I know for a fact that there was a project to create a bootable CD using OpenBSD for the Dreamcast. Why can't these two ideas merge? Create a bootable CD, customized for the hardware on a Dreamcast or any other standard console that will allow it. Then, no matter what game you throw on it, if it works in one machine, it'll work in all of them.
Someone who was really enterprising would create a tiny "console-sized" Linux box that uses decent hardware. Then, game manufacturers could create bootable Linux versions of their games...Viola!
What Nader said in the article this was linked to is pretty important. It boils down to this:
ISP's should be regulated about what kind of info they can gather and store.
Organizations (especially health related) should be regulated about what kind of info they can share (or sell)
Consumers should be aware of all the ways that information is gathered (like in supermarket surveillance, etc.), and have access to see what exactly has been gathered about them.
This is extremely important stuff! This is the fodder that Slashdotters rant about almost every day! It would be very interesting to see a comparison of what Nader things vs. what Bore, Lush, and other third-partiers think. (Although, in all honesty, how could any candidate disagree with any of this?)
Personally, I like Nader. But the biggest issue that I'm begging everyone to consider is that a vote for a third party candidate is not wasted! When all is said and done and the smoke clears from the battlefield, we will most likely have Gore or Bush in office. But if we want to change the politics of this nation, a great percentage of votes must go toward a third-party candidate of your choosing!
It will not happen soon, but you must banish the "microwave" mentality. We're talking about a slow baste here, not three minutes to instant popcorn. In four years, we might still not have a third party candidate in office, but maybe they'll at least be allowed in the debates! And in another four years...who knows?
But honestly, it's something you would download and use if you just wanted to "stick it to AOL". IMHO, it's something you'd use out of principle, not practicality. Frankly, a visual spectrum is more annoying to have running on my screen than an occasional ad change.
I think the whole concept is funny as hell, though. If he (or someone else) could write one that would show the name of the song being played, the time left, the artist, etc...that would be less annoying, and more useful.
Reading the article makes me suspicious. If it's true that:
A) Microsoft knowingly lied in 1997 about the number of applications written for Windows.
B) Microsoft saw that the large number of reported applications was going to cause the judge to move toward a break-up.
C) Microsoft didn't correct the mistake.
D) Microsoft continues to validate it's false claim...
Doesn't this look like a classic case of a criminal that wants to be caught?
I'm not surprized that they continue to deny the truth. Every one of you knows as well as I do that as long as the general public hears "70,000 applications!", they'll believe it. Of course Microsoft wants to appear to have bukoos of applications for it's OS. Of course it doesn't want the public to know that their inflated number "counts programs written for all available operating systems, including Red Hat Linux, IBM OS/2, and Apple Mac, as well as Microsoft Windows" and that "many of the software programs are also listed several times in the various subcategories".
At some point, Microsoft just wants this whole thing to be over, too. Like anyone that's done anything deviant in secret, sometimes you are ready to even face the consequences, as long as the situation just comes to an end.
It can't be--they've already filmed lots of shots with a real model. Check out the pictures.
Since that's the case, perhaps the only real CGI rendering will be when his head is sticking out of a CGI rendered ship. Or during explosions. Or...who knows? It's not uncommon to replace real models with CGI for stunts. Hell, they did that with the humans in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"
Here are a few select quotes from the company itself. This is the company that's going to make a shitload off of this stuff. This oughta give you the willeys...:
Publishers are guaranteed 100% market penetration at partner schools who opt to implement the Vital Source system. Purchase of all included titles is mandated by the universities.
In the VSTi model, students are mandated by universities to pay a yearly fee lciensing their reference curriculum.
By implementing the VSTi system, however, universities contractually agree to require at least three titles per curriculum topic. Therefore, the number of titles used by students increases significantly.
VSTi will control the Universities. The Universities will control the students. This shit will be mandated, and the Universities will have to sell every student at least three books per class!
NYU (linked above) requires it's students to purchase an Apple notebook to use this system(and highly recommend purchasing it through the campus bookstore). In a year or so, the entire system will be required of the students!
If they want this system to work, they'll have to make some serious adjustments. First off, they need to seriously slash the price of the books. They won't be able to complain that they have to keep them in stock anymore, so that cost is gone. They won't have heavy books, and therefore high shipping costs. They won't need massive shelf space. The publisher gets it's money from one nice source. All of these are good reasons to slash the prices dramatically. But what do you want to be that the price of books won't go down a bit? "These books are more convenient! They let you search! They are small! They fit in your pocket! You should expect to pay *more* for these!"
But in addition to that, they're going to have to let students loan or give their e-books to other people, just like with paper books. There can't be a restriction on that, or this system will fail.
We'll have to fight it if they don't make the system flexible, and beneficial!
You've heard of "Cops in Shops"; where police officers pose as civilians in stores? Some of them pose as the guy behind the register, busting minors trying to buy alcohol. Some pose as customers, busting stores that sell alcohol/cigarettes to minors.
Now won't we have a dandy situation? We'll have "Cops in High Tops", posing as students in classrooms. They'll say, "Hey dude, I forgot my book, and I've got a huge assignment due, like, tomorrow, man! Can you, like, loan me your book?"
You'll comply, because you're a nice guy, and suddenly you find that you're calling mom and dad to bail you out of jail.
Dad : "What the hell did you do, son?" You : "I loaned a textbook to a classmate."
Articles like these are so pretentious. Quotes like these:
So goes business at Google, a company trying to emerge from adolescence into maturity.
But like many Internet companies these days, Google is grappling with very adult issues such as revenue and profit.
In another sign of its maturing process...
Is it just me, or does "Corporate America" typically see the Linux movement, or anything involving herds of geeks, as "immature". Why should the focus of everything good and powerful and cutting edge always be relegated to a bottom line of financial gain? Isn't that part of the core of Open Source? Of Linux? Of Geekdom in general?
I'm certainly not opposed to making money. I make fairly good money, and want to make more. But it's like homework. The more I was pushed to do it, the more I tried to get out of it. But "bonus projects" and "extra credit"--I was always all over that.
To Corporate America: Stop trying to squeeze the techno-culture into your stiff, boring, and decaying business model. We're free/Free because we want to be. If everyone had the same mindset and started giving things away, we wouldn't need so much money in the first place.
Ok, this may sound stupid, but just because the FBI "discloses" this information, how will we know they're telling the truth? If they don't have to disclose the source, then there's no way to know if they're really disclosing anything in the first place.
[Court]: How does Carnivore work?
[FBI]: Well, it's real complicated. We've developed a new technology called CrackSniffer. It just looks at stuff. We'd tell you exactly how it works, but that's confidential. This is not an open source project, you know.
[Court]: Oh, ok. Thanks. We trust you completely. The public will be happy to know this information.
Are we going to believe anything they say, without seeing the source?
...but it's hard not to. I love Linux, but mostly the concept of it. But I've been telling people for years that the more "mainstream" that Linux becomes, and certainly the easier it becomes to use--the less "crash proof" it'll be too.
I've used various distros down through the years. Most recently, I've purchased SuSE 6.4, and downloaded the latest release of Corel Linux. I brag about how easy they are to install. I love that they see my sound card, video card, and network card right out of the box. But they're still buggy, and slow. They don't run as fast as Windows 98 or even Windows ME on the same box. They aren't as flexible. And both KDE and Gnome crash on me all the time.
I'm sure the geek elite would be quick to point out that I'm not a programmer, that I'm not in the trenches with them. And they're right. I'm just a user, and I'm an IT professional in an environment with AIX, AS/400, and NT boxes, and 99% of my clients are on a Win9x/WinNT platform. And they work. Linux gurus are fighting to make their OS do all the pretty and cool things that Microsoft's already do. And the closer they come, the more crash-prone they become as well.
Performance suddenly becomes an issue too. I don't care if Linux will run on a 386, because so will DOS 5.0. I don't want to run DOS 5.0, and I don't want to stifle my usability by touting the fact that my OS runs on a machine that yours would choke on. I've got Pentium III and Athlon systems that scream under Windows 2000, but with Linux, even scrolling through menus is choppy.
The more popular Linux becomes, the more I appreciate the Hell that Microsoft has gone through in the past 10-15 years to make their operating systems work as smoothly as they do on so many different systems. Kudos to them. Linux will probably do the same thing--but it hasn't yet.
I'm not a big Linux user. I'm one of those weaned-on-DOS-and-Windows, MCSE, Linux-wannabes. I recently purchased Suse 6.4, and loaded it on one machine, which happened to be an Athelon 600, with 256MB RAM.
I thought everything was ok, but I noticed that things are a bit sluggish when running KDE. I don't think I've ever noticed that when playing with KDE/Linux before--and on much slower machines. For instance, I was installing Star Office while playing an MP3, and not only was the installation dog slow, but the MP3 cut in and out as well. No offence, but I can do that and much more under Win2K on the same machine. I can even do it with Win98 SE. Something just isn't right.
I also notice that the mouse is sluggish when navigating through menus, especially if another program is running. Response is far from immediate when I click on icons to load programs, or browse files. I can't tell you what Internet browsing is like, since my external modem is still on order, and all I had to put in the box was an old ISA Plug 'n Pray modem.
All that to say, Linux seems tired and sluggish on an Athelon 600 with loads of RAM--and Win2K blazes on the same machine.
--SpookComix
Well, there goes the rest of my esophigal lining..
on
The Ultimate Geek Food
·
· Score: 1
Just when I thought it was safe to skip taking my acid reflux meds, this shit happens.
God, I hope they at least come with a box of Pepsid AC...
I don't think you can say that Microsoft is up to "it's old tricks" exactly. I've had the beta of Service Release 6 for a month now (as a part of my Technet subscription). It's been in the works long before the DOJ's FoF.
And further--if Microsoft anticipates that it's going to get nailed anyway, don't you think they'll bitch and moan even worse than before? In other words, if they've been sneaky about sabotaging the competition before under the guise of "we're competitive, but we want one big happy family", and now they're going to be just one of the competition--you can bet your ass that they'll be even harder to deal with now. Screw Lotus Notes--maybe it won't even work under Windows any longer. I have to admit--I'd do it if I were them! If they don't have to play nice to cover their own asses anymore, then it's going to be a free-for-all.
--SpookComix
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
I finally completed my Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certification in August. The 6 tests I took spanned a few of their products, mainly Windows NT Server, Windows NT Workstation, and Internet Information Server.
If the company is broken up, will their certification be nullified as well--especially if different "pieces" of the certification fall to different companies?
I just hate the fact that the BSA is probably going to come down hardest on the people doing the least damage and would have a bright future otherwise.
I totally agree with you here. How many people that frequent this group acquired their skills by going to school? (Please raise your hand.) Ok, how many of you learned by one of the following methods:
Hacking away at your autoexec.bat and config.sys files trying to get Doom to run right.
Taking apart your computer and switching jumpers around until your fingers bled.
Downloading anything and everything you could get your hands on because you wanted to see if you could, wanted to try to get it to work, and/or thought it was cool.
My point is, I think most serious computer users go through a stage of serious experimentation. I'd be really interested to find out the profiles of these five "horrible people", and see if they just fit the above description.
I agree with a lot of the posts I've read so far. The IRC is not the place that the high-dollar warezing is happening. The BSA is just trying to squeek out a mighty roar and get everyone's attention. I read the article, and immediately wondered if I should format my PC at home, just in case. I hate that feeling. Thanks, BSA!
I hate that these kids (and I really think "kids" are the majority) are going to be permanantly stained, all for some big show of power that our government has decided to provide for us. It makes me sick.
--SpookComix
"Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong."
This is just one more reason for people like me to grit my teeth, learn Linux, and never look back. You can't pirate free software, can you?
The more I see Linux growing, the more I realize that it's finally reached the masses. I'm sure any of you could argue that you could set up a Linux-based PC in any setting (home, business, etc) that could be fully functional and usable by just about anyone. That's what it's come to. Instead of spending hours and hours online trying to pirate the latest offering of Microsoft Office, we can download a fresh copy of StarOffice guilt-free! What a deal! And we'll even sleep better at night!
Slashdot Mirror
Unfortunately, when most ISPs crash, they don't take a city block with them.
--SC
--SC
I'm sorry guys and gals, but the Darth site was one of the stupidest things I've seen in a long time. Jesus, someone was hard-up for something to do.
C'mon, did *anyone* think it was the least bit humorous?
--SC
The bottom of the doc clearly reads:
James Bridgeman
Sole Panelist
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!
--SpookComix
Someone who was really enterprising would create a tiny "console-sized" Linux box that uses decent hardware. Then, game manufacturers could create bootable Linux versions of their games...Viola!
I'd buy it.
--SpookComix
- ISP's should be regulated about what kind of info they can gather and store.
- Organizations (especially health related) should be regulated about what kind of info they can share (or sell)
- Consumers should be aware of all the ways that information is gathered (like in supermarket surveillance, etc.), and have access to see what exactly has been gathered about them.
This is extremely important stuff! This is the fodder that Slashdotters rant about almost every day! It would be very interesting to see a comparison of what Nader things vs. what Bore, Lush, and other third-partiers think. (Although, in all honesty, how could any candidate disagree with any of this?)Personally, I like Nader. But the biggest issue that I'm begging everyone to consider is that a vote for a third party candidate is not wasted! When all is said and done and the smoke clears from the battlefield, we will most likely have Gore or Bush in office. But if we want to change the politics of this nation, a great percentage of votes must go toward a third-party candidate of your choosing!
It will not happen soon, but you must banish the "microwave" mentality. We're talking about a slow baste here, not three minutes to instant popcorn. In four years, we might still not have a third party candidate in office, but maybe they'll at least be allowed in the debates! And in another four years...who knows?
Is there?
--SpookComix
Shit.
I think the whole concept is funny as hell, though. If he (or someone else) could write one that would show the name of the song being played, the time left, the artist, etc...that would be less annoying, and more useful.
--SpookComix
--SpookComix
A) Microsoft knowingly lied in 1997 about the number of applications written for Windows.
B) Microsoft saw that the large number of reported applications was going to cause the judge to move toward a break-up.
C) Microsoft didn't correct the mistake.
D) Microsoft continues to validate it's false claim...
Doesn't this look like a classic case of a criminal that wants to be caught?
I'm not surprized that they continue to deny the truth. Every one of you knows as well as I do that as long as the general public hears "70,000 applications!", they'll believe it. Of course Microsoft wants to appear to have bukoos of applications for it's OS. Of course it doesn't want the public to know that their inflated number "counts programs written for all available operating systems, including Red Hat Linux, IBM OS/2, and Apple Mac, as well as Microsoft Windows" and that "many of the software programs are also listed several times in the various subcategories".
At some point, Microsoft just wants this whole thing to be over, too. Like anyone that's done anything deviant in secret, sometimes you are ready to even face the consequences, as long as the situation just comes to an end.
--SpookComix
Since that's the case, perhaps the only real CGI rendering will be when his head is sticking out of a CGI rendered ship. Or during explosions. Or...who knows? It's not uncommon to replace real models with CGI for stunts. Hell, they did that with the humans in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"
--SpookComix
--SpookComix
Publishers are guaranteed 100% market penetration at partner schools who opt to implement the Vital Source system. Purchase of all included titles is mandated by the universities.
In the VSTi model, students are mandated by universities to pay a yearly fee lciensing their reference curriculum.
By implementing the VSTi system, however, universities contractually agree to require at least three titles per curriculum topic. Therefore, the number of titles used by students increases significantly.
VSTi will control the Universities. The Universities will control the students. This shit will be mandated, and the Universities will have to sell every student at least three books per class!
NYU (linked above) requires it's students to purchase an Apple notebook to use this system(and highly recommend purchasing it through the campus bookstore). In a year or so, the entire system will be required of the students!
If they want this system to work, they'll have to make some serious adjustments. First off, they need to seriously slash the price of the books. They won't be able to complain that they have to keep them in stock anymore, so that cost is gone. They won't have heavy books, and therefore high shipping costs. They won't need massive shelf space. The publisher gets it's money from one nice source. All of these are good reasons to slash the prices dramatically. But what do you want to be that the price of books won't go down a bit? "These books are more convenient! They let you search! They are small! They fit in your pocket! You should expect to pay *more* for these!"
But in addition to that, they're going to have to let students loan or give their e-books to other people, just like with paper books. There can't be a restriction on that, or this system will fail.
We'll have to fight it if they don't make the system flexible, and beneficial!
--SpookComix
Or maybe they'll make you list everyone that might walk through your living room, and then "pay-per-viewer".
Or perhaps all TVs will contain special encoding techniques in the future. Your eyes won't be able to decode it until you're licenced to view it.
If it starts, where will it stop? Scary stuff, if you ask me.
--SpookComix
Now won't we have a dandy situation? We'll have "Cops in High Tops", posing as students in classrooms. They'll say, "Hey dude, I forgot my book, and I've got a huge assignment due, like, tomorrow, man! Can you, like, loan me your book?"
You'll comply, because you're a nice guy, and suddenly you find that you're calling mom and dad to bail you out of jail.
Dad : "What the hell did you do, son?"
You : "I loaned a textbook to a classmate."
Enough!!! This shit has to stop!
--SpookComix
So goes business at Google, a company trying to emerge from adolescence into maturity.
But like many Internet companies these days, Google is grappling with very adult issues such as revenue and profit.
In another sign of its maturing process...
Is it just me, or does "Corporate America" typically see the Linux movement, or anything involving herds of geeks, as "immature". Why should the focus of everything good and powerful and cutting edge always be relegated to a bottom line of financial gain? Isn't that part of the core of Open Source? Of Linux? Of Geekdom in general?
I'm certainly not opposed to making money. I make fairly good money, and want to make more. But it's like homework. The more I was pushed to do it, the more I tried to get out of it. But "bonus projects" and "extra credit"--I was always all over that.
To Corporate America: Stop trying to squeeze the techno-culture into your stiff, boring, and decaying business model. We're free/Free because we want to be. If everyone had the same mindset and started giving things away, we wouldn't need so much money in the first place.
--SpookComix
[Court]: How does Carnivore work?
[FBI]: Well, it's real complicated. We've developed a new technology called CrackSniffer. It just looks at stuff. We'd tell you exactly how it works, but that's confidential. This is not an open source project, you know.
[Court]: Oh, ok. Thanks. We trust you completely. The public will be happy to know this information.
Are we going to believe anything they say, without seeing the source?
--SpookComix
I've used various distros down through the years. Most recently, I've purchased SuSE 6.4, and downloaded the latest release of Corel Linux. I brag about how easy they are to install. I love that they see my sound card, video card, and network card right out of the box. But they're still buggy, and slow. They don't run as fast as Windows 98 or even Windows ME on the same box. They aren't as flexible. And both KDE and Gnome crash on me all the time.
I'm sure the geek elite would be quick to point out that I'm not a programmer, that I'm not in the trenches with them. And they're right. I'm just a user, and I'm an IT professional in an environment with AIX, AS/400, and NT boxes, and 99% of my clients are on a Win9x/WinNT platform. And they work. Linux gurus are fighting to make their OS do all the pretty and cool things that Microsoft's already do. And the closer they come, the more crash-prone they become as well.
Performance suddenly becomes an issue too. I don't care if Linux will run on a 386, because so will DOS 5.0. I don't want to run DOS 5.0, and I don't want to stifle my usability by touting the fact that my OS runs on a machine that yours would choke on. I've got Pentium III and Athlon systems that scream under Windows 2000, but with Linux, even scrolling through menus is choppy.
The more popular Linux becomes, the more I appreciate the Hell that Microsoft has gone through in the past 10-15 years to make their operating systems work as smoothly as they do on so many different systems. Kudos to them. Linux will probably do the same thing--but it hasn't yet.
--SpookComix
I thought everything was ok, but I noticed that things are a bit sluggish when running KDE. I don't think I've ever noticed that when playing with KDE/Linux before--and on much slower machines. For instance, I was installing Star Office while playing an MP3, and not only was the installation dog slow, but the MP3 cut in and out as well. No offence, but I can do that and much more under Win2K on the same machine. I can even do it with Win98 SE. Something just isn't right.
I also notice that the mouse is sluggish when navigating through menus, especially if another program is running. Response is far from immediate when I click on icons to load programs, or browse files. I can't tell you what Internet browsing is like, since my external modem is still on order, and all I had to put in the box was an old ISA Plug 'n Pray modem.
All that to say, Linux seems tired and sluggish on an Athelon 600 with loads of RAM--and Win2K blazes on the same machine.
--SpookComix
God, I hope they at least come with a box of Pepsid AC...
--SpookComix
Bad spellers of the world--Untie!
And further--if Microsoft anticipates that it's going to get nailed anyway, don't you think they'll bitch and moan even worse than before? In other words, if they've been sneaky about sabotaging the competition before under the guise of "we're competitive, but we want one big happy family", and now they're going to be just one of the competition--you can bet your ass that they'll be even harder to deal with now. Screw Lotus Notes--maybe it won't even work under Windows any longer. I have to admit--I'd do it if I were them! If they don't have to play nice to cover their own asses anymore, then it's going to be a free-for-all.
--SpookComix
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
If the company is broken up, will their certification be nullified as well--especially if different "pieces" of the certification fall to different companies?
Respectfully,
--SpookComix
I totally agree with you here. How many people that frequent this group acquired their skills by going to school? (Please raise your hand.) Ok, how many of you learned by one of the following methods:
- Hacking away at your autoexec.bat and config.sys files trying to get Doom to run right.
- Taking apart your computer and switching jumpers around until your fingers bled.
- Downloading anything and everything you could get your hands on because you wanted to see if you could, wanted to try to get it to work, and/or thought it was cool.
My point is, I think most serious computer users go through a stage of serious experimentation. I'd be really interested to find out the profiles of these five "horrible people", and see if they just fit the above description.I agree with a lot of the posts I've read so far. The IRC is not the place that the high-dollar warezing is happening. The BSA is just trying to squeek out a mighty roar and get everyone's attention. I read the article, and immediately wondered if I should format my PC at home, just in case. I hate that feeling. Thanks, BSA!
I hate that these kids (and I really think "kids" are the majority) are going to be permanantly stained, all for some big show of power that our government has decided to provide for us. It makes me sick.
--SpookComix
"Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong."
The more I see Linux growing, the more I realize that it's finally reached the masses. I'm sure any of you could argue that you could set up a Linux-based PC in any setting (home, business, etc) that could be fully functional and usable by just about anyone. That's what it's come to. Instead of spending hours and hours online trying to pirate the latest offering of Microsoft Office, we can download a fresh copy of StarOffice guilt-free! What a deal! And we'll even sleep better at night!
--SpookComix