Parent post is right. Doing problems is very important, even if you find them easy. Nothing helps you learn math like doing the problems, even the easy ones.
As a professional physicist/statitician I can tell you that almost all math problems are easy, if you know how to do them. However knowing how to do them requires you to do them, perhaps several times repeatedly.
I only run it because it came with the laptop that was provided to me by IT,
Huh? You aren't IT?
I don't feel like battling with my Linux wifi drivers, sound card strangeness, or having to jump through other hurdles to just stay productive
You need your sound card to stay productive managing Linux server nodes?
The truth is that Linux has no "strangeness" problems on the right hardware, just as Vista or XP have no "strangeness" problems on the right hardware. The difference is that your IT people, or whomever they bought your laptop from, picked the hardware and installed the drivers for XP/Vista. If you buy a laptop from a Linux shop with Linux installed, there are no driver issues either. The only difference between XP/Vista and Linux is that your IT staff is ignorant about anything other than XP/Vista. That is what keeps XP/Vista so successful: user and operator ignorance.
The truth is that every desktop (gnome/kde/etc) is far superior and more flexible than XP. I have to use XP a couple times a day and it is like poking myself in the eye with a stick. Interactivity sucks. And sometimes I have to use IE6. What a steaming pile that is!
You should have no problems. Do an update every so often, if they aren't happening automagically already. The vast majority of problems come are from servers, hosting data, etc.
I have had machines that ran memtest86 for hours, but still crashed with regular use due to bad RAM. (I know this because finally swapping out the RAM solved the problem). Computers that suddenly seize up are not easy to diagnose.
a complete load of hot air when articles claim how easy it is to setup wireless Internet on Linux machines
I just installed Fedora 7, and I am managing multiple wireless networks with NetworkManager, no configuration at all. Zilch.
Of course, I have a 5 year old Dell. People think they can buy whatever hardware they want and just have it work. No. You have to be selective. That's why my 3D desktop runs on Intel video.
Buy companies that support open source from the beginning, dammit, or other companies will never see the use of providing drivers or specs PERIOD.
Many people use slow dynamic languages, like Python, today, because they are so much nicer and easier than static languages. Like LISP machines Intel could throw in some dynamic type instructions, reference counting/garbage collection, or even hash/dictionary mechanisms. Then our dynamic languages could fly, assuming someone wrote a compiler to support all that...
98% of all Linux machines are used for tasks where 3D graphic performance doesn't matter.
Wrong. Many Linux machines are now desktops. 2/3 of the Linux machines in my home are desktops. I don't use fancy 3D desktops, but I do use everyday apps like Google Earth and the occasional kids' games that are much faster and smoother with hardware rather than software OpenGL.
However I have solved this problem by only buying Intel graphics hardware. They work from the moment Fedora first boots up.
My father lives in the boonies, can't get online service, complains about it. He can just lump it as far as I am concerned.
We spend large amounts of money subsidizing people who choose to live in rural areas. You know all those taxes on your POTS phone bill? They subsidize my father's telephone line, which is about 3 km longer than mine, and who pays the same for phone service.
It costs me $0.41 to send a letter to someone in an apartment building where the postman can deliver letters to 10 domiciles by walking next door. It costs me $0.41 to send a letter to my father where the postman must drive an automobile 6 km to deliver to 10 residences. Most of that $0.41 is subsidizing whom?
I work in a research office of a regulatory agency, and the government bean counters are always pushing us to justify our existence. Now I am writing a justification of the research we will be doing in the next couple years. It is supposed to include "milestones", and "deliverables", and "stakeholders". These, of course, are demanded by people who do not do research. If I knew when we would reach a "milestone", it wouldn't be "research". If we knew what the final end product would be, it would not be research.
Three years ago we wrote such a justification, saying we will "deliver" X. Of course, we discovered X would not work, our research took a turn and we "delivered" Y instead. I should just make stuff up.
If they built a small amount of intelligence into the firmware, this would be extremely effective for boot and application start up speeds. That is, have the hard drive cache the most regularly requested pieces of data: the kernel, c libraries, browser executables and libraries, etc. Startups would be much faster due to faster speeds and lower latencies.
None at all, you always trust the From: header in the emails you get anyway - it's verified and cross-checked every time, right? And you don't need passwords and that crap for e-banking, they know who you are! Why should VoIP be any different?
No, but I trust the digital signatures on my emails, and I don't have to log in to get those. Public authentication has been around for years.
You can dial the phone number of someone you know because the telco has already made sure the three A's are in place - authentication, authorization, accounting. Yes, that stuff happens with old-style telephony too. Yes, it happens for every call. That's why they can bill you and you'll have to pay the money, too - because they can prove you made the damn calls.
So why do I need to be billed for sending packets over a network connection that I have already paid for? I don't have to pay for those packets when using ftp or http. Why VOIP?
Of course, packets get sent through routers, etc, etc. But if I have to send my packets to a third party before they go to my friend, I'm using twice as many hops, twice as much latnecy, and twice as much bandwidth than a more "direct" connection.
What is the point of logging in? Why can't I just connect to my buddies' computer whose address I already have? Just like I can dial the telephone # of someone I know?
It is because of firewalls, dynamic IPs, and p2p stupidness.
And no, you can't "punch through" a firewall. Only if one of the two people on the call does not block incoming traffic do you connect directly.
I think this demonstrates the goofiness of a p2p telephone system. If I use Skype, I depend upon my data flowing through other users' computers because I am too dumb to allow incoming VOIP connections to my computer. VOIP connections should be direct encrypted connections from my computer to the computer of the person whom I wish to contact. Period.
Slashdot Mirror
Still no fire buttons.
I tried Alice once.
It chewed up all my computer's memory, spent 5 minutes swapping, then tanked. MMM, Java.
Perhaps I'll try it again now that I have a faster machine with more memory.
Parent post is right. Doing problems is very important, even if you find them easy. Nothing helps you learn math like doing the problems, even the easy ones.
As a professional physicist/statitician I can tell you that almost all math problems are easy, if you know how to do them. However knowing how to do them requires you to do them, perhaps several times repeatedly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tvtwm
Huh? You aren't IT?
You need your sound card to stay productive managing Linux server nodes?
The truth is that Linux has no "strangeness" problems on the right hardware, just as Vista or XP have no "strangeness" problems on the right hardware. The difference is that your IT people, or whomever they bought your laptop from, picked the hardware and installed the drivers for XP/Vista. If you buy a laptop from a Linux shop with Linux installed, there are no driver issues either. The only difference between XP/Vista and Linux is that your IT staff is ignorant about anything other than XP/Vista. That is what keeps XP/Vista so successful: user and operator ignorance.
The truth is that every desktop (gnome/kde/etc) is far superior and more flexible than XP. I have to use XP a couple times a day and it is like poking myself in the eye with a stick. Interactivity sucks. And sometimes I have to use IE6. What a steaming pile that is!
You should have no problems. Do an update every so often, if they aren't happening automagically already. The vast majority of problems come are from servers, hosting data, etc.
I have had machines that ran memtest86 for hours, but still crashed with regular use due to bad RAM. (I know this because finally swapping out the RAM solved the problem).
Computers that suddenly seize up are not easy to diagnose.
you should have bought an Intel motherboard.
Obviously your priority for open source is below your other priorities.
I just installed Fedora 7, and I am managing multiple wireless networks with NetworkManager, no configuration at all. Zilch.
Of course, I have a 5 year old Dell. People think they can buy whatever hardware they want and just have it work. No. You have to be selective. That's why my 3D desktop runs on Intel video.
Buy companies that support open source from the beginning, dammit, or other companies will never see the use of providing drivers or specs PERIOD.
Many people use slow dynamic languages, like Python, today, because they are so much nicer and easier than static languages.
Like LISP machines Intel could throw in some dynamic type instructions, reference counting/garbage collection, or even hash/dictionary mechanisms. Then our dynamic languages could fly, assuming someone wrote a compiler to support all that...
Wrong. Many Linux machines are now desktops. 2/3 of the Linux machines in my home are desktops. I don't use fancy 3D desktops, but I do use everyday apps like Google Earth and the occasional kids' games that are much faster and smoother with hardware rather than software OpenGL.
However I have solved this problem by only buying Intel graphics hardware. They work from the moment Fedora first boots up.
Slashdot takes out other subsidiary's servers.
My father lives in the boonies, can't get online service, complains about it. He can just lump it as far as I am concerned.
We spend large amounts of money subsidizing people who choose to live in rural areas. You know all those taxes on your POTS phone bill? They subsidize my father's telephone line, which is about 3 km longer than mine, and who pays the same for phone service.
It costs me $0.41 to send a letter to someone in an apartment building where the postman can deliver letters to 10 domiciles by walking next door. It costs me $0.41 to send a letter to my father where the postman must drive an automobile 6 km to deliver to 10 residences. Most of that $0.41 is subsidizing whom?
I work in a research office of a regulatory agency, and the government bean counters are always pushing us to justify our existence. Now I am writing a justification of the research we will be doing in the next couple years. It is supposed to include "milestones", and "deliverables", and "stakeholders". These, of course, are demanded by people who do not do research. If I knew when we would reach a "milestone", it wouldn't be "research". If we knew what the final end product would be, it would not be research.
Three years ago we wrote such a justification, saying we will "deliver" X. Of course, we discovered X would not work, our research took a turn and we "delivered" Y instead. I should just make stuff up.
If they built a small amount of intelligence into the firmware, this would be extremely effective for boot and application start up speeds. That is, have the hard drive cache the most regularly requested pieces of data: the kernel, c libraries, browser executables and libraries, etc. Startups would be much faster due to faster speeds and lower latencies.
No, but I trust the digital signatures on my emails, and I don't have to log in to get those. Public authentication has been around for years.
So why do I need to be billed for sending packets over a network connection that I have already paid for? I don't have to pay for those packets when using ftp or http. Why VOIP?
What is described is essentially a hack, and I can guarantee it does not work with the firewall that I am behind.
Of course, packets get sent through routers, etc, etc. But if I have to send my packets to a third party before they go to my friend, I'm using twice as many hops, twice as much latnecy, and twice as much bandwidth than a more "direct" connection.
What is the point of logging in?
Why can't I just connect to my buddies' computer whose address I already have? Just like I can dial the telephone # of someone I know?
It is because of firewalls, dynamic IPs, and p2p stupidness.
And no, you can't "punch through" a firewall. Only if one of the two people on the call does not block incoming traffic do you connect directly.
I think this demonstrates the goofiness of a p2p telephone system. If I use Skype, I depend upon my data flowing through other users' computers because I am too dumb to allow incoming VOIP connections to my computer.
VOIP connections should be direct encrypted connections from my computer to the computer of the person whom I wish to contact. Period.
I bailed on MS after windows '95 came out. It sucked. I have used only Linux since.
I suppose that sooner or later everyone will learn.
Join. Enough said.
J _donationhome
http://action.aclu.org/site/PageServer?pagename=F
http://sourceforge.net/projects/fedorafrog/
What graphics card does this thing have?
An Intel 945-965? Then it could do 3D too. That would be great.
Hey, the link to the story doesn't work.
Apparently that didn't stop all the above people
from posting...