MS is an example of triumph of marketing over engineering. Any dissenter must be attacked and discredited by the MS Parrot-Troopers, because MS cannot afford to have public perception turn against it.
Let's face facts: Linux/Gnome + Staroffice is indistinguishable from MS+Office for the AVERAGE user. MS needs to do all it can to prevent the majority of users from realizing this, and ceasing to PAY MS.
I always hated DCL and found navigating the VMS file systems and directory structure maddening.
I don't mean to flame you, and my reply is based on 7 years of working at DEC in a non-software engineering job. Plus, I took computer programming when the computer lab at MIT used a VAX 11/780:^)
I found DCL to be very consitent in the format of all commands. If you want to see a value or setting you use SHOW.. if you want to set one, you use SET. If you want to find the file foo in all of your subdirectories, you say DIR[...]foo.txt . If you want to move to a specifice directory, you use SET DEF [whereiamnow.whereiwanttobe]
The documentation is excellent, even if it spans something like 13 3" thick 3ring binders
The VMS file versioning was also inconvenient
Why? whenever you save a file, its version number goes up by 1. So when you say SEDT LOGIN.COM you by default open the most recent version of LOGIN.COM, and when you save your changes a new file is written called LOGIN.COM;2
You don't need to worry about the version # unless you want to look at your old versions (all are saved by default).
Oh, and if for some reason you unplug your microvax accidentaly while editing the file, (the only way a non-sysadmin user can make it crash) you can recover from the journal file which is created, by default, with the command EDT/RECOVER LOGIN.COM, which has captured all the keystrokes of you editing session, and will redo them at warp speed on the screen while you watch.
I really hated VMS's error messages, which were always nearly indecipherable and full of %%%% signs. Blech.
I found most of these self-explanatory, but they can be looked up in the documentation
Sometimes I wonder, with a bemused grin: What if Ken Olsen had said "The future of computing is cheap, cheap, cheap hardware with a free operating system. Design a cheap vax for home users. Bypass and ignore the DEC standards which add millions of dollars of costs to our hardware. Don't send this product to the Maynard testing lab for 10g operation shock and vibration, don't worry about the noise levels, and don't test it at 50 deg. C. Oh, and put a version of VMS on it which is included free with the Hardware"
Oh I know! I'd be living in the Saychelles on the proceeds of my DEC stock;^)
this goes back to the name limits for dos files. dos files have a 8 character name and a 3 character extension. under w95, you can have long file names, but if you look at these file names under dos, they get truncated to the dos format.
A number and the ~ get added to "help" you tell files apart which would have otherwise had the same name.. for example microsoftfoo.exe and microsoftbar.exe will be renamed to micros~1.exe and micros~2.exe
under this naming convention, the name microsoft gets changed to micros~1
Yes, I know some of you may laugh at this, but it's what I like most about slashdot: When at it's best, it is like a random, living, HOWTO.
Or perhaps the digging for diamonds analogy is better: Lots of dirt and rocks to go thru, some of the highly moderated diamonds are really just CZ, and some of the ignored ones are the real thing.
Is there, perchance, a RPN version of xcalc available? (even better, is it already hiding somewhere on my RH 5.2 i386 box)
When the Fed steps in like they did, the market becomes less and less free. The Gov't is making choices for you, and that is never a good thing.
So, by your logic, when the "Feds" outlawed lead in house paint, so I could no longer "choose" to apply it where children could eat it and suffer brain damage, this was bad?
And when Asbestos was outlawed, this was a bad thing, 'cause consumers did not have the "choice" to buy asbestos oven mitts and spread the dust all over the house, setting their kids up for Asbestosis 30 years down the line?
As far as I am concerned, the DOJ is performing a long-overdue toxic waste cleanup.
Asbestos is safe. Nicotine is not addictive. Microsoft makes quality software products and works well with other companies.
Hey Skyshadow! It seems that some of these micro-softie ACs (MSAC (tm)) are getting crochety! Still, you can't really blame them, what with the electric punishment shocks they are getting for w2k being *late*.
Hey... you MSAC's should be working, not posting on/. 8^)
Oh yeah.. Coke? - lets see, water, sugar, phosphoric acid, brown coloring, 75c a can. Why would I want to drink this?
If you immerse the whole motherboard, all the electrical connections (at all the different potentials) will be exposed to the water...
Try boiling some distilled water with a piece of solder and some copper wire in it. Then measure the resistance.
If you want to make the most efficient heat transfer conneciton, then put the cold side of the fridge coil in the water (immersed). Use a submerged propeller to agitate the water and force the heat transfer. If you are going to immerse in water, you may as well add automotive antifreeze, as well (I think this is non-conductive)
The distilled water will leach material off of the motherboard and become conductive over time. Some materals also swell in water; if the resin in the motherboard swells the thickness change may crack the barrels of the thru vias.
The mineral oil may again swell plastic parts, causing problems. The liquid you are looking for is (was?) called Flourinert. It is a non-reactive CFC blend which is a colorless liquid at room temperature. It was expensive 10 years ago, I don't know what the status of it is now.
Slashdot Mirror
Refueling is not trivial, since you are dealing with either high pressure gas or cryogenic liquid.
Gasoline engines are used because they are easy to make and easy to use.
And cheap.
Ummm...
Could it be...
wait for it...
Oxygen?
I agree that at the moment there are fewer applications on the shelf at CompUSA for Linux.
There are, however, many more applications available FREE online which are in the "Heavy Duty" catagory. TeX, blender, Gimp..
Some will argue that MAX and Photshop are "better"...whatever...But the price advantage is still there.
Like, does Tim have a day job? Or does he spend all his time being the MS help desk on /.
I am absolutely certain MS cares.
MS is an example of triumph of marketing over engineering. Any dissenter must be attacked and discredited by the MS Parrot-Troopers, because MS cannot afford to have public perception turn against it.
Let's face facts: Linux/Gnome + Staroffice is indistinguishable from MS+Office for the AVERAGE user. MS needs to do all it can to prevent the majority of users from realizing this, and ceasing to PAY MS.
maddening.
I don't mean to flame you, and my reply is based on 7 years of working at DEC in a non-software engineering job. Plus, I took computer programming when the computer lab at MIT used a VAX 11/780 :^)
I found DCL to be very consitent in the format of all commands. If you want to see a value or setting you use SHOW.. if you want to set one, you use SET. If you want to find the file foo in all of your subdirectories, you say DIR[...]foo.txt . If you want to move to a specifice directory, you use SET DEF [whereiamnow.whereiwanttobe]
The documentation is excellent, even if it spans something like 13 3" thick 3ring binders
The VMS file versioning was also inconvenient
Why? whenever you save a file, its version number goes up by 1. So when you say SEDT LOGIN.COM you by default open the most recent version of LOGIN.COM, and when you save your changes a new file is written called LOGIN.COM;2
You don't need to worry about the version # unless you want to look at your old versions (all are saved by default).
Oh, and if for some reason you unplug your microvax accidentaly while editing the file, (the only way a non-sysadmin user can make it crash) you can recover from the journal file which is created, by default, with the command EDT/RECOVER LOGIN.COM, which has captured all the keystrokes of you editing session, and will redo them at warp speed on the screen while you watch.
I really hated VMS's error messages, which were always nearly
indecipherable and full of %%%% signs. Blech.
I found most of these self-explanatory, but they can be looked up in the documentation
Sometimes I wonder, with a bemused grin: What if Ken Olsen had said "The future of computing is cheap, cheap, cheap hardware with a free operating system. Design a cheap vax for home users. Bypass and ignore the DEC standards which add millions of dollars of costs to our hardware. Don't send this product to the Maynard testing lab for 10g operation shock and vibration, don't worry about the noise levels, and don't test it at 50 deg. C. Oh, and put a version of VMS on it which is included free with the Hardware"
Oh I know! I'd be living in the Saychelles on the proceeds of my DEC stock ;^)
A number and the ~ get added to "help" you tell files apart which would have otherwise had the same name.. for example microsoftfoo.exe and microsoftbar.exe will be renamed to micros~1.exe and micros~2.exe
under this naming convention, the name microsoft gets changed to micros~1
Yes, I know some of you may laugh at this, but it's what I like most about slashdot: When at it's best, it is like a random, living, HOWTO.
Or perhaps the digging for diamonds analogy is better: Lots of dirt and rocks to go thru, some of the highly moderated diamonds are really just CZ, and some of the ignored ones are the real thing.
Is there, perchance, a RPN version of xcalc available? (even better, is it already hiding somewhere on my RH 5.2 i386 box)
So, by your logic, when the "Feds" outlawed lead in house paint, so I could no longer "choose" to apply it where children could eat it and suffer brain damage, this was bad?
And when Asbestos was outlawed, this was a bad thing, 'cause consumers did not have the "choice" to buy asbestos oven mitts and spread the dust all over the house, setting their kids up for Asbestosis 30 years down the line?
As far as I am concerned, the DOJ is performing a long-overdue toxic waste cleanup.
Asbestos is safe. Nicotine is not addictive. Microsoft makes quality software products and works well with other companies.
Hey Skyshadow! It seems that some of these micro-softie ACs (MSAC (tm)) are getting crochety! Still, you can't really blame them, what with the electric punishment shocks they are getting for w2k being *late*.
/. 8^)
Hey... you MSAC's should be working, not posting on
Oh yeah.. Coke? - lets see, water, sugar, phosphoric acid, brown coloring, 75c a can. Why would I want to drink this?
If you immerse the whole motherboard, all the electrical connections (at all the different potentials) will be exposed to the water...
Try boiling some distilled water with a piece of solder and some copper wire in it. Then measure the resistance.
If you want to make the most efficient heat transfer conneciton, then put the cold side of the fridge coil in the water (immersed). Use a submerged propeller to agitate the water and force the heat transfer. If you are going to immerse in water, you may as well add automotive antifreeze, as well (I think this is non-conductive)
The distilled water will leach material off of the motherboard and become conductive over time. Some materals also swell in water; if the resin in the motherboard swells the thickness change may crack the barrels of the thru vias.
The mineral oil may again swell plastic parts, causing problems. The liquid you are looking for is (was?) called Flourinert. It is a non-reactive CFC blend which is a colorless liquid at room temperature. It was expensive 10 years ago, I don't know what the status of it is now.