Your post was, how should we say, amusing. If we reduce all ideas down to the dumbest people who employ them, I think we can find lunacy in everything.
It would be like saying ALL car owners are stupid because they get stuck in traffic. Or all religious people are assholes because they are shoving their beliefs down my throat. Or all amusement park goers slow down the line to the rollar coaster because their big fat ass couldn't fit in the harness and the attendent had to spend 10 minutes muscleing them in.
Every cheap shot you made at Gentoo users could have easily been made against any other user of any other distribution.
But don't write it off yet. It's still a fantastic place to interact, get technical support, debate the world,
What color is the sky in your world? I haven't used usenet in years. Too many new people, too many old timers burned out, and too much extraneous crap. I rather like the forums approach, like at Gentoo.org and linuxquestions.org. Threads stick around for a while, so if someone 6 months later has the same question, the answer is still there. Second, posting is restricted to those with an account. That account is revokable if they are being and asshat with it.
Before it was cool to blast the internet for the banal commercialized cesspool we know it today, he called a spade a spade.
I don't think folks like Spaf are overly idealistic. Running a computer network for 5 years, you learn that some people are rude like it's their job. We don't accept rudeness in public places. People cutting in line get a firm dressing down from fellow line goers and/or ejected from the venue.
I volunteer at a folk festival. You learn quickly that with 10,000 people in a campground, courtesy is not courtesy, its a way of life. We regulary exercise our ability to eject people who get drunk and rowdy. If you don't, you get chaos, injuries, or worse.
Unless you are a huge mega-corp with a heavy thumb on the distribution chain, you HAVE to take risks to survive.
Henry Ford was considered crazy for making cheap cars.
DuPont was hedging that the U.S. was actually going to win the war of 1812 when he set up a gunpowder factory here.
Drake was drilling for Oil at a time when coal was king. He was within a few feet of his investors picking up stakes and leaving had he not struck oil.
That and who can forget the bootable unreal tournemant CD listed along with the Stage-3 ISO images.
Ever since switching to Gentoo, I have actually been using my Linux partition MORE for gaming than I ever did before. Granted, part of that was FINALLY getting my ATI's all-in-wonder tv-tuner to work with X so I could plot my PS/2 on screen...
But hey, just think of how many people drop buckets of clams on the latest and greatest video card and then have it hobbles by 2-bit drivers, or worse, DirectX.
I really think the Gentoo source based approach is the way to go. I spend less time compiling than it ever took me to futz with binaries to get my box optimized. I never knew what a powerhouse my Athlon-XP was until I finally had an OS compiled properly for it.
I don't really seeing this idea getting to be uber-big. First off, there are only soooo many fast food joints to raid. It's going to become like the waste hops from beer, marketed trash with a competitive street price.
If a tone of people start doing this they are going to find the veggie oil costs a HELL of a lot more than diesel. (Anyone ever price out biodiesel?)
...That's how they rape consumers who don't understand the deal - you aren't really 'buying' the software, like you buy a box of soap - only a 'license' to use it in certain ways, like renting a car...
Hmmm. Perhaps in the future there may be some truth to the notion that you can't buy beer, only rent it.
No I agree with you. The net is full of really dumb people who can't really seem to see the forest for the trees. Hell, I pop onto slashdot every couple of days, at most, and so I never even SEE that the article is duplicated.
Hell, go onto Yahoo news, or FARK, you'll see duplicates right there on the home page. I don't hear people bitching. Fuck, how times have you see the same commericial play multiple times during a station break?
These are probably the same numbnuts who walk through an art museum and look for overspray and erasure marks. (I mean really, where are they storing these pictures, in somebodies basement? Grandma's wallpaper is in better shape than this DeVince!)
I think you are absolute right about people feeling high and mighty by nitpicking. Of course, me sitting here and nitpicking about them sinks me to their level. DAMN YOU SOCRATES!
Having headed several "also ran" open source projects, I can tell you that you first ingredient is always luck.
Luck?
YES. Luck. Luck that your uber-buggy 100 mph tape version is picked up and used enough for poeple to send you fixes. Luck that you gain the interest of at least a few someones willing to maintain the code, and integrate new ideas into it. And luck that the functions of your project is not enveloped by a larger open-source project 6 months down the road.
That proves that OpenOffice works every bit as well as PowerPoint. If I had a nickel for every time one of our rentals clients would bring in a powerpoint and it spontaneosly exploded 20 minutes before a major presentation I'd be retired and handing out Linux advise full time.
Oh no, we aren't getting invaded by the Drakeonian empire again! Last time around the set up human blinds all over the place and blew away people commuting to work indescrimanentely. All Tux the penguin references where replaced white "His Dread Lord Quaksalot"
And you thought migrating from windows to Linux was hard...
Actually, having forenowledge of any kind not available to the general public would be considered insider trading.
Having lived in the future would put you into the same class as corporate officers, who do know all, and have to behave responsibly with that knowledge.
The more you learn about cloning the less afraid you become. The downside of cloning is we aren't very good at it and the percentage of birth defects is unacceptable. You are completely wrong about genetic engineering. I have read a great deal about it and went from being a supporter to some one that thinks field studies should be stopped indefinately. Forget the SciFi end of the world senerios. They are possible we just don't need them to be afraid. Genetic engineering is likely to cause in the next century, quite possibly the next ten years, the greatest famines this world has ever seen. Genetic diversity in cereal crops may already be a thing of the past. One desease can wipe out not just a harvest but an entire species of grain. Can't happen? It's going on now with banannas. Everyone is saying the current species being farmed will be extinct in less than ten years due to desease. You can live without them? Well in parts of Africa they are a staple. This is just one problem genetic engineering may casue. They have already made a number of insects immune to the most common form of insectacide. This effects non GM crops. It's been big news lately. There is a lot of potential good that can come from genetic engineering but we have to learn to be responsible. Remember all the nuclear clean up? How do you clean up genetic contamination
Self plug (I work at the Franklin Institute, in fact, I run the network.)
http://www.fi.edu
What fun stuff we don't have is probably linked somewhere on the site. We also have a lot of interactive games on the website that run on the kioks around the museum. Most of them are Java-based and run under linux to;).
As a matter of fact, I do use this concept "in the field" so to speak.
I run the database at a folk festival, and I have to set up a network that runs for one weekend a year in a hayfield. I use a k6/400 server and a pair of thinkpads that I've installed a really bare bones copy of Linux on.
The thinkpads have enough smarts to boot the OS, load the PCMCIA drivers, start and X server, and then pound over to the server to log in. This year I plan on upgrading the kernel so they can use WIFI cards, and if I feel really fancy, set up ALSA so they can use local sound too.
I love it because the whole network, along with my wife, tent, gear, and beer all fit in my hatchback. This year I think I'm going to either chip in for a laptop or a flatscreen. I have a kid on the way, gotta fit a car-seat and stoller into the mix...
not accompanied with a comparison piece on a similar Linux product.
That would be because any Linux hacker worth his salt could do the same trick with a 486 thinkpad. Only the thinkpad would have a build in keyboard, and would probably plug into the wall because the batteries are shot by now...
Oh wait, I have 2 of them already...
Total Cost: $160. ($100 for the laptop (Ebay), $60 for a new network card.)
Slashdot Mirror
Prediction: the next 50 posts will be about how much better Gentoo would be in that situation.
Your post was, how should we say, amusing. If we reduce all ideas down to the dumbest people who employ them, I think we can find lunacy in everything.
It would be like saying ALL car owners are stupid because they get stuck in traffic. Or all religious people are assholes because they are shoving their beliefs down my throat. Or all amusement park goers slow down the line to the rollar coaster because their big fat ass couldn't fit in the harness and the attendent had to spend 10 minutes muscleing them in.
Every cheap shot you made at Gentoo users could have easily been made against any other user of any other distribution.
(Cartoo ny Goodness)[userfriendly.org]
(Cartoo ny Goodness)[userfriendly.org]
What color is the sky in your world? I haven't used usenet in years. Too many new people, too many old timers burned out, and too much extraneous crap. I rather like the forums approach, like at Gentoo.org and linuxquestions.org. Threads stick around for a while, so if someone 6 months later has the same question, the answer is still there. Second, posting is restricted to those with an account. That account is revokable if they are being and asshat with it.
Before it was cool to blast the internet for the banal commercialized cesspool we know it today, he called a spade a spade.
I don't think folks like Spaf are overly idealistic. Running a computer network for 5 years, you learn that some people are rude like it's their job. We don't accept rudeness in public places. People cutting in line get a firm dressing down from fellow line goers and/or ejected from the venue.
I volunteer at a folk festival. You learn quickly that with 10,000 people in a campground, courtesy is not courtesy, its a way of life. We regulary exercise our ability to eject people who get drunk and rowdy. If you don't, you get chaos, injuries, or worse.
Usenet, unfortunately, has no ejection mechanism.
(I'm rather partial to my nickname, though)
Unless you are a huge mega-corp with a heavy thumb on the distribution chain, you HAVE to take risks to survive.
Henry Ford was considered crazy for making cheap cars.
DuPont was hedging that the U.S. was actually going to win the war of 1812 when he set up a gunpowder factory here.
Drake was drilling for Oil at a time when coal was king. He was within a few feet of his investors picking up stakes and leaving had he not struck oil.
Ever since switching to Gentoo, I have actually been using my Linux partition MORE for gaming than I ever did before. Granted, part of that was FINALLY getting my ATI's all-in-wonder tv-tuner to work with X so I could plot my PS/2 on screen...
But hey, just think of how many people drop buckets of clams on the latest and greatest video card and then have it hobbles by 2-bit drivers, or worse, DirectX.
I really think the Gentoo source based approach is the way to go. I spend less time compiling than it ever took me to futz with binaries to get my box optimized. I never knew what a powerhouse my Athlon-XP was until I finally had an OS compiled properly for it.
My god, I want to go out an buy an opteron now...
If a tone of people start doing this they are going to find the veggie oil costs a HELL of a lot more than diesel. (Anyone ever price out biodiesel?)
Hmmm... which is more deadly now. The car or the fuel...
Hmmm. Perhaps in the future there may be some truth to the notion that you can't buy beer, only rent it.
"There never have been any repeat postings!" TheInformationMinister.com [theinforma...nister.com] Simply hysterical.
No I agree with you. The net is full of really dumb people who can't really seem to see the forest for the trees. Hell, I pop onto slashdot every couple of days, at most, and so I never even SEE that the article is duplicated.
Hell, go onto Yahoo news, or FARK, you'll see duplicates right there on the home page. I don't hear people bitching. Fuck, how times have you see the same commericial play multiple times during a station break?
These are probably the same numbnuts who walk through an art museum and look for overspray and erasure marks. (I mean really, where are they storing these pictures, in somebodies basement? Grandma's wallpaper is in better shape than this DeVince!)
I think you are absolute right about people feeling high and mighty by nitpicking. Of course, me sitting here and nitpicking about them sinks me to their level. DAMN YOU SOCRATES!
Luck?
YES. Luck. Luck that your uber-buggy 100 mph tape version is picked up and used enough for poeple to send you fixes. Luck that you gain the interest of at least a few someones willing to maintain the code, and integrate new ideas into it. And luck that the functions of your project is not enveloped by a larger open-source project 6 months down the road.
What, that was the guy with the silver skin wasn't he?
That proves that OpenOffice works every bit as well as PowerPoint. If I had a nickel for every time one of our rentals clients would bring in a powerpoint and it spontaneosly exploded 20 minutes before a major presentation I'd be retired and handing out Linux advise full time.
And you thought migrating from windows to Linux was hard...
Having lived in the future would put you into the same class as corporate officers, who do know all, and have to behave responsibly with that knowledge.
The more you learn about cloning the less afraid you become. The downside of cloning is we aren't very good at it and the percentage of birth defects is unacceptable. You are completely wrong about genetic engineering. I have read a great deal about it and went from being a supporter to some one that thinks field studies should be stopped indefinately. Forget the SciFi end of the world senerios. They are possible we just don't need them to be afraid. Genetic engineering is likely to cause in the next century, quite possibly the next ten years, the greatest famines this world has ever seen. Genetic diversity in cereal crops may already be a thing of the past. One desease can wipe out not just a harvest but an entire species of grain. Can't happen? It's going on now with banannas. Everyone is saying the current species being farmed will be extinct in less than ten years due to desease. You can live without them? Well in parts of Africa they are a staple. This is just one problem genetic engineering may casue. They have already made a number of insects immune to the most common form of insectacide. This effects non GM crops. It's been big news lately. There is a lot of potential good that can come from genetic engineering but we have to learn to be responsible. Remember all the nuclear clean up? How do you clean up genetic contamination
Not to be confused at all with making the Governer of New Jersey head of the EPA.
http://www.fi.edu
What fun stuff we don't have is probably linked somewhere on the site. We also have a lot of interactive games on the website that run on the kioks around the museum. Most of them are Java-based and run under linux to ;).
Ah yes. Are we discussing software design or economics. Did you ever wonder if we were often trying to solve the same problems?
I know this is going to get me modded down to no end, but It's kind of fun to take a phrase out of context for a minute.
I run the database at a folk festival, and I have to set up a network that runs for one weekend a year in a hayfield. I use a k6/400 server and a pair of thinkpads that I've installed a really bare bones copy of Linux on.
Website with photos here[etoyoc.com]
The thinkpads have enough smarts to boot the OS, load the PCMCIA drivers, start and X server, and then pound over to the server to log in. This year I plan on upgrading the kernel so they can use WIFI cards, and if I feel really fancy, set up ALSA so they can use local sound too.
I love it because the whole network, along with my wife, tent, gear, and beer all fit in my hatchback. This year I think I'm going to either chip in for a laptop or a flatscreen. I have a kid on the way, gotta fit a car-seat and stoller into the mix...
That would be because any Linux hacker worth his salt could do the same trick with a 486 thinkpad. Only the thinkpad would have a build in keyboard, and would probably plug into the wall because the batteries are shot by now...
Oh wait, I have 2 of them already...
Total Cost: $160. ($100 for the laptop (Ebay), $60 for a new network card.)