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From TR-1 to iPod mini
karvind writes "BBC is running an interesting scoop on first transistor radio which has fair resemblance to iPod mini. The Regency TR-1 transistor radio, made in 1954, had a decent claim to be a genuine piece of innovation, however. It was, by popular agreement, the world's first commercially sold transistor pocket radio. Incidently technology watcher John Ousby realised the modern day parallels and matched photos of the transistor with photos of the iPod mini. The similarity between the two has 'created quite a stir' particularly in the Mac community."
Linux needs to get its act together
/tmp or the installer will dump core. After the installer is done, edit /etc/X11/XF86Config and add a section called "GL" and put "driver nv" in it. Make sure you have the latest version of X and Linux kernel 2.6 or else X will segfault when you start. OK, run the Quake 3 installer and make sure you set the proper group and setuid permissions on quake3.bin. If you want sound, look here [link to another obscure web site], which is a short HOWTO on how to get sound in Quake 3. That's all there is to it!"
Linux is *not* user friendly, and until it is linux will stay with >1% marketshare.
Take installation. Linux zealots are now saying "oh installing is so easy, just do apt-get install package or emerge package": Yes, because typing in "apt-get" or "emerge" makes so much more sense to new users than double-clicking an icon that says "setup".
Linux zealots are far too forgiving when judging the difficultly of Linux configuration issues and far too harsh when judging the difficulty of Windows configuration issues. Example comments:
User: "How do I get Quake 3 to run in Linux?"
Zealot: "Oh that's easy! If you have Redhat, you have to download quake_3_rh_8_i686_010203_glibc.bin, then do chmod +x on the file. Then you have to su to root, make sure you type export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5 but ONLY if you have that latest libc6 installed. If you don't, don't set that environment variable or the installer will dump core. Before you run the installer, make sure you have the GL drivers for X installed. Get them at [some obscure web address], chmod +x the binary, then run it, but make sure you have at least 10MB free in
User: "How do I get Quake 3 to run in Windows?"
Zealot: "Oh God, I had to install Quake 3 in Windoze for some lamer friend of mine! God, what a fucking mess! I put in the CD and it took about 3 minutes to copy everything, and then I had to reboot the fucking computer! Jesus Christ! What a retarded operating system!"
So, I guess the point I'm trying to make is that what seems easy and natural to Linux geeks is definitely not what regular people consider easy and natural. Hence, the preference towards Windows
Apple's worst transgressions are systematically whitewashed by the press. To counteract that whitewash, I will use the remainder of my space here to expose Apple for what it really is. Before I begin, let me point out that Apple is frightened that we might present a clear picture of what is happening, what has happened, and what is likely to happen in the future. That's why it's trying so hard to prevent whistleblowers from reporting that while it insists that it can change its naive ways, reality dictates otherwise. Actually, if you want a real dose of reality, look at how Apple ducks the issue of blackguardism by using words and phrases so vague and subject to interpretation that they have no true meaning at all. Nevertheless, I can state with absolute certainty that anyone who has spent much time wading through the pious, obscurantist, jargon-filled cant that now passes for "advanced" thought in the humanities already knows that Apple prefers to keep its venom-spouting agenda hidden behind the cloak of negativism. What may be news, however, is that the problem with it is not that it's brassbound. It's that it wants to clear forests, strip the topsoil, and turn a natural paradise into a dust bowl through a self-induced drought. Although a thorough discussion of uppity, unrealistic racialism is beyond the scope of this letter, we must educate, inform, and nurture our children instead of keeping them ignorant, afraid, and in danger. Regular readers of my letters probably take that for granted, but if I am to improve the living conditions of the most vulnerable in our society -- the sick, the old, the disabled, the unemployed, and our youth -- all of whose lives are made miserable by Apple, I must explain to the population at large that if Apple wanted to, it could dump effluent into creeks, lakes, streams, and rivers. It could destroy that which is the envy of -- and model for -- the entire civilized world. And it could preach a propaganda of hate. We must indubitably not allow Apple to do any of these. The foregoing greatly simplifies the real situation, but it does indicate in a rough, general way that we must remove our chains and move towards the light. (In case you didn't understand that analogy, the chains symbolize Apple's viperine strictures, and the light represents the goal of getting all of us to bring it to justice.)
Apple's insinuations present us with a riddle: What will be the next object of attack from its peuplade? The answer is not obvious, because it claims that it's merely trying to make this world a better place in which to live. Predictably, it cites no hard data for that claim. This is because no such data exist. In asserting that the Universe belongs to it by right, it demonstrates an astounding narrowness of vision. I've heard Apple say that its tracts are Holy Writ. Was that just a slip of the lip or is Apple secretly trying to perpetuate myths that glorify Marxism? It's an interesting question, and its examination will help us understand how Apple's policies work. Let me start by providing evidence that one of the goals of Lysenkoism is to render meaningless the words "best" and "worst". Apple admires that philosophy because, by annihilating human perceptions of quality, Apple's own mediocrity can flourish. We don't need to demonize Apple; it is already a demon, and furthermore, it is too foul to read the writing on the wall. This writing warns that its "I'm right and you're wrong" attitude is mumpish, because it leaves no room for compromise.
This theme is stated in one form or another in every one of Man's great religions, yes. But there's an important difference between me and Apple. Namely, I am willing to die for my cause. Apple, in contrast, is willing to kill for its -- or, if not to kill, at least to inflict more death and destruction than Genghis Khan's hordes. My next point of order is that Apple recently stated that its blessing is the equivalent of a papal imprimatur. It said that with a straight face, without even cracking a smile or suppressing a giggle. It said it a
Old slashdot article
In China, there is freedom of speech
"Oh that's easy! If you have Redhat, you have to download quake_3_rh_8_i686_010203_glibc.bin, then do chmod +x on the file. Then you have to su to root, make sure you type export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5 but ONLY if you have that latest libc6 installed. If you don't, don't set that environment variable or the installer will dump core. Before you run the installer, make sure you have the GL drivers for X installed. Get them at [some obscure web address], chmod +x the binary, then run it, but make sure you have at least 10MB free in /tmp or the installer will dump core. After the installer is done, edit /etc/X11/XF86Config and add a section called "GL" and put "driver nv" in it. Make sure you have the latest version of X and Linux kernel 2.6 or else X will segfault when you start. OK, run the Quake 3 installer and make sure you set the proper group and setuid permissions on quake3.bin. If you want sound, look here [link to another obscure web site], which is a short HOWTO on how to get sound in Quake 3.
so, what's so hard about that? A real geek would already be running the latest versions of X, 2.6 kernel, and nvidia drivers...
...because Plutonians are teh suck
Check it out
http://malfeasance.50megs.com/
There's more to Apple than just scratchable screens, folks!
I'm not making a statement regarding the truth of biological intelligent design here, just defending its claim to validity. Just as bad as those who would censor evolutionism are those who would censor creationism or intelligent design. Evolution is incomplete, because every scientifically-testable theory must be incomplete. Intelligent design is incomplete, because it depends on faith as much as proof.
It is very simple:
Intelligent design is not science.
Therefore, intelligent design should not be taught in science class.
Keeping intelligent design out of science classes is not censorship. All the other gibberesh about evolution being incomplete, or teaching the controversy, or alternative theories is meant only to muddy the waters and sidesteps the issue:
Intelligent design is not science.
Teach science in science classes, religion in religion classes, and philosophy in philosophy classes.
Simple, eh?
Download my free songs!
Intelligent design is incomplete, because it depends on faith as much as proof.
No, it depends entirely on faith. There's no reason, at all, to think that all of the factual evidence of evolution has been faked up by a deity with a twisted sense of humor, and that the processes we see around us every day do not result, over time, in the birth of species. Rather, it takes a willful act of self-delusion to ignore all of that evidence, and to embrace instead the fundamentally self-contradictory stuff that's being woven together by the ID crowd in an effort to feel better about their life-long religious choices.
Really, this all just comes down to people not wanting to feel bad about having been duped since childhood, and not wanting to have been demonstrably lying to their own children about how the universe works. The irony, of course, is that it requires a passionate, deliberate, and sustained act of lying to yourself and your kids to reach the point where you stop feeling so bad about swallowing the whole fairy tale in the first place.
Devout religious people who want to believe this stuff can certainly identify (one would hope) with the people, even amongst their ranks, who would wince at a person who, as an adult, believes Santa Claus actually makes rounds and delivers presents. Scientists and other basically rational people are doing that exact same wincing as they listen to the True Believers prop up their religious constructs and carefully tap-dance their way through what they will and will not willingly observe right before their church-clouded eyes.
ID is a "theory" about the origin of species in the same sense that "Santa Clause" is a theory about the origin of gift wrap. A scientist will follow the trail back the paper factory, look at the ink, the wood pulp, and the process... but the True Santa Claus Believers find it more comforting (and, of course, just a lot less work - intellectual laziness is really at the heart of the whole Creationism movement) to imagine that Santa has Elves magically wrapping paper at the North Pole. It's a (not really all that) harmless enough fantasy when you're a kid, but a developmentally normal kid will quickly put that cool meat computer to work and see through the make-believe. How grown-up people manage to cling to the slightly more elaborate make believe that powers so many churches is always amazing to me, but I think shame at the center of it.
You know... If I just keep pretending I believe, I won't have to confront the fact that I've been sort of a chump all these years. And I won't have to allow for the fact that the universe is completely indifferent to whether or not I exist, and thus have to make my own meaning in my own life through the work of my own mind and character.
Santa and his variants are so much... more cozy! But just because it feels good to wash your hands of cause and effect doesn't mean you're immune from its impact. I've noticed that people who truly believe the Creationism stuff are content to do so because it's relatively removed from daily life. People used to believe they saw the daily hand of magic in all sorts of nitty-gritty things. But since it's easy now to point to the underlying mechanisms of all sorts of things that used to be mysterious, God's now sitting at the back of the Causality Bus, just being invoked to explain the stuff that it's harder for poorly educated people to immediately grasp. And franky, I wouldn't care, except that those same people are trying to drag science education back into the Dark Ages, and it's frankly embarassing. Not to mention the long term impact on our country's ability to function prosperously in a wider world that does get causality.
Big response to your short little comment? Yup. And that's a perfect analogy to this whole discussion. The ID crowd wants a tidy little Object O' Faith to explain something complicated, and the scientists and thinkers would rather enjoy the hard work of showing it the way it
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.