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Explaining WLAN Chips' Poor Linux Support
morcheeba writes "Kernel Traffic is reporting (mirror mirror list) that 'Some WLAN Chip Specs Secret To Protect Military Communications.' While this is stretching it a bit -- these radios are generally limited to a narrow frequency range and few modulation types -- software can cause illegal radio operation, especially when the laws vary by country. Is Linux support for 802.11g and Centrino chipsets going to be delayed by manufacturers afraid of FCC harassment? An interesting discussion on the future of Openness in radio chipsets." Interesting comments from Alan Cox in here about just how flexible some of these chips are.
But none of these compares to his Sex Tips for Geeks . After all, if these tips can get ESR into some hottie's pants, then any disgusting slob can get laid!
Seriously, though, how could ESR have developed these valuable mating tips? Nobody can make me believe that even if he offered all of his newfound wealth to the most hard-up crack-whore on the streets of New York he could get his stinger wet. My Philosophy professor always said, "you cannot invoke magic or God and expect to win an argument in this class." I am therefore left to reach only one possible conclusion. What follows is the only possible explanation for ESR's Sex Tips for Geeks .
The room was dark and the night was cold as the rain pelted against the window. Eric paid no attention, though, absorbed as he was in the warm glow of his computer monitor. A raspy voice grated out of the speakers situated on either side of his monitor, "you've got mail!"
It was his mother's voice, which he had recorded to use with the perl AOL interface he had been working on for the past 10 years. Eric smiled and wiped the sweat condensing in his palm on his thin swatch of hair, only to replace the sweat with the grease oozing from his scalp. His hands shaking, Eric simultaneously pressed the ctrl, alt, shift, F1 and page down keys to retrive the new mail message. He read the message aloud, his voice quivering with excitement.
"hi! i will meet with u on chat 7pm tonite! c u then, xoxoxoxo suzee."
Eric expunged a bulb of gas from his spastic bowel as he checked his watch. 6:57 pm. His shaking grew more extreme, more uncontrollable. He could barely press the key sequence alt, space, F10, F3, tab, scroll-lock, page-up and end to bring up his open-source AOL chat client. Eric was barely able to situate his notebook and ink his quil before the chat client began to load. Eight minutes later, the client was ready to go.
"hi eric," came the message.
Eagerly, Eric replied, "hi, suzee! how r u tonite?"
"fine, thanks. u r late! i wuz worried!"
Eric scribbled in his notebook, "women like promptness."
"i am sorry :( what did u do today?"
"it's ok..."
"Politeness goes a long way," he wrote.
"... i got in trouble in school becuz i hit this guy becuz he kept pulling my hair :("
"No hair-pulling," he noted.
"so. what grade r u in?" Suzee asked.
Eric blushed. The large beads of sweat began to roll down his face to fall on his keyboard. He wiped his forhead with his hand and picked up more grease from his thin red hair. Shaking, he replied to Suzee, "i am not in school n e more."
"that is kool! what do u do then?"
"Girls like men who are no longer in school," He scribbled, before replying.
"i write about my newfound riches and how open-source is a superior method of software development."
There was a long pause. Eric's leg began to shake nervously. After a few minutes of nervous waiting, a
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g____\______\_________.--------.______\|___|____g
o______\_____\______//_________(_(__>__\___|____o
a_______\___.__C____)_________(_(____>__|__/____a
t_______/\_|___C_____)/INSERT\_(_____>__|_/_____t
s______/_/\|___C_____)__COCK_|__(___>___/__\____s
e_____|___(____C_____)\_HERE_/__//__/_/_____\___e
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Important Stuff: Please try to keep posts on topic. Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads. Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) If you want replies to your comments sent to you, consider logging in or creating an account.
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Important Stuff: Please try to keep posts on topic. Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads. Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) If you want replies to your comments sent to you, consider logging in or creating an account.
*gasp* how am i supposed to breathe with all these wagily geek cocks surrounding me
(And before you point your fingers at me, think twice, because I don't use Linux anymore.)
Firstly, of course some hardware companies aren't going to release the details of exactly how their products were made. Businesses want profit and they worry much more about how many items they can sell than if the few thousand hardcore Linux users in the world know everything about their products.
Secondly, you Slashdotters are all to often part of the crowd who cries and complains but doesn't do anything about the problem itself. So, a particular driver isn't written? Write it. Oh, what's that, a certain program you got off the Mandrake CD doesn't work with the Microsoft app your parents use? Download the code and make it work.
I hate to preach, and I know many of you do contribute to the Linux movement, but I can't help but to get slightly upset when I see people complaining about everything but sitting back, sipping a Beck's while chatting on IRC.
Laziness is the problem hear -- stop blaming American corporations.
I am a geek. When I was a little boy I grew up on a farm. I woud listen to Geeks in space every night. Sometimes when CowboyNeal (someone you may mistake for a grizzly bear on steroids) I would sneak out into the pasture and whip out my huge geek-horse cock and rape the cows. One day my father brought home a huge black stallion. After listening to cowboyneal do a geeks in sp4c3 sp3sh3l i couldn't help but tear up that big black stallion.
That makes me a geek.
(And before you point your fingers at me, think twice, because I don't use Linux anymore.)
Let me guess, Mr. Proud American... you don't want to be associated with anything that isn't 100%-get-your-rocks-off capitalism.
Secondly, you Slashdotters are all to often part of the crowd who cries and complains but doesn't do anything about the problem itself. So, a particular driver isn't written? Write it. Oh, what's that, a certain program you got off the Mandrake CD doesn't work with the Microsoft app your parents use? Download the code and make it work.
Uh, wait a minute. Most of us are complaining because many companies either fight such effrots or make it illegal to write a driver or interoperating code, thanks to bills such as the DMCA. Reverse engineering hardware to write a driver is also extremely difficult if not impossible in many cases. It often requires the manufacturers to release specifications. In terms of interoperability, we've got all kinds of twisted mechanisms for preventing that (ever hear of CSS?). So, the open source types are trying to fix this crap... we just have to fight the companies tooth and nail.
Laziness is the problem hear -- stop blaming American corporations.
American corporate monopolies with their lobbyists constantly pushing for laws in their favor are the problem here.
Join Tor today!
Of the endless game the "open source commode (sorry, community)" will play until it's dead and buried - the catch up/me too game. Here we have the "community" with their mouths open trying to shout down the eeeevil hardware companies for not allowing them to look at their specs, when the other 90 or so percent of the world already has working drivers. Several months ago the G hardware was made available and put to use...and it took this long for the "community" to get wind that there are no drivers for their toy OS?
Put the tissues away and get with the program - companies don't care about your complaints because they don't make a nickel supporting communistic operating systems. Wake up, linux will never win and will always play catch up...maybe in 2005 you'll be able to enjoy your 802.11g cards. Think that's a joke? Look at when Carmack released the source to Doom and Quake...long after ID made it's cash and long after those games were even relevent. That's how things go when you play with a toy OS.
YOU FAIL IT!!
A dozen of distros with dozens of versions of each?
A bunch of people who take pride in recompiling the kernel every 6 hours complain that a certain vendor doesn't support their unique version of linux?
linux distros changing versions every 3 days?
Linux people have created a support nightmare for yourselves.
Live with it.