On the one side, this is cool as hell. On the other side, what about...
Honey, get the Ex-Lax - your daughter has swallowed her Pokemon Music disk again!
No, I'm looking looking for spare change in the seat cushions, I'm looking for my Nirvana CD.
1300 MB of storage space...and they still split all the Queen songs I really want across 3 CD's.
Ah, now to drink a nice Mountain Dew and listen to my music - shit, I just used my CD instead of a quarter.
AOL CD's are now air dropped over your house instead of the mail - their small size lets them flutter down like little, shiny snowflakes.
Ever have a problem when you're lying naked on your money, and you accidently get a dime stuck in the crack of your ass? This is much worse.
The CD's aren't just the size of a postage stamp - they become the postage stamp.
650 MB Gameboy Advance games - no, wait, that's a good thing. (Seriously - imagine putting Final Fantasy VIII on one of those suckers...Hand held Selphie lovin'.)
I like the idea - with both IBM and HP vying to be the best to offer Linux based solutions (including hardware/support/added development), this is going to make Linux better - and with two companies competing for my $$$ the way my girlfriends compete for my manhood, the consumer wins again.
Before people think Wal-Mart is being all altruistic, think of it this way.
Wal-Mart wants to advertise they're underselling the compitition. Easiest way to do this? Sell computers without an operating system. Of course, if you do this, you sell a computer that is a) useless to Joe User (who probably doesn't know how to install an OS without help), and b) Microsoft cries piracy (I don't have the link, but one of their white papers basically says that only software pirates buy computers without operating systems.)
Now, go to Dell. Computer comes with Windows, and Microsoft Works (or Office, or whatever). You can't tell them *not* to put it on, and odds are, they have some legal ass bullshit agreement with MS that all computers must have the OS and some office suite on them (aka, the "Windows Tax").
So Wal-Mart figures they can save $100-$200 on each computer sale by putting on Mandrake and probably Open Office. Joe User gets a computer he can do email/web browsing/document editing on. Yes, it might not run all the same software as Windows - but if he wants that, he goes back to Wal-Mart and shells out another $100 (or he learns to live with it and gets a Playstation 2 instead).
Guys like me who just want cheap ass hardware without the Windows Tax get hardware. Everybody wins. Well, except for MS, but the way they've been acting with their draconian "Use software subscription or no patches for you!" additude they've been shelling at the Corporate Level, I don't feel too sorry for them.
Pul-eeze. And there's never been a software package out there that can't read old files/programs? Try to run Ultima VII on Windows 98. Can't do it? Oh, duh, that's right, it uses really fucking old system calls taht nobody uses any more. Try and run some old OS 8 programs under the Macintosh - some will work, others won't (my daughters Preschool software won't).
The point? Even the best designed system has to break backwards compatibility to have better software.
I could be wrong, so feel free to correct me on this (as always), but didn't the last time the FCC "open up" bandwidth, it did it in a secret auction that only the "baby bells" could attend?
Now, if this auction were fully public so local folks could actually get a bid in and, oh, I don't know, fucking compete, then I'll get excited.
Until then, I'll keep up my plans to lay my own fiber in my area (and hope my neighbors stop reporting me for trespassing.)
Look at what you needed to run the PC versions of Final Fantasy VII and VIII - and those were *crappy* ports, but damn, they needed a lot of horsepower, even if they were acting as a PSOne emulator.
Pipe the radiation at the nads at those guys who feel the need to drive by your house at 2:30 AM with their base pounding loud enough to shake windows.
UPS? We don't need no UPS!
Take it to bed with you on those cold, winter nights.
Who needs a fridge when you can kill all the bacteria just with putting it in the "shed" out back for a few minutes?
I have yet to read the newly revised version of the ADTI document, but looking at the original doesn't fill me with anger, or the need to go change the world.
It just depresses me. That there are people out there who find nothing better to do with their time and money than to tear other people down.
We have Microsoft machines at my Day Job. And MS SQL servers. And an AS 400. And a Macintosh (granted, only me, but hey, it's a start). And several Novell servers (I love the new licensing scheme.) And a Nokia IPSO box.
They all do a job, they all work together, and when I need to do something new, I look it over, and choose what I need. More often than not, it's Open Source, and everything else is slowly being pushed out (well, except for the Netware boxes - NDS rocks). I don't care about philosphy. I care about cost, performance, and how easy/difficult it is for me to use.
I might read the new version of the ADTI just for the heck of it. Odds are, I won't. It doesn't nothing but tear down, and I have a hard enough time building things to worry about what I should be taking out.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
I think it's also Mac compatible - I'm not planning on getting it myself just yet (I'm playing Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past! Weeee!), but I believe it's a PC/Mac hybrid. (Good lord - I just had an image of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates making out. Ew! Gross myself out! Ewww!)
One idea is to tie this into Novell's iFolder idea. The concept is you install a small client onto someone's computer, then "tag" which directories you want synched up with the users home director on the server (such as My Documents, etc).
Every time a file on either the server side or the workstation side updates, the client makes the same changes (note: changes, not the entire file, so if you change 1 sentance on a 30 MB document, you only change the few bytes of code).
We're going to try this out at my Day job for our Laptop user types, but so far, it's looking cool. Novell has mentioned future support for OS X (which I don't believe, but I'm an eternally hoping idiot.)
I agree - as we've all known, Competition is Good. You can pry my 12 Gigabyte transfer/month DSL connection from my cold, dead fingers. (Those AT&T bastards keep sniffing around the house. I guess I'll have to put out some more ammonia on the garbage cans to keep them away.)
*Note: This assumes that All You Can Eat Bandwidth goes away, and all Internet traffic becomes "metered" much like electricity, water, etc.
The Good News: Spam cuts down as companies realize they can't afford the bandwidth costs compared to the income.
The Bad News: There's still enough out there that you're charged an extra $5 just to download your mail. Oh, and that time you friend who uses Outlook got that virus? Yup - another $5.
The Good News: With bandwidth metering, idiot people who only only posts trolls stop since their hobby of annoying people for fun is now costing them.
The Bad News: The opinions of many are cut off as they weight their voice against their speech.
The Good News: Sites with way too many graphics, Flash animations, bangs and whistles become less popular, and become nice, clean, quick interfaces. True HTML 4.0 compliance becomes key since you can't just program client side "if browser==this display this".
The Bad News: So much for seeing new screenshots of Star Wars Episode III: Portman Naked and Petrified
The Good News: The Demo Disk industry truly takes off, since to be able to just download 200 - 300 MB demo's of games, software, etc costs too much. Game demos that used to be 400 MB in size are cut down to just 25 MB - just about downloadable.
The Bad News: Now you have to wait at least a week to try out Doom III: Demons in Love.
The Good News: The RIAA and MPAA shut the fuck up about how people are stealing music and videos. The whole CD protection bandwagon is killed off since there's no more fear that people will download music over the Internet, since that would cost as much as the CD anyway.
The Bad News: The whole idea of a legal MP3 music sale system for both established and new artists dies out. We are doomed to forever listen to Britney Spear's latest song, "Knock me around because I did it again".
Or I can take the software and use it in my business instead of paying the $$$ for development, I can contribute to it to make it better (and use other people's contributions for the same).
Now that $$$ I'm *not* spending on development can be spent on more employees, admins, maybe even a developer just to get in the pieces I need.
IT Depts usually do not *make* money, they *save* companies money, increase efficiency, and safeguard/provide data. Just because I don't *sell* a product doesn't mean that my *service* isn't just as valuable - or just as marketable.
I really don't care what government decides to waste its money on (after all, if it wasn't software, it would be gold toilet seats).
But I do care when government sponsored research into software is used by companies to make money. Last I checked, I didn't give Sun/MS/et all my tax dollars to make them richer. I want that research GPL'ed so that I know its available, that I, as a tax payer who paid for the R&D gets the benifits, and that it can be made even better by the world (and thus can help my government/business/etc).
Is how obviously biased the paper is - it's badly sourced, badly written, badly argued (there's holes in their arguments big enough to drive the proverbial truck through, like, "GNU doesn't let you steal source code for profit - the bastards!" - when proprietary licenses will throw you in jail for stealing source code), and so far, badly taken by anyone who knows anything about technology.
The counter argument (I read it on The Register this morning) is well written, well argued, has plenty of great sources, and except for the "Adapt or Die" bit repeated over and over again which showed his own bias (cool, but probably not the professional white paper people care about), it was a convincing argument.
So what was the point? If this "independant think tank" was paid for this research, whoever funded them should ask for a refund. If they did it to prove a point, someone should go back to "Presenting Important Arguments 101" and come back when they can present a logical, convincing argument.
All this appears to be is something a backpocket Sentator can wave and say "Look at this important research that proves why we need the GNU Illegal Code Act of 2003!". And sadly, most voters won't care because they don't know any better.
Then again, my 3 month old son doesn't know he shouldn't eat his hand. Same difference, I guess.
The Afterburner is a great product...as long as you are not the one to install it.
$35 gets you the kit - the backlight, anti-reflective plastic lining, wires, resistor, and the brightness dial.
To install it, you also need: a triwing screwdriver (you can use a flathead, and destroy your screws) a dremmel (to sand away enough plastic to make the backlight fit) a drill with a very, very tiny drill bit (to install the brightness dial) a soldering iron
My recommendation after getting the sucker to work (and pretty much making my GBA look like shit because, to be honest, I've never soldered before and I majorly suck at it).
A GBA costs $70. Find someplace online who will install the afterburner *for you*, ship it to them, and let them do it. Should cost you anywhere from $50 to $75 dollars. Make sure it's somebody who's done a lot of them, so they have the practice.
I think there's a company out there who will ship a new GBA with the afterburner installed for $150 - that sounds the best option to me.
Of course, if somebody could just convince Nintendo to make a GBA+ with the backlight already installeed, that would save even more time. But I'm not holding my breath.
And pretty much discounted it after I thought for 2 seconds.
Profit is not the only reason why people use Open Source (aka - me).
We use it/develop for it/fund development for it because we get more stable software. More secure software. Software that has less bloat, and is less likely to lock me into a vendor that might turn into an asshole later (like trying to get me to pay for my software every year...or else).
If you look in the narrow world of profit - then he's still only partly right. How many resumes get you into a great job saying "I developed the XYZ patch for Imagemagik/Linux kernal/Mozilla - and that proves my kick ass ability, so you should hire me if you want that same ability in your employees". Last time I checked, being able to prove your 1337 hax()r skills usually gets you a good job - and good jobs == money, and money == financial incentive.
While this is Good Thing (TM) and will encourage some interesting games for the handheld system, I am a little worried about who might try and use this to convert their favorite SNES ROMS (Chrono Trigger, FFIV (II US), Super Metroid, etc) to their own ROM kit and play it.
Ah, screw it - I want to see this happen, just so I have a reason to take the train into work and play Super Mario RPG.
Slashdot Mirror
Or Firewire/USB kits - I've seen those going for about $60 (USB) to $100 (Firewire). I plan on doing that for my OS X backups.
Just some ideas.
Sherman: Mr. Peabody, I want to go back in time!
.... Damn it, boy, fire up the Wayback machine. And fetch me my chew toy.
Mr. Peabody: Be quite, Sherman. This new Wayback Machine is now accessable via a browser. Be happy with that.
Sherman: But I wanted to go back in time and watch Cleopatra taking one of those milk baths again.
Mr. Peabody:
Modem...I think I've heard of this before....
Ah, yes - it was a way of getting porn really, really slowly.
I like the idea - with both IBM and HP vying to be the best to offer Linux based solutions (including hardware/support/added development), this is going to make Linux better - and with two companies competing for my $$$ the way my girlfriends compete for my manhood, the consumer wins again.
Good God, but I *love* compitition.
Before people think Wal-Mart is being all altruistic, think of it this way.
Wal-Mart wants to advertise they're underselling the compitition. Easiest way to do this? Sell computers without an operating system. Of course, if you do this, you sell a computer that is a) useless to Joe User (who probably doesn't know how to install an OS without help), and b) Microsoft cries piracy (I don't have the link, but one of their white papers basically says that only software pirates buy computers without operating systems.)
Now, go to Dell. Computer comes with Windows, and Microsoft Works (or Office, or whatever). You can't tell them *not* to put it on, and odds are, they have some legal ass bullshit agreement with MS that all computers must have the OS and some office suite on them (aka, the "Windows Tax").
So Wal-Mart figures they can save $100-$200 on each computer sale by putting on Mandrake and probably Open Office. Joe User gets a computer he can do email/web browsing/document editing on. Yes, it might not run all the same software as Windows - but if he wants that, he goes back to Wal-Mart and shells out another $100 (or he learns to live with it and gets a Playstation 2 instead).
Guys like me who just want cheap ass hardware without the Windows Tax get hardware. Everybody wins. Well, except for MS, but the way they've been acting with their draconian "Use software subscription or no patches for you!" additude they've been shelling at the Corporate Level, I don't feel too sorry for them.
Pul-eeze. And there's never been a software package out there that can't read old files/programs? Try to run Ultima VII on Windows 98. Can't do it? Oh, duh, that's right, it uses really fucking old system calls taht nobody uses any more. Try and run some old OS 8 programs under the Macintosh - some will work, others won't (my daughters Preschool software won't).
The point? Even the best designed system has to break backwards compatibility to have better software.
Or, simply: duh.
I could be wrong, so feel free to correct me on this (as always), but didn't the last time the FCC "open up" bandwidth, it did it in a secret auction that only the "baby bells" could attend?
Now, if this auction were fully public so local folks could actually get a bid in and, oh, I don't know, fucking compete, then I'll get excited.
Until then, I'll keep up my plans to lay my own fiber in my area (and hope my neighbors stop reporting me for trespassing.)
Look at what you needed to run the PC versions of Final Fantasy VII and VIII - and those were *crappy* ports, but damn, they needed a lot of horsepower, even if they were acting as a PSOne emulator.
I can get this system to grow me a new steak whenever I want. Mm-mm - fresh biotech in the oven!
(Yes, I know it probably wouldn't taste as good as range grown cow, thank you Mr/Ms. "I don't get sarcasm".)
People use/develop Open Source because we're all cheap ass bastards.
Like me. But at least I admit it.
I have yet to read the newly revised version of the ADTI document, but looking at the original doesn't fill me with anger, or the need to go change the world.
It just depresses me. That there are people out there who find nothing better to do with their time and money than to tear other people down.
We have Microsoft machines at my Day Job. And MS SQL servers. And an AS 400. And a Macintosh (granted, only me, but hey, it's a start). And several Novell servers (I love the new licensing scheme.) And a Nokia IPSO box.
They all do a job, they all work together, and when I need to do something new, I look it over, and choose what I need. More often than not, it's Open Source, and everything else is slowly being pushed out (well, except for the Netware boxes - NDS rocks). I don't care about philosphy. I care about cost, performance, and how easy/difficult it is for me to use.
I might read the new version of the ADTI just for the heck of it. Odds are, I won't. It doesn't nothing but tear down, and I have a hard enough time building things to worry about what I should be taking out.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
I think it's also Mac compatible - I'm not planning on getting it myself just yet (I'm playing Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past! Weeee!), but I believe it's a PC/Mac hybrid. (Good lord - I just had an image of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates making out. Ew! Gross myself out! Ewww!)
One idea is to tie this into Novell's iFolder idea. The concept is you install a small client onto someone's computer, then "tag" which directories you want synched up with the users home director on the server (such as My Documents, etc).
Every time a file on either the server side or the workstation side updates, the client makes the same changes (note: changes, not the entire file, so if you change 1 sentance on a 30 MB document, you only change the few bytes of code).
We're going to try this out at my Day job for our Laptop user types, but so far, it's looking cool. Novell has mentioned future support for OS X (which I don't believe, but I'm an eternally hoping idiot.)
I agree - as we've all known, Competition is Good. You can pry my 12 Gigabyte transfer/month DSL connection from my cold, dead fingers. (Those AT&T bastards keep sniffing around the house. I guess I'll have to put out some more ammonia on the garbage cans to keep them away.)
*Note: This assumes that All You Can Eat Bandwidth goes away, and all Internet traffic becomes "metered" much like electricity, water, etc.
The Good News: Spam cuts down as companies realize they can't afford the bandwidth costs compared to the income.
The Bad News: There's still enough out there that you're charged an extra $5 just to download your mail. Oh, and that time you friend who uses Outlook got that virus? Yup - another $5.
The Good News: With bandwidth metering, idiot people who only only posts trolls stop since their hobby of annoying people for fun is now costing them.
The Bad News: The opinions of many are cut off as they weight their voice against their speech.
The Good News: Sites with way too many graphics, Flash animations, bangs and whistles become less popular, and become nice, clean, quick interfaces. True HTML 4.0 compliance becomes key since you can't just program client side "if browser==this display this".
The Bad News: So much for seeing new screenshots of Star Wars Episode III: Portman Naked and Petrified
The Good News: The Demo Disk industry truly takes off, since to be able to just download 200 - 300 MB demo's of games, software, etc costs too much. Game demos that used to be 400 MB in size are cut down to just 25 MB - just about downloadable.
The Bad News: Now you have to wait at least a week to try out Doom III: Demons in Love.
The Good News: The RIAA and MPAA shut the fuck up about how people are stealing music and videos. The whole CD protection bandwagon is killed off since there's no more fear that people will download music over the Internet, since that would cost as much as the CD anyway.
The Bad News: The whole idea of a legal MP3 music sale system for both established and new artists dies out. We are doomed to forever listen to Britney Spear's latest song, "Knock me around because I did it again".
Or I can take the software and use it in my business instead of paying the $$$ for development, I can contribute to it to make it better (and use other people's contributions for the same).
Now that $$$ I'm *not* spending on development can be spent on more employees, admins, maybe even a developer just to get in the pieces I need.
IT Depts usually do not *make* money, they *save* companies money, increase efficiency, and safeguard/provide data. Just because I don't *sell* a product doesn't mean that my *service* isn't just as valuable - or just as marketable.
I really don't care what government decides to waste its money on (after all, if it wasn't software, it would be gold toilet seats).
But I do care when government sponsored research into software is used by companies to make money. Last I checked, I didn't give Sun/MS/et all my tax dollars to make them richer. I want that research GPL'ed so that I know its available, that I, as a tax payer who paid for the R&D gets the benifits, and that it can be made even better by the world (and thus can help my government/business/etc).
Is how obviously biased the paper is - it's badly sourced, badly written, badly argued (there's holes in their arguments big enough to drive the proverbial truck through, like, "GNU doesn't let you steal source code for profit - the bastards!" - when proprietary licenses will throw you in jail for stealing source code), and so far, badly taken by anyone who knows anything about technology.
The counter argument (I read it on The Register this morning) is well written, well argued, has plenty of great sources, and except for the "Adapt or Die" bit repeated over and over again which showed his own bias (cool, but probably not the professional white paper people care about), it was a convincing argument.
So what was the point? If this "independant think tank" was paid for this research, whoever funded them should ask for a refund. If they did it to prove a point, someone should go back to "Presenting Important Arguments 101" and come back when they can present a logical, convincing argument.
All this appears to be is something a backpocket Sentator can wave and say "Look at this important research that proves why we need the GNU Illegal Code Act of 2003!". And sadly, most voters won't care because they don't know any better.
Then again, my 3 month old son doesn't know he shouldn't eat his hand. Same difference, I guess.
But...But...BSD let us use their code and make money off of it! Why don't you meanie GNU guys let us?
I mean, it's not like we're stealing Norton Doublespace or anything....
The Afterburner is a great product...as long as you are not the one to install it.
$35 gets you the kit - the backlight, anti-reflective plastic lining, wires, resistor, and the brightness dial.
To install it, you also need:
a triwing screwdriver (you can use a flathead, and destroy your screws)
a dremmel (to sand away enough plastic to make the backlight fit)
a drill with a very, very tiny drill bit (to install the brightness dial)
a soldering iron
My recommendation after getting the sucker to work (and pretty much making my GBA look like shit because, to be honest, I've never soldered before and I majorly suck at it).
A GBA costs $70. Find someplace online who will install the afterburner *for you*, ship it to them, and let them do it. Should cost you anywhere from $50 to $75 dollars. Make sure it's somebody who's done a lot of them, so they have the practice.
I think there's a company out there who will ship a new GBA with the afterburner installed for $150 - that sounds the best option to me.
Of course, if somebody could just convince Nintendo to make a GBA+ with the backlight already installeed, that would save even more time. But I'm not holding my breath.
And pretty much discounted it after I thought for 2 seconds.
Profit is not the only reason why people use Open Source (aka - me).
We use it/develop for it/fund development for it because we get more stable software. More secure software. Software that has less bloat, and is less likely to lock me into a vendor that might turn into an asshole later (like trying to get me to pay for my software every year...or else).
If you look in the narrow world of profit - then he's still only partly right. How many resumes get you into a great job saying "I developed the XYZ patch for Imagemagik/Linux kernal/Mozilla - and that proves my kick ass ability, so you should hire me if you want that same ability in your employees". Last time I checked, being able to prove your 1337 hax()r skills usually gets you a good job - and good jobs == money, and money == financial incentive.
Of course, I could be wrong.
While this is Good Thing (TM) and will encourage some interesting games for the handheld system, I am a little worried about who might try and use this to convert their favorite SNES ROMS (Chrono Trigger, FFIV (II US), Super Metroid, etc) to their own ROM kit and play it.
Ah, screw it - I want to see this happen, just so I have a reason to take the train into work and play Super Mario RPG.
Anybody know if we'll need special drivers to put Linux on this thing (probably the biggest thing is a handwriting recognition program, of course)?
I'm assuming we'll be force fed Windows XP, but with a Transmeta processor, you can always hope.