You are most welcome. I suppose that means I should update it:-).
For a new project I'm working on, I bought an Indigo2 R10000 as a web server and development system. Cost me $400 on eBay, and it's been 100% reliable since I bought it. Oldie but goodie:-).
I did a lot of the development for that project on my Titanium PowerBook and sent the source code right to the SGI for serving.
MacOS X beats it nowadays for slickness, but it's still the nicest implementation of X-Windows I've ever used.
My macs are pretty darn good at doing the jobs I assign them, so it's a nice bonus that they're pretty.
And when you look at an ugly user interface all day, you get tired eyes. That's not something you can easily quantify, it's not like a 1.33ghz Athelon versus a 1.4ghz Athelon, but it sure is something you notice.
I find it far more pleasant to look at MacOS X than Windows (or Linux, for that matter), and that really won me over to the platform. As long as it works, that's a completely natural thing. And it does.
It's worth noting that Apple followed through on that offer; when Final Cut Pro was in trouble at Macromedia, Apple took over the whole unit and they are now happily beavering away on a first-class product that has made Apple a ton of money.
I'm a very happy Final Cut Pro user, so I'm glad they did.
D
Re:Linux and Unix users are starting to care
on
BeOS For Linux
·
· Score: 2
I'd say it would be sheer folly to create a video presentation that consisted of clips of screen shots with narration on Blender or Maya, both of which are 3D modeling applications.
D
Re:Because nothing could ever improve that way
on
Zarf in Mac OS X Land
·
· Score: 2
I generally use the column view, but list view is useful because you can sort the file list by different criteria such as size, date modified and the like. This can be handy and is not available under list view.
That being said, list view is by far the easiest way I've seen to navigate a file system tree graphically.
I love xemacs and would love to have a graphical interface to xemacs, but when I tried it with X on my PowerBook, I screamed in agony upon seeing the fonts and went back to their build of emacs (which, sadly, only works on the terminal window). I sure hope someone will do a cocoa emacs one of these days; I know I should create one myself or shut up:-), but I fear I don't have the time for such a mind-warping job:-(.
I know of someone who never wants to accept change of any kind. I can understand his point of view, but it means that when improvements occur, like the installation of a new computer system, he's the last to take advantage of them.
To me, X is an enormous improvement to 9. For one thing, the "text that looks like hand-set type" is so beautiful I hate going back to anything else. Once I saw that, and got to try true multitasking on a Mac, I really hated going back to 9.
I haven't done any serious work in 9 since Final Cut Pro for MacOS X came out.
D
Re:Linux and Unix users are starting to care
on
BeOS For Linux
·
· Score: 2
Well, the leading standard operating system stinks and tries to lock you in to all sorts of proprietary stuff, so I can't say there's much of a choice there. In fact, I'd say you give up less freedom when you buy an iMac.
And Linux is similar to a proprietary OS in that there is a definite limit to what you can do - if you want to run mainstream creative applications, you need either a Windows PC or a Mac, and I know which of the two proprietary platforms I'd rather have.
Even much of Slashdot is noticing this - think about their addition of an Apple section, for instance, and the nearly fawning recent coverage. The Mac seems to be moving from strength to strength nowadays, on the path Leader Steve has blazed for us.
You can say a whole lot of bad things about Leader Steve, but nobody can say he's not effective at his job. I had a chance to take a close look at the new iMac, and it is almost lovable in its cuteness. Not to mention ergonomically perfect. The day commodity PC makers create an original design like that is the day I pay attention to them.
D
Re:Linux and Unix users are starting to care
on
BeOS For Linux
·
· Score: 2
I used Final Cut Pro to edit a presentation that had its audience rapt in their seats until the final wind-up.
You don't see that very often in the PowerPoint universe.
Besides, it's a lot more fun to be a director than it is to be almost anyone else. As the ads say, you just need a little bit of creativity... has yours dried up?
If something serves people well, and if donations in some way serve customers well, if nothing else in making them feel good about what they've done, then I don't see any problem giving money to what I certainly hope will be a profit-making entity.
My main problem right now is that I don't see much value-added from eliminating ads. I occasionally like the ads, since I can find out about some useful products or services from them.
I believe that as of last year Rob made $90k off Slashdot. That's a little less than I make, and I'd say it's a fair price for what he does.
I do think Slashdot has a lot of people with no money but a lot of time on their hands, and those people are never going to pay, no matter what their philosophy. I know; I have been one of them in the past.
But bear in mind that none of this is going to prevent people from using Slashdot for free.
D
Linux and Unix users are starting to care
on
BeOS For Linux
·
· Score: 2
A lot of people, including me, are transitioning from Linux to the Macintosh. The Mac has all the deep applications people need, while including all the coolness that is Unix. (Call me when something like Final Cut Pro or After Effects runs on Linux. And when the fonts don't look like sixth-grader crayon sketches of text:-( ).
That being said, we must say that a certain amount of variety in the computing world is necessary. Some people don't have $1,299 for an iMac (assuming the low-end model comes out sometime in the next century or two). Some of them want to build computers themselves, or buy an eMachines with a crummy 15" CRT monitor picked up at a garage sale for fifty bucks.
We can't convince these people to buy Macs; Macs are always going to be a bit for the elite, a bit for those who like spending money on fine technology. They need Linux just as we need Macs. As long as they are off the dreaded Windows, we shouldn't turn against them; if they grow older and richer, like I did, they will appreciate the better things in hardware soon enough.
So don't be against this kind of project. If it can make Linux more cool, well, those who learn it are learning the same basic operating system that underlies Macintoshes. So there should be more cross-polination between the two worlds, which I feel is all for the better.
Advocate the Mac when you can, but don't consider linux the enemy. We have a common enemy, and you know what that is. All too often we get injured in internecine squbbles instead of taking care of the most important advesary.
The people who run Slashdot are human, just like us, and need money, just like us. It does cost big bucks to put something like this together, and make sure it runs reliably. (I'm sure some long-time users are going to laugh at me for claiming that it does, but - well - it has been for some months now, and they obviously spent a lot doing it).
And I think the subscription model is actually fair - what it looks like they are doing is, effectively, telling us to run our own personal ads on Slashdot - that is, we're buying their unsold ad inventory and using it to remove ads..
Here's an idea: Subscribers could be allowed to create their own main page out of the accepted and rejected submissions, so they could run their own weblog within Slashdot with their own submissions always approved. Might be a nice ego boost.
Anyway, I certainly want to see Slashdot continue; I'm surprised at all the negative comments. You want to get paid, I want to get paid, and surely Rob et al likewise want to get paid.
It's just how the world goes 'round. It was artfully concealed for a long time... but it's still how the world goes round.
This is already being tried. I saw something suspiciously like this at Fry's - a Linux system with all major applications (WordPerfect, KDE email, Mozilla) for sale for something like $50 less than the cheapest alternative.
It was wierd, though - it seemed like it was deliberately set up to prevent people from using more than one application at a time - this is really weird considering that multitasking is a core strength of Linux. They used an odd graphical menuing system that would reappear every time you existed a program, sort of like DOS or the first versions of the Mac.
Strange. But a promising idea if someone does it right.
Seems to me a video game company would have a certain obligation to create flashy stuff, since - after all - that's what their products are all about.
The medium has to be appropriate to the message, and I'd say it isn't in this case.
After seeing that site, I certainly would not trust them to create a genuinely marketable game. For a computer hardware company or technical support, though, it would be a breath of fresh air.
I did it, and I eventually wound up with Pacific Bell. It's not great service - it's been down a few times, and support is pretty clueless. But at least it's better than nothing.
Ricochet is actually a little bit cheaper than what I'm paying, but I have five dedicated IP addresses.
Ricochet might be worth $50 a month if I could go out to Malibu or some similar scenic place and get a change of scene in the computing world.
First, it looks to me like RDRAM is still about double the cost of SDRAM, according to Tom's Hardware's own price guide.
They have $93 for 512mb SDRAM and $175-250 for 512mb RDRAM.
My question is this: Let's say I have a choice between 512mb of SDRAM and 256mb of RDRAM. Would the SDRAM not almost always be faster because RAM, however slow, trumps swap space every time?
In other words, isn't the amount of memory I have more important than how fast it is?
Many moons ago, I had a SGI O2 workstation. Tremendous memory bandwidth, but memory that cost 10x more than anything else. As a result, it could be embarassed by lesser machines, since I couldn't afford to load it up with RAM.
I see Intel repeating the same mistake when it decided to focus on RDRAM.
Apple is putting L3 cache in their G4s so that the use of expensive RAM is confined to a relatively small and affordable amount. I can upgrade my PC133-equipped G4/450 dual processor to the latest 1ghz dual processor, put my 1.5gb RAM in it, and fly. That seems like a good compromise to me, maybe better than going to DDR, which I would have to buy new.
My Canon EOS D30 Digital SLR has a CMOS sensor said to have lower battery use, but I think the main secret is that you use the optical viewfinder to compose shots instead of the power-sapping LCD. As a result, my camera never, ever runs out of juice.
The D30 buffers images, so I never have to wait for them to be saved to the CF card. When I had the Nikon 990, I had the same problem you do now, and it was horribly aggrivating.
The D30 cost me $3,385, including lens and CF card, so if $3,000 is really your top, it's not that far away. If you got a cheap prime lens instead of the fancy zoom I got, you could probably just squeeze under the $3,000 limit.
You might enjoy reading my review of the D30:
http://www.epinions.com/content_55600909956
Worse yet, the ads are misleading. They imply that the quality of images produced by an X10 camera is adequate.
Fry's had a demonstration of the XCam, and the picture was so fuzzy as to be virtually unusable. Even the voyueristic possibilities inherent in the X10 ads would be destroyed by the awful quality.
I'd like to see something that would show computer literate people how to use graphics programs (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc).
There are plenty of books that talk about computer principles to people who know graphical principles, but I haven't seen anything that tells people how to use graphics software who know how to select stuff from menus but don't know how to point a pen.
I know there are books about drawing, but I want to see drawing oriented towards computers. As far as I know, there are still no books like this, but I think we programmer types could use a dose of art instruction tailored for us.
As I said, I think it's the most usable X-Windows interface out there. But it would be nice if it was updated just a little, with thinner window borders and similar changes.
Certainly loads more usable than Gnome in my view.
I think it takes a massive indocrination in Middle Eastern culture to make someone want to commit suicide for the cause. Our own indocrination includes a respect for human life, and I think it works even for most people who convert to other religions and associate themselves with other cultures.
I know there are plenty of black Muslims, and they talk a good game about uprisings and the like, but I don't think I've ever seen them behave suicidally.
I'm sure there are white Muslims, and Chinese ones, and so on and on, but again - it takes a special kind of mind to become a suicide bomber. So far, I don't think we've found any who are not of Middle Eastern origin. There may be some who are not, but if you want to go on probabilities, the message seems clear enough.
I was lucky enough to snap one up in their closeout offer. $595 plus $31 shipping and sales tax. And it works great on my Mac at home, although the one I had my company buy for me still can't do 1600x1024 thanks to an unfortunate lack of Linux drivers:-(.
Perhaps best of all, since it's the remanufactured special, it still has the old SGI logo on it instead of the new abomination:-).
The Apple Cinema Display is better, but the price difference is rather stunning, especially considering that SGI is the company noted for excessive prices:-(. I describe the 1600SW to Macheads as a 3/4 scale Cinema Display.
I was amazed to see that the 1600SW replacement is just 1280x1024 and is therefore just like any other monitor. I'm surprised they gave up the extra resolution, which they should have known was what made their unit special.
What kind of video editing software runs on these systems, and how much does it cost?
I still think Irix is the most usable of any X-Windows environment, but it's beginning to show its age. Have they considered tweaking it a bit so it's not so Motif-like?
I still use an Indigo2 R10000 at home. It sure was easy to buy at $400-odd.
Slashdot Mirror
You are most welcome. I suppose that means I should update it :-).
:-).
For a new project I'm working on, I bought an Indigo2 R10000 as a web server and development system. Cost me $400 on eBay, and it's been 100% reliable since I bought it. Oldie but goodie
I did a lot of the development for that project on my Titanium PowerBook and sent the source code right to the SGI for serving.
MacOS X beats it nowadays for slickness, but it's still the nicest implementation of X-Windows I've ever used.
D
My macs are pretty darn good at doing the jobs I assign them, so it's a nice bonus that they're pretty.
And when you look at an ugly user interface all day, you get tired eyes. That's not something you can easily quantify, it's not like a 1.33ghz Athelon versus a 1.4ghz Athelon, but it sure is something you notice.
I find it far more pleasant to look at MacOS X than Windows (or Linux, for that matter), and that really won me over to the platform. As long as it works, that's a completely natural thing. And it does.
D
It's worth noting that Apple followed through on that offer; when Final Cut Pro was in trouble at Macromedia, Apple took over the whole unit and they are now happily beavering away on a first-class product that has made Apple a ton of money.
I'm a very happy Final Cut Pro user, so I'm glad they did.
D
I'd say it would be sheer folly to create a video presentation that consisted of clips of screen shots with narration on Blender or Maya, both of which are 3D modeling applications.
D
I generally use the column view, but list view is useful because you can sort the file list by different criteria such as size, date modified and the like. This can be handy and is not available under list view.
:-), but I fear I don't have the time for such a mind-warping job :-(.
That being said, list view is by far the easiest way I've seen to navigate a file system tree graphically.
I love xemacs and would love to have a graphical interface to xemacs, but when I tried it with X on my PowerBook, I screamed in agony upon seeing the fonts and went back to their build of emacs (which, sadly, only works on the terminal window). I sure hope someone will do a cocoa emacs one of these days; I know I should create one myself or shut up
D
For what it's worth, I just paid. Not like $5 is going to kill me or anything.
I would have preferred a flat fee, though. It does bug me a little that they're effectively charging me to post.
The ad-free experience is actually very nice. Better than I'd thought. And if I miss the ads, I can always post a message, where they appear.
D
I know of someone who never wants to accept change of any kind. I can understand his point of view, but it means that when improvements occur, like the installation of a new computer system, he's the last to take advantage of them.
To me, X is an enormous improvement to 9. For one thing, the "text that looks like hand-set type" is so beautiful I hate going back to anything else. Once I saw that, and got to try true multitasking on a Mac, I really hated going back to 9.
I haven't done any serious work in 9 since Final Cut Pro for MacOS X came out.
D
Well, the leading standard operating system stinks and tries to lock you in to all sorts of proprietary stuff, so I can't say there's much of a choice there. In fact, I'd say you give up less freedom when you buy an iMac.
And Linux is similar to a proprietary OS in that there is a definite limit to what you can do - if you want to run mainstream creative applications, you need either a Windows PC or a Mac, and I know which of the two proprietary platforms I'd rather have.
Even much of Slashdot is noticing this - think about their addition of an Apple section, for instance, and the nearly fawning recent coverage. The Mac seems to be moving from strength to strength nowadays, on the path Leader Steve has blazed for us.
You can say a whole lot of bad things about Leader Steve, but nobody can say he's not effective at his job. I had a chance to take a close look at the new iMac, and it is almost lovable in its cuteness. Not to mention ergonomically perfect. The day commodity PC makers create an original design like that is the day I pay attention to them.
D
I used Final Cut Pro to edit a presentation that had its audience rapt in their seats until the final wind-up.
... has yours dried up?
You don't see that very often in the PowerPoint universe.
Besides, it's a lot more fun to be a director than it is to be almost anyone else. As the ads say, you just need a little bit of creativity
D
I have to admit that I found this bizarre; when confronted with the same dialogue, I clicked on the lock, typed in my password and all was well.
No problems at all for me.
His final conclusion seems to be that he'll do just fine with it, which is doubly odd, all things considered.
D
If something serves people well, and if donations in some way serve customers well, if nothing else in making them feel good about what they've done, then I don't see any problem giving money to what I certainly hope will be a profit-making entity.
My main problem right now is that I don't see much value-added from eliminating ads. I occasionally like the ads, since I can find out about some useful products or services from them.
I believe that as of last year Rob made $90k off Slashdot. That's a little less than I make, and I'd say it's a fair price for what he does.
I do think Slashdot has a lot of people with no money but a lot of time on their hands, and those people are never going to pay, no matter what their philosophy. I know; I have been one of them in the past.
But bear in mind that none of this is going to prevent people from using Slashdot for free.
D
A lot of people, including me, are transitioning from Linux to the Macintosh. The Mac has all the deep applications people need, while including all the coolness that is Unix. (Call me when something like Final Cut Pro or After Effects runs on Linux. And when the fonts don't look like sixth-grader crayon sketches of text :-( ).
That being said, we must say that a certain amount of variety in the computing world is necessary. Some people don't have $1,299 for an iMac (assuming the low-end model comes out sometime in the next century or two). Some of them want to build computers themselves, or buy an eMachines with a crummy 15" CRT monitor picked up at a garage sale for fifty bucks.
We can't convince these people to buy Macs; Macs are always going to be a bit for the elite, a bit for those who like spending money on fine technology. They need Linux just as we need Macs. As long as they are off the dreaded Windows, we shouldn't turn against them; if they grow older and richer, like I did, they will appreciate the better things in hardware soon enough.
So don't be against this kind of project. If it can make Linux more cool, well, those who learn it are learning the same basic operating system that underlies Macintoshes. So there should be more cross-polination between the two worlds, which I feel is all for the better.
Advocate the Mac when you can, but don't consider linux the enemy. We have a common enemy, and you know what that is. All too often we get injured in internecine squbbles instead of taking care of the most important advesary.
Hope that helps.
D
The people who run Slashdot are human, just like us, and need money, just like us. It does cost big bucks to put something like this together, and make sure it runs reliably. (I'm sure some long-time users are going to laugh at me for claiming that it does, but - well - it has been for some months now, and they obviously spent a lot doing it).
... but it's still how the world goes round.
And I think the subscription model is actually fair - what it looks like they are doing is, effectively, telling us to run our own personal ads on Slashdot - that is, we're buying their unsold ad inventory and using it to remove ads..
Here's an idea: Subscribers could be allowed to create their own main page out of the accepted and rejected submissions, so they could run their own weblog within Slashdot with their own submissions always approved. Might be a nice ego boost.
Anyway, I certainly want to see Slashdot continue; I'm surprised at all the negative comments. You want to get paid, I want to get paid, and surely Rob et al likewise want to get paid.
It's just how the world goes 'round. It was artfully concealed for a long time
D
This is already being tried. I saw something suspiciously like this at Fry's - a Linux system with all major applications (WordPerfect, KDE email, Mozilla) for sale for something like $50 less than the cheapest alternative.
It was wierd, though - it seemed like it was deliberately set up to prevent people from using more than one application at a time - this is really weird considering that multitasking is a core strength of Linux. They used an odd graphical menuing system that would reappear every time you existed a program, sort of like DOS or the first versions of the Mac.
Strange. But a promising idea if someone does it right.
D
Seems to me a video game company would have a certain obligation to create flashy stuff, since - after all - that's what their products are all about.
The medium has to be appropriate to the message, and I'd say it isn't in this case.
After seeing that site, I certainly would not trust them to create a genuinely marketable game. For a computer hardware company or technical support, though, it would be a breath of fresh air.
D
I did it, and I eventually wound up with Pacific Bell. It's not great service - it's been down a few times, and support is pretty clueless. But at least it's better than nothing.
Ricochet is actually a little bit cheaper than what I'm paying, but I have five dedicated IP addresses.
Ricochet might be worth $50 a month if I could go out to Malibu or some similar scenic place and get a change of scene in the computing world.
D
First, it looks to me like RDRAM is still about double the cost of SDRAM, according to Tom's Hardware's own price guide.
They have $93 for 512mb SDRAM and $175-250 for 512mb RDRAM.
My question is this: Let's say I have a choice between 512mb of SDRAM and 256mb of RDRAM. Would the SDRAM not almost always be faster because RAM, however slow, trumps swap space every time?
In other words, isn't the amount of memory I have more important than how fast it is?
Many moons ago, I had a SGI O2 workstation. Tremendous memory bandwidth, but memory that cost 10x more than anything else. As a result, it could be embarassed by lesser machines, since I couldn't afford to load it up with RAM.
I see Intel repeating the same mistake when it decided to focus on RDRAM.
Apple is putting L3 cache in their G4s so that the use of expensive RAM is confined to a relatively small and affordable amount. I can upgrade my PC133-equipped G4/450 dual processor to the latest 1ghz dual processor, put my 1.5gb RAM in it, and fly. That seems like a good compromise to me, maybe better than going to DDR, which I would have to buy new.
Thoughts?
D
My Canon EOS D30 Digital SLR has a CMOS sensor said to have lower battery use, but I think the main secret is that you use the optical viewfinder to compose shots instead of the power-sapping LCD. As a result, my camera never, ever runs out of juice.
The D30 buffers images, so I never have to wait for them to be saved to the CF card. When I had the Nikon 990, I had the same problem you do now, and it was horribly aggrivating.
The D30 cost me $3,385, including lens and CF card, so if $3,000 is really your top, it's not that far away. If you got a cheap prime lens instead of the fancy zoom I got, you could probably just squeeze under the $3,000 limit.
You might enjoy reading my review of the D30:
http://www.epinions.com/content_55600909956
D
Worse yet, the ads are misleading. They imply that the quality of images produced by an X10 camera is adequate.
Fry's had a demonstration of the XCam, and the picture was so fuzzy as to be virtually unusable. Even the voyueristic possibilities inherent in the X10 ads would be destroyed by the awful quality.
You have been warned.
D
Look at Steve Jobs, indeed. He may be a mean SOB, but his products are wonderful.
:-).
Ask anyone who uses them, and you'll get an hour lecture on how wonderful they are
In my book, that counts for a lot.
D
I'd like to see something that would show computer literate people how to use graphics programs (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc).
There are plenty of books that talk about computer principles to people who know graphical principles, but I haven't seen anything that tells people how to use graphics software who know how to select stuff from menus but don't know how to point a pen.
I know there are books about drawing, but I want to see drawing oriented towards computers. As far as I know, there are still no books like this, but I think we programmer types could use a dose of art instruction tailored for us.
Thoughts?
D
As I said, I think it's the most usable X-Windows interface out there. But it would be nice if it was updated just a little, with thinner window borders and similar changes.
Certainly loads more usable than Gnome in my view.
D
I think it takes a massive indocrination in Middle Eastern culture to make someone want to commit suicide for the cause. Our own indocrination includes a respect for human life, and I think it works even for most people who convert to other religions and associate themselves with other cultures.
I know there are plenty of black Muslims, and they talk a good game about uprisings and the like, but I don't think I've ever seen them behave suicidally.
I'm sure there are white Muslims, and Chinese ones, and so on and on, but again - it takes a special kind of mind to become a suicide bomber. So far, I don't think we've found any who are not of Middle Eastern origin. There may be some who are not, but if you want to go on probabilities, the message seems clear enough.
D
I was lucky enough to snap one up in their closeout offer. $595 plus $31 shipping and sales tax. And it works great on my Mac at home, although the one I had my company buy for me still can't do 1600x1024 thanks to an unfortunate lack of Linux drivers :-(.
:-).
:-(. I describe the 1600SW to Macheads as a 3/4 scale Cinema Display.
Perhaps best of all, since it's the remanufactured special, it still has the old SGI logo on it instead of the new abomination
The Apple Cinema Display is better, but the price difference is rather stunning, especially considering that SGI is the company noted for excessive prices
I was amazed to see that the 1600SW replacement is just 1280x1024 and is therefore just like any other monitor. I'm surprised they gave up the extra resolution, which they should have known was what made their unit special.
Bizarre.
D
What kind of video editing software runs on these systems, and how much does it cost?
I still think Irix is the most usable of any X-Windows environment, but it's beginning to show its age. Have they considered tweaking it a bit so it's not so Motif-like?
I still use an Indigo2 R10000 at home. It sure was easy to buy at $400-odd.
D