I believe he's referring to the Philosopher's Stone which was sought by alchemists as a means to transmute base metals into gold and/or confer immortality on its holder. It has nothing whatsoever to do with philosophy (or Philosophy, for that matter).
A version of apt-get is available for Mandrake as well. I use it in conjunction with urpmi to make sure I have the stuff I need/want. Could be the same as the one for RH8 -- I found it through a series of links I couldn't reproduce for love or money.
You can choose to either work or not work. You can choose to either eat or not eat. Just because the consequences of one or both choices may be unpleasant, even destructive, does not mean the choice itself has been removed. Therein lies your free will.
I would add that the Japanese offer these value-adds in their music CDs as well. The last two CDs I purchased in Hamamatsu were Y3500 each and contained stickers, promo materials for other works, lyrics (in Japanse, of course), autographed pics, small posters, etc. Roughly $35 for a CD is a bit steep in my mind, but I'm a sucker for a sticker, and it was stuff that my friends in the States didn't have access to so I could show it off upon my return.
oh shite!! that's too funny... where are the mod points when you need 'em....
Re:Linux, BSD, and everything need one thing....
on
Ark Linux
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
If I may chime in with a newb's POV. Last night I nuked my WinXP drive (after backing everything up, of course, for migration) and installed RedHat 8.0. I quit Windows cold turkey -- and I'm having some serious withdrawals, which I'll get to in a moment -- and committed myself to using Linux at home on my desktop, laptop, and eventually going to Mom's and switching her over as well. My reasons are many and varied and, for the most part, unimportant for the purposes of this discussion. I should say, though, that this is my 5th attempt to make the switch to linux. I think I might just succeed this time.
I'm not a complete newb to computers -- managing tech support for an ISP cures that fairly quickly -- but Windows spoiled me. It was easy, reliable (talking XP here -- it worked well for me, and i'm not going to argue the point), and every piece of hardware I installed worked, most apps -- if they were from a reputable source -- worked, games worked. WinAmp worked. When everything works, there's no reason to learn anything new. So one reason I wanted to switch was the challenge of learning a new OS.
But Goddamn!! My previous efforts to switch to Linux ended in a return to XP because I couldn't get the fucking cd-rom to work, or my sound card was lurking in the shadows of my case, adamantly refusing to introduce itself to anything in the OS which might make it do something besides crackle on startup and go silent, or, in the case of my laptop, I couldn't get the power management functions to work and I feared getting a message stating my processor had decided to imitate the sun, a message I ultimately couldn't read because I could never get decent anti-aliasing for fonts to work and everything was freakin' illegible.
I know, I know...there are solutions to all those problems, and with enough reading, research, tinkering, and sacrifices to the gods of IRQ conflict resolution, I even got some of them taken care of. RedHat 8 got almost everything right, and the things that don't work will work soon enough, once I've done the footwork to make it so.
I'm interested in doing this footwork, in learning how to fix the shite that doesn't work in the hopes that I'll understand it all just a little better. But I have my limits, and my level of frustration increases in proportion to the number of times I have to recompile the kernel to get the freakin' sound card to work until, at last, in bitter ignominy, I give up, fdisk the fucker and put windows back on.
It sounds like Ark Linux is aiming their distro squarely between my eyes. Several posters have mentioned the improvements made to recent distros re: installation and usability for novice users, and I would most certainly agree. But a distro aimed at the complete newb -- the person who has no interest whatsoever in *how* the shite works, only that it does, indeed, work -- would be a good step in bringing those folks, like me, who would like an alternative to MS but don't want to become sysadmins just to upgrade a mail program, into the linux fold. If "Linux on the desktop" is to become a reality, then Joe Sixpack, the ubiquitous Wal-Mart shopping, PBR drinkin', wife-beatin', cousin'-fuckin' redneck/.'ers despise so much, has to be able to use it on his computer. And perhaps, since someone is finally taking the time to develop a distro for the "masses", perhaps they understand that Joe Sixpack, for all his faults, is not such a bad guy after all. Maybe he doesn't beat his wife or fuck his cousin, and maybe he wants the OS without the ideology served on the side with a glass of contempt. Maybe he's, you know, human. Or something. So I say good luck to Ark Linux and I look forward to giving your distro a try. Best wishes to you!
P2P networks serve no legitimate purpose.
Just so I understand exactly what you're trying to say (in this and other posts on the same topic), I'm going to rephrase your argument:
Things which serve no legitimate purpose should not be allowed to exist.
P2P networks serve no legitimate purpose.
Therefore, P2P networks should not be allowed to exist.
This conclusion follows logically from your premises; however, the argument is not valid because, aside from the spurious notion that things which serve no legitimate purpose should not be allowed to exist (a premise which, while not explicitly stated, is a necessary part of your argument), you assume P2P Networks serve no legitimate purpose. If even one legitimate purpose for a P2P network can be shown to exist, then your entire argument, while logically sound, is false.
If I write a story under an open copyright license (http://www.creativecommons.org), then make my story freely available via a P2P network, have I not utilized that network for a legitimate purpose? The fact that something (anything) can be used, even primarily, for illegal or illegitimate purposes, does not necessarily mean it should be outlawed, dismantled, prohibited, or otherwise removed from existence.
You should be more careful making such generalized statements. It's fairly obvious you feel very strongly about the prohibition of P2P networks, and presumably any other means by which copyright may be violated, but your ideological stance would be better served with more sound reasoning and fewer inflammatory and untrue generalized statments.
Slashdot Mirror
I believe he's referring to the Philosopher's Stone which was sought by alchemists as a means to transmute base metals into gold and/or confer immortality on its holder. It has nothing whatsoever to do with philosophy (or Philosophy, for that matter).
A version of apt-get is available for Mandrake as well. I use it in conjunction with urpmi to make sure I have the stuff I need/want. Could be the same as the one for RH8 -- I found it through a series of links I couldn't reproduce for love or money.
You can choose to either work or not work. You can choose to either eat or not eat. Just because the consequences of one or both choices may be unpleasant, even destructive, does not mean the choice itself has been removed. Therein lies your free will.
I would add that the Japanese offer these value-adds in their music CDs as well. The last two CDs I purchased in Hamamatsu were Y3500 each and contained stickers, promo materials for other works, lyrics (in Japanse, of course), autographed pics, small posters, etc. Roughly $35 for a CD is a bit steep in my mind, but I'm a sucker for a sticker, and it was stuff that my friends in the States didn't have access to so I could show it off upon my return.
oh shite!! that's too funny... where are the mod points when you need 'em....
If I may chime in with a newb's POV. Last night I nuked my WinXP drive (after backing everything up, of course, for migration) and installed RedHat 8.0. I quit Windows cold turkey -- and I'm having some serious withdrawals, which I'll get to in a moment -- and committed myself to using Linux at home on my desktop, laptop, and eventually going to Mom's and switching her over as well. My reasons are many and varied and, for the most part, unimportant for the purposes of this discussion. I should say, though, that this is my 5th attempt to make the switch to linux. I think I might just succeed this time.
/.'ers despise so much, has to be able to use it on his computer. And perhaps, since someone is finally taking the time to develop a distro for the "masses", perhaps they understand that Joe Sixpack, for all his faults, is not such a bad guy after all. Maybe he doesn't beat his wife or fuck his cousin, and maybe he wants the OS without the ideology served on the side with a glass of contempt. Maybe he's, you know, human. Or something. So I say good luck to Ark Linux and I look forward to giving your distro a try. Best wishes to you!
I'm not a complete newb to computers -- managing tech support for an ISP cures that fairly quickly -- but Windows spoiled me. It was easy, reliable (talking XP here -- it worked well for me, and i'm not going to argue the point), and every piece of hardware I installed worked, most apps -- if they were from a reputable source -- worked, games worked. WinAmp worked. When everything works, there's no reason to learn anything new. So one reason I wanted to switch was the challenge of learning a new OS.
But Goddamn!! My previous efforts to switch to Linux ended in a return to XP because I couldn't get the fucking cd-rom to work, or my sound card was lurking in the shadows of my case, adamantly refusing to introduce itself to anything in the OS which might make it do something besides crackle on startup and go silent, or, in the case of my laptop, I couldn't get the power management functions to work and I feared getting a message stating my processor had decided to imitate the sun, a message I ultimately couldn't read because I could never get decent anti-aliasing for fonts to work and everything was freakin' illegible.
I know, I know...there are solutions to all those problems, and with enough reading, research, tinkering, and sacrifices to the gods of IRQ conflict resolution, I even got some of them taken care of. RedHat 8 got almost everything right, and the things that don't work will work soon enough, once I've done the footwork to make it so.
I'm interested in doing this footwork, in learning how to fix the shite that doesn't work in the hopes that I'll understand it all just a little better. But I have my limits, and my level of frustration increases in proportion to the number of times I have to recompile the kernel to get the freakin' sound card to work until, at last, in bitter ignominy, I give up, fdisk the fucker and put windows back on.
It sounds like Ark Linux is aiming their distro squarely between my eyes. Several posters have mentioned the improvements made to recent distros re: installation and usability for novice users, and I would most certainly agree. But a distro aimed at the complete newb -- the person who has no interest whatsoever in *how* the shite works, only that it does, indeed, work -- would be a good step in bringing those folks, like me, who would like an alternative to MS but don't want to become sysadmins just to upgrade a mail program, into the linux fold. If "Linux on the desktop" is to become a reality, then Joe Sixpack, the ubiquitous Wal-Mart shopping, PBR drinkin', wife-beatin', cousin'-fuckin' redneck
P2P networks serve no legitimate purpose.
Just so I understand exactly what you're trying to say (in this and other posts on the same topic), I'm going to rephrase your argument:
Things which serve no legitimate purpose should not be allowed to exist.
P2P networks serve no legitimate purpose.
Therefore, P2P networks should not be allowed to exist.
This conclusion follows logically from your premises; however, the argument is not valid because, aside from the spurious notion that things which serve no legitimate purpose should not be allowed to exist (a premise which, while not explicitly stated, is a necessary part of your argument), you assume P2P Networks serve no legitimate purpose. If even one legitimate purpose for a P2P network can be shown to exist, then your entire argument, while logically sound, is false.
If I write a story under an open copyright license (http://www.creativecommons.org), then make my story freely available via a P2P network, have I not utilized that network for a legitimate purpose? The fact that something (anything) can be used, even primarily, for illegal or illegitimate purposes, does not necessarily mean it should be outlawed, dismantled, prohibited, or otherwise removed from existence.
You should be more careful making such generalized statements. It's fairly obvious you feel very strongly about the prohibition of P2P networks, and presumably any other means by which copyright may be violated, but your ideological stance would be better served with more sound reasoning and fewer inflammatory and untrue generalized statments.
No money in the bank, but they get mindshare by having a Windows desktop displayed. That is worth something.
Touche'
Mandrake is now sold pre-loaded on millions of inexpensive, high-quality computers at Wal-Mart
...which means Microsoft made no money from the purchase of that computer. That's probably a big deal for those to whom this sort of thing matters.
Playing devil's advocate here; I'll venture that most of those machines get reformatted with a warez'd copy of Windows.