The corporations have more power over our lives today than the government. It all comes down to the golden rule. You know, He who has the gold, makes the rules.
So how would I go about charging the spammers and popup companies for utilizing my bandwidth? For that matter, how much more capacity would we have if popups and spammers were actually LIABLE for the bandwidth they utilized? If I can charge the companies that keep adding shit that I really didn't ask for, then I'm ok with what Comcast has done. This is a fantastic point, similar to cellphones without free incoming call plans getting calls from telemarketers. "Sure, I'll listen to your sales pitch. What company are you calling from again? Ok, great. What's the name of your AP person, so I know to whose attention I should send the bill for my cell phone minutes that you're eating up as we speak?" (Click).
If I have to pay for the amount of data I upload or download, then either I want some way to mark and block specific traffic or addresses at no charge to me, such as advertisements, spam email, doubleclick.net, etc., or I want to be able to reverse the charges for unsolicited data transfers.
Get off my lawn, or pay me a toll!
Of course, these issues might fix themselves, if sending an 80k graphic to 320,000 email addresses would suddenly become an expense for two and a half terabytes of information transfer... On the other hand, that would kinda kill the P2P networks, too. Not to mention reducing the apparent demand for bandwidth, as everyone stops sending each other information, and we revert to telegram-style messaging.
MTNG 2MRW LAX. STOP. BRNG CUST HNDOUTS. STOP. And you thought texting was bad for spelling and grammar...
Or... Perhaps we should simply increase the bandwidth to meet demand, and stop whining? Especially when, as others have pointed out, we're paying more than other countries, getting less than other countries, and the people complaining about how the consumers are (gasp) using the bandwidth they pay for (how dare they?) are the same ones who received big sackfuls of money to make sure the bandwidth is there for us to consume.
I have a pretty large group of friends, and get out quite a bit. However, all of my friends, and their friends' friends, are engaged or already married. Despite generalized "wisdom" from xkcd cartoons about dating pools growing until middle age, I find that most everyone I meet is already in a serious relationship. Instead of hunting for the rare single guy (with whom I might not even be compatible) in an ocean of couples, I've decided to make my life a lot easier by looking in places where I know the men I meet will be single. Maybe it's not the places you're looking, you're just looking for the wrong thing. Not everyone who is "already in a serious relationship" is uninterested (or uninteresting!). More importantly, they may not be inaccessible, either. Many relationship models allow for multiple simultaneous partnerships, with some or all partners allowed (or even encouraged) to meet/date/etc. other people.
Keep hunting for the rare single person, if that's what you're really after. On the other hand, you might re-examine your "ocean of couples" as potential partnerships. My primary partner and I are not opposed to one or the other (or both) of us being interested in someone else; we are secure enough in our relationship to not be threatened by new playmates, or even "serious" relationships with other people. Some of the most interesting turned out to be long-term friendships, as well.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, the status quo is not necessarily the be-all-end-all of ideal situations - don't get caught up in someone else's morality. As a paraphrase of someone else's sig, "monogamy is silly belief system wherein you throw away the good thing you have to find out if something else is just as good".
That's for "word of mouth" advertising. It's fairly simple, really. You go to a friend's house, they have comcast tv, and their tv is always on, even if "nothing is on tv". You see and hear comcast ads when you're at your friend's house, and begin to associate comcast with the friend... thus making you more "friendly" towards comcast. Next time you're thinking about being disatisfied with your internet/tv/phone service, you may give comcast a call.
Wow. It's kinda scary that I even think like that. Maybe I should get a job in the advertising sector.
On the other hand, maybe I should just be glad that the only "boob tube" in my house is my 21" CRT monitor. I've been stupefying cable companies for years with the line "I don't have a television" when they offer me some fantastic package deal to go with my internet. You know those "traps" they put on the line so you can get HBO and such? The line coming to my house has one that *blocks* TV signals. Seems they don't trust me not to use their cable to watch television signals on my non-existant TV. On the other hand, it saves me $10/month to not purchase even their "basic" television service, and if they want to install a blocking device for a service I have no intention of using, I'll just chuckle and shrug.
Similarly, I don't get telemarketers, because my house doesn't have a phone. Each person living in it carries a cell phone, as do almost all of my friends who come over. At any given point in time, there are typically at least one, if not *three* phones in my house. So, explain to me again why the house would need its own voice communication line? -- Yeah, I'm off-topic. So?
Seriously now, is _anyone_ surprised over _anything_ bad corporations do to their customers anymore? There, fixed that for you. -- Man, I'm grumpy this morning.
feel like they are getting gipped. People of Romani descent consider "gypped" to be a racist term. People of other heritages mostly don't realize where the term "gypped" originated, or just how accurate it was at the time it came into use. Think of it this way, if it weren't stereotypical behavior, the term would never have come about.
As an aside, don't wave the race card in our faces, when most people don't even associate the term in question with any particular race/class/credo.
Besides, nowadays, people are getting used to being ripped off by *everyone*.
What Comcast does or does not believe about traffic based on generalizations is completely irrelevant. They simply have no business monitoring content, whatsoever.
Internet Service Providers have no place making inferences about what their customers are uploading or downloading, other than "data." Agreed, 100%, no equivocations, on all counts.
Contra sure was easier with auto-fire at maximum rate... I beg to differ, sir. I found that just over two-thirds of maximum was perfect, and allowed the maximum number of projectiles to be on the screen at once. Cranking it to max always turned "spread" into a machine gun, for me.
Also, I still have my 2 NES Advantage controllers and my dead 8-bit NES console. One of these days, I'll get around to wiring the controllers up to my computer. In the meantime, I'm using a wonderful device called the Nyko AirFlo... I have no idea why Nyko discontinued them, but they will be sorely missed. I love not having sweaty palms after playing for 4-6 hours on my emulator.
In addition, the driver allows you to program each of the dozen or so buttons (and 2 analog sticks (with button action by pressing "in" on the thumbsticks) *and* a d-pad!) for keyboard or mouse actions. I've found myself trying to use it in WoW and Guild Wars, among other things.
Oh, please do tell me how to use iptables or iproute2 to set my ip address, or to enable/disable a network adaptor. ip link set eth0 up ip addr add 192.168.1.2/24 dev eth0 ip link set eth0 down
etc. etc. yeah, cuz ip link looks an awful lot like iptables
Oh, I get it... you meant for me to be psychic, and know that you meant to preface that with something that would have actually been informative, like "ip link is part of the iproute2 suite of tools. You can find more information on using it as you specified by clicking this link. Here's an (incorrect) example of usage, if you want to see it display a lot of error messages:"
-- So much for your post being informative. IMHO, that was just a troll. Maybe this flamebait will get me a +5 Insightful. Yeah, right.
It's a little bit like people still using ifconfig on Linux though it's been deprecated and superseded by iptables and iproute2 Oh, please do tell me how to use iptables or iproute2 to set my ip address, or to enable/disable a network adaptor.
14 years is plenty of time to make plenty of money from an idea. Star Wars would be public domain, yes, but do you really think George Lucas (or his estate) needs more money from Skywalker and company?
The idea is not to "milk products until they're dead", the idea is to put the ideas into the public domain so that all can profit from them... after the original creator (who, half the time, isn't even the one who got the copywrite) makes a reasonable amount of money from it.
Yes, I have a *very* good idea just how short 14 years is. Maybe you have no idea how *long* 14 years is? 14 years isn't even half my lifespan. it's just over a third. I know how long it took (subjectively), and I know how long it seems now. It's over 5,000 days in which to try to make a profit on something.
Super Mario Brothers would be public domain? Including the original 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System you'd need to play it? AWESOME. Nintendo isn't selling them anymore, anyway (Not that it stops them from claiming millions in losses when they catch someone counterfeiting them).
I can't get parts for my NES, and when I asked a Nintendo rep where I could find an NES after reading that they busted a counterfeiting ring that they said cost them some $800 million plus in lost revenue, I was told "try Ebay". Why should I have to try to locate a product on Ebay, if the counterfeits of the exact same product cost your company nearly a billion dollars in lost sales?!? One of your statements is utter and complete bullshit.
It's ridiculous for a product that has been on the market for over a decade to be protected by law. If everyone knows what it is, if it's a household name, don't bother trying to stick a Band-Aid on the situation, just have a Coke and a smile, and deal with it.
If it's no longer being produced by the original company, don't bother trying to protect it anymore. Obviously, Nintendo is done with the 8-bit Entertainment System. Let it go to public domain, so we can play the games we loved 20 years ago without having to dig through the bargain bin at garage sales. Besides, I've got 2 NES Advantage controllers, and both the original Zeldas in the gold carts. (nevermind Metroid, Castlevania, Contra, etc.) Why should I have to just suck it up and hope I can find something on Ebay to play them on?
My post got sidetracked, but my core idea is sound. 14 years is plenty of time to make a profit on an idea. Let it go when you're done with it, instead of being greedy bastards.
I can't believe you guys gave this joke an "Informative" rating... of course, I fully expect to be modded down as a Troll for criticising the moderators, but here's some info for you clueless newbs...
As you can see, these are forms of data compression, not the compression of gasses, as would be used in a ramjet engine. Please, please have an idea of what you're reading about before marking something "informative". This may deserve a "Funny" mod, but it's not "Informative" - at least, not about the topic at hand.
For a fee they (Microsoft) will certainly _support_ the software, which is not something you're going to get with a "free" download of Linux. Actually, Ubuntu has something along the same lines... you can access a variety of support options, including purchasing support from Canonical Ltd..
Sorry, I appear to have left a paragraph out of my response. I meant to include something along the lines of "Microsoft tries to blame all of its problems on remaining 100% backwards-compatible, but then is less backwards-compatible than non-Microsoft operating systems, even when it comes to Microsoft's own applications."
And yes, I may have exaggerated wine's compatibility (without tweaking, it may or may not actually work for any given app), and my broad generalizations for XP's lack of compatibility are similarly skewed, for effect. On the other hand, as a generalization, my statements were right on target. In my opinion, anyway.
Thanks for the clarification.
Re:Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...
on
Time for a Vista Do-Over?
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· Score: 2, Insightful
The second item is not so bad as to be a critical shortcoming, but it's difficult to call Linux more compatible than Windows for anything other than old hardware (which is one of Linux's strengths, but this doesn't carry over to a general claim of better compatibility). I hate to tell you this, but Linux is more compatible with Windows applications than Windows is.
Case in point: Any apps designed for Windows 98 or prior... runs like crap (if at all) on XP, but wine seems to have no issues. This is an over-generalization, of course, but when dusting off my stack of old games, I found that most of them wouldn't even attempt to install, much less play... on my XP machine, that is. Vista? Hang it up, Vista's not even compatible with itself.
I speak from my own miserable experiences here, wherein attempting to open Windows Mail crashes the entire system. Vista also seems to have issues with MS Office 2007. Come to think of it, I've only gotten 2 apps to run on Vista that didn't come with the machine, and it's sad that not even all the apps that came with it were functional "out of the box". I'm not trying to badmouth Microsoft's newest operating system, but it's so damn easy...
Yea OSS is getting a few new converts but overall F/OSS comunity has really dropped the ball. Its current poster child Ubentu Linux, (which I never have gotten a sucessful install of btw..., But Debian, Slackware, Fedeora... all seem to work right out of the box) while has all the elments of a modern OS it just doesn't have it in the right place.
I think I see your problem. You might try a little something called Ubuntu, instead of this Ubentu, whatever it is. Also, judging from your poor spelling and grammar, and the fact that you're ranting about a product you freely admit that you haven't used, my assumption is that you're either 8-10 years old, or not quite playing with a full deck to start with.
Case in point:
OS X pages Finally after many years and decades of existance in Linux/Unix they just this year have virtual screens. When you change virtal screen there is a quick scroll where you see the windows shoot up/down/Left/Right/diaganaly depending how the virtual screen is set and a little box shows which screen you are moving to. Ubentu has this huge 3d Cube thing. It looks way cooler sure, but it isn't as functional because you can only really see up to 3 virtual screens at once and you need to rotate the cube to see the others.
Ok, now that we have this travesty of a communication attempt (your English teacher must be so proud), let's explore the meaning of what you seem to be saying, shall we?
We'll assume, for the moment, that you have a clue what you're talking about, and let's also pretend you managed to express yourself clearly.
You claim that Linux has "just this year" "finally" managed to get "virtual screens". Funny, I seem to have some quite clear recollections of switching workspaces and consoles *years* ago... on a Linux machine. And when I say "*years*", I mean to say "nearly a decade". This is, of course, my own experience and recollections, so I may be off by a few years.
I have no idea what this "Ubentu" thing you keep referring to is, and google doesn't give me any info on it, either... unless you count "Did you mean: ubuntu ?". I fear you may be installing something other than what you think you are, and gathering incorrect conclusions from that.
In the Ubuntu Linux desktop I'm running, the cube isn't there by default, and unless you dig into the "Add/Remove..." feature of the program menus (or maybe even synaptic, a GUI tool that allows installation and uninstallation of software, available in Ubuntu in the "System" menu under "Administration"), and install the advanced graphical suite (aka compiz/compiz-fusion), it's not there at all, and won't be. Even when the cube is present, you still have a workspace changer at the bottom of the screen that shows what windows are open on which workspaces, and allows you to click to select a virtual desktop. There are other features, as well, such as dragging apps from desktop to desktop inside the panel app, or pressing ctrl-alt-left and ctrl-alt-right to move between workspaces. Pressing ctrl-alt-down will unfold all the desktops, and pressing the meta ("Windows") key and E at the same time will give you a very nice presentation, resembling a three-dimensional "wall" of all your screens (Disclaimer: Some of these features are available only in advanced graphics modes, and will only function if they are installed and enabled).
It is my understanding that these features are actually not even specific to Ubuntu, but are available on a number of platforms; specifically, anything supporting the XOrg GUI, which, unless I miss my guess, is *any* flavor of desktop Linux. The desktop cube feature is actually supported under Windows XP, via a third-party utility (there are any number of them out there now, just google for "desktop cube for windows"). As far as eye-candy alone goes, there's a "Vista Transformation Pack" available to give your Windows XP machine a Vista-like interface, and I'll leave the Vista-th
...it'd probably increase exposure of the program, and reduce headaches for users, if they could just click "Install Program x" and be done with it. Actually, they can. There's an "Add/Remove..." button in the "start menu" of Ubuntu.
The problem here is that Microsoft has turned the "Add/Remove Programs" button into an uninstallation interface. In Windows, there is no "Give me software" option in the dialog that it brings up. Well, ok, there's an option to add stuff from the Windows OS disk, if you happen to have missed it the first time 'round (assuming you installed Windows yourself), but for the most part, a user's only interaction with "Add/Remove Programs" is when they want to uninstall that horrific piece of shareware they picked up... which brings me to the other issue we're fighting against in the battle for the desktop...
My employer told me the other day that "Free software is not acceptable for our business purposes. We're going to pay for our software."
I was flabbergasted. How do you answer that?
The average person perceives "free stuff" as "crap that isn't worth paying for". We'll have to change that perception, if we want to have any serious mainstream market penetration.
Releasing a half-assed incomplete distro and expecting it to kick ass isn't going to work.
This strategy doesn't work. Tell that to Microsoft.
I can't see where they haven't done exactly that with each and every release, and not just operating systems. Jokes abound about people paying to be beta-testers, there is mass confusion over whether or not $newest_MS_OS is going to get off the ground, people complaining constantly about driver issues, software incompatibilities, and systems simply not functioning "out of the box". The biggest reason for Microsoft's success is marketing. Well, and throwing chairs.
Then there's the "other" other OS... Mac OS X was absolutely horrible, up until 10.2 - and this gem comes from the mouths of raving Apple fanboys. Steve Jobs seems to have done alright with his marketing team, Apple products are now seen as "elite".
For that matter, Steve Case didn't do too badly, either. AOL is globally recognized as a truly terrible example of providing internet service to the masses. On the other hand, AOL is globally recognized.
I'm sorry, maybe I'm missing something, but I fail to see how releasing a "half-assed" distro is any different from anyone else in the market. Come to think of it, I fail to see how Ubuntu is "half-assed". It works in most hardware configurations "out of the box", with a few exceptions (wireless networking being one glaring example, I admit). Ubuntu is (currently) our best shot at the desktop market; let's work to make it a shining example of what it *should* be, not beat each other over the head with its shortcomings.
I'm bitching about users who don't want to figure things out for themselves. Well, you obviously haven't done any tech support, because that's 90% of the users out there. They want something that works flawlessly, out of the box, and without an hour of configuring beforehand.
I'm not sure if you've done any tech support, but it gets a little tiring after a while. As a matter of fact, I am a network/OS support person for a software company. I've been in the computer field for about 20 years, starting with a TI-99/4a in 1986. Have you done any tech support? Apparently not, since you don't seem to have a clue about users. Without clueless people who don't want to "read man pages", people who don't want to know how the computer works, the IT support field would be dead and gone.
For the same reason that mechanics have jobs, the IT support industry exists. I pay someone to change my oil. I pay someone to repair or replace my roof. Does this mean I should be subject to ridicule, for not knowing (or caring, for that matter) which end of a spark plug goes into the engine block? Where do you get off with this elitist bullshit about users having to have a clue?
Do you know the internal combustion engine inside and out? No? Don't drive or ride in vehicles that use them, then. Hope you like to walk.
Can you build a telephone from scratch? No? Then take that plastic tumor off your ear, you're not qualified to operate it. I won't bother to go into the radio frequencies and energy storage mediums involved in producing that cellphone you won't let go of.
Do you know how a microwave works? No? How dare you nuke that hot-pocket for lunch, then?
If you think these questions (and their corresponding answers) are ridiculous, then you obviously haven't thought through the fecal matter you're spewing. Here's a clue. The glory of having specialization in the workforce is that users don't have to know how something works to be able to make it perform its function.
In my experience, users who call for support want their hands held. Sometimes you have to help them use their mouse (yes, over the phone). I lose count on a daily basis of the users who ask me, every time I tell them to click, whether that's a right-click or a left-click. I've done my share of joking about users who broke their cup-holders, put white-out on the screen, etc. I've even, all joking aside, had to help an 80-year-old woman find the power button on her pc. Yes, really. I wish I were kidding.
I don't know what magical world you live in where users don't do things that techs consider ridiculous, but if you've found that place, do everything you can to stay there. Users tend to be clueless, they tend to do silly things, and they tend to get upset when things don't flow perfectly in their boxed-in little worlds wherein they use a checklist-style instruction sheet to check their email. I wish I were kidding about that one.
If you have issues with handling calls from panicked, clueless users who don't read manuals and don't care *how* their computer works, people who want it fixed "yesterday, dammit", then maybe you're in the wrong field. Sorry, I only meant to cast aspersions on your linux-loving credibility. I didn't intend to call you out on your interpersonal abilities and job-related skills, as well.
You must be absolutely *thrilled* to have posted as AC instead of your actual identity, now. Keep up the good work! If you have the kind of interpersonal skills that your posts show, you'll be flipping burgers in no time. Mmmmm... minimum wage.
-- I am an IT professional in a Microsoft-friendly office. Take any of my advice or comments about Linux with as large a chunk of sodium chloride as you feel that information dictates.
Get the gamers to switch over, and you've broken the "but I use Windows because that's what I have in the office" mindset. I see way too many games out there in the F/OSS market that are just terrible, compared to the behemoths that are currently dominating the industry. Get us some Linux love from Blizzard, EA, Valve, and id... And not just servers, dammit, I wanna play the games!
Sorry, but Savage 2 looks like the best the F/OSS can come up with. Mighty fine on its own merits, a bit sticky on the hardware requirements, but... it has nothing on WoW, or even Guild Wars.
And yes, I know wine works (after some configuration, and copying some files, and if there's no inherent copy-protection involved...), but is it too much to ask to have a simple GUI installer?
I thought wine-doors was headed in the right direction, but then I realized they were just packaging a "pre-installation kit", and you had to go with their config, or do it yourself. Want to install Steam in ~/.wine/C/Games/Steam? Too bad, do it from scratch or do it with the defaults.
We need games that have the same impact as the monsters that are on Windows... preferably, the same exact games. Without that, we can't touch the younger generation, who are (at this point) used to being coddled, hand-held, and cajoled into doing anything other than breathing, eating, sleeping, and texting on their mp3-playing cellphones.
I'm pretty darned sure MS Windows Vista is much easier for non-technical people to work with than any of the Linux distributions. Au contraire... Anecdotes abound of people handing newbies Vista machines, and asking them to perform simple tasks, which they fail, or only figure out after agonizing minutes of trial and error.
The same people, asked to perform the same tasks on other operating systems (both Linux and Windows XP), were able to perform them in much less time, with much less effort. This may be (at least partially) a learning effect, but I have a sneaky suspicion that this would be the case even (or especially!) with a reversal of the order of operating system exposure.
Slashdot Mirror
He who has the gold, makes the rules.
Uhm... that was kinda the point of the second half of my post.
If I have to pay for the amount of data I upload or download, then either I want some way to mark and block specific traffic or addresses at no charge to me, such as advertisements, spam email, doubleclick.net, etc., or I want to be able to reverse the charges for unsolicited data transfers.
Get off my lawn, or pay me a toll!
Of course, these issues might fix themselves, if sending an 80k graphic to 320,000 email addresses would suddenly become an expense for two and a half terabytes of information transfer...
On the other hand, that would kinda kill the P2P networks, too. Not to mention reducing the apparent demand for bandwidth, as everyone stops sending each other information, and we revert to telegram-style messaging. MTNG 2MRW LAX. STOP.
BRNG CUST HNDOUTS. STOP. And you thought texting was bad for spelling and grammar...
Or... Perhaps we should simply increase the bandwidth to meet demand, and stop whining? Especially when, as others have pointed out, we're paying more than other countries, getting less than other countries, and the people complaining about how the consumers are (gasp) using the bandwidth they pay for (how dare they?) are the same ones who received big sackfuls of money to make sure the bandwidth is there for us to consume.
Keep hunting for the rare single person, if that's what you're really after. On the other hand, you might re-examine your "ocean of couples" as potential partnerships. My primary partner and I are not opposed to one or the other (or both) of us being interested in someone else; we are secure enough in our relationship to not be threatened by new playmates, or even "serious" relationships with other people. Some of the most interesting turned out to be long-term friendships, as well.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, the status quo is not necessarily the be-all-end-all of ideal situations - don't get caught up in someone else's morality. As a paraphrase of someone else's sig, "monogamy is silly belief system wherein you throw away the good thing you have to find out if something else is just as good".
That's for "word of mouth" advertising. It's fairly simple, really. You go to a friend's house, they have comcast tv, and their tv is always on, even if "nothing is on tv". You see and hear comcast ads when you're at your friend's house, and begin to associate comcast with the friend... thus making you more "friendly" towards comcast. Next time you're thinking about being disatisfied with your internet/tv/phone service, you may give comcast a call.
Wow. It's kinda scary that I even think like that. Maybe I should get a job in the advertising sector.
On the other hand, maybe I should just be glad that the only "boob tube" in my house is my 21" CRT monitor. I've been stupefying cable companies for years with the line "I don't have a television" when they offer me some fantastic package deal to go with my internet. You know those "traps" they put on the line so you can get HBO and such? The line coming to my house has one that *blocks* TV signals. Seems they don't trust me not to use their cable to watch television signals on my non-existant TV. On the other hand, it saves me $10/month to not purchase even their "basic" television service, and if they want to install a blocking device for a service I have no intention of using, I'll just chuckle and shrug.
Similarly, I don't get telemarketers, because my house doesn't have a phone. Each person living in it carries a cell phone, as do almost all of my friends who come over. At any given point in time, there are typically at least one, if not *three* phones in my house. So, explain to me again why the house would need its own voice communication line?
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Yeah, I'm off-topic. So?
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Man, I'm grumpy this morning.
As an aside, don't wave the race card in our faces, when most people don't even associate the term in question with any particular race/class/credo.
Besides, nowadays, people are getting used to being ripped off by *everyone*.
Also, I still have my 2 NES Advantage controllers and my dead 8-bit NES console. One of these days, I'll get around to wiring the controllers up to my computer. In the meantime, I'm using a wonderful device called the Nyko AirFlo... I have no idea why Nyko discontinued them, but they will be sorely missed. I love not having sweaty palms after playing for 4-6 hours on my emulator.
In addition, the driver allows you to program each of the dozen or so buttons (and 2 analog sticks (with button action by pressing "in" on the thumbsticks) *and* a d-pad!) for keyboard or mouse actions. I've found myself trying to use it in WoW and Guild Wars, among other things.
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Game on!
Mods, pay attention, this one is informative *and* insightful.
ip addr add 192.168.1.2/24 dev eth0
ip link set eth0 down
etc. etc. yeah, cuz ip link looks an awful lot like iptables
Oh, I get it... you meant for me to be psychic, and know that you meant to preface that with something that would have actually been informative, like
"ip link is part of the iproute2 suite of tools. You can find more information on using it as you specified by clicking this link. Here's an (incorrect) example of usage, if you want to see it display a lot of error messages:"
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So much for your post being informative. IMHO, that was just a troll. Maybe this flamebait will get me a +5 Insightful. Yeah, right.
I don't see the functionality I asked for in ipchains, either.
14 years is plenty of time to make plenty of money from an idea. Star Wars would be public domain, yes, but do you really think George Lucas (or his estate) needs more money from Skywalker and company?
The idea is not to "milk products until they're dead", the idea is to put the ideas into the public domain so that all can profit from them... after the original creator (who, half the time, isn't even the one who got the copywrite) makes a reasonable amount of money from it.
Yes, I have a *very* good idea just how short 14 years is. Maybe you have no idea how *long* 14 years is? 14 years isn't even half my lifespan. it's just over a third. I know how long it took (subjectively), and I know how long it seems now. It's over 5,000 days in which to try to make a profit on something.
Super Mario Brothers would be public domain? Including the original 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System you'd need to play it? AWESOME. Nintendo isn't selling them anymore, anyway (Not that it stops them from claiming millions in losses when they catch someone counterfeiting them).
I can't get parts for my NES, and when I asked a Nintendo rep where I could find an NES after reading that they busted a counterfeiting ring that they said cost them some $800 million plus in lost revenue, I was told "try Ebay". Why should I have to try to locate a product on Ebay, if the counterfeits of the exact same product cost your company nearly a billion dollars in lost sales?!? One of your statements is utter and complete bullshit.
It's ridiculous for a product that has been on the market for over a decade to be protected by law. If everyone knows what it is, if it's a household name, don't bother trying to stick a Band-Aid on the situation, just have a Coke and a smile, and deal with it.
If it's no longer being produced by the original company, don't bother trying to protect it anymore. Obviously, Nintendo is done with the 8-bit Entertainment System. Let it go to public domain, so we can play the games we loved 20 years ago without having to dig through the bargain bin at garage sales. Besides, I've got 2 NES Advantage controllers, and both the original Zeldas in the gold carts. (nevermind Metroid, Castlevania, Contra, etc.) Why should I have to just suck it up and hope I can find something on Ebay to play them on?
My post got sidetracked, but my core idea is sound. 14 years is plenty of time to make a profit on an idea. Let it go when you're done with it, instead of being greedy bastards.
MODS!
I can't believe you guys gave this joke an "Informative" rating... of course, I fully expect to be modded down as a Troll for criticising the moderators, but here's some info for you clueless newbs...
Lempel-Ziv compression
Huffman compression
As you can see, these are forms of data compression, not the compression of gasses, as would be used in a ramjet engine. Please, please have an idea of what you're reading about before marking something "informative". This may deserve a "Funny" mod, but it's not "Informative" - at least, not about the topic at hand.
Similarly, OpenOffice has many support options, including commercial support provided by Sun Microsystems.
Sorry, I appear to have left a paragraph out of my response. I meant to include something along the lines of "Microsoft tries to blame all of its problems on remaining 100% backwards-compatible, but then is less backwards-compatible than non-Microsoft operating systems, even when it comes to Microsoft's own applications."
And yes, I may have exaggerated wine's compatibility (without tweaking, it may or may not actually work for any given app), and my broad generalizations for XP's lack of compatibility are similarly skewed, for effect. On the other hand, as a generalization, my statements were right on target. In my opinion, anyway.
Thanks for the clarification.
Case in point: Any apps designed for Windows 98 or prior... runs like crap (if at all) on XP, but wine seems to have no issues. This is an over-generalization, of course, but when dusting off my stack of old games, I found that most of them wouldn't even attempt to install, much less play... on my XP machine, that is. Vista? Hang it up, Vista's not even compatible with itself.
I speak from my own miserable experiences here, wherein attempting to open Windows Mail crashes the entire system. Vista also seems to have issues with MS Office 2007. Come to think of it, I've only gotten 2 apps to run on Vista that didn't come with the machine, and it's sad that not even all the apps that came with it were functional "out of the box". I'm not trying to badmouth Microsoft's newest operating system, but it's so damn easy...
Yea OSS is getting a few new converts but overall F/OSS comunity has really dropped the ball. Its current poster child Ubentu Linux, (which I never have gotten a sucessful install of btw..., But Debian, Slackware, Fedeora... all seem to work right out of the box) while has all the elments of a modern OS it just doesn't have it in the right place.
I think I see your problem. You might try a little something called Ubuntu, instead of this Ubentu, whatever it is. Also, judging from your poor spelling and grammar, and the fact that you're ranting about a product you freely admit that you haven't used, my assumption is that you're either 8-10 years old, or not quite playing with a full deck to start with.
Case in point:
OS X pages Finally after many years and decades of existance in Linux/Unix they just this year have virtual screens. When you change virtal screen there is a quick scroll where you see the windows shoot up/down/Left/Right/diaganaly depending how the virtual screen is set and a little box shows which screen you are moving to. Ubentu has this huge 3d Cube thing. It looks way cooler sure, but it isn't as functional because you can only really see up to 3 virtual screens at once and you need to rotate the cube to see the others.
Ok, now that we have this travesty of a communication attempt (your English teacher must be so proud), let's explore the meaning of what you seem to be saying, shall we?
We'll assume, for the moment, that you have a clue what you're talking about, and let's also pretend you managed to express yourself clearly.
You claim that Linux has "just this year" "finally" managed to get "virtual screens". Funny, I seem to have some quite clear recollections of switching workspaces and consoles *years* ago... on a Linux machine. And when I say "*years*", I mean to say "nearly a decade". This is, of course, my own experience and recollections, so I may be off by a few years.
I have no idea what this "Ubentu" thing you keep referring to is, and google doesn't give me any info on it, either... unless you count "Did you mean: ubuntu ?". I fear you may be installing something other than what you think you are, and gathering incorrect conclusions from that.
In the Ubuntu Linux desktop I'm running, the cube isn't there by default, and unless you dig into the "Add/Remove..." feature of the program menus (or maybe even synaptic, a GUI tool that allows installation and uninstallation of software, available in Ubuntu in the "System" menu under "Administration"), and install the advanced graphical suite (aka compiz/compiz-fusion), it's not there at all, and won't be. Even when the cube is present, you still have a workspace changer at the bottom of the screen that shows what windows are open on which workspaces, and allows you to click to select a virtual desktop. There are other features, as well, such as dragging apps from desktop to desktop inside the panel app, or pressing ctrl-alt-left and ctrl-alt-right to move between workspaces. Pressing ctrl-alt-down will unfold all the desktops, and pressing the meta ("Windows") key and E at the same time will give you a very nice presentation, resembling a three-dimensional "wall" of all your screens (Disclaimer: Some of these features are available only in advanced graphics modes, and will only function if they are installed and enabled).
It is my understanding that these features are actually not even specific to Ubuntu, but are available on a number of platforms; specifically, anything supporting the XOrg GUI, which, unless I miss my guess, is *any* flavor of desktop Linux. The desktop cube feature is actually supported under Windows XP, via a third-party utility (there are any number of them out there now, just google for "desktop cube for windows"). As far as eye-candy alone goes, there's a "Vista Transformation Pack" available to give your Windows XP machine a Vista-like interface, and I'll leave the Vista-th
...it'd probably increase exposure of the program, and reduce headaches for users, if they could just click "Install Program x" and be done with it. Actually, they can. There's an "Add/Remove..." button in the "start menu" of Ubuntu.The problem here is that Microsoft has turned the "Add/Remove Programs" button into an uninstallation interface. In Windows, there is no "Give me software" option in the dialog that it brings up. Well, ok, there's an option to add stuff from the Windows OS disk, if you happen to have missed it the first time 'round (assuming you installed Windows yourself), but for the most part, a user's only interaction with "Add/Remove Programs" is when they want to uninstall that horrific piece of shareware they picked up... which brings me to the other issue we're fighting against in the battle for the desktop...
My employer told me the other day that "Free software is not acceptable for our business purposes. We're going to pay for our software."
I was flabbergasted. How do you answer that?
The average person perceives "free stuff" as "crap that isn't worth paying for". We'll have to change that perception, if we want to have any serious mainstream market penetration.
I can't see where they haven't done exactly that with each and every release, and not just operating systems. Jokes abound about people paying to be beta-testers, there is mass confusion over whether or not $newest_MS_OS is going to get off the ground, people complaining constantly about driver issues, software incompatibilities, and systems simply not functioning "out of the box". The biggest reason for Microsoft's success is marketing. Well, and throwing chairs.
Then there's the "other" other OS... Mac OS X was absolutely horrible, up until 10.2 - and this gem comes from the mouths of raving Apple fanboys. Steve Jobs seems to have done alright with his marketing team, Apple products are now seen as "elite".
For that matter, Steve Case didn't do too badly, either. AOL is globally recognized as a truly terrible example of providing internet service to the masses. On the other hand, AOL is globally recognized.
I'm sorry, maybe I'm missing something, but I fail to see how releasing a "half-assed" distro is any different from anyone else in the market. Come to think of it, I fail to see how Ubuntu is "half-assed". It works in most hardware configurations "out of the box", with a few exceptions (wireless networking being one glaring example, I admit). Ubuntu is (currently) our best shot at the desktop market; let's work to make it a shining example of what it *should* be, not beat each other over the head with its shortcomings.
For the same reason that mechanics have jobs, the IT support industry exists. I pay someone to change my oil. I pay someone to repair or replace my roof. Does this mean I should be subject to ridicule, for not knowing (or caring, for that matter) which end of a spark plug goes into the engine block? Where do you get off with this elitist bullshit about users having to have a clue?
Do you know the internal combustion engine inside and out? No? Don't drive or ride in vehicles that use them, then. Hope you like to walk.
Can you build a telephone from scratch? No? Then take that plastic tumor off your ear, you're not qualified to operate it. I won't bother to go into the radio frequencies and energy storage mediums involved in producing that cellphone you won't let go of.
Do you know how a microwave works? No? How dare you nuke that hot-pocket for lunch, then?
If you think these questions (and their corresponding answers) are ridiculous, then you obviously haven't thought through the fecal matter you're spewing. Here's a clue. The glory of having specialization in the workforce is that users don't have to know how something works to be able to make it perform its function.
In my experience, users who call for support want their hands held. Sometimes you have to help them use their mouse (yes, over the phone). I lose count on a daily basis of the users who ask me, every time I tell them to click, whether that's a right-click or a left-click. I've done my share of joking about users who broke their cup-holders, put white-out on the screen, etc. I've even, all joking aside, had to help an 80-year-old woman find the power button on her pc. Yes, really. I wish I were kidding.
I don't know what magical world you live in where users don't do things that techs consider ridiculous, but if you've found that place, do everything you can to stay there. Users tend to be clueless, they tend to do silly things, and they tend to get upset when things don't flow perfectly in their boxed-in little worlds wherein they use a checklist-style instruction sheet to check their email. I wish I were kidding about that one.
If you have issues with handling calls from panicked, clueless users who don't read manuals and don't care *how* their computer works, people who want it fixed " yesterday, dammit ", then maybe you're in the wrong field. Sorry, I only meant to cast aspersions on your linux-loving credibility. I didn't intend to call you out on your interpersonal abilities and job-related skills, as well.
You must be absolutely *thrilled* to have posted as AC instead of your actual identity, now. Keep up the good work! If you have the kind of interpersonal skills that your posts show, you'll be flipping burgers in no time. Mmmmm... minimum wage.
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I am an IT professional in a Microsoft-friendly office. Take any of my advice or comments about Linux with as large a chunk of sodium chloride as you feel that information dictates.
my point exactly.
Hear hear! MOD PARENT UP.
Get the gamers to switch over, and you've broken the "but I use Windows because that's what I have in the office" mindset. I see way too many games out there in the F/OSS market that are just terrible, compared to the behemoths that are currently dominating the industry. Get us some Linux love from Blizzard, EA, Valve, and id... And not just servers, dammit, I wanna play the games!
Sorry, but Savage 2 looks like the best the F/OSS can come up with. Mighty fine on its own merits, a bit sticky on the hardware requirements, but... it has nothing on WoW, or even Guild Wars.
And yes, I know wine works (after some configuration, and copying some files, and if there's no inherent copy-protection involved...), but is it too much to ask to have a simple GUI installer?
I thought wine-doors was headed in the right direction, but then I realized they were just packaging a "pre-installation kit", and you had to go with their config, or do it yourself. Want to install Steam in ~/.wine/C/Games/Steam? Too bad, do it from scratch or do it with the defaults.
We need games that have the same impact as the monsters that are on Windows... preferably, the same exact games. Without that, we can't touch the younger generation, who are (at this point) used to being coddled, hand-held, and cajoled into doing anything other than breathing, eating, sleeping, and texting on their mp3-playing cellphones.
The same people, asked to perform the same tasks on other operating systems (both Linux and Windows XP), were able to perform them in much less time, with much less effort. This may be (at least partially) a learning effect, but I have a sneaky suspicion that this would be the case even (or especially!) with a reversal of the order of operating system exposure.