Downloading it is [clearly/maybe] making "another" copy of something. How many times is it viewed, total? Does it matter whether it's sold at a swap meet, on e-bay, or shared via P2P? Does the sleazy lawyer know? Did he even bother to try to know, or just to convince a jury of the worst-case scenario with the least-possible data?
Then why do we always sit here and blast Windows and Microsoft, when in fact good admins keep their boxes running with an optimal uptime, performance, etc? I will agree with the 95/98/ME era, but coming into XP and 2003 Server, I think that it comes down to the skill of the admin to eek out the performance out of the Windows boxes rather than to expect it like most people here do. It seems quite hypocritical to me, but hey.. I'll probably be modded down for coming to a logical argument that might cast Microsoft in a positive light. I'm not a zealot, but I've seen both sides of the coin and I know that Windows boxes can be stable and bulletproof, if you have a good admin. And those admins get blue screens -- when hardware fails. I don't know what happens in Linux, but last I checked it doesn't deal with a bad RAM chip any better than Windows does. 1. How long did it take Microsoft, from its inception, to get comparable to Linux in security?
2. kernel-patch-badram
Kernel patch allowing to use partly-bad RAM modules
This package contains a patch to the Linux kernel, which allows to tell
the kernel which parts of a RAM module are bad. This allows you to
use old RAM modules, when for example just 1 bit in your 256MB module
makes it otherwise unusable.
Packages memtest86 and memtest86+ allow to test the RAM for such
problems, and are able to tell you what parameters to give to a
badram-enabled kernel. I guess you haven't checked very recently, or very thoroughly -- which is it?
That's all plausible, but all un-confirmed. Since there's nothing to blow up in any case, I don't thing Jamie & Adam are going to be any help getting to the bottom of this riddle.
Sometimes they use a decimal point to represent 10^3 divisions and sometimes they don't use anything. I only see one instance of this (NOYB, 2006, '1308' instead of '1.308') but I'm sure you can tell us how this completely destroys their credibility. Suppose it had been academic work. How would you, as the student presenting such work, explain the inconsistency in presentation of the alleged "data" summary? Where are the raw, unsummarized data? How could we verify the "report" with a neutral third party?
Headings appear to duplicate each other, like the "Remote service password guessing" and "Remote service password bruteforce" You'd be right if they were the same thing, but they're not. "Brute force" is certainly a subset of "password guessing." It's also usually the largest, and in many cases the only subset. So, what's the difference, really? And just to be complete, what's the real difference?
From the second joke site you posted:
George W. Bush had been the director of the CIA, and the CIA is reputed to be able... That was George H. W. Bush, not Junior. Imagine him being that silly, and pulling his own strings!
Once rows 15 and higher are in line, the flight attendant could then ask for the highest-number row in the previously defined subset. In the 20-row prop planes I recently "enjoyed," they would say "Everybody in row 20, please come to the front of the line." Then they'd take those four people's boarding passes, and ask for people seated in row 19. People would board closer to strict order, but not have to think about it or be separated from their traveling companions, so the only people who complain will be those who oppose efficiency as a matter of policy. I wanted to suggest this to the flight attendants on my recent travels, but when my first connecting flight was cancelled I decided not to provide any useful information to that airline or its employees.
Do you really want every hostile government and terrorist to know the locations, travel schedules, and arming codes for all US nuclear weapons? All but the arming codes: yes. They should be protected by guns, not by secrecy. I certainly pay enough for the guns to be confident we have more than enough of them to protect... the frigging guns.
What do you think will happen if the names of undercover agents in foreign countries are publicized? How about the impact on fighting organized crime and terrorism of eliminating the Witness Protection program? Maybe we shouldn't screw around in foreign countries so much. The witness protection program, and citizen data generally, are obvious exceptions to the rule that the citizens have a right to know what a representative government does. That does not include nor imply any right to know what other citizens do. The right to free speech of every citizen includes, without exception other than a warrant, the right to tell as much or as little about oneself as we choose. Information about citizens and information about the government are totally different topics. Attempting to conflate them is disingenuous and puts you on the wrong side of the American traditions of personal liberty and personal, not collective responsibility.
I tried that, but most users found that to be really rude. Maybe it's cultural thing. I doubt it. I don't know your users, but when mine pull that routine they're pretending to find the request for e-mail rude because they knew that making the same frivolous request via e-mail would create a record of the request and that they had no business wasting my time with those requests in the first place.
Interesting. He argues for linux based primarily on price, and from the seller's viewpoint. Sure, some of the savings is (presumably) passed on to the consumer, but I miss a good argument for why the consumer should use it. He could have said "it does the same job for a lower price", which is a very convincing argument in my book (and to some extent also valid). It's not a very sexy argument, though, but I won't be demanding everything. That's all implied in the fact that the cost of hardware is too low now for a non-free operating system's price to be considered negligible.
InfoWorld: But Windows is still on 98, 99 per cent of PC desktops anyway, so do you think that number or that percentage will decrease?
Zemlin: Yes. Yes, I think it will actually. As an extention of my previous comment, I wished InfoWorld would have asked him why he thinks that. I can say "I think I will get -1 Flamebait"; so what? It only becomes interesting when I have something to substantiate it with. In the interviewer's defense, the assignment appears to be an intro to FOSS v. Microsoft:
Zemlin: In fact, the legal defense fund was created to assist in defense of the platform in the SCO lawsuit. And so that's a good example.
InfoWorld: What became of that?
Zemlin: SCO lost the lawsuit, it was found that there were no copyright infringements that were there in the Linux platform, and it was proven that Novell indeed owned the copyright to the software that SCO alleged was theirs. I mean, that's pretty much remedial History of Comp. Sci. 101 nowadays. I agree though, it would be nice to have some of Zemlin's own opinions of what facts support that opinion, but maybe the interviewer was counting on Slashdot to link to those data in subsequent discussion.;-)
InfoWorld: Wouldn't the emergence of Linux kind of say that maybe Microsoft never really was a monopoly, that there was always room for somebody else to compete in there and that's what Linux is now doing?
Zemlin: It obviously was a desktop monopoly for a period of time. Again, there's a claim but no argument. I don't want to argue against him, I just want a better argument. Well, I'm no Zemlin, but I'll argue his assertions if you'll argue against them.
(None of this is to say that I disagree with Zemlin's assertions, just that I think he could have made a better argument). Oh, I see. If you, and presumably other readers, can construct the arguments, why should he bother?
...it does all of that, plus ripping CDs to a better file format (FLAC or Ogg Vorbis) at full speed, without paying for any upgrade.
No it does not, XMMS does not have a media library and i clearly mentioned it. Its the Closest looking/feeling application to WinAmp on linux in terms of features and controls. In fact it is advertised as "Winamp like media player" when you install it using 'Synaptec Packet Manager'.
1. I said "Rhythmbox" not XMMS, I don't use that piece of garbage.
2. You mean 'Synaptic Package Manager' and that is not an "advertisement" because you aren't required to pay. If you don't like a Linux app as-is you can re-write or edit it until it's perfect for you, provided you make your improvements available to the public. Is that so onerous?
However it does NOT have a media library. If it does its so damn hidden it needs Christopher Columbus to set an expedition to discover. Not simple like right click on the app and choose what you want to see. It cannot organize music based on its own database. NO, it cant! As for Rhythmbox, i'm yet to see a more ugly looking media player application than this. I will post you if i find anything more uglier.
'Christopher Columbus!' That is very funny, good one. However, I just found two things "more uglier:" you're splelign et tu grammar. Rhythmbox's interface is pretty plain, but it does everything you requested, meaning that it meets the standard you set, as you originally set it. Adjusting "standards" after the fact makes you a liar because to do so is inconsistent with the meaning of the word "standards;" if they are not constant, they are not "standards" at all, and you're just dodging the fact that you lost one point by presenting a new one, related only by the name of program, but with completely different thesis. First, you said it should merely "rip Music" but now you want to move the goalposts! Move them by yourself, you haven't paid me to help you tell lies.
I don't care what Rhythmbox looks like myself because I take a couple seconds to set it to start playing then get to work, looking at something else. Like the authors of Rhythmbox, I wouldn't waste my time writing "skins" for it. It's an audio program, not a video program, so it may as well be uncluttered by useless, superfluous ornament.
Or for ~$40, you can buy the "$distro Bible"
Pardon me but did not i already bring in the discussion that im a dumb computer user.
No, I noticed that without your admission of ignorance. These books I cited do not require front-to-back reading. They are references, not novels. Or, if your objection is to the use of the $ symbol to denote a variable tough luck, I like to emphasize how simple BASH is. If you don't like seeing that fact emphasized you may take your argument to the illiterates who can't see through your sophistry, though you might need to reduce your fees.
Maybe you did not understand, when i said "I" i did not mean personally me but i meant the average computer user (windows/mac) who knows how to turn it on, print, email and chat.
So, you're not speaking for yourself, or if you are you won't admit it. That's no surprise. Would you like to refer me to the person who will put its own name to this argument of yours, that it's too stupid to use anything more complicated than the Windows GUI?
Now why would i of all the other things in the world waste my time on a big ass book
I suppose you might have an interest in proctology which you hadn't mentioned previously, but that is not the topic.
...and study weird computer stuff that im least interested in? All i wanna do is basic stuff, why do i have to train myself for that?
I agree it isn't earth-shattering. I do not agree that should be the standard for inclusion on Slashdot, but I'm new here. I just wouldn't want to limit myself to learning only earth-shattering nerdy news because background knowledge increases my appreciation for the big news, on the rare occasion that some of that breaks.
They were put there that way, and changes beyond what Charles Darwin called "varieties" and "incipient species" have never occurred. The distinct species are each the Creation of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. "Speciation" is the central myth of the apostate, carbohydrate-neutral Religion of Science.
Name one thing in Windows that a novice user cannot understand or comprehend as to what he is doing. One thing! Don't comeback with stuff like virus/malware kind of lame excuses.
The registry. Check-mate. And, why should malware (includes viruses) be prohibited from this argument?
To sum it up, sorry mate. Linux still is not ready for the desktop, i see it at least not in the next 5 - 7 years. It definitely is better than what it was 5 years back when i installed Redhat Linux Version 7.0 or 8.0 something(don't remember well), used disk druid and created swap partitions et all but still could not figure out how to configure sound, internet, printer et all by "pointing and clicking" like i do on windows and mac. Linux distributions today have come far, Ubuntu kicks ass but then the niche and the ease of use that windows offers over Linux is definitely better. For Linux to change and take people by the swarms as a desktop OS alternative (forget even the word replacement) it needs a few things...
It needs just one thing: to be pre-installed with the type of software you mentioned above. Many of those could stand to be beautified, I agree, but that isn't really important, and would cost very little for a company like Dell, if they like the results of their first, tentative exploration of Linux as a desktop replacement. I like all-grey borders that blend into a neutral, easy-to-ignore background while I work, and I think that market demand for color schemes & 3-D icons is overstated. What I've seen people really like is the ability to easily customize presentation according to the largest number of parameters, rather than choose from a handful of pre-defined, bundled design choices. The "color wheel" for lack of the proper term in Debian for selecting the background color is a good example of what I mean. Offering that level of control over more of the computing environment with that level of ease, will set the first OEM to offer it apart from the rest. I don't believe the GPL prohibits Dell from creating its own distribution, or modifying an existing one, to offer just the type of refinements you suggested.
1. User experience - Clearly, Apps on Windows/Mac have better and richer set of features.
That's the myth they're telling in Redmond.
For example Winamp. Compare this app and give me a Linux equivalent. Don't even think of XMMS, i use that rubbish. Where is the damn music library in that?
I already said "Rhythmbox" which is what I use, and...
Where is organizing, tagging, play listing et all for it on a unified console like Winamp has.
...it does all of that, plus ripping CDs to a better file format (FLAC or Ogg Vorbis) at full speed, without paying for any upgrade.
2. Easier Design Layout - Other than having the OK button on the Left and Cancel on the right, Linux has not done much to make the design of the whole OS navigation easier. For example if i want to configure mixer tools or adjust channels that are provided by my sound card i wanna be able to "GUESS" where probably i can go find it.
You mean, other than the man page for that program? The ALSA Project has made a lot of progress in a short time, but I'll grant you that the example you picked is a good one. I have to set channel IEC958 (digital output) to mute, or set the volume slider to minimum, to get any sound from the so-called S/PDIF output!
But man pages really are very consistent, and only take a short time to get used to. The rules for including options with commands are likewise not complicated or difficult to learn. After chewing on "man $foo" just a couple times, I found subsequent lookups very easily digestible.
3. Support - There is 0% of this for Linux.
I haven't joined any local Linux User Groups, but I have heard good things about them. Or for ~$40, you can buy the "$distro Bible" which is what I did, and still less than the cost of ju
I agree with the sentiment, but not with the analysis.
Yeah. Sure. (Sarcasm, don't you know.) Now that we are finally winning, let's "cooperate" and make our product look and work more like the LOSER. Right. That's the ticket.
And cooperation with a company that is famous for reneging on its own "cooperative" deals, in order to kill the competition, is actually a GOOD idea. Yeah. Sure it's a good idea. The better man, woman, product or service wins more quickly, decisively, and obviously the more that competition is direct and open, like Linux is, and like Zemlin described: "We'd like to have a place where developers can come and work on making Linux more effectively interoperate with Microsoft products. And we'd like to do that in the open-source way that's not tied to any specific marketing agreement, that's not tied to any specific contract, that is an open process that can be participated in by anyone in the community." Inferior products such as Microsoft sells don't stand a chance on these terms. I interpreted "We'd love to do it" as a tactful way of saying "We'd like to see them try it."
I wonder how much he was paid under the table to make this suggestion. That remark was in very poor taste.
For example in windows all i have to is run Windows Update, two simple english words that tell me what it does. In linux its "sudo -apt getupdate"
I mean, what the hell! How on earth would i guess what sudo is and the arguement -apt stands for. In other words, if you want to operate your computer by guesswork, Linux is not for you. On the other hand, if you can type "man $foo" you can find your way around Linux. The comparison you chose, and the expectation that all functions be apparent from a knowledge of English and a "guess" at an icon, brings to mind some claims around the Internet that Linux users are "insulting" and "elitist," without any specific examples in any case I've ever seen. Thank you for helping me rationalize that claim. If you or any other Linux newbie expect to continue computing by guesswork in Linux, I don't doubt you're being insulted and treated with condescension. You'd deserve it.
As a novice computer user, say like a senior citizen or a plumber who knows not much but just likes to email/chat/play games/rip Music... Evolution/Gaim/Are you implying that "novice computer users" play games?/[Sound Juicer/Rhythmbox]
After "apt-get install $bar" each of the aforementioned proggies have just the same configuration parameters as their Windows counterparts. Games, I guess you know, don't have satisfactory "equivalents" so good replacements cannot be programmed for Linux, except by the maker of the original game. So the problem there is just that video game authors aren't writing ports to Linux, but that doesn't matter. The other programs can do the rest of what the average computer user wants, and games will follow suit when Linux captures the market share of the computers that aren't used to play games. Anyway, my understanding is that any "novice" who tries to play a video game doesn't remain a novice long. Isn't half the "fun" of computer gaming the "opportunity" to troubleshoot every last function of the computer, daily?
Microsoft understands what exactly i need and empowers me in very simple terms and ways to do it. Clearly you have an overactive sense of humor.
Hell i would not care if the shit explodes 3 times a day, i can still live with it. That sounds like a "mission critical" application, which therefore is probably prohibited by any and all Microsoft EULA.
Its like having the cake and eating it too although it may be a bit bitter sometimes. Linux is like a wonderful pastry that people talk about and promise of. Those inside the bakery relish it, you the dumb chimpanzee in a zoo experiment are the fool outside who can only scratch the bullet proof glass and wonder.. is there a way in at all??!? Analogies can very conveniently save you the embarrassment of discussing any facts of the matter at hand, when the pertinent facts are inconsistent with your uninformed opinion. The danger is that somebody who disagrees with you will notice that is what you're doing with analogies and call you on it. In general, it's still quite safe to be Wrong on the Internet but the "Linux not ready for desktop" crap won't survive outside of its TechNet incubation chamber these days.
Trust me, there's a lot more to a flight recorder than just an ipod in a big orange case. Granted, tape recorders are larger than iPods. Other than that, the iPod is better, and lead weights can make up the difference in mass.
As is, a black box weights 25lbs or more easily. Do you know what kind of force it has to be able to withstand and come out unscathed? About the same, whether it's an iPod or a tape recorder or Intel Inside (TM) the Sturdy Box (not TM yet). I think you're completely missing the point, that a semiconductor-based recorder of the same size and power requirements can record vastly more sound at equal or better quality, and can just as easily be placed inside the same Sturdy Box.
You're overstating the shortcomings of POSIX here.
If your only interface is the POSIX API, about all you can tell is whether a time you give is in DST or not. If you want to do anything reasonably fancy (e.g., "Is DST this weekend?" or "what time does DST start/end?"), there is a lot more work involved: you have to create multiple unix times, query the POSIX API for each one, and check the flag returned.
s/reasonably fancy/else
s/lot/little
And the POSIX API is then doing a lot more work than you really care about, which means wasted time there, too. That would be your fault for writing or implementing your algorithms stupidly. Dates are not complicated, nor is any data type, inherently. If you can't make them work for you, it's not the fault of the programming language of the data types you're misusing.
If the amount of progress he has made is more than the teams of mathematicians did in the same amount of time or less than he has spent, with only his daughter's assistance on "bits of calculus," it's quite reasonable to describe him as "beating" them at the primary task of the competition. Whether the margin by which he is beating them is wide enough to overcome the head start he gave them by entering late will determine, at the end of the contest, whether he has won, but for now the present progressive tense and the verb "beat" are both correct. I would guess at least some of those mathematicians feel pretty beaten right now, as do some other Republican candidates who have gotten fewer votes with more GOP support than Ron Paul, since you just had to mention that, Troll.
Wow, the moderators really are paying attention! You saw that the EFF project is about distributed computing, right? So the moderators are exactly right, "Please ignore my previous post" was insightful. The article is not about brute-forcing primes with anybody's one computer. I'm not trying to call you less than insightful, but the moderation system takes a lot of crap, and maybe it's just because I'm new here, but I'm still impressed by how much better it works than some other feedback systems.
Huh, my manager found an ad about a shipping service from a Web page, specifically the "HTML document portion of a Web page." He then looked up the nearest location in the phone book, and sent his lackey to send our product, ACME Crap, with that service instead of via the United States Postal Service, as we have been doing. I was in the nick of time to warn him that this business process is now patented, and his lackey has begun a random walk to the first Federal Express location it finds by blind chance. Back at headquarters, it has been decided that whichever location he uses we will designate "shipping1" and use for all shipping. However, other employees are allowed to tell us if they find other, closer franchises of the same global business, in which case the nearer location will be designated "shipping1" and all others will be sorted by distance. We plan to patent this algorithm, which we term "the second least-stupid way" and enough trivial variants on it that everybody else will have to pay us royalties, or walk aimlessly for all their business needs. We anticipate either that both business process patents and software patents will be discontinued and repealed shortly thereafter, or civilization will.
re-nationalize DARPANET? "Cybercrime" and "cyber-terrorism" conducted on a tool built by the US military doesn't sit well with this taxpayer. Paying 6-figure salaries to combat those abuses of US property by foreign nationals is also not representative of my interests. Why shouldn't we de-commission the whole project, cease allocating IPs to all foreigners and foreign holdings, and let private industry either make the World Wide Wasteland profitable on their own dimes or declare bankruptcy one-by-one?
The mainframe, the aged yet surprisingly resilient survivor of computing, is getting a face-lift. A model called the I.B.M. z10, which is being introduced Tuesday, is far faster and has three times the data-juggling memory of its three-year-old predecessor, the z9.
But the significance of the new machine, analysts say, is that it is a big step in a broad campaign by I.B.M. to make the mainframe computer a high-performance, energy-efficient engine for running all kinds of nonmainframe software.
The goal, according to I.B.M. executives and analysts, is to recast the mainframe as a nimble supercomputer in corporate and government data centers, running Web-based programs, Linux, advanced data mining and business intelligence software.
To do that, I.B.M. has refined its mainframe hardware and come up with new software tools, as part of a five-year, $1.5-billion overhaul.
The mainframes ability to survive is only as good as its ability to innovate and compete for these new computing workloads of the future, an analyst at Forrester Research, Brad Day, said. And I.B.M. is starting to succeed at that.
The stakes are high. Though the sales of mainframes account for less than 4 percent of I.B.M.s revenue, the sales of mainframe software, storage and services are a big, profitable business. The overall business dependent on mainframes represents about 25 percent of company revenue and nearly half of its profit, said A. M. Sacconaghi, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company.
At Hannaford Brothers in Scarborough, Me., a supermarket chain with stores in five states, the company has consolidated many programs onto its two mainframes. They include its consumer Web site, its Web portal for tracking shipments from suppliers and store and customer data that were once housed on computers in individual stores.
The mainframe has become very flexible and very scalable for us, said Bill Homa, Hannafords chief information officer.
Robert Woeckener, a senior technology manager at Nationwide Insurance in Columbus, Ohio, said his company had consolidated more than 1,300 programs onto 480 virtual computers software that emulates a machine that run on two mainframes.
Nationwide began the program more than two years ago, projecting savings in energy, administration and other costs at $15 million over three years. Were probably running ahead of that, Mr. Woeckener said.
I.B.M. competitors say that some individual success stories among mainframe users do not change the reality that the mainframe is in retreat.
In 2004, Microsoft founded the Mainframe Migration Alliance, a group of technology companies that helps corporations move software applications from mainframes to smaller computers powered by low-cost microprocessors and typically running Microsofts Windows server operating system. Microsoft tracked 85 mainframe migration projects last year, and the company says 55 more are under way.
I.B.M., to the contrary, says that the mainframe is in the midst of a revival. It is adding customers in developing nations, the company maintains, as banks, corporations and government agencies expand and need the kind of reliability and security that the mainframe delivers. I.B.M.s mainframe revenue in India, China, Brazil and Russia grew 18 percent last year.
Six hundred software applications, it says, were introduced on the mainframe last year.
Rising energy costs and environmental concerns are putting pressure on growing computer data centers, with their voracious appetites for electricity. The z10, I.B.M. says, delivers the computing power of 1,500 industry-standard servers, running on personal computer microprocessors, while consuming 85 percent less energy and covering
MS was badly cornered at the time by a confluence of market forces that really threatened to make them irrelevant if they didn't make development for their platform reasonable. JDK was already free, and more "interoperable" than the competition. Yes, at the time, it was. Microsoft does not "innovate," they adhere to standards so little that when they do catch up to current technology, on one front, it's so novel that it creates the illusion of "innovation."
I'm worried for that little kernel of innovation that still exists in MS, as proven by.NET's existence. OK, you keep using that word. What exactly is so "innovative" about.Net?
MS's problem is that they're looking down the barrel of not being *necessary* anymore. Their problem is that they've gotten out of the habit of being competitive. I don't believe they have a single clue among them how to compete in a market they can't dominate.
Slashdot Mirror
2. kernel-patch-badram Kernel patch allowing to use partly-bad RAM modules
This package contains a patch to the Linux kernel, which allows to tell the kernel which parts of a RAM module are bad. This allows you to use old RAM modules, when for example just 1 bit in your 256MB module makes it otherwise unusable.
Packages memtest86 and memtest86+ allow to test the RAM for such problems, and are able to tell you what parameters to give to a badram-enabled kernel. I guess you haven't checked very recently, or very thoroughly -- which is it?
That's all plausible, but all un-confirmed. Since there's nothing to blow up in any case, I don't thing Jamie & Adam are going to be any help getting to the bottom of this riddle.
Once rows 15 and higher are in line, the flight attendant could then ask for the highest-number row in the previously defined subset. In the 20-row prop planes I recently "enjoyed," they would say "Everybody in row 20, please come to the front of the line." Then they'd take those four people's boarding passes, and ask for people seated in row 19. People would board closer to strict order, but not have to think about it or be separated from their traveling companions, so the only people who complain will be those who oppose efficiency as a matter of policy. I wanted to suggest this to the flight attendants on my recent travels, but when my first connecting flight was cancelled I decided not to provide any useful information to that airline or its employees.
I read the same thing on the Interblag, but I don't believe it.
InfoWorld: What became of that?
Zemlin: SCO lost the lawsuit, it was found that there were no copyright infringements that were there in the Linux platform, and it was proven that Novell indeed owned the copyright to the software that SCO alleged was theirs. I mean, that's pretty much remedial History of Comp. Sci. 101 nowadays. I agree though, it would be nice to have some of Zemlin's own opinions of what facts support that opinion, but maybe the interviewer was counting on Slashdot to link to those data in subsequent discussion.
...it does all of that, plus ripping CDs to a better file format (FLAC or Ogg Vorbis) at full speed, without paying for any upgrade.
No it does not, XMMS does not have a media library and i clearly mentioned it. Its the Closest looking/feeling application to WinAmp on linux in terms of features and controls. In fact it is advertised as "Winamp like media player" when you install it using 'Synaptec Packet Manager'.
1. I said "Rhythmbox" not XMMS, I don't use that piece of garbage.
2. You mean 'Synaptic Package Manager' and that is not an "advertisement" because you aren't required to pay. If you don't like a Linux app as-is you can re-write or edit it until it's perfect for you, provided you make your improvements available to the public. Is that so onerous?
However it does NOT have a media library. If it does its so damn hidden it needs Christopher Columbus to set an expedition to discover. Not simple like right click on the app and choose what you want to see. It cannot organize music based on its own database. NO, it cant! As for Rhythmbox, i'm yet to see a more ugly looking media player application than this. I will post you if i find anything more uglier.
'Christopher Columbus!' That is very funny, good one. However, I just found two things "more uglier:" you're splelign et tu grammar. Rhythmbox's interface is pretty plain, but it does everything you requested, meaning that it meets the standard you set, as you originally set it. Adjusting "standards" after the fact makes you a liar because to do so is inconsistent with the meaning of the word "standards;" if they are not constant, they are not "standards" at all, and you're just dodging the fact that you lost one point by presenting a new one, related only by the name of program, but with completely different thesis. First, you said it should merely "rip Music" but now you want to move the goalposts! Move them by yourself, you haven't paid me to help you tell lies.
I don't care what Rhythmbox looks like myself because I take a couple seconds to set it to start playing then get to work, looking at something else. Like the authors of Rhythmbox, I wouldn't waste my time writing "skins" for it. It's an audio program, not a video program, so it may as well be uncluttered by useless, superfluous ornament.
Or for ~$40, you can buy the "$distro Bible"
Pardon me but did not i already bring in the discussion that im a dumb computer user.
No, I noticed that without your admission of ignorance. These books I cited do not require front-to-back reading. They are references, not novels. Or, if your objection is to the use of the $ symbol to denote a variable tough luck, I like to emphasize how simple BASH is. If you don't like seeing that fact emphasized you may take your argument to the illiterates who can't see through your sophistry, though you might need to reduce your fees.
Maybe you did not understand, when i said "I" i did not mean personally me but i meant the average computer user (windows/mac) who knows how to turn it on, print, email and chat.
So, you're not speaking for yourself, or if you are you won't admit it. That's no surprise. Would you like to refer me to the person who will put its own name to this argument of yours, that it's too stupid to use anything more complicated than the Windows GUI?
Now why would i of all the other things in the world waste my time on a big ass book
I suppose you might have an interest in proctology which you hadn't mentioned previously, but that is not the topic.
...and study weird computer stuff that im least interested in? All i wanna do is basic stuff, why do i have to train myself for that?
Too stupid to use
I agree it isn't earth-shattering. I do not agree that should be the standard for inclusion on Slashdot, but I'm new here. I just wouldn't want to limit myself to learning only earth-shattering nerdy news because background knowledge increases my appreciation for the big news, on the rare occasion that some of that breaks.
FWIW = 0, but YMMV
They were put there that way, and changes beyond what Charles Darwin called "varieties" and "incipient species" have never occurred. The distinct species are each the Creation of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. "Speciation" is the central myth of the apostate, carbohydrate-neutral Religion of Science.
Name one thing in Windows that a novice user cannot understand or comprehend as to what he is doing. One thing! Don't comeback with stuff like virus/malware kind of lame excuses.
The registry. Check-mate. And, why should malware (includes viruses) be prohibited from this argument?
To sum it up, sorry mate. Linux still is not ready for the desktop, i see it at least not in the next 5 - 7 years. It definitely is better than what it was 5 years back when i installed Redhat Linux Version 7.0 or 8.0 something(don't remember well), used disk druid and created swap partitions et all but still could not figure out how to configure sound, internet, printer et all by "pointing and clicking" like i do on windows and mac. Linux distributions today have come far, Ubuntu kicks ass but then the niche and the ease of use that windows offers over Linux is definitely better. For Linux to change and take people by the swarms as a desktop OS alternative (forget even the word replacement) it needs a few things...
It needs just one thing: to be pre-installed with the type of software you mentioned above. Many of those could stand to be beautified, I agree, but that isn't really important, and would cost very little for a company like Dell, if they like the results of their first, tentative exploration of Linux as a desktop replacement. I like all-grey borders that blend into a neutral, easy-to-ignore background while I work, and I think that market demand for color schemes & 3-D icons is overstated. What I've seen people really like is the ability to easily customize presentation according to the largest number of parameters, rather than choose from a handful of pre-defined, bundled design choices. The "color wheel" for lack of the proper term in Debian for selecting the background color is a good example of what I mean. Offering that level of control over more of the computing environment with that level of ease, will set the first OEM to offer it apart from the rest. I don't believe the GPL prohibits Dell from creating its own distribution, or modifying an existing one, to offer just the type of refinements you suggested.
1. User experience - Clearly, Apps on Windows/Mac have better and richer set of features.
That's the myth they're telling in Redmond.
For example Winamp. Compare this app and give me a Linux equivalent. Don't even think of XMMS, i use that rubbish. Where is the damn music library in that?
I already said "Rhythmbox" which is what I use, and ...
Where is organizing, tagging, play listing et all for it on a unified console like Winamp has.
2. Easier Design Layout - Other than having the OK button on the Left and Cancel on the right, Linux has not done much to make the design of the whole OS navigation easier. For example if i want to configure mixer tools or adjust channels that are provided by my sound card i wanna be able to "GUESS" where probably i can go find it.
You mean, other than the man page for that program? The ALSA Project has made a lot of progress in a short time, but I'll grant you that the example you picked is a good one. I have to set channel IEC958 (digital output) to mute, or set the volume slider to minimum, to get any sound from the so-called S/PDIF output!
But man pages really are very consistent, and only take a short time to get used to. The rules for including options with commands are likewise not complicated or difficult to learn. After chewing on "man $foo" just a couple times, I found subsequent lookups very easily digestible.
3. Support - There is 0% of this for Linux.
I haven't joined any local Linux User Groups, but I have heard good things about them. Or for ~$40, you can buy the "$distro Bible" which is what I did, and still less than the cost of ju
And cooperation with a company that is famous for reneging on its own "cooperative" deals, in order to kill the competition, is actually a GOOD idea. Yeah. Sure it's a good idea. The better man, woman, product or service wins more quickly, decisively, and obviously the more that competition is direct and open, like Linux is, and like Zemlin described: "We'd like to have a place where developers can come and work on making Linux more effectively interoperate with Microsoft products. And we'd like to do that in the open-source way that's not tied to any specific marketing agreement, that's not tied to any specific contract, that is an open process that can be participated in by anyone in the community." Inferior products such as Microsoft sells don't stand a chance on these terms. I interpreted "We'd love to do it" as a tactful way of saying "We'd like to see them try it." I wonder how much he was paid under the table to make this suggestion. That remark was in very poor taste.
I mean, what the hell! How on earth would i guess what sudo is and the arguement -apt stands for. In other words, if you want to operate your computer by guesswork, Linux is not for you. On the other hand, if you can type "man $foo" you can find your way around Linux. The comparison you chose, and the expectation that all functions be apparent from a knowledge of English and a "guess" at an icon, brings to mind some claims around the Internet that Linux users are "insulting" and "elitist," without any specific examples in any case I've ever seen. Thank you for helping me rationalize that claim. If you or any other Linux newbie expect to continue computing by guesswork in Linux, I don't doubt you're being insulted and treated with condescension. You'd deserve it. As a novice computer user, say like a senior citizen or a plumber who knows not much but just likes to email/chat/play games/rip Music... Evolution/Gaim/Are you implying that "novice computer users" play games?/[Sound Juicer/Rhythmbox]
After "apt-get install $bar" each of the aforementioned proggies have just the same configuration parameters as their Windows counterparts. Games, I guess you know, don't have satisfactory "equivalents" so good replacements cannot be programmed for Linux, except by the maker of the original game. So the problem there is just that video game authors aren't writing ports to Linux, but that doesn't matter. The other programs can do the rest of what the average computer user wants, and games will follow suit when Linux captures the market share of the computers that aren't used to play games. Anyway, my understanding is that any "novice" who tries to play a video game doesn't remain a novice long. Isn't half the "fun" of computer gaming the "opportunity" to troubleshoot every last function of the computer, daily? Microsoft understands what exactly i need and empowers me in very simple terms and ways to do it. Clearly you have an overactive sense of humor. Hell i would not care if the shit explodes 3 times a day, i can still live with it. That sounds like a "mission critical" application, which therefore is probably prohibited by any and all Microsoft EULA. Its like having the cake and eating it too although it may be a bit bitter sometimes. Linux is like a wonderful pastry that people talk about and promise of. Those inside the bakery relish it, you the dumb chimpanzee in a zoo experiment are the fool outside who can only scratch the bullet proof glass and wonder.. is there a way in at all??!? Analogies can very conveniently save you the embarrassment of discussing any facts of the matter at hand, when the pertinent facts are inconsistent with your uninformed opinion. The danger is that somebody who disagrees with you will notice that is what you're doing with analogies and call you on it. In general, it's still quite safe to be Wrong on the Internet but the "Linux not ready for desktop" crap won't survive outside of its TechNet incubation chamber these days.
s/reasonably fancy/else
s/lot/little
And the POSIX API is then doing a lot more work than you really care about, which means wasted time there, too. That would be your fault for writing or implementing your algorithms stupidly. Dates are not complicated, nor is any data type, inherently. If you can't make them work for you, it's not the fault of the programming language of the data types you're misusing.
rate = distance / time
If the amount of progress he has made is more than the teams of mathematicians did in the same amount of time or less than he has spent, with only his daughter's assistance on "bits of calculus," it's quite reasonable to describe him as "beating" them at the primary task of the competition. Whether the margin by which he is beating them is wide enough to overcome the head start he gave them by entering late will determine, at the end of the contest, whether he has won, but for now the present progressive tense and the verb "beat" are both correct. I would guess at least some of those mathematicians feel pretty beaten right now, as do some other Republican candidates who have gotten fewer votes with more GOP support than Ron Paul, since you just had to mention that, Troll.
Wow, the moderators really are paying attention! You saw that the EFF project is about distributed computing, right? So the moderators are exactly right, "Please ignore my previous post" was insightful. The article is not about brute-forcing primes with anybody's one computer. I'm not trying to call you less than insightful, but the moderation system takes a lot of crap, and maybe it's just because I'm new here, but I'm still impressed by how much better it works than some other feedback systems.
Huh, my manager found an ad about a shipping service from a Web page, specifically the "HTML document portion of a Web page." He then looked up the nearest location in the phone book, and sent his lackey to send our product, ACME Crap, with that service instead of via the United States Postal Service, as we have been doing. I was in the nick of time to warn him that this business process is now patented, and his lackey has begun a random walk to the first Federal Express location it finds by blind chance. Back at headquarters, it has been decided that whichever location he uses we will designate "shipping1" and use for all shipping. However, other employees are allowed to tell us if they find other, closer franchises of the same global business, in which case the nearer location will be designated "shipping1" and all others will be sorted by distance. We plan to patent this algorithm, which we term "the second least-stupid way" and enough trivial variants on it that everybody else will have to pay us royalties, or walk aimlessly for all their business needs. We anticipate either that both business process patents and software patents will be discontinued and repealed shortly thereafter, or civilization will.
re-nationalize DARPANET? "Cybercrime" and "cyber-terrorism" conducted on a tool built by the US military doesn't sit well with this taxpayer. Paying 6-figure salaries to combat those abuses of US property by foreign nationals is also not representative of my interests. Why shouldn't we de-commission the whole project, cease allocating IPs to all foreigners and foreign holdings, and let private industry either make the World Wide Wasteland profitable on their own dimes or declare bankruptcy one-by-one?
Speaking of monkeys...
and/or mod me down, off-topic; my karma can take it.
Sorry, the New York Times article Ballmer didn't read:
I.B.M. to Introduce a Notably Improved Mainframe
By STEVE LOHR
Published: February 26, 2008
The mainframe, the aged yet surprisingly resilient survivor of computing, is getting a face-lift. A model called the I.B.M. z10, which is being introduced Tuesday, is far faster and has three times the data-juggling memory of its three-year-old predecessor, the z9.
But the significance of the new machine, analysts say, is that it is a big step in a broad campaign by I.B.M. to make the mainframe computer a high-performance, energy-efficient engine for running all kinds of nonmainframe software.
The goal, according to I.B.M. executives and analysts, is to recast the mainframe as a nimble supercomputer in corporate and government data centers, running Web-based programs, Linux, advanced data mining and business intelligence software.
To do that, I.B.M. has refined its mainframe hardware and come up with new software tools, as part of a five-year, $1.5-billion overhaul.
The mainframes ability to survive is only as good as its ability to innovate and compete for these new computing workloads of the future, an analyst at Forrester Research, Brad Day, said. And I.B.M. is starting to succeed at that.
The stakes are high. Though the sales of mainframes account for less than 4 percent of I.B.M.s revenue, the sales of mainframe software, storage and services are a big, profitable business. The overall business dependent on mainframes represents about 25 percent of company revenue and nearly half of its profit, said A. M. Sacconaghi, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company.
At Hannaford Brothers in Scarborough, Me., a supermarket chain with stores in five states, the company has consolidated many programs onto its two mainframes. They include its consumer Web site, its Web portal for tracking shipments from suppliers and store and customer data that were once housed on computers in individual stores. The mainframe has become very flexible and very scalable for us, said Bill Homa, Hannafords chief information officer.
Robert Woeckener, a senior technology manager at Nationwide Insurance in Columbus, Ohio, said his company had consolidated more than 1,300 programs onto 480 virtual computers software that emulates a machine that run on two mainframes.
Nationwide began the program more than two years ago, projecting savings in energy, administration and other costs at $15 million over three years. Were probably running ahead of that, Mr. Woeckener said.
I.B.M. competitors say that some individual success stories among mainframe users do not change the reality that the mainframe is in retreat.
In 2004, Microsoft founded the Mainframe Migration Alliance, a group of technology companies that helps corporations move software applications from mainframes to smaller computers powered by low-cost microprocessors and typically running Microsofts Windows server operating system. Microsoft tracked 85 mainframe migration projects last year, and the company says 55 more are under way.
I.B.M., to the contrary, says that the mainframe is in the midst of a revival. It is adding customers in developing nations, the company maintains, as banks, corporations and government agencies expand and need the kind of reliability and security that the mainframe delivers. I.B.M.s mainframe revenue in India, China, Brazil and Russia grew 18 percent last year.
Six hundred software applications, it says, were introduced on the mainframe last year.
Rising energy costs and environmental concerns are putting pressure on growing computer data centers, with their voracious appetites for electricity. The z10, I.B.M. says, delivers the computing power of 1,500 industry-standard servers, running on personal computer microprocessors, while consuming 85 percent less energy and covering