NEVER let any telco know you're using Linux until you have one of their engineers trapped on your premises.
NTT (in Japan) is just such a telco, and while they used to semi-support Linux for their broadband service a few years ago, since everybody and their dog started getting ADSL, they've dumped any mention of it from their support literature, and raising the fact of your use of Linux when you have issues with your line will get an immediate response of "it must be your PC that's the problem - try using Windows".
Had that problem on an IBM server that'd been running without problems for 4+ years. IBM no longer supports that model, let alone makes it. In the end, I pulled off the capacitors and soldered in some replacements myself. Fifteen minutes work (including the time to pull it apart and put it back together), $2 worth of parts, and it's back in working order.
Emacs on pretty much any modern Linux distro does, although XEmacs has failed to keep up with Emacs in that regard (unfortunately or fortunately depends on your viewpoint, I guess).
NetBSD used to have trouble with a lot of 68K PowerBooks, as many of them used the 68LC040 CPU, but check out the SoftFloat builds of NetBSD2.0 - they're supposed to run on even the "broken" versions of the LC040.
You're the one in the middle of the ring, getting beaten on by everyone else.
Don't worry, though - I'm right there with you (two Debian Sarge desktops, one Vine Linux laptop, two Solaris 8 servers, a 68K Mac running NetBSD, an OpenBSD firewall...)
Not to mention that any site that boasts a higher percentage of FreeBSD users than Linux users is definitely a "fringe" site to begin with...
(Not to knock the *BSDs - I run OpenBSD on my firewall and NetBSD on a 68K Mac - but there's no way FreeBSD comes anywhere near to Linux in terms of number of users, whether you're counting clueless newbies or seasoned hackers.)
Yeah, assuming that most/. readers these days are programmers is like assuming that most basketball fans are 7-foot-tall people with a flair for sinking hoops, whereas all most of them are good for is getting drunk, shouting at the TV and setting fire to parked cars*.
...in the "crappy laptops" section at the end of the article.
I think whoever wrote this wasn't actually using PCs in the 80s, because I know for a fact that even though the DG/One had a damn near unreadable screen, it was still the coolest piece of computing hardware you could get for any price at the time.
The site is almost certainly incorrect in saying that the game originated on Maui in the 1920s. It seems to be a variant of "menko" (or "pacchin"/"pettan", onomatopaeic words for the sound of a card hitting the ground), a children's game from Japan. It was probably taken from Japan to Hawaii by immigrants in the 1920s. Here's an illustrated page showing the Japanese version, and here's another page that supports the Japanese origin of the game.
So what? Anybody in their right mind would have locked down their box if they're letting third parties access it remotely.
Running around screaming "FORKBOMB! FORKBOMB! The sky's falling in!" seems to be a common pattern every few years. If you know what you're doing, it's trivial to prevent and if you don't know what you're doing, why are you running a public box?
If you're living in the US, you might not be aware of it, but most major US retail sites make it quite difficult for people overseas to utilise their services. For example, they refuse to allow the use of credit cards with a billing address outside the US, require a copy of the front and back of the card to be sent to them by snailmail, charge absolutely exorbitant shipping rates (I'm talking $US40 for non-express shipping on a $US100 item that's no bigger than a hardback book), and that sort of thing.
It's evidence that I don't live in the US, I'd say...
Re:Please place your nerd membership in the garbag
on
Ask mc chris
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
The whole idea of being "geek" is that you don't fit in. If we needed membership to be geek, then those of us who are truly geek would never be let in the club to begin with.
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They have pictures from California, South Dakota, Kansas and Illinois.
"Around the world", eh? Spoken like a true American.
You missed out hppa (PA-RISC Linux), but otherwise you're absolutely correct.
Sounds like your PC is having power filtering problems, or possibly it's being affected by sunspot activity.
Try hitting your power switch once a second for a couple of minutes. That should ensure that you have no more problems with your PC.
NEVER let any telco know you're using Linux until you have one of their engineers trapped on your premises.
NTT (in Japan) is just such a telco, and while they used to semi-support Linux for their broadband service a few years ago, since everybody and their dog started getting ADSL, they've dumped any mention of it from their support literature, and raising the fact of your use of Linux when you have issues with your line will get an immediate response of "it must be your PC that's the problem - try using Windows".
Had that problem on an IBM server that'd been running without problems for 4+ years. IBM no longer supports that model, let alone makes it.
In the end, I pulled off the capacitors and soldered in some replacements myself. Fifteen minutes work (including the time to pull it apart and put it back together), $2 worth of parts, and it's back in working order.
So hacking a piece of hardware (not software, mind - *hardware*) that you bought and own is now a crime?
Let me guess what country you live in...
Emacs on pretty much any modern Linux distro does, although XEmacs has failed to keep up with Emacs in that regard (unfortunately or fortunately depends on your viewpoint, I guess).
NetBSD used to have trouble with a lot of 68K PowerBooks, as many of them used the 68LC040 CPU, but check out the SoftFloat builds of NetBSD2.0 - they're supposed to run on even the "broken" versions of the LC040.
Sorry to disappoint you, but every single modern user-centric operating system has bitmapped text.
Perhaps you meant bitmap fonts?
You're the one in the middle of the ring, getting beaten on by everyone else.
Don't worry, though - I'm right there with you (two Debian Sarge desktops, one Vine Linux laptop, two Solaris 8 servers, a 68K Mac running NetBSD, an OpenBSD firewall...)
Paul Graham and Robert Morris (Jr., not Sr.) worked together for several years at their startup.
Not to mention that any site that boasts a higher percentage of FreeBSD users than Linux users is definitely a "fringe" site to begin with...
(Not to knock the *BSDs - I run OpenBSD on my firewall and NetBSD on a 68K Mac - but there's no way FreeBSD comes anywhere near to Linux in terms of number of users, whether you're counting clueless newbies or seasoned hackers.)
Yeah, assuming that most /. readers these days are programmers is like assuming that most basketball fans are 7-foot-tall people with a flair for sinking hoops, whereas all most of them are good for is getting drunk, shouting at the TV and setting fire to parked cars*.
* Offer valid in Chicago only.
I really hope you were being facetious.
Not that you'd notice - King Rat is so similar to Neverwhere, it's ridiculous.
...in the "crappy laptops" section at the end of the article.
I think whoever wrote this wasn't actually using PCs in the 80s, because I know for a fact that even though the DG/One had a damn near unreadable screen, it was still the coolest piece of computing hardware you could get for any price at the time.
...you couldn't actually fit 5.25 inch floppies in that space without taking them out of their paper sleeves.
Good move, Commodore. If the degausser doesn't get your data, the dust will.
Don't worry, by the time Hollywood's finished with it the title of the sequel probably will be "Eating the Dead".
The site is almost certainly incorrect in saying that the game originated on Maui in the 1920s. It seems to be a variant of "menko" (or "pacchin"/"pettan", onomatopaeic words for the sound of a card hitting the ground), a children's game from Japan. It was probably taken from Japan to Hawaii by immigrants in the 1920s. Here's an illustrated page showing the Japanese version, and here's another page that supports the Japanese origin of the game.
You mean you can glug your grog with your gloggled group of glogging... er... friends?
(OK, OK, so I couldn't think of a synonym for "friends" that began with a G. So sue me.)
Please point out my criticism of Windows, because I seem to have missed it...
To be honest, I don't use it anyway, so I have no idea whether it's possible to forkbomb a Windows box, and even less interest in the subject.
So what? Anybody in their right mind would have locked down their box if they're letting third parties access it remotely.
Running around screaming "FORKBOMB! FORKBOMB! The sky's falling in!" seems to be a common pattern every few years. If you know what you're doing, it's trivial to prevent and if you don't know what you're doing, why are you running a public box?
If you're living in the US, you might not be aware of it, but most major US retail sites make it quite difficult for people overseas to utilise their services.
For example, they refuse to allow the use of credit cards with a billing address outside the US, require a copy of the front and back of the card to be sent to them by snailmail, charge absolutely exorbitant shipping rates (I'm talking $US40 for non-express shipping on a $US100 item that's no bigger than a hardback book), and that sort of thing.
It's evidence that I don't live in the US, I'd say...
The whole idea of being "geek" is that you don't fit in. If we needed membership to be geek, then those of us who are truly geek would never be let in the club to begin with.
Talk about missing the point...