Realizing you're wetting yourself over a Linux- >based Windows knockoff built with paperclips, >rubber-bands, and gum--I mean XWindows--just >because you cling to the outdated (by 5 years) >notion that Mac hardware is too expensive and >therefore you can't afford to run the best UI >imaginable which, oh by the way, also happens to >be Unix...OS X: PRICELESS
You forgot one, too.
Trolling Slashdot to promote your near-religious zealous agenda in direct contrast to the article's subject and the related near-religious zealotry: -5 karma.
>I think that solitaire (and minesweeper) were >added to windows (decades ago) in the first >place as undercover tools to make people become >familiar with with the mouse.
I think they messed up with this plan. While it provides a semi-fun scenario to learn how to use the mouse, it quickly becomes the objective for many Windows users, rather than a step along the way.
Neko, on the other hand, was perfect: Simple enough to teach mouse movement concepts, cute enough to encourage newbies to play with it for a few minutes, yet simple enough to rapidly bore anyone with an IQ over 25 so they didn't spend productive hours with it.
Ever heard of someone playing with Neko for 45 hours a week instead of doing their job?
>Sarah Gordon: Call it your constitutional >right, but the truth is that it's morally >wrong.
>It's our constitutional right, but it should be >illegal?
That quote doesn't say it IS our constitutional right - it says you can CALL IT our constitutional right, as so many are doing.
Whether or not writing malicious code is a right is something I won't try to argue, but she makes a perfectly valid point in the quote you selected: Just because something MAY BE a constitutional right doesn't make it morally correct. The US Constitution protects the rights of groups like the KKK to publish and spread hate literature. Legal? Yes. Morally correct? No (well, to me and thankfully most Americans, I'm sure there are enough backwards ass redneck fuckwits that will disagree).
A lot of this malicious code talk also brings up the old line about "Just because you CAN doesn't mean you SHOULD"...
Fair enough, the site was slashdotted straight to Peoria and back and I didn't look at the URLs all that closely. You got me. Hope it feels good.
>Just my opinion. I'll ask Him when I see Him.
Good for you.
Meanwhile, I'll continue to live my life as a decent person because it's the right thing to do, not to score brownie points with some mythological bearded old man in the sky that goes "tsk tsk" and threatens to send me to eternal torture and suffering... But he loves me.
If there was a god, I'd imagine he/she/it would have better things to do with his time than worry about what someone with too much free time did with his toys.
I love Lego as much as the next geek, but let's not forget: they ARE toys, and no matter how impressive the result of this guy's obsession is, it's hardly of major theological importance.
-l
Re:I always find myself needed a wireless monitor
on
Wireless Monitors?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I'm picturing a nice small color LCD display to drag around, with each headless machine having an SVGA extension cable plugged into the card with the other end taped to the top of the box (or another convenient location) with a power source right next to it.
Simple, cheap, and available right now from your local MegaloMart.
Why do people insist on making things so complicated?
>Who saw the headline and thought that they had >finally invented giant EMP-bombs, a-la science >fiction?
I was thinking Environmental-bomb, a-la the Russian "Stormbringer" missle from Frank Miller's _The Dark Knight Returns_.
It was basically a bomb that did minimal collateral damage to structures (ie, industry), but did massive EMP and environmental damage, effectively causing a worldwide nuclear winter from the detonation of ONE warhead.
>isn't Time Warner one of the companies that >wants to sell us all this new-fangled digital >multi-media content?
Of course. This way they can get you coming AND going.
Why would Time-Warner be happy to sit back and sell you a gateway to tons of content, some of it theirs, when they can sell you a gateway to tons of content that they're now charging for, some of it twice?
I realize that HOPEFULLY with a sane pricing model not all that many people will be drastically affected, but something tells me there's gonna be a HUGE jump from layer to layer. Casual email users, very low. Gamers, medium. Warez/Pr0n/mp3 junkies high, with some of the last category going to astronomical.
-l
If there's anything better than a Simpsons ref
to karma whore, it's leaving yourself open for
bad net pr0n jokes.
>Tellers can do everything an ATM can, and more, >faster.
1: An ATM doesn't make you write out a check to "CASH" when you want money.
2: An ATM doesn't ask for another form of ID to check your balance.
3: An ATM will let me use my friend's card to get cash from his account to pick up some lunch for him without him having to write me a check, which typically involves me going inside the bank and giving them a thumbprint (for 20 bucks? no thanks).
According to www.budweiser.co.uk, there are only 25 winning bottles or cans that contain the "transmitter". Other winners are just peel off labels or pull-tabs.
Since each of the 25 prizes consists of roundtrip tickets to Japan, four nights' hotel, and tickets for two FIFA World Cup games, the cost of the electronics is trivial.
>Surely these things can't be too expensive if >they are in a beer can? Simply a gps receiver >and a phone would cost in excess of £100 - but >they would have to buy phones outright, so even >more.
A: They don't have to be all THAT cheap, since they're not in *EVERY* can - just winning cans. In the grand scheme of things, that's not very many.
B: If they send people to where you are, in theory at least they can recover some percentage of the cans and reuse the units.
>This will give you a much better image than >going with a big LCD that will have a native >resolution much higher.
So what?
Run at the higher resolution. Most GUIs have a way to control the size of things.
Yes, it IS possible to run your screen at 1280x1024 and still have icons and text that are as big as an 800x600 screen. The difference is that your text will be MUCH sharper, especially with antialiasing.
I demonstrated this on my dad's system - he was running at 800x600 despite having a very nice 19" monitor and 32 meg video card (his eyes aren't what they used to be). I kicked the resolution up to 1280x1024 and bumped the sizes all of his objects and desktop text items up a few notches.
End result: Same usability as far as spotting the icon he wants and reading the text on things, but it's a much sharper screen now. The only time he needs to kick the resolution back down is sometimes looking at web pages with small images. In this particular case I set up a theme that he can switch to - goes back to 800x600 and the sizes go back to default. Everything looks the right size, the pictures are "bigger", but the text is a little blockier.
>Why won't people realize this and stop posting >statements like that above that imply it's a >solution for *all* Linux users?
That's something I've often pondered. Hearing something cool on Linux, but then realizing I couldn't even use it if I finally got around to install Linux on this ancient Mac.
Why waste time porting an OS to a platform if relatively few things run on it? Isn't this what killed NT on the Alpha?
This may be because engineers are more likely to support their own systems and implement their own changes rather than depending on some trained monkey at the deskside level (ie, bottom rung of IT).
But when you run that IT department, and you're responsible for those trained monkeys and their ability to support 21,000 users, you want the 20,950 NON-engineers in the company to be quickly, conveniently, and relatively commonly-known FIXED.
One of the unfortunate benefits of Windows is that if you lose a Windows support tech for whatever reason, you can replace him within the hour if necessary. This is not the case with a purely *nix shop where "Yeah I know unix" can range from "My ISP uses it and I have a shell account, IRC is K00L!!2!" to "Hi, I'm Dennis Ritchie." You want someone in between, someone that can resolve some reasonably basic *nix user problems, but will probably have to pass it to someone senior if it's TOO screwed up.
It's hard to know who those people are, since there are fewer with the skills to begin with and many of those that DO have the skills tend to have an overinflated opinion of their skills because they know how to recompile their linux kernel or edit someone else's shell script.
With a Windows shop, the bar is much lower, the techs are a dime a dozen in any reasonably sized city, and it's trivial to give candidates a 10 question oral quiz to see if they know how to resolve a misconfigured NIC or update video drivers.
I guess I'm babbling. Anyway.
My respone to "Does Open Source SOftware Really Work?"
Sure, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's right for EVERYONE.
>I'm pretty sure I would be disturbed by my >fellow patrons typing and ordering.
I can't argue with typing, but the ordering thing they've got pretty well handled.
Ordering is handled by writing your order on a sheet of paper, then putting it in a memo-holder kinda thing on the narrow table in front of each row of seats. Each seat has a number associated with it, so the wait staff picks up the order, verifies they can read it, and scribbles the seat number on the piece of paper. Very simple, and 80% of the time no conversation necessary.
There's enough elevation difference between the rows of seats that the wait staff can take orders without interfering with the other patrons. You can also put a full pitcher of beer on the tables without blocking the view of those behind you.
It's a cool system. I like the new theater on the north side of Austin they opened up just fine, but something about the downtown location will always be near and dear.
So far my favorite Alamo experiences have been the Bruce Campbell Marathon (Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness, with Bruce in attendance), The Big Lebowski (free white russian with admission!), and any Spaghetti Western night (all you can eat spaghetti with a great Sergio Leone-era western).
I agree that it'd be cool to offer headphones, but it's hard to do surround with headphones.
>Hey, moron, asteroids rolled at 99,990 points, >not a million
What kinda weird-ass counter rolls at 99,990? Wouldn't 100,000 make more sense?
>Did you ever actually play?
Well, I haven't played or even seen a real first-gen Asteroids machine in well over a decade, but yeah, they had one next to the Defender at the Safeway down the street when I was about 9 or 10...
Slashdot Mirror
>You forgot one:
Realizing you're wetting yourself over a Linux-
>based Windows knockoff built with paperclips,
>rubber-bands, and gum--I mean XWindows--just
>because you cling to the outdated (by 5 years)
>notion that Mac hardware is too expensive and
>therefore you can't afford to run the best UI
>imaginable which, oh by the way, also happens to
>be Unix...OS X: PRICELESS
You forgot one, too.
Trolling Slashdot to promote your near-religious zealous agenda in direct contrast to the article's subject and the related near-religious zealotry: -5 karma.
-l
>I think that solitaire (and minesweeper) were
>added to windows (decades ago) in the first
>place as undercover tools to make people become
>familiar with with the mouse.
I think they messed up with this plan. While it provides a semi-fun scenario to learn how to use the mouse, it quickly becomes the objective for many Windows users, rather than a step along the way.
Neko, on the other hand, was perfect: Simple enough to teach mouse movement concepts, cute enough to encourage newbies to play with it for a few minutes, yet simple enough to rapidly bore anyone with an IQ over 25 so they didn't spend productive hours with it.
Ever heard of someone playing with Neko for 45 hours a week instead of doing their job?
-l
>Clueless newbies installing "Lycoris" over and
>ver again just to play more solitaire.
And THIS is the type of person people think Linux is appropriate for?
>Never underestimate the resourcefulness of the
>average idiot.
I don't. That's why I recommend Windows Du Jour or MacOS for them. For the rest, I recommend what THEY find to work best for them.
-l
>Sarah Gordon: Call it your constitutional
>right, but the truth is that it's morally
>wrong.
>It's our constitutional right, but it should be
>illegal?
That quote doesn't say it IS our constitutional right - it says you can CALL IT our constitutional right, as so many are doing.
Whether or not writing malicious code is a right is something I won't try to argue, but she makes a perfectly valid point in the quote you selected: Just because something MAY BE a constitutional right doesn't make it morally correct. The US Constitution protects the rights of groups like the KKK to publish and spread hate literature. Legal? Yes. Morally correct? No (well, to me and thankfully most Americans, I'm sure there are enough backwards ass redneck fuckwits that will disagree).
A lot of this malicious code talk also brings up the old line about "Just because you CAN doesn't mean you SHOULD"...
-l
>(like this WOMAN)
Fair enough, the site was slashdotted straight to Peoria and back and I didn't look at the URLs all that closely. You got me. Hope it feels good.
>Just my opinion. I'll ask Him when I see Him.
Good for you.
Meanwhile, I'll continue to live my life as a decent person because it's the right thing to do, not to score brownie points with some mythological bearded old man in the sky that goes "tsk tsk" and threatens to send me to eternal torture and suffering... But he loves me.
Whatever. Hint: There is no tooth fairy.
-l
>I wonder what God thinks of it all.
If there was a god, I'd imagine he/she/it would have better things to do with his time than worry about what someone with too much free time did with his toys.
I love Lego as much as the next geek, but let's not forget: they ARE toys, and no matter how impressive the result of this guy's obsession is, it's hardly of major theological importance.
-l
I'm picturing a nice small color LCD display to drag around, with each headless machine having an SVGA extension cable plugged into the card with the other end taped to the top of the box (or another convenient location) with a power source right next to it.
Simple, cheap, and available right now from your local MegaloMart.
Why do people insist on making things so complicated?
-l
>Who saw the headline and thought that they had
>finally invented giant EMP-bombs, a-la science
>fiction?
I was thinking Environmental-bomb, a-la the Russian "Stormbringer" missle from Frank Miller's _The Dark Knight Returns_.
It was basically a bomb that did minimal collateral damage to structures (ie, industry), but did massive EMP and environmental damage, effectively causing a worldwide nuclear winter from the detonation of ONE warhead.
-l
>isn't Time Warner one of the companies that
>wants to sell us all this new-fangled digital
>multi-media content?
Of course. This way they can get you coming AND going.
Why would Time-Warner be happy to sit back and sell you a gateway to tons of content, some of it theirs, when they can sell you a gateway to tons of content that they're now charging for, some of it twice?
I realize that HOPEFULLY with a sane pricing model not all that many people will be drastically affected, but something tells me there's gonna be a HUGE jump from layer to layer. Casual email users, very low. Gamers, medium. Warez/Pr0n/mp3 junkies high, with some of the last category going to astronomical.
-l
If there's anything better than a Simpsons ref
to karma whore, it's leaving yourself open for
bad net pr0n jokes.
>...fixing the potholes
Fixing potholes? Bah. That'll never put Ogdenville, North Haverbrook, or Brockway on the map. Sheesh.
Some people.
-l
The kids can call me "Ho-Ju"!
>Tellers can do everything an ATM can, and more,
>faster.
1: An ATM doesn't make you write out a check to "CASH" when you want money.
2: An ATM doesn't ask for another form of ID to check your balance.
3: An ATM will let me use my friend's card to get cash from his account to pick up some lunch for him without him having to write me a check, which typically involves me going inside the bank and giving them a thumbprint (for 20 bucks? no thanks).
-l
...when you read "CmdrTaco is AFJ" and try to figure out what he's away from.
-l
>Where are the color-coded states of emergency?
Courtesy of IMDB and Red Dwarf...
Rimmer: We can't afford to take any chances. Jump up to red alert.
Kryten: Are you sure, sir? It does mean changing the bulb.
-l
According to www.budweiser.co.uk, there are only
25 winning bottles or cans that contain the "transmitter". Other winners are just peel off labels or pull-tabs.
Since each of the 25 prizes consists of roundtrip tickets to Japan, four nights' hotel, and tickets for two FIFA World Cup games, the cost of the electronics is trivial.
-l
>Surely these things can't be too expensive if
>they are in a beer can? Simply a gps receiver
>and a phone would cost in excess of £100 - but
>they would have to buy phones outright, so even
>more.
A: They don't have to be all THAT cheap, since they're not in *EVERY* can - just winning cans. In the grand scheme of things, that's not very many.
B: If they send people to where you are, in theory at least they can recover some percentage of the cans and reuse the units.
-l
>This will give you a much better image than
>going with a big LCD that will have a native
>resolution much higher.
So what?
Run at the higher resolution. Most GUIs have a way to control the size of things.
Yes, it IS possible to run your screen at 1280x1024 and still have icons and text that are as big as an 800x600 screen. The difference is that your text will be MUCH sharper, especially with antialiasing.
I demonstrated this on my dad's system - he was running at 800x600 despite having a very nice 19" monitor and 32 meg video card (his eyes aren't what they used to be). I kicked the resolution up to 1280x1024 and bumped the sizes all of his objects and desktop text items up a few notches.
End result: Same usability as far as spotting the icon he wants and reading the text on things, but it's a much sharper screen now. The only time he needs to kick the resolution back down is sometimes looking at web pages with small images. In this particular case I set up a theme that he can switch to - goes back to 800x600 and the sizes go back to default. Everything looks the right size, the pictures are "bigger", but the text is a little blockier.
-l
>Why won't people realize this and stop posting
>statements like that above that imply it's a
>solution for *all* Linux users?
That's something I've often pondered. Hearing something cool on Linux, but then realizing I couldn't even use it if I finally got around to install Linux on this ancient Mac.
Why waste time porting an OS to a platform if relatively few things run on it? Isn't this what killed NT on the Alpha?
-l
Fuvg, cvff, shpx, phag, pbpxfhpxre, zbgureshpxre, gvgf.
If you're reading this over encrypted wireless, we're going straight to hell. Sorry about that.
-l
and support.
This may be because engineers are more likely to support their own systems and implement their own changes rather than depending on some trained monkey at the deskside level (ie, bottom rung of IT).
But when you run that IT department, and you're responsible for those trained monkeys and their ability to support 21,000 users, you want the 20,950 NON-engineers in the company to be quickly, conveniently, and relatively commonly-known FIXED.
One of the unfortunate benefits of Windows is that if you lose a Windows support tech for whatever reason, you can replace him within the hour if necessary. This is not the case with a purely *nix shop where "Yeah I know unix" can range from "My ISP uses it and I have a shell account, IRC is K00L!!2!" to "Hi, I'm Dennis Ritchie." You want someone in between, someone that can resolve some reasonably basic *nix user problems, but will probably have to pass it to someone senior if it's TOO screwed up.
It's hard to know who those people are, since there are fewer with the skills to begin with and many of those that DO have the skills tend to have an overinflated opinion of their skills because they know how to recompile their linux kernel or edit someone else's shell script.
With a Windows shop, the bar is much lower, the techs are a dime a dozen in any reasonably sized city, and it's trivial to give candidates a 10 question oral quiz to see if they know how to resolve a misconfigured NIC or update video drivers.
I guess I'm babbling. Anyway.
My respone to "Does Open Source SOftware Really Work?"
Sure, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's right for EVERYONE.
-l
>>Popular science is the same magazine that
>>predicted that we'd be using zero emmisions
>>vehicles by now too.
>We do. They're called bicycles.
I dunno what YOUR diet consists of, but I've never been accused of being zero-emission regardless of my mode of transportation.
Then again, if I could harness those emissions for powering an engine that runs on methane...
Or maybe I've said too much.
-l
>Remember, one person's terrorist is another
>person's freedom-fighter
Whose freedom was being fought for when the airliners flew into the World Trade Center?
I keep hearing this little soundbite, and nobody has been able to answer that question.
-l
>>I bet you five dollars.
>American or Canadian?
Hopefully American. Then when they all move across the border, they can exchange it for 72 grand Canadian.
-l
>It seems a bit much IMHO for a normal cup of
>takeaway coffee, even if it does have a neat
>self-heating function!
A "normal cup of takeaway coffee" is fine if you want to drink it right away.
This seems more intended for folks that want a cup of coffee two hours from now, when they might not be at the local Quick Stop anymore.
-l
>I'm pretty sure I would be disturbed by my
>fellow patrons typing and ordering.
I can't argue with typing, but the ordering thing they've got pretty well handled.
Ordering is handled by writing your order on a sheet of paper, then putting it in a memo-holder kinda thing on the narrow table in front of each row of seats. Each seat has a number associated with it, so the wait staff picks up the order, verifies they can read it, and scribbles the seat number on the piece of paper. Very simple, and 80% of the time no conversation necessary.
There's enough elevation difference between the rows of seats that the wait staff can take orders without interfering with the other patrons. You can also put a full pitcher of beer on the tables without blocking the view of those behind you.
It's a cool system. I like the new theater on the north side of Austin they opened up just fine, but something about the downtown location will always be near and dear.
So far my favorite Alamo experiences have been the Bruce Campbell Marathon (Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness, with Bruce in attendance), The Big Lebowski (free white russian with admission!), and any Spaghetti Western night (all you can eat spaghetti with a great Sergio Leone-era western).
I agree that it'd be cool to offer headphones, but it's hard to do surround with headphones.
-l
>Hey, moron, asteroids rolled at 99,990 points,
>not a million
What kinda weird-ass counter rolls at 99,990? Wouldn't 100,000 make more sense?
>Did you ever actually play?
Well, I haven't played or even seen a real first-gen Asteroids machine in well over a decade, but yeah, they had one next to the Defender at the Safeway down the street when I was about 9 or 10...
-l