WTF? Maybe home users are different, but most computers I use (uni, workplace etc.) have autorun disabled. I thought this was the default setting already...?
Meh, guess you tend to forget things like that when you stop reinstalling Windows and just clone a clean install onto your system partition every time the damned thing gets cluttered...
Wasn't the 7900 the follow-up to the 7800? I seem to remember being pissed about having bought a 7800GTX when the 7900GTX came out a few weeks later...
Am I the only one who's sworn off of optical media altogether? I don't burn CDs or DVDs any more, because I just can't trust the damned things to work after 3 years. Hard drives and Flash drives on the other hand... more convenient, harder to kill, and not much more expensive.
As I type this, I've got a movie running in the top right corner of my screen. It's a 720p h.264 encoded MKV, ripped straight off a blu-ray, and it runs fine here on my EeePC 1000H. I have no problems typing this at the same time while continuing to watch my movie.
Now, if I fire up Youtube and open one of the new H264 encoded videos, everything slows to a crawl - I get a slideshow instead of video, and the OS grinds to a complete halt. This is with a video that's approx. 800px across with the HD button pressed in the Youtube player.
Now why would you want your TV to lock up and slow down every time you try to stream something (which turns out to be a slideshow anyway)?
That's just it - Linux is pretty intimidating for Windows geeks like me, and even more so for people who just aren't that good with computers.
Staying with the "customizing the desktop theme" topic: I had Ubuntu running in a Wubi install, and yesterday I figured I'd try out Compiz. Downloaded the necessary packages with the package manager, then opened the control panel, and clicked a few checkboxes... easy peasy.
But then my wobbly windows became crashy windows - everything starts turning black when you click on it or pass it with the mouse cursor, so I hit CTL+ALT+DEL a few times (because, as a Windows user, I don't know any better), and blindly clicked around the shut down button... which took me back to the login prompt. Hooray, everything looks fine again - so I log in, and lo and behold, everything starts turning black again.
So I say **** that and go back to XP. That was the third time I've installed Ubuntu, and each time it's lasted no longer than 30 minutes of total runtime, usually including setup... I repeat this process pretty much every time there's a new release, and every time I've been disappointed.
When things like changing themes or visual effects (don't get me started on screen resolutions and refresh rates) so buggy that they don't work half the time, how do you expect anyone coming from a Windows or Mac environment (where things actually do work without having to work around bugs with a CLI) to adapt and switch to Linux?
Maybe not 10, but 5 years is fine... My A64X2 (3800+) with 2 gigs of DDR400 and a 7800GTX runs pretty much any video I can find. Looks like I won't be upgrading any time soon...
Of course a number without units is ambiguous - hell, Slashdot could be based on the moon for all I care, but just assuming that everyone on a site (that just happens to be accessible from all over the world) uses American units for everything is downright stupid.
Do you not WANT to be understood by the rest of the world?
Everyone else gets it - international forums and news sites are all in English - they have found a common ground on which to communicate... what's so hard about doing the same thing when it comes to units? I'm not even saying that you should start thinking in celsius and the metric system, but that you should at least put a friggin unit of measurement (feet, meters, 19" LCD widths, whatever you want) after the _AMBIGUOUS_ numbers...
"This also, and perhaps primarily, gets the OEMs to not even consider Linux on the OEM's bottom-tier line."
That's pretty much what they're going for, IMO... as long as it counts as a Windows sale, Microsoft will continue to push crappy disabled OSs on customers...
1. I listen to music that I like. In order to like music, it has to sound good - that means good recording equipment/techniques and decent mixing. And that, in turn, requires money.
Any jackass can record his band with a digital 24-track and $3k worth of mics, but getting someone who actually knows what he's doing for the recording and mixing is _expensive_. There aren't many indie bands that can spend tens of thousands of dollars recording a single album... and sadly, it shows. I can't think of many indie bands I'd be willing to listen to, purely because of the production quality.
2. Why go through freakin torrents if you can download $indieband's MP3 files directly from a webserver for free anyway? It's not like MP3 files are so big that distributing them via regular HTTP or FTP is particularly hard, so why put them on BitTorrent? ThePirateBay Top 100 _obviously_ don't include any indie artists, because people don't _need_ to torrent their work...
Is it customizable? I've been using Launchy for a while now (and used it for the whole 2 weeks I ran Vista), and I love the fact that I can tell it exactly what to index. Can I do this with the Start Menu search in Vista and 7?
I too am quite satisfied with my uncapped 16/1 mbit connection, but I don't see a problem with capping, as long as there's still an option for a more expensive uncapped connection. Sure, I'm glad that I've got an Internet flat for 35 Euros a month, but I'd pay 50 if I had to, especially if that meant I'd get full speed more often...
Obviously the overage charges have to go - most 3G services here just throttle your connection down to 128kbps or so when you hit the cap... maybe cable and DSL companies could just try that...
Hmmm, not a bad point - like I said, if I'd had the cash at the time, I'd probably still be using it.
I'm just saying that _nowadays_ you'd have to whack me on the head pretty hard to get me to buy a Macbook/Pro. I just don't expect them to last years and years any more.
Look at Cowon devices - can't guarantee the 32GB or expandable storage, but the sound quality puts _every_ iPod to shame.
I'm using the iAudio 7 (8GB) right now. Cost a whole 85 Euros, has a parametric (frequency, width and gain) 5-band equalizer, plays FLAC and OGG, and, most importantly, is usable as both a "music device" and a USB storage device. Basically, you can hook it up to iTunes or Winamp like an iPod, or you can just drag and drop...
If you're willing to pay a bit more, the D2+ and S9 are good places to start... great PMPs.
Not particularly reliable in my experience... A few of my setups just won't respond to a magic packet every now and then - reboot, suspend, try again, and it works fine. It's definitely not reliable enough to bet your career on it...
That's just it - a few years back I was dead set on buying a Mac (Powerbook G4 IIRC), but couldn't afford it. A buddy of mine got the 12" version, and every time I sat down with it, I was in heaven.
These days, I've actually got a bit of cash, and there's no way I'd spend it on Apple when I can get the same hardware quality somewhere else. And that's not because everyone's caught up to Apple... it's because Apple's gotten worse.
Overheating, creaky laptop casings, proprietary (in the sense that nobody else uses them and you need adapters to hook up a regular monitor) display connectors, the annoyance of iTunes... No way I'm paying $500 more than I need to for that - especially when I know the hardware's going to be outdated in three years anyway.
Hell, since that time I was gassing for a Powerbook G4, I've upgraded/switched out 5 systems. If I'd gone for Macs each time and the price premium had been $500 each time, I'd be out $2500, which buys a used car or a few guitar amps...
So you're going to carry around a display and a keyboard? You can get those with a computer built in, and it'll probably be more ergonomical and similarly light + portable;)...
"Say someone walks into my computer store, with my custom systems offering both Windows and Linux versions. They are looking to buy a computer. Of my products on display, there is a computer running Windows Vista Ultimate, and a computer running some Linux distro with KDE 4.2.1, maybe slightly modified to look even more similar to Windows. They look similar, but the one with the Linux OS (whether or not the customer knows it's Linux) has a much cheaper price tag."
This is actually becoming a reality - Netbooks are sometimes put on display this way over here in Germany.
"Also, one last thing to say: Reading over your post, bemymonkey, you seem to think that my post is realistic. It stopped being any sort of realistic speculation when I said, "All other things equal.""
That's an interesting use of the phrase... maybe my English is just a little rusty;)
"Yes, I agree, people don't know that they pay for Windows when it comes on the computer. This is exploitable if companies omit this fact when they sell a computer with Linux. However, if they can refrain from exploiting customer ignorance, then they can give a Linux computer a much more attractive price tag. That was my point."
Now that is a _good_ point, and one that I can wholeheartedly agree with. And like I said, this has already been happening with netbooks, at least some of the time.
For my Toshiba NB100 I had a choice between an Ubuntu edition for 280 Euros and an XP version for 350+... the choice wasn't exactly a difficult one to make:)
This may be true for some albums, but most are cheaper in a DRM-free downloadable format.
For instance:
Muse - Black Holes & Hurricanes. Almost 15 Euros on Amazon.de, 10 Euros at 7Digital.de.
The older Muse albums are 7,50 on 7Digital.de and 8 Euros on Amazon.de. Sure, they're not that much cheaper, but not more expensive either. The tagging on 7Digital.de is good, and the album art (embedded in tags) is 800x800. Okay, lossless would be nice, but hey, I guess you can't have everything;)...
Also, you're forgetting that most online sales are of single songs. If you only want one song off of a CD, you're probably better off getting it on iTunes or something similar than shelling out 7+ Euros for the CD...
Slashdot Mirror
browser.tabs.closeButtons in about:config
Middle clicking to close tabs works fine here as well... which is a good thing, because i've disabled the close button :D
Sorry to go a bit off-topic here, but why exactly does everyone say DSL isn't a viable option for heavy usage?
We don't have cable as an alternative here where I live, so I can't exactly compare - what're the advantages compared to DSL? Just wondering :)
"Cooking pork to an internal temperature of 160ÃF kills the swine flu virus as it does other bacteria and viruses."
So undercooking it (=under 160 deg F), like the blueskies said, _can_ lead to infection...
WTF? Maybe home users are different, but most computers I use (uni, workplace etc.) have autorun disabled. I thought this was the default setting already...?
Meh, guess you tend to forget things like that when you stop reinstalling Windows and just clone a clean install onto your system partition every time the damned thing gets cluttered...
Look closer. It's a noticable difference... never been annoyed by "jaggies" before?
Wasn't the 7900 the follow-up to the 7800? I seem to remember being pissed about having bought a 7800GTX when the 7900GTX came out a few weeks later...
Am I the only one who's sworn off of optical media altogether? I don't burn CDs or DVDs any more, because I just can't trust the damned things to work after 3 years. Hard drives and Flash drives on the other hand... more convenient, harder to kill, and not much more expensive.
As I type this, I've got a movie running in the top right corner of my screen. It's a 720p h.264 encoded MKV, ripped straight off a blu-ray, and it runs fine here on my EeePC 1000H. I have no problems typing this at the same time while continuing to watch my movie.
Now, if I fire up Youtube and open one of the new H264 encoded videos, everything slows to a crawl - I get a slideshow instead of video, and the OS grinds to a complete halt. This is with a video that's approx. 800px across with the HD button pressed in the Youtube player.
Now why would you want your TV to lock up and slow down every time you try to stream something (which turns out to be a slideshow anyway)?
Same here, pretty much (except it's an EeePC 1000H). The only thing that gives me problems is Flash video...
That's just it - Linux is pretty intimidating for Windows geeks like me, and even more so for people who just aren't that good with computers.
Staying with the "customizing the desktop theme" topic: I had Ubuntu running in a Wubi install, and yesterday I figured I'd try out Compiz. Downloaded the necessary packages with the package manager, then opened the control panel, and clicked a few checkboxes... easy peasy.
But then my wobbly windows became crashy windows - everything starts turning black when you click on it or pass it with the mouse cursor, so I hit CTL+ALT+DEL a few times (because, as a Windows user, I don't know any better), and blindly clicked around the shut down button... which took me back to the login prompt. Hooray, everything looks fine again - so I log in, and lo and behold, everything starts turning black again.
So I say **** that and go back to XP. That was the third time I've installed Ubuntu, and each time it's lasted no longer than 30 minutes of total runtime, usually including setup... I repeat this process pretty much every time there's a new release, and every time I've been disappointed.
When things like changing themes or visual effects (don't get me started on screen resolutions and refresh rates) so buggy that they don't work half the time, how do you expect anyone coming from a Windows or Mac environment (where things actually do work without having to work around bugs with a CLI) to adapt and switch to Linux?
Maybe not 10, but 5 years is fine... My A64X2 (3800+) with 2 gigs of DDR400 and a 7800GTX runs pretty much any video I can find. Looks like I won't be upgrading any time soon...
Of course a number without units is ambiguous - hell, Slashdot could be based on the moon for all I care, but just assuming that everyone on a site (that just happens to be accessible from all over the world) uses American units for everything is downright stupid.
Do you not WANT to be understood by the rest of the world?
Everyone else gets it - international forums and news sites are all in English - they have found a common ground on which to communicate... what's so hard about doing the same thing when it comes to units? I'm not even saying that you should start thinking in celsius and the metric system, but that you should at least put a friggin unit of measurement (feet, meters, 19" LCD widths, whatever you want) after the _AMBIGUOUS_ numbers...
"This also, and perhaps primarily, gets the OEMs to not even consider Linux on the OEM's bottom-tier line."
That's pretty much what they're going for, IMO... as long as it counts as a Windows sale, Microsoft will continue to push crappy disabled OSs on customers...
1. I listen to music that I like. In order to like music, it has to sound good - that means good recording equipment/techniques and decent mixing. And that, in turn, requires money.
Any jackass can record his band with a digital 24-track and $3k worth of mics, but getting someone who actually knows what he's doing for the recording and mixing is _expensive_. There aren't many indie bands that can spend tens of thousands of dollars recording a single album... and sadly, it shows. I can't think of many indie bands I'd be willing to listen to, purely because of the production quality.
2. Why go through freakin torrents if you can download $indieband's MP3 files directly from a webserver for free anyway? It's not like MP3 files are so big that distributing them via regular HTTP or FTP is particularly hard, so why put them on BitTorrent? ThePirateBay Top 100 _obviously_ don't include any indie artists, because people don't _need_ to torrent their work...
Is it customizable? I've been using Launchy for a while now (and used it for the whole 2 weeks I ran Vista), and I love the fact that I can tell it exactly what to index. Can I do this with the Start Menu search in Vista and 7?
I too am quite satisfied with my uncapped 16/1 mbit connection, but I don't see a problem with capping, as long as there's still an option for a more expensive uncapped connection. Sure, I'm glad that I've got an Internet flat for 35 Euros a month, but I'd pay 50 if I had to, especially if that meant I'd get full speed more often...
Obviously the overage charges have to go - most 3G services here just throttle your connection down to 128kbps or so when you hit the cap... maybe cable and DSL companies could just try that...
Hmmm, not a bad point - like I said, if I'd had the cash at the time, I'd probably still be using it.
I'm just saying that _nowadays_ you'd have to whack me on the head pretty hard to get me to buy a Macbook/Pro. I just don't expect them to last years and years any more.
Look at Cowon devices - can't guarantee the 32GB or expandable storage, but the sound quality puts _every_ iPod to shame.
I'm using the iAudio 7 (8GB) right now. Cost a whole 85 Euros, has a parametric (frequency, width and gain) 5-band equalizer, plays FLAC and OGG, and, most importantly, is usable as both a "music device" and a USB storage device. Basically, you can hook it up to iTunes or Winamp like an iPod, or you can just drag and drop...
If you're willing to pay a bit more, the D2+ and S9 are good places to start... great PMPs.
Not particularly reliable in my experience... A few of my setups just won't respond to a magic packet every now and then - reboot, suspend, try again, and it works fine. It's definitely not reliable enough to bet your career on it...
That's just it - a few years back I was dead set on buying a Mac (Powerbook G4 IIRC), but couldn't afford it. A buddy of mine got the 12" version, and every time I sat down with it, I was in heaven.
These days, I've actually got a bit of cash, and there's no way I'd spend it on Apple when I can get the same hardware quality somewhere else. And that's not because everyone's caught up to Apple... it's because Apple's gotten worse.
Overheating, creaky laptop casings, proprietary (in the sense that nobody else uses them and you need adapters to hook up a regular monitor) display connectors, the annoyance of iTunes... No way I'm paying $500 more than I need to for that - especially when I know the hardware's going to be outdated in three years anyway.
Hell, since that time I was gassing for a Powerbook G4, I've upgraded/switched out 5 systems. If I'd gone for Macs each time and the price premium had been $500 each time, I'd be out $2500, which buys a used car or a few guitar amps...
So you're going to carry around a display and a keyboard? You can get those with a computer built in, and it'll probably be more ergonomical and similarly light + portable ;)...
You people have no sense of humor... mod up already :)
"Say someone walks into my computer store, with my custom systems offering both Windows and Linux versions. They are looking to buy a computer. Of my products on display, there is a computer running Windows Vista Ultimate, and a computer running some Linux distro with KDE 4.2.1, maybe slightly modified to look even more similar to Windows. They look similar, but the one with the Linux OS (whether or not the customer knows it's Linux) has a much cheaper price tag."
This is actually becoming a reality - Netbooks are sometimes put on display this way over here in Germany.
"Also, one last thing to say: Reading over your post, bemymonkey, you seem to think that my post is realistic. It stopped being any sort of realistic speculation when I said, "All other things equal.""
That's an interesting use of the phrase... maybe my English is just a little rusty ;)
"Yes, I agree, people don't know that they pay for Windows when it comes on the computer. This is exploitable if companies omit this fact when they sell a computer with Linux. However, if they can refrain from exploiting customer ignorance, then they can give a Linux computer a much more attractive price tag. That was my point."
Now that is a _good_ point, and one that I can wholeheartedly agree with. And like I said, this has already been happening with netbooks, at least some of the time.
For my Toshiba NB100 I had a choice between an Ubuntu edition for 280 Euros and an XP version for 350+... the choice wasn't exactly a difficult one to make :)
This may be true for some albums, but most are cheaper in a DRM-free downloadable format.
For instance:
Muse - Black Holes & Hurricanes. Almost 15 Euros on Amazon.de, 10 Euros at 7Digital.de.
The older Muse albums are 7,50 on 7Digital.de and 8 Euros on Amazon.de. Sure, they're not that much cheaper, but not more expensive either. The tagging on 7Digital.de is good, and the album art (embedded in tags) is 800x800. Okay, lossless would be nice, but hey, I guess you can't have everything ;)...
Also, you're forgetting that most online sales are of single songs. If you only want one song off of a CD, you're probably better off getting it on iTunes or something similar than shelling out 7+ Euros for the CD...