I truly couldn't care less about major label music. Personally, I think the independent stuff on mp3.com is every bit as good as the music from major labels, and often much better (the artists seem to be artists, rather than businesses). 303Infinity and Starbirth are my most recent finds. Have a listen.
And what about classical? It's great for coding, and extremely inexpensive. I just bought a whole stack of classical CD's for $25, and it's nowhere near the center of this hype.
I agree with you; I never said these would be good things to do!
My point is that complex systems such as Linux are, well, complex. In general (exceptions, of course), if you water a Linux tool down to the point where an idiot could use it, you've just limited your interested audience to idiots.
However, I'm interested in your suggestion that "better" documentation equates to "larger" documentation. I don't think that's necessarily true - I've seen 300-page books that are much more informative than some 1000-page books.
Linux is a complex system, and I can see three basic ways to "lower the learning curve" (feel free to prove me wrong, of course). The first is to supply the user with excellent documentation, thereby educating the user. This will allow the user to gain the necessary experience to properly administer a system.
The second is to actually reduce the complexity of the system by automating certain things and removing them from the user's control. This often means a loss of flexibility and power, but it might suffice if an inexperienced user simply needs to perform routine tasks without experienced supervision.
The third is to simply put a prettier face on the system, making the user feel more comfortable. However, this doesn't make the system any less complex or difficult to understand; it simply paints the system with prettier colors.
My guess (having not seen or used this product) is that it fits somewhere between the second and third options. It could be a good thing, in some cases, but I don't see how it would alleviate the need for an experienced system administrator.
-John
Note that these are my own opinions, and not necessarily those of my employer.
I remember that Borland C++ 4.0's license specified explicitly that auto-genned code (by the AppExpert tool) was considered your code, just as if you had written it yourself.
I seriously doubt this would stand up in court, though IANAL...
A while back I wrote a little program for speeding up CGI in Tcl... It's called CGIBitch, and it's available on Freshmeat (GPL'ed). Basically it does the CGI environment processing in C, and executes the script with an embedded Tcl interpreter. This makes CGI a lot faster (my Tcl-powered site got slashdotted a while back with the QuickTime petition).
Many people overlook Tcl as a useful language. It's very good at small-scale text processing jobs, and lends itself well even to larger programs. Its simple syntax makes it easy to learn, and there is a sufficiently large standard library to be useful as a general purpose Unix scripting language.
No, but I've been damn close to driving up to that fucking toner supply company (they're local) with a group of friends and letting them know how much they're disliked.
Ummmm... GIF is not free, considering that one must license LZW in order to (legally) write software that uses it. Cisco's hardware is tangible, capable of complex tasks, and they provide support for it. Unisys's patent is over a trivial concept that they didn't even invent (the patent was acquired).
SDL runs on Linux, Windows, MacOS, and BeOS. It offers excellent performance (I've been playing around with it lately). I find its API considerably cleaner than DirectX's.
First, Tuvalu should be congratulated for making so much money from the sale - that will really help them, and I understand why they did it.
HOWEVER, this is yet another abuse of the Internet and in particular its system of organization. TLD's exist to logically divide the Internet and reduce namespace collision. TLD trading undermines this system. The people who bought the.tv domain (obviously for television-related sites) are contributing just a bit more to the general chaos that has befallen the once respectable Internet.
This is a letter I sent to an Internet filtering advocate, and I decided to post it here as well.
Why would a parent install filtering software? The simple answer is that they have an entirely valid concern for what their children are exposed to, and wish to leverage whatever technology is available to protect them. I'm personally of the opinion that kids should be supervised while they surf instead of being left to the judgement of a computer program, as filtering software tends to encourage passive parenting, but that's another issue. The point is that parents who install CyberPatrol usually do it to make sure that their kids don't stumble across something that might corrupt them. That is the primary use of the product.
Ok, so what constitutes material that might corrupt a child? I think we can agree that pornography falls in this category, and protection from pornography is the main selling point of CyberPatrol. What else? Hate groups should probably be censored... Those are usually pretty clear-cut. CyberPatrol also claims to censor extremist groups, and this obviously requires a bit of level-headed judgement. What constitutes an extremist web site? Something that expresses political views that don't jive with societal norms? That's basically what extremists (not hate groups) are - groups with unusual political views, perhaps religiously-driven, perhaps driven by a simple difference in opinions as to how things should be run. Let's stretch this a bit further - if the censor happened to be a die-hard democrat, would they be right to censor a republican campaign site? After all, the site is in disagreement with and critical of the censor's views. What if the site expresses views that are critical of the company employing the censor? Is the company right to classify such a site as an "extremist" site, or even file it in the category of hard-core pornography? Mattel did exactly that. To accept this is to imply that views critical of the Mattel corporation are harmful to children. I consider Mattel's actions to be a most unethical form of lying to cover their ass in the face of embarrasment.
I will say that I'm basically anti-censorship. I believe that parents have a right protect their children, and that includes keeping them from things that they know to be harmful. But censorship as a general practice in society is an extremely dangerous proposition; it can and will be abused (look at the USSR, Nazi Germany, Cuba, and now Mattel - all used censorship to accomplish their political ends). If censorship were to become an accepted institution in the United States (ie, if people were to lose their general qualms about it), I believe we would be in mortal danger as a nation. In other words, I believe that it has a place, but that it should be avoided if at all possible - it's an open invitation to corruption. It seems that it will soon be mandated that Internet access in libraries be censored. It's already becoming apparent that courts are willing to censor certain pieces of software that certain corporations object to (DeCSS, cphack, etc), even when such software often has entirely ethical and legal uses. I think we're starting to head in that general direction.
Re:NOT smart, if you ask me.
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Laptop Exams?
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· Score: 1
Why does the IR port matter, when one could easily connect to IRC over wireless ethernet? In fact, everyone taking the test could join a server and discuss the problems. I don't think it'd help much though. Methods of obtaining outside help aside, if you don't know what you're doing on the test, you're not going to do well, period. In the workplace, one has access to other engineers and the Internet, but one still has to possess a strong knowledge of the field at hand to get anything done. By the way, an old but decent laptop can be had for $1000 these days...
The G400 Linux drivers are still under heavy development, but they're already pretty good. Quake3, Heavy Gear II, and Heretic II work great. The only problem is that the drivers have a nasty habit of locking the machine, especially if the game segfaults and OpenGL isn't shut down nicely. This card has a lot of promise. The 3Dfx drivers for Linux are better, but it's true that the G400's image quality is much better. -Reeves
I believe the RIAA should stop whining and fix the problem itself. I for one would pay a small fee for each MP3 that I have a copy of, if that were possible. I hate CD's (a hassle to play compared to MP3's), so I rarely buy them except to support groups I really like. I immediately rip CD's I own so I can play them on my Rio. If the RIAA would institute a fair and reasonably priced system of music vending, I would respect it. Is anyone else with me on this?
We have recevied 10158 signatures! We will spend the next few days considering the best way to approach Apple with the signatures. The petition site will stay up until we are ready to send the information to Apple.
We will run the data through a script to remove duplicate IP's and blank signatures, but thankfully there weren't many of those. Most people took this petition seriously, and I hope Apple recognizes this.
Thanks for the support and the suggestions. We'll keep you informed.
As that page says, Quicktime for Linux cannot currently play most of the movies available on the Internet, due to proprietary codecs. What we want is a Linux implementation of the codecs Apple has licensed for its player.
I enjoy a bit of CPU load:) It's doing fine (though I did have to change the signature list from a Tcl script to a static page - it was a big hog). For reference, a dual PII with a lot of memory and a bit of carefully written CGI can take the/. effect:)
Agreed. We'll suggest this when we send Apple the signatures. The Linux community is great at writing its own GUI apps (look at KDE and Gnome), so all we really need is a complete libQuickTime.so. I don't care much for Windows QuickTime's interface myself... -J. Reeves Hall
Re:It's all in the ROM
on
Linux on Palm
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· Score: 1
I believe the Palm's ROM is actually a flash ROM. It can be reprogrammed through software.
There may be issues with expo insurance. Our robotics group ran into some problems with allowing minors to attend our meetings, evidently because insurance executives seem to have a notion of out-of-control pre-teens running around wreaking havoc and injuring themselves. It would probably cause contract problems if this is the case and they were to admit any minor for any reason.
Slashdot Mirror
And what about classical? It's great for coding, and extremely inexpensive. I just bought a whole stack of classical CD's for $25, and it's nowhere near the center of this hype.
-John
-John
My point is that complex systems such as Linux are, well, complex. In general (exceptions, of course), if you water a Linux tool down to the point where an idiot could use it, you've just limited your interested audience to idiots.
However, I'm interested in your suggestion that "better" documentation equates to "larger" documentation. I don't think that's necessarily true - I've seen 300-page books that are much more informative than some 1000-page books.
-John
The second is to actually reduce the complexity of the system by automating certain things and removing them from the user's control. This often means a loss of flexibility and power, but it might suffice if an inexperienced user simply needs to perform routine tasks without experienced supervision.
The third is to simply put a prettier face on the system, making the user feel more comfortable. However, this doesn't make the system any less complex or difficult to understand; it simply paints the system with prettier colors.
My guess (having not seen or used this product) is that it fits somewhere between the second and third options. It could be a good thing, in some cases, but I don't see how it would alleviate the need for an experienced system administrator.
-John
Note that these are my own opinions, and not necessarily those of my employer.
-John
Half-Life runs under WINE. Counter-Strike is playable at 512x384 on a dual PII 350.
I seriously doubt this would stand up in court, though IANAL...
-Reeves
Many people overlook Tcl as a useful language. It's very good at small-scale text processing jobs, and lends itself well even to larger programs. Its simple syntax makes it easy to learn, and there is a sufficiently large standard library to be useful as a general purpose Unix scripting language.
-Reeves
-Reeves
-Reeves
-Reeves
HOWEVER, this is yet another abuse of the Internet and in particular its system of organization. TLD's exist to logically divide the Internet and reduce namespace collision. TLD trading undermines this system. The people who bought the .tv domain (obviously for television-related sites) are contributing just a bit more to the general chaos that has befallen the once respectable Internet.
-Reeves
For transactions in the other direction (server->client requests), have a firewall log the connection.
I think it could be reverse engineered in a day, and coded into another IRC client in a few hours.
I consider it a challenge. Cursed be Talk City.
-Reeves
Don't forget to change the corresponding entry in /etc/shadow, or you'll be locked out :)
Why would a parent install filtering software? The simple answer is that they have an entirely valid concern for what their children are exposed to, and wish to leverage whatever technology is available to protect them. I'm personally of the opinion that kids should be supervised while they surf instead of being left to the judgement of a computer program, as filtering software tends to encourage passive parenting, but that's another issue. The point is that parents who install CyberPatrol usually do it to make sure that their kids don't stumble across something that might corrupt them. That is the primary use of the product.
Ok, so what constitutes material that might corrupt a child? I think we can agree that pornography falls in this category, and protection from pornography is the main selling point of CyberPatrol. What else? Hate groups should probably be censored... Those are usually pretty clear-cut. CyberPatrol also claims to censor extremist groups, and this obviously requires a bit of level-headed judgement. What constitutes an extremist web site? Something that expresses political views that don't jive with societal norms? That's basically what extremists (not hate groups) are - groups with unusual political views, perhaps religiously-driven, perhaps driven by a simple difference in opinions as to how things should be run. Let's stretch this a bit further - if the censor happened to be a die-hard democrat, would they be right to censor a republican campaign site? After all, the site is in disagreement with and critical of the censor's views. What if the site expresses views that are critical of the company employing the censor? Is the company right to classify such a site as an "extremist" site, or even file it in the category of hard-core pornography? Mattel did exactly that. To accept this is to imply that views critical of the Mattel corporation are harmful to children. I consider Mattel's actions to be a most unethical form of lying to cover their ass in the face of embarrasment.
I will say that I'm basically anti-censorship. I believe that parents have a right protect their children, and that includes keeping them from things that they know to be harmful. But censorship as a general practice in society is an extremely dangerous proposition; it can and will be abused (look at the USSR, Nazi Germany, Cuba, and now Mattel - all used censorship to accomplish their political ends). If censorship were to become an accepted institution in the United States (ie, if people were to lose their general qualms about it), I believe we would be in mortal danger as a nation. In other words, I believe that it has a place, but that it should be avoided if at all possible - it's an open invitation to corruption. It seems that it will soon be mandated that Internet access in libraries be censored. It's already becoming apparent that courts are willing to censor certain pieces of software that certain corporations object to (DeCSS, cphack, etc), even when such software often has entirely ethical and legal uses. I think we're starting to head in that general direction.
Why does the IR port matter, when one could easily connect to IRC over wireless ethernet? In fact, everyone taking the test could join a server and discuss the problems. I don't think it'd help much though. Methods of obtaining outside help aside, if you don't know what you're doing on the test, you're not going to do well, period. In the workplace, one has access to other engineers and the Internet, but one still has to possess a strong knowledge of the field at hand to get anything done. By the way, an old but decent laptop can be had for $1000 these days...
The G400 Linux drivers are still under heavy development, but they're already pretty good. Quake3, Heavy Gear II, and Heretic II work great. The only problem is that the drivers have a nasty habit of locking the machine, especially if the game segfaults and OpenGL isn't shut down nicely. This card has a lot of promise. The 3Dfx drivers for Linux are better, but it's true that the G400's image quality is much better. -Reeves
I believe the RIAA should stop whining and fix the problem itself. I for one would pay a small fee for each MP3 that I have a copy of, if that were possible. I hate CD's (a hassle to play compared to MP3's), so I rarely buy them except to support groups I really like. I immediately rip CD's I own so I can play them on my Rio. If the RIAA would institute a fair and reasonably priced system of music vending, I would respect it. Is anyone else with me on this?
We will run the data through a script to remove duplicate IP's and blank signatures, but thankfully there weren't many of those. Most people took this petition seriously, and I hope Apple recognizes this.
Thanks for the support and the suggestions. We'll keep you informed.
-J. Reeves Hall
Linux Users Group @ Georgia Tech
As that page says, Quicktime for Linux cannot currently play most of the movies available on the Internet, due to proprietary codecs. What we want is a Linux implementation of the codecs Apple has licensed for its player.
Hrmmm... By that logic, I wouldn't be a CS student at a rather difficult university...
I enjoy a bit of CPU load :) It's doing fine (though I did have to change the signature list from a Tcl script to a static page - it was a big hog). For reference, a dual PII with a lot of memory and a bit of carefully written CGI can take the /. effect :)
Agreed. We'll suggest this when we send Apple the signatures. The Linux community is great at writing its own GUI apps (look at KDE and Gnome), so all we really need is a complete libQuickTime.so. I don't care much for Windows QuickTime's interface myself... -J. Reeves Hall
I believe the Palm's ROM is actually a flash ROM. It can be reprogrammed through software.
There may be issues with expo insurance. Our robotics group ran into some problems with allowing minors to attend our meetings, evidently because insurance executives seem to have a notion of out-of-control pre-teens running around wreaking havoc and injuring themselves. It would probably cause contract problems if this is the case and they were to admit any minor for any reason.