whatsoever.

          FACT: Java development happens under the JCP, an open process with a number of big players involved, not just one company.

          The bottom line is that Java is, and has been for some time, a far better platform for Linux development than Mono. There are three very high quality commercial VMs freely available (from BEA, Sun and IBM) and dozens more for specialist platforms, plus of course an open-source implementation.

          For some of us, hearing the latest Mono annoucement about how it's bringing some great new feature to Linux just a cause for amusement, since typically that feature has been available with Java for years. (One example comes from Friedman again, who mentioned the exciting possibility of Javascript on Mono "soon". Needless to say, Rhino, Javascript on the JVM project, has been around for some time (5 years to be precise)..

          Others, apparently, are taken in by this nonsense and genuinely believe that they are adding features and helping open source by extending the reach of the Microsoft environment. It's time people woke up and realized that they are doing OS no favors, in fact, are likely to do it positive harm, to say nothing of the risk to their employers and associates.
          • FACT: All of the Java platform is available on a free license for open-source developments, including the test suites. This is what the Kaffe people use. Nothing comparable exists for Dotnet whatsoever.

            I wish things were as rosy as you make them sound. Kaffe is stuck in Java 1.x compatibility, because Sun Microsystems is keeping the Java 2.x specifications unfree. See section 2.3.1.5 [brown.edu], "Why is (some) free software not implementing Java2?", of the Debian Java FAQ.

            steveha
          • The bottom line is that Java is, and has been for some time, a far better platform for Linux development than Mono.

            If so, then why do are there no popular desktop apps written in it? At all?

            I could say something annoying in a flamebait style like:

            FACT: Java on the desktop is dead, it had its chance, several times, and dropped them all.

            but ..... nah.

            The free software community has not produced anything like it. Cloning such technologies has been done before, and now it's happening again. If you

      • Mono is always going to be on shaky ground legally

        Why? Because it's a clone of a proprietary technology? In that case, Linux will be on shaky ground, as well, given that it's a clone of UNIX. And so will KDE and GNOME, since they both clone other proprietary UIs.

        it will let people begin their critical application development on Linux before deciding that for safety they need to move to Windows.

        I thought the main advantage of Linux was preventing lock-in to a particular system or vendor. Why the h
      • So I'm happy to see the /. editors reminding everyone that this isn't just another piece of warm, fluffy, cute free software to configure && make && make install with open arms.

        Funny, i seem to remember that a couple of weeks ago we were all up in arms about the automake/autoconf/etc configure hell in freshmeat editorials and ./ articles. For example this editorial [freshmeat.net].

        And what you say about it being c# based, can also be said about java, perl, ruby, eifel, python and so many other languag
    • It's not the editors' fault, it's just that final sentences like the above are inserted automatically by the Slashdot story generator [bbspot.com].
    • Could you at least give a reason for your statement?

      Who in their right mind would want to make their application execution 4-20 times slower by writing it in an interpreted language like C# or Java. If this wasn't bad enough, how can you require your users to download a 25MB library just to be able to run your "hello world" script. Thats retarded. I'll stick to C/C++ thank you.

      • What's funny to me is that I am sure that at one stage, someone said the same comments about C, compared to assembler.

        There are cases where assembler is an appropriate tool, and there are cases when C/C++ are appropriate. But in business code, there are many more where C# or Java are appropriate.
    • You're absolutely correct, of course, but I suspect the remark was deliberately left in.

      It is clear that Slashdot no longer cares about the quality of the discussions it provokes. Presumably, it does care about the number of page views and ad impressions. Tossing the daily Microsoft bone to its audience is the Slashdot equivalent of some talk radio troll annoucing "Today, we're gonna talk about why your taxes are too high". Pointless dribble that exists only to elicit more pointless dribble. The entire p
    • Man, you guys read into stuff too deeply. Everyone wants to drum up a troll thread.

      The merits or faults of C# seem to be a relevant topic for the developers section. Since I was interested in hearing other peoples' ideas one way or the other, I threw in that statement to generate some conversation. Seems to have worked in some way or another once you filter out the troll posts.
    • Mono is a great piece of software. That said, the only benefits I can see to having it exist are to Microsoft and Ximian. I don't understand the naivete that makes people think "Microsoft won't screw us this time." As Miguel has admitted in the Mono FAQ referenced in another reply, large portions of .NET are still proprietary Microsoft creations. Sure, you can port them, but then Microsoft can just change them or add features, and you're always a step behind. If they're feeling really pushy, they can push f
      • I'm going to spell this out because you people seem to have grown stupid as of late, and I am tired of repeating myself.

        INTERFACES ARE PUBLIC CONTRACTS. You see, yes, Microsoft can change things under the hood. SO THE FUCK WHAT? The public interfaces still exist and still act the same way; those interfaces are a contract with all of the thousands of existing projects out there. If Microsoft makes breaking changes, the old versions of the runtime will still run side-by-side, and that is by design. And mono
        • Interfaces are only half of the story. Interfaces without implementations are absolutely worthless. Microsoft owns the "standard" implementation of all the interfaces they've published. No matter how well documented, no matter how clear the contract, all implementations will have peripheral, unspecified behavior. In Microsoft's case, perhaps it will interface with the OS primitives better because of information only Microsoft knows. Perhaps it will interface better with Microsoft products because of intimat

  • Making life easy for a hacker (Score:4, Interesting)

    by indiancowboy ( 637150 ) on Monday July 28, 2003 @04:18AM (#6549291)
    A hackers dreams come true? Get a log of everything you did today or in the past, all kinds of data passwords etc. all on a golden platter ?! What are the security features in this thing?

  • I'm warming up fast to .net (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Rogerborg ( 306625 ) on Monday July 28, 2003 @04:28AM (#6549312) Homepage
    In fact, the more knee jerk, unsubstantiated, unjustified snide throwaway comments I read about .net and C#, the more inclined I am to think that I'm seeing Ludditism writ large, and that .net is something that I should be taking a look at sooner rather than later if I want to stay employed in the tech business.

    • Re: (OT) Luddites (Score:4, Informative)

      by perly-king-69 ( 580000 ) on Monday July 28, 2003 @05:10AM (#6549391)
      The Luddites weren't against new technology, per se. The destruction of machinery was one of their sole means of making a stand against poor working conditions, since trade unions were illegal.
      The Tolpuddle martyrs were 'transported' to Australia because they swore an oath to someone other than the King of England, namely their union, which was illegal at the time.
    • the more inclined I am to think that I'm seeing Ludditism writ large

      Luddites oppose technology in general, because increased technology (luddites falsely claim) leads to a loss of jobs.

      FOSS people oppose Microsoft not because of the technology or potential job losses, but because of the draconian control methods it uses. The fact that their technology is consistently of questional quality (especially in realm of security) is a side-issue, but it does provide a lot of fun fodder.

  • emacs: been there done that (Score:4, Informative)

    by 10am-bedtime ( 11106 ) on Monday July 28, 2003 @04:29AM (#6549314)

    once again, lame technologies seek to imitate what the One True Editor [gnu.org] has been able to do [mit.edu] for years [google.it].

    next!

    • Oh, these guys are perfectly aware of the RA, but they are trying to make something better. In particular, it has better indexing abilities, and far better integration with apps that people actually use.

      You don't have a problem with people trying to do the RA better, right?

    • once again, lame technologies seek to imitate what the One True Editor has been able to do for years.

      I thought /. served this purpose perfectly already. As you spend the day surfing /., you get to visit all the links in the vicinity of the cursor. Like magic, it's like they *ALREADY* know you'll be here to stay.. and thus need not make any effort at all!!
    • Well, I'd use it, if I could find some documentation for the damned thing . . . got a handy link for that?
    • Very good observation, you have now mastered google.

      Emacs also does web browsing, but most people will probably choose Mozilla to read slashdot for various reasons: easier to use, easier learning curve, and way better rendering of the information than Emacs can do.

      Miguel.

  • haystack (Score:5, Informative)

    by hey ( 83763 ) on Monday July 28, 2003 @04:30AM (#6549315) Journal
    Reminds me of haystack [mit.edu] which was dismissed as been-there-seen-that when it was discussed here [slashdot.org]. I think there might be a place for these things -- but where?
    • This stuff is great for governments, consultants, legal firms and all those other people that do loads of work by pushing papers around and writing new pieces of text. I myself do this kind of work and it happens quite often that after I have written something, someone, somewhere delves up a paper written 2 years ago in another department on exactly the same subject.

      It is not that I don't check the usual sources for input on these subjects, but in an organisation of over 4000 people, 5 directorates, 6 staf

  • Screenshots (Score:5, Informative)

    by Sibeling ( 597639 ) on Monday July 28, 2003 @04:48AM (#6549355) Homepage
    Besides one screenshot [nat.org] in the link, which is going slow..

    Here's [usefulinc.com] one using sniffed rss traffic

    and here's [usefulinc.com] one with geo traffic.. (cool) There's a bit more info here [usefulinc.com]

  • Elsewhere in slashdot... (Score:4, Funny)

    by ultrabot ( 200914 ) on Monday July 28, 2003 @04:59AM (#6549376)
    ... you can read a discussion about ADHD, general lack of concentration and inability to get a job done.
    • Thing is, these sorts of programs are especially helpful to people with ADHD and related disorders -- but only in theory so far (and that's my theory, in case you were wondering). Having a program keep your thoughts together is less taxing on the body & mind than, say, relying on stimulants to do the same. Unforunately, since 'Outlook' is the current pinnacle of personal information management, we'll need to see a paradigm shift or two before we see anything really helpful.

      --------------

  • He is reimplementing the Remembrance Agent ! (Score:5, Informative)

    by BigJim.fr ( 40893 ) <jim@liotier.org> on Monday July 28, 2003 @05:06AM (#6549385) Homepage

    The Remembrance Agent [mit.edu] is an Emacs add-in that does mostly what Nat's tools seems to be supposed to do : "The Remembrance Agent (RA) is a program which augments human memory by displaying a list of documents which might be relevant to the user's current context. Unlike most information retrieval systems, the RA runs continuously without user intervention. Its unobtrusive interface allows a user to pursue or ignore the RA's suggestions as desired". Nice concept, but since the original is mostly tied to Emacs, a modern implementation would sure be quite welcome.

    • Is there anything Emacs doesnt do?
      • Emacs can do pretty much anything. Which is why it gets all the bashing for bloat.
        I find Emacs tools to be generally bug free, documented, customizable and easy to use.
        Keyboard shortcuts for many things, tab completion and a decent help system.

        I happily use Emacs for many editing tasks, and vim for the others.

    • Re:He is reimplementing the Remembrance Agent ! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by avdi ( 66548 ) on Monday July 28, 2003 @09:09AM (#6550369) Homepage
      Not exactly. While RA is quite a nifty tool, all it does is index your home directory and run searches against what it finds their based on the current document in Emacs. RA doesn't have the ability to note that you're having an IM conversation with someone, and automatically show you: their email address and other FOAF contact information; their last few blog entries; when you last talked to them; their schedule; etc. That's the kind of thing Dashboard is intended to do. Dashboard integrates semantic information from many different applications, rather than just doing a smart grep against your home dir.
    • Its unobtrusive interface allows a user to pursue or ignore the RA's suggestions as desired.

      Sounds exactly like Clippy!

  • Embarrasing screensaver? (Score:3)

    by 10Ghz ( 453478 ) on Monday July 28, 2003 @05:39AM (#6549442)
    Does anyone have any info on this?
    • ... at least, don't run it without using a whitelist of 'safe' sites :-)

      For amusement though, you could always add driftnet into the mix and see what other people in your subnet are looking at.

      And no, I have no idea whether this was actually the embarrassing screensaver. Just a word to the wise is all...

      Cheers,

      Toby Haynes

  • microsoft is finally supporting a community effort to port their technology to the open source community; if only by not suing, though most likely unwillingly.

    but why would you not throw everything you have behind mono? if anything, it will make a java-style write-once, run-anywhere implimentation no longer language specific, and no-longer a mess of cross-compatibility problems.

    with mono running, you could more easily make the case to business who run .Net sites and services to switch over to better linu
    • "...shun all things .net - just because it has nothing to do with microsoft?"

      Basically this sums it up for quiet a few people. You see the simple truth is you can only be burned by something so many times before you learn. You obviously have not, but I am sure you will get there if this does not do it to you when everything is said and done. Agreements, standards, rationale, etc - none of these things mean anything when dealing with Microsoft. Look at how many companies have teamed up with MS and look

    • microsoft is finally supporting a community effort to port their technology to the open source community; if only by not suing, though most likely unwillingly.

      Or maybe they're waiting until a large number of people have implemented their systems on Mono before they sue, forcing all those people to switch platforms to Windows if they don't want to throw away their investment.

      but why would you not throw everything you have behind mono?

      Because it would make me dependent on the good nature of a compan

  • OK, inquiring minds want to know - what is this "Embarassing Screensaver"?

    We Want Screenshots, download URLs, and descriptions!

  • Enfish Onespace (Score:2, Informative)

    by vivarin ( 106778 )
    ...was commercial software from at least 3 years ago that attempted to be exactly what 'dashboard' is supposed to be.

    It was... intensely useful to some people. You can still download it from enfish.com if you're on Windows.
  • The "blog" link from the article is redirecting back to /. /Me thinks Nat didn't care for the bandwidth spike...

  • can anyone access this ? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Meeble ( 633260 ) on Monday July 28, 2003 @12:33PM (#6552167) Journal

    it looks like the entire domain is being redirected back to ./

    I was really interested in seeing this in action. Is there a mirror up somewhere?

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