This is the EXACT reason I stopped using Debian. They need to get a clue.
Ouch
Debian is a great distro, don't get me wrong, but they need to stop screwing around with Potato and get Woody released. Potato is NOT a new relese, instead its a rerelease of an old codebase that is getting tired. Potato is getting on several years old, Debian needs to let it go.
Uh, the debian volunteers are working VERY hard on woody. I wouldn't run potato on my desktop (I'm running woody), but I run potato on some servers. Those servers are not getting tired. They are performing very well, and have nice uptime under moderate load.
Here is an example. I am not a KDE advocate or anything (Window Maker for me) but I noticed that all versions of KDE is still listed as "testing" or "unstable" while GNOME 1.0.55 is listed in the "Stable" package section? I'm sorry, but KDE 2.2.x is ALOT more stable that "October" GNOME which was released in 1999!
We agree on something - WindowMaker is beautiful. As for which packages make it into testing - you need to enlighten yourself before making such statements.
I'd start with this. You need to think beyond your little x86 happy-happy-funtime world before you flame.
Debian needs to get with it. Stability is one thing, but this is bordering on the rediculous. October GNOME was not all that stable, and KDE 2.2.2 is one of the most stable desktops out there.
Again, this maybe the most stable desktop on your system for your language. There is not some dude at debian headquarters that says, "OK...this app seems stable on my box. Lets move it into stable." There is a complicated process to determine the status of packages. If stable isn't cutting edge enough, you can use testing or unstable (2 more entire binary releases for you!). If you're running unstable and you apt-get dist-upgrade every day, you are as cutting edge as you're going to get with any distribution.
I may not be a kernel hacker, but someone else with my hardware is, and I benefit from the improvements he or she makes to the kernel.
I'll restate the obvious - you make a great point. I was first interested in open source many years ago as a student because I could learn how various sotware works. Being young and naive, I thought I would eventually write my own operating system. I looked at linux as just a toy / learning experience.
Over time, I truly learned to appreciate open source efforts because I realized it was like cloning myself and working on thousands of different projects. Sure, I could bang out some little qt app or maybe a little utility all on my own, but my efforts alone weren't enough to create something truly great (I was young and stupid - I'm much older now).
I read debian-devel and really get a sense of how much effort it takes to organize a binary distribution (after the source is written!). I think they do it the way I would have done it if I had 100 years of time. This is a hard thought for an anal-retentive coder like me that never relinquishes work to coworkers:).
"Honestly, the people that attach word docs are usually the people that give you a blank stare when you say words like 'linux' and 'unix'"
I attach word documents every day. My organization has standardizied on Word, and for good reason too. It works decently, and can read the notes and information vendors send me. The above generalization is so far removed from reality its silly.
What if you're sending an attachment outside your organization? If you have an existing agreement, then the stereotype doesn't really apply. If you get an MS Word attachment from someone outside your company/known vendors (especially if it contains simple, unformatted text) you could bet money the sender will think you're on crack if you tell them you can't open it.
Work pays for my cable modem. That works out to about $US 0.00 per month.
I also live in a shitty neighborhood, where no one else has a cable modem, much less a computer, so I get over 2mbs. I've sustained 30MB+ transfers over 300k/s.
Computer Engineering: This is a degree for hardware people. This is a degree for serious geeks who like math and logic, but don't want to become programmers.
I have a degree in computer engineering, and I guess it was slightly different at our school. Electrical engineering fits your CE description of math + logic + hardware - programming. Very few EEs go into power; mostly digital / programming stuff. Computer engineering was math + logic + hardware + programming.
I've switched jobs a couple of times since I graduated four years ago, so I'm completely software now. But I'm very thankful I learned all the low level / hardware / engineering in college. I think it really helps me understand the software I design. I can learn new data types / algorithms by reading a paper, but I doubt I'd ever learn how a transistor works if I got a degree in CS.
I used to work for a large company (20,000+ employees). My boss's cube was no more than 20 feet from mine; however, he refused human contact with all subordinates. Everything was done via email from coding requests to reports to "meetings". I only talked to him face to face a couple of times for the year that I worked there.
I am also tallish(6'5") and am sitting in an Aeron. I have the same adjustment problems you describe. Recently, I put the armrests all the way down - I don't use them at all. I roll under my desk and use my desk for arm support. With enough monkeying around you can usually find a comfortable position.
I have never had "sweaty ass" or "ass soup" while in a chair. I only get that when I'm biking.
Anyway, IMO we all need to stop bitching. These are some damn nice chairs that we didn't pay for out of pocket.
More to the point, why doesn't QT allow me to compile GTK apps against it, or vice versa?
Because their interfaces are different. If I write an app using Qt, my approach will be much different than if I would have used GTK. Not only would the syntax be different, but so would the design. The C/C++ difference, even if solved on a system level - that is the shared libraries, wrapping, calling C from C++, etc - the fundamental designs of apps for the respective libraries are different.
The amount of code and overhead required to implement a common interface to both the existing Qt and GTK libraries would be insane. The maintenance would be impossible. Qt and GTK develop quickly! However, a standard as mentioned in your X2/K56Flex example is a somewhat different story.
I think a standard interface from and end user / widget point of view would be nice. That would handle your complaints 2),3) and 4). However, which do you choose? It seems trolltech and GNOME are heading in different directions (especially with QT3). And as for the standard programming interface - it will never happen. Take a look at the size of the sources. There is so much dispute how designs should be within each camp. I couldn't imagine attempting to merge or commonize the two.
Please bear in mind this is a completely different concept to merging KDE and GNOME, which have less to do with Qt and GTK than many people think.
Good point here. I've written many many Qt apps, and I don't use KDE.
I think you're only hope is for a completely new library. Actually, no. Realisitcally, your only hope is for one library to overcome the other. Which would be sad. Stop hoping.
For me, download time is less than 30 seconds per MP3. This takes virtually no CPU time, so I can do other things.
Rip time is over 2 minutes per MP3. This takes almost all my CPU time. I don't think I could even play a game of solitare.
Since I don't have a CD changer in my PC, I can only RIP 1 disc at a time. I can queue multiple CDs or selected tracks from various CDs on Napster.
And last but not least, my CDs are in the living room and my computer is in the spare bedroom. I'd have to get off my ass and find the CD I want to rip. I don't think so.
Having gone to an engineering school, I was exposed to a few alternative energy cars with similar concepts. I saw a video of a smaller, motorcycle sized car that worked on hydraulic pressure. The fundamental idea was that you could gain back most of your pressure while breaking. The "breaks" on the car were actually just pressurizers for some sort of bank of hydraulic piston looking machines. Then the acceleration was just the release of pressure that was built up from breaking. I think you get the idea. The original pressure was built up with a small diesel engine. The guy that developed the idea is probably a/. reader and I just made an ass of myself with that poor description, but...
I wonder if this e.Volution uses a similar concept? Anyone have more info?
Why don't they make clothing out of fiber-optic cables? The cables would run around the body with small signal loss. Light would go in one side and out the other, making the wearer fairly transparent. I've heard this from other sources, I can't say I thought it up.
I'd rather be able to take a shirt off than be stuck with transparent skin.
"Uhh...so is this going to wear off?"
You're probably right, but street mucisicans generally don't make very much money. Lets not forget little producers and recording studios. My father in law owned a recording studio with his brother for over a decade and they recorded many local bands - some famous, some just plain bad. Sure, they didn't make a lot of money but they loved what they were doing. I consider him an aritst, but obviously he can't street perform.
I hope the smaller studios can poineer some new distribution system. The cost to stamp 5,000 CDs for a young, talented, aspiring punk rock band is not trivial. I doubt many bands break even after all the CDs are gone.
Instead of plugging their CD's in the back at their gigs, maybe they could plug a URL. The cost of studio time and the URL would be their only $$ investment.
Now we can look at the donate per download. Yeah, maybe these small time bands only get $100. Maybe people are copying their unencripted MP3s all over. But, WTF? This is a good thing. Noterieaty. Publicity.
Just my thoughts. My future goggles aren't working too well today.
"Mabye we should tell them that all the chimps we sent into space came back super-intelligent."
"No...I don't think we'll be telling them that"
Seriously, I don't know what to think. Up until recently, I've always considered Windows sysadmins to be relatively worthless and overpaid. But last month I had to write an application that uses and M$ Access database. WTF? People actually rely on this? It really gave me a headache because I was abstracted from what I needed control over. A "good" windows sysadmin (is this contradictory?) would probably be frustrated as all hell because you can only administer using the buttons laid in front of you. Then tack on the general unpredicability of windows and you are no longer driving the bus.
The only admins for windows based systems I know personally are not very good with computers. They would probably shit bricks if they had to use vi. I'm basing all my thoughts on the assumption that many of the windows sysadmins out there wouldn't be completely out of their element if their GUI was taken away. I could be wrong.
Here at my work I have an NT PC at my desk I run X on and connect to a room full of RS6000s to do 99% of my work. We have 2 sets of sysadmins - one for the NT machines and one for the AIX machines.
The NT admins can only be reached through the special IT email address, which has a turn around time from 1 week to over a month. They are good for typing in the administrator password and installing software. They always look pissed off - hell, I'd be disgruntled too, if I had to go to sleep every night worrying about the next melissa script and what buttons I might have to click to fix it.
And now the other guys - the AIX admins can be reached directly any time, even at home. They are an invaluable source of information, be it UNIX related, network related, or even Windows related. Access to these guys is mission critical when I'm on site somewhere installing a system. There is almost never an "I don't know" or "I'm not sure" or "I'll have to call [software comapny X's] support line". Even though they are extremely busy, they find time to talk about geeky stuff. Its that computer passion - if you love cars and are a great mechanic, why would you drive the same crappy vehicle that everyone else does?
So I guess my point is help at midnight when an HACMP failover script isn't working 1,000 miles away is definitely in a different league than fixing my mouse a week after it stopped working.
Funny offtopic story about the new mouse I got - eventually one of the NT tech support minions replaced my intellipoint mouse with an older style and very dirty 2 button mouse. He said they had a shortage and he had to give me the mouse off his own desk. I think he just wanted the new intellipoint replacement for himself. He couldn't use a computer without a mouse... Anyway, the bad part of this story comes from when I was at my 9:00 appointment in the downstairs bathroom about a week later and this guy sits down in the stall next to me. He does his business and leaves the crapper without washing his hands. Thats pretty @!#$%! disgusting. I've learned many keyboard shortcuts since.
Slashdot Mirror
Ouch
Debian is a great distro, don't get me wrong, but they need to stop screwing around with Potato and get Woody released. Potato is NOT a new relese, instead its a rerelease of an old codebase that is getting tired. Potato is getting on several years old, Debian needs to let it go.
Uh, the debian volunteers are working VERY hard on woody. I wouldn't run potato on my desktop (I'm running woody), but I run potato on some servers. Those servers are not getting tired. They are performing very well, and have nice uptime under moderate load.
Here is an example. I am not a KDE advocate or anything (Window Maker for me) but I noticed that all versions of KDE is still listed as "testing" or "unstable" while GNOME 1.0.55 is listed in the "Stable" package section? I'm sorry, but KDE 2.2.x is ALOT more stable that "October" GNOME which was released in 1999!
We agree on something - WindowMaker is beautiful. As for which packages make it into testing - you need to enlighten yourself before making such statements.
I'd start with this. You need to think beyond your little x86 happy-happy-funtime world before you flame.
Debian needs to get with it. Stability is one thing, but this is bordering on the rediculous. October GNOME was not all that stable, and KDE 2.2.2 is one of the most stable desktops out there.
Again, this maybe the most stable desktop on your system for your language. There is not some dude at debian headquarters that says, "OK...this app seems stable on my box. Lets move it into stable." There is a complicated process to determine the status of packages. If stable isn't cutting edge enough, you can use testing or unstable (2 more entire binary releases for you!). If you're running unstable and you apt-get dist-upgrade every day, you are as cutting edge as you're going to get with any distribution.
I'll restate the obvious - you make a great point. I was first interested in open source many years ago as a student because I could learn how various sotware works. Being young and naive, I thought I would eventually write my own operating system. I looked at linux as just a toy / learning experience.
Over time, I truly learned to appreciate open source efforts because I realized it was like cloning myself and working on thousands of different projects. Sure, I could bang out some little qt app or maybe a little utility all on my own, but my efforts alone weren't enough to create something truly great (I was young and stupid - I'm much older now).
I read debian-devel and really get a sense of how much effort it takes to organize a binary distribution (after the source is written!). I think they do it the way I would have done it if I had 100 years of time. This is a hard thought for an anal-retentive coder like me that never relinquishes work to coworkers :).
What if you're sending an attachment outside your organization? If you have an existing agreement, then the stereotype doesn't really apply. If you get an MS Word attachment from someone outside your company/known vendors (especially if it contains simple, unformatted text) you could bet money the sender will think you're on crack if you tell them you can't open it.
Work pays for my cable modem. That works out to about $US 0.00 per month.
I also live in a shitty neighborhood, where no one else has a cable modem, much less a computer, so I get over 2mbs. I've sustained 30MB+ transfers over 300k/s.
If I loose my job, maybe I'll move to Canada.
:g/programmers/s//management/g
I have a degree in computer engineering, and I guess it was slightly different at our school. Electrical engineering fits your CE description of math + logic + hardware - programming. Very few EEs go into power; mostly digital / programming stuff. Computer engineering was math + logic + hardware + programming.
I've switched jobs a couple of times since I graduated four years ago, so I'm completely software now. But I'm very thankful I learned all the low level / hardware / engineering in college. I think it really helps me understand the software I design. I can learn new data types / algorithms by reading a paper, but I doubt I'd ever learn how a transistor works if I got a degree in CS.
The fact that there's almost no development community addressing this potentially enormous market amazes me to no end.
http://www.demudi.org/
Supposedly hijacked from Boston
I used to work for a large company (20,000+ employees). My boss's cube was no more than 20 feet from mine; however, he refused human contact with all subordinates. Everything was done via email from coding requests to reports to "meetings". I only talked to him face to face a couple of times for the year that I worked there.
Full-length CD units dropped 5.3 percent at mid-year 2001, representing a $5.5 billion dollar value
LPs increased in unit sales by 7.4 percent in the first half of 2001, representing a $12.9 million dollar value
If current trends continue, June 2050 will mark when vinyl will once again be the preferred format.
Or you could also use anything .NET to store your trusted information. I'm sure somehow .NET is different than Hotmail or MSN.
I am also tallish(6'5") and am sitting in an Aeron. I have the same adjustment problems you describe. Recently, I put the armrests all the way down - I don't use them at all. I roll under my desk and use my desk for arm support. With enough monkeying around you can usually find a comfortable position.
I have never had "sweaty ass" or "ass soup" while in a chair. I only get that when I'm biking.
Anyway, IMO we all need to stop bitching. These are some damn nice chairs that we didn't pay for out of pocket.
Because their interfaces are different. If I write an app using Qt, my approach will be much different than if I would have used GTK. Not only would the syntax be different, but so would the design. The C/C++ difference, even if solved on a system level - that is the shared libraries, wrapping, calling C from C++, etc - the fundamental designs of apps for the respective libraries are different.
The amount of code and overhead required to implement a common interface to both the existing Qt and GTK libraries would be insane. The maintenance would be impossible. Qt and GTK develop quickly! However, a standard as mentioned in your X2/K56Flex example is a somewhat different story.
I think a standard interface from and end user / widget point of view would be nice. That would handle your complaints 2),3) and 4). However, which do you choose? It seems trolltech and GNOME are heading in different directions (especially with QT3). And as for the standard programming interface - it will never happen. Take a look at the size of the sources. There is so much dispute how designs should be within each camp. I couldn't imagine attempting to merge or commonize the two.
Please bear in mind this is a completely different concept to merging KDE and GNOME, which have less to do with Qt and GTK than many people think.
Good point here. I've written many many Qt apps, and I don't use KDE.
I think you're only hope is for a completely new library. Actually, no. Realisitcally, your only hope is for one library to overcome the other. Which would be sad. Stop hoping.
Rip time is over 2 minutes per MP3. This takes almost all my CPU time. I don't think I could even play a game of solitare.
Since I don't have a CD changer in my PC, I can only RIP 1 disc at a time. I can queue multiple CDs or selected tracks from various CDs on Napster.
And last but not least, my CDs are in the living room and my computer is in the spare bedroom. I'd have to get off my ass and find the CD I want to rip. I don't think so.
I wonder if this e.Volution uses a similar concept? Anyone have more info?
Why don't they make clothing out of fiber-optic cables? The cables would run around the body with small signal loss. Light would go in one side and out the other, making the wearer fairly transparent. I've heard this from other sources, I can't say I thought it up.
I'd rather be able to take a shirt off than be stuck with transparent skin.
"Uhh...so is this going to wear off?"
I hope the smaller studios can poineer some new distribution system. The cost to stamp 5,000 CDs for a young, talented, aspiring punk rock band is not trivial. I doubt many bands break even after all the CDs are gone.
Instead of plugging their CD's in the back at their gigs, maybe they could plug a URL. The cost of studio time and the URL would be their only $$ investment.
Now we can look at the donate per download. Yeah, maybe these small time bands only get $100. Maybe people are copying their unencripted MP3s all over. But, WTF? This is a good thing. Noterieaty. Publicity.
Just my thoughts. My future goggles aren't working too well today.
"Mabye we should tell them that all the chimps we sent into space came back super-intelligent."
"No...I don't think we'll be telling them that"
Seriously, I don't know what to think. Up until recently, I've always considered Windows sysadmins to be relatively worthless and overpaid. But last month I had to write an application that uses and M$ Access database. WTF? People actually rely on this? It really gave me a headache because I was abstracted from what I needed control over. A "good" windows sysadmin (is this contradictory?) would probably be frustrated as all hell because you can only administer using the buttons laid in front of you. Then tack on the general unpredicability of windows and you are no longer driving the bus.
The only admins for windows based systems I know personally are not very good with computers. They would probably shit bricks if they had to use vi. I'm basing all my thoughts on the assumption that many of the windows sysadmins out there wouldn't be completely out of their element if their GUI was taken away. I could be wrong.
Here at my work I have an NT PC at my desk I run X on and connect to a room full of RS6000s to do 99% of my work. We have 2 sets of sysadmins - one for the NT machines and one for the AIX machines.
The NT admins can only be reached through the special IT email address, which has a turn around time from 1 week to over a month. They are good for typing in the administrator password and installing software. They always look pissed off - hell, I'd be disgruntled too, if I had to go to sleep every night worrying about the next melissa script and what buttons I might have to click to fix it.
And now the other guys - the AIX admins can be reached directly any time, even at home. They are an invaluable source of information, be it UNIX related, network related, or even Windows related. Access to these guys is mission critical when I'm on site somewhere installing a system. There is almost never an "I don't know" or "I'm not sure" or "I'll have to call [software comapny X's] support line". Even though they are extremely busy, they find time to talk about geeky stuff. Its that computer passion - if you love cars and are a great mechanic, why would you drive the same crappy vehicle that everyone else does?
So I guess my point is help at midnight when an HACMP failover script isn't working 1,000 miles away is definitely in a different league than fixing my mouse a week after it stopped working.
Funny offtopic story about the new mouse I got - eventually one of the NT tech support minions replaced my intellipoint mouse with an older style and very dirty 2 button mouse. He said they had a shortage and he had to give me the mouse off his own desk. I think he just wanted the new intellipoint replacement for himself. He couldn't use a computer without a mouse... Anyway, the bad part of this story comes from when I was at my 9:00 appointment in the downstairs bathroom about a week later and this guy sits down in the stall next to me. He does his business and leaves the crapper without washing his hands. Thats pretty @!#$%! disgusting. I've learned many keyboard shortcuts since.