RIAA 1, technology 0... so presumably, a bunch of congresscritters patted themselves on the back for doing what their *AA campaign contributors wanted. The idea of new technology creating new jobs is so 20th century. It's about protecting obsolete business models with lobbyists and money... if the buggy-whip manufacturers had had comparable influence at the turn of the 20th century, our traffic jams would be composed of horse-drawn wagons.
If we actually want a Congress that's pro-technology, we are simply as a group going to have to raise enough money ourselves to become the highest bidder, nobody's going to do this for us.
Show me an actual, working 100 meter long CNT cable with strengths comparable to what the Space Elevator will require and I'm ready to discuss it.
If you simply want to get cheap payload into orbit this decade using materials that are NOT theoretical, find a way to get funding to the blimp-to-orbit people at JP Aerospace.
Lots of things wrong with the Space Elevator concept... it breaking could kill a lot of people... but the dealkiller is that you can't build a structure with theoretical materials, and it shouldn't take a "rocket scientist" to figure this out.
My experience with current generation floppy drives has really sucked. I guess that sub $10 is a price point too low to get quality for what has to go into a floppy drive.
I think I'm on my third floppy drive for this box in 5 years, and the reason is because... I kept getting complaints "your disk won't read on my drive"... it works sometimes. Actually, all the drives worked just fine, until I tried to move data onto someone else's box. If there's a floppy drive on my next box, it's going to be for legacy compatibility only.
If I hand somebody a disc *now* for data that needs to go by sneakernet, it's a CD-R... I burn it, hand it over, and I can stop worrying, it's delivered.
And for those who've noticed, I have indeed changed my mind.
I used to own an HP Laserjet Series II from the days when HP meant "solid" and "well-engineered"... the low-end Canon IP3000 I just got reminds me a lot of that old HP. Much more than any of HP's consumer products do now.
It feels like an actual box with real parts in it instead of a plastic shell containing mostly air. It also works very well with Linux if you get the Canon Japan Linux driver.
Most people aren't interested in learning how to not use a GUI. They want to check their email. They want to browse the web. They want to pay their bills online. They want to track their spreadsheet. But most of all, they want to do such things easily and efficiently.
An average user can do all that with a pre-configured Linux box, and without concern about Windows viruses, trojans, and other malware. Here is a how-to piece on building a preconfigured Linux box. Yes, multimedia is included.
What the end user of this box would have to remember to use it without hassle is simply to buy peripherals (scanners, printers, cameras) from the "approved" list provided by the vendor, derived from SANE / CUPS / gphoto supported parts.
your system is completely preconfigured and your needs are completely satisfied with what came with it, how the hell do you use Linux without dropping to command line?
For instance, there are lots of config files only accessible via text editor. The automated installers only work for root.
Though I usually use the command line when and because it's less hassle than the GUI, e.g. making directories.
running via manual installation, write it up and find a Linux site to publish it on. Please send me the URL when it's up, I'll admit to being extremely curious.
anyone who might "run screaming when they see the GIMP" would do the same with Linux.
Actually, that isn't necessarily true. I'm running Fedora Core 2 and running Windows over Win4Lin to give me access to my Windows graphics apps and Eudora. Even Windows is stable if one only runs one or two major apps at a time, the rest I do in Linux. I'm posting from Opera/Linux right now.
Why would anyone running Linux be interested in Photoshop anyway?
So graphics pros could run it without having to switch to Mac or Windows, of course.
You haven't noticed that serious graphics types run screaming when they see GIMP? GIMP2 isn't all that much better... though I have hopes for that "PaintShopPro replacement" project.
As for vector draw apps for Linux... I think that Inkscape is going to be a very good professional-grade program in a couple of years. In the meantime, I'm running Corel Draw in Win4Lin on Linux.
Perfect, if Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are in the first payload.
Of course, the second payload will be delayed a few months, while the OS is changed to a real-time -ix (Linux and BSD zealots may start fighting about which distro is best for this now) and the software is rewritten.
I suppose having the blast crater at 1 Microsoft Way would be too much to hope for.
If you work with LOX on a day to day basis, my hat is off to you. Otherwise let me summarize: it is a giant pain in the ass.
Perhaps you would find that less of a problem if you used conventional insulated tanks instead of using your rectum for storage. Even if it is a good place to get methane fuel.
This stuff should be part of everybody's default distro installation, and that would solve the problem. However, nobody's stepping forward to buy the licenses.
Another way to do this is put together an automatic download/install package that could be run via point-and-click, say a script telling an automated installer, and that's probably the best answer for the free distros.
The difficult part is finding out what has to be installed, and that literally took me weeks of research. (about 3,IIRC) I did this for publication so the rest of us wouldn't have to.
The tedious part is simply installing a bunch of packages. But... by and large, it's on the order of:
yum install mplayer - y at the prompt
(lather, rinse, repeat until you get to a package that actually has to be manually installed
Probably an hour or two if you've got broadband, and one or two of the packages takes a long time at somewhere around 90% CPU load to fix the dependencies, so go out for coffee when that happens.
You can find all my Linux how-to pieces here. They're more or less FC2 specific, but the procedures I should describe should work on just about anything, with minor distro-specific mods (like apt-get instead of yum, for instance)
Biggest multimedia problem is that w32codec is not packaged with free distros because of license problems and for most media content, they are required.
Solution? IBM or one of other big players buys licenses that allow w32codec to be packaged with the free distros.
realplayer (and maybe one more item) has to be installed manually from the realplayer site, and if installing any application on the list doesn't work, it's probably because the configuration file on your installation program isn't complete enough to include a repository that contains a workable version of the program.
Google is your friend, google on:
installerprogramname problempackagename repository (make the appropriate substitutions.)
Multimedia installation: Install these applications in this order, using an automated installer such as yum, apt-get (preferably with synaptic GUI), or the urpmi mandrake installer: mplayer + components.
USE AN AUTOMATED INSTALLER, DON'T INSTALL FROM RPMS UNLESS YOU ENJOY DEPENDENCY HELL.
mplayer
mplayer-plugin
skins
w32codecs
xine
xine-lib-devel
realplayer
flash
Start playing things back and enjoy.
For Fedora Core 2, follow the procedure in my article Painless Multimedia For Linux, but use the yum.conf file posted in Build a Linux Appliance, Part 2--The Extras, not the one that's posted as part of the multimedia article. (the multimedia article should be updated to refer people to the "appliance article" URL, I need to contact the editor about this)
Might cause more problems than it solves. A review panel composed of 5 people done along the lines you suggest might only have 3 qualified people in it. . . all working for a competitor.
On the average, I'd trust the competence of an SOI specialist to evaluate a patent involving design of any digital integrated circuit.
Though it gets interesting if you need to go back past 1976, then you'll need the Manual of Patent Classification to find out class/subclass and it'll help a lot if you have a clue as to when... because 1975 and before is all images, and that gets f*ckin' ugly. (BTDT) But the need to do that is rare with a modern technology invention.
For more info, get a copy of "Patent it Yourself" by David Pressman (Nolo Press)
Slashdot Mirror
If we actually want a Congress that's pro-technology, we are simply as a group going to have to raise enough money ourselves to become the highest bidder, nobody's going to do this for us.
see above comment.
If you simply want to get cheap payload into orbit this decade using materials that are NOT theoretical, find a way to get funding to the blimp-to-orbit people at JP Aerospace.
Lots of things wrong with the Space Elevator concept... it breaking could kill a lot of people... but the dealkiller is that you can't build a structure with theoretical materials, and it shouldn't take a "rocket scientist" to figure this out.
As for appropriate reactions... a toast to the person(s) responsible, and maybe we should think of raising a legal defense fund.
I think I'm on my third floppy drive for this box in 5 years, and the reason is because... I kept getting complaints "your disk won't read on my drive"... it works sometimes. Actually, all the drives worked just fine, until I tried to move data onto someone else's box. If there's a floppy drive on my next box, it's going to be for legacy compatibility only.
If I hand somebody a disc *now* for data that needs to go by sneakernet, it's a CD-R... I burn it, hand it over, and I can stop worrying, it's delivered.
And for those who've noticed, I have indeed changed my mind.
cheap energy. I have difficulty in believing in cheap energy and carbon sequestration at the same time.
I'm rather happy with the Canon.
An average user can do all that with a pre-configured Linux box, and without concern about Windows viruses, trojans, and other malware. Here is a how-to piece on building a preconfigured Linux box. Yes, multimedia is included.
What the end user of this box would have to remember to use it without hassle is simply to buy peripherals (scanners, printers, cameras) from the "approved" list provided by the vendor, derived from SANE / CUPS / gphoto supported parts.
For instance, there are lots of config files only accessible via text editor. The automated installers only work for root.
Though I usually use the command line when and because it's less hassle than the GUI, e.g. making directories.
running via manual installation, write it up and find a Linux site to publish it on. Please send me the URL when it's up, I'll admit to being extremely curious.
Actually, that isn't necessarily true. I'm running Fedora Core 2 and running Windows over Win4Lin to give me access to my Windows graphics apps and Eudora. Even Windows is stable if one only runs one or two major apps at a time, the rest I do in Linux. I'm posting from Opera/Linux right now.
So graphics pros could run it without having to switch to Mac or Windows, of course.
You haven't noticed that serious graphics types run screaming when they see GIMP? GIMP2 isn't all that much better... though I have hopes for that "PaintShopPro replacement" project.
As for vector draw apps for Linux... I think that Inkscape is going to be a very good professional-grade program in a couple of years. In the meantime, I'm running Corel Draw in Win4Lin on Linux.
Stick a cork up your ass! NOW!
For more serious ideas, check my sig.
thanks.
BTW, have you actually tried this and did it work?
Wondering because gentoo is something I have zero experience with.
Of course, the second payload will be delayed a few months, while the OS is changed to a real-time -ix (Linux and BSD zealots may start fighting about which distro is best for this now) and the software is rewritten.
I suppose having the blast crater at 1 Microsoft Way would be too much to hope for.
Perhaps you would find that less of a problem if you used conventional insulated tanks instead of using your rectum for storage. Even if it is a good place to get methane fuel.
Glad I could help.
This stuff should be part of everybody's default distro installation, and that would solve the problem. However, nobody's stepping forward to buy the licenses.
Another way to do this is put together an automatic download/install package that could be run via point-and-click, say a script telling an automated installer, and that's probably the best answer for the free distros.
The difficult part is finding out what has to be installed, and that literally took me weeks of research. (about 3,IIRC) I did this for publication so the rest of us wouldn't have to.
The tedious part is simply installing a bunch of packages. But... by and large, it's on the order of:
yum install mplayer - y at the prompt
(lather, rinse, repeat until you get to a package that actually has to be manually installed
Probably an hour or two if you've got broadband, and one or two of the packages takes a long time at somewhere around 90% CPU load to fix the dependencies, so go out for coffee when that happens.
They not only have the authority, they have the legal responsibility to do so.
They don't seem to be doing all that great a job of it.
You can find all my Linux how-to pieces here. They're more or less FC2 specific, but the procedures I should describe should work on just about anything, with minor distro-specific mods (like apt-get instead of yum, for instance)
Solution? IBM or one of other big players buys licenses that allow w32codec to be packaged with the free distros.
Google is your friend, google on:
installerprogramname problempackagename repository (make the appropriate substitutions.)
Multimedia installation: Install these applications in this order, using an automated installer such as yum, apt-get (preferably with synaptic GUI), or the urpmi mandrake installer: mplayer + components.
USE AN AUTOMATED INSTALLER, DON'T INSTALL FROM RPMS UNLESS YOU ENJOY DEPENDENCY HELL.
- mplayer
- mplayer-plugin
- skins
- w32codecs
- xine
- xine-lib-devel
- realplayer
- flash
Start playing things back and enjoy. For Fedora Core 2, follow the procedure in my article Painless Multimedia For Linux, but use the yum.conf file posted in Build a Linux Appliance, Part 2--The Extras, not the one that's posted as part of the multimedia article. (the multimedia article should be updated to refer people to the "appliance article" URL, I need to contact the editor about this)On the average, I'd trust the competence of an SOI specialist to evaluate a patent involving design of any digital integrated circuit.
Though it gets interesting if you need to go back past 1976, then you'll need the Manual of Patent Classification to find out class/subclass and it'll help a lot if you have a clue as to when... because 1975 and before is all images, and that gets f*ckin' ugly. (BTDT) But the need to do that is rare with a modern technology invention.
For more info, get a copy of "Patent it Yourself" by David Pressman (Nolo Press)