Yeah, whatever. Macs were supposed to be "true plug'n'play" and "just work" then, too.Apple had at least as much control over the end user experience then as they do today.
And yeah, I expect that all the stuff it ships with should actually work when I hook it all up. Apple had at least as much control over the end user experience then as they do today.
And yeah, I did say I was running Win95 on my machine, didn't I? You're calling my Mac knowledge half-assed while claiming that thing was running OS9?
I didn't say Linux has a "device manager", I said your distro does.
In Suse I can fire up yast, select the Hardware tab, and click on Sound. I can delete the config for the sound device I don't want anymore and add or edit the new one. It really is that simple, and I have actually done it.
Are you honestly trying to tell me that Mandrake, the long time champion of ease of use, doesn't have something similar? Here's a clue: it's not Linux's fault that you failed to use the tools that are made available to you.
Each subsystem grabs what hardware resources it wants.
How much do you want to bet they're just dumbly pointing to/dev/dsp? Of course,/dev/dsp was configured as an alias to the onboard device, and the Blaster was probably configured as/dev/dsp1 or something similar. So, even if Mandrakes config utilities are completely retarded you still could have fixed the problem by making/dev/dsp a symlink to the Blaster.
Don't blame Linux for looking for hardware you told it was there (via the config files). That's how it's supposed to work.
I would not be surprized if jwz is a bit hot-tempered
I think he just likes to play drama queen.
It is hard to get an arbitrary system to run linux properly.
But it is definitely easier to get linux working than it is get windows working when you lost the driver.
That's the thing that puzzles me the most about the whole "Linux isn't ready for the desktop" crowd: Windows has most of the same issues (and some more serious ones besides, like viruses), and yet for some reason it is ready?
Linux seems to be measured to a much higher standard than either Windows or OSX. It's hard to get an arbitrary system to run Windows properly, too, it's just that we've all invested several years figuring out how to do it. And just try to get OSX running on an arbitrary system at all !;-)
Anyway, the "not ready for the desktop" arguement seems to largely hinge on installation and setup. Well, a few years ago I had a project where I was installing Win2k and Suse7.1 on several machines (seperate machines, not dual booting). Even with my all my experience, and having all the Windows drivers I needed already burned to a single cd, it still took way longer, and was much more difficult, to install Windows, AND I had a lot more problems with unsupported hardware with Windows.
Since then Suse has gotten even better, while the Windows experience has stayed about the same (the major change being that now you need to have all the security patches and service packs burned to cd as well, so you can get them installed before you even think of connecting to a network of any kind.)
As for actual use of a system that's already configured, I really don't see an arguement there, either. My (very non-technical) wife does just fine on Linux, as do our Windows and Mac using friends and family, most of whom are also non-technical, when they visit.
Inconsistent UI is supposed to be this huge problem for Linux, but there are plenty of apps in the Windows or OSX world that deviate from their UI standards, and that doesn't seem to be a problem (just look at Qicktime, for example).
I don't know, I just don't see why all these things are acceptable in Windows or OSX, but not in Linux.
I think there are a lot of whiny bitches out there who will loudly proclaim Linux to be dead on the desktop if their soundcard doesn't work, but if it isn't supported in the new version of Windows they'll quietly go buy a new one.
Sorry, I didn't expect that to turn into such a rant...
And thats really what the mac desktop promises isnt it? It just works.
Yeah, well, maybe it will.
I remember when a friend of mine got his brand new G3. He was so excited to get it all hooked up! Too bad it wouldn't talk to the external modem it came with (it wasn't bad hardware, either, a god-like friend of ours eventually got it working).
The other thing I remember about that machine was it crashed all the time. I mean several times a day, and hard, too. We couldn't find a hard reset switch on it, so about once a day we had to climb under the desk and unplug it.
I had an el cheapo refurbed Acer running Win95 at the time, and it was actually very stable and reliable. I remember being on some web site (perhaps/.?) and reading posts from people saying how Windows sucks and Macs have true plug'n'play and thinking; whatever you're on, I'll take two.
Anyway, many years and a lot of hardware later I've found Linux (SuSE, specifically) to be the best bet, not just for stability, but for hardware support too. Naturally, I know people who will say the same thing about Windows, Mac, or BSD.
I fear that if I get a ppc mac that 6 years down the road I wont be able to find working applications for it.
I have to agree there. Sad, really, I think they're giving up one of their two differentiating features. I've never liked the Mac UI, so PPC was their only chance to get any money out of me. Maybe I'll pick up a used one someday, but it seems kinda pointless if it's a dying platform.
I am not the same poster as GP, but your claims about Ubuntu are impossible. How does a distro fix something that is not fixed in any version of the kernel.
The distro provides the automatic hardware detection and configuration, which is exactly what most users have a problem with.
I mean, if you think about it, that's at the root of this whole article: jwz picked a distro that doesn't automatically configure his audio properly, and in typical jwz fashion he flies off in a huff and switches to Apple (whch I'm sure cost him a lot more than trying a different soundcard or distro).
I have a very hard time believing you couldn't just go into whatever mandrake calls it's device manager, delete the via sound from the config, and add the sblive[1]. In fact, I only have slightly less hard of a time believing you didn't have to do that in Windows (I've certainly had to do that plenty of times).
And you know, if you want a Linux machine that "Just Works" like a Mac, do what you would do with Apple: buy one. I'm sure there is at least one computer shop in your area that will build you a box with Linux preinstalled and Just Working, and it'll probably cost you less than an equivalent Mac.
[1] I've never tried Mandrake, so I don't know, but it is that simple in SuSE.
like comp3 has dvd, cdrw, usb dvdrw & usb harddrive 2 weeks to get to dvd reads;cdrw reads; usb dvdrw reads ; usb harddrive rw's I would like to spend some time doing something withmy computer instead of just to it
Then put those in Comp1, which has Suse. Or, if you already have similar hardware in Comp1, use that as the example for configuring Comp3.
Well, if you're looking for suggestions I recommend Suse. It's been very good to me, and IMO yast kicks the ass of anything else out there for install/setup/administration.
Yeah, they don't offer free iso downloads, but you can install it directly from their ftp server (which actually ends up being much more efficient).
What I recommend for a noob, though, is to just go out and buy the boxed set. The printed manuals are well worth the price of admission, in fact when I was learning Linux they were hands down the most useful books I had (and I had several).
Suse Pro is your best bet, even though it's pretty expensive ($99) it comes with tons of apps (a dual layer dvd for binaries, another for source, plus all the binaries on 5 cds for those who haven't upgraded their hardware in a while) and all the manuals you could need. The Update version is $59 and is the same as Pro as far as software, but only comes with the Admin manual. I haven't tried their Personal edition, which is the cheapest, but from what I've heard it includes a lot less apps (which may be fine for you?) and doesn't have the Admin manual (but does have the user guides).
The only sticking point really is that, for legal reasons, they don't include support for proprietary media codecs. However, that's easily remedied by a visit to Packman.
The nipple is the only truly intuitive user interface.
Only a true geek would say such a thing.
Anyone who's actually managed to reproduce should know that nursing has to be learned by both mother and child, and many mothers give up within the first few months.
After 5 years in the real world, my wife's recent career change brought, along with a relocation, the opportunity for me to go back to school. I'd worked as a math tutor at my previous school, and I figured I could do the same again, with the hope of brushing up on my math skills before diving into the post-calculus stuff, and perhaps earning enough to buy my wife something for birthday/anniversary/etc.
My old school was a pleasant place, well designed and well run, by people who cared about providing an education, and actually paid attention to the details of how to do that effectively.
My new school is a hopeless bureaucracy mired in incompetence. I mean, it takes them 2 months just to get my paycheck to the bursar's office. Don't even get me started on the new library and learning center!
All schools are different, just like all companies are different, and all the departments within a given school will probably be different as well.
I hadn't even considered EMP. Now THAT would be interesting...
I wasn't aware of any power-grid incidents caused by natural magnetic effects. Could you provide some links? (Not because I don't believe you, I'm just interested in that sort of thing)
The very market Microsoft has tried to keep Apple out of, direct competition on the same piece of hardware.
Where have you been? Apple is the only one that's done anything to keep Apple off commodity hardware. Microsoft didn't have to do shit, and still doesn't, as x86 Macs are going to be just as proprietary as PPC Macs.
I agree that OSX on commodity hardware would be interesting, but only for the length of time it took Apple to sell off their computing assets and become a consumer electronics company. And honestly, I'm not sure this isn't the first step in that direction.
Few people running Linux are thinking, "I would love to buy a Mac if only it were using the x86 architecture." They might think, "I would love to run OS X if only it would run on this computer I built,"
Or, in my case, "I'd love to play around with a PPC machine if only I had some extra cash."
IMO, they've just given up the one differentiating factor that made their product interesting (I've never like the Mac UI, and I've seen nothing in OSX to change my mind).
The bottom line is that if you want a Mac, even after Apple has switched to Intel chips you'll have to shell out for Apple hardware and a largely proprietary OS.
This is the thing that's always blown my mind about people trying to convince me to switch. I mean, gosh, I can get everything I don't like about Microsoft, but extended to hardware too? Where do I sign up!
I think Dvorak has missed the reason a lot of us have gone to Linux: we like freedom. We get software freedom with Linux, and we get hardware freedom with commodity x86 hardware. How exactly is Apple addressing that market?
My wife is as non-technical as they come, and I found the transition quite simple.
I already had her using Mozilla (for the obvious reasons) and OpenOffice (because I'm cheap). One day she came home to "Guess what! You're a Linux user now! Here's Mozilla and openOffice."
funny, I always thought of this as a benefit, allowing me to feel more like I am working in an application rather than an-application-running-in-windows.
You missed the point. Are you "using Word", or are you "creating a document"?
I think the Mac approach works well if you're working at a single task, but I find it gets in the way otherwise.
as far as I recall though, in recent versions of windows, applications group their open windows into grouped buttons on the task bar, is this not true?
I haven't noticed this, but I can't say it's not true. There are a lot of things about WinXP I don't like, so usually the first thing I do when I have to use it is set it to work in "classic" mode. This brings up my main complaint with Apple, and actually my main reason for never getting one: their "our way is the one true way" attitude, of which the dock has become the cannonical example.
I notice also that you do a lot of handwaving regarding how you've modified your own behavior in order to compensate for bad UI design, such as making windows different shapes (extra work for you that shouldn't be necessary) and increasing magnification (which only partially addresses a symptom of the real problem with the dock).
And don't think I'm defending Windows, I'm fully aware that it has plenty of problems as well. I just find that Window's problems are both less irritating and more easily overcome. When it comes right down to it, though, I think KDE kicks the crap out of both of them.
I didn't say graphics were easy, but it doesn't take much time at a game store to figure out that graphics are obviously easier than coming up with a good use for them.
But, the design is the hard part. If you already have the design for a good game, scrapping your existing code to start from scratch with a graphical environment shouldn't be that big of a deal.
Connected to the Myth box via Gigabit ethernet which, for some reason, only gets 100Mbps.
You know, I've noticed that myself about gig-e. At my last job I was repairing DVRs that had 100b-T and gig-e and I honestly couldn't tell the difference, even with the 100b-T unplugged and the gig-e connected via a 7' crossover cable.
Pretty disappointing. Even through our old, copper based, fibrechannel hub we still got roughly double 100b-T performance, and that was on an old, ISA based system with 5400 rpm scsi drives.
I would think they'd have an advantage. After all, a text based game can't get by on pretty graphics, it has to actually be a great game.
IANAGame Programmer, but it seems like it would be a lot easier to slap some pretty front end on an existing good game than to create a good game to go with your pretty graphics.
The idea is that the magnetic field is moving at about the same speed as the tether.
Are you certain that the magnetic field rotates with the physical magnet? Faraday's paradox suggests it may not (when the magnet and the conductor are attached, and thus rotate together, a charge is still induced).
... and you would be wrong, because the ribbon is not moving through the earth's magnetic field. It rotates with the earth, and so is stationary relative to the earth.
Oh? It seems you've never heard of Faraday's Paradox. Consider these three situations:
1) A magnet is fixed in position, and a conductor is rotated in its magnetic field. A charge is induced.
2) The conductor is fixed, and the magnet is rotated. No charge is induced.
3) The conductor and magnet are attached such that they rotate at the same speed. A charge is induced.
Now, the simplest explanation for this, IMO, is that the magnetic field doesn't rotate with the magnet.
Oh, and don't feel like you have to take my word for it. Feel free to do these experiments on your own.
There is no such thing as a place in the world that doesn't have lightning. That's just stupid.
Besides, there doesn't need to be lighting for electricity to be an issue. You can generate electricity by moving a conductor through a magnetic field. I would think 62k miles of carbon nanotube ribbon running through the magnetic field of the earth would make a pretty good generator.
IIRC, they already have to deal with this when tethering satalites to the space shuttle. I remember hearing that every material they've tried has some length at which it generates enough power to burn itself up (though that length might be several miles).
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, whatever. Macs were supposed to be "true plug'n'play" and "just work" then, too.Apple had at least as much control over the end user experience then as they do today.
And yeah, I expect that all the stuff it ships with should actually work when I hook it all up. Apple had at least as much control over the end user experience then as they do today.
And yeah, I did say I was running Win95 on my machine, didn't I? You're calling my Mac knowledge half-assed while claiming that thing was running OS9?
No "device manager" exists in Linux.
/dev/dsp? Of course, /dev/dsp was configured as an alias to the onboard device, and the Blaster was probably configured as /dev/dsp1 or something similar. So, even if Mandrakes config utilities are completely retarded you still could have fixed the problem by making /dev/dsp a symlink to the Blaster.
I didn't say Linux has a "device manager", I said your distro does.
In Suse I can fire up yast, select the Hardware tab, and click on Sound. I can delete the config for the sound device I don't want anymore and add or edit the new one. It really is that simple, and I have actually done it.
Are you honestly trying to tell me that Mandrake, the long time champion of ease of use, doesn't have something similar? Here's a clue: it's not Linux's fault that you failed to use the tools that are made available to you.
Each subsystem grabs what hardware resources it wants.
How much do you want to bet they're just dumbly pointing to
Don't blame Linux for looking for hardware you told it was there (via the config files). That's how it's supposed to work.
I would not be surprized if jwz is a bit hot-tempered
;-)
I think he just likes to play drama queen.
It is hard to get an arbitrary system to run linux properly.
But it is definitely easier to get linux working than it is get windows working when you lost the driver.
That's the thing that puzzles me the most about the whole "Linux isn't ready for the desktop" crowd: Windows has most of the same issues (and some more serious ones besides, like viruses), and yet for some reason it is ready?
Linux seems to be measured to a much higher standard than either Windows or OSX. It's hard to get an arbitrary system to run Windows properly, too, it's just that we've all invested several years figuring out how to do it. And just try to get OSX running on an arbitrary system at all !
Anyway, the "not ready for the desktop" arguement seems to largely hinge on installation and setup. Well, a few years ago I had a project where I was installing Win2k and Suse7.1 on several machines (seperate machines, not dual booting). Even with my all my experience, and having all the Windows drivers I needed already burned to a single cd, it still took way longer, and was much more difficult, to install Windows, AND I had a lot more problems with unsupported hardware with Windows.
Since then Suse has gotten even better, while the Windows experience has stayed about the same (the major change being that now you need to have all the security patches and service packs burned to cd as well, so you can get them installed before you even think of connecting to a network of any kind.)
As for actual use of a system that's already configured, I really don't see an arguement there, either. My (very non-technical) wife does just fine on Linux, as do our Windows and Mac using friends and family, most of whom are also non-technical, when they visit.
Inconsistent UI is supposed to be this huge problem for Linux, but there are plenty of apps in the Windows or OSX world that deviate from their UI standards, and that doesn't seem to be a problem (just look at Qicktime, for example).
I don't know, I just don't see why all these things are acceptable in Windows or OSX, but not in Linux.
I think there are a lot of whiny bitches out there who will loudly proclaim Linux to be dead on the desktop if their soundcard doesn't work, but if it isn't supported in the new version of Windows they'll quietly go buy a new one.
Sorry, I didn't expect that to turn into such a rant...
And thats really what the mac desktop promises isnt it? It just works.
/.?) and reading posts from people saying how Windows sucks and Macs have true plug'n'play and thinking; whatever you're on, I'll take two.
Yeah, well, maybe it will.
I remember when a friend of mine got his brand new G3. He was so excited to get it all hooked up! Too bad it wouldn't talk to the external modem it came with (it wasn't bad hardware, either, a god-like friend of ours eventually got it working).
The other thing I remember about that machine was it crashed all the time. I mean several times a day, and hard, too. We couldn't find a hard reset switch on it, so about once a day we had to climb under the desk and unplug it.
I had an el cheapo refurbed Acer running Win95 at the time, and it was actually very stable and reliable. I remember being on some web site (perhaps
Anyway, many years and a lot of hardware later I've found Linux (SuSE, specifically) to be the best bet, not just for stability, but for hardware support too. Naturally, I know people who will say the same thing about Windows, Mac, or BSD.
I fear that if I get a ppc mac that 6 years down the road I wont be able to find working applications for it.
I have to agree there. Sad, really, I think they're giving up one of their two differentiating features. I've never liked the Mac UI, so PPC was their only chance to get any money out of me. Maybe I'll pick up a used one someday, but it seems kinda pointless if it's a dying platform.
I am not the same poster as GP, but your claims about Ubuntu are impossible. How does a distro fix something that is not fixed in any version of the kernel.
The distro provides the automatic hardware detection and configuration, which is exactly what most users have a problem with.
I mean, if you think about it, that's at the root of this whole article: jwz picked a distro that doesn't automatically configure his audio properly, and in typical jwz fashion he flies off in a huff and switches to Apple (whch I'm sure cost him a lot more than trying a different soundcard or distro).
I have a very hard time believing you couldn't just go into whatever mandrake calls it's device manager, delete the via sound from the config, and add the sblive[1]. In fact, I only have slightly less hard of a time believing you didn't have to do that in Windows (I've certainly had to do that plenty of times).
And you know, if you want a Linux machine that "Just Works" like a Mac, do what you would do with Apple: buy one. I'm sure there is at least one computer shop in your area that will build you a box with Linux preinstalled and Just Working, and it'll probably cost you less than an equivalent Mac.
[1] I've never tried Mandrake, so I don't know, but it is that simple in SuSE.
like comp3 has dvd, cdrw, usb dvdrw & usb harddrive 2 weeks to get to dvd reads ;cdrw reads; usb dvdrw reads ; usb harddrive rw's I would like to spend some time doing something withmy computer instead of just to it
Then put those in Comp1, which has Suse. Or, if you already have similar hardware in Comp1, use that as the example for configuring Comp3.
Well, if you're looking for suggestions I recommend Suse. It's been very good to me, and IMO yast kicks the ass of anything else out there for install/setup/administration.
Yeah, they don't offer free iso downloads, but you can install it directly from their ftp server (which actually ends up being much more efficient).
What I recommend for a noob, though, is to just go out and buy the boxed set. The printed manuals are well worth the price of admission, in fact when I was learning Linux they were hands down the most useful books I had (and I had several).
Suse Pro is your best bet, even though it's pretty expensive ($99) it comes with tons of apps (a dual layer dvd for binaries, another for source, plus all the binaries on 5 cds for those who haven't upgraded their hardware in a while) and all the manuals you could need. The Update version is $59 and is the same as Pro as far as software, but only comes with the Admin manual. I haven't tried their Personal edition, which is the cheapest, but from what I've heard it includes a lot less apps (which may be fine for you?) and doesn't have the Admin manual (but does have the user guides).
The only sticking point really is that, for legal reasons, they don't include support for proprietary media codecs. However, that's easily remedied by a visit to Packman.
The nipple is the only truly intuitive user interface.
Only a true geek would say such a thing.
Anyone who's actually managed to reproduce should know that nursing has to be learned by both mother and child, and many mothers give up within the first few months.
This varies greatly.
After 5 years in the real world, my wife's recent career change brought, along with a relocation, the opportunity for me to go back to school. I'd worked as a math tutor at my previous school, and I figured I could do the same again, with the hope of brushing up on my math skills before diving into the post-calculus stuff, and perhaps earning enough to buy my wife something for birthday/anniversary/etc.
My old school was a pleasant place, well designed and well run, by people who cared about providing an education, and actually paid attention to the details of how to do that effectively.
My new school is a hopeless bureaucracy mired in incompetence. I mean, it takes them 2 months just to get my paycheck to the bursar's office. Don't even get me started on the new library and learning center!
All schools are different, just like all companies are different, and all the departments within a given school will probably be different as well.
You never know, they might actually like the job and what they do. That'd hardly be degrading.
Just because they like it doesn't mean it isn't degrading. Some people like being degraded.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but liking it doesn't change the nature of it.
I hadn't even considered EMP. Now THAT would be interesting...
I wasn't aware of any power-grid incidents caused by natural magnetic effects. Could you provide some links? (Not because I don't believe you, I'm just interested in that sort of thing)
The very market Microsoft has tried to keep Apple out of, direct competition on the same piece of hardware.
Where have you been? Apple is the only one that's done anything to keep Apple off commodity hardware. Microsoft didn't have to do shit, and still doesn't, as x86 Macs are going to be just as proprietary as PPC Macs.
I agree that OSX on commodity hardware would be interesting, but only for the length of time it took Apple to sell off their computing assets and become a consumer electronics company. And honestly, I'm not sure this isn't the first step in that direction.
Few people running Linux are thinking, "I would love to buy a Mac if only it were using the x86 architecture." They might think, "I would love to run OS X if only it would run on this computer I built,"
Or, in my case, "I'd love to play around with a PPC machine if only I had some extra cash."
IMO, they've just given up the one differentiating factor that made their product interesting (I've never like the Mac UI, and I've seen nothing in OSX to change my mind).
The bottom line is that if you want a Mac, even after Apple has switched to Intel chips you'll have to shell out for Apple hardware and a largely proprietary OS.
This is the thing that's always blown my mind about people trying to convince me to switch. I mean, gosh, I can get everything I don't like about Microsoft, but extended to hardware too? Where do I sign up!
I think Dvorak has missed the reason a lot of us have gone to Linux: we like freedom. We get software freedom with Linux, and we get hardware freedom with commodity x86 hardware. How exactly is Apple addressing that market?
My wife is as non-technical as they come, and I found the transition quite simple.
I already had her using Mozilla (for the obvious reasons) and OpenOffice (because I'm cheap). One day she came home to "Guess what! You're a Linux user now! Here's Mozilla and openOffice."
Seriously. That was it.
funny, I always thought of this as a benefit, allowing me to feel more like I am working in an application rather than an-application-running-in-windows.
You missed the point. Are you "using Word", or are you "creating a document"?
I think the Mac approach works well if you're working at a single task, but I find it gets in the way otherwise.
as far as I recall though, in recent versions of windows, applications group their open windows into grouped buttons on the task bar, is this not true?
I haven't noticed this, but I can't say it's not true. There are a lot of things about WinXP I don't like, so usually the first thing I do when I have to use it is set it to work in "classic" mode. This brings up my main complaint with Apple, and actually my main reason for never getting one: their "our way is the one true way" attitude, of which the dock has become the cannonical example.
I notice also that you do a lot of handwaving regarding how you've modified your own behavior in order to compensate for bad UI design, such as making windows different shapes (extra work for you that shouldn't be necessary) and increasing magnification (which only partially addresses a symptom of the real problem with the dock).
And don't think I'm defending Windows, I'm fully aware that it has plenty of problems as well. I just find that Window's problems are both less irritating and more easily overcome. When it comes right down to it, though, I think KDE kicks the crap out of both of them.
I didn't say graphics were easy, but it doesn't take much time at a game store to figure out that graphics are obviously easier than coming up with a good use for them.
Good point.
But, the design is the hard part. If you already have the design for a good game, scrapping your existing code to start from scratch with a graphical environment shouldn't be that big of a deal.
Why don't you try actually reading my post. I already addressed all your points.
Connected to the Myth box via Gigabit ethernet which, for some reason, only gets 100Mbps.
You know, I've noticed that myself about gig-e. At my last job I was repairing DVRs that had 100b-T and gig-e and I honestly couldn't tell the difference, even with the 100b-T unplugged and the gig-e connected via a 7' crossover cable.
Pretty disappointing. Even through our old, copper based, fibrechannel hub we still got roughly double 100b-T performance, and that was on an old, ISA based system with 5400 rpm scsi drives.
I would think they'd have an advantage. After all, a text based game can't get by on pretty graphics, it has to actually be a great game.
IANAGame Programmer, but it seems like it would be a lot easier to slap some pretty front end on an existing good game than to create a good game to go with your pretty graphics.
OK, I may be wrong.
That said, a space elevator needs to be built on the equator, not in Antarctica.
It still sounds a lot like "The Titanic is unsinkable!" to me.
The idea is that the magnetic field is moving at about the same speed as the tether.
Are you certain that the magnetic field rotates with the physical magnet? Faraday's paradox suggests it may not (when the magnet and the conductor are attached, and thus rotate together, a charge is still induced).
... and you would be wrong, because the ribbon is not moving through the earth's magnetic field. It rotates with the earth, and so is stationary relative to the earth.
Oh? It seems you've never heard of Faraday's Paradox. Consider these three situations:
1) A magnet is fixed in position, and a conductor is rotated in its magnetic field. A charge is induced.
2) The conductor is fixed, and the magnet is rotated. No charge is induced.
3) The conductor and magnet are attached such that they rotate at the same speed. A charge is induced.
Now, the simplest explanation for this, IMO, is that the magnetic field doesn't rotate with the magnet.
Oh, and don't feel like you have to take my word for it. Feel free to do these experiments on your own.
There is no such thing as a place in the world that doesn't have lightning. That's just stupid.
Besides, there doesn't need to be lighting for electricity to be an issue. You can generate electricity by moving a conductor through a magnetic field. I would think 62k miles of carbon nanotube ribbon running through the magnetic field of the earth would make a pretty good generator.
IIRC, they already have to deal with this when tethering satalites to the space shuttle. I remember hearing that every material they've tried has some length at which it generates enough power to burn itself up (though that length might be several miles).