To be honest I preferred exile 3(or the Blades of Exile) interface and graphics to the avernum one. Plus exile 3 runs "natively" under linux and avernum seems to perform poorly under wine. These are games will eventually buy(though the demos are massive). I want to finish them. Hours of fun.
Last time I used it it couldn't cope with modern kernels. I had to use linld, which worked.
FreeDOS and linld are very useful for installing Linux to a machine which won't boot from a cd drive(for example a laptop with a damaged internal drive thats too old to boot from usb).
The other trick is to lie on your back and look "upward". If you do it right, you can even get a sense of vertigo. Best way to watch sunsets too. Lie with your head towards the sun and watch it by looking up. Its probably because you can't see the horizon so well anymore, so the sky takes more of your field of view.
Actually, I just came here to gloat, because where I live its trivial to get to a place where light pollution has minimal effect:). Heck during some powercuts its like being deep in the bush with almost no light pollution..
As a British English Speaker, "airplane" looks wrong since we pronounce "aeroplane" like it is spelled. Like Aero-space. Aeroplane is actually the correct usage. But I guess people will never agree. My spell checker accepts both though..:)
I think you may have missed my point - in retrospect perhaps I wasn't clear enough. They won't switch to a legal version of enterprise...
If you get a limited version of windows 7, just upgrade. It doesn't actually cost anything. There may be a demand for 7, but there is no market since no money ever changes hands. The only legit versions of windows are those that come on laptops. These only remain legit if they are full versions.
What is driving people to switch to linux here is not cost, but simply the fact that at the moment you can get away with using Linux without a antivirus which eats bandwidth for updates. Bandwidth is certainly not cheap here.
At the moment, Linux covers all my needs better than windows - I prefer the free PIC development software to the windows version from Microchip. But for a general user, I'm not convinced its quite there yet. Its very close though.
Except that few people in the developing world will really be interested in being limited like that. Its only a matter of time before they all run Enterprise. And yes, I live in Africa.
The reason I can't give you a price for "Starter" is there is absolutely no market for it here. Dirt cheap is meaningless compared to free. On top of that a lot will stick with malware target number 1 (XP) because it runs fairly well on low spec machines (think P2-P3).
Then there are the few that have gone or are going the linux route. Nope, no market at all here.
First time I read LOTR. I was about 16 and it took me less than four days. I don't do that sort of thing regularly though - there aren't enough good books in the world.
Didn't they say it is changing because of stuff like solar winds? In which case it becomes difficult to characterise it. Perhaps if we better understood our sun and could predict its state and hence the shape of the bubble. It sounds a bit like an extremely complicated weather prediction to me.
1. Slavery was still present in the New Testament world.
2. Wives submit to your husbands and husbands submit to your wives. You're taking other passages out of context to read other meanings into them. Stop it.
3. A sacrifice to end all sacrifices where the one sacrificed come back from the dead? You got a problem with this? Seriously?
Reject christianity? sure. Bash it ignorantly? You'd be stupid to do that.
Uh, no. As someone who lives in the third world, I'll tell you no one here is interested in being limited like that. Thanks but no thanks. They'll continue to pirate XP, which runs quite a few applications with 512RAM on a P3 acceptably. And 20Gb drives are still common here - forget 160Gb.
The inexperienced users won't run that many anyway. Its a completely pointless waste of time.
Use a plastic coke bottle. Its lighter, and in an emergency, you can crush it and get most of your acceleration back, so it is safer. Just remember to drink the coke first!:)
You should check if you can't move to a South African university. Maybe you can try to apply for bursaries at South African companies?
I am most likely going to try and do a masters in south africa. I only have two months left at NUST before I finish the degree, so at this point it is not really worth moving. I checked, the south africans still recognise NUST.
It is difficult to find a descent circuit simulator under windows too:( The best circuit simulators are unfortunately commercial â" there aren't any good open source ones. The gEda project provides some (editor + SPICE) â" but to be honest I have not used it. I used a copy of Orcad Pspice 9 (old one) to do some circuit stuff last year (it is freely available for Windows).
Thanks, I will have to look into those. A couple of years back, NUST actually bought some licenses for circuit maker pro, which isn't too bad. For schematic design though it is terrible, so I have been using an open source program called kicad.
I doubt anyone will boot windows though. It is literally unusable - an hour to log in, then it tries to load explorer and crashes.
That is a sign of bad lab management. What they usually do at my university is to create one master image and then just copy the image to a PC (with all the updates& software installed). The PC also runs Deep Freeze that prevents anyone else from installing any other software on the PCs.
The problem is the technician has no connection to update the machines. NUST runs exactly one subnet(the IT services are crazy) and won't allow us to break off into a subnet or set up our own internet connection even though theirs is down. It is against "policy". As a result the unpatched machines are being hacked over the network somehow. When I plug my linux laptop into the network, I receive over 1Mb/minute of traffic that is blocked because it is a worm trying to get control of my PC. This is before the memory stick viruses that infect all memory sticks around here. Or the fact that our domain controller is still NT4.
Since most students with laptops are already dual booting to linux anyway, I suspect the learning curve will not be a problem. Of all things, we actually used to (until the lecturer left) have an optional Unix administration course. I don't see any other way out actually. Neither does the technician who administers the lab. We will switch a couple of machines to dual boot, and if it is popular (which it will probably be) set up a server and switch the rest.
I used a GPRS connection two years ago. It was horrible (unreliable & low latency) but it is at least better than nothing! I currently have 3G which is a little bit better.
I've noticed. They've started giving me EDGE speeds recently, but it is still highly unreliable. Believe it or not, the service provider here will be launching 3G soon, but it is way out of my budget. In a lot of ways this country is a very strange place.
We have been hit by a nasty virus and the net connection is down, so we can't get updates to fix it. I'm lucky, I have GPRS, but that is a personal connection and not sufficient to fix NUST. Re-installation lasts about a day.
Honest question: do the universities still function in Zimbabwe? I see a lot of economic refugees from Zimbabwe (some even with British teaching degrees).
As opposed to a dishonest question?:) At least one university does, but that is basically because they told the government to stuff off and started charging fees. It was a bit harsh(a lot of students dropped out), but it had to be done as free education is a bit of an oxymoron. Since they are actually paying the lecturers, we still have some decent ones. The brilliant are long gone I'm afraid.
Your university does not manage it right. It is the university's responsibility to distribute the free Microsoft software. Some universities do not tell their students about it or manage it badly.
Wouldn't be the first time. The IT services department is completely incompetent. Which is why the electronics department manages its own labs, though unfortunately not the internet connection.
One of my problems is downloading a linux distro - since it is usually more than 3 cds. Windows is fairly small and available as a pirated version.
The linux distributions (around here at least) make the rounds just like the pirated XP cds. Only one person really needs to download anything. In fact my last DVD (mandriva 2009) came from south africa where they have better bandwidth. Most people couldn't easily trace who originally downloaded what.
But the sysadmin wants to switch now.
It is quite problematic for a university lab to âoeswitchâ to linux since a lot of software used in other courses (electronic engineering, mechanical engineering) are Windows only. A better solution is to have a dual boot system so that the user's can choose.
We will certainly do so, though I can say, with one exception, I have better electronics software under linux than windows. For example, this is a full replacement for mplab which most people here actually prefer. I have yet to find a decent circuit simulator for linux, but everything else is there. There is also the possibility of virtual machines that can be isolated from the network/USB ports. I doubt anyone will boot windows though. It is literally unusable - an hour to log in, then it tries to load explorer and crashes. We have been hit by a nast
I don't think doing damage is mutually exclusive with resulting in damage. In any case, whether or not it is damaging(which is hardly provable on an internet forum), I - like many in society - have zero tolerance for it. Therefore we will continue to "take out the trash". I don't care if there is demand or not. I don't want that junk anywhere near me or my family thanks - even accidentally.
Nah, I'm a student who runs linux and works part time converting people to linux. A lot of people here in Zimbabwe are sick of windows. We don't have bandwidth for updates and antivirus programs.
Sure, you need to update linux too, but you can get away with a once a year dvd.
Oh, and no student I know has ever seen a microsoft giveaway. I guess they forgot about us. 100% of microsoft software here is pirated or came with the machine. Except the uni, which paid full price for junky XP home edition... But the sysadmin wants to switch now. He is as sick of windows as the rest of us.
It does help, though the problem with Ubuntu is the mix of packages on the DVD is not always ideal for Africa. Download bandwidth to get the right packages is expensive(we're mostly on dial up). Maybe its changed now, but as a result of difficulties I've had, I recommend Mandriva to the people here in Zimbabwe. Even this has problems especially for the engineering students here. I had to compile pikdev from source and download and distribute LyX and GNU PIC utils with the DVD. I normally put them on the person's flash, but then you have to explain how to install.. I must make a mandriva pikdev package when I get time. But in general, I've found mandriva more useful than ubuntu, especially with its awesome control centre which helps new users no end.
We actually need more custom distributions in Africa.
"'You buy Microsoft software, and you buy it once and for all, the cost that we tell you is the total cost for ownership.'"
And then Microsoft stops supporting the product, changes the formats the products uses, and makes prior formats erratic or impossible to implement.
You missed it dude. You don't buy Microsoft software in Africa. You pirate it. Trust me, I know. And when they stop supporting it, who cares? My uni still runs NT4. Sure it sucks. But that is how things are here.
Who knows, maybe I'll finally manage to persuade the department to switch to Linux, but I'm not holding my breath.
> They will tell you, the truest act of love is love even when you don't feel like it. That is a choice.
Then I don't think you're talking about love, I think you're talking about commitment - especially emotional commitment. It happens all the time in love and politics. I think it has more to do with fear of the consequences of being wrong than with any actual philosophical position.
This is the problem. We will probably not agree on this. We could go on to talk about Greek words for love and the fact that they had five of them and in English we have one. I doubt I would convince you though. But the truth is, if you go and ask an old couple, they will tell you why they are old and happy and love each other. However as a matter of curiosity, since you reject my definition (which is biblical and thus part of my world view), please provide yours.
> Why do you think society hates mothers who slap around their kids when they feel like it, but is OK with those who can restrain themselves
Why do you think society loves a god who allows bad things to happen to good people, and is okay with him letting good things happen to bad people?
The usual response is "we can't understand God's reasons for these things," but when something good happens to good people or bad happens to bad people, they seem to have no problem understanding "God's reasons."
You are correct; that is a large portion of people's answer. Mine is not God allows bad things to happen to good people. It is people allow bad things to happen to people or worse, are often the cause. Don't forget I have believe in free will. If God were to remove the consequences of my decisions, what would be the point in me making them? Again, you look at what I believe through the glasses of what you believe. The difference is, for some years, I have been able to see your point of view, even if I disagree.
At this point you will, quite predictably bring up natural disasters. The Christian view is these are the consequence of man moving away from God's protection. You may argue that this is unfair, but that becomes opinion.
> If you want to talk about the old and new testament differences, you have to realise, the old testament is man at war with God
I know a number of Jews who would dispute that point.
Which is fine. Jews and Christians have never really agreed on all theological matters. This should be obvious since they do not accept Christ as the messiah.
> Thus both God's and our attitude must change. This should hardly be surprising.
"I the Lord do not change." - Malachi 3:6
Indeed, he does not. If you find your room full of stinking trash, you'd be disgusted and possibly angry. If you find it clean and tidy, you'd be happy to go into it. Have you changed? Really?:)
> A lot of people, myself included, will go further and say, to paraphrase old Lewis, the gates of Hell are barred from the inside.
Ah yes, blaming the victim. It's an old story - especially for those who never had the chance to be saved and are thus condemned.
The story is different for those who never had the chance. Paul writes about things "so that they may have no excuse", which implies there is an excuse. God states he will "have mercy on whom he will have mercy." Jesus is the only way to God, but how many ways can there be to Jesus?
But if you actively reject God's love, you are no victim. All God does is allow you to go your own way and face the consequences of your own actions. What could be fairer than that?
> Love is not possible without a choice. If there is no choice, you are just a robot acting out a play.
Again, I disagree. Love is something you discover, not something you choose. Who knows the ultimate cause?
Well, would you agree it is possible to accept or rejec
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To be honest I preferred exile 3(or the Blades of Exile) interface and graphics to the avernum one. Plus exile 3 runs "natively" under linux and avernum seems to perform poorly under wine. These are games will eventually buy(though the demos are massive). I want to finish them. Hours of fun.
Not so far, but empathy and pidgin work. I prefer kopete, but until it is fixed, empathy seems decent.
"Huge Tracts of Ice..." (With apologies to monty python... )
Last time I used it it couldn't cope with modern kernels. I had to use linld, which worked.
FreeDOS and linld are very useful for installing Linux to a machine which won't boot from a cd drive(for example a laptop with a damaged internal drive thats too old to boot from usb).
The other trick is to lie on your back and look "upward". If you do it right, you can even get a sense of vertigo. Best way to watch sunsets too. Lie with your head towards the sun and watch it by looking up. Its probably because you can't see the horizon so well anymore, so the sky takes more of your field of view.
Actually, I just came here to gloat, because where I live its trivial to get to a place where light pollution has minimal effect :). Heck during some powercuts its like being deep in the bush with almost no light pollution..
As a British English Speaker, "airplane" looks wrong since we pronounce "aeroplane" like it is spelled. Like Aero-space. Aeroplane is actually the correct usage. But I guess people will never agree. My spell checker accepts both though.. :)
I think you may have missed my point - in retrospect perhaps I wasn't clear enough. They won't switch to a legal version of enterprise...
If you get a limited version of windows 7, just upgrade. It doesn't actually cost anything. There may be a demand for 7, but there is no market since no money ever changes hands. The only legit versions of windows are those that come on laptops. These only remain legit if they are full versions.
What is driving people to switch to linux here is not cost, but simply the fact that at the moment you can get away with using Linux without a antivirus which eats bandwidth for updates. Bandwidth is certainly not cheap here.
At the moment, Linux covers all my needs better than windows - I prefer the free PIC development software to the windows version from Microchip. But for a general user, I'm not convinced its quite there yet. Its very close though.
Except that few people in the developing world will really be interested in being limited like that. Its only a matter of time before they all run Enterprise. And yes, I live in Africa.
The reason I can't give you a price for "Starter" is there is absolutely no market for it here. Dirt cheap is meaningless compared to free. On top of that a lot will stick with malware target number 1 (XP) because it runs fairly well on low spec machines (think P2-P3).
Then there are the few that have gone or are going the linux route. Nope, no market at all here.
First time I read LOTR. I was about 16 and it took me less than four days. I don't do that sort of thing regularly though - there aren't enough good books in the world.
Then, I have always known I was a bit insane... :}
Didn't they say it is changing because of stuff like solar winds? In which case it becomes difficult to characterise it. Perhaps if we better understood our sun and could predict its state and hence the shape of the bubble. It sounds a bit like an extremely complicated weather prediction to me.
1. Slavery was still present in the New Testament world.
2. Wives submit to your husbands and husbands submit to your wives. You're taking other passages out of context to read other meanings into them. Stop it.
3. A sacrifice to end all sacrifices where the one sacrificed come back from the dead? You got a problem with this? Seriously?
Reject christianity? sure. Bash it ignorantly? You'd be stupid to do that.
Uh, no. As someone who lives in the third world, I'll tell you no one here is interested in being limited like that. Thanks but no thanks. They'll continue to pirate XP, which runs quite a few applications with 512RAM on a P3 acceptably. And 20Gb drives are still common here - forget 160Gb.
The inexperienced users won't run that many anyway. Its a completely pointless waste of time.
We really need an undo for moderation. Oh, well, I guess I can now post in this discussion.
Use a plastic coke bottle. Its lighter, and in an emergency, you can crush it and get most of your acceleration back, so it is safer. Just remember to drink the coke first! :)
Thanks man. I didn't know about that shortcut. You've just made my life easier.
You should check if you can't move to a South African university. Maybe you can try to apply for bursaries at South African companies?
I am most likely going to try and do a masters in south africa. I only have two months left at NUST before I finish the degree, so at this point it is not really worth moving. I checked, the south africans still recognise NUST.
It is difficult to find a descent circuit simulator under windows too :( The best circuit simulators are unfortunately commercial â" there aren't any good open source ones. The gEda project provides some (editor + SPICE) â" but to be honest I have not used it. I used a copy of Orcad Pspice 9 (old one) to do some circuit stuff last year (it is freely available for Windows).
Thanks, I will have to look into those. A couple of years back, NUST actually bought some licenses for circuit maker pro, which isn't too bad. For schematic design though it is terrible, so I have been using an open source program called kicad.
I doubt anyone will boot windows though. It is literally unusable - an hour to log in, then it tries to load explorer and crashes.
That is a sign of bad lab management. What they usually do at my university is to create one master image and then just copy the image to a PC (with all the updates& software installed). The PC also runs Deep Freeze that prevents anyone else from installing any other software on the PCs.
The problem is the technician has no connection to update the machines. NUST runs exactly one subnet(the IT services are crazy) and won't allow us to break off into a subnet or set up our own internet connection even though theirs is down. It is against "policy". As a result the unpatched machines are being hacked over the network somehow. When I plug my linux laptop into the network, I receive over 1Mb/minute of traffic that is blocked because it is a worm trying to get control of my PC. This is before the memory stick viruses that infect all memory sticks around here. Or the fact that our domain controller is still NT4.
Since most students with laptops are already dual booting to linux anyway, I suspect the learning curve will not be a problem. Of all things, we actually used to (until the lecturer left) have an optional Unix administration course. I don't see any other way out actually. Neither does the technician who administers the lab. We will switch a couple of machines to dual boot, and if it is popular (which it will probably be) set up a server and switch the rest.
I used a GPRS connection two years ago. It was horrible (unreliable & low latency) but it is at least better than nothing! I currently have 3G which is a little bit better.
I've noticed. They've started giving me EDGE speeds recently, but it is still highly unreliable. Believe it or not, the service provider here will be launching 3G soon, but it is way out of my budget. In a lot of ways this country is a very strange place.
We have been hit by a nasty virus and the net connection is down, so we can't get updates to fix it. I'm lucky, I have GPRS, but that is a personal connection and not sufficient to fix NUST. Re-installation lasts about a day.
Honest question: do the universities still function in Zimbabwe? I see a lot of economic refugees from Zimbabwe (some even with British teaching degrees).
As opposed to a dishonest question? :) At least one university does, but that is basically because they told the government to stuff off and started charging fees. It was a bit harsh(a lot of students dropped out), but it had to be done as free education is a bit of an oxymoron. Since they are actually paying the lecturers, we still have some decent ones. The brilliant are long gone I'm afraid.
Your university does not manage it right. It is the university's responsibility to distribute the free Microsoft software. Some universities do not tell their students about it or manage it badly.
Wouldn't be the first time. The IT services department is completely incompetent. Which is why the electronics department manages its own labs, though unfortunately not the internet connection.
One of my problems is downloading a linux distro - since it is usually more than 3 cds. Windows is fairly small and available as a pirated version.
The linux distributions (around here at least) make the rounds just like the pirated XP cds. Only one person really needs to download anything. In fact my last DVD (mandriva 2009) came from south africa where they have better bandwidth. Most people couldn't easily trace who originally downloaded what.
But the sysadmin wants to switch now.
It is quite problematic for a university lab to âoeswitchâ to linux since a lot of software used in other courses (electronic engineering, mechanical engineering) are Windows only. A better solution is to have a dual boot system so that the user's can choose.
We will certainly do so, though I can say, with one exception, I have better electronics software under linux than windows. For example, this is a full replacement for mplab which most people here actually prefer. I have yet to find a decent circuit simulator for linux, but everything else is there. There is also the possibility of virtual machines that can be isolated from the network/USB ports. I doubt anyone will boot windows though. It is literally unusable - an hour to log in, then it tries to load explorer and crashes. We have been hit by a nast
I don't think doing damage is mutually exclusive with resulting in damage. In any case, whether or not it is damaging(which is hardly provable on an internet forum), I - like many in society - have zero tolerance for it. Therefore we will continue to "take out the trash". I don't care if there is demand or not. I don't want that junk anywhere near me or my family thanks - even accidentally.
Just remember, he wasn't actually elected..
His analogy does fall apart there. Though, one man's trash is another man's Gold.
I suspect you know what he means and are simply being pedantic.
Nah, I'm a student who runs linux and works part time converting people to linux. A lot of people here in Zimbabwe are sick of windows. We don't have bandwidth for updates and antivirus programs.
Sure, you need to update linux too, but you can get away with a once a year dvd.
Oh, and no student I know has ever seen a microsoft giveaway. I guess they forgot about us. 100% of microsoft software here is pirated or came with the machine. Except the uni, which paid full price for junky XP home edition... But the sysadmin wants to switch now. He is as sick of windows as the rest of us.
It does help, though the problem with Ubuntu is the mix of packages on the DVD is not always ideal for Africa. Download bandwidth to get the right packages is expensive(we're mostly on dial up). Maybe its changed now, but as a result of difficulties I've had, I recommend Mandriva to the people here in Zimbabwe. Even this has problems especially for the engineering students here. I had to compile pikdev from source and download and distribute LyX and GNU PIC utils with the DVD. I normally put them on the person's flash, but then you have to explain how to install.. I must make a mandriva pikdev package when I get time. But in general, I've found mandriva more useful than ubuntu, especially with its awesome control centre which helps new users no end.
We actually need more custom distributions in Africa.
"'You buy Microsoft software, and you buy it once and for all, the cost that we tell you is the total cost for ownership.'"
And then Microsoft stops supporting the product, changes the formats the products uses, and makes prior formats erratic or impossible to implement.
You missed it dude. You don't buy Microsoft software in Africa. You pirate it. Trust me, I know. And when they stop supporting it, who cares? My uni still runs NT4. Sure it sucks. But that is how things are here.
Who knows, maybe I'll finally manage to persuade the department to switch to Linux, but I'm not holding my breath.
> They will tell you, the truest act of love is love even when you don't feel like it. That is a choice.
Then I don't think you're talking about love, I think you're talking about commitment - especially emotional commitment. It happens all the time in love and politics. I think it has more to do with fear of the consequences of being wrong than with any actual philosophical position.
This is the problem. We will probably not agree on this. We could go on to talk about Greek words for love and the fact that they had five of them and in English we have one. I doubt I would convince you though. But the truth is, if you go and ask an old couple, they will tell you why they are old and happy and love each other. However as a matter of curiosity, since you reject my definition (which is biblical and thus part of my world view), please provide yours.
> Why do you think society hates mothers who slap around their kids when they feel like it, but is OK with those who can restrain themselves
Why do you think society loves a god who allows bad things to happen to good people, and is okay with him letting good things happen to bad people?
The usual response is "we can't understand God's reasons for these things," but when something good happens to good people or bad happens to bad people, they seem to have no problem understanding "God's reasons."
You are correct; that is a large portion of people's answer. Mine is not God allows bad things to happen to good people. It is people allow bad things to happen to people or worse, are often the cause. Don't forget I have believe in free will. If God were to remove the consequences of my decisions, what would be the point in me making them? Again, you look at what I believe through the glasses of what you believe. The difference is, for some years, I have been able to see your point of view, even if I disagree.
At this point you will, quite predictably bring up natural disasters. The Christian view is these are the consequence of man moving away from God's protection. You may argue that this is unfair, but that becomes opinion.
> If you want to talk about the old and new testament differences, you have to realise, the old testament is man at war with God
I know a number of Jews who would dispute that point.
Which is fine. Jews and Christians have never really agreed on all theological matters. This should be obvious since they do not accept Christ as the messiah.
> Thus both God's and our attitude must change. This should hardly be surprising.
"I the Lord do not change." - Malachi 3:6
Indeed, he does not. If you find your room full of stinking trash, you'd be disgusted and possibly angry. If you find it clean and tidy, you'd be happy to go into it. Have you changed? Really? :)
> A lot of people, myself included, will go further and say, to paraphrase old Lewis, the gates of Hell are barred from the inside.
Ah yes, blaming the victim. It's an old story - especially for those who never had the chance to be saved and are thus condemned.
The story is different for those who never had the chance. Paul writes about things "so that they may have no excuse", which implies there is an excuse. God states he will "have mercy on whom he will have mercy." Jesus is the only way to God, but how many ways can there be to Jesus?
But if you actively reject God's love, you are no victim. All God does is allow you to go your own way and face the consequences of your own actions. What could be fairer than that?
> Love is not possible without a choice. If there is no choice, you are just a robot acting out a play.
Again, I disagree. Love is something you discover, not something you choose. Who knows the ultimate cause?
Well, would you agree it is possible to accept or rejec