i love the windows registry, why logically put the options to not share with other kazaa users in the options when you can go into the registry and edit it? or no, i should say why put a working option in the options. there is one there but it never worked for me...so i talked to a PC guru and he told me i had to edit the registry, but he bastard didn't tell me how. so i had to go in and figure it out myself
<strong>i love the windows registry, why logically put the options to not share with other kazaa users in the options when you can go into the registry and edit it? or no, i should say why put a working option in the options. there is one there but it never worked for me...so i talked to a PC guru and he told me i had to edit the registry, but he bastard didn't tell me how. so i had to go in and figure it out myself</strong><hr></blockquote>
That sounds frightening...so, PC still work? <img src="graemlins/cancer.gif" border="0" alt="[cancer]" />
The Registry is a piss poor implementation of a pretty spiffy idea. (MS? Poor implementation? Never...)
It's a central repository for basically *ALL* your metadata in your system, including things like app preferences, caches, the whole shebang. The theory is that it cleans up your disk so that you don't have a bunch of techno-crud littering it, it's all nicely hidden away and managed.
Unfortunately, the reality is that the Registry is quite possible the single weakest point of failure in the entire Windows architecture. It gets corrupted if you look at it wrong, and gets misused more than a $5 hooker in Sturgis.
I know someone who was on the Registry team way back when it was introduced ('95), and it was... illuminating. Brief example snippet:
He: "Developers are the ones to blame for it getting corrupted, they don't follow the rules."
Me: "How so?"
H: "They're supposed to open the registry, locking it out for others, then edit, then close. They don't. They just start editing."
M: "Wait, you *LET* them just start editing without first properly opening it??"
H: "Well it says *right in the documentation* not to do that!"
M: "But they're doing it, and you *allow* them to do it! Wouldn't it be better to have it so that they *CAN'T* edit without first opening it correctly??"
H: "But it says *right in the docs*..."
M: "But you could have avoided all this by locking them out until..."
H: "It says, *right in the docs*..."
Repeat ad nauseum.
Basically the Registry is implemented incredibly poorly, and worse, it's the single and only repository for such data. If something goes haywire, you have to add all that info back in... by re-installing everything and re-setting it up.
MacOS X OTOH has that metadata stored primarily within each application, and then *cached* in a central place for fast access. If the cache goes blooie, no problem, just re-fetch if from the application bundle. No re-install needed.
(Addendum to above conversation... a few months later I was talking to He, and He proudly said that they'd fixed the problem in the Registry. I asked him if they'd finally fixed the API to enforce policy... "No, we now keep up to 8 copies around so we always have one to revert to!" was his beaming reply. I about puked.)
Comments
<strong>Microsoft's Windows Registry is probably the most riduculous thing I have ever seen.
Does anyone else agree??
I'd love to hear the comparison's to OS X regarding this topic...
[ 02-24-2003: Message edited by: O-Mac ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
word
<strong>i love the windows registry, why logically put the options to not share with other kazaa users in the options when you can go into the registry and edit it? or no, i should say why put a working option in the options. there is one there but it never worked for me...so i talked to a PC guru and he told me i had to edit the registry, but he bastard didn't tell me how. so i had to go in and figure it out myself</strong><hr></blockquote>
That sounds frightening...so, PC still work? <img src="graemlins/cancer.gif" border="0" alt="[cancer]" />
<strong>Microsoft's Windows Registry is probably the most riduculous thing I have ever seen.</strong><hr></blockquote>
MS + Windoze + Ridiculous = Ding ding!!
But what is it...? <img src="confused.gif" border="0">
<strong>
That sounds frightening...so, PC still work? <img src="graemlins/cancer.gif" border="0" alt="[cancer]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>
yeah i'm a quick learner at computer stuff...least the registry is nicely organized...i had to look around for a bit in the kazaa lite files though
It's a central repository for basically *ALL* your metadata in your system, including things like app preferences, caches, the whole shebang. The theory is that it cleans up your disk so that you don't have a bunch of techno-crud littering it, it's all nicely hidden away and managed.
Unfortunately, the reality is that the Registry is quite possible the single weakest point of failure in the entire Windows architecture. It gets corrupted if you look at it wrong, and gets misused more than a $5 hooker in Sturgis.
I know someone who was on the Registry team way back when it was introduced ('95), and it was... illuminating. Brief example snippet:
He: "Developers are the ones to blame for it getting corrupted, they don't follow the rules."
Me: "How so?"
H: "They're supposed to open the registry, locking it out for others, then edit, then close. They don't. They just start editing."
M: "Wait, you *LET* them just start editing without first properly opening it??"
H: "Well it says *right in the documentation* not to do that!"
M: "But they're doing it, and you *allow* them to do it! Wouldn't it be better to have it so that they *CAN'T* edit without first opening it correctly??"
H: "But it says *right in the docs*..."
M: "But you could have avoided all this by locking them out until..."
H: "It says, *right in the docs*..."
Repeat ad nauseum.
Basically the Registry is implemented incredibly poorly, and worse, it's the single and only repository for such data. If something goes haywire, you have to add all that info back in... by re-installing everything and re-setting it up.
MacOS X OTOH has that metadata stored primarily within each application, and then *cached* in a central place for fast access. If the cache goes blooie, no problem, just re-fetch if from the application bundle. No re-install needed.
(Addendum to above conversation... a few months later I was talking to He, and He proudly said that they'd fixed the problem in the Registry. I asked him if they'd finally fixed the API to enforce policy... "No, we now keep up to 8 copies around so we always have one to revert to!" was his beaming reply. I about puked.)
<strong>He: "Developers are the ones to blame for it getting corrupted, they don't follow the rules."
Me: "How so?"
H: "They're supposed to open the registry, locking it out for others, then edit, then close. They don't. They just start editing."
M: "Wait, you *LET* them just start editing without first properly opening it??"
H: "Well it says *right in the documentation* not to do that!"
</strong><hr></blockquote>
<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
Yeah, that's MS. I talked to an MS employee once who was beaming with pride: He'd just written and run a Perl script that fixed six hundred bugs.
Truly, the mind boggles.
The problem with MS isn't a lack of talent. The MS engineers I've talked to are all really bright guys. They just seem to operate in a vacuum.
<strong>
H: "But it says *right in the docs*..."
M: "But you could have avoided all this by locking them out until..."
H: "It says, *right in the docs*..."
Repeat ad nauseum.</strong><hr></blockquote>
That makes me think of something:
"I'm going to place them in an easily escapable situation involving an overly exotic death -- what?"
"I've got a gun, in my room..."
"Scott, you just don't get it, do you? You don't!"
[ 02-25-2003: Message edited by: CosmoNut ]</p>