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Messages - chennecke

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76
Comments, Suggestions & Questions / Re: New kernel
« on: 2008.12.14, 13:18:21 »
This sure looks interesting.

Could you tell us a bit about the technical background? Depending on how this was done, I'm afraid of license issues that would unfortunately make using this nice piece of work a no-go for many people.

77
Programming / Re: Replacing the OS/2 kernel, the dirty way
« on: 2008.12.12, 16:43:05 »
Voyager is NOT about creating a new OS anymore. They have shifted away from that in favor of creating a new way of handling information - which will fail because it's too far ahead of its time.

78
Open Bounties / Re: TrueCrypt port
« on: 2008.12.02, 13:30:33 »
Did anybody even start working on this bounty? If there is no interest at all in it, can it be closed and the funds diverted to other, more promising projects? (I am one of the sponsors and would like to see my money go to active bounties)

Good point.
I was the one starting the bounty, and I think it's a general question to the bounty managers (and I think we already had this discussion...?): What are we supposed to do if nothing happens on an open bounty for *quite some* time?
- Shall the money go into a "pot" (for general increase of all other bounties)
- or should the sponsors be asked where to shift the money to?

Clearly the second. Everything else would be embezzlement. If people donate money for a specific purpose, you cannot rededicate it without their consent. The suboptimal handling of bounties in the past has led to me withdrawing a bounty. Please make sure that others don't feel the need to do the same.

I see two possible solutions for avoiding the hassle of getting everyone's answer:

1. Update the bounty rules and add a rule that donations for a bounty will be rededicated after a certain time. However, this leaves the question who decides what project they get re-assigned to and by which criteria.

2. Change the way bounties are handled so the money isn't drawn from the donor immediately. Then you can just delete the commitments and there will be no fees for transferring the money back to the donor.

79
Article Discussions / Re: smplayer for os/2 ecs
« on: 2008.11.05, 14:06:53 »
Try the latest release, guys! Silvan has fixed issues with the play list and the file open dialog, and I've contributed installation instructions. There are a few remaining usability issues (file open dialog does not remember directory, no d&d support) but otherwise, it works great here.

80
Because OS/2 is severely limited by poor hardware support and other issues that will be nigh on impossible to fix with it's closed source nature. We can only hope to have these critical issues addressed by efforts such as OSFree and Voyager.

That hope will certainly be in vain. AFAIK OSFree hasn't moved an inch for ages, and Voyager has stopped being an operating system project.

Issues are being worked on, though. For instance, Mensys has employed a new developer to work on Uniaud, and apparently this shows in the latest releases.

81
General Discussion / Re: The score thus far...
« on: 2008.10.29, 14:53:42 »
Well, I would like to add some thoughts gained from my own experience in taking part in online forums and seeing how long-term moderators responded to problems:

The problem is twofold. There is the troll, and there is the inexperience of the moderators.

A forum moderator is a kind of educational authority. If you state that if somebody continues his offensive behaviour he will have to face consequences and you don't actually take the measures when he does not honour your request, you won't be taken seriously and your authority will become void. It's like with pets and children.

Barring strong personal insults, forum users tend to not file a complain with the moderators but to leave silently or in a huff instead. Anyway, they are gone and the offender is still there, able to inflict further damage. Thus, to avoid harm being done by an offender, moderators cannot wait for a complaint to be filed offcially if they come across offensive behaviour. Harm includes any kind of invalidating the platform for the intended use, and that includes continous thread-hijacking and the like.

A policy for handling offenders needs to be agreed upon by the moderators when taking their job. That way, there's a lot less to discuss from the start and it reduces the need to hold a vote considerably. Usually, a vote shouldn't be required other than for the ultimate measure of an unlimited ban.

The voting issue is a point where I have to strongly disagree with Thomas. Exercising your rights as a moderator without consulting the others has nothing to do with "crappy egoism." As a moderator you need to have a certain faith in your fellow moderators in the first place. You have to believe that they will do their job correctly.
I can see two exception from that rule: One is when a new moderator joins the staff. If you don't know him well enough, you can place him under supervision for a certain time. If you don't trust him enough after that, you cannot let him join permanently. The other is dealing with the language barrier. Many fights are caused by misunderstandings, and moderators are not immune to that. So it's a good idea to ask the others if they do find statements offensive as well before taking any action. Now, if you feel that a fellow moderator is abusing his rights, that's a completely different pair of shoes.

Anyway, even if nobody asked for it, I'll give this advice:

  • To quote Theodore Roosevelt: "Walk softly and carry a big stick."
  • Walk the talk.
  • Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.

Related to the moderation of a forum, this means:

  • If somebody breaks the rules, warn him. Since we are all humans, that stage is likely to happen to many of us once in a while. Also, somebody might not really be aware of the fact that he's breaking the rules.
  • If he does not honour the request, warn him a second time and place him under moderation if the forum software allows that, i.e., all posts by this person will have to be approved by a moderator until further notice. If he does behave, turn off moderated mode again.
  • If he deliberately continues to break the rules, ban him. Depending on what has happened and the person's reaction, you might consider placing a ban for a finite time only.


82
Article Discussions / Re: smplayer for os/2 ecs
« on: 2008.10.20, 14:16:58 »
Warpvision uses a Window Abstraction kit? Which one? QT3 or WxWidgets?

It doesn't use such a kit but thanks to the skinning crap the GUI doesn't use PM controls either, except for the partially functional play list and the settings notebook.

83
Article Discussions / Re: smplayer for os/2 ecs
« on: 2008.10.16, 14:52:04 »
If you use the same critera, WarpVision is not "native" either.

Actually, this whole "native" thingy is pretty much a moot discussion. It is a native app as Qt is available for OS/2. Non-native would mean run via the DOS box or Odin. If you extend your definition of native to "has to use standard OS/2 GUI elements," Mozilla, OOo, and everything that uses skins wouldn't be native apps either.

84
Article Discussions / Re: Papyrus 2008 (DEMO)
« on: 2008.08.11, 13:38:31 »
I have a problem with a Language switch pack, the program should be available in major languages, or at least have the ability to change over without the customer having to pay. God forbid Microsoft did the same, you'd all be on here crying about it, but it's okay for this company?

I wasn't aware of that particular scenario. I agree that the GUI language shouldn't be handled that restrictively. I can, however, understand that they charge for the dictionaries as they will have to pay licenses for the data they create those from themselves.

Bullsh_t sir.

Insults don't support your point.

85
Article Discussions / Re: Papyrus 2008 (DEMO)
« on: 2008.08.10, 19:43:14 »
Worse news, they make you pay for updates (Grrr) and language switch pack :\

And the problem with that is? They are a company, not charity. Bug fix releases are free, though.

86
Great! Thank you very much indeed.

87
Programming / Re: BabelZilla and OS2 developers
« on: 2008.07.18, 11:43:37 »
This site is solely aimed at translating Mozilla extensions and supports only file formats used by those. See http://babelwiki.babelzilla.org/index.php?title=BabelZilla_WTS_Guide

I do like the idea, though. Parsing would be required for

  • rc
  • dlg
  • msg

plus other file formats.

88
Applications / Re: Desktop Backgrounds
« on: 2008.07.09, 20:24:57 »
You might want to report that in the eCS bug tracker since PNG support is provided by a third-party plugin that Mensys might have source access to.

89
General Discussion / Re: RC 5 released!
« on: 2008.07.05, 19:56:33 »
While it may be long past "mid-night" for the General Availability (GA) we believe that with this bit of news we can hold on just a little bit longer on our planned acquisition of "new" hardware to run eComStation 2.0; but then again, (although this release/upgrade has taken so long) it may be prudent/wise to not commit to "run-your-business" on eComStation 2.0 until about a year later after the GA Date when all the "undiscovered bugs" are fixed!  8)

Well, from what I have seen so far, this shouldn't be needed for eCS 2.0 GA. A really large number of bugs has been fixed in RC5--a few even between the pre-release of RC5 for the developer team and the release for customers with a subscription. I am confident that the long development time is going to pay off.

90
Hardware / Re: Asus M2N-E
« on: 2008.06.06, 09:04:17 »
I know that Paul Smedley has one running. He had to use the options /SMP /PIC /TMR for ACPI.PSD.

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