As an Australian I am quite surprised that the number is so high. Here it has been the norm for ISPs to tiered monthly data plans where you pay for how much you use. From cheap plans for $20/mo for a few GB aimed at old people who only forward on chain emails from 1997 right to 1TB plans for torrenting all that public domain and Creative Commons content. Once it's used up your connection is throttled to an unusable 64kb/s for the remainder of the month (though some ISPs sell data recharge things).
Unlike Americas "unlimited" one-size-fits-all these users are losing what they paid for. Why would people be so stupid as to let their neighbours use up their 25GB on their shitty Telstra plan? Is setting up WPA2 really that difficult? Can these people read an instruction manual?
I did an 11.04 upgrade to a system that had 10.10 on it for all of a week. It regularly died with kernel oops and soon after, a panic. I reinstalled it (with LVM too) and works much more stable than 10.10 which has really bad problems with Kwin on Intel graphics (screensaver often locked up X if compositing was enabled).
To have a 1 minute warning to move the mouse before DPMS-off. Probably not so much a problem with LED backlit displays but continuously power cycling the CCFL because you took 1 second too long to read a wall of text probably isn't good for it's life span.
Many institutions have an MSDNAA licence for science/engineering/IT/business students where we can get specific MS software licence keys free of charge. At RMIT they have 64 and 32 bit Windows as separate products so that's at least 2 keys per OS version (Vista has about 5 different things).
RMIT is fairly good with Linux. TFS was worried about the proposed new system that I believe uses WPS (unsupported in Network Manager). The current system works fine with Linux, I even got my N900 working with it.
The only major problem with an IT service was a few years back when they used an old version of Blackboard. When uploading files it used the useragent string to determine if it should parse the file string as a Unix or Windows path. It complained that Linux had an invalid path/file name as it was trying to interpret it as a Windows style path. The solution was to add the three letters "mac" to the useragent. It didn't matter where because the checker was really stupid. That bug only lasted about a year before it was finally fixed.
I went to the 'Direction of IT' seminar at RMIT a month ago and no one I talked to looked down their nose at Linux. In fact they are planning to try to be platform neutral as much as reasonably possible. All critical systems work and only problems are when random people use funky.docx or.pptx files and expect you to submit the same but IT doesn't really enforce that.
Wireless works better with Network Manager than with Windows (which needs SecureW2) and I even got it working with WICD and strait up wpa_supplicant (I can give the config if you want). I am only worried if they decide to change the wireless system to something that is "simpler" for Win/Mac like WPS that isn't supported in Network Manager and scrapping the now legacy WPA Enterprise EAP/TTLS thingy. (Then again, XP doesn't do WPS so they won't scrap the current system before WPS is added to NM)
I spent most of my time there asking about the viability of a campus Minecraft server.
One television used to turn itself on occasionally (a little disconcerting when you're sleeping in the room at the time) but I'd be inclined to blame old electronics or a cranky remote before deciding a ghost was a factor.
I have an old 51cm TV that does something like that. Sometimes if you turn it off with the remote to the 'stand by' mode it doesn't turn off correctly. It keeps the screen active displaying white noise, bypassing the tuner. Almost as if the electron gun and H/V directing magnet things are still on and just picking up the entire spectrum of white noise and spitting it out. It doesn't look like typical white noise but is darker and more coarse.
I turn it off at the hard button on the front unless I want to get a nasty wakeup when it suddenly decides to these receive alien signals.
Who uses canned air? I have an air compressor that is only as expensive as the power it uses and is more powerful for that stubborn dust inside heatsinks. They don't cost much and are grate for spray painting and air brushing. Someone in your family/friend must have one somewhere.
Get yourself an N900 before they all run out. Seems almost certain that the industry as a whole is moving toward totalitarian lockdown that makes the current Apple look like GNU. My prediction is that Samsung will be next with locked handsets.
Meego (the only thing that could bridge the PC and phone) was all but murdered, HP/Palm haven't released anything but press releases. What hope is there that in 5 years time we will still be able to have Debian chroots in out pockets?
They were recreated during the Win95 upgrade into the new shortcut files. progman.exe sill exists in a fresh Win95 install and will contain all program groups for old win16 apps. (A progman.exe clone is also still featured in Wine along with a winfile.exe clone (but called winefile for some reason))
You assume that the 1% and the 99% are mutually exclusive. You can have both a phone that is simple to use and assumes that the user is a complete idiot yet still caters to the geek who wants root access to run a Debian chroot. Meego was the best hope for this to come true (maybe some other handset manufacturer will pick it up still).
How is this any worse than a counter-protest? I also thought your (assuming you're from the US) constitution was about preventing your GOVERNMENT from passing laws and prosecuting people for their speech. Nothing stopping another group from downing you out with louder free speech including a wilful DoSing.
Hacking into their servers to grab data and vandalise is a completely different problem.
WBC protesting at funerals is harassment and should not covered by any free speech laws. Just as much as telling a female co-worker that she has a great arse and you want to follow her home to rape her. If the law says otherwise then show me where I can file a bug report.
Are you a mobile engineer? No? Then why should anyone trust you to compile the firmware of a cellular phone network device?
You do realise that there is ZERO difference between your smart phone and a regular Linux PC with a modem dongle with open source drivers. They make the modem a little less trusting than you are implying.
The N900 is very cheap right now since it's old in comparison to current phones. It was $350USD on Amazon back in November (but they sadly wouldn't ship international)
The resistive touch screen is not so bad. You can use your finger nails and avoid greasy fingerprints and the acuracy of the stylus makes use of really small things like when playing with non-touch desktop apps in the Debian chroot. If you really want capacitive multi-touch then wait for that hybrid touchscreen featured here the other month.
Slashdot Mirror
Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saHs6J0OXVI
As an Australian I am quite surprised that the number is so high. Here it has been the norm for ISPs to tiered monthly data plans where you pay for how much you use. From cheap plans for $20/mo for a few GB aimed at old people who only forward on chain emails from 1997 right to 1TB plans for torrenting all that public domain and Creative Commons content. Once it's used up your connection is throttled to an unusable 64kb/s for the remainder of the month (though some ISPs sell data recharge things).
Unlike Americas "unlimited" one-size-fits-all these users are losing what they paid for. Why would people be so stupid as to let their neighbours use up their 25GB on their shitty Telstra plan? Is setting up WPA2 really that difficult? Can these people read an instruction manual?
I also find it depressing that WPS even exists.
And there has only been 8 comments in this article so far
Once you choose a distro you will need to get familiar with the command line to really get in to Linux.
I found this to be great for beginners: Introduction to Linux by Machtelt Garrels
Does anyone else have useful books to share?
Ever since I upgraded
There's your problem.
I did an 11.04 upgrade to a system that had 10.10 on it for all of a week. It regularly died with kernel oops and soon after, a panic. I reinstalled it (with LVM too) and works much more stable than 10.10 which has really bad problems with Kwin on Intel graphics (screensaver often locked up X if compositing was enabled).
To have a 1 minute warning to move the mouse before DPMS-off. Probably not so much a problem with LED backlit displays but continuously power cycling the CCFL because you took 1 second too long to read a wall of text probably isn't good for it's life span.
The key word is wannabe
Eftel over Telstra Cu retail 22 Mbps with 200 GB cap at $49 a month
+$30 line rental
Many institutions have an MSDNAA licence for science/engineering/IT/business students where we can get specific MS software licence keys free of charge. At RMIT they have 64 and 32 bit Windows as separate products so that's at least 2 keys per OS version (Vista has about 5 different things).
Office is not free.
RMIT is fairly good with Linux. TFS was worried about the proposed new system that I believe uses WPS (unsupported in Network Manager). The current system works fine with Linux, I even got my N900 working with it.
The only major problem with an IT service was a few years back when they used an old version of Blackboard. When uploading files it used the useragent string to determine if it should parse the file string as a Unix or Windows path. It complained that Linux had an invalid path/file name as it was trying to interpret it as a Windows style path. The solution was to add the three letters "mac" to the useragent. It didn't matter where because the checker was really stupid. That bug only lasted about a year before it was finally fixed.
I went to the 'Direction of IT' seminar at RMIT a month ago and no one I talked to looked down their nose at Linux. In fact they are planning to try to be platform neutral as much as reasonably possible. All critical systems work and only problems are when random people use funky .docx or .pptx files and expect you to submit the same but IT doesn't really enforce that.
Wireless works better with Network Manager than with Windows (which needs SecureW2) and I even got it working with WICD and strait up wpa_supplicant (I can give the config if you want). I am only worried if they decide to change the wireless system to something that is "simpler" for Win/Mac like WPS that isn't supported in Network Manager and scrapping the now legacy WPA Enterprise EAP/TTLS thingy. (Then again, XP doesn't do WPS so they won't scrap the current system before WPS is added to NM)
I spent most of my time there asking about the viability of a campus Minecraft server.
"/" also can't be used in filenames
One television used to turn itself on occasionally (a little disconcerting when you're sleeping in the room at the time) but I'd be inclined to blame old electronics or a cranky remote before deciding a ghost was a factor.
I have an old 51cm TV that does something like that. Sometimes if you turn it off with the remote to the 'stand by' mode it doesn't turn off correctly. It keeps the screen active displaying white noise, bypassing the tuner. Almost as if the electron gun and H/V directing magnet things are still on and just picking up the entire spectrum of white noise and spitting it out. It doesn't look like typical white noise but is darker and more coarse.
I turn it off at the hard button on the front unless I want to get a nasty wakeup when it suddenly decides to these receive alien signals.
Must be nice to have silent fans. I can't hear shit here over the sound of my brother's PC in the next room.
Who uses canned air? I have an air compressor that is only as expensive as the power it uses and is more powerful for that stubborn dust inside heatsinks. They don't cost much and are grate for spray painting and air brushing. Someone in your family/friend must have one somewhere.
If they actually made a phone with an RS-232 Dsub-9 port I know many engineers and sysadmins would buy one.
Get yourself an N900 before they all run out. Seems almost certain that the industry as a whole is moving toward totalitarian lockdown that makes the current Apple look like GNU. My prediction is that Samsung will be next with locked handsets.
Meego (the only thing that could bridge the PC and phone) was all but murdered, HP/Palm haven't released anything but press releases. What hope is there that in 5 years time we will still be able to have Debian chroots in out pockets?
I'd need a lot more hands than two to count the number of times I've modified someone else's code after using their software.
Over 1023 modifications? I call bullshit.
Well I thought it was funny.
They were recreated during the Win95 upgrade into the new shortcut files. progman.exe sill exists in a fresh Win95 install and will contain all program groups for old win16 apps. (A progman.exe clone is also still featured in Wine along with a winfile.exe clone (but called winefile for some reason))
You assume that the 1% and the 99% are mutually exclusive. You can have both a phone that is simple to use and assumes that the user is a complete idiot yet still caters to the geek who wants root access to run a Debian chroot. Meego was the best hope for this to come true (maybe some other handset manufacturer will pick it up still).
Didn't they just release Chrome 10 beta? It's still on the front page of Slashdot (at this time).
How is this any worse than a counter-protest? I also thought your (assuming you're from the US) constitution was about preventing your GOVERNMENT from passing laws and prosecuting people for their speech. Nothing stopping another group from downing you out with louder free speech including a wilful DoSing.
Hacking into their servers to grab data and vandalise is a completely different problem.
WBC protesting at funerals is harassment and should not covered by any free speech laws. Just as much as telling a female co-worker that she has a great arse and you want to follow her home to rape her. If the law says otherwise then show me where I can file a bug report.
Are you a mobile engineer? No? Then why should anyone trust you to compile the firmware of a cellular phone network device?
You do realise that there is ZERO difference between your smart phone and a regular Linux PC with a modem dongle with open source drivers. They make the modem a little less trusting than you are implying.
The N900 is very cheap right now since it's old in comparison to current phones. It was $350USD on Amazon back in November (but they sadly wouldn't ship international)
The resistive touch screen is not so bad. You can use your finger nails and avoid greasy fingerprints and the acuracy of the stylus makes use of really small things like when playing with non-touch desktop apps in the Debian chroot. If you really want capacitive multi-touch then wait for that hybrid touchscreen featured here the other month.