Yes. It's an issue with current Flash technology; a USB drive, CF, SD or MemoryStick card will all have the same problem. You can get flash chips with longer lifes, but unless he's spending mucho buckos, they'll all be about in the same area.
Indeed... Especially on a PC laptop that old. It probably gets about 25 minutes of battery life as it is. The boost to 28 isn't going to make that much of a difference.
Shit, if someone was going to pay me a million dollars to steal Project X from my employer- and I was immoral enough to do it- I would put the USB key drive in my bunghole. I mean, it's a million bucks, right?
No one said MS made better apps, silly AC. Simply that Microsoft produces a lot *more* software. Which is true. I don't care if you don't like IE, it doesn't mean that MS doesn't make it.
Microsoft makes a zillion apps. No, most don't run on OS X, and if that's what you meant, you should've specified it. MS makes many apps, a lot of which aren't targeted at consumers and almost none of it comes with Windows or a new computer. Doesn't mean they don't make it, though.
As for XP performing very well, could you try out a gnome 2.6 system side to side with a winxp install with antivirus running, both firewalled? Which one feels snappier?
As sad as I was to discover this, I'd go with Windows. Though in this case, I'm talking about 2k, but in my experience in similar hardware, XP isn't much worse- as long as you turn off some rubbish. But on my 380 MHz K6-2 machine, Win2k is a lot less painful than RedHat 9, both with the shipped GNOME and newer versions. GNOME and KDE are like using Win 98 on that box- frustrating as hell. When I'm just using ion or pwm it isn't as bad, but it's still slower. Which has me in Windows on that box most of the time, as sad as it is.
What sort of compatibility are you talking about? If I want to open a.doc, or.ppt in linux I have no trouble. I can even write them. If I want to open a.sxw or compile a.tex in windows, that's a major undertaking./me recovers from the fit of laughing
Don't get me wrong, I don't really like Windows. But I use it at work, and do with without problems. Without problems since 2k/XP that is- 98 is hell.
He talked about having compatibility with 90% of the world- not with 5-10. How many people use LaTeX for their documents? And out of those that do, how many are stupid enough to distribute them as.tex files? LaTeX is my preferred word processor, and I create and edit LaTeX docs on Windows, Mac OS X and Solaris without problem. On Windows, opening an.sxw file is as simple as double clicking it. Do you not know there was a freely downloadable OpenOffice for Windows? Neither are a "major undertaking."
Yes, there is Linux emulation, but that doesn't cut it. You cannot simply swap the FreeBSD and Linux kernels, they are not interchangable. Whilst some Linux binaries may be copied to FreeBSD and used without a problem, that is far from being the same thing.
If GIMP were as good as Photoshop Pro, it would go a long way to getting acceptance of the Free Unix variants on a desktop.
Sure it would- with a small group of people. The GIMP is far from perfect, but it works for me- on Mac OS X and Windows. Two OSes where I could use Photoshop, but don't. I don't have any need for Photoshop, when I need to do image manipulation it's usually for simple stuff- resizing, cropping, adding text, etc. So I'm sure as hell not going to pay for Photoshop. I could pirate it... but poo on that.
Most people have similar needs in this area, I'd imagine. It's not like the majority of desktop users are graphic designers or anything.
The grandparent was referring to the fact that you can take a GNU/linux distro and replace the kernel, thereby making it a GNU/BSD distro. So far as I know, you can't replace MS's kernel and have Windows running on a BSD kernel.
Since when have you been able to do this on Linux? You can't just overwrite your Linux kernel file with something from *BSD and reboot.
To go from Linux to FreeBSD (or another BSD) it involves about the same amount of work as switching from Windows to Linux or Windows to *BSD. Backup your user files. Re-partition and format. Install new OS. Install apps.
And as far as shells- you can install Cygwin on Windows, giving you bash or any other shell. If you've never heard of it, I reccomend you google for it. Or, there are other tools like 4NT, which provide a new shell, though one along the lines of MS's command shells, not *sh. And none of these are just wrappers around DOS.
The only one-click install I've ever had on OS X involves the single click to launch/switch to Terminal.app; and then "fink install whatever-app".:P Other than that, it usually takes more, a double click on the installer icon, Next, Hard Drive, Agree, Install, OK....
Er, wait. Is this a joke, or did you just not RTFA? Go read the article- there's a picture. It has nothing to do with splitting one monitor into quarters./me slaps the schmucks who mod'd this interesting...
If that's your attitude- why bother putting up the JWST in the first place? After all, it studies fewer areas than the Hubble. So, if the Hubble is worthless because it only covers a "small area" of study, then the JWST is surely worthless. And the JWST is a lot more expensive- on the order of US$1.6 billion. Less bang for the buck. Scrap it, eh?
Re the mod'ing done on this comment: Funny? I can see overrated, as I start off with a +2, as my Karma is so utterly swell.:P But funny? I mean it- I haven't looked at Mono in quite a while, although.NET and Mono both really interest me.
Nope, but books aren't quite the same. See, in a lot of situations in today's world, it's socially fine for me to pull out my PDA and start reading. It was fine for me to have it with me all the time to begin with. A book, on the other hand, is something different. For me to bring a book with me all the time can be seen as rude- after all, some folks may think that I do it in preperation of being bored. Which may be true, but offensive regardless. A PDA, though... that is something that attains part of its usefulness by being available all the time. For most folks it may not be about being able to read at any time or place, rather about having information readily available. Same thing in the end though, no?
A shame that Windows is written in mostly C++, including Longhorn. I think you're getting your MS shill confused with your Sun shill. They're the ones who want you to abandon all of your C++ code and write it in Java. MS just wants you to write your *new* code in.NET language, while calling your old C++ code and instantiating those old classes through.NET.
But anyway, C++ sucks. Always has.
"The main problem for the C++ community today is to use Standard C++ in the way it was intended rather than as a glorified C or a poor man's Smalltalk." -- Bjarne Stroustrup (inventor of C++)
Which is precisely how most Linux and Windows coders use it. While I don't use Windows very often, I applaud Microsoft's efforts to remove this particular tumor from the CS world as best it can. *And* replace it something better for the job, rather than something a step back.
Maybe not, but I bet the kids of those that go to these events are the target market for the GBA.
Did you see how much they cost? The card costs $199.99 to purchase. How many kids have that kind of money? How many parents are going to buy their kids a GBA accessory that they use a couple times a year?
But, like it says on the page, the other option is renting. It's too bad they don't mention the potential cost of renting it for the weekend, as that would make or break it. It could work out if it were cheap- the kids bring their GBA, and dad looks along during the race.
For me, this is the kind of stuff that bluetooth was made for.
For instance: folks that wanted this information could whip out their phone, PDA, laptop, GBA, battery-powered toaster or whatever, look for local data streams, pick "Current Race Info" and have at it. The issue of range could be easily solved by having repeaters and amplified signals. Stuff like this- event or building/region-specific info- could be put on a specific channel for this kind of use.
In addition to live racing info, you could have stats on the racers, the car, their sponsors, etc. This could be something you had in every sport. When I'm in a movie theater, the signal could carry information on when the movie started and ended, so that the morons in the theater that don't turn off their ring have it done for them. When I'm in a building with which I am not familiar, I couuld get maps. All of these things are doable with current hardware- we just need the software. And while a dozen companies create these kind of solutions, each with their own proprietary protocol, hardware and software, we could have it all with one standard.
Other folks bring up a good point: how many folks want to buy a GBA and the card to use this way? Even renting just the card (for GBA owners) or the whole unit seems like a stretch, unless the price was very reasonable. But then again, maybe I'm under estimating racing fans, it's not something I am interested in.
I really wish more phones supported bluetooth. Specifically, the cheap phones, the ones most folks have, the ones that you get free with a plan. That kind of support is needed for it to really take off, IMHO.
Uhh... Both JavaScript and ActiveX are both used "for good" all over the net. JS more than ActiveX, though.
Unless you think that all Flash movies are evil, which you may. On Windows (at least with IE), Flash, Shockwave and a lot of other plugins are embedded using ActiveX.CAB files.
And JavaScript... That is used *everywhere* for many little non-evil things. Nothing terribly exciting, perhaps, but various conveniences that a lot of web developers and end-users take for granted.
Not sure about you, but taking a dump with a laptop on your lap is weird. To each his own, sure, but it's not for me.
What does work wonderfully is a PDA. I just have books/articles pre-downloaded to the PDA, often before I leave the house in the morning, but you can just as easily get a wireless card for most PDAs sold today if you'd prefer.
Having a PDA with reading material is nice in a lot of ways, actually. Since I first got a PDA, a bunch of years ago, I've started reading a lot. That is, when my reading material is always waiting in my pocket and conveniently brought out and quickly put away, I will read for a single page in times that otherwise I'd just have to stand there trying to achieve zen blankness of mind. Hell, I even read when I'm taking a piss- a page here, a page there. It's a great way to get leisure reading done when you're so busy between working full-time and taking a full-time load of college credits that you can't afford to actually sit down for an hour and read a novel.
Also, there's more you can do on your PDA than just read on the toilet. I've written at least a few hundred lines of code as well, mostly in Squeak Smalltalk, but also in Lisp and NewtonScript.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes. It's an issue with current Flash technology; a USB drive, CF, SD or MemoryStick card will all have the same problem. You can get flash chips with longer lifes, but unless he's spending mucho buckos, they'll all be about in the same area.
Indeed... Especially on a PC laptop that old. It probably gets about 25 minutes of battery life as it is. The boost to 28 isn't going to make that much of a difference.
Shit, if someone was going to pay me a million dollars to steal Project X from my employer- and I was immoral enough to do it- I would put the USB key drive in my bunghole. I mean, it's a million bucks, right?
30 mistakes? Big deal! LOTR 1 has 223. With the same number in LOTR 2 and 131 in LOTR 3. lots of movies do. so what?
No one said MS made better apps, silly AC. Simply that Microsoft produces a lot *more* software. Which is true. I don't care if you don't like IE, it doesn't mean that MS doesn't make it.
Microsoft makes a zillion apps. No, most don't run on OS X, and if that's what you meant, you should've specified it. MS makes many apps, a lot of which aren't targeted at consumers and almost none of it comes with Windows or a new computer. Doesn't mean they don't make it, though.
I've got no qualms about that, either, I'm not going to pay even a fraction of a cent for full-screen playback, that ought to be included.
AppleScript does the trick for me. And no, I didn't have to pay for the Pro version or use a stolen serial.
As for XP performing very well, could you try out a gnome 2.6 system side to side with a winxp install with antivirus running, both firewalled? Which one feels snappier?
As sad as I was to discover this, I'd go with Windows. Though in this case, I'm talking about 2k, but in my experience in similar hardware, XP isn't much worse- as long as you turn off some rubbish. But on my 380 MHz K6-2 machine, Win2k is a lot less painful than RedHat 9, both with the shipped GNOME and newer versions. GNOME and KDE are like using Win 98 on that box- frustrating as hell. When I'm just using ion or pwm it isn't as bad, but it's still slower. Which has me in Windows on that box most of the time, as sad as it is.
What sort of compatibility are you talking about? If I want to open a .doc, or .ppt in linux I have no trouble. I can even write them. If I want to open a .sxw or compile a .tex in windows, that's a major undertaking. /me recovers from the fit of laughing
.tex files? LaTeX is my preferred word processor, and I create and edit LaTeX docs on Windows, Mac OS X and Solaris without problem. On Windows, opening an .sxw file is as simple as double clicking it. Do you not know there was a freely downloadable OpenOffice for Windows? Neither are a "major undertaking."
Don't get me wrong, I don't really like Windows. But I use it at work, and do with without problems. Without problems since 2k/XP that is- 98 is hell.
He talked about having compatibility with 90% of the world- not with 5-10. How many people use LaTeX for their documents? And out of those that do, how many are stupid enough to distribute them as
Yes, there is Linux emulation, but that doesn't cut it. You cannot simply swap the FreeBSD and Linux kernels, they are not interchangable. Whilst some Linux binaries may be copied to FreeBSD and used without a problem, that is far from being the same thing.
If GIMP were as good as Photoshop Pro, it would go a long way to getting acceptance of the Free Unix variants on a desktop.
... but poo on that.
Sure it would- with a small group of people. The GIMP is far from perfect, but it works for me- on Mac OS X and Windows. Two OSes where I could use Photoshop, but don't. I don't have any need for Photoshop, when I need to do image manipulation it's usually for simple stuff- resizing, cropping, adding text, etc. So I'm sure as hell not going to pay for Photoshop. I could pirate it
Most people have similar needs in this area, I'd imagine. It's not like the majority of desktop users are graphic designers or anything.
... wtf ...
The grandparent was referring to the fact that you can take a GNU/linux distro and replace the kernel, thereby making it a GNU/BSD distro. So far as I know, you can't replace MS's kernel and have Windows running on a BSD kernel.
Since when have you been able to do this on Linux? You can't just overwrite your Linux kernel file with something from *BSD and reboot.
To go from Linux to FreeBSD (or another BSD) it involves about the same amount of work as switching from Windows to Linux or Windows to *BSD. Backup your user files. Re-partition and format. Install new OS. Install apps.
And as far as shells- you can install Cygwin on Windows, giving you bash or any other shell. If you've never heard of it, I reccomend you google for it. Or, there are other tools like 4NT, which provide a new shell, though one along the lines of MS's command shells, not *sh. And none of these are just wrappers around DOS.
The only one-click install I've ever had on OS X involves the single click to launch/switch to Terminal.app; and then "fink install whatever-app". :P Other than that, it usually takes more, a double click on the installer icon, Next, Hard Drive, Agree, Install, OK....
Haha!
/me slaps the schmucks who mod'd this interesting...
Er, wait. Is this a joke, or did you just not RTFA? Go read the article- there's a picture. It has nothing to do with splitting one monitor into quarters.
If that's your attitude- why bother putting up the JWST in the first place? After all, it studies fewer areas than the Hubble. So, if the Hubble is worthless because it only covers a "small area" of study, then the JWST is surely worthless. And the JWST is a lot more expensive- on the order of US$1.6 billion. Less bang for the buck. Scrap it, eh?
Re the mod'ing done on this comment: :P But funny? I mean it- I haven't looked at Mono in quite a while, although .NET and Mono both really interest me.
Funny? I can see overrated, as I start off with a +2, as my Karma is so utterly swell.
This is great!
It's been a while since I've had a good look at Mono- and things really seem to have advanced since! Way to go guys!
Nope, but books aren't quite the same. See, in a lot of situations in today's world, it's socially fine for me to pull out my PDA and start reading. It was fine for me to have it with me all the time to begin with. A book, on the other hand, is something different. For me to bring a book with me all the time can be seen as rude- after all, some folks may think that I do it in preperation of being bored. Which may be true, but offensive regardless. A PDA, though... that is something that attains part of its usefulness by being available all the time. For most folks it may not be about being able to read at any time or place, rather about having information readily available. Same thing in the end though, no?
But anyway, C++ sucks. Always has.
Which is precisely how most Linux and Windows coders use it. While I don't use Windows very often, I applaud Microsoft's efforts to remove this particular tumor from the CS world as best it can. *And* replace it something better for the job, rather than something a step back.
psssst
it was a joke.
I thought it was interesting that all the vunerable systems listed were Linux.
Of course, it doesn't concern me because I read my email with pine running on the university's solaris boxes.
Maybe not, but I bet the kids of those that go to these events are the target market for the GBA.
Did you see how much they cost? The card costs $199.99 to purchase. How many kids have that kind of money? How many parents are going to buy their kids a GBA accessory that they use a couple times a year?
But, like it says on the page, the other option is renting. It's too bad they don't mention the potential cost of renting it for the weekend, as that would make or break it. It could work out if it were cheap- the kids bring their GBA, and dad looks along during the race.
For me, this is the kind of stuff that bluetooth was made for.
For instance: folks that wanted this information could whip out their phone, PDA, laptop, GBA, battery-powered toaster or whatever, look for local data streams, pick "Current Race Info" and have at it. The issue of range could be easily solved by having repeaters and amplified signals. Stuff like this- event or building/region-specific info- could be put on a specific channel for this kind of use.
In addition to live racing info, you could have stats on the racers, the car, their sponsors, etc. This could be something you had in every sport. When I'm in a movie theater, the signal could carry information on when the movie started and ended, so that the morons in the theater that don't turn off their ring have it done for them. When I'm in a building with which I am not familiar, I couuld get maps. All of these things are doable with current hardware- we just need the software. And while a dozen companies create these kind of solutions, each with their own proprietary protocol, hardware and software, we could have it all with one standard.
Other folks bring up a good point: how many folks want to buy a GBA and the card to use this way? Even renting just the card (for GBA owners) or the whole unit seems like a stretch, unless the price was very reasonable. But then again, maybe I'm under estimating racing fans, it's not something I am interested in.
I really wish more phones supported bluetooth. Specifically, the cheap phones, the ones most folks have, the ones that you get free with a plan. That kind of support is needed for it to really take off, IMHO.
Uhh... Both JavaScript and ActiveX are both used "for good" all over the net. JS more than ActiveX, though.
.CAB files.
Unless you think that all Flash movies are evil, which you may. On Windows (at least with IE), Flash, Shockwave and a lot of other plugins are embedded using ActiveX
And JavaScript... That is used *everywhere* for many little non-evil things. Nothing terribly exciting, perhaps, but various conveniences that a lot of web developers and end-users take for granted.
Not sure about you, but taking a dump with a laptop on your lap is weird. To each his own, sure, but it's not for me.
What does work wonderfully is a PDA. I just have books/articles pre-downloaded to the PDA, often before I leave the house in the morning, but you can just as easily get a wireless card for most PDAs sold today if you'd prefer.
Having a PDA with reading material is nice in a lot of ways, actually. Since I first got a PDA, a bunch of years ago, I've started reading a lot. That is, when my reading material is always waiting in my pocket and conveniently brought out and quickly put away, I will read for a single page in times that otherwise I'd just have to stand there trying to achieve zen blankness of mind. Hell, I even read when I'm taking a piss- a page here, a page there. It's a great way to get leisure reading done when you're so busy between working full-time and taking a full-time load of college credits that you can't afford to actually sit down for an hour and read a novel.
Also, there's more you can do on your PDA than just read on the toilet. I've written at least a few hundred lines of code as well, mostly in Squeak Smalltalk, but also in Lisp and NewtonScript.