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A Big-Screen Mobile MP3 Console
psymaster writes: "I found the link to this mod over at hardocp.com; it's a car MP3 player mod, the guy ripped apart the whole center panel of the car to install it and did it all over again in fiberglass." This is dedication.
yeahhhhhhhh baby
A Linux user goes back.
/etc/fstab file so that it always automounted when plugged in. I was very impressed.
/dev/null, once I find where that actually is.
By Tony âoekNIGitsâ Collins.
Introduction...
In much of today's online news, we hear of how many people are migrating to GNU/Linux. What we don't seem to hear much of, is users going back to their old operating systems. The reason for this article is to say that I've done just that.
Yes, I've gone back. After three and a half years of trying to make GNU/Linux work on the desktop, I've decided that it's simply too hard for the average home user. Before I go into my reasons for going back, let me outline what I believe an 'average' home user is. Mr Joe Average is someone who wants to install their OS, boot it up, and it works. He wants to be able to upgrade his PC , and have the hardware work in a few short minutes. He wants to read email, browse the web, talk to his mates online, and play some games. Feel free to disagree with me, this is merely how I see myself. Note: I'm not referring to Grandma using Linux, or even my mum using it. I'm referring to average users who know a little about their computer.
Three and a half years; that's how long I've been trying to make Linux work on my desktop computer. Right about now, I'm sure that you are now screaming that I didn't try hard enough, or that I'm just plain stupid. Let me assure you that this is not the case. Stupid users don't doggedly stick at something for three and a half years, trying distribution after distribution in the hope of finding the holy grail of Linux desktops. They give up in less than a few hours of trying to (unsuccessfully) install RedHat Linux. Hear now my sad tale of why Linux isn't suitable for my desktop.
Some background...
The year is 1998. I've had my Windows '95 computer for around six months. Frustrated with the constant crashes, I desperately asked an online mate for help. Even though he was a windows user, he calmly suggested that I try something I'd never come across before...
âoeLinux, eh? Never heard of it.â
âoeOh, it's a free OS that you can download. Apparently it doesn't crash much. Just do an online search for it.â
Armed with this meagre knowledge, I set out on my quest for the ultimate stable operating system. I searched online, and found places where you could even buy copies of Linux! So, I left the comfort of my warm study, and returned forty minutes later with my first Linux boxed set â" RedHat Linux 5.2. After initially balking at the very basic installer (and few false starts), I had it up and running on my lovely AMD K6-233. I even got X working in no time at all. Then the system booted up for the first time.... and it was dead ugly. I had a very stable new OS, but I didn't even want to look at it. I was happy that I had several installed interfaces to choose from, but none of them appealed to me whatsoever. Wanting to download a nicer interface led me to my next problem.
I had absolutely no idea how to even get this nice, stable OS onto the internet! After reinstalling windows and RedHat in a dual-boot configuration, I got the help I needed by using Windows and USENET. Strangely enough, I can still remember the name of the long-suffering person who helped me get RedHat online, but that's another story. After looking around online, I discovered KDE. Only up to version one, it was the closest thing I had to a completely useable Linux system. I downloaded all the KDE packages for RedHat 5.2, only to discover another distro called Mandrake, that came with KDE preinstalled and configured. Back to my local distributor, and I was set.
Mandrake with KDE was exactly what I needed at that stage in my Linux using life, and I stuck with it for over a year and a half. Always seeking the 'perfect' desktop OS, I followed releases from version 5.3 all the way through to 7.0. Eventually I became dissatisfied with Mandrake, and briefly tried a number of other distros until I finally settled on Debian. I was impressed by the simple power, configurability, and the ease of upgrade that is apt-get. I felt good about being among the uber-elite Debian user community. Needless to say, I learned a lot about how to configure hardware under Linux during my time with Debian. I learned to sift through the old HOWTOs on Linux Doc until I found something suitable and accurate, I learned to utilize the power of USENET and IRC. Life was good.
Right now you must be wondering; âoeWhere is this leading? This guy seemed quite happy with Linux!â. True, I was. After a while, I decided I didn't want to have fine-grained control. I wanted something simple. I was getting tired of the 'stable' Debian release being so out of date, and the 'unstable' distribution being so... well... unstable. I got tired of having to recompile my kernel every time I got new hardware. I got tired of using command line to talk to my PC. It was time for a change. I had good experiences years ago with Mandrake, so I figured I'd try it again. As good as Mandrake 8.1 was, it wasn't what I was after. SuSE Linux 8.0 Professional (boxed set) was installed onto my PC instead.
I have to stop at this point, and say that SuSE Linux 8.0 (Pro) is the best Linux distribution that I've ever used. It has an easy installer, reasonable hardware support, and comes with the very good KDE 3.0. The box contains seven CDROMS, one DVD and three decent books that would help even the most inexperienced user get up and going. YaST2 is a decent graphical system configuration tool. When (not if) I go back to Linux, I'll definitely try SuSE again. However, there are quite a number of things that have improve (or change completely) before I'll consider going back. Read on for my brief list of things that must must get better before I'll switch back from the Microsoft camp.
Where GNU/Linux needs to improve...
X11
The X Window System is an awesomely powerful, network transparent graphical subsystem. It's perfectly suited to running applications from remote servers. However, this is NOT what a home user needs. My experience with X is that it's too big, bloated, slow and unstable to be any good to the home user. Most crashes that I ever experienced with Linux have been X's fault. My servers don't run X, and they never crash.
What home users need is something small and fast, so they can run local applications efficiently. I would like to see the X Window System dumped in favour of a hardware accelerated framebuffer, running something like directFB or Qtopia. Home users need a small, fast graphical subsystem, with built in 3d support. BeOS seemed to be on the right track before they went under.
Fonts are truly awful under X. Most distributions ship with appalling fonts, and there is no standard way to add additional (nicer) fonts to the system. Even after extra fonts have eventually been added, many applications (eg Abiword, Staroffice) refuse to use the new fonts anyway. Perhaps the framebuffer-based graphical subsystem I suggested could incorporate decent font support, and use a readable naming scheme as well.
Drivers
While having access to the latest version of the kernel is a good thing for developers, for home users it can be a nightmare. Got RedHat Linux 7.3? Perhaps you run SuSE 7.3 or Debian 2.2. You'll have to download a binary package specific to your distro. (I'm assuming that home users won't change their default kernel, but if they did, that binary package wouldn't even work!) Hardware manufacturers should be able to provide one single driver that works on all minor versions of a major kernel release. This way it would work will all current distros, instead of having to provide multiple binaries or source code. Hardware manufacturers don't want to give out the source, as this often gives away trade secrets about how their hardware is designed.
The solution seems to be to make binary drivers work on a variety of kernel versions. I'm not sure if this is even possible with the way the kernel is designed (I'm no kernel hacker), but it would go a long way toward making Linux more accessible to the home user. Even if the kernel needs to be redesigned to support this, then in my opinion, it should be done. Linux users are always clamouring for drivers... perhaps if the kernel had something like this, it might one day become a reality.
Hardware setup
While SuSE Linux 8.0 gave me some good experiences with hardware detection (such as automatic download of NVIDIA drivers), it also let me down as in this area.
The good: I recently borrowed a digital camera from a mate at work, to take photos of my case mod. Imagine how happy I was when I plugged it into my nearest USB port, and it was automatically configured (as a SCSI device) and mounted! SuSE even added it to my
The bad: Along came my new IDE CDRW drive. At AU$99, I couldn't pass up the purchase. Plugging it in gave me no joy. I was very disappointed that a device so common couldn't be detected and automatically configured under a modern operating system. The instructions on the SuSE support site said to add lines to lilo.conf and reboot. While this is a perfectly acceptable way to get hardware working for a geek familiar with *NIX, I believe that a home user shouldn't have to do more than plug it in. It's an IDE device, it's not that complicated!
The ugly: Once the hardware was finally working (as a pseudo-scsi drive), the next hurdle was to find decent graphical tools to burn and copy CDs. I finally settled on CDBakeOven, an above average KDE application. It burned CDs from data on the hard drive, but for some reason cdrecord (the command line backend) refused to allow me to copy a cd directly. Yes, it was installed SUID root. CD copying is such a basic function nowadays, why is it so hard to do under GNU/Linux?
Software distribution
I'll put this simply. I'm a home user, not a programmer. Why on earth should I have to compile the software I want to use? I know that having the source available is a good thing, but I'll say it again: I'm no programmer. I just want to install software and run it.
This leads to another point. Although having package databases (such as the rpm and deb systems use) is great, there should definitely be seperation between system packages and additionally installed software. There needs to be a standard installer and database for user-installed applications such as word processors, email clients and games, and it should be seperate from the rpm or deb databases used for system software such as lilo, init and cron. This will make it much easier for home users to know what applications they have installed on their PC, and to easily uninstall them if necessary, without knowing some arcane commands and weird package names.
Support
There is a huge wealth of knowledge among the thousands (millions?) of people that run GNU/Linux around the world. If you have a problem, odds are that someone out there can help you, often for free. This is one of the linux platform's greatest strengths. However, Linux users are also its greatest weakness. This may not apply to most of the community, but there is a very vocal minority that gives Linux a bad name. To every Linux user that has ever helped a newbie, I thank you. I have been helped by many a guru, often when I've been asking the simplest of questions. It's the remainder that are a problem.
I once heard a song by Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie called Every OS Sucks, where Linux users were described as 'elitist nerdy shmucks'. Sadly this is true for much of the 'community'. Too many consider themselves better than the rest of the world because they run Linux. Can you believe that? It's just a computer operating system, but somehow they think that it makes them better than those people who run systems such as Microsoft Windows! Elitism drives people away, as does saying âoeRTFMâ or belittling people who choose a different distro from yourself.
'Nuff said about that.
So what now?
Well, I decided to go back to a Microsoft platform. Initially being paranoid after reading things about DRM and spyware, I bit the bullet and installed Microsoft Windows XP. Like every OS, it has good and bad points; most of which you can learn about from online reviewers. I'll just point out several things that make me want to keep using it instead of GNU/Linux.
Fast graphical subsystem: Windows has lighting quick graphics, both 2d and 3d. There's no denying it. When I move a window, it refreshes so fast that I don't miss X11 at all. While not quite as nice as some other operating systems, font support is outstanding compared to XFree86.
Drivers: Point and click to install (as a superuser, of course). Windows warns you if the driver isn't likely to work properly, and can roll back to working drivers if you deliberately choose to install one that hoses your system.
Hardware setup: My CDRW worked right away, without a hitch. I am able to drag and drop files from the Explorer file manager to the CDRW icon and they get added to the list of things to burn. A quick install of Nero Burning Rom, and I was able to make a backup copy of my game CDs. (I don't like taking originals to LANs where they can get destroyed or stolen).
Software distribution: All windows software comes in binaries, either with an installer or in a zip file. I hope to never compile an application ever again. Software designed for a different version of windows is 99% guaranteed to run, but if not, there is always 'compatibility mode'. One thing to note, however: Applications designed for single user versions of windows usually only run properly as a superuser, and this includes 3d games. I expect this to be rectified as the rest of the Windows world catches up to a multi-user environment.
I can't comment on the Windows using community yet. I've not yet had a problem that a simple point and click couldn't fix. However, I will say that my original concern with Windows '95 has been addressed in Windows XP. The stability is finally there.
Final Notes
In conclusion, I'd just like to make it known that I haven't completely abandoned the Linux community. My home server still runs Mandrake, and IPCop on my gateway/firewall. There is no way I'd ever put any form of Windows on my server, nor would I ever connect a Windows PC directly to the internet without a *NIX gateway in between. Microsoft has a history of poor security, so I protect myself the only way I know how; using Linux. I will continue to advocate the use of GNU/Linux in the server arena. This is where its strength lies at the moment.
Because of their history of spreading virii, I don't use the applications that Microsoft has provided with Windows XP. My wife and I use Mozilla for web browsing and email, OpenOffice.org for word processing, and Psi (Jabber client) for instant messaging. All of these are true multi-user win32 programs, and are perfectly interoperable with their Linux counterparts.
I expect that the Linux community will have something to say about this article; I welcome comments and constructive criticism. Flames will be automatically sent to the Windows equivalent of
By Tony âoekNIGitsâ Collins
- poopbot: who doesn't like scat?
We all know an old person, wether it be a teacher, that smelly old lady down the road or your grandparents. But what most people dont know is that old people arent really people. Think about it. It makes sense. Have you ever seen a picture of a very old person when they where young? NO. Does their skin ever sit properly? NO. Are they always going to the "hospital" for maintenence? YES. So i put it to you that old people are not people, but really an attempt by the Government to produce super human people for war, gone VERY wrong ! It all makes sense, the reason that you have never seen a picture of a very old person when they where young is that they never where young, they where built as they are. The reason that their skin doesnt fit is simple, it is that when the Government employees developed them, they could not perfect them, hey, give them a break, they work for the Government. And again, have you ever seen Government workers do a GOOD job? No, and this is the reason that they keep breaking down and are in need of constant maintenance. Also, have you ever been into an old age "village"?...some of us may have, the lucky ones havent. Well, ill tell you about it; there is a "community hall" where anyone under the age of 70ish is not allowed in, and the reason for that is that this is where the old "people" recharge, yes, the community hall is actually a mass recharging station for their batteries! Also, they dont let anyone under the age of 70 live in these "villages" so that no one will catch on to their secret ! UNTIL NOW ! Now that you know, i want all you Fat Bastards to spread the word, tell everyone, the secret must be exposed...OLD PEOPLE ARE ROBOTIC PSYBORGS...if you are too much of a Fat Bastard to actively tell people (like me) i suggest that you just go to sleep and dream that you did !
this thought just occured to me- What's the fucking point with fortune cookies? it's the same shit over an over- how many times have you gotten one that said let a smile bee your umbrella? how come they never have ones that say "Hey, bitch I fucked your mom- what do you have to say about that?" or, "Watch out for the short bus of death- Chromosome abundants will be your death"- i've always wondered about that...
for the love of god, how many more idiots are going to repeat the blue screen windows joke, it loses its humour every time someone uses it. get something original you clod.
It is getting rediculous - what use is Slashdot if 50% of the stories link to slashdotted sites? Many people have proposed potential solutions for this (such as /. providing a Google-like cache), but the editors always come up with lame excuses.
Jimmy Eat World? Better Than Ezra? Can you possibly get more fucking gay?
Introduction to HTML Applications (HTAs) Internet Development Index
.hta extension. It is that simple!
.hta extension. Internet Explorer is so forgiving that even the missing html and body tags do not cause an error. The program can be closed by pressing alt+f4.
.hta extension tells the system how to handle the application, the new HTA:APPLICATION tag and attributes tell the window how to behave as an application. This tag exposes a limited set of attributes--attributes that control everything from border style to the program icon and its menu. The majority are read-only and have default values optimized for the average application. To comprise a valid HTA, this tag must appear within the paired head tags.
/>, have no script access to the HTA containing them. In this way, no unsecure content is allowed into an HTA through an untrusted window.
.exe does. Also, the installed HTA is always available to users, whether they are connected to the server or not.
The power to build HTML Applications (HTAs) brings Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5 to the fore as a viable Microsoft Windows® development platform. HTAs are full-fledged applications. These applications are trusted and display only the menus, icons, toolbars, and title information that the Web developer creates. In short, HTAs pack all the power of Internet Explorer--its object model, performance, rendering power, protocol support, and channel-download technology--without enforcing the strict security model and user interface of the browser.
Why Use HTAs
Creating an HTA
The Power of Trust: HTAs and Security
Compatibility
HTA Deployment
Conclusion
Related Topics
Why Use HTAs
Historically, programming languages like C++ and Microsoft Visual Basic® have provided the object models and access to system resources that developers demand. With HTA it is now time to add Dynamic HTML (DHTML) with script to that list. HTAs not only support everything a Web page does--namely HTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), scripting languages, and behaviors--but also HTA-specific functionality. This added functionality provides control over user interface design and access to the client system. Moreover, run as trusted applications, HTAs are not subject to the same security constraints as Web pages. As with any executable file, the user is asked once, before the HTA is downloaded, whether to save or run the application; if saved to the client machine, it simply runs on demand thereafter. The end result is that HTAs runs like any executable (.exe) written in C++ or Visual Basic.
HTAs are suited to many uses, whether you are prototyping, making wizards, or building full-scale applications. Whatever DHTML and script deliver now--forms, multimedia, Web applications, HTML editors, and browsers--so can HTAs...and then some. Best of all, HTAs make some tasks easier. The simplicity of generating prototypes using HTAs makes it possible for program managers and designers to script dialog boxes and alerts while the C++ or Visual Basic developers program the underlying functionality.
Creating an HTA
Create an HTA by writing an HTML page and saving it with the
This sample demonstrates the simplest possible HTA. It consists of the string, "Hello, World", and is saved with the
Hello, WorldShow Me
To launch an HTA , double-click its program icon, run it from the Start menu, open it through a URL, or start it from the command line. Once running, the HTA renders everything within the paired body tag and displays the value set in the title tag as the window title.
HTA-Specific Functionality
Where the
The HTA:APPLICATION tag in this example specifies application features not available in DHTML. As prescribed by the attributes, this application has neither border (border), nor title bar (caption), nor standard program icon (sysMenu). The application title appears in the Windows task list but not in the taskbar (showInTaskBar), and only one instance of the application is permitted to run at a time (singleInstance). When launched, the HTA is known to the system as "monster" (applicationName) and initially is sized to fill the screen (windowState). For a full list of attributes and properties, and links to more information about each, see HTML Applications Reference. The program can be closed by pressing alt+f4.
My Monster Application
Many of the HTA-specific properties that affect the user interface of the window are interdependent. When sysMenu is set to no, not only the program icon, but also the Minimize and Maximize buttons are disabled. When border is set to none, neither the window border, program icon, title bar, nor Minimize and Maximize buttons display. Finally, when caption is set to no, the Minimize and Maximize buttons, the program icon, and the window border are disabled. These contingencies all make sense in the light of standard Windows graphical user interface design.
The Power of Trust: HTAs and Security
As fully trusted applications, HTAs carry out actions that Internet Explorer would never permit in a Web page. The result is an application that runs seamlessly, without interruption.
In HTAs, the restrictions against allowing script to manipulate the client machine are lifted. For example, all command codes are supported without scripting limitations (see command id). And HTAs have read/write access to the files and system registry on the client machine.
The trusted status of HTAs also extends to all operations subject to security zone options. In short, zone security is off. Consequently, HTAs run embedded Microsoft ActiveX® controls and Java applets irrespective of the zone security setting on the client machine. No warning displays before such objects are downloaded and run within an HTA.
HTA windows can extend the trust relationship to content in other domains. HTAs allow cross-domain script access between window objects and cookies. To address the security risks inherent in cross-domain scripting, HTA enables the APPLICATION attribute for frames and iframes. This HTA-only attribute is not the sole security precaution available. HTAs are designed such that frames and iframes, where the APPLICATION attribute is set to no
HTAs are designed such that untrusted HTML frames and iframes have no script access to the HTA containing them. In the case of frames that are not HTA-enabled, the highest level frame comprises the top window for all frames it contains. For that frame, window.top and window.self are one and the same. In addition, unsafe frames and iframes receive neither a referrer nor an opener URL from the parent HTA. The end result is that they are unaware of the containing HTA as the parent window.
In applications where all content is safe, frames and iframes can safely be marked as trusted. Wizards and control panels are examples of safe content. The HTA-enabled status of the iframe in the example below permits it to pass information back to its parent window.
By contrast, an iframe that allows browsing to unsecured content must be implemented as regular HTML. Content in the iframe example below is subject to the security setting for its zone. The following iframe can be used when embedding HTML.
Note The APPLICATION attribute is ignored if used in HTML rather than HTA.
When running HTAs, users should take the same precautions as with any executable: Only install HTAs produced by reliable sources. HTAs cannot be code-signed. However, they can be installed from signed cabinet (.cab) files or other signed installation formats. Either way, the most accountable sources will be corporate intranets and established software vendors.
Compatibility
The Microsoft implementation of HTA is limited to Windows 32-bit systems running Internet Explorer 5. HTAs do not support the HTML AutoComplete in forms feature, or the external object.
HTA Deployment
The HTA implementation supports multiple deployment methods: the Web model, the package model, and a hybrid of the two. Application developers should decide how best to meet their distribution needs.
The Web Model
The Web deployment model consists of an application that can be run and administered just like a Web page. In this scenario, the HTA is launched simply by browsing to its URL or by accessing it from the Internet Explorer Favorites list. Before launch, an Internet Explorer dialog box presents the user with the choice to open or save the application. After launch, ancillary application components are downloaded from the server as needed and then cached. Servers must have the MIME type "application:hta" registered for delivery through the http: protocol to work.
This model boasts some important strengths. It facilitates seamless updates: The intranet administrator need only post the new code or content for the client to receive the latest version. It provides ease of use: The user need never install or uninstall the application. Unused applications are automatically flushed from the cache. One important consideration when evaluating this deployment model is that server-based applications cannot be run offline or when the server goes down. One option is to anticipate this eventuality by implementing the advanced channel (CDF) features in Internet Explorer 4.0 and later. For more information, see the Introduction to Active Channel Technology.
The Package Model
In the package deployment model, the installation process for the HTA is the same as for traditional applications. Files are copied from disk or over a network, using any installer or self-extracting executable. The installer places the application in the Program Files directory or in the directory selected by the user. A link to the HTA is included in the Start menu. And the application's dependency on Internet Explorer 5 or greater is registered. This way the user is warned that uninstalling Internet Explorer will disable that application. Look to tools vendors for vehicles for packaging and delivering HTAs to your specifications.
Like the Web model, the package model has points in its favor. The user is prompted only during the initial installation about trusting the application; thereafter, the application runs as trusted code just as an
Hybrid Deployment Models
Any combination of Web and package deployment models is feasible. The method of delivery is transparent to the HTA. HTA components are always referenced as URLs, absolute or relative, so the applications simply work.
Examine Your Priorities
What are your distribution needs? The following list presents just a few scenarios.
If keeping the initial download time brief is paramount, then hybridize by installing the top window of the HTA onto the client machine, leaving the HTA to access the server for images and support files.
If your users run the application both at work and remotely, consider deploying HTAs over the local network using the Web model while also distributing it for remote use using the package model.
Perhaps your business requires a tool where the content is maintained by separate groups and is distributed across servers. The application will look and function like a unified whole if you create a single user interface and use Web deployment automatically to deliver the latest information.
Conclusion
No matter what the delivery model, using Internet Explorer as your development platform is a compelling way to build applications large and small.
Related Topics
HTML Applications Reference
DHTML Dude: HTML Applications
Not this is funny... please mod up =)